Wednesday, December 22, 2004
condolences and blessings plus a complete testimonial to Elliot
today, at 10.30 at the Mandai Crematorium, the father of an honest, humble fellow cross-country runner of Team AcX, was cremated. he passed away approximately 5 days ago. this post today is in condolence and blessing to Elliot, a dear friend to all at Team AcX.
Elliot, we are with you as a team should you need anyone to turn to and any shoulder to cry on in this critical time in your life. We sincerely pray that you do not blame anyone or even God for the unfortunate accident that took place. We will continue to uphold you in our prayers and may you always walk right with God and know that he has plans only to prosper and not to harm you. Remember he has a purpose for everything and has designed life to the smallest details and knows your pain and loves you dearly. Thank you for being a great inspiration to every single one of us here at Team AcX- not only via means of your remarkable and most marvellous run at the National Cross-Country Championships this March, but also as a friend and the previous Vice-Captain of Team AcX. Once again, we will always be here for you and God bless in all your future endeavours.
-without wax, loong.
p.s: without wax meaning sincerely.*refer to dan brown's digital fortress for info.
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Thinking back, i think i haf known Elliot longer than i realised or he realised. I was talking to my dad and he reminded me that i met the late Uncle Sandy at the father-and-son camp in primary 1. how cool is that. i remember that very vivdly. in fact, i can still picture the campsite although i cannot remember exactly which lot which slept at at the camping grounds, i remember we shared a tent with elliot and his dad. it couldnt haf been his elder bro, xander so it musta been elliot.and if i'm not wrong, i had known elliot before the camp cos he was in my bus that year in primary one. i changed bus in p2 and lost contact with elliot but then that contact was re-established in sec 2 when i rejoined cross. i din know that this was that elliot. in fact, i had forgotten all about the camp and stuff, since it had been in primary 1. i also remember one particular at the camp. in fact that is the only incident i remember involving elliot and his dad. it was at the museum thing there. i cannot remember wat the name of the place is called. but it still stands at Sentosa and its the one in which like tells you about World War II and the japanese invasion of Singapore. i remember that the organisers of the camp had assigned the fathers and sons to complete a crossword based on facts and etc with the clues being in the museum like thing there. i can also remember the roughyl that the place where elliot and his dad sat to complete the crosword was not very well-lit. in fact, he and his dad sat under a single spot-light while i sat slighlty further down with my dad at yet another spotlight and when i got the answer together with my dad, i went to see if elliot and his dad had gotten the answer. if not, i would tell them the answer, hoping it would benefit them. talk about vivid memory.
time flew and the camp ended quickly and equally quickly, after i changed bus in primary 2, i kinda forgot elliot, only wondering occasionally what happened to him and how he was doing. by the end of primry 2 itself, how ever, i forgot totally bout elliot and his dad and as quickly as the camp had ended, so the years in ACS(J) passed and i found myself in secondary sch. i joined cross then quit due to having more interest in rugby than running then. i don't remember seeing elliot at training when i attended training in sec 1 for a week or twoo but he was a rugger too and i don't remember seeing him. oh well. time flew once again and i found myslef quitting rugby even though i was supposed to represent School in the Malaysian Milo 10-a-side rugby tournament. rugby had bad influences then and has even worse influences now. later, i learnt that elliot had been kicked out of rugby(i learnt this from elliot himself when i re-joined). i found myself sport-less but after winnnig 2nd at the school's annual x-country champs, pat thong (a short, slighly plump female teacher) suggested to bongard that i join cross and so he head-hunted me and begged me to join.(yea right) anyway. i then rejoined x-country in bout july or august 2003 and met elliot and after wat seemed like several trainings (actually 4 months) we had to pick a captain and vice captain for the b-div. i naturally voted for khing as vice-capt and kevin as capt as it had been for my year previously, but due to popular demands, elliot was chosen as vice-capt and leon wai capt. looking back, this was probably the best thing that happened to the cross-country team save the Historic win over eternal-arch-rivals chinese high. time passed and holiday trainings passed too. holiday trainings turned into late-ending at 7-plus after-school trainings at acjc and by and by, elliot grew from strength to strength. we saw him win, win and win many races, regardless, some of us still had doubt no matter how much, if he could defeat the long-time standing champion of 2001,2002,2003. i didn't cos i din know how fast THAT guy was till i heard he did 14mins 58 secs for the turf city route two weeks before THE race day. but it didn't matter. it wouldn't matter.
THE race day came and the race started. i made my way to the grand-stand to cheer for Team AcX. i had not been chosen for the team as i had fallen sick and skipped the first time-trial and lost out in the second one by a mere 10 seconds. (mere cos i was sick) i cheered for Team AcX from the grand-stand. the grand-stand occupied by the race favourites chinese high. sam chew thought i was mad and reflecting, it must haf been an amusing sight indeed. one mad Acsian amidst the sheer crowd of chinese highers. i din care. i had to do that. they had the best view of the race. i wanted it. too bad for them. anyhow, i stood there and watched as elliot eu emerged into sight and onto the race area that the competitors could see. i loved that sight and will not forget it as long as i live. i do not wish to forget so magnificent a day and event. the rest, as they say, was history. elliot was AHEAD of THAT guy. elliot BROKE away from THAT guy. elliot killed THAT guy. elliot BURNED THAT guy. elliot DEFEATED AND THRASHED THAT guy. elliot WON the RACE over THAT guy. HA. +hears no cheers from chinese highers. i wonder...+ we of course went on to win the race overall. with leon wai coming in 5th, peter chan coming in 7th, and khing 8th, kevin 10th(not so sure bout this one) and xide 21st i think. it doesn't matter. we WON. and ELLIOT helped us. thanks elliot...
thats all i haf to say. once again, elliot, thanks for being a blessing in my life. whether you know it or not, and whether i know it or not, you have shaped my life no matter to a large or small extent. you played a part in it as my Vice-captain somewhere along the lines of this past year and i would like to say THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH AND MAY YOU ALWAYS WALK RIGHT WITH GOD AND HAVE HIS FAVOUR IN ALL YOU EVER DO.
au revoir.
-without wax, loong
Lau Wen Loong still running at 9:17 AM