CZEKERIC

Spring Festival mood!

2012-01-21T16:13:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, I’m glad to be born a Chinese. We get to celebrate 2 new years in a year ….. hmm…. if that ever make sense. (-_-“)

Anyway, every corner that you go to, you’ll see all the Chinese New Year deco is up. Splashes of red with sight of dragon, because it’s a year of dragon!

Time to “Dong! Dong! Chiang!”

Healthy lunch

2012-01-17T16:04:00.000+08:00

It’s a known fact that in Malaysia, eating out means you’ll be eating a lot of oily stuffs, which is bad for health. Sometimes, I’d rather pack my own lunch.

Today, I brought along my homemade Tuna Sandwich, with generous amount of mixed lettuce leaves. It’s easy to prepare and pack with all the basic nutrient that the body needs.

Happy New Year with a difference!

2012-01-02T15:54:00.000+08:00

Time does fly when you’ve reached a certain age. LOL! In a blink of the eyes, it’s time to close the chapter for 2011 and welcoming 2012. This year, rather than spending time at party, or spending time at home due to tired of partying, my friend, Alex has suggested to join a trip with a few others to the villages of the Orang Asli (Native People) to help bring them medical supplies and other things that we may help. Sort of like giving our blessing back to the community. I thought, what a good way to spend my new year differently and meaningful.

We set off to Kampung Sungai Relong on NYE. There’re 3 doctors with plenty of medicine supplies, use clothes and some food. There were around 4-5 kampung that we went to.

The village is at the foothill of Cameron Highland. So the weather is pretty cooling and very cold at night.

It’s truly a well-spent new year day. Wouldn’t mind doing it again!

Christmas’ Eve

2011-12-25T14:05:00.000+08:00

As I didn’t have any plan for Christmas’ eve, I got invited by a friend to this place for Christmas’ eve dinner. Really grateful for his invite. It was a good time to hand around and catch up with people.

… not forgetting the turkey!

We had a great time singing Christmas carols when Jason and Paul came later that night. We were surprise that Jason could actually play well on double bass.

Breakfast Smoothie

2011-12-24T11:19:00.001+08:00

I’ve always believe in breakfast being the most important meal of the day. Whatever you consume on the first thing in the morning will affect your body’s performance for the day.

For a person on the go, I need something simple, easy to prepare, easy to consume, and no messy clean up job thereafter. Hence, smoothie has been a perfect wholesome breakfast for me, before i head out to work.

Fruits and vegie…. I chose mainly cucumber, celery, carrot and apple. They’re high in fibre and have all the necessary nutrient we need for our body. Furthermore, our body can absorb all the nutrient best first thing in the morning.

Wheat biscuits to give the added fibre and carbs, so that the body will feel full longer. Protein powder for muscle built and recovery after all the runs and workout. Low fat milk for leaner body. and yogurt to boost immune system and smoothen the testure of the smoothie.

And lastly, can’t go without frozen banana. It helps to chill the drink and give extra boost to the perfect smoothie texture.

Simple blend all of them together for about 45 seconds.

… and there you go! A wholesome healthy and filling smoothie on the go!

Christmas mood

2011-12-18T00:08:00.001+08:00

Christmas is around the corner, so does my Christmas tree! LOL!

Finally brought out my Christmas tree and put it up in time for the coming Christmas. That’s like within a week’s time. I could already feel the holiday mood!

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2011

2011-12-07T00:20:00.000+08:00

The final race of the 4-weekend back-to-back races, and it’s none other than the well-known Singapore Marathon. Kind of think back, this would be my 10th full marathon race and my 5-year-straight of running for Singapore Marathon.

This race down south has always been special and close to my heart. This is the race where I first started my full marathon 5 years ago. I’ve also have the privilege of having gone through 3 rounds of route changes since I first join.

Since last year, Standard Chartered Marathon event has been felt even better simply because I’m now staff of Standard Chartered Bank. The perks includes access to the special staff tend during race day. Apart from this, Singapore marathon being the biggest marathon race in this region, we also get to go for the special staff carbo loading party during the day before the race, and as well as being the selected few for complimentary hotel stay for the marathon event.

I arrived in Singapore on the day before the race day. Touched down at Singapore airport by 8.30am. Had some time to move around in town before heading to the staff carbo loading party. This year’s carbo loading party is no longer in Fullerton Hotel, but at Raffle’s Convention Centre. Somehow, the crowd is less overwhelm than last year’s.

We were treated with wide variety of food. It’s nice to go for a marathon race not needing to worried about getting myself fuel up for the race.

After that, walked around a bit with my friend and head back to Ibis Hotel to rest early. (but can hardly sleep at all, probably too much coffee during the day and the bed being too small)

With little sleep till the next morning, I knew the race gonna be screwed. However, I’ve signed up for it so I’ll go on no matter how much it’s going to be tough for me.

The Singapore government recognised that this marathon event is going to be massive, so they have allowed the MRT to extend their operating hour non-stop overnight just to accomodate the runners getting to their various starting line. We were glad that we didn’t need to take taxi this time round.

The day was cool, thanks to the non-stop rain for the past few days. This make the major part of the route cooler to run until the Sun rises.

I caught up with the 5hr pacers and was able to keep with their pace until 22km point where my lack of sleep started to give way. I started to feel to sleepy that if given a bed at that moment, I’d just collapse and sleep. My left tight also started to feel heavy and cramp up. I had no choice but to slow down and walk for the next 6km.

I managed to pick up my speed and effort a little bit when i was approaching 28km mark, where I started to use the run-walk-run strategy. As soon as I gain back my momentum, I pick up my pace further and started to run again for the next 14km.

It was really tough running under the Sun. At least I was still haven’t hit the walk and kept to the pace as far as possible.

This year’s run wasn’t as great, as I’ve slowed down my pace and hit a slower finishing time compared to last year’s. Anyhow, there’re up’s and downs in all races. I guess the strongest thing I needed to improve is to get myself more rest and sleep on the day before the big race.

Before I work in Stanchart, I kept telling myself about how crowded and crampy the Singapore marathon has been and vowed not to run again next year. But seeing how it’s became my annual marathon “pilgrimage”, I think I’ll continue to sign up and try to hit 10 years straight running for Singapore marathon.

Nike We Run KL 2011 10km Race

2011-11-30T22:19:00.000+08:00

After helping out with 4 sessions of run clinics for Nike, the race day finally came. Everyone don on this year’s race tee to the starting line eagerly waiting to start running.

Thanks to Alex, we were given the priority access to be at the starting line ahead of everyone else at the starting pen. If you look at the picture below, it’s pretty interesting how everyone else behind the pen looking at us taking group pic ahead of them. LOL!

The weather was nice, and it’s only 10km. A few of us pacers were starting out together. Gary shoot off ahead of us as this is the only race for him around this time. I on the other hand, knowingly that there’s Singapore marathon the following week, just wanted to take it slow. Chiat, Winnie and I were running at the same pace throughout, while Chi Ming had Stomach stitch problem and back off from our pace. Sophie was running and encouraging her hubby, Jeremy, for it was his first race.

I was part pacing and pushing Winnie through out the race as she haven’t been running in a race for very long. …. and guess who’s the photographer??? …. Chiat, of course!

Nothing much to talk about, as it’s only a 10km run. I would said it’s really well organised, and am glad that they capped the number of participants despite a lot of dissatisfaction over how fast the registration has reach full capacity and have to take off the registration online.

We were also given the access to the Nike+ tent, with all meals provided. We indulged in the good nasi lemak!

One last shot together with the pacers when everyone comes back from the race!

Can’t wait for next year’s Nike race!

Penang Bridge International Marathon 2011

2011-11-22T13:08:00.002+08:00

Yet another race one week after Powerman 2011. This time, it’s the land of good food in Malaysia, Penang!

The last time I did Penang Bridge Marathon was back in 2008. Then 2009, I did the Bangkok Marathon, which was on the same day as Penang Bridge Marathon. 2010, I thought I wanted to do the Bangkok marathon again, but couldn’t book a cheap flight, hence I missed both Bangkok and Penang Bridge Marathon. This year, I thought I should just give Bangkok Marathon a miss and signed up for Penang Bridge Marathon. (Anyway, due to flood issue, Bangkok Marathon 2011 has been postponed to February 2012)

First thing I arrive Penang is to collect my race entry pack from the collection centre. The organiser did a good job on this part. The booth was well spread out and the queue for each category wasn’t too long. My was a slight delay due to the race pack was initially couriered to me, but I wasn’t at home to sign the package. Hence the parcel was being sent back to the organiser.

After collection of race pack, it was carbo loading time! Not a difficult task being in a land of good food. Had my favorite stop-over at Genting Cafe, Island Glate for my Penang food fix. Duck-egg Char Kuey Teow, Penang Chee Cheong Fun, Hokkien Noodles, braised pork leg rice…. And off to rest for the early race next day.

The half marathon flag off at 3am. Not too bad considering that the full marathon starts at even earlier time at 2am. Originally wanted to be at starting point at least 30min before race start, but due to my friend’s delay, I had to half walk half jog to the starting point. Luckily I arrive just in time for the race to be flagged off. I told my friend shouldn’t be too slack to get to the starting point next time, to avoid the final rush to the starting point.

The starting point was narrow and I hate how I needed to dodge so many people to get a clear way in front to run. It wasn’t until entering Penang Bridge that I managed to get out from the crowded pack.

The run along the bridge was windy but not as cool. I was quite surprise at how fast my body was being heated up so badly. I kept telling myself that it’s only 21km and all this would be finished around 2 hours.

After the U-turn at the other end of the bridge, my time stated about 1 hour into the race. Just nice there’s a water station not far after that. I pop my power gel with the water, and continue on with my run. After the midway point of the bridge, my stomach started to feel hungry…. I was thinking that this is not right. I just had power gel not too long ago. Stomach grumbling become stronger toward exiting the bridge. I had to slow down a bit as it’s taken too much energy away from me. The water starting before exiting the bridge saved my life for awhile. At least the water helps to suppress the hunger.

Upon exiting the bridge, there’s about another 4km towards the finishing line. I talked myself into thinking that that’s about another 3.5 loops around Taman Tun Park. I could do it easily. I kept the momentum on until i finished the race at about 2hr14min finishing time. Somehow didn’t want to push all the way for this race as I kept reminding myself that I’m running full marathon in 2 weeks time in Singapore.

Quite satisfied with the race overall. The organiser did a fairly good job. (although I heard there’re some screw-up at the water station at the later stage for the full marathon runners and their finishers’ t-shirt distribution). I hope the organisers will look into the glitches and improve the race for next year’s event.

So, 2 races done, 2 more to go. Looking forward for this Sunday’s We Run KL 2011 10km run. Just nice for me to taper down for Singapore Marathon.

Powerman 2011

2011-11-13T23:59:00.001+08:00

The day finally came to past. I’ve completed a powerman event! Well…. sort of.

Jun An and I has signed up for the relay category back in August. This is also my first time participate in a multi-sport event. As the race day approach, I’m kinda pumped up for it, which I haven’t been feeling such way for many of my run races for very long time.

We travelled up to Seri Manjung on Saturday. And of course, the journey wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t stop over at Bidor for the famous duck noodles.

We arrived early in Seri Manjung pretty early. So we went around to recce our race route. I’m quite delighted to find out that my run route is quite flat; whereas Jun An’s bike route has a very steep bridge to climb.

The briefing started at 5pm, just nice after we’re done with the recce. I reckon the organiser did pretty good job to ensure we’re well brief on what’s to expect on race day, so what we don’t run around like a headless chicken come race day morning.

On race day, we woke up quite early at 4.45am. Although they will only open up the transition area for us to do our race setup by 6am. Maybe we were super kiasu, wanted to get a very nice parking spot at the race venue.

Jun An has his bike setup once the transition area was open. As a runner, I only need to know where our bike is parked, so I don’t get lost looking to past my race chip during the transition.

The relay team is being flagged off at 7.40am. I would say that’s a pretty late time to start off a race. Sun would be up by then and we’re spend most time under the hot sun.

Due to the flat route, I manage to complete the first 11km run within 58min, saving more time for Jun An’s bike session. However, by the time I started my second run, after Jun An’s done with his bike, that’s when the drama begun. I was already pretty much exposed to the hot sun whole time waiting for Jun An’s to come in. When he finally came in, my stomach was half empty and heat is steaming up my head. I was glad that they have sufficient water stations along the route to cool us off and fuel us up.

Thank God I completed my second run strong and kept my timing within an hour for the last 10km run. Overall timing is slightly less than 4.5hr. Pretty decent for being first time.

Now I’m feeling the after-effect, sun burnt and tan line. Don’t like the sun burn part, but quite like the tan line from my tri-shorts and race jersey. It’s like telling everyone that “I survived Powerma!!” LOL!

I should get myself a road bike and do the individual Powerman next year! …. finger crossed…..

Sport Boost

2011-11-10T23:36:00.001+08:00

While preparing for the Powerman this weekend, my friend has introduced me to a sport supplement that will boost my performance. I reckon that since I’m going to do a relay this round (I run 11km, my friend bike 64km, then I run another 10km), I better get something to boost my energy during my second run.

Introducing the sport booster, Sponser Activator!

Let’s look at the ingredients:

Water, fructose, plant extracts (guarana*, green tea, mate), taurine, citric acid, natural caffeine, potassium sorbate, sodium cyclamate, acesulfame K, sodium saccharin, flavours, inositol, vitamins

*Guarana is a fruit found in Amazon region that have twice the amount of caffeine found in a single coffee bean. Having this part of the ingredients means this is something real strong!

Here’s what is says about this product:

Caffeine is used in sports for over 100 years. It is only in the 70’s that targeted studies to examine the performance-enhancing effects in sports were carried out. Recent studies demonstrate the effectiveness of caffeine as a supplement promoting the performance (source: www.dopinginfo.ch) .
Activator contains 160 mg of caffeine from guarana, green tea and mate in combination with pure natural caffeine. The combination of different sources of c affeine provides short and long lasting stimulating effects. Suitable for sports, where increased concentration and co-ordination skills are required, for example ball sports and martial arts. But Activator is also successfully used by endurance athletes. Runners, cyclists, and triathletes also use Activator as a caffeine booster on the last stages of endurance compet itions.
Activator is completed with taurine, inositol and B-vitamins. No doping risks! As in our culture caffeine occurs in a wide range of p roducts, it is not anymore listed as forbidden substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency since the 1st of January 2004.

…….. I’m gonna finish strong during the Powerman race!

Nike Run Pacer

2011-11-07T12:51:00.001+08:00

Nike is putting up a run on 27th Nov, called We Run KL 2011, which has been a much talk-about in town. It’s probably because how the registration spot was so quick to fill up and close within 3 days after registration opened.

One thing unique about Nike Run is how the individual race number is printed on the event shirt rather than the conventional race bib.

Anyway, I’ve been roped in by Alex, my running buddy who’re part of the organiser behind this year’s Nike Run, as one of the pacers. It’s not so much of the race day pacer, but more like their ambassador to run with the runners during the several run clinic sessions leading up to the actual race day.

The sessions are:

1st session: Introduction Run
Date: 29th Oct 2011, Saturday
Start Location: Hakka Restaurant, next to Pavillion Mall, KL
Meeting Time: 6.15 a.m.
Registration End: 6.45 a.m.

2nd session: Tempo Run
Date: 5th Nov 2011, Saturday
Start Location: Binjai Carpark, KLCC
Meeting time: 6.15 a.m
Registration End: 6.45 a.m.

3rd session: REPC weekend run
Date: 12th Nov 2011, Saturday
Start Location: Mid Valley
Meeting time: 6.15 a.m.
Registration End: 6.45 a.m.

4th session: LSD/Recovery Run
Date: 22nd Nov 2011, Tuesday
Start Location: Curve (outside Fitness First)
Meeting time: 6.15 p.m.
Registration End: 6.45 p.m.

*You may register for the training session by clicking here.

Nike has so far sponsored us pacer a set of running attire, the latest Lunar Glide 3 Shield running shoes, and the Nike+ Sportband.

I don’t mind getting involved with many more this type of event in future!

Powerman Time!

2011-11-05T23:43:00.001+08:00

Just pick up the race pack for Powerman Malaysia 2011. It’s a 11km run – 64km bike – 10km run event, held on 13th Nov at Seri Manjung, Perak. Me and friend will be doing the relay together. I’ll be doing both the runs, and my friend will do the bike.

This is my first multisport event. Looking forward for next weekend!

Nike+ SportBand

2011-11-04T00:28:00.001+08:00

I’m sure many of you have heard of Nike+ being around for quite some time now. And guess what! I got a little gift from Nike today. And it’s none other than the Nike+ SportBand!!!

This is such a cool product from Nike. Although haven’t set it up and have a go with it yet, I’ve been hearing a lot of hype about it. Apparently you could upload your run data into their online portal and compare with other fellow runners across the globe.

I knew being a pacer for Nike – We Run KL, will surely get a lot of perks! I shall blog about how I got involve with Nike next!

Groceries

2011-10-31T23:36:00.001+08:00

My groceries for this week:-

Healthy eating to prepare my body for race packed November!

On Shoes

2011-10-30T23:04:00.001+08:00

This is rather an overdue post. I was given a chance by Alex to try a pair of On Shoes during Deepavali Day for a 20km Bukit Aman-Hartamas-Bukit Aman run. I’ve been very sceptical when Alex has shown me the shoes several occasion ago. Somehow he convinced me to try on it that very day.

So off we go, 20km on a shoes that I have no idea of. But as soon as we start running, I was surprised at how light the shoes were and how easily my feet stride. I would say the one who designed this shoes is brilliant! It somehow helped me to land my feet right and I don’t feel like I’m overworking my legs.

10km off and we reached our pit stop at Patronas station @ Hartamas. I couldn’t stop telling everyone on how good I felt wearing the shoes and still amazed how an unknown brand can has such optimum running shoes.

Another 10 km and we arrived back at the Bukit Aman carpark. I still felt great on my feet, other than feeling empty within. Nonetheless, I’m truly impressed by the shoes’ performance.

The secret lies on the sole of the shoes. It an unsual sight when you flip the shoes around. You could see that there’re many individual grips that are sticking out on the sole. This actually helps with stability and agility while on the run. The side profile reveals how each of these individual grips is in the form of a of hollow in the middle. This helps to minimise the impact on each stride and therefore protect your legs from overworking during intense run.

A seal of approval from myself to this shoes. However the selling price of this shoes are on the high side. a pair of this will set you back about RM595.00. Alex told me that they will have a promo for next month which, when buying any 2 pairs, the second pair will get a person percentage of discount.

So what you waiting for? you can find it at Athlete’s circle @ Jaya One PJ.

Raw Coffee Pt.2

2011-10-26T16:04:00.001+08:00

The first time i was being introduced to Raw Coffee, I was hooked. I brought another friend there, she ended up bringing all her colleagues from her office there. See how really good coffee and do for people!

Anyway, Alex who introduced me to Raw Coffee, brought me to another Raw Coffee outlet called Heaven at along Jalan Ampang, not fat from where the another Raw Coffee is. This is a special outlet as it’s actually a bungalow house turned cafe. There are ample parking but on a weekend or holiday, i would advice one to get there early.

Besides a cafe, they also sell wide range of organic food and products

The barista, Alang, is a very approachable guy and seems to know his coffee passionately well! his coffee art skill is top notch!

My first cup was my all time favorite flat white. The first sip was truly heavenly and has top the benchmark as the best coffee in Malaysia. The last time i have such good coffee is when i was still living back in Australia.

Words can’t describe how good the coffee is, but one just need to look at the picture below. There’re 3 of us, and this numbers of cups!

Race mode!

2011-10-25T23:01:00.001+08:00

The peak of my running season for 2011 is here! This would see back-to-back races on all the weekends. Kinda crazy but I reckon it’s gonna be fun pushing myself hard! Oh yeah!

Let’s look at all the official event, it’ll all start begining this Saturday:

29th Oct – Nike Run Training @ Pavilion

5th Nov – Nike Run Training @ KLCC Park

12th Nov – Nike Run Training @ Mid Valley Megamall

13th Nov – Powerman Malaysia @ Lumut

20th Nov – Penang Bridge International Marathon

22th Nov – Nike Run Training @ The Curve

27th Nov – Nike We Run KL 10km Race

4th Dec – Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore

Just one thing in my mind: Looking forward to all these race days!

Putrajaya Night Marathon 2011

2011-10-17T23:31:00.001+08:00

This was held over last Saturday night. Didn’t sign up for this race. It came kinda last minute. Alex signed up but couldn’t make it, as he’s travelling to Australia. So I stepped in to run under his bib.

Many of my runners friend are away in Singapore for another race. So I kinda went for this race alone. I wasn’t hoping to meet anyone whom I know. But I guess the running circle is small. Met Lik Sng, a runner from Stanchart, also Meng Wai just when the we 21km runners were about to flag off.

Honestly, I didn’t train up for this, therefore I didn’t have high expectation on my performance. Probably because I didn’t sign up for this in the first place.

The route was alright, except I misread the route and pace myself wrongly from the start. Didn’t expect to go through a long stretch of gradual up hill on the first quarter distance of the run. The weather was warm and humid. Probably cause by the late shower in the afternoon.

I would say the organiser done a decent job. The atmosphere was great. There were some percussion group and marching bad along the way to entertain and encourage the runners. Not forgetting those guys that dress in super heroes suit.

I still find it tough to run in a night race. Maybe due to bio clock issue. Body was ready to shut down anytime. But then again, I wouldn’t mind doing it again to see how far my body can push!

Raw Coffee

2011-10-13T23:50:00.001+08:00

Time: 8.15am

Venue: Raw Coffee, ICBC Bank branch in KL, next to Avenue-K.

Subject: Good-O Flat White

Was supposed to catch up wtih Alex before he flies off to Australia. Needed to collect the Putrajaya Night Marathon race bib from him for this weekend’s race. Couldn’t able to fix a time, we decided to do it on the weekday morning, before i start work.

Alex introduced me to this lovely cafe, Raw Coffee. Nicely tucked away from the busy street of Jalan Ampang, across the road from KLCC Twin Towers.

Conclusion --- Found a perfect place for a perfect cup of coffee in the morning. Enough said!

Virgin run at KLCC Park

2011-10-12T00:08:00.001+08:00

Having been based at KL city centre for work since, I find that the after-work traffic has been getting from bad to worse lately. I also find it that it’s almost impossible to make it to my usual TTDI park for a nice evening run. As much as I like to do my run after work, running on treadmill at gym doesn’t seems to give as much satisfaction compared to running outdoor.

The solution…. I started look out for alternative. Lake garden is a nice park to run, but I’ll still need to get stuck in the traffic for 40min just to get out from my office. Next option…. KLCC park. I wonder why it took quite a while to come out with that idea…..

KLCC is just 10min walk away from my office, which would probably takes less than 5min if i run. KLCC park seems like a perfect place to fulfil my itchy legs after work.

Today, I finally had a chance to run at KLCC park after work. Running in the city park surrounded by many high-rise building is amazing. The park is very runners friendly with many drinking fountain along the jogging path. In fact it made me felt like and idiot carrying my own bottle of water around just in case I need to rehydrate. The path is brightly lit. It seems like a very safe place to run even when the sky is dark. Found a perfect running spot which is so near my office. Loving it!

Now, I started to like being base in the city centre. I could access all sort of facilities and everything is so convenient. The next thing is to look for a property to live in KL city centre.

Reconnection with my Uni

2011-10-10T07:07:00.001+08:00

My uni, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), has always been having frequent alumni gathering put up by the Malaysian chapter. Shame to say, I haven’t been able to make it most of the time. So finally the right timing came and I thought I should make effort to attend and reconnect with my uni.

The Alumni gathering happened last night, at Dome Cafe KLCC. I didn’t know what to expect, as I thought i wouldn’t know anyone who’s attending. Arrived at the Dome cafe, I couldn’t spot the alumni group. So I asked a waitress and she kindly shown me the table. I pull up shyly and said hi to them. 3 reps from the uni introduced themselves to me, so for the rest of those who’re already there.

It wasn’t a big group, probably because it was held on a Sunday night. I actually recognised one of them, Jason, from International office. He was in the team headed by my career mentor, Sharon, back in my uni days. We’d worked on some small project together before, an opportunity given by Sharon.

It turned out to be a very light session, just chat with each other about what they’re doing, and talk about the alumni’s role and function with the QUT reps.

I even met my ex-housemate for the very first time since uni days back in Brisbane. I remembered that we parted in a not-so-good terms when he was disputing on certain terms on the house rental and decided to pull the plug from the rental contract back then. Nevertheless, I was surprised with how cool I handled the meet-up with him. And it didn’t seems awkward when we caught up with life. Perhaps we’ve all grown much more mature to handle thins now.

I had a good time just networking with my fellow alumni and look forward for the next one. It’s really good to reconnect with my uni again through the alumni group.

RunNat 2011

2011-10-08T22:23:00.001+08:00

8th Oct 2011 came and passes real fast. All the planning and preparation have been in place just for this. Over 900 runners in Klang Valley alone have registered and ran for the Nation, declaring and proclaiming our nation back to God.

I didn’t sleep much over the night, as I was heading one of the route and needed to flag off my first team of runners by 5am. There’re just too many phone calls and sms' to reply before i get to rest.

Passing of prayer card and flag-off. AG25 team 1, consist of my churchmates from Kingdom City

I was supposed to be part of the A-team (a reserve runners team). We’ll supposed to be deploy into any team with runners pull out or didn’t turn up in the last minute. Nevertheless, due to logistic issue, I became the driver that deploy the reserve runner. Ended up didn’t get to run for RunNat this year.

Anyway, this year’s RunNat is also a first to have Singapore, Australia and Cambodia on board to organise RunNat to pray for their country.

Now that RunNat 2011 is over, the executive committee (EC) are all looking for RunNat 2012.

As for me now, I need to pay back my sleep debt!

I call it… reverse pacer!

2011-10-06T00:06:00.001+08:00

This must be the longest break ever since my last blog entry.

Anyway, been so privileged to be on board with Nike We Run KL 10km run which will be happening on 27th Nov 2011. Nike was looking for some pacer to pace with the runners during their several run clinics leading up to the actual race day. My good friend, Alex, is part of the organising team. So i was roped in by him to fill up the position.

Basically, the role of pace for Nike Run event is unlike many pacer that you’ll find during marathon event. Usually, pacer’s role is to set the pace while other runners pace with the pacer. Whereas my role with nike is to pace with the average runners’ speed during the run clinic. Hence, I call it a reverse pacer.

As their official pacer, Nike is generous enough to give me a pair of their latest Lunarglide+ Shield, Said to be water resistant. I was also given a full set of running attire all courtesy of Nike.

Nike LunarGlide+ Shield

So, the Nike Run event had a press launching on 29th Sept. Registration was open on 30th Sept. Registration was full and closed on 4th Oct. Yes, that’s within 4 days. My question to you, did you managed to sign up?

Ending of 1st Q

2011-03-26T11:07:00.001+08:00

Time does fly when we’re reaching certain age. Especially when we’re peaking at our career, isn’t it? lol!

Speaking of which, I felt as though the countdown of “10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Happy New Year!” was just yesterday! Now it’s ending of first quarter. Business has been in a mix thus far. There’re Chinese new year, then the NZ earthquake, followed by the Middle East uprising. Then yet another major earthquake in Japan with causes tsunami and the nuclear plant meltdown. It’s been an eventful first quarter, which has been affecting the business.

Being in investment line, it’s surprise to see how these world events had caught my attention in a way that I went on further research on how these will affect the world market. At one point was being stressed out because people started to be cautious on their investment plan. There’re good and bad, but it’s not easy task.

I think this 1st quarter has been a wake up call to many that the world is changing fast. No longer as predictable as how advance our science knowledge is. Come next quarter gonna be more challenges ahead. Depends how you view it, I could only say it’s getting more exciting to live each day.

ATTENTION!! PLEASE BOYCOTT FIRSTCOACH BUS!!!

2011-02-02T22:59:00.001+08:00

is run by a group of shit heads! The drivers probably picked out among a bunch of drunkards! Why? you may ask….

A firstcoach bus (number plate: WSA 7734) almost rammed into me less than an hour ago. It happened along Sprint highway, nearby Damansara Uptown, turning left into LDP towards the Kepong direction! This bus driver simply came from behind me, on my right hand side, and forcefully came into my lane ,while obviously, I’m still having the right-of-way!! He forced me from the second left lane into the most left. Then he did it again and almost crush my car between his bloody Firstcoach bus and the side rail, before turning left into LDP!

Look, you idiotic Firstcoach, if your core business mission is “commitment towards safe, reliable and comfortable bus service to our commuters.”, you’ve failed big time!!

From this day, I’ll boycott your bus service whenever I travel to Singapore!! In fact, I’ll make this issue big, and even spread this negative news to all my friends! Look, Firstcoach, your business is going down the drain!!!

What are they up to?

2011-01-26T09:26:00.001+08:00

Saw this pic on The Star newspaper today. The picture shows the JPJ enforcement officer caught a bus driver who committed a road offence. But the whole picture just doesn’t look right…. why is the enforcement officer seems so happy. And who’s the guy in chequered shirt? He seems arrogantly showing off the ticket on his hand….

The whole picture just gave an idea that the enforcement set a trap upon the driver and caught him red handed, with the chequered shirt man as the mastermind.

Xi Men Ding

2011-01-15T00:39:00.000+08:00

The local call it the Movie Town, or Movie district. Xi Men Ding is just a brief walk away from my hotel. A look at it made me felt as though I’m in Japan. Flashy neon light sign board, and large TV screen hanging on the side of the talk building.

Once you walk into the cluster of shopping district, you get lost in many interesting fashion boutiques for the young and hip. The only thing I regrated was that I didn’t spend more time to stay and explore Taipei city.

Things would get more interesting at night in this area. There’re different street that dedicated for different kind of things. I.e., there’s a street famous for renowned tattoo artist in Taiwan, and a street dedicated to selling all kind of costumes.

Next to the happening Xi Men Ding is the historical land mark, the red house. The name came about because of the red bricks being used for the structure of the building. It is said that this was the first ever theatre in Taiwan. Many plays and movies has been showcased in this building since long time ago. The building still stand out beautifully one part of Xi Men Ding.

That’s all for my remaining half-a-day in Taiwan. Now that I know there’re so much more things to explore in Taipei city. I shall focus on exploring just this part of Taiwan on my next trip here. Goodbye Taiwan, we shall meet again soon!

The big Taipei

2011-01-14T01:31:00.000+08:00

Taipei is famous for many things, food, clothing, the strong Japanese influenced culture, the clubbing scene for the happening, and the tallest building Taipei 101.

Spent the night before at the hotel room planning out how to get around the city to catch the most out of the remaining 1.5 days here in Taipei. It was good that the hotel is strategically located towards some iconic landmark. The first thing to check out in the morning was taking a stroll down the road to the President’s official administration building.

I’ve read about this interesting building some time ago before planning this trip. Seeing it in front of my real eyes was amazing! This building was built during the Japanese occupation period, and remains till this day. Got into the queue to take a guided tour inside the building. The guide was very dedicated and very informative. Some of his explanation was too out-there for me to understand. But it’s a nice tour to get to know how Taiwan came about till this day.

Next, it was just another short walk to the late Chiang Kai Shek memorial. The whole square where the memorial hall situated was astonishing enough. There’s a grand gate over looking the memorial hall, with 2 theatres at both side. It was grand as!

Once enter the memorial building, you’ll see the monument made of the image of the late Chiang Kai Shek, the former president of the ROC. There’re 2 soldiers standing at both side guarding the monument, with the changing of guard take place every hour.

The few floors below are actually a dedicated exhibition hall that exhibits his life processions and stories. The thing fascinated me the most is his 2 rides, the Cadillac cars.

Looks like the late Chiang Kai Shek had got a good taste in choosing his ride.

After that, took their metro and went to check out the famous must-go museum in Taipei. The grand palace museum, where once can check out all the national treasure out from the main land China.

Next, it’s the moment, to get a close look at the famed tallest building in Taipei, the Taipei 101. Couldn’t explain more, I’ll just let the pictures do the story telling.

Didn’t manage to go up to the observation deck, as the weather wasn’t that clear to allow me to see far, therefore it didn’t justify well for paying to much and see nothing from the top.

That night, went out to check out some of its night life. Party starts by 11pm. It was wednesday night, so the party went pretty wild into the night for most clubs. I went to check out this small club in the city centre, as I couldn’t find the better known Luxy club :(

Nevertheless, the deal was so good in Taipei. I only needed to pay NT$500, which is about RM50, and I get to enjoy free flow of bear, wine, cocktails and shooters. Whatever’s on their drinks menu. Definitely can’t get this back in Malaysia.

The party went on to 5am for most clubs, but I only manage to stay till about 3.30am, and I’m felt too exhausted to party on! Will definitely hunt down the more happening clubs to check out on the next trip to Taipei.

Tea, Strawberries and Hot spring

2011-01-13T00:49:00.000+08:00

Spending the night at boat house was a whole new experience for me. The whole boat house kept rocking through out the night. But I guess I was too sleepy to be bothered by it.

Once morning came, I packed and left the boat house early. As there’s really nothing much I can do. The weather is too cold for canoeing or for a nice swim in the water. So I thought, may as well get back up to the shore and check out as much other things.

Once on land, went to this tea house to get some famous local tea. The guy was so friendly and seems to know a lot about tea. He was explaining about how different tea from different altitude produce different grade of tea. There were so many stories behind each grade of tea. In the end, bought some nice premium highland tea from him.

Satisfied with the tea drinking, it’s time to hit the road again. It was quite a drive out from Sun Moon Lake, before arriving at this particular town that’s famous for 2 things, Strawberries and hot spring.

The driver took us further inwards of the town to a better orchard. As soon as I stepped out from the car, there’s an elderly couple, seems like the owner of the orchard, were standing there and warmly welcome us. They are so excited about us coming over to their orchard that they brought us around to check out what they have. Other than strawberries, they have mandarin oranges, cabbages, and many others that I can’t recall. They briefed on how to pick the best berries. Didn’t know it was to technical. Was able to pick a basket full of strawberries just in time before the rain came.

The rain stopped just in time for a nice session of hot spring! Nothing beats a nice dip in the hot spring in the middle of cold winter days. Went to this public hot spring place called “rock soup” (direct translation) with only NT$200 entrance fees. They have nice open air hot spring holes with nice mountain view, and some water jets that provides good enough pressure to massage your body by being in front of its outlet. Got to learnt that different hot springs in Taiwan has different benefits due to the different content in the water. For this particular one that I went, it suppose to improved the blood circulation while rejuvenate the skin. True enough, my skin remains smooth for the next couple of days, and even weeks. Really something that you can’t miss while in Taiwan.

Left the hot spring reluctantly, and head on to the big Taipei city by night. Taipei, the exciting city. More stories to come for the next day!

When Sun meets Moon

2011-01-12T12:42:00.000+08:00

Feeling slightly better, though not fully recover yet. But the trip must go on!

Arrived at one of the famous vacation destination nearby Taichung, called Sun Moon Lake. This was the favorite holiday destination for the first president of Taiwan, the late General Chiang Kai Shek.

What’s there to see in this area? nothing much I would say. But I spent the whole day and overnight here.

There’re temples, parks, and nice local township.

Wenwu Temple

Peacock park

Some chill-out spot by the lake

took a boat ride on the lake

Pagoda

lake view from top of pagoda

A chapel, built by late Gen. Chiang Kai Shek

That’s all to see. Spent the night at a boat house. Till next day…

Chinjing Hill

2011-01-10T12:17:00.000+08:00

Chinjing hill is mainly a farm place where you’ll find fresh produce such as fruits and vegies, and sheeps. Yes, there’re many sheeps in this hilly place.

The first thing to check out in the morning was this place to catch what the local call, sheep show. Basically, there’s live performance where they’ll put up a show on how they control a flock of sheeps, and how they shred the sheep. Pretty interesting I would say. I didn’t have the opportunity to catch this sort of show while I was living in Australia. This would be a good chance to make up for it.

To my surprise, the host, who’s the cowboy who show us how things get done, is actually a Kiwi himself. Hah! An imported cowboy! Surprisingly, he could speak mandarin very well. That should put many chinese who can’t speak mandarin to shame.

After that, it’s time to get down the chilly hill to check and try out some local produced rice wine, at Puli town. Apparently, this is the main producer of rice wine in Taiwan. Other than rice wine, there’re wine related delicacies, such as wine cake, wine cookies, wine candies, and many more.

Of course, there’re other things to see at Puli:

The paper factory

The famous chocolate factory

And the freaking big Buddhist temple

Was being told that the architect pf the buddhist temple is the same guy that designed the Taipei 101 tower.

This day also mark my worst nightmare of my overseas trip experience – diarrhoea! Settle down to spend my night at Taichung, but didn’t had the mood to walk around Taichung city, as my body was just too tired to walk. Bummer…..

Snow in Taiwan

2011-01-08T23:51:00.000+08:00

It wasn’t winter without snow. lol! So I ventured out to Hehuan Mountain to check out the real deal of snow.

a bit of confession time here, I’ve never seen not touch the real snow in my entire life prior to this trip. So I was damn excited when I got to know that I can tick off this must awaited to-do list.

The journey to the snowy mountain took me hours. There are many stops that I made in between, just cause the sceneries were just fantastic. I’ll just let the pictures to the talking…

… and then, finally, I could see something whitish covering the mountain top from a distance.

That’s definitely snow on the top!! Ahh, was getting so excited! And very soon… I could see traces of snow on both side of the road!

Soon after that, snow was everywhere!!

… and not forgetting, made a snowman on the car…

The snow man stay on the journey coming down the mountain

Am now at QinJing hill, about 25km from the snowy mountain, where I gonna spend a night here. More updates to come…

Hualian

2011-01-07T22:59:00.001+08:00

Came to this part of Taiwan without having any idea what it has to offer. It was indeed a nice town to kick start my Taiwan trip.

By the time I arrived at Hualian, it was already almost 3am in the morning. The journey from Taoyuan airport to Hualian was really crazy. After about 100km++ of freeway, it was another 100km++ on hilly and winding road, it made me almost throw up halfway through. Just imagine the winding road up to Fraser Hill at Malaysia, times 10!

Checked into this nice little boutique hotel and slept straight away.

Woke up to a cloudy morning by 9am. It’s nice to wake up into a foreign town for a change. The hotel offers a complimentary breakfast voucher to claim up to NT$50 worth of food at this famous dumpling shop. Love the food, love the place!!

After that, it was the time of doing what most people come to Taiwan for. Eating, and more eating!! I just foresee that I’m gonna put on a few kilo before I go back to KL.

Of course, also did some exploration and sight seeing around and beyond Hualian town.

Market place

Old rail road, now a pedestrian walk

… walking around for food

some mountain scene

… mountain and sea

rocky beach

erosion at the beach

… that’s pretty much the first day in Taiwan. Feeling tired now. Getting out of Hualian tomorrow. Guess I should check out some local night scene at their local pub tonight before I leave this town….. if I’m still able to stay awake..

Arrived Taiwan

2011-01-07T15:41:00.001+08:00

Arrived Taiwan at 10.00pm local time. Could felt the much anticipated winter weather welcoming me upon stepping out of the airport.

First stop was to fill up the stomach with some local Taiwanese food. Found a place not far from Taoyuan airport, where I had “smelly tofu”, squid soup, fried oyster, and deep fried chicken. Yummy!

Am now on the way to Hualian, which is at the central east of Taiwan, about 250km away from the airport. Looks like I’m gonna spend some time sleeping on the car while making my journey there.

Can’t wait to see what Hualian has to offer. Until then…..

The long pause…

2011-01-07T15:39:00.001+08:00

It’s been awhile since I put up something on this blog. 2010 must’ve been the year I neglected my blog the most! lol!

I’m on board my Taiwan bound flight while typing out this blog entry. I thought, what else can I do to kill time. I’ve finished reading the in-flight mag from front to back, and back to front within the first hour into the flight. Same goes for the additional mag that I bought before I board the flight.

Anyhow, it’s the first week of 2011, what better way to say hello to blogging world again with my trip to Taiwan.

What am I looking forward to in Taiwan? No idea yet. I was so busy with work that I didn’t even bother to plan out my trip. One thing for sure is the Taipei 101 tower. Ohh… would also love to check out the much mentioned happening nightlife in Taipei city for sure! Somebody please shout “PARTEY!!!” LOL!

It’s winter at Taiwan, something that I miss since leaving my uni days at Australia. Malaysian weather has been too hot to handle.

Ahh!! Time to catch up with some entertainment on my netbook for the rest of the flight……

During my recent trip to Penang…

2010-09-28T23:22:00.001+08:00

Famous Penang Road Cendol

Komtar

Hard Rock Hotel

Teluk Bahang Beach

Seafood @ Bukit Tambun

Upcoming trips

2010-09-25T23:41:00.001+08:00

Let’s see, what other trips that are awaiting me so far….

1. Kuching, Sarawak (8-9 Oct 2010)

2. Singapore (30-31 Oct 2010)

3. Singapore (3-5 Dec 2010)

4. Taiwan (6-13 Jan 2010)

…. and more to come!

I've passed!

2010-09-22T10:26:00.001+08:00

Yay! I've passed! i've passed my takaful exam! For those that have no idea what it is, it's actually an exam for islamic based insurance. Since the bank I'm currently work for offer islamic banking product, I'm required to sit for this certification exam.

The toughest part is actually the fact that the whole exam is in Malay language. I thought i've improved my Malay upon returning from Australia and started working for a few years here. it proved me wrong when I hardly understand the questions being asked from the exam paper. the worse part, I didn't even bother to read up the given study material before hand due to crazy work schedule. It also didn't help when the colleague that went along with me for the exam had failed and was sitting for it for the 4th time!

Anyway, i'm glad that I've gotten over it. Result was out recently, both me and my collegue passed the exam. Thank God!

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One of the signs of aging

2010-09-21T00:09:00.001+08:00

This is real scary to come to term that certain signs in life, which come into the later part of one’s life, is actually the sign of getting old.

One of which I’m going to talk about is actually the food intake capacity. You know you’re getting old when you’re eating lesser but your weight is increasing. This food intake pattern has slowly creeping into me these days.

Recently, I’ve made a short vacation to Penang. Everyone does know that when one goes to Penang, binging on local Penang food is the top to-do list. As much as I didn’t really plan this vacation as an eating trip, I can’t resist being there but not hunting around for good local food. So there I was, at various food court and restaurants. I used to be able to order many type and plates of food and eat like there’s no tomorrow. Thing has changed lately. After a plate or 2, I realised that I can’t take in anymore food; or more like appetite just shut off and just want to stay away from food for a while.

Things have definitely changed! And I’m getting older each day!

Another race

2010-06-25T23:58:00.001+08:00

StanChart KL Marathon’s happening this Sunday!

Simple maths

2010-04-28T23:13:00.001+08:00

I was just doing a simple maths today. Really, it’s that simple!! It goes like this…. if I were to write only 1 blog entry per month, then I’ll only have 12 blog entries for a year! What does that represent? well, my reader will only need to log in to my blog at the end of each month and pretty much know what’s happening in my life of that month! (as if I have many readers. lol!)

I guess that would do me justice of maintaining this blog! I’m still exploring ways to kick my bum so that I will update this blog more often.

…. lets see, with this entry, it’ll make it as my second post of this month. 2 entries per month adds up to 24 entries per year. …. well at least that’s a good start!

Working life

2010-04-11T00:42:00.001+08:00

I really gotta admit I hardly find time and inspiration to blog lately. My weekdays are pretty tied up as it goes something like this:

0540 – wake up

0605 – getting out of my house

0630 – Hit the gym for workout

0800 – head to work

0845 – start work

1800 – get off from work

1900 – Dinner at parents’ place or catch up with friends/other stuffs

2130 – back to home

2245 – Sleep

That has been my routine for weekdays. Sigh!

…. still alive…

2010-03-16T19:27:00.001+08:00

… I’ve been leaving my blog at the back of my head for quite some time. It’s time to get back into my blogging routine.

Ever since my last blog entry, many things have happened in my life. First thing first was getting my life back to the banking career. It hasn’t been easy to put up with the morning rush to my work place within KL city centre.

CNY has come and gone. Nothing much happening during CNY, as many friends weren’t around town. Being a true blue KL boy, CNY can be a boring occasion.

Started job training since the final week of Feb. 1st and 2nd week were pretty alright, everything was very informative. However things got draggy going into 3rd week. Now am into 4th and final week. One last assessment for tomorrow and life would be easier after that.

On the other hand, it’s been great getting to know many other new joiners of my company and hanging out with them.

I realised that there’re little time left for my personal time ever since job training started. There’re sure many things to catch up by end of this week.

Run For The Nation 2010 Promo Video

2010-02-10T23:29:00.001+08:00

So, after I did the video shooting back in early January, the promo video is finally out:

I just thought all the editing work done on the video is brilliant!

The start of working life again

2010-02-09T21:48:00.001+08:00

Gosh! Time flies! I didn’t realised I haven’t been blogging for 2 weeks!

Well, I’ve started my corporate life again and man, it was such an adjustment for me. Being based in KL city centre means I have to plan my journey well getting to and back from work. As being stuck in KL traffic is no joke. Since my current branch that I attached to is just next to the train station, I’ve been taking train to work. That saves the hassle of looking for parking around my work place.

Since there’re limited parking around many of the train stations, I’ve been making my way to Asia Jaya Station by 6.30am. Working out at Fitness First gym before I head to work. This seems like the best arrangement so far. I still get to fit in my workout routine, get a head start of the day so that I don’t feel sleepy while at work, get the best free legal parking spot near the train station.

On the other hand, my home seems to resemble a hotel stay. It’s becoming a place for me to rest and sleep before and after work. lol!

Anyway, work wise, things have not gotten into full swing yet, as there’s a formal training being planned out for me, before everything start kicking in after that. I just pray that the portfolio of customer base being assigned to me will be a good and resourceful pool of customers.

The come-back

2010-01-28T15:38:00.001+08:00

Few months ago, me and a few partners started our very own corporate training firm. We brainstormed for our business name, our logo design, and the type of training service we’re providing. We kicked off the business and went ahead to source for client. It wasn’t a smooth start at first as sourcing and meeting potential client in this area was a real challenge by itself.

Along the way, things wasn’t work out quite well on my side. You see, all my other partners are married and with kids. It wasn’t a big deal at first but after working together for some time, there’s a lifestyle conflict. They’ve got their own family to take care of, so it’s either work or family for them; whereas me being young and single, I realised I can’t be just working and no where to go to after that. I think social life is a big deal in this time of my life. Perhaps it’ll be better having a group of colleagues to work along with.

In addition to that, my parents have been quite concern about my financial situation. Doing own business is a great opportunity to gain whatever one has contributed and deserved, however before all that can be achieved, there’re some other things which I could easily missed out at this point of time, such as insurance coverage, medical expenses, EPF contribution and that sort of things. (Having learnt my mistake for not heading my parents’ advice back in college days, where I chose to study engineering instead of business course. In the end found out that engineering isn’t for me and did heaps better when I switched to business course.) I guess my parents meant well as they did thought about something to fall back on and my long term future. Well, being realistic that my parents aren’t from a very well-to-do background, whom can fork out a large one-off sum of capital into my own business, I think it’s only fair enough to take things one step at a time.

Anyway, about more than a month ago, I’ve been catching up with a lot of my ex-colleagues in banking. We started to catch up about what’s the market trend, the economies outlook, the development in banking world. Soon after, one of them submitted my contact to a few headhunters that are looking for talents in banking.

It happened quite fast, within a few days, I was called up to meet with a bank, they’re impressed with what I’ve got to offer, and offered me a position in the bank. It’s a reputable multi-national bank, so obviously their staff benefits are very good to resist. There’re at least 2-3 other banks that are trying to meet up with me over some of their positions available. Hmm…. I didn’t know after having a year long of break from banking, I still seems to have what it takes to be a banker. lol!

So, I’ve taken up the offer, starting work next week. I hope the people I work with are as good as how the benefits seem.

Someone fell to his death at my condo

2010-01-26T13:24:00.001+08:00

It was a warm night, I was half asleep. It should be about 3am when I heard a sudden loud noise. It sounded like roof collapsing near by. First thing came to my mind was something must have fallen out of a high floor unit within my condo complex and crash down on the roof of the lower floor.

I rushed out to my balcony and looked out for what was happening. As I glance around, I couldn’t see anything unusual. It was about 3.10am then, obviously it’s too dark to see. I could only see a few guards was running towards their control room.

Within another 10 minutes, a patrol car arrived at the scene. Police started to set parameter around a spot. By then, I’ve made my way down to check out what was that all about. My instinct was someone could have fallen off from high floor. That prove to be right, I couldn’t believe what laid in front of my eyes.

The body was covered with black sheet of canvas when I arrived at the scene. Broken roof tiles was all over the place. Blood was seen flowing under that black sheet of canvas.

Medic came few moment later and examined the body. The man was pronounce dead and so they left the body to be pick up by police instead of being carried away by their ambulance.

The body was being laid there for quite some time before they load it up in one of their patrol truck. Some of the police went up to search on a few suspected unit which the guy couldn’t have fell out from. I didn’t know what was the outcome, but the deceased is a African, dressed only in t-shirt and naked from the waist down when he fell. His legs were badly twisted with a few long deep cuts that probably caused when he crash through the roof. His face was covered with blood flowing out from his nose and mouth. I don’t think someone who wants to commit suicide would jump down naked, unless he’s drunk. Whatever’s the cause of his fall, my heart goes out to his family back from where he came from.

National disgrace

2010-01-18T21:13:00.001+08:00

I happened to be at KLCC on the past Saturday morning to do photo-shoot for RunNat 2010. As we were standing outside the grand entrance of the MPO, I stunned upon a Caucasian couple trying to get a taxi to a nearby destination.

It seems that the first taxi that being flagged down didn’t want to use his meter and just quoted an upfront fare to the couple. Feeling that the taxi driver just wanted to take advantage of them, the couple refused to take that taxi and try their luck on the next.

By now, there’re a few taxis queuing up behind. The couple told the next taxi where they’re going and again, the other taxi driver refused to use his meter and quoted them an upfront price.

I was feeling so embarrass yet furious for the way our taxi driver behave. I’ve been to the big cities of our neighbouring countries such as Singapore and Bangkok, the taxi drivers in these 2 countries adhere to the taxi etiquette and never seems to reject their customers or not charging by meter. KL being one of the leading cities among South East Asia, yet our taxi drivers’ behaviour is not any difference from those of third world nations. Though this might seems like a micro problem to some, I truly saddened by such behaviour as it tarnished the image of KL as a world class city.

Something wrong with my eye!!

2010-01-08T11:26:00.001+08:00

Part of my left eye turned really red since yesterday. It feels a bit irritate at times. I hope it will subside within couple of days.

RunNat 2010 promo video shoot

2010-01-06T23:20:00.001+08:00

Run for the Nation 2010, the inter-churches prayer run event, will be held on 22nd May this year, that’s about 5 months away from now. Thanks to Alex for submitting my name up to the previous committee, I’m now officially being rope into the RunNat 2010 committee.

In order to start our campaign of recruiting churches to send in runners for that event, we needed a good promo video to show everyone, and make everyone hyped up for RunNat.

So we did the video shoot today. Started at about 5pm at Taman Tun Park. I was one of the 3 runners in the video. There’re a few scenes for each of us, a few scenes of us 3 running together. It wasn’t as easy as I thought. We started under the scorching sun right till the sun sets. Here’re some pics taken by me during the shooting. I shall call it “RunNat 2010 promo video – the making”.

Scene of me tying my shoe lace

Raymond tying his shoe lace

Rachel reading the prayer card

Setting up the track for the camera

Shooting of our running footsteps

My footsteps moment

… and Raymond’s turn

And after that, all the scenes involve 3 of us at the same time, so I didn’t take any pic after that. It was quite fun doing the video. Oh did I mentioned that it was my first time meeting all these people. lol! Looking forward to work with them more for RunNat 2010.

My new TIMEX watch

2010-01-03T23:43:00.001+08:00

I’ve been eyeing on Timex watch for quite some time, especially their ironman series. (though I already own one of their adventure series) I thought that would be useful for my training sessions and races. After browsing through the Timex website, I’ve narrow down into 2 from the series, the ironman 30-lap and 50-lap series.

From their website, their listed price is $50 and $60 respectively. So I started to check out what’s the market price in Malaysia and Singapore. They aren’t exactly cheap as I found out that the selling price is twice the price listed on the website. which is about RM250 for 30-lap series and RM300 for 50-lap series. That’s kinda ripped-off.

Just happened recently, I got to know that one of my friends, an American, is going back to the States for Christmas, I thought I could get her to buy me the watch with a much cheaper price.

Then finally, she’s back with this today…

…a Timex Ironman 30-lap watch.

The best thing is, it’s even cheaper than their listed price on the website. It’s only $34.99, which helped me saved up to $15.01. After conversion, the price I paid for this watch works out to be only RM120. Woohoo!

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-26T23:07:00.001+08:00

It’s the time of the year where food seems like centre of everything. Christmas party, luncheons, dinners, etc. There’s just no escape from food. Not that I should complaint, knowing that there’re some part of the world where people are deprive of it. It’s just taking more effort to strike a balance between eating and burning it up through exercise.

Christmas day was a simple one this year. Had a bbq dinner at my friend’s place on Christmas’ eve. Then a Christmas luncheon with a group of my churchmates on Christmas day. So you see, it’s really all about food. lol!

There’re another few days till the end of the year. I think the feasting will go on till new year’s day.

Sick but blessed

2009-12-16T23:10:00.001+08:00

Well, as per my last blog entry, I fell sick. And it was a real bad one this round. Probably 2 marathons back-to-back was too overwhelming for my body. Flu somehow got into me and I was strucked down and feeling so weak for the past 5-6 days.

But I have to say that it’s been a blessing in disguise. I guess I was so preoccupied with chores, errands, and messy thoughts in me that I missed out one important thing prior to that. That’s right, I’ve missed out to really spend my time to just focus and meditate in God. I’ve been searching for certain answers and as much as I’ve been praying about it, I didn’t really quiet down myself, was so busy with other things, or even to stop and listen what God has to say.

So, until I fell sick, really sick this time, I couldn’t run around anymore. My body and mind were so weak till I could only cry out asking when is this gonna end. Due to that, I couldn’t bother to think about the chores, the errands, etc. I could only cry out to God. The next thing I know, as I continue to seek God, He started revealing the many questions in my heart. There’re so many things I’ve been wanted to ask God, but I just didn’t know what exactly to ask. I know it’s all have to do with my own direction, my so called “ultimate destiny”. God then led me to pick up the book that I’ve read many years ago, Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge. I’d read that book back in my uni days. I knew it’s a very resourceful book for Christian men, but I supposed I didn’t fully aware of how it could apply in my life then.

I finished reading the whole book in 2 days (since I was sick and couldn’t be bother to do any other things). It’s been a refreshing moment reading the book again. I was truly amazed at how God has revealed so much to me through it this time round. I found the very question that I’ve been wanted to ask, and the answer for it. On top of that, I’ve got affirmation on the things that I thought I wasn’t up for. There’re still a journey to go, but at least now I have a clearer picture on my life’s journey. I strongly recommend this book to every man,

I just got to say, God really has His own way of getting each of our attention.

View surrounding my condo at night

2009-12-11T15:10:00.001+08:00

Was playing around with my camera’s night mode, and I thought the pics turn out pretty good.

Anyway, after done with 2 marathons, I fell sick. :(

Standard Charted Singapore Marathon 2009

2009-12-09T20:17:00.001+08:00

My body has been feeling so lethargic and sore after the marathon that I felt so lazy to do any other thing. Hence I didn’t bother to update my blog sooner.

Nothing special about this yet another marathon race. In fact, I’ve been running for the same marathon in Singapore for the third year straight. Something is telling me that I shouldn’t go for this marathon again next year.

Anyway, I arrived in Singapore on Friday afternoon. Went to pick up my rack pack from the Expo soon after. Since I didn’t want to spend to much being in Singapore (stronger currency compared to Ringgit), I went over to Johor Bahru to stay a night at my friend’s place. At least I get to carbo load at a cheaper price.

The next day, after having a good lunch in JB, I went over to Singapore again to prepare myself for the race. Didn’t do much for the rest of the day, just went for a quick dinner at night and it’s all back to resting again.

I got up as early as 3.30am the next day to get myself ready. Took a taxi to the starting point, deposited my bag, then met up with other friend before heading to the starting line.

Runners head towards the starting line

Since I decided to take this race real easy, as I don’t think I have fully recover from Bangkok Marathon 2 weeks back, I started heaps slower than any other race I’ve ran. The first 21km was quite easy, though the climate in Singapore is so much worse off than Bangkok. After the half way mark, everything just went downhill as I started develop muscle sore on both my legs.

The rest of the race was just hard pushing with run-walk-run strategy. Gotta thank God that the weather was overcast with clouds and with occasional cool breeze. Things could be worse.

Finished the race in 5:16, that’s about 36 minutes slower than my Bangkok Marathon’s result. Guess I shouldn’t feel so bad as doing 2 marathons within 2 weeks was no joke!

Met up with Isaac (on the left) who did half marathon, and with Alex (right)

Didn’t stay long after in Singapore, as I’ve pretty much seen enough of the lion city. Departed back to KL on that night itself.

Not sure when’s the next race for me, but I’m all up getting into competition mode for next year.

Reminder

2009-12-03T11:53:00.001+08:00

I’m truly amazed at how God spoke to me today. Some how I couldn’t help but having this song by Bette Midley’s playing in my head this morning, with the catchy line that goes “God is watching us, from a distance”.

As I proceed to do my devotion, the topic for today actually touches on “Immanuel”, which means “God is with us”. It further stressed the thing we easily forgotten that God is indeed just next to us, and not watching us from a distance. Man! I literary felt goose bums after reading it. Just when I felt things are going a bit quiet. It’s so real that God is truly next to us. lol!

The difference between artificial and natural

2009-12-02T06:28:00.000+08:00

Which one do you prefer?

Rain Forest Garden at 1 Utama shopping centre

Kota Damansara Forest Reserve Community Park

So I finally discovered this beautify forest park near my place. The whole place was amazing. Will definitely find some time to go trekking inside this forest park one of these days.

Bangkok Marathon (22nd Nov 2009)

2009-12-01T00:23:00.001+08:00

The big day for this Bangkok trip was finally here, the Bangkok Marathon 2009. There’re actually 2 starting time for the full marathon runners, 2.00am for those who expected finishing in 5 hours or more, and 3.30am for those who expected finishing less than 5 hours. Having been absent from long distance race for 10 months, I lodged my expected finishing time as 4:50 while keeping my fingers crossed.

I went to bed as early as about 7pm the night before. Though I was able to sleep for about 2.5hr (was feeling so tired going about places whole day), after that I just couldn’t sleep anymore and stayed up till about 12am, until I was able to sleep again. I suppose I could put the blame on the loud music from the pubs and clubs along Khao San Road. Then got up at about 2am to get myself ready for the race.

The starting point for the marathon, at the road next to the Grand Palace, is only about 1.4km away from where I stayed at Khao San Road. That distance is just nice for warming up.

some runners arrived real early

there’s a live bad next to the starting line to entertain the early crowd

The weather was surprisingly chilly. Having had cold weather experience while running the Gold Coast Marathon last year, I jogged around as much as I could to make sure my muscles are really warmed up for the cool weather.

The wheelchair category before the 3.30am batch flag-off

The number of runners registered for full marathon was smaller than many other marathon races that I’ve ran. So naturally I was able to get into further front behind the starting line compared to other races. Once we’ve been flagged off, it only took awhile for me to cross the starting line, which narrow down between the finishing time and the actual time. My strategy for this race was to start off slow and steady, then keep my pace through out until the end.

The route took us onto the Somdet Phra Pin Bridge over the Chao Phraya River and then onto Borommaratchachonnani Rd, which is actually an elevated expressway till km 28, with a U-turn at km 15. Since the expressway was elevated above town, I could felt the chill wind keep blowing through out the whole stretch of it. Trust me, bracing the chill wind with only a pair of running shorts and tank top was a real challenge. My sweat turned cold and dry-off pretty fast. It was a mixed feeling of hot within my body but cold outside.

Many people seems to run pretty fast among my batch of runners. I guess it’s fair enough since my target finishing time of 4:50 was very close to the maximum finishing time of 5hrs within my batch. I felt that I was the last few runners being left behind. Upon making the U-turn at km 15, my conscious proof me right as there’re probably less than 15 people or so behind the U-turn point. This must be my first time being left so far behind during a race.

At this point, I felt so wanted to end this race. “It’s early morning, chilly weather, haven’t had enough of sleep the night before, why did I signed up for this?” That’s the question that kept playing in my mind. But I knew the only way to end it wasn’t until crossing the finishing line. So I had no choice but to keep going. While the finishing line was my long term goal during the race, I needed a short term goal to keep me going. So conveniently, the every subsequent water-station become the thing I set my eye upon. I guess that works pretty well from then on.

After passed km 20, I started overtaking a few runners. I begin to feel heaps better and that elevated my confidence. (guess these runners probably pushed too hard from the start). From then on, it was just overtaking action of many other runners.

Upon crossing the Rama VIII bridge, the scenery became more interesting as the whole expressway route before that was nothing to shout about. The rest of the route took us around the King’s official residence and across the historical part of Bangkok. The 10km race runners joint in our route after coming out from the King Rama V statue. The pack became crowded and was being forced to dodge many of the slower runners.

By then, knowing that the Grand Palace was not far from where I was, plus the kicking in of adrenaline rush and the pleasant weather, it was only right for me to push harder all the way through the end. I really thank God that there isn’t any stiffness or muscle pull until that point of time. In fact I felt such top form like never before.

It was a good final push all the way until the finishing line. I felt as though I could push for another 10km, but heck it, it’s the end! 4:40 on my watch. What an achievement! (though not my PB, but it’s a good timing considering that I haven’t run a marathon distance since about a year ago. Plus I haven’t been running actively when I was working in Singapore and JB for about 8 months).

4:40 finishing time

Posing with the finishing line

They’re giving out free beef burger sponsored by Macdonald’s. Went to collect the free burger and sat around, did some post run stretching, and observing at people that completed the race. It’s great to see so many satisfied faces that tell how much they’ve achieved by completing the race. Many were seen staying around to snap picture of their “the moment”, while others just sat around to cool off.

Pretty crowded at finishing area

One passionate runner

Everyone seems to leave the area at the same time after the race

Well done to the organiser who did pretty well of putting up the event! Will definitely recommend others to run for Bangkok Marathon next time.

The finisher medal (front)…

… (back)

Bangkok Day 5 – 23/11/2009

2009-11-26T16:48:00.001+08:00

Nothing much happening today, because it’s my last day in Bangkok. Neither did I feel like making a last effort to check out some tourist attraction. Perhaps I was feeling too tired from the marathon, and has been staying up till late the night before to pack up my luggage.

Khao San’s only quiet time, early morning

Woke up at about 8ish, then went out for a leisure walk and a hunt for light snack. And since my whole body was feeling sore and tired, went for a final massage session on that morning. It was a good 1.5 hour of foot and whole body massage for only 290baht. Where else can you get such deal in Malaysia?

After that, simply went back to my guest house and check out from my room just before noon. My flight was departing 5.50pm. Didn’t want to feel too rush arriving at airport, I booked in an airport transport departing Khao San by 3pm. Seeing that I still have a couple of hours to kill, I went around to hunt for lunch, then hide myself at a cosy cafe to catch up with some news and emails with their free internet wifi.

Such a heavy heart when it’s time to leave, on one hand time passes so fast when you’re travelling, on another hand, I still haven’t gotten enough of what Bangkok has to offer.

waiting to board my flight

Bangkok Day 4 – 22/11/2009

2009-11-25T10:02:00.001+08:00

It’s the day of my big race in Bangkok, the Standard Charted Bangkok Marathon. The race starts as early as 3.30am. To my own surprise, I was able to clock 4:40 after being absent from long distance race for almost 1 year. I’ll blog about Bangkok Marathon on another time soon.

Completed!

After the race, I went back to my room to clean up myself and tried to take a nap. Maybe my heart rate was still beating fast after the long run, only managed to sleep in for 20 minutes. So I decided to go into the city centre to do some shopping.

I think it was a mistake to go into the city centre after the big race. While my legs and body is feeling so sore from the run, walking up and down the stairs is such a torturous movement for me. The Sunday crowd in the city makes the whole matter worse. But amazingly, I couldn’t believe I could spend my whole afternoon walking around there. Then I decided to make it back to Khao San after enough of the crowd and the pain on my legs.

Once back in Khao San, went for a nice full body massage that only cost 290baht for 1,5 hr. They probably done a very good job as after that, my legs and body felt so much looser and less pain.

Since it’s the last night in Bangkok, I went to Chinatown in Yaowarat to savour some nice food there. The place really live up to the tourist guide description. There’re many big neon light signage and food stores along the road, I spent about 150baht on a few types of food and deserts of something different from what you can get in Malaysia.

Chinatown

So many things to eat!

Satisfied with the food from Chinatown, I went back to Khao San again to pack up my luggage and ready to go home the next day.

Bangkok Day 3 – 21/11/2009

2009-11-23T14:51:00.001+08:00

Morning at Khao San area is far different from night time. While many tourists are probably feeling hung over from the late night party the night before, the whole are is more of a local scene with stalls that sell basic groceries and food.

Market place near Khao San

Since I woke up with a hungry stomach, I went around looking for some local food. It’s frustrated enough when you go to a country which people generally don't English; It’s even more frustrated when all the writings are in Sanskrit. Eventually I found a stall that sell some pork stuff, so settled for that as breakfast.

The lady preparing my meal

Steam pork with rice

It’s also the day that I was to meet up with my batch of management trainees (CMT) from Thailand back during UOB Days. Tong came to pick me up from Khao San earlier and head over to Chatuchak Weekend Market, the renowned market place to shop for good bargain, and meet up with Nui (CMT-Thai) and Shin (ex-colleague from UOB) who’s happened to be holidaying there with her BF. Chatichak market is a really huge market that not just drawing in foreign tourist, even the locals prefer to shop here for its good price and stuff with latest trend. It's probably the biggest market in Bangkok. It’s impossible to cover the whole market in a day. Of cause, besides fashion items, they have section for household items, pets, etc. Now I finally understand why everyone’s been saying that Bangkok is such a shopping heaven.

One of the lanes within the market

a shop that sells fashion accessories

… and one of the shop that sell clothes. Doesn’t it look trendy?

If you ever get lost, which you might, just look for this clock tower in the middle of the market and figure out your way around again

After spending about 1.5 hour there, the Tong and Nui brought us to Bamairareng, a local karaoke and restaurant chain in Bangkok, to meet up with the other CMT-Thai for lunch. Jung, Ou and Belle join us later while there’re a few others can’t make it because the they’re stuck in Bangkok jam for too long and they have to catch up with other things. Nevertheless, our hosts order so many different dishes of authentic Thai food for us. It’s a great time of catching up with each other and bringing back the memories we had back during the management trainee days. Towards the end, they even offer to pay for the meal and wouldn’t allow us to chip-in. I’m so thankful of their hospitality.

Some of the first few dishes that arrived

… more food

one big reunion group photo before we head off, from left: Philip (shin’s bf), Shin, me, Belle, Nui, Tong, Ou, and Jung

Tong then give me a quick tour of Bangkok by bringing me to another local market area somewhere near Thamasat University and the Grand Palace. And again, there’re many stalls that sell food and other items. I think Thai people generally just love to open stall anywhere to sell things. Tong brought me into the university to have a look. It has its own esplanade that over look the Chao Phraya river, how cool is that!

The stalls along the road

local delicacies

… more food stalls

tried this squid satay, awesome stuff!

the esplanade area at Thamasat uni

Chao Phraya river view from the uni

Didn’t hang out to late that night, as I needed to sleep in early and prepare for my marathon race early next morning.

Bangkok Day 2 – 20/11/2009

2009-11-23T14:34:00.001+08:00

After knowing the places a little bit better, I ditch the taxi and be more adventurous by taking their public bus into the city. It’s a good think I did my research before this trip and know for sure that I can either take bus no. 511 or 79 from Khao San to City Centre. Compared to taking taxi, which would probably cost about 70B, it only cost me 16B to get into city.

Quite a comfy ride, air-con and non-crowded

First thing in the city was to get a light snack, a small pack of fried noodles for only 10B, that’s a crazy bargain! Ohh, and I’ve got my caffeine fix for 20B! And I’m ready to do what many come to Bangkok to do, shopping!

The lady preparing my coffee, with fresh milk

I wasn’t quite interested with the branded stuffs, cos I suppose the price wouldn’t be that mush of different compared to any other country. I eventually went over the Platinum Plaza to hunt for chap nice t-shirts and travel back-pack. Bought 4 t-shirts for 100b each and a 50+10 litre travel-pack for only 1250B.

After satisfied with my purchase, I just roam around the city centre and check out what they got. I’m amazed to see how every corner has been decorated up for Christmas occasion. Being a Buddhist country, it’s quite a surprise to me. Perhaps it’s been so commercialised and just give the businesses to boost up their sales.

Bangkok city with the renowned traffic jam

more Bangkok jam

Christmas deco outside Siam Centre

Christmas deco outside Siam Paragon

Having seen enough of the city centre, and feeling abit tired, I went back to Khao San and have a nice rest. Walk around Khao San area in the evening and finally got a proper Thai food for dinner. No more bugs for today. lol!

Basil Pork Rice (a.k.a.Nasi Padprik Babi)

Thai Tom Yum…. finally!

Bangkok Day 1 – 19/11/2009

2009-11-20T10:51:00.001+08:00

First thing that came up to my Bangkok trip was a delayed flight. Apparently the plane arrived at the airport later than the schedule, so they still need the same amount of time to conduct their ground checking of the plane before it takes off again. Well, I suppose it’s better safe than sorry.

A big surprise to run into my ex-colleague on that very same flight who’s going for a shopping trip with her parents. That saved me trouble of taking the express bus into Bangkok city. 4 of us just shared a taxi into the city instead.

Bangkok Airport

Bangkok does have a good highway connecting the airport to the city centre. The whole journey was really fast and smooth until reaching the city.

coming out from the airport

My first stop in the city was to collect my marathon race pack at Central World Plaza. It’s a massive shopping centre with 7-8 retail floors.

Race-pack collection counter

Nothing much in the pack, there’re race bib, timing chip, a running vest, and a pain-relief cream from the sponsor.

My race bib, no. 49 makes me looks like one of the elite runner

The official race running vest

Guess what’s my first meal in Bangkok? Nope, it’s not local food. I had my late lunch at McDonald’s. However, I dare to say it’s worth going, because they serve Samurai Pork Burger. Yeah, “pork” burger at Mccas. Really loving it when it’s non-halal!

Didn’t hang around in the city for long, as I was still walking around with my luggage. So I went over th Khao San road to check into my pre-book guest house.

Khao San Road

It’s a back-packers area with nice and cheap budget guest houses. Since I don’t really spend too much time in the room anyway, this type of lodging works just fine for me. Furthermore, it’s just a short walking distance to the race starting point.

Took a nice rest and a cool shower before I venture out again in the evening. And that’s where my challenge started, my eating challenge which I set before this trip. It’s none other than hunting down a stall that sells deep-fried bugs. Found it around a corner, and pack a variety pack to the comfort of my room the savour it.

The variety pack. Includes silk worms, locust, and this big Chinese cockroach

I would like to say, it’s completely nothing wrong eating these bugs. If you think of it, the Thais have been growing up with this, and they’re doing just fine. But none of those come close tasting like chicken. lol! They mostly taste like deep-fried prawns.

Locust

another type of locust

worm…. woohoo!!

Before trying it, I did some research and read that the Chinese cockroach supposed to be quite good. It turns out that it wasn’t the case. Infact it taste quite weird to me and that’s probably once-and-for-all experience.

Posing with my food. lol!

See how big is this bug!

I think among all the bugs, I actually prefer the locust. It taste the best among all, taste exactly like prawns. Trust me, you gotta give it a try!

give it a try…

… and don’t hold back!

Expensive Sports

2009-11-14T18:25:00.001+08:00

I think it’s fair enough to categorise sports into cheap and expensive. I suppose examples of cheap sports would be running and swimming. Although a really good pair of runners can cost about RM500, which you’ll be talking about Asics shoes. Or a good pair of swimmer, goggles, and other training aids may cost a certain amount there. It’s still not as bad as certain sports that’ll cost you thousands.

I remember the last expensive sports that I got into was surfing. Mind you, surfing is consider a sport, too! It’s not easy to paddle out towards countless oncoming waves to catch a good wave. Anyway, I’ve gotten a surfboard that cost about
RM1200 (thank God it was a gift from a friend). But the other accessories added up to be quite a big sum. Wet suit for winter = RM600, Leggie = RM120, board bag = RM600, rack for car to secure the board while travelling = RM210, board shorts = RM210, rash shirt = RM210 etc. So you see, it’s not exactly cheap to get into surfing.

And now, after been waiting for so long, plus the pressure from friends to get into triathlon, I finally got myself a used bike from a friend. That bike cost me RM1800.

On top of that, due to my friend haven’t been riding it for over 6 months, I had to get the tyre changed. Geez! I didn’t know bicycle tyre can cost as much as car tyre! I good one would actually set me back for RM160. And I’d need 2 for my bike. I eventually settled for normal training tyre that cost RM88 each.

Guess there’s more damage to come as I haven’t gotten the rest of essential cycling gears such as the cycling shorts, jersey, helmet etc. … expensive sports……

Monsoon Season

2009-11-13T11:26:00.001+08:00

It’s been raining every day without fail. On one hand, it cools down the weather; on the other hand, any outdoor’s activity seems unlikely to happen anymore.

I was just standing at my balcony yesterday to have a breather and I could see an interesting sight.

On the right hand side, I could see the storm was sweeping through the places; on the left hand side, it’s all clear blue sky! Monsoon season does has its own marvels.

Bangkok Challenges

2009-11-11T18:01:00.001+08:00

I’ll be going for Bangkok International Marathon in less than 2 weeks time. Marathon itself is a challenge for many, going for Bangkok itself is a true challenge for me, at least that’s what I’m thinking. A place that speak different language, with many written words are in Thai writings, that’s gonna be tough just to get around town.

Knowing the challenges, I’m putting myself up for a greater challenge. I supposed many have heard how Thai people like to eat bugs as their snack. And I’ve been always telling myself that if I ever go to Thailand, I wouldn’t want to miss the chance of trying these exotic food.

So I managed to google out some pictures of a bugs store in Thailand. Don’t they make you salivating? lol!

There ya go, something daring to slot into my itinerary for my Bangkok trip, eating bugs!

Wii?

2009-11-09T00:29:00.001+08:00

No, that’s not a French word. Nintendo Wii was what we’ve been playing on Friday night at Ben’s new place. While all the women at church are away for camp at Melacca, we had a guy chillout session over at Ben’s. There’re typical guys food – pizzas, KFC, potato chips, soft drinks and Jolly Shandy as demanded my Alex.

For the games, we had poker set and Nintendo Wii. But I guess the highlight of that night is the Wii. Man, that gaming console require such physical movement that I developed sore arms that lasted till 2 days after that night.

I’ve been hearing so much about Wii before that. I didn’t fancy so much about it as I’m not so much of virtual gaming kind of person. To me, virtual game is usually so unreal that I’d prefer to get into the real outdoor adventure. I could say that night’s experience with Wii have changed my perception towards virtual game. It’s quite realistic in certain way that you’d actually feel the effect after that. Bravo to Nintendo that has brought virtual gaming industry into a whole new level!

VIDEO: Shark Attack

2009-11-01T01:31:00.002+08:00

VIDEO: Shark Attack

Thought this would be a useful information to know more about various type of shark before u hit the beaches in Queensland, Australia.

Back to the game!

2009-10-28T18:22:00.001+08:00

After more than 8 months of M.I.A. in serious running, I’m finally getting back into it. I guess once you’ve entered your first race, you’ll never feel right if you’re missing out too many.

RunNat09 was a good start to finetune my stamina for long distance running again. So far, training seems to be on the right track. Am slowly loosing weight and working up my pace. In fact, I have 2 races lining up until the end of the year.

They are:

Bangkok Marathon on 22nd Nov

and…

Singapore Marathon 6th Dec

The challenging part is that these 2 marathons are only 2 weeks apart from each other, one at the north of Malaysia, and one down South of Malaysia. Hmm…. this is probably the most crazy back-to-back marathon that I’ve ever attempt. At least one thing I like about overseas races is I get to experience new and different running environment. (well, Singapore is not really a new environment for me anymore. lol!)

Shark eating shark

2009-10-27T12:20:00.001+08:00

Wouldn’t you freak out when you see a great white shark being eaten by another much bigger great white shark?

Horror attack... the remains of the great white shark that was bitten nearly in half by what authorities - judging from the size of the bite marks - estimated was a 6-metre monster.

This happened at the coast of South East Queensland, Australia recently. Geez, thinking back the days when I used to surf there so often, I must’ve been lucky my closest encounter with big fishes are only dolphins.

My personal assistant

2009-10-27T11:28:00.001+08:00

Finally got myself a fulltime personal assistant to assist in my daily life. I would said it’s been really handy to have one and I can finally manage my life and work better.

So, my personal assistant…

….. Dell Mini 10V

It’s so light and handy that I can easily carry it with me anytime, anywhere. Been having it for over 2 weeks. Though it’s less powerful than a full flag PC, it does the job for me. lol!

My other laptop has been my primary workstation since my uni days, I guess it’s been overworked. With the spec that it has, things have begin to slow down. I’ll have to make do with this netbook for most of the work (including blogging) at the mean time and hopefully I can get a Macbook once business picks up.

Another public holiday!

2009-10-20T12:05:00.001+08:00

Well done Malaysia! We’re in the league to become the country with the most public holiday! …..ohh hang on, maybe Malaysia is already at the top! LOL!

I wonder what else can we make as public holiday? Maybe Proton Day? Barisan Nasional Day? Tunku Abdul Rahman Day? Nasi Lemak Day?

If you haven’t already heard or read about the news:

Tuesday October 20, 2009

Sept 16 a day to mark unity

By YENG AI CHUN

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has declared Sept 16 as a public holiday from next year in the spirit of 1Malaysia.

“We want the joys and sorrows of the people in Sabah and Sarawak to be felt by the people in the peninsula,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

Announcing this at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, he said Malaysia Day would be celebrated with events that would foster closer unity and understanding among the different races.

The Merdeka Day on Aug 31, on the other hand, would be marked with events to commemorate the historical moment and to remind Malaysians about the struggle for independence from the colonialists.

He said this in reply to a question by Putatan MP Datuk Dr Marcus Mojigoh, who had asked about the extent of public response to the 1Malaysia concept.

Najib said Sept 16, 1963 – the day Sabah and Sarawak became part of the nation – was a momentous time in Malaysian history.

On racial integration in Malaysia, Najib said the country had opted for the integration of its people even from the early days of the country’s birth instead of assimilating them.

“It is the best path because we portray a strength that is based on unity.

“There is no other country that is as unique as Malaysia.

“And because of that, we can say we have a country that is clearly based on an understanding among the races and we can accept other influences, which has been made into part of our culture.

“Everyone has a place under the 1Malaysia roof,” he added.

Anniversary

2009-10-13T14:05:00.000+08:00

So, the day came, 12th Oct 2009. Does it seems like a familiar date to you? … you might remember it for the anniversary of Bali bombing. Besides that, it’s actually my birthday. … and of cause some of my other friends who share the same birthday.

Nothing much happening this year, maybe because it falls on Monday. Everyone’s probably not in any celebration mood, including me. At least I’m glad that my close mates from church throw me a wonderful dinner the day before. So how do I spend my birthday? It’s just another Monday to me. Woke up at 6am and hit the gym by 6.30am as usual. After that was busy with work until evening time.

Was suppose to have dinner with parents at one of the restaurant around, but my granny forgotten that and cooked up dinner at home. So went back to parents’ place for dinner instead.

The day ended early for me to prepare for an early run the next morning. But hey, I still appreciate those SMS’s and messages on FB. Thanks guys!

I guess birthday doesn’t matters much anymore once you hit working life.

Run for the Nation 2009

2009-10-12T21:46:00.001+08:00

So I was being roped in by Alex Au Yong to be a support runner for RunNat09 which was happening on Saturday 10th Oct 2009. A few of us, Alex, Jacq, Judy, Alvin, Sarah and me from Team Powered by Jesus made up as what Alex called the “SWAT team”. We’re there to assist each team of runners to run and pray for their own 5km route. Each complete route made up of 8 teams, so that’s 40km. And there were about 26 of 40km route in Klang Valley that cover over a thousand km. For more info about RunNat09, click here.

Indeed there’re some teams with some runners pulled out last minute. So we’re there on time to do the “rescue”. Some of the route are quite crazy as we’re running just beside the busy highway. And being the “swat team” runner, I was being picked up half way through so that I’d be running with some other team at some other route with less runners.

The uncle on the left was the only runner that turned up in his team. When we started running, he told me that the last time he actually did a run was during cross-country back in high school. Yikes!

The run ended at PJEFC with a corporate prayer. After that we’re just so hungry and tired. Had an awesome thai food for lunch at an awesome thai restaurant nearby. (which also blown a big hole in wallet) Then we all went home and crash out for the rest of the day!

Judi and Alex pretended as Thai

Me and Sarah act kawaii. lol!

New Journey

2009-10-08T19:08:00.004+08:00

On 5th October 2009, a new business was born.

Am now out on my own, with a few other partners. Things gonna be really different from now on. Different challenges with different approaches. I can only put my trust and hope in God to grant me strength and wisdom to carry out the business.

Antichrist from Malaysia??

2009-10-07T18:29:00.005+08:00

I can't believe my eyes when I read the news about what our PM has delivered through his speach at the 35th Unesco General Conference at Paris. This is the shocking part:-

"... This is at the root of the 1 Malaysia philosophy which I introduced at the outset of taking office last April. We believe in this philosophy, predicated on mutual trust and respect between all communities; my clarion call for Malaysia is 1 dream, 1 people and 1 nation.

I believe it is the right formula not only for national harmony but it is also appropraite towards enhancing regional and global peace. Therefore, the nect logical extension of this national philosophy would be the concept of 1 region and ultimately 1 WORLD."

... 1 W O R L D! Talking about world peace that will never happen. And eventually only thru 1 world that everyone will live in harmony. Putting down difference in race, culture and .... religion?? hmmm......

Facebook disasters!

2009-10-03T14:01:00.012+08:00

It's amazing to see how almost everyone is on Facebook now. Besides sharing out one's own photo albums and videos, the catchy things has been the instant status updates. I've came accross this interesting article from an Australian newsportal. It's been a good read about the disasters that arrises from this sort of feature on Facebook.

Exposing too much about what you're doing:

Complaining about work? Think twice:

... yes, it goes out to the whole world:

Trying to ask a girl out without doing your homework can be painful:

People do share the same name, so make sure you get the right person:

Randomness at home

2009-09-29T14:25:00.003+08:00

Just noticed 2 onions sitting at my kitchen started to grow into plants.

Maybe I placed them too near water source (Kitchen sink)? I guess I'll bring them back to my parents' place, plant them on the ground and let them grow. lol!

Reason to run

2009-09-27T10:28:00.005+08:00

Many times, friends came up to me and ask what's the reason behind for me to keep running. I always look at them with a blank face without knowing how to answer them. I never thought about reasons that keep me running. Perhaps health? Keeping fit?

Anyway, a wedding of one of my running mate yesterday has got me ponder on my run since I returned from Australia over 2 years ago. When I started off running while I was in Australia, it was due to wanting to loose weight and going for races was so that I won't give up running and put back on weight. I used to train and run on my own then. I reckon I was very disciplined in my training maybe because I was just a student then and my time was plenty ad flexible. I ran 3-4 times weekly with 2 days of resistance training.

Things started to change when I graduated and returned home to work. I found it difficult to stick to my usual training plan of my student days. Plus clearly I can run later of the days here as the weather is much warmer here. But along the way I got to know a friend thru a long-time-friend name Alex. He was as crazy as me then, running for every races across towns, cities, and countries. We started catching up on our training routine, sharing tips and meet up at different races. Since he's very much a PR guy, along the way our circle of runners got bigger. Alex eventually started a group with the name "Team Powered by Jesus" based on the phrase he always wear on his running vest. And since all of us within this runners circle are Christians that're actively involved in church, too.

I think the motivation for myself has change since as I believe these bunch of runners are the ones that keep me running till today. Though I've always trusting God's strength to keep me going throughout every race, I thank God that there're people out there who're like minded. I guess it's the same living a christian live. As much as we trusting ourselves to God to strenghten us in our walk with Him, it's much more meaningful to have other Christians coming together and hold each other up. We can't live by our own.

Coming back to the running mate's wedding, I realised being in Team Powered by Jesus is not only about coming together for training and pick each other up in races. We're also get to share our own ministry back in our respective church and live. Clearly I felt that we've touched a big part of her live through her wedding yesterday.

So one of the reasons that keep me running? Because of this lovely group of runners and triathletes in Team Powered by Jesus!

Subang 10km Run August 2007

Singapore Marathon December 2008

Back to running

2009-09-24T21:57:00.004+08:00

I really gotta start kicking my own ass and get myself up for running more often these days. I don't know what heppened to my motivation every morning when I supposed to wake up for a run. Fats are building up in every part in my body, and there're races coming up soon.

So I finally got myself up for a run this arvo at TTDI park. When I was about to finish my first loop, saw a runner collapsed on the ground. Many people were seen standing around her while 2 persons were attending to her. As it was already so crowded, I didn't want to be the "busybody" and stand around to look. So I proceed on with my run and hope that she'll get neccessary help. Second loop came back, she's still lying on the ground. Third loop, good thing, there's help coming. An ambulance came and a medic ran towards her direction. Guess they did a quick job. Fourth loop came back, she's been taken away. I could only wish that nothing major happens to her. Geez... I've seen runners collapsed during race event, but this is the first time seeing a runner collapsed during a leisure run. She seems young and fit, it's a shame that this happened to her during a leisure run.

That incident aside, my run was crap! Could only do 4 loops at the park today. I need to push harder on my next run!

It's over!

2009-09-14T12:01:00.003+08:00

so, I've handed in my resignation letter and another new chapter of life begins! It's been great being on board this company. I've learnt alot from the Singaporeans, both good and bad. I guess in the end, they can't work the way they do in Malaysian market place.

Now is the time to move on! I'm looking forward to finally relocating back to KL, my very home. Many things waiting ahead. New challenges, different environment. Things would be better too without having to answerable to Singaporeans. muahahahaha!!

Proton's way of selling

2009-08-25T16:07:00.002+08:00

I was back home in KL and decided to drop in to a Proton showroom at Mutiara Damansara on Sunday. Had a look around and checking out some of the models on display. A sales attendant came up to me to see if she could offer any assistance to me. So I told her that I would like to test drive the Proton Gen2 CPS. She then told me that it's Sunday, so the keys are being locked away and she can't arrange for a test drive there and then. I was thinking, "great, you guys open for business on Sunday but don't offer customer to test drive the car. Good luck for making sales on Sunday!"

Then, I went on to have a view on Persona, and thought maybe I can arrange for a test drive for that model the next day. Told the sales attendant about it. This time, she told me that since Persona has been out for almost 2 years, the test drive unit has been pulled back by Proton head office. She explained that sales for Persona has been good and Proton thinks that the public no longer need to test drive the car in order to make decision to purchase. Wow, how smart! They actually "understand" the consumers so well! And there I was thinking about buying between a persona or waja, or even a second hand Toyota which cost about the same as a new Proton, but with better quality.

I was so dissapointed with Proton! They seems to be already satisfied with their sales and not putting any more afford to sell their car. They still think that people will come to buy simply because their cars are more affordable compared to other foreign made cars. While on the other hand, we're still being ripped-off by the car market in Malaysia because government still need to "protect" this "national baby". If only they put in more efford in their sales, they could've amerge well in the free auto industry out there. How long more do we have to pay such high price for Proton!??! One of the sad cases in Malaysia.

Stucked at Sibu Island

2009-08-19T01:40:00.011+08:00

So, I was supposed to finally make my trip back to KL over last weekend. As I was at Sibu Island on Thursday, I got a news from my partner that there's a meeting I needed to attend on Monday. Well, I have a full-day programme to take care on Saturday, and supposed to leave by Sunday. I then requested my partner to extend my stay at Sibu Island for another night so that I don't need to travel back to the island again on Monday. In the end, it blew my chance of going back home, and I had to spend my weekend at Sibu Island.... alone....

It wasn't that sad if I look at it from another side. At least everything elses is well taken cared of. Had a great time by going for snorkelling nearby. The corals are amazing! I should've taken my camera along while snorkelling. My chalet room was quite relaxing, just me alone and many TV chanels.

I guess that's the longest time I've spent in that little island which you can finish doing all the things you can within 3 days. It was a long 5-day stay for me! Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with my tanned skin and abit of more relaxing time while at work.

I'm missing KL alot! It's been 3 weekend being stucked in this small town. Somehow, being brough up in the city, I can't stand being too long in a non-happening place such as JB. I'm looking forward for my trip back to KL this coming weekend!!

2009-08-02T16:42:00.005+08:00

What a hot sunday afternoon here in JB.

It's the first time I spend my Sunday alone here. Life is slow and I don't think there's anything much to do here.

Am contemplating whether to take a replacement off day tomorrow for the Saturday that I was working yesterday. I'm already started to feel tired and dislike what I'm handling in my work. I dislike how my singaporean boss is so worry and restless about every tiny bits of things on Malaysian side of business but yet he pushes every duty and responsibility on me. I'm disappointed at how other so called senior colleagues in Singapore side of business speak out as though they know how things should work here but pushes them to me and expect it to be done according to their singaporean way, and without giving any effective support. I think the more suitable way to describe what I'm feeling now is that I despise working with this sort of typical singaporean anymore.

Next phase of my life has not clearly drafted out, but I've already got a clear path on where I'm heading. But 2 things for sure, outsider will never understand how things should be done in your own back yard; and, pleasing God is more fulfilling than pleasing men.

Letter will be out soon, and I'm heading back to KL for good!

2009-07-28T17:30:00.002+08:00

Hmmm... why do I still find it difficult to update my blog. lol!

Was back at KL for the last weekend. It was pack with meet-ups. Delia was back from Australia, so we had a get-together on Friday night for dinner. It was great hanging out with the old gang from ICF Nilai. Caught up with the happenings and talk about what's to come. I guess the next time we'll have such gathering will be on Alice's wedding coming this November.

I was able to grab whole of my time while in KL to meet up with my partner. We talk about how we gonna kick start our own thing and set a target time to make things happen. If things work out well (which I don't see why it won't), our things should be up and running by October, if not sooner. So I'm keeping my finger cross, with prayer, and my next phase of life will start in no time.

On another hand, I'm getting annoyed by they way how my Singapore parent company is doing things. Putting my alone here to incharge everything in Malaysia is already so much load for me, yet they assign me on a huge project and expect things will run without lending any helping hands. When I got the first step done, and needed their second step, the push it back to me, which I'm so helpless to deal with it. I suppose it's enough for this kind of treatment, I'll leave this company and let them clean up their own mess. ...... singaporeans...... sigh!

2009-07-21T00:00:00.002+08:00

I think I have enough of travelling around. For the first time I fell sick, after 2 back-to-back programmes between Genting and JB.

I wish I could take a replacement off day on Monday, but there were just too many things to handle. Sometimes it sucks being the only core person in charge of the whole business here.

On the other hand, it has been great being back in KL for the past week. Was quite busy with my brother's wedding, entertaining my relatives. Then I had a chance to catch up with my pastor on my off day in KL, discussed with him about my bible college plan. And of cause, the best part was the home cook food.

Being back in KL is like a retreat to me. Being away from home, living my hectic life in a lifeless place of JB is really challenging. Nothing compares to enjoying a chai tea at my own home!

A backward step for Malaysian Education

2009-07-08T17:11:00.004+08:00

So, our government has made a decision, that is to revert the teaching of Maths and Science subjects back to BM. By doing that, we'll probably slow down our nation's Vision 2020. Imagine, whole bunch of local professionals that couldn't work along well with international counterparts, because of language barrier. How are we to compete in globalised market by then?

Thank God I was being raised up in KL city, where I've had oppotunity to speak English among my schoolmates, teachers and friends that converse well in English, too! Though I wouldn't say it was perfect English, with some granmatical error with the way we speak, we were still able to communicate well with foreigners from English speaking country. How about those from rural area? Are we gonna deprive them the chance to improve on their English?

Later on in my life, when I went on to further my studies at uni in Australia, gosh! I realised that there're so much to improve on the way I use English. The way I pronounce certain words, the way I construct the whole sentence. But I'm glad that I was able to eventually improve my English, by not being shy and mix around with the local as much as I could. With that, I was able to learn alot more things through them about their country, their culture. Let's put it this way, imagine, because you can able to speak their language well, you'll only able to find out things about thier country and culture through books, and miss out on the additional things from the locals. The same goes to any other field. Imagine a Malaysian Scientist that a learning a new technology from a developed country, what he/she'll get is only on the given instruction, but not the additional know-how from the other counterpart.

This is indeed a sad day in Malaysian history, where the government dicided that English is too tough for some and sacrifise the whole nation's future. MALAYSIA BOLEH! ..... not

Feeling trapped

2009-07-07T16:38:00.005+08:00

I felt so helpless at work now. So many things to be done but it's beyond my control. The most I could to is just follow up on the other end and hopefully they will speed things up.

geez.... I wish I'm here now:

taken at Fingal Heads, NSW @ 2006

... sitting on the grass, facing the turquoise colour sea, breathing in the sea breeze, and enjoy the pounding wave just below that cliff; that would be a perfect moment to just relax the mind.

For the past 1 week...

2009-07-02T11:54:00.003+08:00

Geez.... it's been a week since I last updated my blog.

Was away for my church's youth camp over last weekend at Port Dickson. As I was being convinced by the organiser, who's my friend, to be there and to provide some helping hands, so I eventually agreed to go. So they kinda fully utilise me as the first-aid person, room leader and adult group leader advisor. Wow, I did felt a little too old over there, just don't understand where these young people get their energy from. On the other hand, the camp was awesome. It's good to see how these young people come together and have the same passion for God.

Monday was Johor Sultan's birthday, so it's public holiday for Johor state (God bless the Sultan)! That give me an extra day off to recover from camp. However, I still think that I didn't really rest well. Woke up early morning and sent my car to Proton Service, then sent my car for carwash. Afternoon, hung out with Ray&Skye and Juds&Gets for some japanese food at 1U. At night, hung out at Justin&Allison's for Transformers 1 till late. Then woke up the next morning at 5am so that I can be on time for my 10am appointment at JB. It was crazy.

Well, good thing that I only need to work for 4 days this week, then I'll be back in KL again for DavidLee's wedding. What a tiring life...

Going back to square one

2009-06-25T14:04:00.002+08:00

How would you feel when the things you thought are going well but out of a sudden the other end of the party just decided not to get it going anymore.

I've just receive an email this morning which goes like this:

Good morning Mr. Eric,

First of all, thank you so much for your invitation. But, we are deeply regretted that we are unable to participate the works due to tight schedule of our on going projects and cope up with new incoming tendering works.

We will definitely provide full support and will look forward for a mutual business relationship with you near future.

Thank you.

For that moment, I just felt like walking in the city among the high rise building, then a grand piano just landed on me out of nowhere and crushes me (Just like what you'd see in Tom & Jerry cartoon). Or I've just being struck by lightning.

Just like how everyone put it.... shit happens... but it all depends on how you gonna clean up that shit, or make the shit into something useful! (.......I seems to just talking shit here) Anyway, my point is to pick up myself again and move on!

GSS

2009-06-23T17:16:00.005+08:00

Was at Singapore over last weekend to check out their Great Singapore Sales. Nothing great I would say, most of the stuffs are still pretty much more expensive compared to Malaysia.

I didn't buy alot of things in the end (at least I didn't ended up spending too much). I bought myself a brand new Wilson Tennis Racquet and some sportwears, which were going real cheap. Well, most of the time I was just walking up and down along Orchard Road checking out different malls and stuffs.

There's this new mall along Orchard Road, called Orchard Central (if I didn't get it wrong). It's still not officially open for business yet, but several retailers already started their business there. Pretty impresive mall I would say. They even have a rock-climbing wall in the mall! Though I would say it's nothing compared to Camp-5 at 1-Utama, but at least Singaporean get to go for rock climbing in the mall from now on. lol!!

It's my first time being in Singapore for their supposed biggest sales season. And that's the biggest dissapointment I've gotten out of it.

Human nature?

2009-06-22T12:47:00.002+08:00

I don't know what what you've seen in the news about what's happening in Iran. But after seeing this video clip, I suppose you'll take whatever is happening there more seriously. Lives have been sacrificed because of politic and religion. We really need to Keep Iran in prayer.

* Those with weak heart, please avoid viewing the video!

New Activity

2009-06-19T15:07:00.004+08:00

My company is introducing new outdoor activity for the Malaysian side of business. Well, it's not exactly new, but we've been having issue with obtaining permit to run this in Singapore. Hance, let me present to you, the pocket-bike!!!

Pocket bike is a motorised 2-wheel vehicle but with the size which is probably 3 times smaller than a normal size bike.

As of this stage, I'm still trying to work out how to bring the rest of the pocket-bike in from our Singapore site without getting into trouble with the custom. At the mean time, I'm also working out a track and pricing schedule to run this. Hope I can start this in no time!

Stretched!!

2009-06-18T17:00:00.002+08:00

Yeah, the word says it all. I felt being stretched, so much so that I wish I'm able to be at everywhere at a time. I'm coordinating a project, planning an upcoming programme, organising the accounts matters, keeping track of sales, etc. I need a PERSONAL ASSISTANT!!!!

Why am I being the director but still running a one-man-show? Sigh!

..... alright! I'm hiring! Looking for assistant project manager. Wonder if there's any taker here in JB.

Today, I work from home

2009-06-15T22:49:00.002+08:00

Well, I'm still back at KL. Supposed to go back JB early this morning, in time to go in to office around 10am. But I guess I was too tired the day before, so I deserve longer sleep. I couldn't wake up at 5am as planned, so ended up decided to just work from home today.

Got my internet connection, office email, office MSN etc. Got things going at work, and best thing was my c0lleagues from Singapore thought I actually went in to office to work. lol!!

So I got all the work done through email and phone. Geez... you just gotta love technology! Office no longer bound to the specific location and 4-walls!

I look young??

2009-06-13T11:38:00.003+08:00

I had a brief meeting with my project partner for the first time yesterday morning. Half way though our conversation, he started asking me how long since I've graduated. It went like this:

Project partner: When did you graduated?
Me: That's been about 2.5 years since.
Project partner: Ohh, you look really young to handle this project. Is this your first job?
Me: nope, I was a banker with a bank before this. I came into the current company about 5 months ago.
Project partner: So how old are you?
Me: ... 25, going 26 this year.
Project partner: Ohh, that's very young of you.
Me: ........

Man! What the hack!! I don't know if I should take it as complement or he's just plain looking down on me just because I'm "too young" to handle this project.

Well, to many of you out there, being young doesn't mean I can't handle big project. Though this is my first and I may have no prior experience on it. But so what! This shall be my first experience!

Firstly....

2009-06-12T17:11:00.000+08:00

..... I've decided to start a new blog. Looking back at what's been happening in my life, or since I started blogging since my uni days in Australia, many things have changed.

I remember I used to blog about my student life in Brisbane, about my surfing life, my uni, and perhaps some personal thought. Then, I eventually graduated and started working. My blogging life slows down even since. And when I moved on from my banking job, thru a transitioning non-working period, to my current job, my blogging life just got worse. 'cos I never seems to blog anymore. lol!

I guess I need a new start. Seeing that this year has been a big "restart" of my young-working-adult life. I've got my own new condo, new career, being posted to new environment, etc. I thought maybe it's time to put my thought together again and come back to the blogging world. And this blog is dedicated to my new phase of blogging life. So watch out for this space!