My Olympian Moment

On Monday to Wednesday earlier this week, my company was at the range for our shooting test.  Things went fairly well for me at first, as after my day shoot, I had the score of 13/24, which meant I only needed to make 7 shots out of 16 in the night shoot to pass.  Having done pretty well in the practice the night before, I was confident that passing would not be too much of a problem.
 
The first station of night shoot was shooting an illuminated target from 200m.  As I did not manage to hit a single target the night before, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to hit 2 out of 4 this time during the test.  So at this stage, I needed only 5/12 to pass, which is very manageable. 
 
The drama began when I started missing every single shot subsequently until I was left with 5 rounds, needing to hit every single remaining target in order to pass.  Desperation was rising fast. 
 
And so I fired my last of 4 shots from a squatting position at the target from 100m - on!  I had hit the target for the first time in two nights!  The tension mounted as I walked towards the 50m mark for shooting from the standing position.  Hands trembling, I loaded my rifle and steadied myself for the last 4 shots.  Up!  The first target came up - a dark target on a dark background with only a blinking red light to aim at.  I blinked back at the red light, willing myself to focus at its ever-increasing blurness, struggling to maintain my composure to keep the foresight tip and rearsight centred on the target... With the squeeze of the trigger, the shot went off, and the blinking light disappeared momentarily.  Now since the target is only visible by way of the blinking red light, there is that moment of uncertainty whether the target was indeed hit, whereby the target would disappear, or it was just that the light was momentarily off before coming on again.  But when my target remained dark while the lights of the other targets beside mine when on, I knew I had done it. On!  1 shot down 3 more to go.

The next 3 shots were increasing in haphazardness and anxiety.  I fired before I steadied my hands in a bid to end the tension of it all quickly.  Amazingly, lady luck was on my side and with 3 shouts of "On!" from my assistant, I had done what I had thought was impossible - 5 shots out of 5. 
 
I count this as one of the most exciting and exhilarating moments of my life.  Really.  Although it was a test of no consequence, but the sheer mix of tension, anxiety, desperation and the serendipitous outcome gave me an adrenaline rush which took much of the night to get over. 
 
On a less exciting note, I gave in to my supposed atas tastes for scores today and spent 20% of my monthly pay at Music Essentials on the score of Messiaen Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus.  Oh the struggles I had with my demons at the shop deciding whether to wreck my cash flow over a mere score, most of which I can't play.  But I gave in eventually to temptation, leading to the interesting exchange I had with the cashier.
 
Me: Could I purchase this?
Cashier, without looking at the price sticker on the book: Sure, that'll be $110.
Me, incredulously: How did you know what the price was without looking at the sticker?
Cashier, sheepishly: I wanted to buy it too...
 
So paiseh.  But it did lead to a nice conversation about Messiaen and how we came to learn of him.  Incidentally, I've also ordered the Dutilleux piano sonata (yes yes atas tastes, but what a beautiful work) from them and really look forward to that.