3-point turn

ONE
Yesterday was the team's last gym training session at Kallang. On the glass door was a notice in a cheerful yellow hue, ironically emblazoned with a somewhat poignant message that suggested that gym entry will be free this week because it will close down for good on Sunday.

Many of us hold dear memories of the Grand Old Dame. She had her heydays when Singaporeans would descend in throngs to support the national soccer team and decorate the stands with shades of white and red. The Kallang Wave swept the entire stadium into ecstasy, and the Kallang Roar resonated with passion and pride. Today, the Old Dame takes her rest. The stands are cold, wet and silent. Drab grey walls are a far cry from the iridescent colours that lined the structure during National Day. Yet, this should not be a sad moment. Instead, we should look forward and herald a new era of our sporting arena, an era that will inject fresh, youthful energy to our burgeoning culture of active living.

It was the last chance to break my personal best on the ergo, but I messed it up and fell short. The team showed its playful traits again as we scrambled from station to station to take our parting shots in the gym after training, including crazy poses of various team mates tackling incredible weights or synchronising their ergo stances. Dinner again at Old Airport Road where discussion was naturally about the coming race and the race line-up. Jerome will need to start visualising his race sets so that he can focus better when the day arrives. He can already imagine the adrenaline-charged atmosphere at the start line, eyes focussed on paddle, are-you-ready, attention!, and the air horn... (to be continued)

TWO
Race issues aside, Anon (as the anonymous philosopher who leaves poetic comments calls himself) is now beginning to challenge Jerome. He has left a total of 8 messages thus far. The last message was particularly provocative:

brayed jerome the zebra,
"tell me who you are"
as he sought to make headway
against anon's wiles and ways
but poor jerome he did not get far.

Contrary to what Anon believes, Jerome has already gathered a few clues on his true identity.
1. Anon leaves messages in two main time frames: 11pm-12mn, and 4am-5am
- this suggests he is either a nocturnal animal or someone who is not in Singapore
- if he is not in Singapore, he is either Jerome's overseas friend or someone who happens to be overseas
2. He has quite a good command in English, using words like "wiles", "forlorn", and appears to rhyme pretty well in an effortless way
3. He said, in his seventh message, that "in case you forget, I ain't finished yet" and used one of Jerome's smilies (-_-)v which may be lifted from his post "Happy Feet" following his reference to a certain persona.

Interestingly Jerome has a strange feeling that not all 8 anonymous posts were from the same person, because some of them have glaringly different language styles.

In any case, with the clues above, Jeromes has generated a list of differential diagnosis involving 6 identities.

Jerome will now wait for Anon to strike again before he flashes his arrest warrant.

THREE
Talking about "arrest warrant", Jerome is naturally dismayed when he heard news about a Singaporean clearing our local customs with a wrong passport. It's the third mistake from the Home Team in 6 months, and the word "complacency" is now overused and turning somewhat vulgar in newspapers and radio alike. Considering thousands cross our customs everyday, and this being the first case of its kind, Jerome remains confident of the competence of our Home Team. He is glad the authorities are transparent about the matter, and he looks forward to process reviews and system improvements that will preserve the safety and security of our nation and her people.

Public announcement over.

Thank you all for reading this rather self-indulgent entry. (o_0)"