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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

dinner @ sakae

had intended to eat at sun with moon @ wheelock but because we didn’t have a reservation, kl & mx went to queue for a table at sakae instead.

in the end, the whole lot of us made it for dinner. ky, gordon and thomas too.

sakae is celebrating their 8th anniversary. so there’s a 2 red plates for $8 promotion plus privilege card members get a generous 18% off the bill. very good value, right?

and then we went to sun with moon for desserts again. :)

this time round, i had the matcha bararoa and a orange vitamin cocktail.

nice!

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.

ndp preview

thanks to doris who's forever so lucky to win the ballot for the ndp tickets, i'm here @ the padang with doris, thomas & my sis watching the preview today.

the last time i watched the parade "live" @ the padang was before i went to kindergarten. yup, it was THAT long ago.

here's a shot of the 4 of us in our ndp reds. this picture was taken @ carlton 18th floor lobby. nice?

we had gone to mx & kl's room to hang out after lunch. also checked out the pictures of the bridal & evening gowns that mx had tried out the day before.

raffles city was swarmed in a sea of red when we made our way to the padang at 4:30pm. the security measures were stringent. all bags were scanned using the same x-rays machines that are used for baggages at the airport.

the military & police were out in full force, a clear deterrent against any extremist groups hoping to gain their 15 mins of fame. but also a very visible sign of the times that we're in.

with the recent bombings in london and egypt, how could singapore afford to let our guard down?

especially since we've been previously identified as a potential target for terrorist activities.

nevertheless, the additional security measures coupled with strong military/police presence were reassuring to say the least.

the preview went on like clock-work without any glitches as is expected of all things in singapore. the fireworks were beautiful as usual.

and reciting the pledge and singing the national anthem together with 25,000 other singaporeans and friends of singapore is a truly goosebumps-inducing experience.

i'm proud to be a singaporean.