First jog after 10 day break

I was lazy, and again and again. It got to 10 days in succession... Finally I reached in deep and summed up every little muscle and got out and ran today. Felt like 15-16k in 1.45hrs. At least, I ran.. so no begrudging distance nor time.

Looking forward to the weekend in KL with family. Will be a good break from the stresses at work - at last we have Spr cycle out of the way, whew!

Holiday today

Took a midweek break. My plan is
1. start with a long morning run at least 2 hours
2. midday mass at Novena
3. boulder a little at CA
4. nap / chill

So much for plans - got lazy first thing and couldn't convince myself to get up and go run. Sigh. Snoozed til 11am in time for mass.

Bumped in Arthur and had a long chat over lunch after mass. Feel that I'm somehow missing something - something that began over the weekend retreat. Just can't quite put my finger on it - will pray that God speaks louder.

Bouldered a little - finally, I managed the 6B route! It felt sweet! Spent long time playing with the cats today - today they were very friendly.

Came home for a quick nap and again, I couldn't convince myself to do an evening run. And then Calvin sms to say he'll visit with dinner and the dogs. Done - run cancelled again.

Well, 3 out of 4 achieved today isn't bad. Although I missed the most impt goal of running - or was that mass and that funny talk with Arthur. Hmm...

Weekend Retreat

Had a stay-in weekend with the NET team on retreat for Alpha-Cafe 2006 directions. After a bumpy start on Friday evening where the sharing on our uphill challenges ended on a rather depressing tone, it was all great from Sat onwards.

I learnt :
- difference between being a disciple vs being a volunteer
- servanthood - that is an an honour to serve God!
- committment - to take up our cross daily.

The food was great and plentiful. I'm sure I am heavier now. Rooms were brand new and clean and roomie (Emily) was great, spent time chatting alot. Emily also introduced the group to meditation. She said that meditation was invented in the early days by Catholic monks and it's not just a Buddhist thing. I need more work on this, cos after catching wondering thoughts, I caught myself nodding off to sleep!

It was such a refreshing weekend - 3 days just thinking about God.

Is it Friday?

Nice to have 2 public holidays in 1 week!

Very restful week. Plus enough time (minus the work hours) to visit family, nap in the day (decadence!), run/climb (all the fun things in life).

The cloudy morning gave me an excuse to sleep in a little. Went to Macritchie to do a short run late morning. Was a little muddy, a little crowded, but as always Macritchie is beautiful place to be.

Since I was up and out, might as well join my friends in Climb Asia. Plus been neglecting my climb kakis since I started training for the marathon. Climbed some, chatted some, played with the resident cats.
http://www.climb-asia.com/home.html
Fortunately, it was relatively empty. Was a little crowded on Tue (Deepavali) but yesterday was nice. At one stage, I had the whole downstairs to myself. Funnily enough, I can't manage the 6b endurance route anymore. Keep falling off the 6th handhold. I must've lost upper body strength ever since I began marathon training in August.

Picking up the pieces

Today's a public holiday - happy deepavali to all Hindus!
Also All Saints Day - a blessed day of reflection for all Christians.

The last few weeks have been rough - to put it mildly.

Trying to pick up the pieces in the last 3 days or so.

My running program's back to normal. Resumed with a 5k run at Macritchie. But mentally weak still - kinda hard to push myself. Should I be pushing harder?

Went for 1st climb with gang after ignoring them for weeks. It was ok - kinda rusty but nice to sit around with gang, goading each other up routes.

Short work week this week. Thank goodness. Plenty time to run/socialise/work and still breath easy.

In memory of Ho Wai Peow

It was a happy day, we were in high spirits. Everybody happy and excited. HP is afterall defending champions.
I still don't understand what happened. Why did Wai Peow drown? How're his young children and sick widow to live on? Why's life so unfair?

Life's too short. And you never know when the story ends. To Wai Peow, we will all miss you and learn from you. To live cheerfully and happily!

How to launch media centre... not!

Still concussed from lack of sleep and 1 too many close calls over 2 days.

It all started in June when my boss suddenly announces WE are launching media centre PC in Phi. After much (and I mean, MUCH!!!) hard work, the day arrives. Feeling of impending doom grows.

The signs were not good. When I almost missed my flight there and had to beg at the checkin counter, I should have read the ominous signs. Of course the event organisers were slow, of course the paint was still wet at 10pm, night of setup. Of course we couldn't get our PC up until almost midnight.

Morning of Launch. D-Day. PC refuses to boot, hard disk appears dead. Panic time! Find phone quick, call for reinforcements... where's my phone! Gah! Left it at breakfast table in hotel! Deep breaths, deep breaths. First things first, get colleague to call for replacement PC. Find taxi service to return to hotel for phone. Thank God we got PC up, thank God an honest waiter kept my phone, thank God the show went uneventful.

Day 2 - channel training. Changed flight to later 6pm, so got more time to talk and get to airport. Got to venue of training to find PC placed in back of room. No worries, move it to front. Next, no internet connection. No panic, ask hotel staff to give us an account. The clincher - no live TV feed. Sigh.

Finally, i get to return home! Parting gift - 1 last scare, travel agent screwed up, didn't move my flight down to the 6pm! Horrors! Thank God (the 1 surity in the maelstrom) there were seats available!

In 2 days, I should be able to say good things about the country or the launch. In the meantime... I need more sleep.

Today's Mileage

Starting to get really tiring, trying to balance marathon training program + work + relationships + holding everything together and staying sane in the process!

Today is a short 6k run. Then dinner with Moo.

I miss Moo, haven't caught up with her since last week when I stood her up by going for a jog.