Competition

Today is finally the competition day. I woke up early (around 6.30 am, not so early compared to others). The prefectorial board photography session was also today. However, Shu Wen and I missed it [Shu Wen brought her blazer around though]. I reached school about 7.15 and I was the earliest among the Scrabble people (I think, because I didn't see anyone else). I thought they all left in the van without me (we finally decided to take a van there after Mr Khairul arranged that for us). After that, I saw Ghee Ken first. We talked a bit to Ishwin and after that, we found Shu Wen. She also brought along a mini scrabble set. We thought we could practice with it in the car. Enily came when 3 of us were trying out the mini set. All our morning session counterparts were "missing". We were desperate to know who all of them were. Ghee Ken thought that Lerg Foong was in Scrabble. We spent so much time walking round the school looking for them. We thought of leaving the school ourselves without them. But we figured we couldn't leave and live without them.

Simone Koo, Ng Rui Sheng, Yeoh Zhao Wen and Neal Tan were the morning session people. Simone came when all 4 of us wanted to start another "mini game". Then all of us started looking for people desperately. We were shocked to see that the Datin came early this year (unlike last year when we suffered). Since she came early, Rui Sheng managed to take a picture with the prefects. After that, we found Zhao Wen waiting outside the school gate near the van. She was carrying a Deluxe Scrabble set. We all thought that she was so professional and wanted to play a serious game in the car.

We found Pn Angie talking to Pn Ruth about the scrabble thingy. Pn Ruth told us to go without Neal!!! Then Ghee Ken was like: "But he provides entertainment!!".
Pn Angie settled with going without Neal. As we walked out of the gate, Neal came along. Smart. Just in time before we abandon him. That was when the afternoon session prefects started to take position in the picture.

Shu Wen sat in the middle part of the van (basically it's the second passenger row). Ghee Ken, Emily and Simone sat at the back [mainly because Shu Wen and I stole their seats, excluding Simone]. We were really crazy in the car. We talked alot of nonsense about roller coasters in the cars and about Sports Day. When we were in Kuala Lumpur already, we made fun of the buildings there. A dead tree was considered as "The Eighth Wonder of the World" by smart Ghee Ken. A building with a Camel on it was called Egypt by Ghee Ken and the madness spreaded to Shu Wen. There was also a tall building which Shu Wen joked was Ghee Ken's toilet (the whole building???). Looks like the competition pressure was taking a toll on us![Neal said this]. Then, somehow, the topic steered to handphones. Shu Wen asked me if I brought my handphone and she said she wanted to play with it. I stated: Sorry, my handphone is only a "device used to call my parents" [Pn Angie later said she liked that statement]. We went about in circles as our van driver didn't know the location of the school. We weren't late anyway. It was approximately 8.35 that time. The latest we could arrive was 9.15.

When we finally reached St Johns, Zhao Wen asked how many Scrabble sets we brought. We said no one told us to bring any scrabble set [excluding the mini one]. She really freaked us out that time when she said that during the previous competition, they had to bring their own Scrabble sets (luckily after that, the people in charge said that we did not need to bring any Scrabble sets as they were already provided....Otherwise, we would have to depend solely on the mini Scrabble set). We said St John's school looked like Buckingham Palace. It did actually. It was painted red and white and reminded me of peppermint candy. On the way to the hall, we saw PBSM people and started laughing saying that PBSM in St John's school is a disgrace to St John's Society. When we reached the hall, we figured out that everyone there looked smart. We were so dead.

Our team name was "Together We Strive". The morning session's one was "DJ Knights". We played 5 rounds of Scrabble. My first round was with some guy named Wan Mohamed Afie from some Subang Jaya school I think. My spread (majority) against him was +89. My points was 245.

My 2nd round was a tough opponent. Crazy people. The group's name is 4 Musketeers from Sungai Pelik (or 'Pelek'). Everyone [in afternoon sessions] lost against them except me. I only won this guy [named Prya Suthan] (Indian, I guess...actually all those form their school were Indians) by 9 points because of time overrun. Stupid!! Curse this school! So fake and cheating. They used up DJ's time to challenge words. This is dumb!! And at first, I wasn't used to the clocks! Shu Wen lost by over 200 points!!!! This team is insane. Every word needs to be challenged. My obviously existent "FAMED" was challenged. So dumb. And they used my time and accused me of oerrunning my time. I didn't really care in the end cos I won. I was deducted 20 points for timing. My idiotic opponent who did not pay attention to instructions kept on telling me to deduct 40 points. Lucky thing I asked the lady in charge who stood up for justice for me. My overall points were 256 [originally 279, also cos of unplayed tiles]. Shu Wen's opponent's points were 500+

3rd round wasn't so bad. It was interesting. Friendly people. My opponent was Vinoshini. I lost by 21 points though, thanks to the last few letters I got. Both of us did not finish our tiles and so, we had to deduct our own scores. It was actually my turn and I already put down a word. Then, suddenly the lady in charge said "LAST MOVE". I quickly took my tiles and my opponent quickly wanted to play a word. Guess my newly received tiles. 'Q' and 'X'. I had to deduct so many points thanks to this!!!

Recess was quite fun. We caught up with our morning session peers. I didn't buy any food because I brought some unidentified bread with tuna inside. It tasted like cheese. After saying that, Neal and I kept bugging Emily on the cheesy issue. Zhao Wen won 2 games, Neal and Rui Sheng won 1 game, Simone lost all 3 [surprisingly].

4th round: I won by +113 spread against Joel Lai. My points was 361. I had a bingo this round : UNFUSED worth 73 points only. Highest word score was 113 today by some Seafield guy named Chang Ching Yet (I got this from Hui Jan's blog) who played the word 'DICINGS'.

[Useful information:
Seafield is a crazy school with crazy people. I heard about Scott Chung from Shu Wen and Ghee Ken but I did not expect it to be that "cute, small boy" wearing a black cap over his head. Those people freak me out. They are probably programmed robots which were manufactured to look and function like ordinary humans with computerised brains. Liesl went for a Chess competition and who else won but Seafield? Sher Hann was from Seafield I think. She was always among the top in her form and was in the Seafield band....and every year, they won....need more info?]

I lost in the 5th round (against Sultan Abdul Samad) too. [Shu Wen met an old friend here who beat her by I-have-no-idea-how-many-points-but-it's-more-than-100-spread].I was actually leading, but then, thanks to my stupid decision to put 'FIND' 2 columns away from the triple word score, my opponent, Ho Hui Jan, put an 'ER' behind it to form 'FINDER' and got the triple word score. That word itself was 30 points. Shouldn't have put that word out. THEN I could've won. But then, she finished her tiles first because I ALSO opened somewhere else for her. I thought I just closed that place but unfortunately, she had the right letters to place it there (triple word score AGAIN). My overall score for this was 264 and I lost by 31 points.

So far, Emily, Ghee Ken and I won 3 out of 5 games. On eof Ghee Ken's opponent didn't turn up and he straightaway got a +50 spread! Shu Wen won 1 game (SHOCKING!!!). Not really sure about the morning session though.

After that, we took pictures of ourselves in the school. We were all posing like mad people. Then, there was this photo we took with "an eagle on the floor" (carving). After that photo, Neal suddenly said, posing like a superstar: "This, is the face of confidence". Rui Sheng quickly replied: "No, that is the face of bisexuality". We laughed like crazy on that one (okay, maybe the morning sessions kept a straight face....).

On the way back, we criticized our opponents and teased them. Our afternoon session people criticized the 2nd round opponents. We all found out that Zhao Wen was quite good. She had 3 bingos (7 letter words). Rui Sheng and Neal told us about crazy things like Rui Sheng's 4th Scrabble round where his opponent was "stone-faced". Seriously no expression whatsoever. After 30 seconds: look right, look left. After 1-5 minutes: change tiles =.=". Then, they told us about people whom they challenged and came back-- and instead of taking their word back and losing their turn, they went like: Oh, so can I put this? *Changes to another word and looks innocent*.

When we reached school, I called my mother. Ghee Ken borrowed my phone. I was hoping for free food and there really WAS free food!!! I took back 7 packets of free food. Shu Wen took about eleven, Ghee Ken 8 and Emily 4 after seeing me go mad with the food thingy.

The day ended normally and everyone continues to live.