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!

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...

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

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.

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

dinner @ palm's asian brasserie

today marks the beginning of the monthly birthday feastings for my ns group of friends. ky suggested this rather ulu hotel featuring a steamboat buffet to celebrate my birthday.

doris and thomas were invited too. the steamboat was quite good with fresh seafood and mushrooms. cooked dishes were pretty ordinary. i think all of us were slightly disappointed that there weren't oysters or sashimi included in the spread.

however, it's the company that counts, right? cheers!

tea time

was craving for hk-style milk tea for a week when doris ask if i'm free to meet up today since she's not working. so i suggested going to crystal jade kitchen at taka.

later, we realised that janet is having her gynae appointment today so we asked her along. she's complaining that ethan is later than what she had expected and she can't go for maternity leave earlier. hehe...

had the usual instant noodles and 菠萝包with butter set at crystal jade. yummy!

since i was feeling greedy today, i suggested going over to shimbashi soba for desserts.

what a leisurely afternoon!

thick hair

before i went to chapter 2 at marina square, none of the hair stylists that i've told me that i've got thick hair. i always feel that my hair was rather flat. thick hair for me is what doris has. something that every single hair stylist has told her all her life. :P

since nick was the first stylist to tell me so, i took his words with a pinch of salt and didn't really bother about his comment. i thought he was just trying to make me feel good since i might be at an age where hair thinning or receding hairlines maybe looming around the corner.

but another hair stylist saying the exact same thing? hmm... should i believe it? or is he making me feel good too?

well, i choose to have faith in their professionalism. :)

new ride

doris sms-ed to ask me if i wanted to join her, tracy and eric for lunch at bishan. i declined 'cos i'm too lazy to go all the way there just for lunch.

then she called to say she'll be at west coast to collect her new suzuki swift and will drop by after that to pick me up so that we can go janet's place before having dinner together. eric was her designated 'vehicle commander' for the day while i was chauffeured by tracy for the first time.

in the end, the new car owner was made to drive from west coast to clementi, then to ang mo kio before going to punggol. after that, she had to follow our stunt driver, jason from punggol to bedok to pick up thomas for dinner and then to siglap for drinks.

hmm... that's all in a day's drive for the slightly stressed new car owner. cool, right? ;)

living courthouse

saw the advertisement for the supreme court open house first on the mrt.

went to the open house with doris and jaden. janet and cayden couldn't make it since jason had recall manning. what a crowd!

the criminal trial enactment "who pushed humpty?" was overwhelmingly popular with the registration queue snaking out of the building. gosh! since we didn't have much time, we decided to forgo the enactment.

took a walk around the building which looks really good inside. we visited a court room, a chamber, the exhibition and the viewing gallery.

took some pictures. a pity we didn't get to see the inside of the highest court in singapore, and literally too, the court of appeal.

free lunch

again! :P hehe...

helping thomas do audit for his in-room dining. doris, jaden and family are here too and what a spread we ordered.

i had the pan-seared rouge fillet which was a bit dry. i think the caesar salad was pretty good. the chicken nuggets for jaden wasn't too tasty though.

and i like the walnut bread lots. nice!

seventh heaven not

diane suggested checking out this new ice-cream parlour at 10 raeburn park. that's where my secondary school used to be.

due to a mis-com over sms with diane, i had not ask janet or doris along last night. had lunch with diane and jarad at coffee club at tiong bahru plaza. doris joined us too since she happened to be in town having lunch with thomas. janet and jeff couldn't make it at such late notice.

jarad is still mostly shy and not very vocal yet. the only thing that could get him excited is ice-cream! and that's the only word that i hear him say out loud.

but alas, seventh heaven was not meant to be. it's closed till 29th. :(

but i took the opportunity to show diane and doris around my old school compound. racking my brains trying to remember what used to be where. somehow, the place feels so much smaller than what i remember.

but our mission for ice-cream is still not accomplished so off we went to ben & jerry's at great world to satisfy jarad's need for ice-cream.

thanks, diane for the cool treat. :)

ibm @ play

janet asked me and doris to join her for ibm family day at sentosa since she has extra tickets.

it was an afternoon of sun, sand and sea with a difference because cayden came along. and of course nora too since she had to be around to take care of him.

my first experience with baby and pram on public transport. no mean feat i must say especially when it’s a crowded bus.

3 things that i learnt about cayden today:
1. he drools… a lot
2. he weighs 7.3 kg… which feels like 15, 20 kg if you had been carrying him for a while
3. he can laugh… endlessly if you know what to do to him

his laughter at coffee club at harbourfront was truly infectious and attention-grabbing. even the babes at the next table thought he’s cute. i guess he was in a good mood today.

you folks should ask to see the video from janet the next time we meet. it will definitely bring a smile to your face.

hong kong café

my phone rang when i was walking home from the mrt station.

it was eric on the line… he said tracy is hungry and asked if i wanted to go hong kong café for supper. his curiosity of the café was obviously aroused when we were talking about it earlier in the evening. probably piqued by the café unconventional operating hours at a not-so convenient location.

my first reaction was “huh?!”

i had just came back from the east side of the island. now still walking home with my stuff and skates and feeling hot and sweaty from the day’s activities, and he’s asking me if i wanted to traverse halfway across the island again when i haven’t even stepped home yet?

on the other hand, it seems like a good opportunity to check out the place since eric and tracy are so keen and doris and thomas are at the nearby chalet.

i said yes on the condition that he comes and pick me up after i had the time to shower and change. he agreed readily. trust eric to trudge all over the island for good/interesting food.

very soon, i was in eric’s car with my hair still wet from my shower on the way to pick up doris and thomas at the chalet. after failing to locate the café “using the force”, eric referred to his trusty street directory to get us there.

the café was bright and easily spotted from the road. the tables outside were all taken. a very good crowd considering it’s around midnight. thankfully, we didn’t have to look too hard for a table.

everything on the chef’s recommendation menu look good. i almost wished i was more hungry! you have to write down the item number on the order chit and place your orders at the counter. the funny thing is, they don’t require you to pay up first.

i ordered the instant noodles in soup with pork chop, bo luo bao and tea with milk. the noodles came with a slice of ham and a fried egg on top. the pork chop, tender and well-marinated was given a unanimous 2-thumbs-up by all present except for thomas who didn’t get to sample it.

tracy looked like she could finish the dry noodles with pork chop and luncheon meat all by herself until she exercised some restrain and push the bowl over to eric.

doris’ french toast was sinfully buttery. while the mini bo luo bao were good too. tracy proclaimed her dumplings with almond paste, “nice!”

my tea with milk was done, traditional hong kong-styled, with lots of evaporated milk. satisfying. thomas likes his yuan yang too.

too bad the hot drinks were not served in those big, white ceramic tea cups typically used at such cafes in hong kong. that would have made the experience truly authentic with the canto-pop playing over the air.

doris noticed that the crowd seems rather young, mainly in their twenties. very similar to one which you’ll see at fong seng. guess the older crowd is not into instant noodles and canned food! hehe…

overall, the food was good and up to our expectations. doris and thomas think it’s way better than central at takashimaya. and i think so too.

a pity that i couldn’t be back often due to its location.

sigh.

fun @ east coast

doris booked a chalet at east coast costa sands resort and invited the jcgang to join her for some sea, sun and sand.

sl [wong], ky and i shared a cab there from clementi. eric arrived shortly after us. we just lazed around watching tv in air-conditioned comfort while waiting for janet and cayden. johann and diane surprised us by arriving before janet did.

doris, ky and i were just kitting up for our skate so johann and diane joined us on a rented “family” bike. that’s a tandem bike with a child seat right at the back.

janelle had been clamouring “bicycle, bicycle!” earlier. she seems pretty excited by it all since it’s her first time at east coast. i think she enjoyed herself very much today.

we skated/cycled over to bedok jetty. took a short break there to enjoy the sea breeze. we didn’t skate too badly considering that we haven’t been practicing for a few months. :) nobody fell. :P

after that we split up as we wanted to skate a bit more in the other direction while johann and family returned to the chalet. i was told later that janelle kept asking for “uncle mun yue” on the way back.

this is proof that nice cookies can buy your way into children’s hearts. :) haha…

dinner was at pasta fresca since we needed a big table and a child seat. unfortunately, it wasn’t one on the beach under the stars. after that, we bought desserts from the food centre back to the chalet.

i recommended my favourite cheng tng to eric and he likes it.

janet mentioned about cayden’s head being slightly big. the paediatrician will measure jason’s head at the next appointment to determine if it’s in the genes. then the talk went to cayden’s smelly poop.

doris wondered if that’s in the genes too. :) we couldn’t stop laughing... it was hilarious… haha…

we left at around 10-something. ky and i got a ride out to bugis mrt from eric since he’s going to pick tracy up.

and i thought i’ll be going home for a good night’s sleep…

another reply

johann’s invite continues to inspire our creative juices to flow…

here’s the reply from doris:

My humble greeting to the Holder of the Milkbottle and Guardian of the Wet Nappies ? Royal Wizard of the Court of Princess Janelle.

I have read with much interest on your invite to the prestigious Triwizard Tournament on 16 Nov. I do not have the aptitude for such flowery language like my fellow wizards so I will not babble on too much. I wish I have a wand to raise but alas, it was destroyed when I had to loan it to this fellow named Harry Potter. This will be a good occasion to remind him of my contribution to his triumph over he-who-must-not-be-named. Thence, do expect the presence of me and my lord Sir Thomas at the Tournament.


Yours enchantingly,

Doris
Beholder of the wand that-triumphed-over-he-who-must-not-be-named

hello doris, diane & johann

gave johann a ring after we had our pratas since he lives just round the corner. doris suggested going for the board walk near his house.

thomas couldn’t believe his ears. i couldn’t help but laughed at his tortured reaction.

we had to reassure him that it’s a very short route lasting not more than 30 minutes.

johann joined us sporting his new toy. a gadget from polar that will monitor his heart rate and measures the distance he covers.

it was a more peaceful walk compared to the treetop walk. there is a rather cool section where the boards actually extend over shallow waters.

and then johann revealed that he had been reading my blog!

he’s the first jcgang member to tell me so. now is doris’ turn to not believe her ears and she demanded to know why i didn’t tell her that i had been blogging.

my reply? it’s for the observant folks only. haha… :)

johann commented that i didn’t really blog about him except for mentioning him as the father of janelle. haha… trust him to be jealous of his own daughter.

talking about janelle… diane told me about the sweetest thing she did.

she had brought a recent copy of 8days to diane and excitedly exclaimed, “uncle mun yue, uncle mun yue!” while pointing to the picture of hong junyang, one of the project superstar finalists.

didn’t know there’s any resemblance between the 2 of us. anyway, i shall remember to buy her some nice cookies the next time i see her. :)

doris also asked if i’ve got any sponsorship deals like xiaxue.

i was like, huh? how to?

i don’t get traffic of 10,000 visitors like her… perhaps i should change my blog’s name to xiayu [raining]… write something bad about a kuala lumpur trip… blog controversial remarks on the use of handicapped toilets and use *&%$#@ or some colourful dialect expletives. :P haha…

treetop walk

*** brace yourself for my longest post ever ***

doris only managed to confirm that the trek is on yesterday when ky and doris’ friend, wendy said that they can make it.

originally, we had planned to meet at 9:00am at macritchie reservoir. very early for me considering it’s hari raya puasa but we had to be realistic since the trek to the treetop walk and back is expected to take 3 to 5 hours as written here.

however, wendy suggested 8:00am instead since she has a lunch appointment. in the end, a decision was made to meet at 7:45am at bishan mrt.

that means i have to wake up at an ungodly hour of 6:00am so that i will be punctual and still have time to grab some breakfast. i’ve not woken up so early for a very long time. i only keep such hours when i go for my icts.

it was raining when my handphone alarm sounded off at 6:00am.

received an sms from ky… he’s not going because it was raining heavily at his place .

sms-ed doris, she replied to say that it’s not raining at yishun…

what the heck… just do it!

decided to take the new sbs service 52 to bishan on a whim. played with my camera "action" mode while waiting for the bus…

after a while, i was the one and only passenger on the bus until it reached sin ming.

the bus arrived at bishan in a rather quick 35 minutes and i rushed off in search of breakfast. gobbled up my macdonald’s big breakfast in double-quick time, got to eat else i’ll definitely faint from hunger during the trek.

met doris and thomas at the pick-up point at 8:00am. wendy and his brother, victor soon joined us too.

waited a while for terence and diana. since the 5 of us couldn’t fit into the car, me, doris and thomas followed terence’s car in a cab to kim’s place at jalan lembah thomson.

that’s where the "secret" entrance of the trail is situated. don’t bother trying to locate it on the map because it is not an "official" start point. we set off at 8:30am in an adventurous mood.

when our side trail opened into the main route to the treetop walk, we encountered many runners along the way. doris is surprised to find so many health nuts running so early in the morning on a public holiday.

most of these runners [of all ages and gender] were in their running gear and nothing else, not even water bottles. some teenagers were even running in sandals and slippers!

compared to them, we seemed overdressed in our bermudas and trackpants; over-equipped with our backpacks containing our water-bottles, insect repellants, umbrellas, etc…

victor’s nike fell victim to the trail. he had not been wearing those shoes regularly. both soles came off eventually and had to be secured with elastic band and shoelaces.

although it was cloudy and the ground was still wet from the earlier showers, it was still humid.

walking and chatting merrily, we sometimes occupied the entire width of the trail impeding the runners’ way. probably pissed off quite a few of them as they had to slow down to pass through us. :P

only after a rather long while did we encounter other trekkers. the trail merged with the venus drive entrance route to the treetop walk. that’s where we encountered the holiday crowds of families out in full force.

doris couldn’t believe that the treetop walk can be this popular. ever so gungho, she kept talking about wanting to proceed on to bukit timah hill but nobody took her seriously.

finally reached the ranger station which is a short distance away from the treetop walk.


we had to scale a rather steep slope to the starting point.


here we are on the suspension bridge…






views from the bridge…

me and doris took our time on the bridge making the rest wait for us. hehe… :P

towards the end of the treetop walk, there’re signs that advised us not to turn back. i jested that it’s the "nai he qiao" which one has to cross on the way to reincarnation in chinese folklore so you’re not supposed to turn back. haha… :)

after the bridge, it’s many flights of steps up… and then down… to the board walk that will bring us back to the ranger station.

we decided to exit by venus drive and bade our farewells to kim and terence.

trekked past a stream… sighted an adult and baby monkey.

strange but true, we came across workers cutting the grass by the stream. didn’t know this trail requires "maintenance" too. no kidding.

by the time we reached the public carpark at venus drive, we had trekked for about 2.5 hours.

victor was craving for prata, so we took a bus to casuarina road for my favourite crispy plain prata.

a delicious and satisfying end to the morning physical exertion.

sun with moon @ wheelock

this dinner was set up 2 weeks ago… yes, not easy to coordinate considering that we have to accommodate the quarter-end closing for some of us and a business trip for another.

sl and ph were early, they had already finished an appetiser when i reached the restaurant at 7:30 pm. yup, they’re that hungry.

we had a booth seat furthest away from the entrance. most private and good for conversations but also meant that service was difficult to come by.

since janet had sms-ed doris to say that they’ll be late as most couples with kids tend to be, we proceeded to order appetisers first.

i ordered the sun salad and yam cake while doris ordered the agedashi dofu.

sl and ph went on to order the okonomiyaki.

the sun salad came in a bottle. the waitress gave a bubble tea “mechanical doll” shake to it after pouring in the sesame dressing. the yam cake was bland in a delicate, japanese way.

the okonomiyaki had lots of cabbage and only half an oyster in the piece that i had. :(

by the time we’re about done with our food, cayden finally arrived with his entourage of janet, jason and nora. :) hehe…

cayden was in a good mood… we passed him around the table. haha…

i ordered the salmon kamameshi which is like a metallic version of our claypot rice. not a very big portion though. if not for the appetisers and the desserts later, i don’t think i’ll be full.

had warabi matcha which is green tea ice cream with green tea jelly cubes. nice!

the bill for me came to about $37. slightly expensive but a good place to go to for the ambience and when you feel like splurging.

dinner plans

doris sms-ed in the afternoon to ask if i’m meeting the guys for dinner. when i told her there’re no plans for dinner, she asked me to organise!

duh!

was happily lazing around at home and this has to happen!

i’m such a slug! :) hehe…

so i helped doris to ask the guys via sms and told them to revert to her directly. but they insisted on replying to me instead! *&%$#@

after that, i rushed for my regular saturday yoga class by serena at paragon. was slightly late... boy, was the class packed!

managed to squeeze a mat in the left front corner right in front of the mirror. thankfully, the kind caucasian lady moved her mat to give me some space.

as usual, serena tried to murder the whole lot of us in class. :P