The best 12 days of my life so far..

Anyways.

It has been an awesome 12 days which totally took me by surprise I must say. Like most Singaporeans, I started out being skeptical about the games and was totally apathetic to it until I saw the torch relay before my very eyes.

I can't really explain it, but some how, it kinda hit me that something exciting and special is happening. For the first time in my life, I actually screamed in excitement. It was embarrassing to say the very least.

That's Darren Choy by the way. The last torch bearer and the one who will light the cauldron.

I'm very thankful that I actually managed to get my hands on a couple of tickets to catch some of the action of the games live despite all the sold out situation everywhere. I was up early on that Saturday and headed down to Suntec with Susan to try our luck to get ANY ticket for ANY game.

We managed to get Judo tickets early in the morning, and the handball tickets was actually bought later in the evening. Yes, we were out ALL DAY.

Each ticket actually came together with a companion card which has free 4 MRT rides and unlimited bus rides, valid only for the actual day that you activate it. After that period, that card actually functions like a normal ezlink card which you top funds into.

I know that there is another use for the card which you can link to your bank account or something, but I haven't quite figured out what.

So anyways. We spent some time watching the preliminaries of the Judo matches before heading off to East Coast Park to catch some sailing action. The tickets allow for re-entry later in the day which is when the finals will take place.

The trip down to the national sailing center at east coast park was eventful I must say. I was actually quite pissed off. As it was stated in the handbook that there will be shuttle transport at Bedok MRT station, we headed to Bedok but had trouble finding the pick up point.

The directional signages stopped when we got out of the station. So after abit of trial and error, we found the place which was as inconspicuous as it can be, with just a small print out stuck against a pole.

So, anyways, the print out stated that the next bus would come at 2pm, and it was already 1.45, so we waited. But the bus did not come, until at around 2.30.

When we got up the bus, we were chased off by its driver saying that he was only contracted for 2 trips, and he needs to rush to another job, so we have to get off. Super rude attitude. The bus company was WTS travel by the way.

After much confusion, we found out that there was no bus service to the place and that 2pm timing listed on the print out was actually the estimated time arrival for the bus FROM the place. Bah. Why list what the time bus would get here when there is no intention of ferrying people to the venue.

So, fast forward, we ended taking a cab down after having our lunch, to the national sailing center.

Just our luck, there was no wind for the ENTIRE DAY, hence race was cancelled. So with nothing much to see or do, we ended up cam-whoring.

We headed back to Suntec to catch the finals of Judo and decided to check out the info counter on the tickets on sale. Much to our delight, or rather my delight, Handball was available! Since it was in the preliminary stage, the ticket price was only at $10.

As Judo finals was happening at the same time, we went to catch Judo before stopping by to watch handball.

We left after catching a medal presentation ceremony. Handball was exciting! As an added bonus, Singapore was playing against Brazil that night. I actually cheered my lungs out even though it was very evident that the Singapore team was no match for the Brazilians.

It was really heartening to see the youths put up a good fight and never gave up.

Needless to say, we were thrashed.

The match ended at around 9.30pm and by then, we were famished. All that cheering, shouting and screaming is tiring. My hands were totally shaky when I went for dinner after that. Goodness.

Well, that was my awesome YOG weekend live. I continued to catch all the other action via the live streaming platform and I must say, I am totally excited, inspired and encouraged to see all that display of passion, dedication, sportsmanship from these youths.

All the other side stories of these athletes put alot of things in perspective for me too. I read an article about a pair of brothers here to compete in the swimming events, and how this is the first time they are swimming in a pool. Back in their country, they are so poor that they only swam in rivers!

Another article talked about how a North Korean athlete and a South Korean athlete visited the activities at the Olympic village together.

Looking back at all that had happened during the 12 days of awesomeness, I felt very encouraged and hearten to see at the "standards" of the youths of today. Not to mention that for once, we are seeing more youths from Singapore winning medals.

I can't help but feel that there is BRIGHT HOPE for the future!

Well, YOG ended earlier this week, and I immediately felt a sense of emptiness in me. ;'( can we like have YOG quarterly instead? LOL! I actually cried when the flame went off during the closing ceremony. Sigh.

I think perhaps, we need to bid for more of such events!!

Blazing the trail. How apt. Setting my heart ablaze too.