just came back from dr koh's just now.

got myself a new antibiotic - klacid. i was told this was pretty potent stuff - imagine an antibiotic that has a course of only five days over five tablets. each contains 500mg of clarithromycin.

quoting from wikipedia.org...

"Clarithromycin prevents bacteria from growing, by interfering with their protein synthesis. Clarithromycin binds to the subunit 50S of the bacterial ribosome, and thus inhibits the translocation of peptides. Clarithromycin has similar antimicrobial spectrum as erythromycin, but is more effective against certain gram-negative bacteria, particularly Legionella pneumophilae. Besides this bacteriostatic effect, clarithromycin also has bactericidal effect on certain strains such as Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria gonorrhoeae."

saw one of my boys, martin when i just stepped out of my block, on my way to return the lens to seng aik. didn't want to call him out, since first thing that comes to mind was his "doctor's handwriting" he produces for work... anyway, it was amazing how he missed spotting me point-blank at less than 3 meters away.

weather's really getting cranky now. i'm clueless if this is just momentary, or a long-term (that's a fortnight or more to me) kind of thing. whatever it is, now i have to contend with bringing a brolly when i go out.

haven't felt this f^)#ing sick for such a long time now. now i understand when some blogger girls mention having stomach cramps - i can feel probably the same intensity of pain when i cough to try to get the phlegm out - and it hurts the area around my liver (or just lower), and by the time i get the damned blob of phlegm out, my eyes would have turned red and watery, my entire body is contracting into the shape reminiscent of a cashew nut. (thanks to mel for that reference to the cashew nut, just came across my mind...) every five minutes or so, i'd have to make a trip to my folks' bathroom just to clear my nose, which has almost fully fluid nasal mucus coming out. heck, i wouldn't even call that mucus, because it isn't even sticky! it's just like... a dripping tap! urgh... each small light cough, meant to clear my airway, pulls away like a single wildebeest were let loose - a deeper cough, a dozen!

compounded with the bashing that i gave myself on friday evening, i can hardly turn when i sleep - my left neck is hurting and straining even when i'm trying to turn in my rest - urgh!!! i've got a feeling i'll take another two to three days to recover. argh. how to catch up with work for my boys?!?!

lance said this - "i only have good days or great days." i'll try to keep that in mind...

in the short space of about an hour, i learnt about the good and bad side of human beings.

i was on my way to meet zhiming to sell off the blue lizardskins chainstay protector, when i came across a bunch of about 15 youths, mostly wearing drab black round neck tee's, and less than 20 meters away, a man of about 50 years old swearing and cussing at them in some language. in my mind i was thinking, some of these guys may just run over and bash the living daylights out of the old man. eventually, i circled the area about 50 meters away, trying to figure out where the heck i was, in case i had to make the police call. thankfully, despite both parties still at very much swearing and cussing away, they went their own ways - and the old man was cussing away loudly in hokkien this time.

on my way back, i was riding on my way back, and tried to do a doublejack - something went wrong, my steering went all over, and bam! i kissed the road. a couple, along with their son, came over, and checked if i was ok. man, i'm thankful for that gesture. their host, whom they were visiting, also asked me to stay back to check out the aftermath. i was very much touched at this simple gesture.

and moral of the story? don't go riding anywhere when you're sick. i'm thankful that there are still nice people around.

ride safe!

the camp was fun. have a lot of photos to show for it - probably 700+ of them! tried abseiling for my first time. quite fun too!

unfortunately, my sore throat didn't go away - it got progressively worse. this morning, it became sore throat + an overall, dull body ache all over.

i also received my chris king stickers in the mail today...

disgustingly funny talkingcock has a suggestion on top ways to beat the heat without an air con...

12. Get hit by a car. Enjoy the breeze as you fly through the air.

feeling like a sick, sick, sick person right now. sore throat since yesterday, yet to recover. seen dr koh, but medication ain't gonna act that fast i suppose.

the coming 3-day camp (more likely, 1 1/2 days) would be a break from school. but the stress comes from thinking about what needs to be done in the week.

also met mark choon while i was on the way back from the clinic. elke's getting married! yaay!

climbing was therapeutic enough, an outlet to forget about frustrations at work. shirley gave me some advice that was timely too, regarding work at school.

i also went to a star party at bendemeer secondary, thankfully the skies right overhead was cloudless. but the floodlights from the football field just beside the school added a large dose of flare to naked-eye visuals... cool though, since i had a look of saturn and it's two moons - didn't see that since novemeber 1997. group photos

what a day.

my class had me roaring at them, for two days straight. and i'm furious, especially after marking the first few pages of the class work that i assigned them to do a week or so ago.

people talking during class.

uninterested, but didn't ask me to go on faster to cover what's required of us.

telling lies.

pointing the middle finger at one another for no apparent reason, nor gain.

can't stand still during morning prayer, personal religion/belief aside.

not able to move as a class effectively.

shoes dragging on the floor during movement.

tell me what else i can be glad of, other than bryan being able to tell me pulau semakau being used for a landfill - which was the only pleasant surprise of the day.

we had a fire drill in school today, and consequently today was the day that i literally exploded. the inability to walk and move as a class with two lines during normal times, i keep an eye closed. i was particularly peeved by some students' slow dilly-dally lumbering while probably 75-80% of my class followed me closely to get to the assembly point. the problematic boys were sauntering into sight... what if there was a real fire instead of a drill?

called kian hong today - was told the 80rlt stocks will come in a month's time. hurry, hurry!

just mentioned about yee meng to some of my lady colleagues, when we were chatting about retirement - and voila! he pm'ed me via togoparts!

while i was out withdrawing some money this evening, i happened to meet rendell, who i got to message via wholivesnearyou.com...

talking about silly parents, last weekend when sis was back, she asked dad where the new siemens home phone was. he replied, something along the lines that it's not user-friendly etc etc, but went to dig it out anyway. now, i didn't know even about this phone's existence, but sis said that it was just a matter of getting used to it. so dad started his own ranting about his using of many different mobile phones, etc etc, when it was totally irrelevant to the case on hand. heck, the way he said it, sounds like he's a seasoned handphone reviewer - how could i believe that if he takes a long while to send even one message to me? i quipped to sis, saying that it's a good thing that he didn't work as a product tester, otherwise the company will surely fold, so he ranted about "so what if you studied about computers, and know more than me" and changed the topic to me being arrogant in the next sentence. hello? who's acting the genius here? who would need to own at least 3 digital cameras (sony f717, panasonic lc1 and the latest addition, ixus 500) just for snapshots? huh? and who's so smart to say the olympus e-1 was so good and bigger than sliced bread, bought it instantly when it was launched at about $4000, only to sell it off for $1000's loss less than half a year later?

beats me.

went for the brunch ride yesterday - and put a lot of names to the faces. or the faces to the names. argh, whichever way, it was a good time to meet up with other riders. we had a good slooooow time in seletar...

just after i got back home, i decided to pay foeszz a visit to buy over his selle san marco usps team edition era saddle. good choice i made, i suppose. i then popped by fishy fang's place, where i met another pal of hers engaging in that brownie business. doesn't sound chinese new year-ish, but rather christmassy to me.

a whole load of my relatives popped by my place in the evening - what a good time it was to have fellowship with them!

singaporeans have the uncanny skill of renaming things to the most prestigious monikers. let's try and imagine...

"the year of the rooster" - originally either -

1. "the year of the chicken"
2. "the year of the cock"

hmm. good things to think about, yeah?

i am a bit sad. i lost my +red iridium lens for my oakley pro m frame. i have no idea where i dropped it - bt, butterfly, or woodcutter's. and i got lost at woodcutter's... gave myself a scare.

went for the reefwalk at kusu, but didn't really see anything of particular interest, other than a toadfish. urgh. had dinner at spizza at harbourfront, and for the pricing, i would have expected more filling a pizza than thin crust loosely decorated/garnished with some stuff.

school camp in 2 week's time or so - 21st to 23rd.

i got back home from school at about 11+ am today, and had a nap on the couch... and i was pretty sure, that i wasn't going to be late to join in the other guides for the reefwalk. so i took a nap... and when i opened my eyes, it was already 1:10pm! working out the timings etc, i had only one choice - i changed as fast as i could, and hopped on a cab ride. my goodness - that's over 30 bucks in taxi fares over the last week alone! the cabby was a chatty gentleman, but he was definitely going over the top when i mentioned the relation of the silly casino idea and the southern islands - he gave a suggestion that it be built in sentosa, and make it statutory for singaporeans to be a guest at one of the hotels in that island before they can go into the casino, and foreigners be exempt from this condition.

by sheer coincidence, ceqin was a participant today at the guided reefwalk at chek jawa today - i got a big scare when i suddenly heard one loud call for my name while i was trying to explain some stuff at the rocky shore section... and lo and behold! ceqin! also present was one of my vjc track seniors - huiling!

of note, i met this attractive young german lady called serena, who was fortunate enough to end up with my group on a day where i decided on a whim (sort of?) to do ojt guiding at chek jawa. i intended initially just to tag along, do my ojt's worth, but in the end i felt a little bad about taking the thunder out of jacky, one of the nparks staff, while i raved on and on... but later, serena said she liked my style of guiding... oh man, she's so sweet!

when we got back to mainland, we ended up leaving changi village together with this elderly couple on service number 2, and the two of us had an late dinner (or rather, late lunch + dinner) at the kopitiam outlet at plaza by the park. i learnt that the happy-go-lucky girl had a stopover in singapore since thursday, and was here basically to apply for a singaporean visa, partly due to her work relating to sap/siemens. she was about to leave singapore tomorrow evening, and boy, was she lucky to be with us! some of the highlights we saw, were two big (approx 20, another 25cm) knobbly sea stars, and damned, i wished i had my camera with me... anyway, the elderly gentleman offered me 10 bucks for the information back at the site, but i turned him down, since i'm doing volunteer work anyway, and i really appreciate the fact that they enjoyed the session. that's called, intangible payment to me, which suffices very well indeed!

serena also gave me a surprise - she told me that she decided to try her luck and see if she could go to chek jawa to take a look - not knowing if it's high tide or low tide, not know there's a need to prebook in advance to go on a visit - and best of all, she wowed me by letting me know that it was only one short paragraph in the uniquely singapore visitors' handbook that she came across chek jawa. in a way, we were destined to meet up, weren't we? i won't forget the surprised look she had when some seawater splashed up and got her shoulder wet while we were on the bumboat ride to the island...

and yeah, later when i sleep, i'll probably be thinking of my new found friend, and i'll await her email when she gets back to bangkok.

ria said a couple of things that made very good sense, in sequence:

fragile - follow - feel - fun

these four f's will make a trip to chek jawa an eye-opener for those who though nature was high and dry, and gone from this small island.

yesterday's race was pretty spine-chilling at times - probably for about four occasions, i found out that i was about to "eat grass" instead... i really felt my heart in my mouth! scary! though i was probably the last 3rd chap in the group, at least i managed to improve my handing overall.


image of me racing by betterfeel,
during the first saca xc race for 2005.

feeling so tired now, will be going to kusu for the reefwalk on the island on the 10th. and that means two more days of potential biking at bt too!

here's my slightly revised bike now...


updated with straight seatpost, loaned irc tires,
and modified stem/spacer stack

before i set out from home, before i had an early dinner, i was puzzled when i saw one white e.o.d. van with a fair lot of policemen around one spot just a stone's throw from my home. wonder what's going on - my guess would be some big shot would be coming to visit, but then again, i'm none the wiser...

almost got run down by this #$^%&$%* driver of a van, who ai mai ai mai clear the junction at lido/borders, while on my way to meet lynn and leon, because i was going to pass them the photos from last year's biketrials event at sentosa.

dropped by the bike boutique and saw kit leong's bike, and mambo72 soon dropped in there as well.

also dropped by climbasia where i was greeted by watching beatrix hugging the bouldering wall on the first level...

went out to one of my preferred bikeshops in the late afternoon, to sign up for the weekend race at bukit timah. when i told the resident bike mech that i was taking part in the xc race, he offered to loan me a set of tires for the conditions there - at no charge! i gladly accepted the offer, though i must say i have no idea how important the choice of tires can impact the ride handling. the tires in question, are irc's mythos xc, which i had a loooong time ago, but hated it because i was travelling on a cromoly bike with full suspension (that induces, "bob") and had a drivetrain set that was urgh.

just ended a two-day course in learning the ultimate basics in plant tissue culture... in the meanwhile, i hope my agar dish didn't get contaminated...