Caleb Chess Checkmate

As I stood back and admired my handiwork, a thought struck me. Why was I the least bit nervous about this trip? I certainly was having a whale of a time! My sailboat which I had rigged up, alone, was perfect. My rudder was securely attached to the stern( the back of a boat), and my sail was dancing as a breeze blew by. I must admit, it's nice to be a little on the muscular and tall side when it comes to rigging a boat. The mass( what holds up the sail) was so tall that I had trouble, lots of trouble removing it from its stand and attaching it onto my boat. Fortunately, with a little help from the instructors I manged to do it. I gazed out onto the horizon, and could just picture myself out on sea with my trusty sailboat. But for now, I was on good old solid ground. I was extremely excited about this course. Our goal was to be able to sail an Optimist boat ourselves! We were going to prove this with the help of the instructors. For the first day, we were not going to be able to sail...

25 June 2010 A day ago, my family went to the Singapore Bird Park. Unlike any other visits, we decided to explore different parts of the park. I only remembered admiring the kingfisher exibits once, and we never did explore the Toucan and Hornbill collection; the largest collection of Toucan and Hornbill species in South East Asia. But as we were now more interested in Kingfishers, we decided to spend the day at that exhibit. So immediately after the penguin exhibit, we began our trail of the Kingfishers. The first thing I saw in common of all the Kingfishers, were their colours. The different species all had their own unique colours, but I managed to spot two similiar colours among all the Kingfishers, blue and white. Their long, stout, bright orange beaks were also very distinctive. White throated Kingfisher,(top left) Bluebreasted Kingfisher,(top right) Collared Kingfisher(bottom middle) After snapping photo's, our trail led us towards the 18 species of Hornbills and Toucans. Th...

My New Zealand Diary 20 April 2010 Monday (Week 1) Prepare for takeoff! My family is right now on plane SQ278, headed towards the most southern country of the world. The time now is 7.30pm on a Monday night. After many days of patience, we were finally on our way to New Zealand for our vacation. I loved the taking off from the airport. First, the plane picked up speed, and slowly, took off for the sky. It was early morning when we were about to touch down Christchurch. The view was fantastic! We could see clouds which looked like white patches of cotton wool, floating below the plane, but best of all, we could see the sun rise! It was an amazing sight. I could see two colors, blue and orange. Soon, the plane started to descend, and before long, I could see little towns from a bird’s eye view. The grass looked like pieces of jigsaw puzzles, and the mountains and trees looked so small that I could not believe that they were real! Finally we landed in the Christchurch Airport. The sun sho...

16 march 2010 From the top of the diving block, I could see the clear blue swimming pool water. Suddenly, I heard the 'beep' of the whistle, and all the competitors for the 100m Free event plunged into the freezing water. As my head went underwater, I felt water leak into my goggles, followed by a Ifrantically with all my might. I kept swimming without nearly breathing, until I realised how much more air I would need. After that, I kept breathing continuously. Then, I found out that I would have to do my Freestyle turn now! I had two choices: Take the risk and turn and probably smack my head against the wall for I was pretty near to the wall already, or just turn without somersaulting and slower down. I decided to slower down. Anyway, I needed it. Surprisingly enough, I came in third! I felt very proud of myself for winning a trophy. 17 march 2010 ( mainly about the party ) After a long tiring day at my swim meet, we drove to Ian Kang, my good friend, birthday party. Unlike m...

27 Feb 2010 One day, at around 2:30 on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I left with the Rangers for Machrichy Reservoir. I was very excited, for we were not merely going for a hike there, but to kayak in the reservoir! When we finally reached our destination, a lady taught us how to paddle, the kayak. After this, together with my friend, Alton we climbed into a two- seater kayak, my heart thumping with excitement, and paddled out. At first we had trouble turning and hit the bank, but soon enough, we got the hang of it. During one of our voyage, we had spotted an eagle. It was perched high on a tree branch. One of the most frightening time was when the current slowly drifted us away from the border and into the fast flowing currents! As soon as I realised this, I immediately started a frantic paddle, as though my life depended on it. At first it seemed to be hopeless, but bit by bit, we paddled ourselves to safety. This is an experience I would never want to forget.

13 March 2010 One cold saturday morning, a convoy of cars gathered at Yiew Mei Green. Amongst them were a group of people. From my hideout, I could see that they were planning something mysterious. Who were they, and what were they doing? Were they criminals escaping, or agents on a mission? Whatever it was, I was going to find out soon... I followed them as the convoy of cars moved along in a long snaky line towards the Woodlands Causeway. As I followed them closely, questions flooded my mind. Had Mass Salamat escaped again, and was he hiding in one of their cars? There wasn't much of a jam at the Causeway, so I had no trouble in tracking them, but soon I made an amazing discovery, and that was, they were on a mission trip to Segamat! I'm sure that you fell for that trick and if you had read in one of my earlier blogs in 2008, I had gone for a mission trip too. Well, we were going back to the same place again, and I was in my dad's car, the leader of the trip! Once we cros...

5 march 2010 Finally, my birthday has arrived! Even though I was not so enthusiastic about it as last year. Probably since daddy has left on a business trip for India that morning, but still I had a great day. I got to do less work than usual, (it was on a Friday, a school day) which was a great relief to me. In the afternoon, we went to the Choa Chu Kang library. But the best part of that day was when we settled down for a mini birthday dinner at home together! I enjoyed the chicken wrap which we had with lettuce, and also loved the refreshing homemade watermelon soda drink. On top of all that, mummy also bought a birthday cake. This was no ordinary birthday cake though. In fact, it was two rectangular shaped cakes of flavors truffle which was my favorite, and black forest. So, in the end, it turned out to be better than I expected! This was my first time having a three day birthday celebration. The second day of my celebration (6 march 2010) I was elated to hear that daddy would be c...

14 Feb 2010 (Chinese New Year) The night before Chinese new year, I could not sleep. Even though it was way pass my bedtime, my mind was still buzzing with excitement. After watching a bit of TV with my parents, I had finally drifted of to dreamland. The next day after church, we visited grandma. There, we ate lots of delicious new year goodies, and received our red packets. A while later, we went to Po Po's house to celebrate Chinese new year with our cousins. I did not eat much for I had stuffed myself with goodies at grandma's house. In fact, I was so full that I did not eat lunch at all! Anyway, I still had lots of fun playing board games with my cousins which I had brought. We also watched lots of TV. After a long, tiring but exciting day, we drove home. 15 Feb 2010 (At Marina Barrage.) I am blogging about this under the title 'How I spent Chinese New Year' because we are still in the Chinese new year week. It was a beautiful windy evening. The perfect weather to f...

Chess is one of my hobbies. I love playing this exciting board game because it makes you think ahead. I also like the challenge to try and foil your opponents plans as well as checkmate him using strategies. I have a goal, which was to get into the Chess Junior Squad. Finally, after 3 tournaments, I qualified. My dream has finally been fulfilled.

I think it was the second day of my chess tournament when I played the longest game in my life. My opponent was probably around 11, he wore glasses and an orange T-shirt. He was an opponent whom I challenged in one of the earlier tournaments. Just before the game, I felt butterflies in my stomach and my palms were sweaty. I was extremely nervous, for I had lost to him before. This time round, I was in a winning position, but in the end he won. During that 2 hour match, Jabez had already finished his game, and had gone with the rest of the family to Yishun Park. What I heard later that afternoon was that Samuel had a close encounter with a snake at the park! Oh, how I wished I could see that snake. It would have been my very first encounter with one. My afternoon, game, was an opponent who was different from others. His name was Fabian. I was seated waiting for my opponent when I saw a boy in a wheelchair. He was to be my opponent! His head was tilted to one side, and his arms were...