Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Nama Name


Names mean a lot to us. But it can be hilarious like what you see above....Buangkok, an MRT station in Singapore.

In Thailand, you have Bangkok....whereas in Singapore, there's Buangkok.

What about Malaysia?

Tok-kok lah....hahaha!

What's next?

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Buat Kerja!!!!!

This photo was taken at Putrajaya. Banner is hanging on the pillars of Palace of Justice which is now called....err....something lah....i forgot....
Buat kerja!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cho kang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whadda?!?!?! Those who "work" in Putrajaya had to be told this way?
Who are these people, I wonder?!?!?!
Hmm.....who are they.......mysterious huh....
Malaysia boleh people....boleh...semua boleh.....tak kerja pun boleh....
Maybe one fine day we will see a banner that says.......
BANGUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUANG TAHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOSOK GIGI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh man, what is this country turning into......

Monday, June 16, 2008

Rainbow



Seen this type of rainbow before? Not the usual semi circle we used to see.

I hope you fail

Fail??? Huh??
Why??

Read on.....

The high school commencement speaker was the president of a large corporation. He was chosen for the occasion because of his success. Yet his speech came with a most unusual wish for the graduates.
The speaker told the students sitting before him in their graduation gowns,

“If I could have one hope for you as you go out into the world, it would be this: I hope you fail. I hope that you fail at something that is important to you.”

He went on to say how his own early life had been one failure after another, until he learned to see failure as an effective teacher.

Many of the songs of Israel were born in seasons of failure. Out of desperation came the cry, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:1-2).

Sometimes we are not ready to see the wonder of God’s wisdom and strength until we are gasping for breath in the exhaustion of our own strength.

A recurring story of the Bible is that mountains of faith rise from the valleys of failure. Before discovering the high ground we are looking for, we may need to see the failure of the dreams we hold in our hearts and trust instead in the love, wisdom, and guidance of our God. — Mart De Haan

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Sundown 2008



Sundown...the name that gave birth to Timedown! Part of why I took so long to post this...hahaha!


Yup, it was one of those runs that no personal best was achieved. So far, I've not heard of anyone saying they've cut minutes from their record. No one...

Apart from a different starting time, the route could have been better. We had cross country, cross housing estate, cross bridges, cross here cross there and all that made us very crosssed!!!

1st June 2008...12.00am...Sundown Marathon 2008 was flagoff after the Ultra 84km at 8.30pm.
The Ultra runners are in a different league. Their body and mind must have evolved many steps ahead of us. Does that mean they're still.....human??

Hehe...Kudos to them!

Anyway, back to the 42km report....hahaha!

My pace for the first 10km was reasonable. Did a sub 1hr but there was no markings or I didn't see one so couldn't tell the exact minute. Cool breeze without the scorching sun was nice to run but for a marathon, it is simply different. Very different.

At the 20km U turn, I checked and it was 1hr 58min. That was a slower time compared to KLIM. No sub4hr with that pace. Anyhow, tried to increase my pace but 2km later, CRAMPS hit me like a wall. Bang! Bong! Bummer!! It happened without much of an indication of muscle twitching earlier. Well, immediately I knew it's going to be an agonising 22km to the finish line, if I can make it, that is. Had to stop, stretch and I downed a PowerGel immediately. Slowly continued at a much slower pace and along the way, many regular runners were also hit by cramps.

Not enough rest while the sun was still shining is the main reason muscle had cramps. This meant muscles had a strike! All Saturday they have been working and their usual night rest was turned upside down into a.... marathon! Of course lah....habis...kaput...hit by the dreaded cramps!
Slowly I stretched and continued slowly....for the remaining 22km! Dang!



Minutes flew by and so were the runners, "sayur-ing" me. Tried to enjoy the night run but nothing much caught my attention except overhead bridges....darn it!


Limping along Singapore’s residential walkways from a HDB block to another, likewise we crossed pedestrian bridges and crossings one after another. It was bad enough with cramped up thighs and calves, the steps up and down those bridges were simply…..KANASAI (like shit) !!
Sundown marathon also included 2-3km of cross country run when we hit Bedok reservoir.
Anyway, among my fellow runners, at 25km, I met Guna from Klang, who was trying to do brisk walk rather than a jog. Cramps hit him worse than me. Somewhere between 30km, ironlady Siok Bee went pass without a trace and her pace was like changing gears from 3rd to 4th, building up speed. I must have fallen asleep somewhere…my pace went from speedy to sleepy and not forgetting crampy!
Around the 32km mark, ironman Dr Rum came from behind and called out “TOMATO !” That must have puzzled some runners. Haha! Maybe one or two were looking around for squashed flattened tomatoes along the track.
Dr Rum still maintained a good pace and I followed a few km before surrendering while passing a mosque that has a water cooler installed outside at its gate. In Malaysia, whether mosque or church or temple, that water cooler would have been in someone’s dining room in less than 24hours after being installed!

Somewhere around 36km mark, Frank zoomed past at a steady pace. With 5km to go, it was Ccube’s turn to ‘sayur’ me. I couldn’t do much even after being cheered on by a group of ‘very friendly’ Caucasians with beers in their hands. Their cheering service was much appreciated, actually. “Right on! C’mon, you can do it! Yeah” somehow took my mind off the sore legs for a while.

3km remaining, Jamie ran past…

2km remaining, Yee Hao ran past…

1km remaining, and I was going to be the 5hour sapu king!
I timed myself to cross the finish line 5:00:00 but mission failed lah…
A fellow runner didn’t allow me to walk to the finish line. He paced and insisted that we finish together in a sub5.

And so it was 4:53:34....close to an hour slower than my PB.

Unlike other runs where after crossing the finish line, the next stop will be the drink station but here, I hurried to weewee! No sun no sweat. Hahaha!

Midnite marathon…it was an intriguing and very challenging run, both physically and a lot mentally.
Oh ya, it was 43km in Sundown!
Nice medal with a proud declaration



Up, up and away! What we wanted to feel lite while marathoning...light enough to float.

Where we stayed....very good location...next to Bugis junctionRound one of carbo-loading

After Sundown, this is how miserable we look like......hahahahaha!!!...sob...sob...

At least we have these goodies....hehehe!

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