I am so blessed!

I officially moved in last night - slept my first night on new sheets, new mattress, new bed, new apartment.  You get the drift.  It is a watershed moment for me.

Moved in early, heeding advice from concerned family/friends who insist I do so officially before the Chinese lunar seventh month.

So, the same evening Ah Chuan the lousy carpenter finally finished his remedial work, I moved in.  He had taken 4 weeks, 2 weeks longer than he committed to, yet with poor quality finish and careless work.  Employed IMM to nego for a price taking into account my unhappiness.  Considering I started out wanting to pay him his quoted price - my only ask was he do a good job, I feel sad that it came down to this.  Plus the many holes in my walls/furniture.  Sigh.

After the protracted negotiation with Ah Chuan, we all went to dinner late.  So Matty ate 2 meals back-to-back.  First his porridge, then his pre-bed time milk.  Back in the apartment later, I tried to clean the room a little (sawdust from Ah Chuan's efforts) but I was so sleepy.  I couldn't arrange curtains earlier while the dirty/messy work was ongoing (didn't help with Ah Chuan's delays).  So I spent last night without curtains - might be a week more of this!  Woke up at 7am to dogs barking and bright skies.  I love this room!

I am Maria

While all of Singapore is singing Majulah Singapura and Count on me Singapore, I was being Maria.  Well, at least I planned to.  I was barely in the house when Alex and daughter came by to help me nitpick faults for my contractors to fix.  Then we went to lunch.  Back in the house for a bit, then Ian/Michy and Matty swung by to do second round of nitpick, well, Michy at least.  Matty ran around opening drawers and doors while his father sat there, just sat there.  Then we went to dinner.

Finally back in the house again at 8pm, I started to clean til about midnight. 

Sat, I cleaned a little bit, Sun a little more... Progress is slow.  You clean some, you drill some holes, dust everywhere again, you clean more, you drill more...

Renovation diary - report week 3

No progress.  Yes, nothing's been done since Thu.  And all the furniture's coming in on Fri and I am moving myself in over the weekend.

Yelled at both contractors yesterday in the afternoon, swung by exhausted after a hectic 2.5 day weekend retreat and was livid. 

Thankfully Ian/Michy/Matty swung by so we had dinner at I12 together.  Now if only the Lord had given me that apartment across the road at I12 - perfect!  Oh well, can't ask for the sky and all the stars in it.  My prayer ask is simple - that both contractor and carpenter can just work hard these 3 days to deliver a finished and clean apartment by end Wed.  In His name all things are possible, amen!

At least I had a great dinner with Matty.  Matty scalded his hand over the weekend.  Dipped his left hand into some hot water (used to wash his bedding/soft toys, since he contracted bronchitis, they've been careful).  If you asked him about it, he'll show you his left palm (er.. then you turn it around to see his little blistered fingers).

When's a cabinet door not a door? When it's a drawer!

My contractor Ah Peng is nice enough, very down to earth and realistic.  That's why I picked him.  The problem is the carpenter he partners with. Ah Chuan the carpenter was a little too smooth for my liking.  Then he said his wife has health problems and is undergoing dialysis, I felt for him and didn't bargain him down when he quoted me his price.  But I impressed upon him that I wanted the finish to be good, that I am fussy.

On Tue night I went over late at night to check on progress.  I was hungry/tired after finally making the last of my big ticket purchases (writing desk/book shelf for the study room) and got most upset. 

Shoe cabinet - door opens the wrong way, against the direction of the door.  Unacceptably awkward.
Overhead cabinet over my fridge & washing machine - corner chipped off.  Apparently he dropped it in transit. -__-  Unbelievable.
TV console - has humongous drawers.  I wanted doors!  Who has humongous hideous drawers the size of Stonehenge!
My wardrope drawers has openings sliver thin, you need to have stick fingers to open them.  Who do I look like, Gretel from Hansel and Gretel?
Shelf over washing machine for doing laundry is positioned at my nose level.  What, now I pick up stilt walking so I can do laundry?

Overall finish was awful, sharp corners, gaps, unevenness, cracked edges, bad workmenship in short. 

Funnily enough carpenter guys behave exactly like those ad agency guys I used to work with.  So eager to show you what they created/made but then it isn't what you wanted at all!

Ever wondered if your style of driving scares the people in your car?

Here's a story of Matty.  His parents turned his child seat in the car to face forward cos he keeps throwing his toys onto the floor and then leaning half out of his seat to pick them up.  We taught him to always pick up his toys!

After turning his seat to face forward, his papa drives.  Matty stares at oncoming traffic and is fine.  Next trip out, his mommy drives.  Matty screams all the way to NTUC and on the return journey screams all the way until he pukes.

If any of you out there, reads this and have always wondered, "hmmm, is my driving style scary for the people in the backseat?", please approach us.  We can rent out our little tester.  For a small fee.

Progress report - end July

Slowly by surely, house is taking shape.  More updates this week.  Renovation supposed to be finished by end of this week.  Next week wash and clean up the place.  Over national day can start to move in.

My dining lights

Glass wash basin in my room

Seashell toilet seat

My running schedule from Aug to end of 2012

My planned mileage beginning Aug to the end of the year.  Includes 4 races : Army half marathon, The North Face 50k trail, Newton 30k run and finally, Standard Chartered marathon.  Opportunistically, might add in Taroko marathon (or half) in mid Nov.

Depending on how close I hold to this plan, it's 580km on foot!  Yipes!

I am happy today

Happy.

Got 2 pieces of good news this morning.

1. successfully recruited 2 new members to ACPT (my church ministry)

2. buyer's remorse without penalty.  I bought 2 mirrors Tue night and regret within the same night.  Asked for a refund yesterday and today they agreed to full refund.  It's the largest sized mirrors they had but still way smaller than the ones I have right now in the bathroom.  I fear removing the old ones will leave marks on the tiled bathroom walls that cannot be covered by the smaller new mirrors.

Updates on the house

The big things are more or less settled.  Just a few outstanding big ones like
- shower fixtures.  The existing ones are a little grimy but they are Grohe branded.  I am reluctant to downgrade yet to replace with new Grohe would cost me an arm and a leg.  How fussy am I about this?  I can't decide. 
- colors for my walls (got a general idea, but unsure). 
- study room's writing desk and book shelf.  After talking to Michy over lunch just now, I think I will go see Ikea again, if I can tolerate their poor quality.  I do not want shelves that will sag in 2 years (esp when the shelf cost but $79).

Thus far the whole journey has been pretty pleasant.  I have been very blessed with a lot of help from Ian/Michy/Matty.  Best example was Michy and I drawing on a page of Sunday Times a few days ago, (I was reading the paper midway).  We drew out where to place my LED lights in the ceiling, argued, dragged Ian out of his bedroom as another opinion and he had genuine alarm on his face to discover our discussions are drawn all over page 7 of Sunday Times. 

Jo took me on toilet bowl 101 - warning me of pitfalls and even drawing out the dimensions of everything. 

Peter offered to help me spray paint my bike rack/clock, after he heard I was going to DIY.   Clearly had no faith in my DIY skills - probably rightly so.  I only just passed both items over to him last night and he's already done 1 coat on my bike rack - awesome job too. 

Francis came by and took my fingerboard down and he will later on remount it up on my new place.  This is after I had a go at it and found the screws impossibly tight.  He did it effortlessly, apparently you need to hold the board at an angle and keep shifting as you unscrew to regain traction.

Do you eat when you're stressed?

It used to be that when stressed, I feel too sick to eat.  So I lose weight during bad times and gain during good.

Now that I'm older, when stressed, I eat more with the thought I need to fuel up to do what I need to, and when happy, well, I eat too.  So er.. regardless, I gain weight?

Sigh...  Humpty-Dumpty shape is a shape too right?

I am too strong for my shoes?

I got back to the carpark last Wed after the ride/supper and found difficulty clipping out.  Somehow my cycling shoe was stuck - on closer look : gasp - the sole had come undone! 

I literally placed bike on the road and yanked the shoe out with both hands.

Simon/KahHoe came over in dismay when they saw a forlorn Cervelo lying on the road and picked up Speedier for me.  Simon said "Cervelos cannot lie on road!"...

These shoes were a birthday gift from my buddies and I took them out to wear after my tragic accident where my old Shimano shoes were ripped.  So I really love these Bontrager as they are filled with love, plus I really like the feel of these shoes compared to the Shimanos.  Very stiff and the power transfer very smooth.

Brought them to the cobbler at HV and the grizzly experienced cobbler insist it cannot be glued back as it will come undone the minute I try to clip out again.  So I took them back to Treknology.  Trek will get in touch with Bontrager then come back to me - hopefully I get a new pair out of them.

In the meantime, everyone has a suggestion for me.  Coach says Fizik shoes (there's a deal with IR for $300) but I don't really like the color (white) and they don't have my size anyways.  Felix/Jo insist on just 1 brand : SIDI.  In Jo's words, "just pay whatever price for SIDIs - you will not regret it", with Felix surfing to the CRC buy site for SIDIs and passing me the iPAD.  These 2 are a very interesting couple - very fun being around them.

I'm still in shock - am hoping to get a Bontrager replacement pair.  SIDI carbon shoes costs $350 and above!

Going to dinner with my sayang

Collect the new home keys!

Very unceremoniously, I picked up the keys to the apartment from my lawyer's office.  BTW, they are complete imbeciles.  They actually made mistake with the math, against my favour?  And I pay them legal fees?  I need to go over the numbers again, no faith in them at all.

Ok, focus on the happy things! 

I took the keys and then... went to eat dinner with Matty!  I missed him since I was away in Taiwan!  Only finally stepped into my very own pad the next day.  Went straight after work and stood there feeling a little over-awed. 

Thankfully Michy joined me for a while and we both stood there discussing what I want done before Ah Teng came.  Yeah, my chosen renovation contractor is called Ah Teng.  AT - as Florence puts it, somehow making him sound cooler than he really is (think Phua Chu Kang in his 50s).

Trying to make it all fit in a tiny apartment takes some ingenuity.  Hopefully the contractor has some good ideas.

Frequent traveler's etiquette

Not that I travel very often these days, but in the last 2 weeks I made 2 very different styles of travel.

Flying Singapore Airlines with a Krisflyer Gold member to Brisbane and then just a couple of days ago, budget travel via JetstarAsia.

The contrast is stark.

So when I read today's papers, I almost laughed out loud:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/business/etiquette-for-seat-switching-on-the-road.html?ref=global-home

Yes actually, there is an unspoken rule about the whole business of travel.  Nicely put, etiquette.  And yes, those who do not travel often, don't get it and don't practise it which causes great grief to the rest of us.

I concur.  Do NOT,
- ask me to change seats with you (I chose that seat for a reason).  
- wave your arms in front of me.  Or invade my private space for ANY reason.
- attempt to make conversation with me.  What makes you think I want to talk to you?
- fidget in your seat with your elbows sticking out. 
- knock my neck cushion to wake me up because you need to use the bathroom. Can't you catch me when I am awake - which is the majority of the time. 
- occupy the entire armrest with your fat arms so much that you are literally leaning on my ribcage.
- remove your shoes and attempt to kill everyone on board with bio-warfare.

IMF says "growth recovery is tepid"

It's tepid?  A lukewarm cup of tea is tepid, how do you describe growth as tepid, and coming from IMF's managing director no less.

Tepid future in store.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18693825

My first overseas marathon

July has come.  First July goal : Gold Coast marathon.  Status : check!  Next July goal : eat/drink weekend in Taipei.


My first overseas full marathon and I'm happy it all came together despite my lack of a focused build up in training.  If not for a morale-boosting 5 hour/39km run 3 weeks before race day, I had thought all is lost with the GC marathon.  Thanks to the coach for a great run route through Marina barrage.  Prior to that, I was barely running beyond 22km for LSDs.

It wasn't just my training plan that was messy, my packing was messy too (literally threw stuff in bag) and we changed flights plans repeatedly, up to the last minute, which touched some raw nerves.  All very unsettling indeed.

Thankfully once there, all was good.  Weather stayed fine and cool, made some new friends and it was nice chatting/eating and drinking copious amounts of wine before and after the race.  Traveling companion who is Krisflyer Gold is very nice too.  Queue - what queue?  And having free food in a lounge is the correct way to travel!

And we all had good races!  The baby flying elephant ran 2 very fast races - 10km and 21km the very next day.  Very good morale boosters for someone coming back from a back injury.

Coach's game plan was to go with the 3:30 pacers.  He stayed with them until the 36km mark when tendon/ligaments/muscles gave up on him.  I first saw him at the 36km mark, waved at him from the other side.  Next I saw him, he was sitting on a wall at the 40km mark, where he promptly jumped down and ran alongside me.  I assumed he had finished and came back for me.  I outran him and went through the finish line without waiting for him - cannot go through finish line twice right?  Wrong!  Apparently, his leg seized up around the 36km mark, he managed to hobble until he fell over totally immobile for half an hour.  No race medic went to his aid :(  He sat there until I came along.  Finished behind me despite a fantastic first 36km.  Fortunately no bodily damage other than disappointment.

The new running friends we made all clocked personal best times (PBs).  All is well!

My game plan was to go with the 4:30 pacers and try to stay with them as long as I can - no confidence in my training buildup.  So I started with the pacers but it was congested - too many people like to run within sight of the pacers.  Got tired of jostling one another, at 5km I ran ahead of the pacers, felt strong, kept going until I caught sight of the 4:15 pacers!  Then I stopped for a pee break,  and slowed a little to pace myself better.

Everyone was saying, you can score a PB because of the better weather on the Gold Coast, methinks you can score a PB only if you are well trained!  Cos I totally felt the strain, just that I kept pushing, focus on my striding....  By 28-32km, the wall hit me bad.  I tried to shake off the tiredness and focus on using my butts, but not enough training, even consuming my last gel (7th pack!) wasn't enough.  I slowed to a 7:51 pace, dragging along, waiting for the 4:30 pacers to overtake me.  And she did!  I tagged myself onto her, she said she was going for 4:30 gun time and that the other 4:30 pacer still behind would be chip time.  Her pace was sub-6.  I lasted 1.5km with her.  Weak.  Until I saw Alex at 40km.  Overall the race was very well organized but perhaps our own Singapore Marathon is better organized!  At least we have more medic coverage!

As I crossed the finish line, gun time read 4:27, my watch read 4:26, the official chip time 4:22!  I am blown away.

I cannot ask for more.  I am grateful for the many blessings Jesus!

You know, I even managed to attend mass on Surfer's Paradise!  The new-found friends I met on this trip are stanch Catholics.  Even better, there is a Catholic church within walking distance from our hotel (20mins walk) and there is a 6pm sunset mass! 4 of us attended mass.  It felt very nice indeed.

My race results and photos :

Packing haphardly!

I usually formulate my pack list days ahead of the trip, build on over days and the day before leaving, just need to put stuff into bag.  It is a proven system for me.

Wasn't the case yesterday.  Although, the day wasn't all bad.  I had dinner with Matty.  I asked him if he was still coughing, he said "a little" (ok, it sure sounded like that!), I laughed and repeated the question, he looked me in the eye and said again, "a little" then smiled his toothy grin.  How can a kid like that not make you melt?

I got home at 10pm to pack and realize my pack list is in the office.  Brilliant Felicia!  Then I couldn't find my Ugg boots which I wanted to wear.  Tore the room apart, no Uggs.  Don't tell me I messed up in Taiwan?  I loved those boots - my uncle bought me those!  By then it was close to 1am and I was too depressed to continue packing.  Went to bed and resumed packing in the morning (while simultaneously on an 8am conference call).

In the process of tearing room apart, I found Speedy (my Polygon bike)'s normal pedals.  I knew I didn't get rid of them, just couldn't find them for the life of me!  Now who was it that was asking me for these?  Hmm...

All done now but I certainly don't feel assured I got it all! 

Too nervous so I canceled lunch with David Oh - even though he is rarely in Singapore, but I'm not in a good state of mind now!  I'll make it up to you David, somehow someday!  Did I pack sports bra?  Arghh.. need to check!

Going to Vivocity for lunch so I can grab some $2 gloves from Daiso, change AUD and buy a toothbrush that I forgot to pack. 

Sleep deprived due to stupidity

I forgot to bring my computer power adapter home yesterday.  Found out at midnight.  Had to come to office at 6:55am to take the 7am conf call.  Unbelievably goon!

It's times like this I wish I was still in HP, where I had multiple computers at home and at work, power adapters everywhere and batteries too - different size/different weight for different purposes. 

Point of the matter - I cannot make this mistake again.  So sleepy now...

Meet 007 (the bike)

I'm like an agent now.  Sold off CY's bike for him.  Had to pick it up from his place even! -__-

007 was filthy, so I gave it a quick wash, lube it's parts so it doesn't rust and then put it up on Togoparts for sale.  Yeah, I named it 007 after all, I spent a couple of days and also some intimate time washing and taking care of it.

Within 2 days I sold 007.  Not too bad.  Had to however, field a zillion texts/calls, most of whom weren't very polite, some even asking for as low as $500 + delivery it to them!  Sold it to a friend of a friend of Peter's.  So Peter snitched the Catlike headlight & taillight and substituted it with an el cheapo lights as his commission as he had to deliver it to his friend's friend.

Bye 007, I hope you get a new owner who will ride you often and ride you well.

Phobia - "travel guide syndrome"

As I make my appointments for my upcoming Taiwan trip (including my standard reservation for mala hotpot), some residual bad feelings comes back.  Plus trying to book a whale watching trip.  I got a little upset when I couldn't get a yes/no response from my run buddies.  I am scarred from my earlier trip in Feb when my travel companions gave me grief when things go wrong.  I can't control weather, if it's too cloudy to get a clear view, I feel bad too you know! 


I calmed down after I texted Zi and she assured me she loves whales.  Decided to just book the whale watching tour while there, no pressures on me that way.  Realize that my 2 run buddies aren't "blamey" characters too, but was too blinded by my 'tour-guide' phobia.

Saw the uncomplicated message on FB and thought, well, if only things can be that simple.  Life is not black nor white, it's shades of grey.  You can be simple and direct - if unrelated to other people.  Hmm...