what's just as good as a mike portnoy drum clinic back in 2000? a mike mangini drum clinic! it's gonna be held on 25th november...


a photo that budding photographer desmond lee took for me...

went for the thomson ride this morning, got dropped later, but still only along mandai road, but heck, it was fun today, though i bonked and took time out at the shell station along dunearn road on the way to newton...

today must be the dead slowest triathlon i've ever attempted. one mistake to rectify in the future - don't be garang and cycle to sentosa for a race. east coast is still fine, but no, no, no to sentosa. looking at my hrm charts, the triathlon took only 1344 kcal out of me, but the ride to sentosa took 682 kcal - that's like HALF the triathlon energy expenditure out of me!

what suffered the most, was my swim. terok. 800m course in 36+++ minutes. i should be doing almost 20 minutes if i have something wrong, so this entire race was screwed from the start. the biking was ok, but i'm severely pissed at the route. cars, buses, you-name-it, were using the one-lane-per-side road of sentosa with us, at least for the beginning! freaking scary - wanted to accelerate, but not knowing if another tour coach would kiss me smack in the face or not. nevertheless, at least now i know what i know now.

i was doing the 5k run on empty - 23++ minutes! a far, far cry from the nb aquathlon back in june, where i did a 18+ timing for the run. fine, fine, i've a lingering left knee injury that's screwing me up on runs (like last sunday) but...

urgh.

participants have to abseil from the top of the esplanade, and
finish a zipline down into the singapore river as a final
obstacle in the action asia challenge 2004 adventure race
©ngoh seh suan, 2004

sunday morning, i went for my intended long run, but since i was late, and lost michael who started earlier, i decided to stay around and wait for someone else, anyone else, to deposit my baggage into his/her vehicle. it came in the form of or, and so i started cracking... unfortunately, my left knee started to act up when i did slightly over 6k, so i just grimaced (a little) and finished up to 8k, before turning back, having a sssslow walk back to macritchie. along the way, i saw many cyclists, and fellow runners... but i also saw a couple having sex in the bright morning daylight! the guilty pair of amorous lovers, were seen inserting each of their sexual organs into each other, which reminded me of their possibility of bisexuality. their identity? a pair of common snails.

i walked slowly, back to just around island club road, and waited patiently for the thomson ride peloton to pass by. just minutes before they came, i talked to park, who told me he came down in a mad, mad rush because he just woke up at 8am.

soon, the peloton was all and away, and i carried on to get back to macritchie. while doing my stretching, i met huili from ntu canoepolo, and she had a hunch that the action asia challenge race would be passing by the jelutong tower. just moments later, oh came back, and i was away to pick up my camera gear and cover whatever i could find of the adventure race. some of the people i met were ram, ling and ming, edward + chuan hwee, alvin + hairil, jonique, lynn lee and winson.

the most of this week, i would be spending my time away at exercise... so it's gonna be hard to keep on writing this frequently...

now i'm on the rush to cover the action at the action asia race... hurry!!!

met up with melisa at bishan and we set off for block s2 of nus... but before we went to hunt down the location, we went to take a look at the src, where i found junwei and well as ruixuan cleaning the holds and the entire place...

boy, was it tedious or what trying to find our way there - and thankfully we ran into another group of three folks going for the same thing, so we put together our heads and found our way there. we also learnt an important lesson - a straight line may not be the most logical way to move around in nus... oops...

tony wu gave a pretty good talk, and his brand of humour was pretty consistent with that of folks who are marine scientists, i don't mean boring, but clinical, matter-of-factly and tongue-in-cheek all at the same time. he was also very patient in answering the myriad of questions that i had too... incidentally, goondoo and veronica were also present, but that surprised me i expected more uwcs members to come for the event. maybe they didn't know about it, who knows? after the talk, i also got to meet ria tan who is the head honcho for wildsingapore.com, as well as ming sheng, who is one of the senior toddycat member. both melisa and i subsequently followed ming sheng over to the science block lt31 for the rmbr/toddycat talk, where i also sniped a couple photos of sivasothi taking shots documenting the talk.

one of the nicer things to know, was that melisa also has a heart for the outdoor, be it diving/underwater photography and conservation. now, if only i can persuade her to go for her open water course...

as i was walking home, i met eileen (from hall x) with her new beau. coincidentally he's also a runner, but uh, i don't know who he is...

going with melisa to tony wu's public talk organized by blue water volunteers... looking forward to seeing great underwater photos!

looking forward to quite a few things now... the list includes, going diving again, getting a new bike frame (yes, eyecandy...) and a couple bit more stuff. only one problem though.

money...

surprise - i met yandi in the afternoon after coming back to camp. singapore is small indeed, we can meet people of whom you've just faintly thought of lately...

next week is exercise time... argh, there goes my training time. felt weak today - only seven pull-ups. better start cracking and start training for a decent ippt before i ord...

met jamal in nee soon camp just after i was done with my morning run + swim, while i was on the way to the canteen for breakfast.

vicky told me in the afternoon that she's not feeling good of late, i feel the concern that she has. thank goodness that she's ok on the whole after her accident last week...

workout for the day - 10k cycling, 5k run, 500m swim, another 10k riding to conclude the day. now, if only i had more running speed like in the past...


this one is funny too...

was plagued by this splitting headache as my new colleague and i were sorting out tose ops boxes in the store, in the early afternoon.

feeling better now, but i don't know how i'm going to help siva dig for those photos he asked for...

got makan-ed and dropped like a stone in a dry well today. but i can't be bothered about it, at least it was fairly fun. lost track of the triathlon couple, met plenty of mr25 runners as we were navigating old upper thomson road etc.

only grouse was tthis uncle rider on a jad - i let him draft behind me since end of neo tiew, the whole stretch of the lck runway, plus cck (along keat hong), but he didn't bother to signal working together to make chase and try to work together. bloody hell.

went for lunch with sis, fab and my folks at cafe cartel... wished the portion was larger though. i mean, 1716 kcal exerted from the morning cycling... i'll surely have a voracious appetite thereafter...

met evelyn and her hubby hoi seng in person today - finally! also met sebastian with his pretty spiffy giant xtc team, all at seng chu hin...

tomorrow i'm going for the thomson ride! yippee! hope i don't get dropped for 50km...

"never really give in as long as you have an earthly chance." - alf shrubb, british marathoner

from this article at sportsshooter.com, written by ben burgeson -

"'ve had many teachers and have found that what makes a good teacher or mentor good, is not the skill they have themselves, but the ability to instill a confidence that can only be given by a teacher or a mentor to a student. A confidence that helps one realize and validates potential. Rick and the team at Newsweek are all these types of teachers. My father always told me that there is something you can learn from everyone, and there is always the choice of a positive and productive perspective in every situation."

for some funny reason... i had two dreams, pretty vivid.

first was my entire family somehow cramming over at fangio's and janice's place, contesting to use the loos and showers... huh?

second was a case of a fire started at the wrong place, with low ventilation, with scrap paper all around... just because one joker decided to have french fries he found inside that scrap paper store... in-house firefighter teams were activated, and i also took part to help fight the fire. don't know what happened to the "firestarter"... (reminds of prodigy, anyone?)

and yes, i'm still feeling my entire body sore, sore, sore all over. damned, how am i gonna pick up my training for the corporate tri?

last night's cycling was a mad mad dash from seng chu hin, over to tanah merah ferry terminal, and back to the entrance of safra country club (or whatever that was). changed the rear brake pads, finally. made a lot of difference, because the older pads were caked up, brittle and scary as well...

felt sick the whole of today. slept in for most of the day, then bought a hec powerop 435 power supply unit for my computer... but it seems that it's the memory in my system that's dead. and my matrox's fan is still not running after a while. damned.

just signed up for the new balance corporate triathlon this afternoon, but not after rushing down to the tas clubhouse to get the form, then over the ministry of education sports & recreation club to get the form endorsed, before flying down pronto back to tas to get the registration done. at least that's something short-term to look forward to.

tomorrow onwards, i intend to get to the pool daily to build up my strokes/endurance(save for the weekends), and cycle much slower to camp. i've been cycling to and from camp as if it's a race... every time! no wonder i'm fizzled out by the night-time... swim, bike, and i'll probably extend the tuesday and thursday morning runs to make some difference for my running as well.

may want to report sick tomorrow or some other day, to settle that naggy feeling on my right heel. can't exactly pinpoint what it is up till now, months later. but one thing's for sure - the marathon's totally out of my plans for this year! and that means too, i'll pop by seng chu hin next weekend to get the bike all race ready...

went through my hard disk, or most parts of it, looked through tons of photos taken by me with those faux-artistic angles to them which meant absolutely nothing because they're wannabe, those lousy shots that make me cringe. i'm thankful i've improved to shoot decent stuff, and limit my shots per day to stuff that's actually usuable and tells the story of a day, rather than two billion random shots a day to kill my optic nerves. phew!

year of headaches. heartaches? nah. how can there be one, if there was nary a relation in the first place?

chasing the impossible, or what is currently out-of-reach - is that an ideal, or a fantasy that will never materialize? does it apply the same way, as how i used to target running below 8 minutes for 6 laps of the track? never got near to it, still 10 seconds shy of it. that's already like, five or six years ago. relationship? uh, there's no indication of how close i'm to being in one... or not being in one. more likely to be the latter so far. mid-october now, multiple changes of personal resolution, two liars (maybe three, if i include one former colleague in one of my earlier schools)... is there anything worth getting disappointed at all? when a next-to-perfect person who i've thought she was all along, told me just in september that she still wasn't hitched yet, was apparently so since this january... who am i to believe? her or our mutual friend, who informed me of it?

i've read through this article on sportsshooter.com and thought, yeah, my family is there for me... but a partner is for the future life, and one's family, once no more, will only a historic memory that we'd cherish only in our hearts. that's the importance of my family. though at times i curse and swear over the things that mom or dad does... in the end, they're still my family. no them, no me. so, despite the differences we've had at times, the bitching, the arguments, i still am very much grateful and love them, though i must admit, it's hard to utter those simple words, "i love you, folks".

but what about my future? so far... 25 years of existence, one failed relationship that was formed all for the wrong reasons and lasted for four months nearly four years ago, i'm not sure if i should try to strive for a perfectly clean record of relations per se for the rest of my life. hey wait. but that means, i'll forever have a "never-clean" record already, so how could that be possible? then again, most of those who i've liked, well, had someone else in mind. and that "someone else" was never me either. good for them then, but uh, who has me on her mind? ok, excluding my mom, of course... but that relation almost four years ago means that my track record isn't clean no more, so should i try to actively date at all? good question, trips me dumbstruck. i've confided in a few close girl friends something that i feel may rock my girlfriend should i have one, but majority of them told me, it wouldn't be that big a problem when the time is right...

frankly, with about two months to becoming a nsman, i won't be able answer anyone, myself included, where i foresee myself, or want myself to be doing, where i'd be etc... where is my place in society? with my school posting most likely to change... that would mean both siva and i wouldn't be in the same school... i'm bracing myself for the worst lot. i can't imagine being posted to a school that will have an anti-sport culture, a sedentary pe hod who doesn't ever wear even a pair of shorts in school... for i have been to such a school before. but i leave it to God's hands, for He knows best.

at all times i shall praise the Lord... for He knows all and never disappoints

is this a time of trial for me? if it is, it should only be the beginning. as the cookhouse of the divers say, "the only easy day was yesterday"...

i've done it again. i shouldn't have asked rachel questions about somebody i feel, or somehow convinced myself, that i may be interested in. that's violating ethics, but i just couldn't resist finding out more.

life goes on, there's another triathlon on october 30th... time to pick up training.

stop being nosey, girls won't like it... how many times must i remind myself?

could one of the reasons why we blog, is that because for those of us still single and wanting not another moment of it, pining for a special someone who will chance upon it and then, let serendipity happen? wishful thinking, but hey, who said guys aren't allowed to dream in a similar way as girls? ok fine, maybe girls don't think this way. but what the heck...

friday night's aar turned out to be only a small gathering of runners, nevertheless, better than nothing...

saturday was relaxed day, and the evening was spent first over bak chor mee over at bedok block 85 with kommissar, then a loooooong ride with lai wan's merry bicycle convoy. many chums were around too... but the ride was incredibly fast (if considering, rental bikes were part of the group) at the start, but started to fizzle out probably around jalan buroh...

the heroes on the bike were those on the rental bikes... who should have reached back to wimbledon bike rental (nothing to do with the movie nor game) probably 9 to 10-ish this morning, i suppose. one had a broken rear derailleur, i wonder how he managed to push a single speed bike all the way back... 86+k travelled from the start point for me, probably an extra 14k from home to bcm and to wimbledon...

how hard could it be, to catalog books?

theoretically, not that hard, because books have several fields to be captured - title, isbn, publisher, author, topic. how hard could it be, to key in information about books?

theoretically, not that hard either, so long as the books have information ready right on hand - that wasn't a problem. if those weren't problems, what was taking so slow?

the storeroom in camp, has just become a bookstore...

went back to the main camp yesterday to celebrate the formation's anniversary, then i left together with kannan and mdm padma... kannan is a close brother to me, and he helps me to retain my sanity despite calling me "motor"...

had probably one of the best birthday presents ever in a long, long time. yesterday afternoon terry and greg delivered the ndp commerative book + vcd to my place... and i spent the later half of the afternoon watching the entire mediacorp broadcast.

cycled over to cannasia in the evening to return daniel's earphones, one week late. but better than nothing...

intended to catch a movie screening with gordon, but he watched practically everything at bishan's gv screens, so i stayed at home and bored myself silly as a form to celebrate my 25th...

one of the week's better jokes (courtesy of kthan) goes like this...

"mamma mia! here we go again!
buy buy!..."

a day on birthday off is a good day to sleep in at home.

plan? what plans?

last night, with the invitation of kommissar, i decided to join in the big planet fitness night cycling group at east coast. when i just got there, sammiay and ek7 were just behind, so it was a surprise that people could recognize me just by my side/back profile in darkness!

as we were cycling along coastal road, lindy actually managed to recognize me in the near darkness too... am i that easy to spot? anyway, we went up to changi village, and reached back to planet fitness at about 5am, since i was the sweeper. left the place, then tried to hunt for the elusive rat's corner, but nope, either there was no ride on, or i was too early. i then made a stop near siva's place for prata to replenish for the long long ride.

saw a couple of friends' sites, and on my birthday eve, i would like to wish handbag, gail, and 2lt jesse happy birthday...

and today marks the 14th death anniversary of my paternal grandpa. how to forget a date when it happens one day before your own birthday?

decided to head back home quickly after camp, to get my camera and rush down for the new paper new face 2004 finals at takashimaya basement 2. reached there just before 7pm, and the show started just before 8pm. incredible wait... but the security/organizers were ever gracious, letting members of the public step into the area, including us photogs with somewhat bigger than usual cameras...

met xuan and alvin there too. wow... xuan was almost dressed like she's one of the finalists!

total for this week... 70km on the bike. not a lot, but decent workout, i suppose. and i decided to skip the stanchart marathon, since i still have this nagging feeling on my right heel. i'll see how it progresses... or not.

later tonight's billy's and veronica's big day... congrats to them! YAAY!