i just had the pleasure to say this: vicky is a great friend, great (tri)athlete, and a good advisor. she's becoming my figurative advisor in terms of seeking a female companion. i wouldn't know that i'd be saying it, but i thought i had to!

a good friend has gone off to thailand, hope to meet up on saturday when she's back. she's enticing me to go to the action asia challenge events in taiwan (30 april) and macau (11 june).

these two days, two great rides with rohaimie, atx850 and lovepain. total of 120k (only). yesterday's was really great for me where i finally had my first proper pulling - where i watched my speedo run from 32 to 38 kph along the lim chu kang airstrip. it was tiring on the legs as i pulled twice in the same way, as we did five loops there. but hey, it did feel really good.

i would be paying polar electro sg a visit tomorrow afternoon to sort out my wonky s710's light button; as well as the cracked-up speed sensor for my mountain bike.

and today was the day when i felt like a little functional decoration would go a long way. thought it would only be logical to do up both my bikes and helmets with reflective stickers for the morning ride to work and so on.


left to right: giro pneumo, bell sweep xc, bell influx

i don't know why or what made me think of this - i dreamt back to the days when i was a small kid, and there was some funny reason that i didn't forgive my grandmother for. she tried to make it up to me, but i just didn't want to forgive her.

grandma, i'm sorry.

just thought i wanted to get it in writing before i totally forget, a la the book, flowers for algernon.

i had a dream, i had an awesome dream.

i don't know why one day, canon decided to do an exhibit in my living room hall. i took a 400/2.8 is lens and tried it out. uh. somehow it gave me a smaller view with my camera. and i don't know what camera i was using, but the camera could change colour from black to white when a white lens was attached.

wandie just showed me a surreal japanese tilt-shift photography blog... check it out! bitter*girls

tomorrow i'm going thomson ride instead of going visiting.

i'm ready for the repercussions at work; it's like having the last supper before facing the ordeal that would soon follow.


distorted fastfood reality

though i couldn't get the camera through, and i forgot the earplugs, it was a good time. verbatim playing by dream theater... after eight or nine years of waiting. it was very well worth the wait.

working in the ministry - is it creativity in a boundary? boundaries in creativity?

or is it captivity in a non-creative boundary? i don't know.

i did something that isn't the best to mention, except to long time friends.

i need a break. and i'm not talking about the long weekend - it's too short for me to sort out my thoughts.

thankfully, the dream theater concert is tomorrow night.

and i'm not in the mood to do cny visiting this year, as usual.

bumped into old pals ocp and jinping (from vs) at taka today. surprised to find out the latter is now teaching in the same school as joel tay. small world, after all!

ended up buying brian lopes' mastering mountain bike skills from borders. $45.95. ouch. but for the photo illustrations... it's worth it!

i feel like a dying lad today. and yesterday too.

i guess it must have been because i hollered at a class of p2's with some grossly bochup students. i had already told them then - "you talk, i listen". so that means, when they talk, i'd listen. nope. no real use.

got my load of doxycycline from dr koh yesterday afternoon; just took my 3rd dose not long ago. and i still hope to make it to shoot funkamania tonight if i am feeling well enough. and tomorrow's the togoparts kom race too - how could i not go to get photos?

i dreamt of vicky and her boyfriend - and we were all taking part in this stairclimbing competition. but wait - i don't even know how he looks like exactly! see la phishy, you and your "sk" thing. i dreamt that the boyfriend was 70% angmoh, 30% local. and no, i'm not interested in guys hor!

got work to prep for next week, but i feel like poop right now. argh.

and speaking of which, i'll have to observe my rear brake lever. seems to have gone all spongy now. wonder why - could a replacement of the hoses do the trick? but the bubbling sound comes from the lever, not the hose. very odd.

and via sophia's blog...

You scored as English. You should be an English major! Your passion lies in writing and expressing yourself creatively, and you hate it when you are inhibited from doing so. Pursue that interest of yours! Biology 100% Philosophy 100% English 100% Theater 100% Journalism 100% Sociology 100% Psychology 100% Anthropology 100% Chemistry 92% Mathematics 92% Engineering 92% Dance 83% Linguistics 67% Art 67% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

one recent thought that's lingering on my mind - money. not really money itself, but the idea of prudence et al. i know i spent more than $5000 on my two bicycles over the last one year period, but it's paying off in other ways unseen. what i mean is that i've been practically able to cut off daily travel expenses off my entire annual financial summary. whole of 2005 - only $270 spent on ezlink. ok, i know that doesn't include my cab fares of $152.30 for the entire year. that's a grand total of $422.30 for one entire year. or average of $35.20 per month. how else can you do it?

now compare that with buying a "cheap car". how much? $50,000, with coe, shall we? spread over 7 years. that's an average $595.23, assuming 100% loan (which isn't true of course, but only to simplify this calculation). throw in the fuel cost of $300 a month, that's $895.23 a month for seven years that's taken right out from your pocket for such a long time. heck, my bikes cost me a total of $6.2k, for a monthly average of $516.67. well, that's only after one year, and i need not spend more unless things break down, or wear out. compare that to a car. big difference!

the reba rebounded and got permanently shorter. oops.

i was shocked when i read about one of my friends getting a 4 month jail sentence from the papers a few days back. to think that i didn't even suspect a thing - what does that show? i hope he learns from this lesson - though there was profiteering behind the thing that he did. it may be hard for him to get back into a "normal" life of working in an i.t. firm, so i hope his family is doing fine.

when you feel like doing anything, ask yourself first, if it would harm others and yourself. if it's all in good faith, then do carry on. if not, your conscience will feel the pain. money is important, but how you earn it is just as important.

friday night crossing into saturday morning was one of the most tiring days i've ever had in a long long time. the new easton ec90 stem was a pain to install - and i tried from 1+ am to 8+ am of saturday morning trying to get it down, but still in vain.

in my half-awake stupor, i managed to get some shots of the srrr event at singapore poly's pool.



just came back from the sly ride, in memory of the fallen rider who died in december 2004.