Hong Kong, again!

Another trip to Hong Kong! I am so glad that I do not live in Hong Kong; coz I would go bankrupt if I do from all the shopping!

It was a trip for the annual company's team event. We were given some time for shopping and I extended my stay after the team event to meet up & catch up with Huizhen.

With colleagues - waiting for the shuttlebus back to the hotel

Day event. My team members - we belonged to the Iron Fist team

Night event. Monica & Me

Night event. Peggy & Me

That's my team doing the Chinese Drum dance on stage. And that's me second from right.Alice picked my name for a 2 nights' stay @ Sheraton Miyako, Tokyo

The party begins!

Trip extension. Lunch at a local eatery. The beef was Yummy!

Chinese sauages

Waxed pork ribs

The sale assistant still uses the traditional weighing scale

Shoe-shining along street of Hong Kong

A Quote in an Obituary

I have a strange habit: When I get my hands on the local newspapers, I always read the obituary pages. It all started when I was reading an article and the person interviewed commented that you will never get to read your own obituary; so he always makes it a point to read the obituary pages.


Everytime I came across someone who died @ a young age, I always wonder what happened... Was it due to an illness? Was it due to an accident? Was it sudden or was it expected? How are the family members taking it?Do the frens know about it? My heart pained especially for cases where the dead left young children behind.


I was waiting to board the plane @ Changi airport during one of my working trips when I came across the obituary for this young man who died @ the age of 26. No kids with wife of 9 months. There was a quote in his obituary and I was quite impacted by it to actually bother to take out a pen and paper and to note it down.


"I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might-have-been has never been; but a has-been was once an are."

1/2 Marathon

This is the reason why I was not keen to travel for work and to disrupt my running schedule. I have been training for the 1/2 marathon.


It all started with The Hubby suggesting that we signed up for the 1/2 marathon. Now, for those of you who knew me from 9 years ago, you would have remembered what happened in 1999 after the Gold Coast Marathon. I felt pain 1/2 way through the marathon but I was so determined to complete it that I crossed the finishing line with a hairline crack on my hip bone. I had to serve time on crutches after that, followed by physiotheraphy sessions. I have not ran in another marathon (10 km, 1/2 or otherwise) since.

I readily agreed to sign up for it with The Hubby coz I wanted to encourage him to pick up running. However, deep in my heart, I was a bit apprehensive....in fact, I was very apprehensive/worried/scared (whatever other words there are) that I would end up on crutches again after this run.

All these years, I have been running on and off, as and when my work schedule allows me to as part of a normal exercise regime. However, those runs were like 30 mins in duration @ maximum. I started running more regularly in Sept. Work was insane as it was budget period during Sept-Nov period. I was also juggling 2 jobs and there was the travelling to contend with! Sometimes I even had to run near midnight! There were times when I just wanted to give up and lead a "normal" life!

Anyways, on Dec 2nd, we woke up at 3am and had bread for breakfast. We left the house at 430am. We had originally planned to park @ ORQ but it seems that there were some miscommunication & the building was not accessible afterall. So we ended up parking at Suntec City (after going to and fro on the ECP 3 times) at 530am. I was starting to get anxious in the car coz I didnt want to miss the start of the race.

The 1/2 marathon was flagged off at 615am. It took me a lot of courage to step up to the starting line. I was worried about history repeating itself. I had two goals for this run: I don't want to end up on crutches @ the end of it and it'll be a bonus if I can do a under-2 hours timing.

It was quite nice to be running with all those people around you. I didn't realise that I had missed the feeling...the feeling that you are not doing it alone. It was quite fun! The weather was nice early in the morning and I was enjoying it.

There were supposed to be distance markers @ every km. After the 16th one, I didn't see the markers anymore. So I was jus trodding along....until I realised that the finishing line was quite near. I sprinted to the finishing line with tons of energy left to spare (started sprinting too late :P), and slightly more than 2 hours. The Hubby completed it under 3 hours; I am happie for him coz that was his target.

Completing this 1/2 marathon pain-free has allowed me to cross my own internal fear about running the distance. It is not a long distance but I ran a good race and am happie! :) On my way home, I looked @ the full marathoners still running the race. I have frens running the full one and am so proud of them. I had been there before; it is really painful. Somewhere deep in my heart, I wished I was running with them too. Mabbe, just mabbe... I will have the courage to go for the full marathon again....sometime.....soon.....

The Hubby preparing the night before
Shoes ready with Champion Chip

Timing on my watch when I crossed the finishing line (It's more than 2 hours and I blamed the lack of distance markers towards the end coz I started sprinting too late! Hee!)
Both of us @ the Finish The 1/2 marathon finishers medal

Guiyang, China Part II

This is the view from my hotel room. Check out the tribal-design-inspired building on the left of pic
During the war - The red army. This is actually in the hotel and it was for one of the coffee breaks during the meeting. Creative!

They served food eaten during the war during the same coffee break

Plates were written with the words "Long live Chairman Mao!"

It was 10% on the morning we went on the excursion. Grrrrrr!

My birthday on the stone. There were 365 pieces of stones across different lakes and we had to walk through all of them to get to the other side.

Beautiful scenery

Quaint!

This is the famous "Huang Guo Shu Waterfall" in Guiyang
Close-up of waterfall

I am actually behind the waterfall in this pic. Similar to what they have @ Niagara Falls

The bridge that I was on was actually shaking very violently as we took this pic

Night view of the same tribal-design-inspired building near hotel

Guiyang, China Part I

I had to go to Guiyang (贵阳), China for work recently. It was not a trip that I was dying to go on for the following reasons:
- I just spent the week before in Hong Kong and I didn't want to travel again so soon;
- It was for me to give a presentation and to provide some kinda update to all the Financial Controllers in China and I was expecting them to "kill" me on stage; and
- I didn't want to disrupt my jogging schedule.


The trip did not get off to a good start. The travel agent booked me on the wrong flight that was flying me to Guilin instead of Guiyang! By the time the mistake was discovered, all the SG-HK flights were fully booked already and I had to fly SG-Guangzhou with a 6 hours transit! I took 14 hours door-to-door!

I didn't know where Guiyang was before I went and none of my family and frens either. It is the capital of Guizhou province and the city has an elevation of 1,100 meters. Population is about 7 million, made up of 23 different minorities in addition to ethnic Han. Its GDP is only USD1,500 per capita in 2003. It is mainly an agricultural and coal mining place; and is not known for tourism. Temperatures ranged from 16 in the day and 8 at night when I was there.


I spent a total of 3 days 4 nights in Guiyang. Two days were for work and I could not get a seat on the domestic flight the next day; so I stayed an extra day. I spent the extra day going on a excursion with some of the China Financial Controllers to this famous (mabbe the only one) tourist attraction in Guiyang.

Let me start with the usual pics of Guiyang food and then follow with another post on the touristy part :)

The beef hor-fun I had at Guangzhou airport during my 6 hours transit

I was in Business Class for the domestic Guangzhou - Guiyang leg. This is the appetizer they served in a domestic airline.
This is the main course: rice with fish ball, pumpkin & sweet potatoes
One of the hotpot dinners. They always have hotpot due to the cold weather there. A typical Guiyang dinner will have a hotpot with various ingredients to cook in the hotpot accompanied by countless side dishes.
Side dish: Beef brisket with peanuts

Side dish: Veggie wrapped in Chee Cheong Fun

Side dish: Braised bean curd cooked Guiyang-style

Side dish: The service staff said this is duck; but it didn't taste like it to me!

Side dish: BBQ meat. They were BBQ-ing it on the floor near the entrance of the restaurant. The service staff told me it was lamb but later someone else told me there was rabbit meat in it too!

Side dish: Fried tang yuan

Side dish: Braised pork on gui-cai (typical Guiyang dish)

Side dish: Some kind of veggie root - its a typical Guiyang dish

Side dish: Beef with some radish (I think!) strips

Side dish: Mei-cai with peanuts

Side dish: The service staff said the black strips are pork....but I really don't know...

It's a kind of dried fruit that the locals eat. I tried it and it's something I won't eat again :P

I was so overwhelmed by my 3 days of Guiyang food that I had Mac during my transit at Guangzhou airport on the way home. Mac didn't taste this good before!