Monday, August 25, 2008

AHM (A "Hiong" Marathon)

And so I completed my first ever (and probably last) marathon. Oh all right it was a HALF marathon, if u wanna be picky. It was one hell of a marathon. And it wasn't because of the impeccable timing of the date (doors closing soon!).

I reached Padang on a wonderful Sunday morning with a lil' drizzle, around 5.30AM. Wonderful if you're still in bed, snug and comfortable with the blanket drawn over your heads. My first step into Padang was welcomed with a very satisfying *splat*.

That's right, the Padang had turned into Pa-dung overnight. Great way to start a Sunday eh? It was pretty dark (it WAS 5.30am) so I wandered around like a lost child before I finally found a bunch of people wearing the same singlet as mine. Met Ben and JH, before we started to hunt for a place to dump our bags. Funnily enough, all the bag deposits refused to let us deposit our bags (even the paying ones!). After running around like a bunch of confused chickens, we found some familiar faces and put all our bags together.

Thereafter was the start of the 21km run, which yours truly took part in. The run itself wasn't that bad. Hmm. Typo. The run wasn't that bad until I crossed the halfway 10km point. Up till then I was still sane, listening to my mp3 player, mouthing lyrics, looking at all the interesting people running past me, overtaking the slackers who were walking even before the first water point, and in general feeling rather good.

Once I turned the 10km corner in ECP, my left ankle screamed out "dude! this is the furthest I'll go!". My brain failed to heed its warning and told my legs to keep running. After awhile the pain dissolved into plain numbness, as I tried to concentrate on the music. Then around the 12km mark civilisation turned into wilderness as we wound through the forested area that is Marina Bay. Suddenly marathon wasn't an approprate term for the run anymore, x-country more likely. Mud! Uneven tracks! More mud! Potholes! Everyone slowed down during this segment. I think I went crazy and just overtook as many people as I could. Maybe it was the fresh air coming from the forest.

After crossing the Marina Barrage (around 15km), my knees started to complain. 16km. Thump thump thump. 17km. First sign of cramping. Ok, slow down, chill, don't use the calf muscles. 18km. ARGHHAGFHG where the hell is 19. 19km. OMFG finally 2km more. CRAMP. Ouch wtf. Ok lets walk then. walk walk walk. damn everyone is overtaking me. 20km. oooh yeah. F*** it just run. Run run run. 20.9km. AHA I CAN SEE THE FINISH LINE! *drools rabidly*. Run run run. 20.98km. CRAMP CRAMP CRAMP. Why are my legs dragging? wtf not now. hobble hobble hobble. Beep. Hmm I crossed the line? cool. am I supposed to feel euphoric?

That sums up the run. And I'm still having chui legs, ankles and knees.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

ping and pong.

I haven't been blogging a lot, have I? I've had to dust away several dead spiders and their webs before I could find the "NEW POST" button.

Ok suddenly global warming stopped for a second.

Anyway! Today our born-in-China-play-for-Singapore table tennis mercenaries will fight for their own personal glory, and ours, for the flag that goes up has white instead of yellow stars. If you ask me I'll say it'll be easier for the 3 of them since the burden of winning for the team and our first medal has been lifted.

People have been playing down the significance of the silver they won last Sunday mostly based on their birthplace. But hey, weren't we all from the same 'ol China (if you're Chinese, that is)? Sure, Chinese Chinese talk like machine guns (or rather, we're the ones who maul the language), but deep down inside, the blood, the DNA, the roots, the culture, its all the same. Its the same phenomenon that happened way back after a certain ang moh spoke cheem English to our Tunku, made him sign some dodgy documents and declared that Singapore was open. And in rushed all those kiasu (mostly Chinese) immigrants, our great great great grandparents, queueing up since the previous morning, wanting to grab the best bargains of the Singapore Dream.

Its the same thing, only faster (LOTS faster). We go where the money is. We're all Boba Fett at heart. Boss pays good, we do it. And if we do that something really well to make Boss really happy, why not?

So erase that niggling thought (yes I know you have it nestled in your brain cells somewhere) that the efforts of Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu and Feng Tianwei (even Tao Li) will be lesser than if they were to be replaced by "pure" Singaporeans.

The medals are for all of us.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

NDP weekend!

Singapore celebrated her 43rd birthday last Saturday (damn!)
somehow this year feels like the previous year's one, with all that water stunts, floating balloons and stuff.

Anyway, me and XJ celebrated our 3rd year together with Singapore. 3 years seems long huh? Time flies real quickly...

Somehow I managed to get hold of cheap SG Flyer tickets, only to find out they could only be used before 6pm. There went the chance of catch the fireworks.
Once there (in some ulu part of marina bay, on a plot of land obscured by ECP), I was reminded of the purpose of the Flyer as a tourist magnet (money changer, check. expensive souvenier store, check. luxury stores, check). Nice atmosphere though, with live music and a tropical garden. The viewing deck was crowded with people waiting to watch the fireworks (it was only 6pm!).

We got into the same cabin as a bunch of tourists (Bangla, Japanese, Ang Moh, Indo, maybe Chinese). I felt like a tourist in my own country.



We could see the parachute segment, tiny dots spiralling down to the floating platform, the water performance segment, followed by the 25 pounder guns lined up below (the guns kept in my camp garage!) and the gunners from Charlie (the battery I'm attached to!). Never saw NDP upclose before until now (unless u count P5).

Then we headed off to Lau Pa Sat for some zhi char BBQ seafood! yum yum. Standard hotplate tofu, cereal prawns and pepper crabs!



not bad at all! though the crabs were kinda messy, my brand new shirt kena black splats. We missed the fireworks though, and had to make do with distorted reflections off the glass surfaced buildings and lots of booms.

Caught a late night movie after that. Our plan was to catch the 9pm Mummy show, but we missed it so we "sneaked" in at 9.40 with legit tickets (only wrong time LOL) to make the most of the 8 bucks. In the end had to settle for Money no enough 2 front row seats.

Good show! Cheesy laughs at the beginning, serious heartwarming and teary stuff near the end. Predictable plot, good acting (from the Ah Ma), usual jibes at the government, and issues close to our hearts.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Feeling rather lazy today. Bummed around the house sweating it out in this crazy hot weather (another sign of global warming!! al gore +1)

Just realised my last post was 2 weeks ago, which is quite pathetic. Since then I've done lots of stuff (which probably explains my neglected blog lol)

1) Watched the Dark Knight

Really good, dark movie. The Joker (I know, all that hype surrounding him) was portrayed really well, considering the skeptical view I took while watching the movie. Sadistic, insane, cunning, ugly. Now the phrase "Why so serious?" is popping up everywhere, even on my TF2 games. Looks like everyone feels the same way. Too bad Two-Face died though, I was expecting him to be the baddie in Batman 3 or something. I couldn't understand some parts probably due to the twisted storyline, involving Batman vs Mafia, then Joker vs Mafia, then Joker + Mafia vs Batman, then everyone vs Batman. The ferry scene was the best IMO, I would have been terrified to be in those people's shoes.

2) Stayed over in camp

Can't say much about it, except it involved a really cold night. Brrr. And some noisy rats/lizards.

3) Got burnt by ash

Friday was the first day of the Chinese Seventh Month and so we burnt some incense in camp for safety and protection. I had hot ash fall repeatedly on my finger while trying to stick the incense into the pot, which hurt like hell (pardon the pun). I hope it didn't mean anything else.

4) Ate Muthu's Curry for the second time + Bought a new pair of ear phones

Went with XJ to eat Muthu's at Suntec on Saturday. The naan and briyani were delicious, though the main courses were so-so. The mutton curry in particular didn't agree with my stomach, I felt uncomfortable the whole day. Pappadums! *crackle*

We both went to Creative and got a pair of in-ear earphones each. I've been wanting to get one for ages, and I aimed for Audio Technica, until I learnt of their prices. My Creative one cost only $45 (ok, 45 may seem abit expensive, but its the real deal). It works like a charm - I couldn't hear a thing outside while plugged in (except baby screeches which I don't think even the best ear plugs could block). I even fell asleep on the bus without noticing it. And it keeps sounding better and better the longer I use it. No wonder my recently failed Hyundai mp3 player earphones sound sooooo good despite being 4 years old. Quite sad to throw it away T.T

1 week to NDP! And boom (7% GST!) boom (so many ERP!) boom (Public transport fee increase!)