hi

another paper... actually planned to take it 1 week after the tutorial on the 13th and 14th but the last paper by sci this year is on the 17th.

i had sat in for the class previously at tampines but that was before i got the new textbook and before i cleared m5 and m9 so alot of what went on then wasn't fully understood. armed with the new text, i attended the night class at changi last month. this was to help me prepare for the paper and then go for the day class on the 13th and 14th for revision before attempting it today.

why the trouble? because this paper has a reputation on being very tricky and i didn't want to re-sit for it. i try my best not to do unpleasant things more than once if i can help it. ;)

thankfully, the tutorials by julia together with the study guide were really helpful in making it a successful attempt.

yeah!

half marathon

so after much hullabaloo whether we're going to have 1 or 2 marathons in december, the dust settled and the inaugural scms was born today with a record 60,000 participants.

the most visible change was the different start points for all 3 races. the full-marathoners starting at orchard road, the half-marathoners outside sentosa and the 10km runners starting at the usual esplanade bridge.

and so i didn't sleep over at swissotel this year, neither did doris and thomas since the hotel was rather full. (a sign that the economy is doing really well)

some of the 'likes' for my run this year include: early mrt trains to ferry half-marathoners to harbourfront station which is near the start point, gel instead of bananas at the halfway point, the 'fun and happy' route within universal studio with very enthusiastic staff cheering us on. i spotted shrek, fiona and charlie chaplin.

the main dislikes are: the hot weather with the sun blazing from 7:30am onwards (i'm thankful i didn't do the full marathon. :P), many upslopes, the suffocating underground carpark route at resorts world, overcrowding at the point the half marathon first merges with the 10km.

another not so good arrangement was the collection of the bags deposited by half and full marathoners at the f1 pit building. that was kind of far from the end point at the padang and made me decide against bringing a change of clothes.

i was hoping to improve on my last year's timing of 2:46:14 but it was not meant to be. the upslopes were too daunting and demoralising. my timing this year is exactly 1 minute more than last year's, not a second more or less.

some statistics regarding my run:

1. Result in Entire Field - 3639th place [7635 finishers behind About 32% of finishers ahead]
2. Result in Gender (Men) - 2745th place [4372 finishers behind. About 39% of finishers ahead]
3. Result in Division (M 30-39) - 1044th place [1511 finishers behind. About 41% of finishers ahead]
4. Average mile: 12 minutes 45 seconds. Average speed: 4.7 m/h
5. Average kilometre: 7 minutes 56 seconds. Average speed: 7.6 km/h

More trivia from the run,

Of the 11,274 who finished, 37% were women and 63% were men. For the record, you were ahead of about 78% of women finishers.

that means 22% of the women were faster than me... how humbling. :)

The winner of the event was in division M 30-39 and achieved a time of 1:15:56.

the winner of the half marathon happens to be in the same age division as me and he completed it in less than half the time i took! i was practically crawling compared to the race winner. haha...

after my run, i went to look for doris and thomas 'cos jaden was going to do the kids' dash. the kids' race comes with their own tee, race bid and minature finisher medal too. very cute!

m9

my 2nd paper at sci, another information overload 'cos this paper covers 25 chapters and i needed a minimum of 70% of 125 questions in 2.5 hours.

thankfully i passed. yeah! :)

the tutorials by julia sim really helped.

beginnings

my first paper today... a bit stressed since i'm hoping to pass at first go otherwise have to do the new paper effective from 28th.

too much info... the last 14 questions were tough, consisting of options such as 'i & ii are correct', 'i & iii are correct', 'ii & iii are correct' and 'all are correct', those that i call multiple-mcq. needed 75% to pass and i wasn't sure if i could make it.

thank my lucky stars that i did!

yeah! :)

entrepreneur

why start your own business?

according to adam khoo, there're 3 reasons:

1. to be in charge of your own destiny
2. to determine your own market value
3. to achieve financial independence

everything sounds so simple... but it's not easy.

marriott cafe

haven't been to marriott cafe for quite a while... decided to go there for high tea to celebrate ky's birthday and hoping that the buffet spread is still good.

it wasn't a huge spread for high tea while oysters were available, sashimi was not. and it's only 2 hours long on sundays, so unless you're a real fast eater that can chomp your way quickly... it's a bit rushed to eat and catch up with friends at the same time.

today, the ala minute item was prawn soup noodle. for the carbo-averse, you could skip the noodles which i did. the prawns were cooked just nice and were fresh and naturally sweet. the cooking station was surrounded by an aquarium showcasing the 'live' prawns, which might not be too appetising to the 'ang-mohs'. i was so eager to tuck into the soup that i forgot to take a picture of it. haha...

the ice-cream station features a good selection of toppings which will definitely delight the little ones. the tea and coffee station has the requisite expresso machine and a nice selection of teas and infusions.

i guess this high tea is only worth it if you're utilising the '4 for 3' promotion since the spread wasn't outstanding and the duration is rather short.

overflowing

it's raining cats and dogs now... wet, overcast and rainy days always make me think of the cool months of december. and december always give me a nice fuzzy feeling because it was associated with school holidays when i was younger, and then the year-end festive holiday season.

however, whenever it pours heavily now, i'm also inclined to think, "is orchard road going to flood again?"

:P lol...

photo credit: http://viterbivoices.usc.edu/evans

lunarglide

new running shoes from nike since my asics has started to wear out... my big toe nails can actually make holes on the shoes through my socks! haha...

thought this is a very good deal from nike factory outlet at west coast plaza.

cool, right? ;)

super mario brothers

cute!

3 monkeys

doris wanted to go see kumar so did sl who persuaded me to go. ky came along too.

the stage at the cafe is a far smaller scale than that of the one at "boom boom room" where i last watched him performed. still funny but i thought more 'racist' in content. he poked fun at racial stereotypes and i felt he could get away with so much ribbing of indians because he's one. somehow, you're granted more creative license when it comes to your own race and less likely to offend.

i didn't like the 'old' segment though. the lip-synching opening acts were neither here nor there except maybe as a tribute to the show's origin as a cabaret-styled show. the audience segment were great fun... especially for those watching. :P

the pacing towards the end was also slightly off. he sounded as if he's ending the gig but kept going on. not that i minded the extra performance but it was rather repetitive for him to urge the audience to go home, have fun, get drunk and have sex more than once.

i guess we will now associate the word "fluctuation" with something less polite... i'm sure ky will. :) haha...

botox

thought this was funny...

i want my kids to know when i'm pissed, when i'm happy and when i'm confounded.

~ julia roberts

credit: 8 days
photo credit: www.inquisitr.com

irrawaddy

didn't know there's a river by the name of irrawaddy in myanmar, it flows from north to south and is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway.

there's also an irrawaddy here in singapore too... no fishes though but you can find a new phoenix there. ;)

self portrait

friends know that i tend to be behind the lens rather than in front of it. but i had no choice this time round 'cos an organisation had requested for a passport-sized photo which cannot be produced from my relic of a film negative.

and i had to get a stye in my right eye when i woke up on sunday! had to wait for it to clear up today before i can go to the photo studio and preen. i opted for a 'side' picture taking a few shots and choosing one that's as pleasantly natural as i can be with some directions from the camera(wo)man. some digital touchups were done too but i seriously can't tell. :P

so how do i look?

can become housing agent or insurance agent? lol...

welcome world

chua mui hoong wrote about the transformation of sentosa and the marina bayfront area into places that didn't feel like home anymore but to impress foreigners. this globalisation is inevitable as singapore strive to be a metropolis for the world.

but how can we become one without losing what is local and familiar? and without the world intruding into our home?

i realised that was exactly how i felt when cityvibe came up at clementi. as much as i like having the convenience of subway, mos burger and sakae sushi at my doorstep, i also have an uncomfortable sense that "urbanisation" has crept into the estate that i grew up in. somehow, this mall with its colourful led facade built on the previous site of clementi and commonwealth cinema gave a different buzz to the previously sleepy town central.

when the world intrudes into your private corners, you experience a sense of dislocation. your mind spins into confusion when childhood haunts are replaced by gleaming spaces...

 and this will continue unabated with clementi mall slated to open next.

credit: the straits times

love language

according to gary chapman, people have 5 different ways of wanting and expressing love:

1. words of affirmation
2. spending quality time
3. giving presents
4. acts of service
5. physical touch

everyone usually has 1 or 2 dominant love languages with little regard for the remaining.

so what's yours?

plastic

this post is for future generations...

once upon a time, photographs are taken with film (plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts). after 'exposing' the film, you need to bring them to the photo labs to develop into photographs that you can hold in your hands. many a time, you won't know how your pictures will turn out 'cos you can't preview them on your camera. there's always a feeling of great anticipation before you collect the pictures at the lab.

yesterday, i found out that this piece of plastic is already part of history. i half-suspected that the usual lab that i frequent may not be able to re-print my passport-sized photographs and i was right. but i wasn't prepared when the studio where i had taken this photo told me they don't have the machine to re-print from the negative! :(

thanks to the organisation who had requested for a "hardcopy" passport-sized photograph (and numerous other docs, i thought we're already in the paperless era?), i'm rudely brought up to date on photographic technology.

so if any of you are still hoarding those negatives containing your precious memories, i suggest you convert them digitally before even such conversion technologies become obsolete! :P

inception

after hearing many good things about this movie, i finally get to watch it with sl, doris and thomas.

just as the movie, matrix questions what is reality... inception questions whether one is dreaming or awake? which relates to "what is the reality?"

this reminds me of chinese philosopher, 庄子 who dreamt that he was a butterfly fluttering happily without a care in the world before he woke up suddenly. was he 庄子 who dreamt that he was a butterfly? or a butterfly dreaming that it was 庄子?

leonardo in the movie had a totem, a brass top to determine if he's dreaming or not. the brass top spins forever when he's in a dream. the final scene showed the brass top spinning... wobbles for a split-second but continued to spin. is he dreaming?

are you dreaming?

photo credit: www.wallpaperbase.com

silver

i like silver better than gold but when it comes to medals, nothing beats gold.

rainer ng did singapore proud by winning the 1st silver medal for the men's 50m backstroke, just a mere 0.09s behind christian homer from trinidad and tobago.

coupled with the 2 bronzes won by daryl tan and nurul shafinas both from taekwondo, the total medal tally stands at 3 tonight.

go, singapore, go!

reset

oh man... my ipod nano had to hang on me just before my run!

and i couldn't reset it! argh... so i couldn't track and time my run tonight. :(

boo...

gold medalist

i had just switched over to one of the yog channels yesterday and saw the chinese athelete doing the clean and jerk for the weightlifting competition. it was for the 48kg category and i thought that the chinese weightlifter looks very young and stocky.

then the commentator announced that she's the gold medalist for the women's 48kg category event.

oops! i really couldn't tell that she's a girl... :P

spending

does spending money makes one happy? yes, to a certain extent.

according to findings, spending money for an experience like going to a concert, lessons, classes or travelling produces longer-lasting satisfaction than just splurging on stuff. the reason being such experiences allow for reminiscences giving longer-lasting happiness.

also, scholars found that anticipation increases happiness. hence planning for a purchase will bring more pleasure than making a last minute buy.

so now we can all buy our way to bliss. :P

credit: the new york times

view from 4628

you guys caught the inaugural yog opening ceremony on tv?

well, i didn't 'cos i was making my way to janet's room at marina bay sands for a look-see and also get free entry into the skypark. :) the entire property is huge including a long promenade overlooking the bay.

didn't spend too much time at the top since i was a bit late and we wanted to view the fireworks in the room instead. very good views from the skypark. crowded so i couldn't get a good spot to park my lumix for a decent night shot. :(

the room is big, the bathroom too but doesn't have a bath tub which i think it's disappointing considering how much it'll cost at its usual rates. janet encountered the now well-known "frustration" of trying to check into the hotel at the promised check-in time of 3:00 pm.

doris and thomas were there too. they had to take a cab from suntec city to mbs as the helix bridge was closed due to the yog opening ceremony at the float @ marina. since doris had warned me about the bridge closure, i took a train to marina bay and walked over instead.

after the ceremony had ended, we had wanted to go for drinks somewhere but it was too troublesome for janet and jason since there was a long queue to retrieve their car from the valet. so we settled for coffee at the makeshift foodcourt outside the swatch boutique.

dyson

saw the dyson fan online previously and felt it's super cool (pun unintended).

thought that it's still in the r & d stage but didn't expect it to be in the papers and on sale at robinsons!

wow... safe and easy to clean. wonder how much will it cost...

check out this video to see what the engineers at dyson did just for fun. :)

esplanade xchange

do you know that raffles city now connects to marina square and suntec city underground? and i don't mean citylink mall... it's via the new esplanade xchange. so now there's another way to get to suntec city during those mad times when there's an IT show going on.

great! :)

higher prices

looks like the freaky weather worldwide these past few months is going to impact us directly after all. :(

wheat: increase of 50% since june
sugar: increase of 26% in 3 months
coffee: increase of 20% also in 3 months
soya: increase of 8% within the same period

while suppliers are currently reluctant to increase prices, if the higher prices persist for another 3 to 6 months, the effect will eventually feed into retail prices. not a very welcome development considering the state of the world's economy.

by post

today i had to go to the post office to weigh the 2 envelopes containing my application forms and documents for the 2 openings doris told me about.

it costs 50 cents for a manilla envelope with about 9 sheets of a4 size paper and i've not done this for a very long time even though i'm actively looking for a job. which company still requires you to submit hardcopy applications by post in this time and age?

so very "old-school" lah... really brings me back to the times when i was looking for my first job. and i don't think it's environmentally-friendly, right? :P

song for xcb

as usual, you can't expect mrbrown not to parody this year's national day song. :)

but i thought last year's "lekuasimi" was funnier. ;)

happy 45th birthday

happy birthday to singapore!

this year's song is written and sung by corrinne may.

sugar-free

while sugar-free food products usually mean that artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose were used previously, increasingly sugar substitute called sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, maltitol and xylitol are added nowadays.

i know about sorbitol and xylitol because that is the sugar substitute commonly used in chewing gum. so is there a difference between the 2 groups of sugar substitutes?

definitely.

artificial sweeteners contains no carbohydrates and thus has no effect on blood sugar level. because it is 100 to 150 sweeter than sugar, the amount required contains neglible caloric content hence it was recommended for weigh-watchers as well as diabetics.

sugar alcohols on the other hand are hydrogenated carbohydrates meaning they will raise your blood sugar levels and contains calorie values ranging from 1.5 to 3.0 per gramme versus 4 calories per gramme of sugar. however, they do not contribute to tooth decay as they are not metabolised by oral bacteria.

interesting isn't it?

basically, what is sugar-free may still make your blood sugar level rise and if such calories are not expended through daily activities and/or exercise, eventually makes you fat! :P

credit: the new york times, wikipedia
photo credit: canonsnapper, flickr

tough

argh... almost got a headache trying to solve the 30 reasoning questions assessment here.

it's super "cheem" lah... i'm happy if i got half of them right. :(

not so long run

but it felt too long... and i couldn't maintain my pace consistently.

my 1st run in many months... haven't been running regularly since the standchart marathon last december so i've been terribly out of practice. besides my obvious laziness, i also blame it on my nike+ ipod sensor. i discovered its battery was flat a few months ago. as luck would have it, it was out of stock in many places.

without a way to track my distance covered, i've put off training for this year's half marathon until today. no more excuses since i got the sensor last month from jurong point, and i don't feel like killing myself in front of tens of thousands people at the marathon singapore in december.

today's run was 3.78km in 28 minutes 27seconds. average pace of  7'29"/km. lousy pace for such a short distance. need to ramp up the distance and speed in 4 months.

wish me strength! :)

kenzo tange

丹下健三 was a world-renown architect with his works spanning across all continents but do you know that he also left his mark on singapore's cityscape as well?

ntu, oub centre, indoor stadium and uob plaza are but a few of the his more prominent projects that dot our little island. in fact, i didn't know he was behind the design of oub centre until i read that paul tange (his son) is the architect responsible for the new extension that's being built now.

and it seems that he is continuing in his father's legacy in the 2 upcoming developments in downtown somerset area, with an iconic glass overhead bridge spanning across orchard road.

this is truly "following in the footsteps" of one's father... and how many can lay claim to continuing his father's work like what paul is doing for the oub centre which will be renamed one raffles place when the extension is completed?

awesome to be an architect, isn't it?

photo credit: the business times

new look

i like colourful mosaic tiles.

this is a major overhaul in looks for the blog. a departure from the previous spare and almost bland template.

maybe i'm compensating for my less than colourful writings. :P

huntington

never heard of this city in west virginia in the us until i read the saturday special report in the papers on yesterday. it seems that it has been labelled as america's fattest city, rightfully or wrongly the label had stuck since an associated press report in 2008.

have you seen an xxl tee? i guess that's the usual oversized tee we usually see around here but you can find 10xl tees at workingman's store in huntington! gosh... can't imagine how big that is.

and the jeans that can fit waistlines up to 182cm! that's 4cm more than my height!

all these were blamed on the following:

1. an increasingly sedentary lifestyle
2. the prevalence of cheap processed food
3. the aggressive marketing of fat- and sugar-laden fast food, fizzy drinks and snacks and
4. the decline of home-cooking in dual-income households

it appears that such a confluence of factors are also increasingly found in asia. will there be a day when xxl tees be commonplace and no longer the biggest size available here? where people's height can be shorter than their waistlines?

i hope not.

photo credit: chua chin hon, the straits times

election's coming?

the straits times' insight team is betting on a december '10/january '11 or april/may '11 date for the next general election here.

let's see when the men-in-white deem the ground is sweet enough for the picking... :)

a maze

it's janelle and jarad celebrating their birthdays at safra jurong and all the kids are invited for a fun workout at kidz amaze. the decibel levels is truly amazing! even the kids thought it was too noisy. so you can imagine the din all the kids were making.

i guess the kids enjoyed themselves pretty much except maybe cayden who was somehow mistaken to be food by a little boy. poor cayden, he cried so loudly even ethan was affected and started crying.

talking about ethan... he's totally adorable and fun to play with but still very much stranger-unfriendly. :(

didn't stay too long 'cos i got the tickets to attend the ndp ne show with compliments from amy.

yeah!

obfuscate

another word that i came across recently...

seems to be similar to discombobulate in meaning.

find out more here.

水

considering the unprecedented amount of rainfall that caused the flash floods in orchard road within 2 months, is it any wonder that mas is revising our economic growth forecast for the year to between 13 and 15%? :P

and we could be the fastest growing economy in the world for 2010!

wow...

ethan is one

chubby ethan is so cute!!!

he seems to be in great mood today allowing everyone to carry him. likes to laugh, eat and crawls around happily.

knows how to look for daddy & mummy and point to his backside when asked to. haha... :)

check out the party's pictures here.

虎虎生威

happy new year!

may the auspicious year of the metal tiger brings you great wealth and health.

恭喜, 恭喜!

团圆

the requisite reunion dinner or 团圆饭 is possibly the only meal in the whole year that all 6 of us will sit down and eat together at home.

and we always have 鱼生 and steamboat without fail. the traditional steamboat has progressed to one which comes with a grill, so that we can barbeque the meats and seafood and stink up our clothes. :P haha...

this year, dad went to buy salmon belly 鱼生. as usual, he couldn't restrain himself and bought over $40 of salmon sashimi so there's always fish in every bite. yummy!

then i made my own version of 杨枝甘露 with mango yogurt and added strawberries. not too bad. :)

whole again

after slightly more than 2 years, my trusty nec versa e6310 finally decided to give me a weird look. yeah, i cannot see the display properly for the windows log in. did the lcd burn out or what? i had no idea...

fortunately the necare centre was nearby at haw par technocentre and that was where i found myself last thursday's afternoon. i had decided that if the repairs cost too much, i should seriously consider getting a new netbook.

edward, the counter staff asked for a battery or power adaptor which i didn't bring so he scurried into his office to get one. he proceeded to switch on my laptop and pronounced that the motherboard and not the lcd is the problem. gosh... that sounds like an expensive component to replace. :(

thankfully, after checking his database, he announced that my laptop is still under warranty. yay! bless the extended warranty. :)

now, my trusty nec is back in action after just 3 working days at the centre.

lesson learnt: 3 years' extended warranty is a very good idea. and don't forget your backups too. ;)

discombobulate

never seen this word in my life!

what is the meaning of the word? any guesses?

give up? check it here. :)

Prying a Cake from OCBC's Cold, Hard Fingers

lol... kudos to spunky kitchen tigress! :)


kitchen tigress: Prying a Cake from OCBC's Cold, Hard Fingers

new year, new decade

happy new year!

yeah, it's 2010... didn't thought much about it until i read the papers and realise that it's a new decade. lots of retrospectives pertaining to technology, economy, nature and even fashion of the last 10 years.

somehow, i feel that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

let's hope this will be a better year for one and all. cheers!