How the havoc began.

It took me some discipline to even start this. So i must first congratulate myself here.

Everytime i log in to my own blog, i would remind myself how far i had come. Regardless of my achievements, i am proud to say that i have no regrets in all the things i've done up to now.

My boy was finally born on the 20th July.

Till then, i had full of apprehensions on how to be a good father, as well as being a supporting hubby for my wife who's been through so much physically, emotionally and psychologically.

Perhaps the only thing that both of us did not prepare mentally was the method of delivery. We had heard of many experiences how our lady peers had to be partially bed ridden due to recuperation from a cesac. With all the implications from an incision on the tummy, we only hoped for a natural birth.

Up to the due date (18th July ), our gynae reminded us that my wife's cervix showed no signs of dilation. We needed a dilation of 10cm in order for labour to proceed. So on the 19th July, gynae decided to induce natural labour by giving medication to my wife.

By 10pm that same evening, we were warded into Mt Alvernia; My wife was put under observation, in hope that anytime when dilation begins, labour can commence in the right environment.My wife was rather exhilarated when the cramps came in waves. But when gynae popped by on 12am midnight, there were no progress. All he could do, was to give another dose of the same medication. Throughout the night, my wife slept well. However, the intensity of the cramps started to die down...

Until next morning, we were sore to realise from the gynae's diagnosis that there were no progress. We finally advanced to the delivery suite where my wife was to be put on drip to further trigger the natural labour. With lack of food and water, i could see the fatigue building up in my wife. I was utterly helpless then. Time crawled literally. The CTG scan was anything but promising; When gynae visited us around 1230pm with the ill outcome, we made the painful decision to go for cesac. I felt the time stopping when my wife was put on GA and pushed into the operation theatre.

I was told to wait outside the theatre by this staff nurse. She looked kind of scrawny and had this chip munk look. She was with us right from the time we were in the delivery suite, administering to the blood test and drips. For her age, i think she displayed total attentiveness to my wife and i, which made her look more and more like a chip munk.

I last saw my timex watch at 1345pm; One of the male nurse saw me walking around restlessly, and offered me to wait at the lounge just beside the theatre. I sat down and went on a 'stoned' mode. The splatterings from the heavy downpour outside somewhat calmed my restlessness. I supposed the lack of absolute rest the night before had a part in this.

I dont remember if i sat more than 30min. All of a sudden, i heard the chip munk staff nurse calling out for Felicia's hubby. I stood up, only to be greeted by this little boy snuggling quietly, swaddled up neatly in this glass cradle the nurse was pushing.

"I thought i told you to wait outside the theatre right? Here's your boy....."

Come to think of it, it seemed like the chipmunk nurse was reprimanding me right in the lounge. But at that point in time, it didnt matter at all.

Timothy was finally born at 1333 hrs. With a weight of 2.69kg( debatable ) and a length of 50cm, my new born started to turn our lives up side down for the next few nights up till now, with his endless loads of shit and cries that shook the peace out of our sleeps.

This was how it all started.

I will watch your back.

Yes, you will need people to watch your back, especially in the work that i do.

I often face quite alot of challenges describing to people what i actually do at work ( NOPE i do not hold ping pong bats at the airfield - those chaps are marshallers on ground ). I guess i have already given up trying in reality, so i shall be consistent on my own blog as well.

If i was ever asked what it takes to do my job well, i would say humility. Its real lives that my colleagues and i deal with day in day out. Pride and emotions will have to be the last thing on your mind when handling those jets which keep increasing in numbers day by day. The working environment can sometimes be quite unforgiving ; It can only be worse if you have emo colleagues who take it out on you for no rhyme or reason. Nonetheless, green horns like me have to bite the bullet and continue relentlessly to explore the vast and everchanging environment in my job.

Which is why it is very important to bear in mind the screw ups you ever made and keep reminding yourself not to repeat those errors when something similiar happens. Ever since i started working solo, there had been some cases when my own vigilance fail me. Thanks to most of my colleagues who always had this I-WILL-WATCH-YOUR-BACK spirit,providing navigation services to aircrafts has never been this pleasant.


To those who have been patient and tolerant to junior controllers like me, i would like to say a great thank you. Its the professionalism displayed at work that keeps us all looking forward to do our best to make the workplace a better one to live in.

Yes, i will definitely watch over you folks. My pleasure. Cheers.

Kena visited by unknowns

Wow...Its been close to 2mths of no post. And i found many weeds hanging around in my blog.

Aint sure if doing an entry like this will negate all these bots from posting on my comment page.

For those who still bothered to even click on my blogspot, i do more regular updates on my facebook. Over there you can see more pictures. Yeah.

Expansions

Moving into my 3rd year of working life, i noticed that alot of things around me are expanding.

Many of my friends, for example, exercised less and became horizontally enhanced. I realised too, that my tummy is becoming more and more 'outgoing'. In the next few minutes after finishing this, i swear that i will sweat to clean the house and hopefully squeeze at least an hour in the pool to get rid of my unwantedness.

Family life is never a boring one. Seen quite alot of expansions in the house. First came the PS3 set that i got in late 2008... then came the rock band set that my SCE gang mates so graciously offered as a house warm gift. Not long ago, my wife bought a standing piano and started her journey in leisure piano playing. Once in awhile i would try my hands on the keyboard, imagining myself as guang liang( playing the chinese song tong hua )... but the 'soothing' music that came from the sound box was merely a figment of my imagination. My less-than-one-month old maestro classical guitar is always there to offer me consolations after trying my luck to piece up music from the piano.

A few days back, my wife wanted me to learn song signing from the 'breaking bread' book. I gave it a shot and found myself drawn to the marvels of sign language...speaking of this art of signing, I've started learning it from my varsity days( during one of the camps with WSC )but i had never learnt it properly since then. All that i knew were bits and pieces of signing volcabulary that i picked up from the HI community in St Mary's( and of course , my wife ). I always awe when i see my wife doing signing during mass... something that kicks the boredom out of a restless guy like me.

So many opportunities to expand... learning sign language dilligently, trying to pick up what those keyboards on the piano meant, spending time on games...Once upon a time i thought i was good in slalom( and regular in climbing )

With these preoccupations in my mind, i wonder how comfortable i can get for the year 2010, especially when the little one is coming this July.

Resolutions ? Probably not to expand too much of any sorts. Just wanna do what i have yet to accomplish for the past 28 years of my life.

powergel bars, nipple tapes and tights.

I completed my first full marathon on the 6th dec 2009.

My training regime? It all started out by doing frequent 5-8km runs around my neighborhood to build up the necessary stamina and basic muscle endurance. I had to make sure that my knees are properly conditioned over time to withstand the long distances ahead. I did this from late August( that was the time i signed up for the run ) to late September. On a few occasions, i joined my colleagues to do trail runs in Macritchie reservoir to spice up the training.

Outcome: Knees didnt hurt as much...By the last run of this regime my knees went back to its former glory in Army days!

I had to move away from my comfort zone of 8km runs. By early October i did about 4-5 times of 10km runs. All these while, i still joined my wife to run short distances of 3-6km around the neighborhood. Only towards the last week of October i started stretching my distances to about 12km. Did this twice before the end of October. It was also during this phase of my training that i realised how big my thighs were.. i had abrasions on my inner thighs and bled quite badly from nipple abrasions.

And so it was time for me to shop for nipple tapes and tights. I got myself this 3M adhesive transparent band aid that is water resistant. Very good and never failed me since then. Slipped onto my new Reebok black tights one morning and found no more abrasions on my groin area after the run. Shiok.

November came so sudden; i had to run at least beyond 15km to test out my knees and ankles. I spent some time to read up about replenishing electrolytes and body salt/ fluids. Bought a few packs of energy gel bars and slipped it into my tights' rear pockets / arm pouch for consumption during training. Because these gels had to be ingested with water, i had to carry my own 750ml Adidas bottle every time i ran. I remembered getting used to the 12-15km transition by first week of November and decided that it was time to push on the distance to a half marathon. That meant more power gel bars and mixing 100 plus with water to my Adidas bottle to increase electrolytes content.

By the end of November, i clocked 3 half marathons and roughly figured out my thresholds for joint pains. All these while i never had cramps.


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Night before the run :3 sticks of bananas and lots of food that's sweet and high in carbo. Turned in around 11pm( i should have slept earlier !!!)

On the day itself : Woke up around 330am ... forced an energy bar( akin to a muesli bar ) and a mug of cereal into my stomach and drank lots of water before heading to take the coach from woodlands mrt to Esplanade. Plan was to release all my pee just before the run commences. I got myself a can of 100plus, with the intention of popping the can and dump its contents into my mouth JUST BEFORE the flag off. What WASN'T in the plan was the load of shit that i had to clear off my bowels just before the run.


First 10km
**********
Didnt feel the need to hydrate. Kept running ... felt that time inched by the minutes. I thought i needed less than 1 hour to clock 10km but at the 10km mark i realised that i took 1hr and 10min. OK, time to stop for a power gel makan and hydration. My ankles started to feel pain as expected, and i began pushing on to the next 11km.


11km-21km
*********
Every 2km mark came unusually long for me. Though i still don't feel the lethargy and fatigue, i somewhat lost my time sense. It all didnt seem right as compared to the distance-timing feel that i acquired during my 2mth plus of training. I was afraid that i couldnt do it smoothly since i was rather thrown off by my actual feel during the run itself. This 11km stretch started from Fort road all the way till somewhere beyond the Changi Sea sport area. It felt very very long and dreadful(i mean, at the end of this stretch i would only be at the half way mark ). I kept finding a few distinctive ladies as my pacers( it was easier to pace myself with girls because there werent much relative to the number of guys at the pace i was running ). By the time i saw the 21st Km mark, i didnt feel good at all. I thought my legs were almost reaching its threshold and i thought its finally time to stop and walk for awhile. I stopped by the side, drank like a mad horse and started doing more intensive stretching to my limbs... Took out my socks to massage my toes and started rotating my ankles.
After eating my 2nd packet of energy gel(one packet per 10km for me)i began to feel so much better , to the extent that my confidence slowly slipped back into me. I bumped into David from my reservist unit and we chatted about how dreadful the run was.
It was less than a minute that David decided to stop for some stretching because he was quite fearful of cramps along the way....I picked up my pace and left him behind, reminding myself not to push my muscles too hard. I never experienced cramps during my training( after all i didn't hit anything beyond 23km back then ) and had almost forgotten how deadly it could be if i should over strain my muscles


21km-30km
*********
Pain finally set in... This leg of the run saw me stopping the most for drinks and lots of stretching to the calves and thighs. Kept reminding myself not to fall pray of extreme contractions and slowed my pace even more to endure the whole thing. Soon i started talking myself into enduring the pain and persevere to Ford Road...I was longing to see that 30km mark banner at the end of it.
The only distasteful encounter during this journey was the energy gel collection. Everyone could only have ONE packet of gel!!!!Cheapskate! I was actually hoping to eat 2 more packets on the 30th and 36th Km mark to replenish my body. Come to think of it, i should have taken one packet, slip it into my tights' rear pocket and run back for another one back then. Tmd.

30km-40km
*********
It must have been the trick of the mind. I felt this boost in my pace after clearing the 30th km banner. It was 3hrs and 45min on my Timex wrist watch and i thought i could clear this whole shit below 5 hours... I bumped into my ATC colleague and told him that i need to 'finish my last 10km in burst mode'... HOW WRONG I WAS!!!!! In fact, this was the longest 10km i've ever ran in my life. I started to stop at EVERY DRINK STATION and never fail to walk for about 1-2min before pushing off.. somewhat it became a trend that i kept running till i see the next drink station. At least i didn't walk unnecessarily. When i reached the 37th Km mark banner near the old kallang gas work junction, i busted 4hours and 30min. Reality set in and i knew i couldn't finish it below 5. I muttered to myself that it was never my intention to put timing as part of my first marathon experience. With that i trudged on...

Final 1km
*********
All of a sudden i was in 2.4km running mode. I was in large strides along the Padang all the way till the finishing line. My timex wrist watch said 5hrs and 21min. Damn that's like close to an hour to finish that 37th to 42nd km distance!!!!

Finally, my cramps came subtly, and was gone by the time i rested on the grass patch by the war memorial.

At that point in time,I looked at my finisher shirt and marvelled for one fact: I had no knee pains and almost did this run with zero cramps!

It was my very first marathon, and i knew it wont be the last. I enjoyed this whole process of discovering how the mind is indeed stronger than the body.

Do you like ants?

Of late, i noticed the presence of small ants everytime i try to sweep my house. Most of the time i would find a few roaming on the floor surrounding the sofa. Must be the new indoor money plant, i thought. But on closer inspection, i don't see any ant nest nor any dead moths/ flies lying by the corner of the living room.

Among the pile of dust that i swept up this morning, i saw at least 5-6 ants scurrying for their lives. I swept the whole pile up into the dust pan and emptied it into the bin. As i continue to sweep, some of these ants managed their way up to the handles of the dust pan, and that's when i feel the itch from crawling ants on my forearms.

Because of this daily phenomenon, i have developed a new hobby: Ant squeezing.

2 days back, i was sitting in an office completing an accident report for my car in woodlands road. For some strange reasons, there were small ants roaming around the desks as well. So i conveniently squeezed them and started flicking their dead bodies around... for a good 10 seconds i started killing 2-3 fleeing ants on the table, only to realise that the lady sitting opposite my desk has been watching my massacre with a very queer look. I quickly switched my attention back to the papers, subconsciously finding myself fighting hard NOT to care about the ants which were still alive and kicking....

That's how good i am killing ants. Cos my house seems very sweet.

Good suit and good time.

November came fast and furious.

I am finally baptised into the Catholic Family. Having followed my wife to church since 2006, my motivation to be there evolved; Initially only wanted to get to know about my wife's belief, my focus turned to wanting to know more about my purpose in life...

I took a bold step to attend RCIA for almost the whole of 2009. I must say that the lesson was done well, to an extent that it triggered me to find out more about the Faith. 3 weeks before my baptism, one of the RCIA facilitators requested me to be one of the lectors for the Baptism mass. Gosh!!! Of course i cannot resist such an honourable request. For those who know me, i have stage fright by nature. What's more i never had the experience to stand near the altar during mass. But thank God, my reading was audible and sounded confident. Many of my RCIA mates came up to me and pat my shoulder for affirmation after my reading was done.

Just 3 days after my baptism, i went down to assist my colleague Tommy for his wedding. To be frank, i like being involved in wedding activities, seeing how fun things can be during the gate crashing session. Thank goodness, the band of sisters were very merciful and kind( if only mine was as nice as them one year back hahahaha ). It was my first time helping out as a brother( guys of my age dont get married so soon )and it was refreshing to see the whole ritual from tea ceremony to getting ready at the hotel. Certainly brings back fond memories of rushing around, looking for people to settle guest seating in panic mode, ensuring things were done right at the right time. I was very fortunate this time round to be involved as the Mandarin Emcee( if only my sec and JC chinese teachers were around; they would have been very proud of me!!! ). Being in my 650SGD suit certainly adds confidence in me. Truly enjoyed myself when i was tasked to back up Tommy's singing as a stage guitarist( peanut playing skills but heck, i was thrilled to play for him ! )

Coming up next for the rest of Nov and Dec : House blessing, standard chartered Marathon( that means waking up early to train during my off days ).

Good suit, good time. Thank God.