Chicken chop day

I tried a 12km run during Army Half Marathon and clocked a timing of 1hr and 10min.

Was glad that i could still complete the distance, because

1. I couldnt really remember when i last ran
2. My shorts kept slipping off my hip bones as i was on my final 5km.

Talking about the shorts make my blood boil. Its this pair of asics running shorts( this particular pair that expose my beautiful thighs ) that came loose. This pair of shorts saw me through my runner days in 20SA back in Feb 2002. Over time the elastic band within the pants came loose. That's the background story.

The final 5km was like dragging class 5 vehicle tire on my hip, simply because the shorts started to slide of my hips. Somehow the pants had SO much sweat that with every stride i take, i expose 0.5cm of my blue underwear. I got freaking fed up and decided to run with both my hands on my hips.

This lady came up to me and asked if i had some form of excruciating pain on my hips. I said thanks, with a constipated look.

The aftermath?

A poor boy with aching lats, quads, shin, calves and watever major muscle group you can think of on a monday morning in Changi Airport, coupled with some shit rough throat.

A good start for me. A wonderful first day at work.

Chyekiat ever mention somewhere that pain is a sign of weakness leaving your body.

I hope he is darn right.

slalom routine

I am still quite hesitant to really come up with a set of slalom routine. Thinking hard if i should really join any upcoming slalom competitions. Training like this doesnt make me enjoy the sport somehow.

I quote Robin from team micro, singapore, who once commented on routine training:

1. Have more than 20 moves ( regardless of difficulty level ) that can be performed on demand under any conditions.

2. Mix and match these moves. Use them to clear cones of the various spacings.

3. Among transitions of these moves you try to whip up your own style of spinning, stalling, and whatever you can think of.

In short, the 3 pointers serves as a very progressive way of building up your own style of slalom skating. The very tricky and tough part however, is to churn up a series of moves unique to one and appeasing to the eyes of the crowd.

You see, the problem is, more often than not, when someone is dying for moves to mix and match, they would browse the web for ideas. Many would refer to archives on YOU TUBE to get inspirations. The latest craze is this fella named KIM SUNG JIN from Korea. He is truly someone who broke away from the usual French Technical Style of slalom skating. Just look at what he can do back in 2005.



And by some form of evolution, this guy made up his own slalom style and won the recent competition in shanghai 2007. To me, the leap in standard is simply awesome.



You have to watch the clips to really understand why so many people are trying to pry open his routine and break his moves into steps for learning.

****************************************************************************

With all the hype about this skating sport ( I tend to mix with the slalom peeps these days to kill time while waiting for job to start )I am thinking hard if i should really join any upcoming slalom competitions.

I love to do this cone trick sport. Basically when you are bored, just slip onto your skates, bring your cones, and go to a place of moderate pedestrian density. Find a spot, lay your cones, and make magic with the wheels. Learn to humble yourself as you fall, learn to harness your mind and your physique. Its an all-in-one sport. You get the attention, and you gain confidence.

Problem is, once you go competitive mode, you will subconsciously pick up tricks that people want / love to see, instead of performing those tricks that you personally adore....When you train harder for competition, you will start to plan a regime, say to train under the sun instead of night time ( since most competitions are held in the day ), keep drilling on moves, making sure that you don't cork up the timing with respect to the moves and the music that comes with the tricks.

I think life is like that for many out there. You conform to conventions and do the things you thought you should do in order to appease others. Many fear the sense of rejection and insecurity when they walk the less traveled path.

I once remembered someone mention to me "Speng ah, training like this is no use, put some more of these( KSJ ) moves and go for competition so that people will recognize you and your skills".

You see, that's where the problem lies, to keep dwelling on moves people would deem as 'SOLID' or 'MARVELLOUS'.

Am i slowly going down to this state of being yet another KSJ wannabe or do i want to live my life the way i want it to be?

Why cant we ourselves be another version of KSJ and come up with our own style?

Random memories from my camera phone

Sometime back during collection of convo stuff, me and parade commander met up and went back together. As usual, being the nice man among the SCE peeps......




And yeah, i said i was there....




Parade commander decided to pay St Marys a visit after a Sunday breakfast with me and my fakie slave. Just check out his ku ku expression after a little munchy munch during the food fest in church!




As part of my weekly routine, i do tuition to eke out a living. I always do my best to interact with my students such that they grow academically and also nurture good learning attitude and habits. On one particular occasion, terror number 1 was seen slouching so much that i thought his head was going to kiss the table. And so i warned him about the implication of short sightedness and good sitting posture. Let me guide you through....



"Hey Ryan, better keep your head up and sit straight!"


2minutes later......



another one minute later.....

sigh...


Weeks like these pass by very fast. I somehow seem to feel it when my already-working-friends grumble and speak about the dreadfulness and routine-like life cycle at work....For me,i could say its the KIASU-ism of my students' parents that result in the frequent tuition assignments. Mostly found myself awake by 730pm and did tution for at least 4 hours a day for at least 3 times a week. Don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining here. =) Sometimes i wonder if i would go that far and spend THAT kind of money just to get my boy/ gal on the right academic track.



Of course, i do spend my time with my darling. She's almost indispensable in my realm. Not having her around means a car without steering wheel, having a toothbrush without tooth paste, having a torch without batteries....haha ok i think u get the drift. I found this particular shot very amusing :


Someone's trying to take advantage over my darling! I swore any inch closer than that in the picture i would start pounding my sharp goatie onto that person. HeeHAW!!!!!


Sometime back she yearned for some Ikea swedish meatball. We both finally end up dining in Ikea Tampines.


Just look at how refreshed she look!

sigh.....food's more important than me=(

Yours truly



There's this particular kind of aluminium-like bench or buttock-rest in underground MRT stations that i found pretty redundant. Ok, its like you try to get your CG on it and your butt will start to slide, no matter how small your butt is (I know you all think i'm trying to say my butt is small, but even my little darling started sliding off from this 'genius' design every time she wants to take a seat in the train station). Just look at how hard she's trying to stop herself from falling off....



On one particular supper, i met up with R, Fakie, parade commander and cherry's harry.

What i saw that night was worst than any national geographic/ animal planet documentry. It's probably the bloodiest form of carnivornism i've ever experienced.




The above shows 2 full grown man ( erm maybe just one full grown man ) feasting to their hearts content on tulang. Poor tulang, may you rest in peace.

Things got pretty out of hand when cherry's harry started to use a straw ( those kind you use to drink the pearls out from bubble tea ) and suck the marrow out from the tulang bone!!!! Yikes!!!!!


Parade commander got disillusioned and lost his humanity as well....



These true first hand accounts left me with lots of night mares for the next few nights to come!

Fortunately ,there were also the humane kind of supper:

This picture look like it was taken in heaven. Featuring the old birds of NTU ODAC after SP night 2007.


Catching up sessions like these always remind me of all the good friends i have. Sometimes when i found myself lost and tired, i would tend to recall those special and unique moments spent with my close friends back in uni/ army. Doing this makes me feel certain and hopeful about my aspirations and dreams.



This one's with my fellow specialists in my reservist unit. Though they seem to put on weight ( OOps! ) the way they joke and the way they laugh never change a single bit!!!

I guess sometimes you simply cannot attach a price to the best things in life.

Change of picture on my profile

Ay sorry folks for the change of photo on my profile. But then i dont intend to resize the picture.

Live with it!

Yet another scary saturday and sunday

I woke up fresh on Saturday, because i chiong tuition from 9-6pm on Friday. That is equivalent to 3 groups of students. Well its good money to sustain a slacking bummer like me. Writing this for the sake of updating those who bother abt my whereabouts on Friday wahaha....

Saturday, ok, lets see, i woke up at 11am planning to meet felicia for a swim in yishun. I managed to bluff her here on the pretense of assuring that i will send her home after the day. So the plan was to have a swim, then retrieved her laptop which i collected on her behalf on Friday evening in Sim Lim, had Sakae Sushi Dinner then watch 'Secret' on some DBS credit card movie voucher

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Scary Incident Number One:
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After the swim in the afternoon, i quickly scamper through small kids to the changing room. I didn't really check the cubicles and wadded into one of the vacant ones. Somewhere in my brain i felt that there was something wrong. This surge of queasiness ran through me. I undo this freaking tough knot that i made for my swimming trunks ( damn its hard to undo, and i seriously need a new pair of trunks ). Something in my head called me to look down behind me.

Blardy hell! I saw someone trying to peep at me from the gap ( below the partition seperating the cubicles ). I felt this ultimate violation and gave a shot at that man. Freaking shit pervert! It is a middle aged man. He must have rushed out of the cubicle beside me. OR SO I THOUGHT...

When i started showering, i couldn't get over that particular scene. The puddles of water from the shower head formed a slight but visible image of that someone trying to inch closer to the partition, as though getting ready to bend down to get another freebie.

I slammed my left shin against the partition. I was only a few second short of yelling when i finally realized that he seemingly disappeared.

I finished what i had to do, and stormed out of the changing room. I think i loved seeing pretty gals too much to ever imagine myself stooping to this kind of pervert act.


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Scary Incident Number Two
***************************************

As the title suggested, it was a scary Saturday and Sunday. So now is the sunday part.

For those who aint realizing our Chinese festivals, it is 7th Month on Lunar Calender.
The few of us had dinner in Parkway Parade after our skating session. Today susi joined us. She wasnt that ready for the skating tracks so it gave me a good reason to stay at the rink to play cone tricks with slalomer Jerome. Was expecting more friends to come but most of them last minute got commissioned as pilots. Let's not talk about them here. HAHA.

We were quite eager to end our over-coffee-chit-chat session early, so that we could be home before the 鬼门开. By 10, bus 966 ended its service at woodlands, and i so decided to continue slaloming with dear bro at the outskirts of admiralty mrt station. I had so much fun until the lightning streaks darted the skies SO OFTEN that i felt as if many people were taking pictures of our slalom moves with flash. We had no choice but to stop everything when the wind carried a light blanket of drizzle onto the smooth granite tiles, making it slippery.

Still having the urge to complete what i was trying, i ordered bro to keep the cones and head for the MSCP on the 7th level. This MSCP was located behind admiralty mrt station. The time was 1110pm.

When we slipped into the lift, there were 2 more people in it. One slightly early thirties lady and another old man. I presume it was her father or something. The doors shut right in front of us, but for some strange reason, the lift just wont ascend.

Ok, you all know that there's this 'outside' door specific to each level and another mechanical door that you see when you are in the lift. Apparently this 'outside' door couldnt be fully shut. All 4 of us saw the door open and shut for at least 3 times i think.

The old man decided to force both doors within the lift shut when it was about to close, hoping that somehow the 'outside' door would close fully. By some weird reason it worked. And the lift moved up, bringing the old man and the lady to the 3rd level. It was then i realised i forgot to press the 7th level button.

Gosh the lift didnt wait for my fingers and moved down, back to level one instead. And then everything repeated itself again. This time we saw the door open and shut for more than 4 times. Something in me told me to stop trying to go up to the 7th level and we both in the end walked out puzzled and helplessly.

When i reached home, dear called. She told me something rather disturbing. According to her grandma, she (grandma) received a call from a guy looking for felicia at about 7odd pm. That 'guy' addressed himself as SIANG PING ( MY GOODNESS THAT IS ME @#$#!%!#$#@). This "SIANG PING" continued a short 5min conversation with her grandma before she put the phone down.

As i am finishing this post, my left eye is twitching. Tmd. I am freakkking scared.....

Freestyle slalom skating

For some who may be interested how i spent my evenings right now if i have no dates or dinner meet ups or tution. Check out the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freestyle_slalom_skating

Yeah i am a free style slalom skater wanna be

A fearful Wednesday and Thursday

TEAM MICRO slide boys were due to fly off on National Day( Thursday ) for their competition in shanghai, so i somehow found myself skating with them at the MSCP on a wednesday evening, to see them before they go off. Braden's Dad was kind enough to let me go on a spin on his TRITON 4 BY 4. It's a OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD experience for me as i thought i was cruising on 60km /hr ( when actually i was on 110km / hr) along Gambas Avenue.

When i was skating on my way home, i felt lonely and lousy. I was subconsciously cursing to myself because i had always wanted to do a sport to that level of commitment( Those boys are representing Singapore fyi ). If ONLY i had been more of a sports person while in secondary school......

In another perspective, maybe i wont enjoy it, cos that kind of commitment calls for training, training and more training. So in conclusion, better to stick to sports at a leisure and recreational level.

I had a late night on Wednesday, sending dad for a body chk up in SGH after he complainted of pain near the kidney area. I was tired, but glad that the diagnose results indicate no signs of diabetes and any other nonsense. Dad is a responsible man to himself, in a sense that he doesnt smoke, gamble or drink much. Guess i got that in my genes as well.

By the time i got back, it was close to 4am, Thursday Morning. Mom and Dad left for their Malacca trip the next morning ( they also barely had a few hours of rest ). I had to force my mind awake to join Loki and J in Tampines for a skate sharing session. Its certainly good to bring myself back to a beginner's point of view for skating. When you share with people the skills , you would concurrently remind yourself not to adopt those bad and lazy habits. That's humbling and refreshing. And probably that's the only reason that saw me through a SUPER ZZZ Thursday morning skating for close to 3 hours.

I did not head back for home after that gruelling KEEP-MYSELF-AWAKE-AFTER-2HR-SLEEP session. I drove straight down to Sim Lim Square to help dearie source for a good laptop. She was looking for a small LCD laptop that's light and portable. With a mindset of a slightly-more-than-2k budget, hunting for the product aint easy. I breathed hard with every pace i took, feeling the effects of the late night monster consuming my health point. When i was finally out of Sim Lim, i wondered how i endured through the ocean of people and how they tried to ambush me in all directions with outstretching arms holding flyers.

Both me and dearie had the tastiest satay cum ji char Dinner in west coast market. As to how i drove the car from Queen Street to Clementi i could not comprehend. I felt so mechanical, running low on attention on my way back home. Certainly wasnt in the best condition to drive a car if you asked me. The ultimate sense of relief overcome me as i pull the handbrake in the MSCP beside my house. Finally!

As i sat in front of my terminal penning this entry, i took occasional glances at my left ankle. IT apparently seemed swollen again. And i felt really intimidated by it. Maybe it was gonna stay this size forever ( since i had an incision on that area and my main arteries might have been 'adjusted' to run along this area)or maybe the cyst is growing again! I dont really want to think about it again. Really hated the 8K surgery bills back in January and the immobility after that. Most importantly i couldnt skate for more than 2 months! Please, let this swelling ankle issue be a thing of the past. I seriously dont want to see myself going back to the doctors with a VERY big ankle asking for help.

I have been in dire situations many times in my life. And certainly i hate seeing myself in this kind of plight.

Losing it again

A few days back, i put together my ipod and my newly reformatted laptop to charge power.

I was wondering if i could import my current 480++ songs from my ipod to my laptop using I tunes, and proceed to download the application from internet.

One good thing about itunes is that it will automatically synchronise the music library in your laptop to your ipod. But this turn out to be a double edge feature because i have NO MUSIC IN MY LIBRARY TO BEGIN WITH! Subconsciously i trigger happy on my mouse and click and run the application. Result : NO MORE MUSIC!!!! HO SEI LIAO!

Life didnt really change much after that. I had survived on these 480++ songs since the beginning of 2007. Those songs were pretty much the only companions i had while i was sitting on my chair in hall working my 3mths away on FYP. So long brudders. Right now i am waiting for new imports from Monkey. His sister has a good range of music. Well to be precise, its A HUGE RANGE.

I am waiting, Monkey. Hee....

Convocation pictures 27th July 2007

Chionging another new post again! That really shows how blardy free i am.

Let me present to you the lead character of the day. Sadly, its not me.



If you havent really understood, just look and see why my convocation piglet is SO outstanding

People are moving around with convocation bears, while i have my photo-magnet piglet!



ALL HAIL PIGLET!!!!!!!!



So, let us begin the photo gallery.

This is my mom and dad, with me, AND THE PIGLET



Susi cannot tahan the overwhelming charm of the piglet and so requested holding it while taking a shot with me, parade commander, fakie and rae



Even my dear fakie cannot resist the temptations of holding my piglet. Oh well...



I have to honour my chapteh shifu with the piglet as well



The present remnants of NTU ODAC 9th Management Committee



Monkey felt the force of the piglet too. And so it happened



Now, the estastic moment has come Oh yeah!


These are my fellow comrades who saw me through hell. And i really thank them for making me survive my ordeal.



The real moment we had been waiting for. Throw EM OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!!



More photos with non SCE gang. This one features Peiling aka Justice Bao and the humble goat



This photo is so drama. I really wondered when it was actually taken. Show casing the man who gave me a taste of an assistant teacher life in Julia Gabriels



This photo is dedicated to my final sem hall 11 table grace gang. Thanks for ensuring that i wasnt rotting behind my hostel doors!



Oh gosh, how can i forget my pet gecko?


For your info, me and pet gecko came a real long way. From the city of HCM


To the temples of Angkor



The gal who made everything possible ( the piglet that is )



Convocate loh! Good bye NTU. I wont miss you hahaha!