half run

Rank 961
TimeGun 6:30:28
TimeStart 6:33:32
TimeC4 1:25:21
TimeC6 1:47:16
GunFinish 2:09:06
ChipFinish 2:06:02

yep, that's what happend on 7th december. we did the stanchart 1/2 marathon. no pictures this time round because anGy and the rest ran a little too.

i targeted for sub-2, and looked eagerly for the sub-2 pacers along the way. never got to see any of them. just kept bumping into the sub-2hr15min guys. i wanted to complete sub-2 because I thought we were doing 20km. it turned out that we were doing 21 instead. so i guess, in consolation, 6 minutes for one extra km isn't that bad, is it?

it's was a good run. pretty easy. just like it's been a good year. the other 2,534 mes must be screaming "are you joking?!" but well, this is what it is, right?

i try, i try, i try, and then i move on. i'm just me.

wishing all a warm christmas and a healthy new year.

心情 x x 的宝岛之旅

2008/12/18
gN说：
非常感谢，带回6年前初到宝岛的回忆。。。不过当时没有101、没有高铁:)

你拍得很艺术、很写意、很生活。。。此趟有"击破点"-- 小黄花是惊喜，很美！为什么你拍的天可以这么蓝？月亮这么清？几十年后，台湾人要跟你拿历史，haha, 那些门。。。

2008/12/19
我答：
在那里的时候都没有感觉很好玩，回来看到照片才有一点沾沾自喜，有点得意，哈哈。总算不费此行。

gN又说：
用心眼拍和用肉眼拍不一样。。。

其实"相由心生"，照片要是心眼拍的，是因为有触动才有内涵，就能感动。你的宝岛照片似乎是肉眼过滤后，心眼真挚的表达。。。要感激能到地球一个角落松懈，无忧无虑过几天，有时看似不怎样，回味后却是收获多！几时可以这么潇洒？？？我在想:)

**********************************************************************************
真的，这次旅行有点怪怪的。

朋友说是因为年纪大了不适合单独旅行。

我也说不上来。

去之前我只知道一定要在年过之前往国外跑一趟，这样才不会好像缺了什么。所以我对这一趟是有期望的。不是那种要求很高的期望，只是想要让自己的心情放假，平平淡淡，清闲过几天。

没成。

还好回来之前在台北和Calvin碰面，才多聊了几句。碰巧他那个周末有空，带我在台北兜了几个地方，总算还能让我有“到此一游”的成就感。

另外，那些照片。。。:)

终于

明天终于要到台湾去了。

六月买好了机票但是因为表弟的事没去成。也谈不上遗憾。现在似乎没有什么事是放不下的。这样的自在让心里好受多了。

一年又要过去了，好快。顿时也不知道该写些什么。总是以为发生的事情多，感触就会多。要写的时候又似乎没什么好下笔的。

我想心安理得，睡得好，健健康康就好。

还是咱们国家好

昨天我给我的airwave放了一天假。从市区回来，我在地铁上坐在两个中国人旁边。

甲：再做两年就可以回去了。
乙：他们有一些打算再做几年，然后就可以申请PR.
甲：PR有什么好？
乙：就是啊，而且家里还有老婆孩子，我多想早点回去。这里有什么好？又没有烟，又没有酒。
甲：对啊，这儿哪有我们国家好？
乙：那天我跟两个朋友去吃饭，叫了三个菜和两瓶啤酒。这样就要50块。那是要两百多块人民币！

I pretended to listen to my ipod but was actually enjoying listening to their conversation. They are so proud of their country. They were certainly not whispering. In a cabin (almost) full of Singaporeans, I thought they were quite bold. I definitely wouldn't have done the same if I were in their country.

The irony is that we sometimes think the Chinese people are here. Everywhere. There are at the food courts, coffee shops, shopping malls, food reflexology centres, ... And we wonder, why don't they go back? And here you have these 2 who really do want to go back. They don't think we are really any good.

The other thing that struck me was the pain of 离乡背井. I could almost feel 甲's heavy heart at the mention of his 老婆孩子。I hope he gets home to his family soon.

what a wonderful nite

it was a really fun nite.

looking back, it's been 21 years since we left dunman high.

this evening, yuexia, liqin, qiujing, junqiang, wanlian, yufang, xiuping, huiling, junmei and myself had dinner at the central. binxin, yanping and shuqin were not able to join us.

the mothers left their kid(s) at home and came out to play.

we talked about work, shares, kids, school, travel,...just about anything under the sun (or moon).

i really had a very good time.

what a wonderful nite :)

girls grown up

tina got married first, then it was nita. last nite was baya's big nite.

murad is still the sensible boy. in fact, not much has changed. tina, the mother of a one-month-old baby girl, is still bubbly and full of energy. sufaat and fauzan are still respectful.

it was quite emotional realizing that the kids who used to sit in my class are all grown ups now. the selfish side of me was most happy for zaid. seeing that he is

all fine and kicking reaffirms that i must have done something right.

when do we hold on?
how much do we hold on?

for how long do we do that?
who's right?

i'm finally moving on after 11 years. life is as beautiful as it can be, if we allow it to be. sometimes we try and we try and when it doesn't seem to work and we feel like giving up, there would be a voice somewhere to tell us: "let it go. it is but one of many. you've got to believe in the good side of things."

three seven

today i turn 37.

mum bought me a set of hankerchiefs from goldlion. the last time she bought me a set was when i was going to switzerland. thanks, mum.

the other gift i got this year was from mart. she gave me a set of egg holders from NZ.

thierry just sms-ed from London. got one from richard early this morning. he said he's using my birthday as an excuse to have fun after work. my dear friend is having a great time in ha-er-bin.

wendy sms-ed from NZ too. and pete called from sydney.

tonite we had an expensive dinner at one-fullerton. sY and I shared a cake. very nice cake.

the dunman high group had a gathering at junmei's place. wanlian called and they took turns to get on the phone. thanks, my dear friends.

cihong and ronghai sent their good wishes over sms. and sA sent a few sms-es too. that felt quite good.

gifts from lubna

the last lecture by randy pausch
an hour to live, an hour to love by richard carlson and kristine carlson
three cups of tea by greg mortenson and david oliver relin

school hols are here

the concept of "holiday" is getting very vague nowadays.

are we not supposed to feel "yeah!" or relaxed or rejoiced?

i went to bed feeling the same as the previous sunday, and woke up this morning feeling the same as the previous monday. the only difference is: i clocked in one more hour of sleep.

牵我的手

very touching song.....



daph's speech at the wake

5As

it was.....quite a good feeling to be leading the run from the 2nd round onwards :)

the stations were quite easy. in fact, very easy :)

so the "investment" paid off :)

today is mothers' day

everytime we do something nice, i'll think of dad.

it's been .... (2008 - 1995 = ...) 13 years.

那天从修德回来我就想一口气把心里的话写下来。我的心好沉，好沉。

老爸走了十三年，有时候我半夜醒来，还会以为老爸会从房间走出来。有时候，在梦里的老爸依旧板着个脸，什么都看不顺眼。

他终究还是我父亲啊。

老妈和我，还有弟弟一家，现在过着怎么样幸福的日子你知道吗？我总是觉得这是你欠我的。你欠我做一个好孩子的机会。

didn't make it

r0smi's kid didn't make it.

we heard the news this morning. it is so sad.

the poor girl must feel so terrible.

raising a kid is difficult, so i can only imagine that losing one is much worse.

i had a couple of minutes to think about death and saying good bye to someone forever this morning. i first thought of dad, then mum.

sometimes i lay on my bed late at night and can't stop myself from remembering that day and then the thought would drift to that other day.

this, is really what makes life painful.

queen's birthday

last year this time we were in bali.

this year, iC's in japan, hL's in vietnam and daph's busy with her family.

shY, bK, queen, shAron and i started the 4D4N celebration with dinner at mag's wine kitchen and ended the 2008 celebration by completing the final leg of our triathlon - the swim - at shY's pool.

N1: dinner @ mag's wine kitchen
D1: tennis (1 hour plus) + cycle (25 km!)
N2: $25(-famous)-hokkien-mee-dinner @ geylang + 永和豆花
D2: cycling @ pulau ubin
N3: dinner @ 华友园 (best dish: prawns!)
D3: brunch @ 阿一 turf city 点心 + shopping for sunglasses at QSC
N4: drinks @ "gone fishing" (hume ave) + dinner at hawker centre opposite beauty world
D4: completion of traithlon - swim @ shY's pool




it was a very tiring, interesting and accomplished queen's birthday celebration.

a very "australian" day

janel from e5 called to ask about "structured questions". i told her to ask me on friday. it was either too early in the morning or i was too impressed by the fact that some kid was concerned about school on a public holiday, that i forgot to tell her off for calling and missed the chance to scream at her for not respecting my privacy - i'm not your friend!

after that, it was breakfast with "will & grace", till lunch with "will & grace" until finally it's time to leave for tennis. and so we really played today. shY, queen, bK and me. that's when the "australian" day really started. the sky was so blue.


we must have felt really sporty today cos after playing in the sun, we decided to go cycling at east coast. and we really did :) for close to two hours. once we passed the east coast crowd, the route became very "australian", and even the feel, the air, the mood. it just felt very good.

and we've decided to go to ubin tomorrow :)

second time ... first time

Went to watch 都是当兵the second time on Thursday.

And today, I rowed in a dragonboat for the first time :)

All thanks to wKeat for sending that very first email, the 12 of us - hLoon, wKeat, mWai, Edwin, Shiekh, wLi, Candy, sPing, mDa, Veron, sKun and me - had a 10-minute crash course before the race and amaizingly emerged 2nd! We were so good that we qualified for the winners' race - "A" finals :)

School has been quite hard this week. These 2 "events" kind of softened it a bit. If not for the fact that exams are coming soon and that I've already booked tickets for the holidays, I'd really not be looking forward to the coming week.

Yurks.

p/s we bought a 37" "sharp" tonite -- $1,250. Hooray!

perth 2007

凌晨两点抵步柏斯(Perth)，取了车子开往Sorrento Beach Resort, 开始了这一次我们七人一组的澳洲之旅。

老天爷对我们不错，晴朗的蓝天以及暖和的阳光，陪我们游游走走，看遍了干净且美丽的大都会,充满活力的城市，绿油油的公园以及密集的市中心。

告别柏斯，车子往南开去，我们在玛格丽特里弗(Margaret River)住了两晚。这一站，我们去了莓果园，酿酒厂，巧克力工厂以及坚果工厂，享用了美食好酒，乐在其中。

下一站是瓦尔普(Walpole)。位于瓦尔普诺那路普国家公园(Walpole Nornalup National Park)中央，附近高大的廷格桉(Tingle)树林和人迹稀少的海岸让那里风景一枝独秀。树顶道(Tree Top Walk)和“古老帝国”(Ancient Empire)是两大世界知名景观,叫人叹为观止。

第二次的柏斯之旅，虽然只有短短的六天，但足以叫人回味无穷。我们还会再去！

(sent to 我报 on 19 Jan 2008, Saturday -- published on 17 Apr 2008)

dumb tigress

last saturday i was at the budget terminal to send kai kai & ying ying (plus their parents) off to HCM. the tiger counter girl was so rude and the staff next to her, either her supervisor or understudy, was quiet all the way. it was infuriating.

she checked in 5 pieces of luggage and then told us that we were 28 kg overweight and had to pay $280 for excess baggage, or we could remove things from that last piece of lugguage. i asked her to bring back those earlier 5 pieces and she said "cannot" - a flat "cannot". if this was in a cartoon, you would have seen smoke coming out of me! and she had to add oil to the fire. she further commented, "i told you earlier to check in one by one."

i knocked on the counter and repeated, "bring back my luggage". thank god for miin's friend Roy who had the sense of mind to step in. if not for his "distraction", i might have been a modern day 武松 :)

i think the problem could be that these young "punks" are not "service" people. they are there to work and work only. totally brainless.

wonderful tonite

it's 12 midnite on 13 march 2008. i guess i'm a night person. at this time of the day, i usually think better. my mind is clearest.

was just sorting out the HCM pictures earlier. what do i do with so many pictures? one's memory can but hold that much, isn't it?

had a good lunch with lynette this afternoon. this fine young lady is adorable. and you know she is real after spending 5 minutes with her. she is that kind students will love and respect and her bosses will too. we chatted candidly over a sandwich lunch. very nice indeed.

calvin asked how come he's not mentioned in my blog? and he said i should write that he is a nice guy. he is, in fact. and to be honest, i think i've been really quite lucky. all my friends are nice people. i'm grateful we crossed paths.

good nite, everyone.

second time in HCM

i think i could be getting used to travelling. only packed this moring. the flight was scheduled to take off at 12.30 pm and we left home at about 10.15 am. not sure what time the plane took off as i was sleeping already. the next thing i knew was that the air stewardess has placed 3 arrival/departure cards on my lap.

this time, our group is 15-member strong, 5 from my side, 10 from bK's.

i really can't remember (too) much from the previous trip here. i don't suppose much has changed but i think it could also probably be that i'm rather tired and can't recall much. i'm tempted to say that that's a sign of aging but i also heard that old people remember things well....so it'll be kind of contradicting.

sharon says the people here arn't that polite. i might have to agree with her. i recall the hong kong people are nicer. here, it seems, they are not smiling as much now :)

this being the first post in 2008, i shall wish all visitors to my this tiny space a very happy and healthy 2008, and to my dear cousin who's still sleeping at SGH a speedy recovery.

have a good one!