Longest run this year - boy did it hurt!

I approached this run with trepidation.  First it's the longest run this year for me, and I've been battling this flu bug the last weeks...  But mileage needs to be clocked.  Brought 2 power gels along for assistance.

Alex planned the route - 2 laps of 14km along ECP.  Can return to car after 1 lap for the power gel/H2O, plenty of public toilets for water so no need to carry your own sippa = nicely planned. 

Then Peter was late, which means a later start time, we'll scorch for a little bit more.  I bet he sneezed a lot between 8-9am.  And he immediately slowed his pace to perhaps 7 / 8min per km.  So I asked Alex to run with him - limiting Alex to 14km at a slow pace to nurse his tendon injury.

Ran alone til the 20km mark, met Alex at the Fort Road end of ECP - he came back for me (awww...).  He trotted with me for 5mins then waved me on.  I thought his tendon hurt, so I left him behind to slowly walk it off.  Mistake.  Cos the last 8km was really hard.  It was by then, blazingly hot, un-sheltered from the sun, and I started to feel really dizzy to the point, I had to stop and slow walk the remaining 8km.  Staggered to car, collapsed into my boot - breathing so hard that the guy from the next car came over to see if I were ok.  I drank, texted Alex (thinking he's still walking his injury off) to meet me at the food center, changed to slippers, grabbed some cash and my H2O bottle and painfully walked towards Alex - my inner balance still buzzing away.  Found Alex some 200m away, looking very pale himself.  Sheepishly said he forgot to eat dinner/breakfast and almost fainted from low blood pressure.  Had to lie on grass to recover.   Argh... thankfully some chengtngs and lots of food was enough to revive us.  Truly an epic run - slow yet cost a heck lot of effort to finish it!

Next Sunday, repeat of this epic run.  Target to finish in 3 hours this time around.  Oh I found the cause for my dizziness : the antibiotics I'm on.  Cos the same woozy feeling overcame me in the night when I took it again.  -__-

Is this cool or what?

How to store my bike in my tiny apartment (no storeroom!)?  Might as well choose a nice rack and make it a part of the decor right?

Cycloc is super cool!  But pricey!  It's 60BP or about $100S$.  And it's just room for a single bike without accessories (like my other set of wheels, bike pump etc)... So I'm just gonna admire their awesome design.  

Indiscretions

Why do men risk everything?  I totally cannot understand it.

There's the 80 men who were dragged through court for engaging a underaged prostitute.  And now Wang Chien Ming admits to having a 8-month long affair.  He's forced to admit to the public because she's now threatening to reveal all.  So Taiwan's former most glamorous sportsman (before Linsanity came along) has egg on his face.  Acer is reconsidering it's endorsement of him. 

Seemingly intelligent people with a lot to lose, yet they risk it all for a couple of moments of satisfaction? 

Why I don't like working in this office...

Annoyance is an open concept without partitions.  You lack privacy, but more importantly, noise spills over everywhere.  It drives me insane that I can hear the music from the guy to my right's headphone all the time.  I can't focus!

No one can take conf calls from their desk - you'll be annoying the entire office. 

Totally unconducive.  And home is also not conducive since my mom cannot grasp the concept of noise spillage as well. 

Oh, I can't wait for the next couple of months to fly by....

My Weekend

Highlights of this weekend :
1. On my bicycle, drafting the guys at 40km/h with my aero wheels and not feel the strain.  It was unexpectedly awesome!
2.  Ran a nice tight run at Macritchie.  It was hard coming back from flu, glad I persisted.
3.  Dinner with Matty at Crystal Jade.  He's very cool now that he understands you perfectly.  Very fun!

Lowlights :
1. Rain washing out climbing on Saturday morning.  I haven't climbed in 2 weeks!

Er.. there aren't anymore.  I should be so blessed.

Avoiding meat

I thought it was just me, apparently it's the trend.  People are trying to turn vegan for better health.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/the-challenge-of-going-vegan/

Even though it's already Easter - halleluia!  I'm still trying to stay away from meat given choice.  It's not as if I am strictly against meat per se, but if there is a non-meat option, I will take that.   Doing the Catholic abstinence diet of just avoiding meat, fish/eggs/vegetables are all game. 

Sick... again.

Been falling to bouts of cold/flu all year this year.

Felt sick after a nap last Saturday.  On Sun at our usual Mt Faber run, feeling weak I skipped the last lap.  But it was too late - slept all afternoon to recover.  I saw the doc on Mon morning, she gave me antibiotics and offered me an MC which I declined since I had work to clear.  Soldiering on, Wed : 8km run followed by our usual bike leg. Thu : struggled out of bed, gasp! No voice!  Fri : Team Fatbird first training run for the Gold Coast marathon.  I croaked to Alex (almost begging), please, let us go slow : I'm sick and you're injured.  The man goes on to run at race speeds and I quit at 13km.  The last straw that broke the camel's back : getting so very drunk at the Sat R&R BBQ.  Hang-overed but thru the grace of God, I made it to mass at St Bern's with the CaFE team, declining the team lunch - please, I croaked, let me go home and die. Crawled back to doc on Mon and got a 2 day MC - but I had prearranged lunch with David Oh who's in town.  Picked him up from HP and drove over to AMK Hub to lunch with Evie.  Hope I didn't spread my germs too much.  Also promised dinner with Michy, I went to dinner wearing a mask to avoid spreading germs.  Despite the mask, Michy is now complaining that Matty is coughing.. Argh...

I pushed Matty down the street on his bright orange tricycle (carrying him will be too close proximity plus he's heavy). I must say, living in Serangoon Gardens is like a Cantonese soap opera (or Taiwanese), a few houses down, there was like a pushing fight amongst his neighbors with lots of Cantonese screaming.  Despite Matty pointing the way forward, I decided to beat a hasty retreat and we u-turned for the safety of home.  Sorry sayang, I can't risk your crazy neighbours.

Having rested all day Tue, I still feel queasy and have super duper stick mucus.  Will try cycling tonight.  Let's see if I survive.  Fingers crossed!

Friday the 13th

Today, Friday the 13th, also Easter Friday (since we're within the octave of Easter), I signed the legal paperwork on the new home and also the mortgage.  So the financial and legal aspects of the home is now set in progress.  FCS date set for early July.

Ooooo  (Matty's expression when he's onto something interesting...)

Next step is the to pay $ (a lot of it!) and then deciding on a theme for the house before I sic a reno contractor to work.

These are exciting times indeed.  Oooo...

My gear shift woes

It all started when walking around with Matty in the evenings and he wanted to play with my car door handle.  I showed him how to open a car door - pull the handle, sayang!  And then I let him sit inside and play with the steering wheel.  Eventually he was able to push the hazard lights button, and then lean over to stare fascinated when the lights go on on the dashboard.  Because he's a little guy (for now), he stands on the driver seat and leans forward to reach it all : hazard lights, indicator lights, headlights.

Ok, I'm getting to my point - Toyota quality is simply crap.  Matty (all of 12kg baby) leaning on the gear shift lever can dislodge the gear shift button.  -__-

Problem starts with my reaction. Cos I am a very hands-on DIY engineer, I bought a $1 tube of super glue, stuck button cap back on, presto.  All done?  Not quite, unfortunately.  The low viscosity of that $1 super glue meant that some glue dripped off the cap, onto where it shouldn't be and then the button sticks permanently in a pressed-in position. *crap*

Then begins my wild goose chase : I visited Borneo Motors (they don't manage parallel import cars), Sin Tien Seng (both Rush and Terios share a leveraged chassis, but the gear levers are different, sigh), Autobacs (only have screwed on gear knobs) and, 2 Toyota parts stockists : Class Auto and He Xing (neither had anything compatible or usable).  Total 5 trips, no luck.

I can import the part from Japan (so expensive, I might as well fly there myself for a holiday and then bring the part home) or I buy an aftermarket gear shift knob online.  So I ordered, even had 1 nightmare when I woke up realizing the US cars are left hand drive so their gear shift knobs are for the right hand!  Gasp!  Yes, thankfully common sense prevailed.  Aftermarket gear shift knobs are universal. 

Just got it installed.  Looking good!

Happy Easter everyone!

Last couple of weeks have been good.  Matty celebrates his 1 year old birthday with a very pink bunny cake I bought him (I told the cake shop to draw a bunny on his cake and they say, oh yes, we can do it, 画只美美的小兔 were their exact words!), I got my home, am now in the process of getting the loan..

Yesterday's Easter sermon was good.  It was about being positive - leaving the tomb for the light.  Being positive about our future. Very apt for me as I feel I can see light at the end of the dark tunnel, I am focusing on that light.

I'm sipping a bottle of 凉茶 as I type and I realize it's been a long while since I last had one.  Yes, I am sick again - bought 2 bottles to combat this darn flu.  I ran Mt Faber like crap yesterday and went home to sleep off the rest of day.  I'm avoiding Matty for now for fear of infection.

Today's reading : Monday within the Octave of EasterActs 2:14, 22-33

On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
"You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.

"You who are children of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God
with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs,
which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
For David says of him:

I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.

A life goal being realized...

I engaged Ian/Michelle/Matty's services to view shortlist house no. 3.  While they were remarkably good with the first 2 houses, this family was very distracted this time around.  Matty wanted to play with the seller's cat, the 2 goldfishes in their tank, and the seller's tv remote controllers...  Then I noticed Ian/Michelle admiring the seller's art pieces, playing with the cat... -__-

Despite that, plus the fact that the house does not have a balcony (nice to have), and is really small and yet not cheap...  That same evening, I made an offer, the next day, we have pen-ed the deal. 

I'm still wondering where to hang my bicycle in the new place...

This morning, I signed the home loan agreement with HSBC.  So the next step is getting the lawyers into the picture to draw up the sale of the home.  After that, I guess I need to engage a renovation contractor.  I've started browsing the 2 home decor magazines I bought over lunch yesterday - feeling the excitement now.

I must say, I feel blessed in this whole process.  That my housing agent is a friend makes things so much easier - we talk openly.  My family (Matty and his parents) have been most supportive and helpful with ensuring I cover the loose ends.  Close friends have been kind, giving me helpful tips and advice.  Even the home loan process was good.  Peter and I agreed to stick to his bankers who will give him a referral bonus, which we will then share :)  After Peter sent me every agent from every bank, I did my due diligence, working a spreadsheet to figure out the best deal.  The best rates were from HSBC which incidentally was the most proactive agent who called me by my name (most agents don't even remember details of the case after they sent me a quote, nor do they call back, while some are just totally rude).  HSBC was a clear choice.  It has been smooth thus far.