lack of muscle tone

I remember some time ago, while working in PSA building, I used to attend dozens of meetings a day.  In a boring meeting, when you look down on the meeting table, all you see are your co-worker's forearms.  I used to be very troubled by undefined forarm muscles in my male co-workers.

And then I moved to Taiwan and it's either mostly surrounded by women or fewer meetings or both...  But today, I got a flash of flesh - undeveloped flesh to be specific.  It is awful.  I couldn't stop staring.  I couldn't focus on the words coming out of his mouth.  Even Matty has more muscle tone.  Very troubling.

Working in a small company

We have Bengawan Solo mooncakes in the pantry - gifts from our vendors.

In the past while in Motorola / Seagate / HP, the mooncakes our vendors gave us are from Shangrila and classy hotels like that.

Hah!  Not that I eat any of these 500 calories per mooncake, goes-instantly-to-your-butts snacks :)

Furnishing a new home - my recommendations

It has been a tiring experience but quite pleasant and interesting time.

I benefited a lot from the folks in various forums especially Renotalk and want to be able to give back to Singapore.  So here's my list of recommended vendors if you are looking to renovate/furnish a new home.

Main contractor : Ah Peng.  +65 9831 0570
Why - work direct with the main contractor himself.  He's down to earth and very experienced, not to mention no nonsense pricing.  Only if you know what you want and don't need a designer.  I have absolutely no regrets working with him.  Oh and he speaks Chinese only.

Carpenter : I do not recommend Ah Chuan whom Ah Peng usually partners with.  Pick another carpenter.

Biometric digital door lock : Fred - Digital Home +65 98566260
Why - the best price in town for a biometric digital door lock Yale brand.  But don't expect any after sales service.

Marble slab : Yong Ping - Hot Spring +65 6362 0085 http://www.hotspringstone.com/

Why - they are marble slab suppliers, lots of selection.  I bought a whitish slab over my bay window and love it!

Carpet/Rugs : Fotohi #03-03 Tanjong Katong Complex +65 6735 1578

Why - good quality reasonable price.  I love the carpet my bro/sis-in-law bought me.  Love, love, love it!

Curtains : Kelvin +6591541768

Why - hotel grade curtains (he usually bids for hotel tenders) and very reasonable pricing.  Very nice guy.

Solar film for windows : Huber Optik.  Lindy +65 8418 8922

Why - visibly cooler and not as expensive as 3M.  Sales person a little brusque but the people who install the films are very professional.

Dining set and Italian furniture in general : Calligaris from XZQT.
Why - Italian quality finish says it all.

Appliances : Audio House
Why - they offer price protection and will refund you the balance if you find a cheaper version elsewhere.

Leather sofa : Lorenzo at  601 Sims Drive.  Ask for Ziwei.
Why - I love the ultra soft leather and well designed sofa.

Lighting : www.lighting.com.
Why - there are a lot of lighting shops in Singapore.  But the offerings are often tacky and kitschy.  If you want simple yet classy lights without paying an arm and a leg.  Also lots of LED selections too.

Bathroom fixtures/fittings : Universal Union at 710 Geylang Road +65 6749 0007
Why - you can pretty much buy everything from WC to taps to bathroom accessories all in this place.  Bargain, bargain, bargain to get yourself a good deal.

Ikea, Howards Storage World, Mustafa and Robinsons also feature highly on my buy list.  The biggest surprise being Ikea.  I always had the impression that Ikea products are simply not cost effective, cheap but you need a replacement every 2 years.  I learned that, if you are selective with your choices, there are some pretty good buys from Ikea.  Very nice finish at affordable prices.

Running is becoming a chore

I rested all weekend - no climb no run.  Just rested.  Nose is still dribbly and throat still painful.

Increasingly I feel the stress from the North Face run due in 2 weeks.  死得很难看!

I am thankful I did not sign up for the Taiwan Taroko Gorge run. As much as I love Hualien and the food there, but really it's getting to be a chore clocking mileage and feeling the stress when I don't train hard enough.

What is wrong with Sundays being slow and relaxed?

I'll finish the last 3 races : north face, newton run and the standard chartered run and that's it.   In 2013, I'll just run for the joy of it.  No competitions.

Archbishop and politics

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/archbishop--blogger-clash-over-report-on-isa-letter.html

Uh-oh.  Sounds like a boo-boo on the Archbishop's part and now everyone's milking him for what it's worth. Shame on those using him and the Catholic church for their own agenda.

My own pad

Still very thrilled at having my own place.  I was working on my computer one day and I heard a noise from the direction of the main door, for a while there I froze, then I remember I don't live with mom anymore and I don't need to freak out when she's coming home.  It reminds me again, how grateful I am to God that I can have my own house.  Thank you Jesus.

Some happy moments from the housewarming party : (I regret not taking more photos especially of little Matty).

And Ian/Michy gave me a carpet for my housewarming gift.  I love it!  It looks even better in daylight.  Love it love it love it!

Cal gave me this golden hue sheets.  I don't do the photo justice cos it's a little crinked from my poor folding.

And also gifts for the kitchen/house from my good buddies...  I am blessed.

Food for the soul

I had lunch yesterday with SC.  He was so sweet to drive from NUH all the way to Jurong point to buy Taiwanese beef noodles for our lunch in his new apartment.  Not forgetting the bubble tea to complete Taiwan hour.

His apartment juxtaposed between glamorous Holland Village and heartland Queenstown has pretty amazing views of the Singapore skyline.  Bet his new year parties will be awesome with the fireworks seen from his living room.  And he decorated it so it's really cozy and looks totally lived in.  Hmm... I need more furnishings, mine looks practically empty in comparison.

It was the after lunch conversation that really struck me.  He was very casual about it, and while I knew he leads many of the "eye-doctors-go-to-rural-China-to-treat-poor-people" trips, I didn't know about the side visits/help he offers to charities local and overseas.  Yes, very admirable, but it left me with 2 thoughts :
1. wished I studied something useful : like doctoring!
2. I'm so busy, I don't even sleep enough, but I am failing to do what Jesus asked of me.  Which got me to Sunday mass's reading from James 2:14-18

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
"Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, "
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.

Indeed someone might say,
"You have faith and I have works."
Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.

To SC, you are simply awesome.  

And I need to start thinking about the poor amongst us instead of being fixated on selfish pursuits.

Hewlett Packard

Was checking on the share prices this morning and looks like I need to wait longer to sell my shares... Sigh.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/872641-hewlett-packard-what-happens-when-a-good-business-and-bad-management-collide

How do I wrangle another trip to HK or Taiwan?

I love HK because I love Maxim's cakes.  Especially the Napoleans.... ooo la la

I love Taiwan because (ok, brace yourself for a long list)
- pineapple cakes
- sun cakes
- Starbucks coffee eggrolls (can you believe only found in Taiwan?!)
- Cheese cake strips from that shop in Minsheng
- Mala hotpot
- Suntory drinks like CC Lemon and calypis.

Ok I need to stop now, or I'll drool on this table.

I need to wrangle myself a trip to either HK or Taiwan.  Helppp!

An egg a day?

Thankfully I am a picky eater and never liked the taste of the yolk, even til now, I eat the egg around the yolk, careful not to rupture the yolk or risk contaminating the taste of everything else!

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/-to-eat-or-not-to-eat-egg--that-is-the-question.html

Recluse

Was back in Ikea yesterday over lunch and finally purchased 2 throw cushions for the sofa and a bedspread for the guest bed to keep it clean.

Which means, I'm pretty much settled.  Installed the extra screen for my bathtub yesterday, summed up my total expenses for the house, thrown the obligatory housewarming party, finally waded into the pool... All done.  I declare recluse phase beginning now.

Life in the fast lane

Last week, I was in Hsinchu Taiwan Wed to Fri for a short business trip to our ODM.  Got home late Fri & slept at 3am - after clearing out my luggage.  Woke up early to pre-order BBQ food for the party on Sunday.  Jo bailed on the Sat climbing, just as well I am sleep-deprived from being unable to sleep on the plane (even though I was blessed to get empty seats beside me both ways).  I spent all Sat with Matty Cheng!  How to resist a grin like that?

Sunday morning, woke up early for Macritchie LSD then rushed to midday mass.  Vacuum home & tidied up the place.  I tried to grab a catnap but my phone kept beeping and waking me up.  4pm and my first guests - Peter/Jo/Eric came over.  A real godsent, they started the BBQ fire and kept it going all night for everyone.  Family came over soon after.  Had to order some pizza (I love Spizza) cos I was afraid there would not be enough food to feed us all.  Pizza guy came, he called to say, please open the door, everyone asked, where are you!  He had ninja training & was at my doorstep when we were all by the pool.

Eric (who's going to be a great dad) taught Matty how to kick and hang off the chin up bar.  Matty loves him and also the gentle giant Peter who carried him whereever Matty commands "Go there!".

By 8pm, we were full and the party's over.  Had to beg people to take the leftover food home.  Now if our elephant had stayed longer...  My fridge has half a pizza, half a cream cake, a box of mooncakes and some leftover drinks.  I didn't even clean up much, will do it Mon evening.  First I recover!

Why I love Singapore

You have to live out of Singapore to appreciate what we have.

Why do I like it here?
- Friends / family
- Everything works.  We are efficient.  Nowhere else comes close.  Not the US, not Taiwan and definitely not Australia.  It takes weeks to work the government services bureaucracy.
- It is very livable here.  We have parks, clean air & portable water off our taps.  Low crime.  You can walk along the streets without worrying about being mugged/murdered/harassed.  Yes, it sounds very lame, but you know what, when you are looking for a home - this is an important fact.  You need to be alive in the first place!
- Cost of living is low.  Increasingly this is less true, but we are still reasonably cheap.  Although, healthcare is getting a little out of touch with cost of living, you need to invest in medical insurance.  If you don't buy a car and choose HDB apartment living - life is comfortable.
- Growing sophistication.  We are getting to first world living.  There's F1 races, lots of activities like ballet in Fort Canning, the Singapore symphonic playing in the Botanic Gardens, lots of concerts and musicals playing in town.  If you like sports, then there's a whole plethora of running events, triathlons, cycling groups...
- Open mindset.  The Singaporean is very adaptable and accepting.  In all my work places, I work alongside Malaysians, India Indians, China Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Americans, Australians...  It's a way of life. Of late, there's some unhappiness towards people from India and PRC - but the overall attitude in the offices is still very healthy.  More than I can say for anywhere else : in Taiwan/Korea/India/China - they only accept their own.  In US & all western countries - the White will rule.  Here, everyone's equal, the foreigner is accepted totally, not politely as a guest/an outsider.
- Food.  It's true!  We have every cuisine available on this tiny island!  You get very spoilt for tastes!
- A stable and good government.  There is no corruption - just look at our South East Asian neighbours, nuff said.  Look at the political infighting in the US and Taiwan.  The enemy is outside, people.  Let's close ranks, accept our differences, work together as one Singapore.

What can be improved?
- Stop whinging.  People are so quick to complain yet are prepared to do nothing about it.
- It gets claustrophobic.  Small country and inward looking people - we tend to all look and criticize.  I catch myself several times.   If we can all be less kaypo and more supportive/loving please?  Starts with me.  Today.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-flipside/letter-staying-put-singapore-005809050.html

In Taiwan, they like to start each sentence with, 如果你真的爱台湾...

If you truly love Singapore, take an active step towards making this the country you want it to be.  Offer constructive criticism, help out at the grassroots level, join a political party, do something rather than just bitch!

Not feeling so hot again

Ran the Army Half marathon yesterday and it was bad!  I was confident as I am pretty well conditioned (or so I thought!) and gunning for a sub-2 hour time.  But I just could not settle into the run and it got increasingly painful until I gave up the pacing - let coach run on, and that was perhaps at 4km mark.  Things got worse.  I couldn't hold any pace.  Walked and grew increasingly demoralized.  Walk/run until the pain levels eased and I managed to slow jog the remaining 10km or so.  So I finished way off my original target.  Sigh.

Right now I can hardly walk, my core muscles hurts when I sneeze and my shoulder blades are killing me. And I don't feel so good - think I am nursing a low grade fever.  It's funny that last Sunday I ran 25km of trail to Bukit Timah hill, ran up and down the hill and back and was non the worse for it on Monday.

Oh it hurts bad now.

And I got internet again!

Replaced my wireless router so I can finally have consistent coverage.  Signal strength for the whole house is good despite my placement of it - tucked away inobtrusively on a lower shelf near the floor in the study.

My 1.5yr old Cisco (Linksys) router which I bought for a lot of $ is so crappy.  The intermittent service it offers is not enough to hold a connection, it is so bad I hardly ever use it, resorting instead to the WWAN dongle Starhub gave for free. Aesthetically great due to the lack of an ugly antenna, but the compromised functionality affects the usability of the product.  The new TL wireless router boasts of 3 antennas - yes, I clearly overcompensated for my 1.5years of frustration, and the best part, it is half the cost of the Cisco.

Did my first conference call today in the study.  With the internet nice and consistent, in my new study chair.  It is all good.

Ankle strain

Almost twisted right ankle - managed to recover quickly, but damage done.  Now I am nursing a high ankle strain on the right side and the Army Half Marathon is this Sunday.  Not good timing.  Guess I will employ the good ole "tape and go" strategy which worked very well for me for years until the embarrassing "tendinitis episode".  There goes my hope of dipping below 2 hours for a half marathon.

Had another physiotherapy session this morning and my physiotherapist discovered why my shoulders ache so much.  I don't hold myself upright especially the right shoulder so the muscles there are quite knotted up (she was pressing my right pec muscles and oh does it hurt...).  So she showed me how (standing in front of a mirror), when I breath in deeply, my right side chest cavity does not expand fully.  You mean, all this time I have been relying on 1 lung to breath?!  Unbelievable.  She pronounced that I have non-existent butt muscles (I don't use my butts to run) & my arms are weak.  What?  I was miffed, complained to her, "eh, I rockclimb for 12 years leh!". And she says, yes, but you don't use shoulders, I can prove it...   Apparently I use the upper shoulder muscles & pecs, but skip the core muscles (lower shoulders).

New mantra when I run, "butts, shoulders up, butts, shoulders up...".  In the meantime, I am lame.  Ow ow ow...

OMG - my mother is driving me nuts

Sunday - as usual, woke up early for morning LSD, then we went for lunch at Balestier market (yum yum, bought some chwee kueh for afternoon tea), before collecting our race kits for the Army Half marathon next weekend.

After that, I vacuumed, moped and tidied up the house as I invited mom to come over.  As backup against unpleasantries, I asked IMM to come to add some love/positive energy.

At 4:55, I drove out to Kembagnan MRT station and she was not there.  I called her and she said she couldn't find me and so went back into the station as I might be inside the station with my car.  Irrational warning no. 1.

She came bearing plastic bags and her usual bag plus her handbag.  When we stepped into the house, she wanted to put everything on the dining table.  I said, 'can you put on the floor'.  Her response was a shock : she FLUNG everything against the wall in anger.  I used a normal tone, I wasn't even angry, I just didn't want her dirty bag and handbag and plastic bags on the dining table.  WTF.  Irrational warning no. 2.

In my heart, I started to pray for peace.  I asked her if she wanted to see the house still or what.  She stood there seething, then she walked grudgingly to view.  I showed her the study and my bedroom and she stood from the hallway, peered in and nodded in total disinterest - without even stepping into either room!  Then she plonked herself down on the sofa.

Ignoring her bad-temperedness, I asked if she wanted to eat the chwee kueh I bought.  She snapped back, no!  I went ahead and took bowls out, take the chwee kueh out. She came over to eat.  Then she opened her plastic bags and produced a box of durians and started to eat.  I wanted to say, 'wait for Ian/Michelle to arrive to eat the durian together', but then thought I should not antagonize her further.  So I bit my tongue, eat chwee kueh.  Irrational warning no. 3 (strange behaviour).

Finally, IMM arrives.  And Matty in his usual style, made us all laugh and smile immediately.

I wonder if she's going insane - http://www.agingcare.com/Articles/bad-behavior-by-elderly-parents-138673.htm, or am I instead?

Oh I almost forgot.  Her housewarming gift to me?  She gave me the water utility bill.  -__-

On hindsight, I realize her behaviour is neither that of a concerned family member (look out for me and suggest improvements - this is the behaviour most of my friends/family members have adopted) nor that of a proud parent (be happy for me/pleased that her daughter has an apartment), instead she chose to adopt a petulant childish "why bother when I am not part of this" attitude.  I am disturbed and disappointed.

And I think it's time to invite my mom over

I think it may be time to invite the empress dowager for a visit.  The longer I drag this out, the more she'll seethe about the non-invite.  Let's see perhaps tomorrow, now that things are getting more and more ready.

After 4 to 5 visits, many hours on their online store and 1 return later, I believe I have the perfect bedside reading lamp!  Yay!  It's not as if my conditions were that hard to please in the first place :  I wanted LED bulb, white lamp with light bright enough to read in bed and fits in the little space between my bed and the bay window ledge. Just in case, I am fickle (and I am), I will keep the packaging since Ikea has a fantastic returns policy.

Speaking of Ikea, I am now a changed person.  I started out resisting Ikea totally - didn't want anything from there.  Now I have a houseful of Ikea products.  Haha, the best part is the price and the finish is really very decent for that price!

The housewarming party is set for the 16 Aug - poolside BBQ.  Too few people to cater  - most caterers have a minimum no. of 20 persons.  Would have been nice to just relax and eat, but I definitely don't want my apartment full of people - so keeping it private to family and very close friends.  Most of this select group has already seen (and helped me in the apartment), so I guess the highlight of the party will not be the apartment but Matty!   He has 2 weeks to prepare his best acts!