Jogging for 2009

2008 was a very good year of jogging for me. I achieved what I set out to do and some. I know that I could have done better and much more but hey, contentment --> happiness right? :P


So after a marathon personal best, an ultra-marathon and a "never-in-a-long-time" fitness level in 2008, what's next for 2009? This is a question which friends (and I) have been asking me (myself). And I have yet to have a firm answer to this question.


I have been running and still running since the start of 2009. Mileage clocked in 2009 thus far is 138km. :) I guess top of my list is to be blessed with good health (we all know how the downtime caused by a small cold can wreak havoc on one's stamina and fitness level!) and be injury-free (again, downtime caused by injury is a b*t*h!) in 2009.


I may do some short races in Singapore this year, specifically the GE 10km run and the SHAPE run. Both runs are for female only and I have not done them before; so it'll be a new experience. Anyone interested to join me? ;)


For half marathons, I heard that the one in Angkor Wat, Siem Reap offers a nice run. Would be ideal if I had not been to Siem Reap before so that can throw in a holiday at the same time. But I guess that should be the least of considerations. Anyhow, this race is late in the year; so will do a rain-check on this again.

For marathons, the Gold Coast Marathon in July/09 is very tempting. I spent 2.5 months on crutches after the Gold Coast Marathon in 1999 and it'll be a good closure if I were to go run and complete the same marathon 10 years later (without ending up on crutches and it'll be a bonus with a PB thrown in :P). Like they say, better late than never! I'll have to see how my schedule goes between now and mid-year.


Then, there is the year-end marathon in Singapore. I wonder if Standard Chartered would continue sponsoring the event given the "technical recession" we are in. I may do it again this year if schedule allows; or I may do the half-marathon and aim for a sub-2 hours timing.

So in a nutshell, I am just running and running, now; not training for any race/goal specifically...Any suggestions, anyone?

Coffee for the Day!

Caught Coffee in the act of yawning! Looks like this baby needs some coffee himself :P

Reflection on 2008

We are already so many days into January 2009 so I know that this post is a bit late...

It took me a long while to start hammering on the keyboard for this post…..2008….what special things/people/events did 2008 bring? 2008 seemed to come and go by in a flash; I had hardly breathed and it is gone before I know it! Let me do a review of the year just passed from various aspects:
Family

Chia Yew Hai left his first job after one year (hmmm…some similarities between siblings here as I left my first job after one year as well!) and is now working in the IT department of a Swiss bank. I am still trying to get used to the concept that my brother is no longer the “little brother” that he used to be; for goodness sake, he has already graduated and working in the corporate world! :)

Mummy and Dad are business as usual. Both are still working. They still dote on and spoil Coffee rotten. They still go on their romantic weekly “date”. Mummy still buys fresh fruits daily and cut them for Chia Yew Hai and me. Despite my hectic travel schedule for the first half of 2008, I made it a point to have dinner with my folks whenever I am back in town. These dinners are good opportunities to catch up with each other and find out what has been happening in each other’s lives. And I guess these dinners are also important to let my folks know that they are important to me.

Coffee is still the love of my life! He turned 4 in Nov/2008 – time flies! I didn’t spend as much time with Coffee this year as I would have liked. I was travelling for first half of 2008 and I was trying to juggle two jobs, training for the marathon, work and spending time with family/Coffee during the second half of 2008. I still remember that I was travelling so much during the first half of the year that when I got home from one of the trips, he threw a tantrum, sulked and ignored me! That boy!

Friends

I tried to stay in touch and catch up with close friends as often and as much as I can. I met up with Hwee Cher, Winston and Faith when I was in Hong Kong. I finally caught up with Holliday when I was in Los Angeles. I went on a Hakone weekend trip with Ohkubu-san when I was in Tokyo.

On home ground, 2008 was a good year where Been, Lian and I (sometimes with Coffee in tow) met up regularly for high tea, mahjong sessions, shopping, baking, dinners and so on. The highlight was the three of us spent an awesome weekend of non-stop eating and shopping in Hong Kong!

AnnQi is a very close friend of mine. She and I work in the same office area so I try to meet her regularly for lunch to catch up on each other’s lives. I love the lunch sessions with her because both of us can bit*h freely to each other about work and anything about life. I can tell her what I am really thinking about knowing that she would not judge me for it.

Cindy was my hostel roomie when we were in university. She operates a cart business selling knick-knacks in my office area. So I try to catch up with her sometimes by packing my lunch and eating it at her cart. This way, she can keep an eye on her business and at the same time, we both can catch up.

I met the Peng Yew gang from Accenture only twice in 2008 due to my travelling and conflicting schedules. This was a vast difference from our weekly party sessions at Mohammad Sultan when we were much younger! But both sessions were good – we picked up where we last left off and caught up like old friends (well, does a decade count?).

Henry (aka God-brother) has become a family friend. He loves Coffee and he visits my parents’ place regularly to play with Coffee and Coffee loves playing with him too. He is someone I can share gossips with; someone I can share my problems with knowing that he would not judge. Henry is also my concert-going kaki – we went to Jacky Cheung, Sammi Cheng and Andy Lau concerts together in 2008.

Oliver and Katherine are technically “doggie” friends in the sense that we got to know each other because of our dogs. However, we humans do keep in constant contact via MSN and SMS. I do meet Oliver for lunch sometimes when she is around the area. Both of them are very sweet – they always remember Coffee’s (yeah, not mine!) birthday.

A new group of friends I made this year are the Fatbirds. Actually none of them are fat. Haha! I chanced upon them during one of my training runs around The Esplanade area. They are called Team Fatbird because they run every Tuesday and Thursday starting from the Fatbird statue at Raffles Place. They were also one of the official pacer groups for the Standard Chartered Marathon and I joined them for a few running sessions at East Coast Park on Sunday mornings.

They are quite fun people to hang out with – people from different walks of life all coming together through the common love of running. The more senior folks would dish out “running/training tips” which I really appreciate.

Jogging

My jogging goal for 2008 was to complete a marathon in less than 5 hours. Doing another marathon was something that I have always wanted to do before I turned 30 (yeah, yeah, I know I am late but that is not the point!). I signed up for the May Sundown Marathon but did not participate because I was not even in Singapore during the race itself. Having said that, my insane travelling schedule would not have allowed me to train properly for it.

So I signed up for the December Standard Chartered Marathon and started training when I stopped travelling in August. No magic training formula nor official training program – I just ran and ran and ran :P Like I mentioned earlier, it was tough making time to go jogging with two jobs and wanting to spend time with family and friends and also wanting to do thousand and one things! I knew I was not clocking enough mileage to do well in the marathon (based on what some of the “senior” runners told me). But I was determined to run and finish the race.

I finished the race and with a timing that I was happy with! Credit goes to the Fatbird pacers whom I was following for ¾ of the race. Go read the post dated 30 Dec/08 for more details.

Three weeks after the StanChart Marathon, I ran 52.5km in an Ultra-marathon at MacRitchie Reservoir. It was (and still is) the longest distance I have ever ran in my life. I was a bit hesitant to participate in the race (more due to laziness than anything else!) but with the urging and encouragement of the Fatbirds, I decided to go for it. The fact that I had a “personal” pacer in Fatbird Max gave me an extra incentive as well. :) Go read the post dated 2 Jan/09 for more details.

I have always only had one pair of jogging shoes at any point in time. Why is there a need to have more than one pair of jogging shoes? I only have one pair of feet. Well, that was the thinking before I met the Fatbirds. Now I am being told and advised that one needs to wear different types of jogging shoes for different types or training/running depending on intensity, terrain, duration and so on. So I went from one pair of jogging shoes to four pairs within a span of two months! (I have five pairs at the time of writing and looking at acquiring another pair!). I am still an Asics die-hard fan when it comes to jogging shoes – call me a shoe snob!

Travel
As I mentioned in an earlier post, 2008 will go down as the year where I travelled the most for work in my life (so far). I travelled so much that I am now a PPS member of the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program. :)
I also took a long family holiday in Italy where we covered almost the whole of Italy during the summer.
Handbags
Those of you who know me well will know that I am a handbag and shoes fanatic. My handbag addiction is really expensive and sometimes I think it is gonna make me a bankrupt one day. My current obsession for handbags is Bottega Veneta (BV) and I bought three BV bags in 2008. I should really cut back in 2009 given that it will be a “really bad year”.
Work
2008 started off as a good year for work but starting from end of Q3 till year end, things were on the downhill trend. There is gloomy news everywhere about things becoming worse. We have already received notification of a pay freeze (no increment) for 2009. Well, it is not that much of a difference compared to my 1% pay increment last year anyways. Ha!
I am glad that I had another semester of teaching at NTU in 2008. I made more friends on the students and we are still keeping in touch via MSN and Facebook. I had met a number of them for lunches and dinners outside of school and I even went Mambo Jambo with one group! Heehee.

--> So that kinda wrap up 2008 off the top of my head....I think I may have missed out on some aspects but oh well, I can always write about it when they pop into my mind. :P

Bolt

Being the dog lover that I am, I couldn't wait to catch the movie Bolt. Catching this movie also means that I stepped into a cinema theater in Singapore for the first time in 2008!
I enjoyed the movie thoroughly! It also reminds me of the "Quote of the Day" I had in this same blog a while ago - Sometimes, perception is reality. :)

MR25 UltraMarathon 2008 - 52.5km

The MR25 UltraMarathon is organised by the MacRitchie Runners every year. The race route is a 10.5km loop in MacRitchie Reservoir and one needs to complete a minimum of 5 loops to be "certified" as having completed the ultramaraton. One is given 12 hours from 7am - 7pm to run as many loops as one desires.

I was initially relectant to do this race because I hate running slopes; and the trail terrain in MacRitchie makes it very challenging with a high risk of injuries. But I decided to do it after tons of encouragement from my running friends and also an a wrap-up of running in 2008!

Max was kind enough to pace me throughout the race. When we were doing the 4th loop, we were contemplating doing 6 loops in total. But I fell and landed flat on all fours @ the 50km mark which kinda affected my momentum. Also, I was starving by then and Popeye Chicken was calling out to me. Haha! So we completed the 5 loops (with tons of energy left to spare, as usual) and headed off to makan!

All in all, it was a great experience and I am glad that I did it! :)

Group picture of Team Fatbirds before the start Me with my pacer Max before the start Both of us along the route Me inside the MacRitchie trail Both of us along the SICC golf course portion of the route Max & me at one of the water points - forgot which loop it is...
That's me @ the end of 52.5km! :) David, Me & Max

42.195km in 4 hours 26 minutes

The Standard Chartered Marathon was my goal race for 2008. I was targetting a sub-5 hours timing (meaning completing the marathon in less than 5 hours).
I started the race following the 4:45 Fatbirds pacers - with an aim to finish the marathon at 4 hours and 45 minutes. The race started off good and nice - the weather was good, the pace was comfortable and drinks stations were plenty.
I was still feeling great at the 30km mark and with encouragement from the Fatbirds pacers, I decided to break away from them and run at a faster pace to achieve a better timing. Which I did.....:)

My bib with the champion chip
Shoes ready with champion chip
I had a sponsorship from Adidas and they printed my tagline on the back of my running top

Me @ the end with the Finisher's Medal

With some of my Starwood colleagues who did the 10km Corporate Challenge

The rest of colleagues Close-up of the Finisher's Medal The Finisher's Tee

48 months and counting...

Coffee celebrated his 4th birthday recently. Time really flies; 4 years. I can still remember vividly the first time I carried him in my arms :)

He seems to be growing up to be a pensive dog - look @ how he is "thinking" about his life :P

Oliver bought Coffee a nice carrot cake!
That is Coffee stealing a lick of the cake
Look @ the cream on his chin. It was intially all over his mouth before he licked them off!

I bought him Hainanese Chicken Rice doggy style. It looks and tastes yummy!

Lamb meat balls

Assorted muffins

Biscuits

I decided to buy him some food for his birthday this year as we did not do anything for last year. He loves the food a lot and didn't wanna eat his kibbles after that when he finished all these "human" food. That boy!

The Battle

I felt weird beginning of last week. I felt as if a flu and cough was coming on. I mean I was not totally sick sick per se but you know, you can feel it in your body.
The regular doctor that I went to near my office was on 2 weeks' leave and I did not want to see the locum. So I went to another clinic near my office which I have been to before.
Two things pissed me off regarding this doctor's visit:
1. The clinic lost me medical records! They could not find my card! I have been to that clinic many times and even did a full body health screening there. So what happened to my medical records? Aren't medical records supposed to be sensitive and confidential?!?!
The receptionist was like "It's OK, I can always issue you a new card". I was like "No, that is not the point about getting a card. The point is - what happened to my medical records?!?!".

2. Again the doctor whom I normally see at this clinic was out on a conference that day (it seems that the whole medical world is against me!). So I saw another doctor in the same clinic. I have not seen him before and he saw my "new" card and was looking at me suspiciously. He thinks that all I wanted was a medical certificate so that I do not need to go back to work. (For the record, he did not give me one).
So he gave me some useless medication and kept saying that I need a lot of rest (Again, note that he did not give me a medical certificate to cover me for a day to go home to rest).

Meanwhile, I have been boiling and drinking ginger water and keeping myself warm whenever I can.

It is now 3 days to the marathon and I am still fighting the battle with the virus. Some days are good, some days are bad. I am all wrapped up in the office as if it is winter in Singapore; the centralised air con in the office makes me feel worse. I feel much better when I am at home without the air con.

I am determined to run the marathon and to complete it. Now the big question is whether I will feel well enough on race day to get the timing that I want. Keep me in your prayers.

17 days.....

It is 17 days to the annual Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon.
If you remember, I ran the 1/2 Marathon last year and wrote about it in an earlier post. I felt great after the race and it was life back to normal the day after.

I decided to do the 1 Marathon this year (yes, all 42.195km of it). I was supposed to have done it before I turned 30 years of age, but I guess better late than never! :) I have been running regularly since I stopped travelling in August this year (but still not clocking enough mileage!). Running a full Marathon is not as simple as running two 1/2 Marathons. The human body is designed to take stress/work up till a certain point and anything beyond that is just pure pain. It is how we learn to deal with the pain that determines how well we run a marathon.

I am beginning to feel a bit "stressed" about the upcoming run. I guess the difference was that when I was training and running the 1/2 last year, there was no pressure and no expectations at all. I was just looking forward to running the race and enjoying it. It was my first long distance run after the infamous injury and I was very happie that I completed it.
This year, there are some expectations I have of myself when I step up to the starting line. Not only will I be aiming to complete the whole marathon injury-free, I am also gunning for a "desired timing". But then again, you see, these two aims/objectives are kinda in conflict with each other, right?

Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers! :)

Which Primary School are you from?

I have been asking frens this question whenever we end up talking about children and having them.

It has become a ridiculous madness when parents are getting their children registered into Primary One these days. For the uninitiated, children in Singapore start attending Primary 1 @ the age of 7. Each year, the registration exercise brings tons of angst and anxiety to parents island-wide. The number of cardiac arrests increases with the popularity of the primary school based on the number of straight As students the school produces at each year’s PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination).

There are a few phases in the registration exercise; in order of priority (for the benefit of those with kids or planning to have kids!):

• Phase 1: For a child who has a sibling studying in the school of choice. All children registered under this scheme will be given a place. But then, it won’t apply to your first kid!
• Phase 2A1: For a child whose parent is a former student and current member of alumni association;
• Phase 2A2: For a child whose parent is a former student;
• Phase 2B: For a child whose parent is an active volunteer of the school or parent is an active member of a church associated with school;
• Phase 2C: For a child who is ineligible or unsuccessful in earlier phase (meaning you and/or your kid is screwed);
• Phase 3: For a child who is not a Singapore or Singapore PR (Why bother trying?).

For all phases, if the number of applicants is more than the number of vacancies, children living within 1km radius of the school will be given priority in balloting over those living within 2 km and outside 2km radius.

I know of parents who (and this list is not exhaustive):

• Sold off current house and bought a new place so as to be within 1-2 km radius of their preferred primary school;
• Started dedicating time to volunteer in the primary school of their choice;
• Became Christians so as to get their kid to that Christian primary school;
• Baptized the kid to be eligible to register under phase 2B;
• Changed church to one that is affiliated to the preferred primary school;
• Donated money;
• …..

My primary school has closed down. So how? Is is really worth going through all these trouble to get your child into the "preferred" primary school? Does the "right" primary school make so much difference in how your child will turn out in life, successful or not? My bro and I went to a neighbourhood primary school and I would love to think that we both turned out okaaay....

Hello.....

My blog entries since the beginning of 2008 have been all pictures from my travels. It has been a crazy "world tour" and 2008 is probably gonna be remembered as the year where I spent almost the same amount of time in different hotel rooms and @ home. The year is not yet over and I have visited 23 cities in 11 countries so far.

I am not complaining about the travelling; in fact, I am grateful for the opportunities to travel and visit places which I may have not gone on my own. I
· Experienced one of the coldest winters Japan ever had in Sapporo, Hokkaido;
· Walked on the marble of the Taj Mahal;
· Saw the sunrise and sunset at The Grand Canyon;
· Soaked in a real onsen in Hakone, Japan;
· Had a visual replay of Tomb Raider at Angkor Wat;
· Revisited the Sydney Harbour Bridge;
· Shopped at the world’s fashion capital in Milan;
· Admired world famous artefacts at the Uffizi Museum in Florence;
· Eaten the best French toast in a small local café in Hong Kong;
· Took a camel ride in Jaipur…

It was great. I immersed myself in different cultures, tasted varieties of local food and in some instances, tried to live like a local wherever I am (by taking public transport and even eating from the roadside stall in India!). I took many wonderful pictures and I accumulated tons of souvenirs from my trips. New friends were made and beautiful memories were created.

However, after a while, it all gets tiring. I miss home. I miss my family and I miss Coffee. I miss having some stability and predictability (read: boring) in my life. I miss hanging out with close friends over a nice brownie in a nice café on a Saturday afternoon. I miss putting on my jogging shoes and going out for a nice jog whenever I feel like it. I miss going for my regular Sunday morning hot yoga class. I miss going for family dinners with my folks.

I was living out of a suitcase, literally. I reached home, opened my suitcase, took out the dirty clothes and souvenirs/food that I had bought, packed in clean clothes, spent a couple of days in Singapore and I found myself in a taxi headed for Changi Airport again.

Life still goes on at home when one travels. Bills still come in the mail and need to be paid. Coffee still needs to be fed daily and taken for walks. Clothes still need to be washed and dried. The toilet still needs to be scrubbed. And I start getting the feeling that I am missing out on all these regular (and mundane) routines in life.

With the uncertain market conditions, there had been travel restrictions imposed in my company, which means I do not travel anymore (at least until the end of 2008) and I am happie about it.

Now I work 4 days a week at my company (and yes, at 80% of the salary in case you are wondering) and I spend one day each week teaching at NTU where I enjoyed the interactions I have with the undergraduates.

I try to jog at least three times a week and I go for my regular Sunday morning hot yoga class. I arrange for dinner with my folks and I plan for catch-up sessions with my good friends. I have the pleasure of playing the hide-and-seek game weekly with Coffee trying to get him to bathe! I am back to my routine of scrubbing the toilet every two weeks.

Interestingly, these routines, though simple and some may say boring, bring joy and feelings of stability to me and my simple life. Mabbe it’s an age thing – I am just getting oooooold…

Foggia, Italy '08 - Food

This is a food post! Shows some of the food I had in Foggia - the best I had in Italy during the whole trip coz it was part of the wedding! :P

Pasta with green peas and spinach Pasta with beef stew Rack of lamb with fries Cheese platter Tiramisu with chocolate biscotti - I didnt touch the tiramisu coz I wanted to stay alive :P Cheese appetiser Zucchini Flowers with Cheese - very yummy! Mushrooms sauteed with olive oil Pasta in another form Roasted potatoes with spinach. I didn't touch that lump of meat in the top corner. Fruits straight from the farm for dessert Salami with cheese as appetiser Pasta in yet another form This looks like curry chicken but it is actually chicken cooked with tomatos and olive oil. I could not have enough of it!! Dessert!! The Italians are quite similar to the Japanese - they place soooo much importance on presentation. Some kind of ham as appetiser. Nice presentation! Pasta cooked with some kind of veggie with olive oil Tomatoes and mozarella cheese Hazelnut chocolate cake. The lavender flower was plucked fresh from the garden just before the cake was served. Attention to details!!

Darn! Writing this post makes me sooooooo hungry now!!

Foggia, Italy '08

Foggis is a city of Puglia, Italy, the capital of the province of Foggia. It is a 2.5 hours train ride from Rome. Spent four days in Foggia for the wedding.

Foggia train station Phone booth in Foggia The Italian countryside Sunset with the rolling hills.... Grapes in the vineyard where the wedding was held Accommodation during the wedding
View of the Foggia countryside in the background from the room. The foreground is the vineyard. Me in my pretty cheongsum for the wedding :P My cousin Colin - one of the cutest boy I have seen!