Monday Blues...

I could sing an Elvis blues song today...

Feeling tired and I guess depressed from the aftermath of last week - possibly among the worst encounters in my work life. 

Hopefully I find something new soon, or the blues will extend.

Sigh.

The Great White shark

After another painful conference call, where we argued back and forth until almost 12.30am, I went to the living room, turned on the TV - yes, it's that bad.  I had to de-stress. 

There was this program on about scientists who tagged Great White sharks and wondering why they swim 6 months to get out to the middle of nowhere (off US).  The purpose was to find a Great White in that area, check its stomach contents to see what it eats.
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/great-white-shark.html

I'm reminded how huge a Great White is... averaging lengths of 6m ; weighing 2000-ish kg.  See the picture from the National Geographic site : HUGE!

Tough decision to make

Sigh....

My new colleague - Yingzi

Zi joined Motorola this week.

Like me, she also received a used NB, lack of support with productivity tools... Groan.

But the difference is, she hit the road running.  Seemingly doing well.  She was working well when I walked by her to chat.

Me, on the other hand, hit the road with my face and got dirt up my nose and in my teeth.  Sigh...

Of shocks, nots and rocks

Shocks :
Met up with my best friend and we sat down at Haagen Daz after sticking her boys at the Animal Kaiser arcade machine with the maid.  While chatting, she told me that a lot happened in the 3 years I was away.  One of our mutual friends found out earlier this year that her husband had a 2nd family.  I was blown away.  David has been with the PAP forever and at every upcoming general elections, we expect him to be a new MP.  Now you're saying he has a 2nd family complete with 2 kids?!  WTF.  I feel so sad for Q, she's sweet and smart and a really cool mom - I really don't know what she'll do now.

Nots :
I am not enjoying my new job.

Rocks :
Zi joined Moto yesterday.  The toilet stinks now, but it's nice to have her as a colleague!  Especially when she walks up to my cube and grins her silly chesire cat grin.

It's only Tuesday, I can hang in there...

What do people do on their smartphones?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/report-looks-at-trends-with-mobile-apps/?src=tptw

So true, I play the dumbest games but I do it everynight!

Little joys in life - driving home at dusk

So ok, I often get the setting sun in my eyes...

But I really like these moments, driving my car in the evenings, relaxed, on a route with lots of green. 

Got a song in my head...

I know people raise eyebrows at my choice of music.  But I like Eminem, the edginess in his songs is so real - life is exactly like that, people never the way you expect or want. 

So his new song - Love the way you lie is so cool!  I think it is reflective of human relationships, beyond BGR... 

Last race as a 30-something...

A watershed moment for me as far as races goes - my last race as a 30-something.  Sigh..  I can still recall my first race, Sheares Bridge 10K run in 2003 and the starting point was the National Stadium.  Feels like a lifetime ago.

This year, they renamed it to the Safra Singapore Bay run/Army Half marathon, or whatever the real name is.  It's a nice new route through the new Singapore bay, through the Helix bridge, the F1 grand prix circuit by the grandstands, past the spanking new Marina Sands casino so new that I can smell the concrete still.  Nice route, very enjoyable.

Since I'm still a little sick since last week in HK when an inconsiderate man coughed square into my face, giving me a throat infection.  And I have not done a run longer than 5k since probably May's 17k trail run in Taipei.  My game plan was to go slow, keep running til at least the 15k and enjoy the run as far as I can.  So doing a time of 2.55 is good enough for now.

So I'm reaching for my little plastic bag of salonpas... my legs (every single part from the hip joint to the calf muscle), my shoulder blade area, my abdominals, all hurt.  Good news is my ITB held, not a twitch from either side, the left patella ached around the 18k mark & went away after I slowed the pace (cos I was too exhausted!).

You know how they often have uplifting messages along the run route?  I loved this one :

Sign 1 - Run run run!

Sign 2 - Walk if you can't...
Sign 3 - Crawl if  you must!

Oh I want this so bad!

I want the new iPod Nano.

It's shrunk to a size that is simply perfect!  And you can wear it as a watch?

*drools*

We are no. 20 - Newsweek’s list of the 100 best countries in the world

Singapore is listed as no. 20 in Newsweek's report of the best 100 countries.

We're behind our fellow Asia + Pacific countries - Australia (ranked no. 5), Japan, NZ, Korea (no. 15).

As expected, we were marked down for political environment, scoring only 53.26%.  It's kinda hard to stomach this, considering Croatia had 70+, even Philippines had 58. 

I'll take our "police state" status versus an unstable/inept or corrupted government - so if it means the world scores us down for that, I could live with it.

Go Singapore!

Cheated!

On the cusp of a long weekend, I decided to try for evening mass at Holy Spirit church.  It's more along the way home than Novena church.  And I was leaving office early anyways, so 6pm mass is better.

Guess what.  I was cheated of mass.  Mass on that day was either 7.30 or 8pm that night - the lady I asked was not sure.  Cheated of mass!

Called Michelle and we both had dinner, played a little with Kino - he barked at her when she caught his toy while playing catch.

Then went home for another painful conference call.  This project is starting to really be painful....

Weight

Stood on scale this morning. 

Weight - 49.0kg ; body fat % - 22.5.

Climb 2x a week + run around the Yishun block before each climb.  Cycling 30k every Sunday. 

It is all working well.  This is inspite of my crazy conference calls almost every night.

Not bad indeed. 

Not bad at all.

I am grateful, Jesus.  Thank you Lord.

I am RC

Chatting with an ex-US colleague this morning and I commented that I am happily indulging in my 3Cs these days : catholicism, climbing and cycling.

He commented that they're all RC :
- rock climbing
- road cycling
- roman catholic

Hmmm...

Ok, I am RC then!  And very happily so!

To be honest, it's part of the reason why I chose to return to Singapore.  To be a better RC : roman catholic and rock climber, road cyclist came as a bonus.

Luke on TV

This is a notebook I helped work on.  Cost a lot of pain, grief, and it ended up being nicknamed 'tippy'.  Sigh.

But it made a lot of news (good news, at that)
http://wn.com/HP_TouchSmart_tm2_on_Lifetime_series_Project_Runway

Life's strange like that.  What/who you anticipate to succeed, doesn't, and the reverse strangely often does.  Hmmm...

First fight with mom

Yesterday mom and I had our first verbal war.

Mom's prayer group had secured some tickets to the play "A Reluctant Saint" on the life of St Alphonsus.  I said I wanted to go, so mom got me a ticket as well.  She told me, Sep 6 Tuesday.  I wrote down Monday Sep 6 on my calendar. 

Yesterday, Monday, Sep 6 morning as I was leaving for work, she started talking about Tuesday arrangements.  I said "isn't it tonight? I even canceled tonight's conference call!".  She starting yelling at me.

But I have 3 conference calls on Tuesday, first one begins at 7.30pm and they are back to back until 11pm.  What am I to do?  I was exasperated so I said I will pay back for the wasted ticket but really what to do at this last minute?  Then I left the house for work, in a huff.

By the time I had arrived in the office, I felt bad.  So I called her back and surprisingly she was nice.  She said she'll ask Calvin to drive her and her friends there instead and Calvin will use the ticket so no wastage. 

Last night when I got back, she was a little pissed still but she wasn't angry.  Whew!

Living life with a vengence...

When I work, I work feverishly...
When I cycle, I push and my thighs burn and I push some more to hit... 34.5km/h top speed...
When I pray, I pray beggingly... humbly...

Life of late, has been full of superlatives. 

And I miss Ms Hardcore...