run

just went for another run at 9:30 pm. it started to drizzle when i was a third into the run, tried my best to pick up the pace. fortunately, the drizzle abated and i wasn’t drenched, too much.

was feeling kinda of “heavy” tonight, must be the dinner. hence was rather slow until the rain forced me to speed up. still my timing was only a so-so 29 minutes for 4.6 km, seems to have reach a plateau liao… :(

actually, i have been running regularly for about 2 months now to start my preparations for my ippt. yes, my window has opened in july already. started with twice-weekly runs of about 3.8 km. have increased to 4.6 km in the recent 2 weeks.

however, i still get tightness around my left knee after each run. tonight was worse ‘cos i had opened up my strides when i thought it was going to pour. was almost limping my way back home.

initially, i had thought of using the twice-weekly runs to prepare for the sheares bridge run on 11 sep. i had mistaken the 6 km city run to be 5 km. by the looks of it, that’s 1 km too long for me!!!

don’t think i’m taking part since i can’t bear to be plodding along while uncles & aunties overtake me… worse still, not being able to summon extra energy to take back the lead. that will be so, so demoralising.

what could be worse? the youngsters wondering who is this uncle blocking their way... :P

shall i set myself up for such humiliation? i shan’t think so. :)

tattoo

nope, it's not me if that's what you're thinking. :)

it's my ns friend. dino has a new tattoo, his name, on his back. i've not seen it for myself yet but here’s the picture he emailed me.

come to think of it, he’s the only friend i know that has inked himself permanently. my other friends are not so inclined and i feel it’s a very drastic move to mark oneself indelibly.

as much as i admit it’s rather cool to spot a tattoo, i can never bring myself to do it.

aside from the pain involved, i can’t imagine the day i get sick & tired of it. i know you can laser it off nowadays… but why bother to do something permanent when you’re not sure you can live with it the rest of your life?

can one be sure about such things?

then again, some would say why worry about that? just do it, seize the day. it’s no longer an irreversible course of action, not anymore.

the strongest argument so far against having a tattoo seems to be that one should not desecrate the body which god or your parents have given you.

apart from those hardcore fans who do it in appreciation of the artistry, enthusiasts have always maintained that they do it because of somebody or special occasion that they wish to commemorate for life. the love of your life for example.

hmm… perhaps that’s the reason why i’ve not paid someone to cause me pain… yet. :P

ict in feb '06

received 2 sms-es last night from mindef telling me that i have a ns call-up notification. i could check miw or call up to retrieve the information. nowadays, very high-tech liao... no more notification through snail mail.

3 weeks long in feb!!! arrgghhh...

sort of half expected it since there isn't one scheduled for work year '05. at least they gave a good 6-month notice, no excuse for deferment. :P but why did they have to schedule it during the chinese new year period??!

hello?! don't mindef know that we chinese celebrate the new year for 15 days?

how do you celebrate "ren ri" & "yuan xiao" properly with your family & friends when you need to rush back to camp later at night? aiyoh, kinda of wet blanket to the festivities, right?

on a more positive note, maybe i can ask for hong baos from the married folks!

haha... :)

lunch @ szechuan court

since thomas is not working today, i suggested having dian xin lunch @ szechuan court at swissotel before going over to support ky at his choir performance at victoria theatre.

ordered the dian xin standards such as shao mai, xia jiao and cha shao bao and some other items. personally, i feel that the fu pi juan is done pretty well without being overly oily. the roasted combination of chicken, duck and pork was only average.

overall, the food is of good standard but a bit on the expensive side. may be even higher than lei garden’s prices. however, we had a good deal since thomas is entitled to staff discount. yeah!

doris is rather disappointed that we didn’t have time for desserts as we need to rush over to victoria theatre to be on time for oriental cadence.

dinner @ 338, amk ave 1

my brother is buying the family dinner tonight. because of the free dinner, i skipped my regular saturday yoga class by serena. :P hehe…

it’s situated at the coffee shop at block 338 and takes up practically the whole place. there’s only 1 other chicken rice stall and the drinks stall. this “zhi char” place specialises in crabs cooked in 5 main styles. namely: chilli, black pepper, curry, butter and cereal.

we tried 1 cooked in black pepper and another steamed. my dad always insist on having steamed crabs because that’s the best according to him.

the black pepper crab was nice and peppery-hot unlike some other places which can be quite sweet with too much sugar added. the steamed crab came with lots of steamed egg white and shredded ginger. overall, the crabs were meaty and fresh.

the other dishes that we had were good enough. overall, a good place for dinner when you have the craving for crabs.

yummy.

monthly meetings

busy week @ work… having monthly meetings with suppliers is no joke.

first, you’ve to schedule the meeting such that all can attend it. then, you have to book the meeting room and that’s not as easy as you think. even though there’re so many meeting rooms available here, it’s almost always fully booked. you’ll have to book at least 1 week in advance.

there’s also not forgetting to submit the request for visitor passes for the suppliers else they’ll be stuck at the reception as the security will not allow them to proceed. my workplace’s security staff means business. good for peace of mind but drives you up the wall sometimes.

after which, the agenda needs to be done up before the meeting takes place. the meeting happens finally but that’s not the end yet. after the meeting, the minutes have to be written and sent out.

imagine doing that for 4 suppliers every month!

and imagine 1 of the account manager is on maternity leave and 1 of the meetings was cancelled at the last minute!

that’s not even including the emails flying around requesting for changes to the date and time. takes quite a bit of effort to keep things going.

before you know it, it’s time to prepare for another round of meetings liao…

arghhh!

happy birthday, sis

happy birthday to youuuu!

too bad you're working today else, could have gone for coffee bean breakfast or something...

hmm... your present is still at the shops, haven't had time to get it yet... :P hehe...

yeah!

heard from the news earlier that the 13-year cycle for nsmen has been shortened to 10 years.

yay! seldom there's any cause for celebrations from the news.

declaring 27th aug a public holiday for presidential elections doesn't count. anyway, there wouldn't be one now since we only have 1 eligible candidate. that's right, there goes our chance to exercise our rights as citizens in a democratic state. oops, i digressed.

actually, it's not that i hate in-camp trainings. i really do enjoy the annual reunions with the folks that have become friends through the course of the many icts. and of course the break away from work. hehe... :P

just that it's such a chore to lug my barang-barang [since i don't drive] to some ulu camp that's so inaccessible by public transport. yes, there's only 1 bus service plying the route. and you can't get any cabs from the camp.

of course the ippt doesn't exactly make the ict a walk in the park but at least i can do something about it.

hmm... maybe, just maybe... i should find a better paying job so that i can afford a car.

but first, i need to learn to drive first. :)

mysterious skin

went to watch this movie out of curiousity as it was given very good reviews by the papers and 8 days. rated r[21] in singapore for mature theme. a rather dark tale of child abuse and homosexuality.

a tale of 2 teenagers with 2 very different lives. neil [joseph gordon-levitt] lives a vicarious life of paid sex with older men while brian [brady corbet] tries to find out what happened to the missing 5 hours in his childhood. was he really abducted by aliens?

in the end, the audience realises that both are just coping with their common childhood experience in their own ways.

contains one graphic rape scene that's uncomfortable to watch.

my rating? 4 out of 5.

gritty.

harry potter & the half-blood prince

yes, i finally finished the book...

i know who died... it's someone from hogwarts. i guessed correctly. :)

the half-blood prince was not referring to voldermort. got it wrong. :(

oh no... i think i'll be a zombie at work today. :P

happy 40th birthday, singapore!

that's right, singapore has turned 40 today.

one of the biggest national day celebrations i've seen so far with 4 other locations, jurong east, yishun, tampines and marina south joining in the main event @ the padang via satellite link-up. fireworks at all locations, massive crowds taking part in the festivities.

what was i doing?

holed up at home catching up on sleep and reading the latest of the harry potter books. ;)

not that i wasn't patriotic or anti-social, but 'cos i'm still recovering from the cold that had started on sat night. i had even passed over the skating this morning. didn't want to exert myself too much before i'm well.

marilyn sms-ed to go and see the fireworks at the esplanade but i wasn't up for it. the thought of the crowds made harry potter that much more appealing. so i doze and read the whole day.

i'm quite a compulsive reader so i'll probably only put down the book when i've finished it... argghhh!

i must be brave

watched "the maid" at midnight @ gv plaza.

you must be wondering why the hell [pun not intended] would me & my colleagues want to watch a scary ghost movie when it's the 7th lunar month now, at a time when the spirits are said to be roaming the earth.

we must have a morbid sense of humour or entertainment. haha...

we're not the only ones though, the 2 midnight shows were sold out. clearly, singaporeans are intrigued by the supernatural. not surprising, considering the myriad rituals and practices the chinese have relating to death, ancestor worship and the hungry ghost festival.

the story is about a new filipino maid, rosa [alessandra de rossi], who had just arrived in singapore to work for a family in chinatown. at first, she's not sure if it's just her imagination going wild in the old and unfamiliar shophouse that is home to her employers.

soon, things became clear that it is not all that it seems. mediacorp veterans, chen shu cheng and hong hui fang put in credible multi-lingual performances, speaking lines in teochew, mandarin & english.

playing their son, ah soon, is benny soh in his film debut. was surprised to learn that acting is not his day job. he is actually with mediacorp's on-air branding & promotions.

my rating? 3 out of 5.

lunch @ marmalade pantry

met up with doris, janet, jason & cayden for lunch.

haven't seen janet & cayden since i last visited them when he was just 2 weeks-old. i think it's their 1st foray into orchard road without the maid... quite a leap of faith, i say.

passed them the baby mickey jigsaw i done up for cayden.

marmalade pantry was fully booked. fortunately doris had made a reservation otherwise we would be left out in hunger with a "cranky" baby.

i had smoked salmon bagel, blush [juice of carrot, beetroot & celery], nutella cupcake and tea. the food was ok but a bit on the expensive side.

cayden had his milk and demostrated how loud he can fart. the whole table heard him.

and i discovered he doesn't burp easily. i guess that's how he channels out the air in his tummy. :P

run!

caught the movie "the island" starring Ewan McGregor & Scarlett Johansson @ orchard cineleisure with my colleague, marilyn.

a very interesting take of what can happen in the future when ethics and morality are thrown out of the window... a future where humans are cloned for harvesting of their body parts & organs.

scary & disturbing, isn't it?

lincoln six echo [played by ewan mcgregor] discovers that the lucky winners of the lottery, are not relocated to THE island, the only non-contaminated place in a post-apocalyptic earth, but instead they're being killed or had their organs removed for transplant to their sponsors.

the clones are products, they're all insurance policies costing $5 million each.

housed in a facility dressed in cool white uniforms & puma shoes in an alternate reality where the genders are separated and all parts of their lives are regulated and watched over, right down to what they can have for breakfast based on their current health report.

the wham-bam action starts when lincoln six echo escapes with jordan two delta and race against time to avoid capture to try to meet their sponsors hoping to expose the illegal cloning of humans at the facility.

lots of explosive action scenes complimentary of the big budget.

my rating? 4 out of 5.

cool!