Arcadia Citadel
11th June 2007, Monday
Arcadia is a region in Pelopennesus, Greece and in Singapore, we have a road somewhere near McRitchie Reservior which is famous for been engulfed in darkness with minimal street lamps...
Citadel is a fortress protecting a town...
I have never been to Arcadia and remotely entering that shay road void of illumination and I have nothing to do with a citadel...but I got the credits of naming my soccer team back in the days with this impressive name ...which the rest of the team unanimously failed to reckon with...
Circa the year 1995, fresh out of graduating from our secondary schools, my buddy managed to gather a band of his classmates from the only 2 express Sec.4 classes there were around in Peicai Secondary School at that time to form a soccer team with official kit and all...
Then he buzzed his soccer-frenzy pal who was down and out from the chronically lackluster school life he had back then to see whether he would be interested to join the team...
I couldn't just enter the squad without any contribution in I pulled 4 players who went to be the backbone of our playing squad eventually...
I had 2 dreams to fulfill when I was young (3 if you count wooing a girl which was almost impossible with that pathetic self confidence I had back then) was to form an actual instruments-playing band which I did back in my college days and a soccer team...
The weekly training at the old Peicai school field (a terrain almost unplayable at times) on Saturdays epitomes my salvation for living back then (as well as the visit to the comic shop to pick up my weekly ration of comic)...
Our squad of 20 odd personnels had the desire to ply our limited skills in the sports (for myself almost null) and tried to gain as many victories in our short-lived establishment as possible to boost our own morales but in the end losing the bulk of it as far as I could recall...
Nevertheless the results didn't really matters as long as we had a place to train and get together every Saturday afternoons and seemingly the after-training beverage session was much more anticipated by us...
We had all sorts of characters in the squad back then which made it so enjoyable..
My buddy was the skipper cum coach who formulates the training schedule (if there is one to begin with) as well as the selection and formation...
It is tough as of many neighborhood self-created soccer teams, the playing staff generally picked itself and training is most of the time non-beneficial to anyone just mad scramble for ball on the sandy pitch.. Barely anyone could really head the ball and set-pieces is non-existent
Then again we played in friendly matches without real officials to referee the game, thus it doesn't matter anyway...
We had a custodian, Fizz who was pretty rotund but with height advantage, agility is zero but he could read the ball well.. But his stamina is really atrocious yet he got the cheek to run up-field for any freekick opportunity...
One of my all time close friend, Rizan, now a proud father and a SQ pilot was the engine room and before he lost weight was known as the "Black Gascogine" for his skill and sad to say his epidermal coloration...
There was the temperamental Al who almost fought with everyone in the squad during training sessions (except yours truly who is too much of a wuss)
Then a Fowler-crazy Ridwan who spent too much time perfecting his outward curl freekick...
Another friend I introduced to the club was the feeble-looking Weiliang who was too skinny and pretty injury-prone, so those acid-tongues in the squad labeled him "Code Red" after a local TV series at that time modeled after "Rescue 911"...
I myself was donned in a classic Netherlands national squad jersey for my trial in the first day and was known as "Bergkamp" for my attacking instinct but otherwise has no resemblance whatsoever to the famous Dutchman...
I am like the reserve of the reserves, the penultimate bench-warmer with actual playing time clocks less than half an hour for the year plus with the team but I really didn't mind...
After a meekly successful 7-a-side tournament at Sentosa and a whipping by a U17 squad of a local soccer club, our contract with the school to utilize came to an abrupt end as the crippled principal then was chasing us off the pitch with his cane...
We also blamed it on our final recruitment, a Mariah Carey-loving childhood we more affectionately like to refer as "The Big O (O for Omen" for being the key to our disbandment.
However as A levels was more immediate for some of us then NS beckoned, it seems the best way was to just let the legacy ends...
Fast forward 11 years, a few of us met up at the wake of BH's father who passed away after a long struggle with kidney failure and diabetes...
It was CS who informed us of the tragic news and yet CS was one of the old guards of the squad...
BH ain't my closest chums butour lives always tends to intertwined to one another...
He was my mate back in my 1st 3 months back in Serangoon JC, then I realized we had more common friends than we expected and soon were in the same soccer team...
After tertiary education and national service, we became colleagues at my previous workplace before we both left that god-forsaken place and I duly invited him to my wedding last October...
I even knew his brother who was also in our same squad, but not that often in contact; but both brothers were truly devastated of their old man passing which I could feel for them...
Thus it was not the best platform to reconcile with yet another member of the squad, the vice captain and glit-edge sweeper, Zfeng whom TW was glad to see again...
The duo then connived an event we would never dared ponder about in the past: reuniting the entire squad for = a novelty game of ...soccer
Now nearing my 30s with brittle bones and a response to bouncing ball as weak as clearing the final round of Ouendan, I really doubt I can outdo myself back in my prime which spells a lousy footballer , however I wouldn't mind seeing everyone again catching up the last decade or so...
It can be as tough as scaling Mt. Everest but it is worth a try, I mean getting a good 10 of us would be a success, so no harm trying...
Finally it's amazing how my life been so connected with former Peicai alumni.. Of my current list of good friends, the likes of TW, CS, Foo, Chan and Ferris had previously hailed from that shabby school in Serangoon...
Then the entire Arcadia Citadel squad made up 80% of the graduating batch of 1994...
Last but not least, the girl I had my first major crush on too was from the school, so no one can fault me for sentimentally attached to that institution...
Arcadia is a region in Pelopennesus, Greece and in Singapore, we have a road somewhere near McRitchie Reservior which is famous for been engulfed in darkness with minimal street lamps...
Citadel is a fortress protecting a town...
I have never been to Arcadia and remotely entering that shay road void of illumination and I have nothing to do with a citadel...but I got the credits of naming my soccer team back in the days with this impressive name ...which the rest of the team unanimously failed to reckon with...
Circa the year 1995, fresh out of graduating from our secondary schools, my buddy managed to gather a band of his classmates from the only 2 express Sec.4 classes there were around in Peicai Secondary School at that time to form a soccer team with official kit and all...
Then he buzzed his soccer-frenzy pal who was down and out from the chronically lackluster school life he had back then to see whether he would be interested to join the team...
I couldn't just enter the squad without any contribution in I pulled 4 players who went to be the backbone of our playing squad eventually...
I had 2 dreams to fulfill when I was young (3 if you count wooing a girl which was almost impossible with that pathetic self confidence I had back then) was to form an actual instruments-playing band which I did back in my college days and a soccer team...
The weekly training at the old Peicai school field (a terrain almost unplayable at times) on Saturdays epitomes my salvation for living back then (as well as the visit to the comic shop to pick up my weekly ration of comic)...
Our squad of 20 odd personnels had the desire to ply our limited skills in the sports (for myself almost null) and tried to gain as many victories in our short-lived establishment as possible to boost our own morales but in the end losing the bulk of it as far as I could recall...
Nevertheless the results didn't really matters as long as we had a place to train and get together every Saturday afternoons and seemingly the after-training beverage session was much more anticipated by us...
We had all sorts of characters in the squad back then which made it so enjoyable..
My buddy was the skipper cum coach who formulates the training schedule (if there is one to begin with) as well as the selection and formation...
It is tough as of many neighborhood self-created soccer teams, the playing staff generally picked itself and training is most of the time non-beneficial to anyone just mad scramble for ball on the sandy pitch.. Barely anyone could really head the ball and set-pieces is non-existent
Then again we played in friendly matches without real officials to referee the game, thus it doesn't matter anyway...
We had a custodian, Fizz who was pretty rotund but with height advantage, agility is zero but he could read the ball well.. But his stamina is really atrocious yet he got the cheek to run up-field for any freekick opportunity...
One of my all time close friend, Rizan, now a proud father and a SQ pilot was the engine room and before he lost weight was known as the "Black Gascogine" for his skill and sad to say his epidermal coloration...
There was the temperamental Al who almost fought with everyone in the squad during training sessions (except yours truly who is too much of a wuss)
Then a Fowler-crazy Ridwan who spent too much time perfecting his outward curl freekick...
Another friend I introduced to the club was the feeble-looking Weiliang who was too skinny and pretty injury-prone, so those acid-tongues in the squad labeled him "Code Red" after a local TV series at that time modeled after "Rescue 911"...
I myself was donned in a classic Netherlands national squad jersey for my trial in the first day and was known as "Bergkamp" for my attacking instinct but otherwise has no resemblance whatsoever to the famous Dutchman...
I am like the reserve of the reserves, the penultimate bench-warmer with actual playing time clocks less than half an hour for the year plus with the team but I really didn't mind...
After a meekly successful 7-a-side tournament at Sentosa and a whipping by a U17 squad of a local soccer club, our contract with the school to utilize came to an abrupt end as the crippled principal then was chasing us off the pitch with his cane...
We also blamed it on our final recruitment, a Mariah Carey-loving childhood we more affectionately like to refer as "The Big O (O for Omen" for being the key to our disbandment.
However as A levels was more immediate for some of us then NS beckoned, it seems the best way was to just let the legacy ends...
Fast forward 11 years, a few of us met up at the wake of BH's father who passed away after a long struggle with kidney failure and diabetes...
It was CS who informed us of the tragic news and yet CS was one of the old guards of the squad...
BH ain't my closest chums butour lives always tends to intertwined to one another...
He was my mate back in my 1st 3 months back in Serangoon JC, then I realized we had more common friends than we expected and soon were in the same soccer team...
After tertiary education and national service, we became colleagues at my previous workplace before we both left that god-forsaken place and I duly invited him to my wedding last October...
I even knew his brother who was also in our same squad, but not that often in contact; but both brothers were truly devastated of their old man passing which I could feel for them...
Thus it was not the best platform to reconcile with yet another member of the squad, the vice captain and glit-edge sweeper, Zfeng whom TW was glad to see again...
The duo then connived an event we would never dared ponder about in the past: reuniting the entire squad for = a novelty game of ...soccer
Now nearing my 30s with brittle bones and a response to bouncing ball as weak as clearing the final round of Ouendan, I really doubt I can outdo myself back in my prime which spells a lousy footballer , however I wouldn't mind seeing everyone again catching up the last decade or so...
It can be as tough as scaling Mt. Everest but it is worth a try, I mean getting a good 10 of us would be a success, so no harm trying...
Finally it's amazing how my life been so connected with former Peicai alumni.. Of my current list of good friends, the likes of TW, CS, Foo, Chan and Ferris had previously hailed from that shabby school in Serangoon...
Then the entire Arcadia Citadel squad made up 80% of the graduating batch of 1994...
Last but not least, the girl I had my first major crush on too was from the school, so no one can fault me for sentimentally attached to that institution...
Japanese word of the day: 再結合 (Reunion) Let's just ensure the Big O doesn't turn up but then he most probably will even without invitation...and sell us magnetic pillows
posted by Kei at
3:40 PM
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