My New Car!

I woke up early this morning to prepare my roadmap for Thailand - but he stood me up. Ended up working all day Wed, 9 - 5.30pm. The good thing is that I got ALL my countries including Thailand done! All set for country discussions.

Took a short nap then went to Tan Chong to pick up my new car. Like when I first traded in my new car for the Corolla, I was near tears by the time I removed all my personal belongings from my first car. This time, it was mixed feelings - am sure I'll miss my Corolla, but oh well. Nice to have a new car again. Shouldn't have so much hang-ups with material things too. I'll get used to the Sunny. My next car - if God permits, will be a nice one! Perhaps an SUV, or a little sports coupe.

Kuala Lumpur 26 - 27 Dec

Went for a KL climb. Bill kindly offered to drive. Weather was good - stayed dry most of the drive up. Got 1 day of climbing at Damai walls in. Am weak - only mustered up 3 easy climbs. Must be age catching up. Day 2 woke up to rain. Took a cab to Camp 5 at One Utama mall. Touted to be the largest climbing gym in Asia. Didn't think it was that big - but it's nice, new and airconditioned - sweet!

Mom joined me for this trip - she went shopping while I climbed. Worked out well. The Westin was as usual, very comfortable.

The other surprise was Moo wanting to join too. Although they kept mostly to themselves.

All in - great 2 days.

New adventure centre in Yishun

Open house for the new $1.7million adventure centre at Safra Yishun over Sat and Sun. Went down to check it out. Complete with ice-climbing (artificial), new climbing walls with crack climbing and chimney. Way cool!

While still oo-ing & ahh-ing over the new facilities, was asked to join the bouldering competition, part of the opening activities for the new centre. Apparently, not many applicants, high chance of winning a prize. I got 3rd :)

Nice.

Brisbane 8-15 Dec

Went to Brisbane to spend 1 week with mom. Uncle Simon was extremely hospitable. I hiked rainforest trails, climbed mountains, went on many beautiful mountain drives, traveled up/down Brisbane river on a ferry, visited a cheese factory, wineries, hugged a koala, stroked kangaroos, hit some balls in a golf driving range, shopped, visited mom's relatives that I've never met in my lifetime... Was a very full 7 days.

My uncle is probably recuperating from us right now :)

Was my first visit to Oz since I left in 1995 after studying. As usual, each time I visit a different country, I feel I can live there.. much more liveable than the Singaporean lifestyle.

Introspective mood

In Jan this year, I had to make a trip to the Philippines and was in Davao - south of Manila. I had half a day off and the tourist brochure in the room suggested a beautiful church set on a hill with grand yearly processions. How very Catholic. The sweet elderly taxi driver took me there, cut the engine and the meter, and proceeded to make himself comfortable to wait for me.

I took my time - said my prayers at the church, at the various shrines. As the church as set on the highest point of Davao (up a mountain), the view it offered of the entire city of Davao was breathtaking. Round back of the church, I lit 4 candles : for me & Hon, for my family, and for 2 of my closest friends who were having relationship problems.

Dawned on me last nite (ok, so it took all year to realise, nontheless) :
1. my baby brother will be marrying Michelle next year
2. Francis is engaged to be married too
3. Moo is happily with Tim

I got 3 out of 4 prayers answered.

Running the Standard Charted Marathon 2005

I did it! I ran my 1st marathon! Ok, so my knee gave out at 37k and I had to walk the last few kms, walk thru the finishing line too.. So much for the glamourous finish I had in mind. And so what if I exceeded my target by a whole hour and 20 mins. I set out to run a marathon, trained 18 weeks and endured the balance of time/schedule it took to train.

The race was great - atmosphere and logistics fantastic, kudos to the organisers of the Standard Chartered marathon. I ran a nice constant speed and was overall pleased. I overcame my mental weakness, overcame physical pain and cross the finish line.

Now that my big goal is over, time to focus on my life. I need to better balance the various major components : work, play vs the more impt things : God and people. And very timely too, being Advent and being end of year when one typically gets more retrospective.

Another reminder of life's fragility

Was a regular NPI meeting at work - as all Thursday go. Received an SMS from an old MBA classmate saying a classmate has passed away. Couldn't believe it... called another classmate, only 1 Stephen in our cohort. Refusing to believe, I went to his wake after work. When I saw his photo there, it sunk in bad.

He had a viral attack on his heart.

He's sporty, healthy. Used to see him returning from jogs when he lived in the block behind me. And last year during the corporate triathlon, he called out to me - he also participated.

The injustice of good people being cut down in their prime is really starting to get to me. Where is the fairness? And meanwhile evil people continue to prosper and live happily, healthily.

It sucks.

To Stephen - the sweet guy who had a quick hello for everyone, may God have mercy on your soul.

First jog after 10 day break

I was lazy, and again and again. It got to 10 days in succession... Finally I reached in deep and summed up every little muscle and got out and ran today. Felt like 15-16k in 1.45hrs. At least, I ran.. so no begrudging distance nor time.

Looking forward to the weekend in KL with family. Will be a good break from the stresses at work - at last we have Spr cycle out of the way, whew!

Holiday today

Took a midweek break. My plan is
1. start with a long morning run at least 2 hours
2. midday mass at Novena
3. boulder a little at CA
4. nap / chill

So much for plans - got lazy first thing and couldn't convince myself to get up and go run. Sigh. Snoozed til 11am in time for mass.

Bumped in Arthur and had a long chat over lunch after mass. Feel that I'm somehow missing something - something that began over the weekend retreat. Just can't quite put my finger on it - will pray that God speaks louder.

Bouldered a little - finally, I managed the 6B route! It felt sweet! Spent long time playing with the cats today - today they were very friendly.

Came home for a quick nap and again, I couldn't convince myself to do an evening run. And then Calvin sms to say he'll visit with dinner and the dogs. Done - run cancelled again.

Well, 3 out of 4 achieved today isn't bad. Although I missed the most impt goal of running - or was that mass and that funny talk with Arthur. Hmm...

Weekend Retreat

Had a stay-in weekend with the NET team on retreat for Alpha-Cafe 2006 directions. After a bumpy start on Friday evening where the sharing on our uphill challenges ended on a rather depressing tone, it was all great from Sat onwards.

I learnt :
- difference between being a disciple vs being a volunteer
- servanthood - that is an an honour to serve God!
- committment - to take up our cross daily.

The food was great and plentiful. I'm sure I am heavier now. Rooms were brand new and clean and roomie (Emily) was great, spent time chatting alot. Emily also introduced the group to meditation. She said that meditation was invented in the early days by Catholic monks and it's not just a Buddhist thing. I need more work on this, cos after catching wondering thoughts, I caught myself nodding off to sleep!

It was such a refreshing weekend - 3 days just thinking about God.

Is it Friday?

Nice to have 2 public holidays in 1 week!

Very restful week. Plus enough time (minus the work hours) to visit family, nap in the day (decadence!), run/climb (all the fun things in life).

The cloudy morning gave me an excuse to sleep in a little. Went to Macritchie to do a short run late morning. Was a little muddy, a little crowded, but as always Macritchie is beautiful place to be.

Since I was up and out, might as well join my friends in Climb Asia. Plus been neglecting my climb kakis since I started training for the marathon. Climbed some, chatted some, played with the resident cats.
http://www.climb-asia.com/home.html
Fortunately, it was relatively empty. Was a little crowded on Tue (Deepavali) but yesterday was nice. At one stage, I had the whole downstairs to myself. Funnily enough, I can't manage the 6b endurance route anymore. Keep falling off the 6th handhold. I must've lost upper body strength ever since I began marathon training in August.

Picking up the pieces

Today's a public holiday - happy deepavali to all Hindus!
Also All Saints Day - a blessed day of reflection for all Christians.

The last few weeks have been rough - to put it mildly.

Trying to pick up the pieces in the last 3 days or so.

My running program's back to normal. Resumed with a 5k run at Macritchie. But mentally weak still - kinda hard to push myself. Should I be pushing harder?

Went for 1st climb with gang after ignoring them for weeks. It was ok - kinda rusty but nice to sit around with gang, goading each other up routes.

Short work week this week. Thank goodness. Plenty time to run/socialise/work and still breath easy.

In memory of Ho Wai Peow

It was a happy day, we were in high spirits. Everybody happy and excited. HP is afterall defending champions.
I still don't understand what happened. Why did Wai Peow drown? How're his young children and sick widow to live on? Why's life so unfair?

Life's too short. And you never know when the story ends. To Wai Peow, we will all miss you and learn from you. To live cheerfully and happily!

How to launch media centre... not!

Still concussed from lack of sleep and 1 too many close calls over 2 days.

It all started in June when my boss suddenly announces WE are launching media centre PC in Phi. After much (and I mean, MUCH!!!) hard work, the day arrives. Feeling of impending doom grows.

The signs were not good. When I almost missed my flight there and had to beg at the checkin counter, I should have read the ominous signs. Of course the event organisers were slow, of course the paint was still wet at 10pm, night of setup. Of course we couldn't get our PC up until almost midnight.

Morning of Launch. D-Day. PC refuses to boot, hard disk appears dead. Panic time! Find phone quick, call for reinforcements... where's my phone! Gah! Left it at breakfast table in hotel! Deep breaths, deep breaths. First things first, get colleague to call for replacement PC. Find taxi service to return to hotel for phone. Thank God we got PC up, thank God an honest waiter kept my phone, thank God the show went uneventful.

Day 2 - channel training. Changed flight to later 6pm, so got more time to talk and get to airport. Got to venue of training to find PC placed in back of room. No worries, move it to front. Next, no internet connection. No panic, ask hotel staff to give us an account. The clincher - no live TV feed. Sigh.

Finally, i get to return home! Parting gift - 1 last scare, travel agent screwed up, didn't move my flight down to the 6pm! Horrors! Thank God (the 1 surity in the maelstrom) there were seats available!

In 2 days, I should be able to say good things about the country or the launch. In the meantime... I need more sleep.

Today's Mileage

Starting to get really tiring, trying to balance marathon training program + work + relationships + holding everything together and staying sane in the process!

Today is a short 6k run. Then dinner with Moo.

I miss Moo, haven't caught up with her since last week when I stood her up by going for a jog.