KR Steppers!: February 2006

Cheerleading is finally over! I wanna thank all Steppers for sharing with me this invaluable experience and precious memories! I'll never replace anything else for the times we shared. We have worked so hard and come this far. Only the 20 of us would truly understand the amount of effort and pains that we have gone through. We've finally did it and shown everyone what we are made of! Best of all, we have proven those who didn't believe in us wrong!! Great job Steppers!! You all made me so proud!! I love all of you!! Now we can all shout out in pride: I'M A CHEERLEADER!! I'm sure I'll miss all of you...

One, Two, down, STEPPERS!

To Step: You're a great leader. Like I've said before, I don't think anyone would have done this better than you. I have to applaude your never-say-die attitude. You've not only realized your own dreams, you made OUR dream become a reality. What's more, you've achieved more than what you've set out for -- a closely-bonded team. Thanks for posing yourself this challenge, and making all our dreams come true. You go girl! Bring it on!

(Step watched "Bring It On" at least 20 times to gain inspiration and strength to go on. I'm not exaggerating! She watched it so many times she knows all their cheers back to front.)

Memories.... :

1. How much effort it took for us to get mats. We didn't have money to buy mats, and master coudn't get us enough. The mats were just so expensive. And so we had to try borrowing mats. Since NUS didn't use mats and neither does TH, we couldn't get any from them. Ngee Ann was also out of the question cos they couldn't lend us the mats. So we tried borrowing from NTU halls. And are we in luck or what! The hall 2 (our sister hall) president, Samuel is an extremely nice guy! He actually helped us borrow mats from all the other halls and even helped us rent a lorry (that is $40, unlike our hall's lobang which is $100). For both times when we transported the mats here and back, he helped us settle everything, and was present to help carry the mats as well. We just felt like we've met an angel fallen from heaven.

2. How much effort we went through to make the $80 uniforms. First the lady didn't deliver the goods on time, and we pressed her for it. Then we found out that the clothes were not fitting and the skirts were too long. So we had to make alterations. But it was the new year season and they couldn't get it done on time. And so we went down and pressed them till they agreed to help us get it done before CNY. Till now, the pants still split...

The whole squad!!

3. Having to go to Ngee Ann Poly to train cos they had mats over there and our coaches are from there. We usually train till 11+++pm and try to catch the last bus back (but almost always end up taking a cab). The place at night is quite eerie cos it's built upon a cemetry.

4. The fun times we had throwing mats up one storey at Ngee Ann when training is over and we are keeping the mats. Siyong would usually be the one up there catching the mats while we tried our hands at tossing them up. Haha.. So childish but so fun :)

Our dear flyers!

5. The fun we had making the "Gold", "Blue", "White" boards. Step was just so bossy!! And she always finds the right time when I'm free to do stuff.. We had a great time laughing at her :)

6. The can-die trainings we had. Trainings were three times a week, 4 hours each and it stepped up to become everyday, average of 6-7 hours each one week before performance. During that time, when I eat, I think of cheer. When I sleep, I dream of cheer. When I'm busy, I'm thinking about cheer. Many of us had sleepless nights despite the tiring trainings cos we were worried about cheer. It was the only time when I felt the most tired on the real day of performance,cos I was so jaded by all the practices. We could see the guys reaching their limits one by one, as they needed more rest before continuing with the next stunt.

7. How our guys used to not being able to do even 5 arm presses with the girls. Now they can do 10, 15 and even 20 of them! It's so heartening to see them become stronger and stronger each day. I'm so proud of our guys!! They are now the strongest guys around!! Yeay! I'm sure next year they would be able to lift me up! (I'm termed the "boss" cos I'm one of the heaviest girl around in the team. We always joked that if the guys can lift me, they would be invincible! haha) Now who dares to say that our guys are sissys??

8. How I was made to become a base because there weren't enough males around. The thought of lifting another girl was daunting, and I would say not very pleasant. It was really like "WHAT?!! ME??!!" But anything for this team! I became much beefier after cheerleading cos there was so much strength training involved. Many of my injuries were also caused by the flyers not falling properly. There was once when Junmin was falling and her arm just hit my head. In that moment, I saw stars, exactly like what the cartoon characters experience.

9. How I once cushioned Wanlin's fall during her flyback. The only thought in my head was "I can't let her fall!!" And she came crushing down on my face, leaving both of us on the ground. My tears just fell uncontrollably out of shock.. I was so afraid that she would fall and something bad would happen!! That incident left the left side of my face swelling for a few days. Luckily I didn't have a twisted neck.

10. How mentally strong our flyers (Step, Junmin and Wanlin) are. They have fallen and hit the ground umpteen times, injuring their ribs (Junmin's rib moved out of place), tailbones and suffering more blueblacks than anyone else. But they fought on and never gave up, and this takes a lot of courage and trust in the bases.

11. How it feels to fly. The feeling is wonderful, especially when you get popped down. It's just like riding a mini roller coaster. But to go higher and higher, you'll need a whole lot of courage, and trust in your bases.

12. How our guys and girls who couldn't dance at first now become groovy hunks and sexy chicks!! They put in double the time and effort to master steps that they couldn't catch and perform actions that just look so funny on them, despite all the mocking. Kudos to Rongren, who msn-ed me at 2+am to find out which part of the song to start dancing to (cos he was practising in his room) and also to Junmin for learning so hard to shake sexily. She started off looking like she was wiping her butt, but now I've got to ask the guys to watch out!! ^-^

13. The injuries we all suffered, guys and girls alike. Most of the guys had horrible wrists problem cos of the awkward positions that they had to place their hands, and the girls had injuries from flying, falling, etc..

14. The tears we fell cos we couldn't get the stunts up and the anxiety we faced.

15. Dion and Crystal, our two most wonderful and nicest coaches around! (And also most gossipy!) They forgoed the money that they could earn ($80 an hour!) to give us extra trainings. We owe them much much more than the few thousands of dollars. They are from the best team, but never put on airs.. Instead, they helped us more than what we could thank them for. Thank you so so so much Dion and Crystal!!! We love both of you!! ^-^

16. The troubles of finding a place to train, cos hall production was using the hall ALL the time, and they had priority. So we always had to wait for them to finish before we could use the hall to train. In the meantime, we had to use the area between Sheares and KR (which left us with many complains about the noise), the lobby, and even the rag area. Many places could not be used because we needed a large area to do our stunts, whether vertically or horizontally. We felt like we were in the periphery, cos

1. People did not believe we could do it.
2. People found that we were not important, cos this was just a performance, and not a competition.
3. People did not understand the point in us doing this, or putting in so much effort to do this, cos it was not a competition or anything.

And so we had to depend on OURSELVES. I actually thank those people, cos you gave us this opportunity to go through thick and thin together, which made us bond.

17. Our beloved Grace, who got suspected dengue just 3 days before the performance. Her efforts were for all to see, and it was really really sad that she couldn't perform. But she'll always be part of us :)

18. The fun times we girls shared in my room braiding hair. I felt like my room became a hairdressers overnight! Adn it's the first time my room had so many chio bu-s at once.

19. How bimbotic we all became after we had our skirts on. We really think it's the skirts, cos when we are not wearing them, we are normal people. Hahaha.. Maybe we just had to look the part.

20. How even the Eusoff Hall people cheered for us during the performance. The crowd was roaring "KR warriors", and for a moment I thought the sound was coming from a bunch of displaced Kent Ridgens. Alas, it was not. Later when we were on our way to the bus stop, we met the EH guys who were cheering for us.

EH guy: Hey! Did you hear us cheering "KR warriors" for you all just now?

We all just smiled, but Tobelo had to say something funny.

Tobelo: Ya. Thank you very much. We are all very touched.
Me: Tobelo, you know that guy?
Tobelo: Dunno.

Diaoz. Haha.. She just so adorable.

21. How we finally touched everyone by putting up a splendid performance. ALL the stunts went up, and it was the best run we've ever had.

True BLUE bimbos!

Our hunky guys!

Acting bimbotic. haha

Poor Siyong made to look so se4! hahah

Jianping was so happy he needn't need to be the smelly one for once.

The nicest photo: Tobelo and I!

Everyone told us we did great. And I know we are. The performance was a great success, with EVERY stunt going up. I think everyone gave their 101% that night. Audiences may not have seen it, but some stunts were actually quite shaky, and we could not really go up. But we managed to cover it up and used all our strength and might to do it. I'm so proud of my team. At that particular moment on the mats, I felt like all our hearts were beating as one as we advanced towards a common goal. I've never felt this way about any other teams before. The feeling was just so great, it makes me wanna cry.

Anyway, I've got something to announce:

Master is so pleased with our performance he's getting us mats!! And it doesn't have to be the cheapo $45 ones.. we can get the $80 ones!!! All 120 of them!! Cos he sees our potential and wants us to train for it with good quality mats! We've done it guys!! In a short two months, we have proved to even master that we are really SOMETHING!! (btw, 120 x $80 = $9600)

Real Gold?

I just had to say something very bimbo when I received the balloon: "My face got eyelashes!!" hahaha

Something really annoying happened when we were rehearsing before TGIO. Someone (I shall not mention who) came to tell Step that we should stop practising now because we were distracting the aca, inspire and rockers doing their rehearsal. Like HELLO. You think we are so free to come down the day after our performance to perform another time for you? If not because YOU wanted us to come down to perform, we would have better things to do like catch up on our work or precious sleep time. You know how tired we all are after 7 hrs of practice a day for one week?? We were already nice enough not to say anything about you not giving us any slot for bunk in and being only able to set up half of our mats. The only thing we could do is to use the only available area left to practise, and the music that they are playing goes way louder than any of our voices. If you say that we are distracting them, let me tell you, they are distracting us more. We need to be able to hear each other's counting in order to coordinate, and if coordination is not done, the flyers may just fall and break their backs. If anything, they themselves choose to be distracted. We didn't come with any intention of distracting them. And what do you mean by we have already "done the rehearsal yesterday, because you perfomed already"? Crazy. If the musicians need to warm up playing a little before doing the performance, what do you think of cheerleaders who need to jump around and the like? If you are unhappy, we are ever ready to remove the mats and go back to our rooms to sleep. Better not let me see you again or I'll ask my 8 strong guys to give you a good "massage".

Some people just ought to know better.

This is what you get for dong too many round-offs:

Went to the tie2 da3 yesterday to see my arm. This is the first time I went to see a tie2 da3. It was quite scary. The doc doesn't give face at all!! It's so painful!! He was pretty smart, cos he knew that I was a cheerleader once I told him how I got my injury. He was saying: "You cheerleaders always shang1 hen2 lei2 lei3 (full of injuries)." Was saying that he has quite a substantial number of patients who are cheerleaders. Anyway he gave me my first crack of my neck in my life. (said it was a free service) I thought my neck was going to drop off when it went "craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!" (and he did it twice!) I never knew I had so many bones in my neck!!

I injured my arm just the day before the performance by doing too many round-offs (the wrong way?). Wanted to perfect it, but just somehow it didn't have that WOW factor in it. My whole right forearm was so painful! It was especially bad when I just woke up from bed. Feels like just a frozen dead piece of meat. I couldn't even do simple actions like waving, and sometimes when I hadn't move my arm in a long time, it would sting even when I try to lift it up.. What's more I've got to do my round-off, dance AND support the flyers? I was just so so afraid that I couldn't hold the flyers up there. I couldn't pull the team down..and I was so afraid to tell Step about it, cos she already had so many worries in mind. So I HAD to do it. Every dance step was a nightmare, but I managed to pull through it TWICE without anyone noticing anything wrong. I'm just so pleased with myself. ^-^

But somehow, I didn't feel as much pain when I'm doing the actual performances. Maybe it's the audiences, maybe it's the adrenalin rush, or maybe it's just simply mind over matter. The only thing in mind when I perform was that I had to get everything right, and show everyone what we are. Anyway, now I can't bend my arm more than 90 degrees, I take double the time to bathe and I can't brush my teeth (anyone wanna get me an electric toothbrush? I tried brushing with my left hand, but I nearly ended up brushing my face). Feel kinda handicapped..

If given a chance, would I do it again?

DEFINITELY.

KR Steppers!

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Missing trainings!

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

I'm Proud! (Post extracted from Xinli's Blog)

Friday, February 17, 2006

Dedicated to the KR Steppers, by Stephanie Ng

Saturday, February 11, 2006

KR Steppers