Childhood Memories

When I was a children, I love playing soccer a lot. I would always play with my elder brother or friends for almost everyday. At that time, my soccer skills was atrocious as compared to my friends but I not sure about now and I would always play with happiness no matter I lose or win. As long as I enjoyed the process, it is the greatest achivement to me.

But as I grow older, I was more greedy as I always hate to lose and always scared to admit defeat. When I was about 8 years old, I met up with some of my friends to play at the nearest soccer field to my house. In order not to lose, I tried very, very hard to get the ball and always run around and never think of the consequences. Until now, I can still vividly remember that my friend kicked a high ball and pass it to me. Not knowing that someone is coming to snatch my ball, I run towards the ball and kicked it. Never thought or imagine, my friend accidentally tripped and kicked my leg. At that time, I was in a very, very bad situation as I was in a very, very bad pain. I felt that it was very strange as I had kicked soccer for years already and that is the first time I felt the most painful in my life currently.

I lie on the ground for about 5 to 10 minutes before I caught the attention of my friend. My friend run towards me and asked what happened. I told them I was in a great pain and they wanted to lift me up but in vain as my foot was really very pain that I could not even stand. So, they went up to my house and told my mother what happened. My mother came and quickly called the ambulance. After that, I knew that I had broke one of the bone on my left leg. I was hospitalized for about 3 to 4 weeks. At that time, I felt very terrified as I thought that I could never play soccer again. It was when that I knew that soccer is one of the important things in my life.

When I was discharge from hospital, I had to rely on wheelchair and also had to go back to hospital for physicology for some times before I can rely on the clutches and go back to school . After that terrifying incident, I had learnt my lesson and not to play soccer with rough attitude. I learnt that safety is the most important as I knew that there were a lot of people who cares for me and I don't want them to disappoint them especially my parents. I also usually don't play soccer with some of the people as they are rough and I also found out that soccer is meaningful and also important in my life after that incident.

Reflections on Virtual trip to Chek Jawa

During the English lessons, our teacher gave us an assignment which was going on a virtual tour of Chek Jawa. I did not even know where exactly is Chek Jawa. After doing some researches on the Google website, Chek Jawa was actually located in Pulau Ubin, Singapore.

This was what fascinated me. This is actually the sea stars. This is the one which is knobby with purple branching sponge. Sea stars exhibit a superficially radial symmetry. They typically have five "arms" which radiate from a central disk. However, the evolutionary ancestors of echinoderms are believed to have had bilateral symmetry. Sea stars do exhibit some superficial remnant of this body structure, evident in their larval pluteus forms.

Sea stars do not rely on a jointed, movable skeleton for support and locomotion (although they are protected by their skeleton), but instead possess a hydraulic water vascular system that aids in locomotion. The water vascular system has many projections called tube feet on the ventral face of the sea star's arms which function in locomotion and aid with feeding. Sea stars usually hunt for shelled animals such as oysters and clams. They have two stomachs. One stomach is used for digestion, and the other stomach can be extended outward to engulf and digest prey. This feature allows the sea star to hunt prey that is much larger than its mouth would otherwise allow. Sea stars are able to regenerate lost arms. A new sea star may be regenerated from a single arm attached to a portion of the central disk.

I always thought that some of the rare species found in Chek Jawa can be seen in Singapore. After finding where is Chek Jawa, the rare species of animals and plants are actually found there. If I have the opportunity to go on the tour in Chek Jawa (located in Pulau Ubin), I will definitely go and have some pictures taken with the sea stars.Information are taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_starPictures are taken from: http://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/ria/text/223.htmhttp://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/ria/text/194.htm