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. :)