Working late - for the LAST TIME for consumer PC team!

My last show with my current team. Getting Neptune ready for show&tell was a lot of work! It was so raw - looks like handbuilt by R&D guys in the US. We had missing drives, wrong drivers, missing DMI, the HD-DVD drive came separate...
Of cos being the last minute cocky idiots who never learn, we waited til end Monday to freak out.

Running around in panic state, calling our Taiwan office, bugging our US folks who just flew in for the Summit (thank God for them).

By the time Terence & I packed up our 8 boxes - we were exhausted. Hey a PC weighs 15kg and a monitor about 12kg. Thankfully my new job is with notebooks - they are tiny relative to what I have to heave around today.

Tomorrow the summit starts & the product fair is Friday. Will be up late setting up, fixing and preparing my presentations... Sigh, gonna be a long next 2 days.

Cycling Pulau Ubin

We intended to go last Sunday but it rained... This Sat unfortunately my uncle flew off so he missed this trip. Sigh. He would've liked this.

We took some creaky rental bikes whose gears stick bad - uphills were painful (that's understating it). But seeing how I went with 2 sufferers of "hard-core-itis", I expected a true blue hardcore trip.

We biked hard (my forearms were so sore from grabbing my handlebars in fear as we tore down steep hills that the next day I couldn't cut my passport photos for my Taiwan work permit)...

We climbed hard - eh? Mountain biking where got climbing, not salah, we cycled to a quarry, stashed bikes behind bushes, and dive off the cliffs only to climb back up. Called deep water soloing where if you fall, you crash back into the water. Derek took videos which were a blast. While uploading to YouTube I kept laughing out loud to my monitor.

We teased and laughed at one another... It was very memorable. I will so miss these 2 hardcore sufferers so much *sob*

Mileage

It's been years since I last used the term 'mileage' ;) shows how lazy I've been.

It was a half-marathon mileage over 3 days.

Mon - 5k with Steph thru HP-Hyderabad Rd. Then we pigged out on Korean BBQ. Yummy...

Tue - 7k with Ms HardCore. Then we climbed.

Thu - 9k with Joanne, Derek and Ms HardCore. Then we suppered on yi-mee cooked with a mountain of lard. Gross!

Hot chick

While showing me his photos on Flickr, Terence saw mine and tot Joanne was a babe...

She was thrilled all nite after I told her...

But the woman still cannot differentiate between Prana & Prada!

So Joanne, this is

PRANA (the cool brand we climbers wear)

The very cool climbing top & pants we bought you for your birthday? Prana!

Prada is the brand of our shoes, handbags, wallets (not including those of us with the Prada accessories from KL's Chinatown.. tsk tsk!)

Absent-mindedness

Some call it blur, I prefer to say absent-minded. Gives the illusion of a mind distracted.. instead of just not having it all together ;)

First I tot I lost my HP access badge. That would've cost me $50 replacement fee. My friends were so nice, they all panic-ed and offered me helpful advice. Ultimate was a colleague who asked me to tell them that I dropped it into toilet, before I flushed...

Found it subsequently after freaking out 1 day in the laundry basket. Blur me dumped both dirty clothes + badge in there.

Next I packed 2 running jerseys and no shorts to go for an evening jog. It gave me an excuse to not have to run with Yingzi (Ms Hard-Core wanted to do laps up and down Mount Faber)... Or I could run in my underwear. No flashing in the Telok Blangah area - Yingzi offered me her running shorts and jogged in surfing bermuda - she looked like some sufer chick all nite.

Last nite, I left my pink and very beautiful Nalgene bottle behind at the coffeeshop after supper. I spent all nite thinking how much i loved it and how some lucky bastard will never treat it as well as I would... *sob* Thanks to God for good friends, Yingzi (again!) picked it up after me and had put it in my car for me.

Conclusion

1. I need to get my act together!

2. God is good! I have good friends!

3. How will I survive Taipei alone?! *wail*

My body hurts...

Ever since the decision to move to Taipei end July, I've been punishing myself...

Cycle - Vesak Day
Last Thu was a public holiday and I went with Yz, Derek, my 50+ uncle in a small band of 9 gung-ho weekend warrior friends to cycle Penggarang. Intended as my farewell ride - selling my Trek to You Chien - my cousin afterwards. I cycled off fast and knew Yz would follow. She did more, she overtook me. The return was crazier : Yz, Kenny & I drafted each other, pushing one another on. It was absolutely crazy the speeds we were doing despite the strong headwinds. Often cruising 28-30km with the strong headwind.

Of cos we pigged out big time on lobsters and crabs and too much food in general. BURP!

Climb - last weekend
2 days later, over the weekend, we drove up to KL to climb at Camp 5. Yz borrowed her brother's BMW, so we went up in style. We chose to stay close to the climbing gym, in Royale Bintang at the nearby The Curve. Hotel was new and way nicer than KL Plaza Suites. The best part, we found out we could walk back after climbing to our hotel room. Need to trek 15mins thru the mall's carpark, by golf driving range, then voila, hotel!

This is me, during and after...

The next day we chilled, Melvin & family went swimming while the rest of us ventured out to shop around at the Curve. Then stroke of luck, Derek's wife found a spa. Amazingly they had slots for all of us - the Urban Retreat was simply fantastic! I will gush again, their Thai masseurs could work magic, absolutely fanastic!

Thursday 7 Jun

Yz proposed this zany plan. We leave work early for a triathlon of sorts : jog 5k, swim 20 laps and then climb 5 climbs. I was on course and couldn't leave til 5pm, so we dropped the swim. The jog went ok, until the last 800m or so when Derek broke away on a sprint. Tried to chase the man (he claims the last run he did was during reservist 5yrs ago!) but he was way too fast!

Then we climbed.

Now I am sore... and Yz sadly hurt her shoulder badly doing a tough climb. Praying Yz for a speedy recovery, may God heal your shoulder!