Races this year 2011

23 January : Singapore Dualthlon (CHECK!)

3 March : OCBC Cycle Singapore (Next!)

28 May : Adidas Sundown Marathon (Will I survive a full marathon again, perhaps night running might be easier?)

August : SAFRA Army Half-Marathon/ Bay Run (my favourite event, I love the scenary)

December : Singapore Marathon (I'll do the half again, just need to beat 2:55 to get Jo off my back)

Hopefully I'll stay in decent shape to race all of them to the best of my abilities!  Inshallah!

New Look!

New year, new look!

I've used my photo from the Taj Mahal trip because it's a watershed moment in my life : fulfilling a lifelong dream of seeing the Taj with my own eyes & being able to pursue happiness by leaving an unhappy job courageously.

There are more demons to battle in the days ahead, most of them in the form of my human relationships, but with God under my wing, what have I to fear...

What a blast: Singapore Duathlon 2011

Had a great outing at yesterday's race. Weather was a little hot but otherwise perfect.

I had a rough goal of 3hours and if not for withering in the last 5km run, I'd have kept to that. According to my trusty pink Timex, first 10km 1:07, 36.36km cycle 1:29, last 5km 0:44. Plus transition wastage time I finished at 3:17.

Good start to 2011. Next race : OCBC 40km cycle in March.

Need a job

Many phone & F2F interviews, text/email/Linked In messages, friends who forwarded JDs/headhunter contacts...

I know I don't want a job with Electolux (vacuum cleaners?!!) nor a role to be based in Taiwan again.

Otherwise, I'm open to all possibilities.

Oh and being able to interview in Chinese was interesting especially since the call was unexpected. My linguistic abilities astound even myself. My command of the Chinese language has not gone to the dogs... yet.

Guess what? Exciting updates!

Er.. Nothing much happening of late.

Ok, started to run a little more regularly as preparations for Sunday's duathlon but otherwise nothing exciting nor happy to report.

Sigh...

Happiness - where art thou?

I can't believe how everything soured so quickly. 

It was only a few months ago, I was happy.  New job, coming home to kakis who were willing to kill themselves with me on a daily basis, actually found some who were even more hardcore than myself and Zi (gasp! they exist?!), new beginnings, new hope, and when Zi became my colleague, that was really nice (albeit smelly toilets, but small price to pay).

So here I am... New year, new promise, stay positive.

Ecclesiastes Chapter 3
There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Alamak - kena rapped by God

Today's reading from 1 Jn 4:19–5:4.


Beloved, we love God because he first loved us.  If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him.  In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments.

For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.  And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.  And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. 

VO2Max

Started out as a casual chat between 2 belayers at Yishun...  between SJ & myself.  She moved to work in a US hospital but will be back in July for good.

I must've bitched to her about decreasing fitness vis-a-viz my age and she mentioned that VO2Max is different for each individual body.  That she has problems pushing her VO2Max levels up regardless of how hard she runs, compared say to someone else who naturally has high VO2Max.

Hmm... at that point, I realize I missed her!  I recall a similar conversation with her (goodness knows how long ago) about fast and slow twitched muscles and I believe she reassured me that my muscles are mostly slow twitched, hence better suited for climbing than a quick sprint to the finish with Zi.

Yeah, I like talking to SJ cos 1, she is very reassuring & uses technical mumbo-jumbo to make you feel good & 2, she is smart.  Of cos, smart and on your side is always a nice feeling!

Back to earlier topic - need to be encouraging to people around me this year.  Please excuse me now while I go watch 爱, in the process decreasing my VO2Max.

Pompeii - Life in a Roman town 79CE

Visited the exhibits at the National Museum yesterday.  Joined the guided tour and got a pretty good narrator, I didn't know that this is the first time they are exhibiting stuff outside of Pompeii itself - we are blessed, Singapore!

It ranged from interesting (Pompeii people ate out a lot in restaurants, cafes 2000 years ago!), to funny (there was a mosiac floor warning to 'beware of dog', just like us today!), to religious (there was no traces of Christianity even though Jesus had already died & resurrected earlier), to sad (the plastic casts moulds of people/animals in death).

A good exhibit, well worth visiting.  Am glad I went on a week day so it wasn't too crowded.  Yeah, there were still strangely, a lot of visitors.

What is love?

From 1 Corinthians 13.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.  For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

This is why I feel I ought to keep it up for Moo - because firstly, my gestures are kind.  And I endure it.  This is love (how I feel about it, ie emotions set aside).

Godfrey

hello!

sitting close-by

dozing at my feet

Calvin had found a lost dog, another snautzer, while walking Josh & Toby. He waited in the park with the lost dog for a while then went home.

He asked if mom & I if we would dog-sit Godfrey for a few weeks since 3 dogs in 1 HDB flat is a little bit to manage.

How'd we know he's called Godfrey (means God's peace)? Well when Calvin first saw Godfrey, he was running with a few kids and the kids were yelling Godfrey, actually they were saying "got 3", ie 3 snautzers. After he told us the story, we all had a good laugh, Godfrey is not a typical dog name. My mom better yet, asked innocently, how do you spell it, like "got free"? Groan.

Godfrey is a real sweetie. He is obedient and really easy to manage. Unfortunately, the next day after finding Godfrey, Calvin found a lost dog notice. He was however, very reluctant to return Godfrey and so we kept him another day.

Godfrey has been returned to his owner and his real name is Mazda. It's funny cos he really responds to Godfrey, I tried yelling Peter and Kenny at him, no response.

I miss him already. He was really close to me. Went everywhere with me, even the bathroom. He pokes his head in and leaned towards the toilet bowl. Had to physically shove him back out to yells of 'hey, i need my privacy!'. But the smart dog learns, my next toilet stop, he waited like a good dog just outside the door.

He sleeps on an old bedsheet just by my bed and whenever I nap, he naps. When I watch TV, he dozes at my feet. Every evening he'll get really eager for walks and he'll beg by jumping on his 2 hind paws and try to climb up me, then he'll race to where his leash is and point with his nose. So adorable!


Yeah, I love dogs. But honestly, I don't want my own. I'm blessed enough that I can play with Calvin's Josh (who adores attention), Toby (who needs to inspect the house and everything in it) and Michy's Kino (really smart and super obedient, until you take him out for a walk, then the whole neighbourhood gets terrorized).

Some pictures of Godfrey, mostly of him lying on the floor beneath me.

Thanks Godfrey (or real name Mazda) for the memories the last 3 days.

So long 2010, hello 2011!

New year resolution time! I'm frankly not in the mood for it!

I am grateful for a lot : good friends who stoically stick around despite me not being the nicest friend back ; an amazing family ; experiences ranging from changing to losing jobs, India - a lifelong dream, having my own wheels again after 3 years of cabbing...

Guess the Lord has been much kind.

I hope in 2011 to,
- get married (hey, it's my blog and I'm gonna dream big)
- walk in the faith obediently
- be a better friend
- be good to my family
- find a suitable job with a mentoring boss
- be a good aunt/godma to Mattheus (I love u! Hi 5s!)
- buy my own apartment

Enuff. Let's not breed greed.