Implications of HP selling of it's PC business

My initial thoughts was wow, Taiwan & Singapore economies are going to be affected...

Here's the expert's analysis:
http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800649877_499489_NT_e6a6bc24.HTM

Currently I am wondering how this affects Seagate drives and how I can push this as good news...  Hmm..

Change - the only real constant

First Google (who denied ever wanting to be in the hardware business forever) suddenly acquired Motorola mobile.

Next HP's CEO (who was asked to leave from SAP due to poor performance) announced plans to sell off/spin off PSG and to kill off tablets running WebOS (which was purchased at a ridiculously high price from the Palm acquisition).

And today, Steve Jobs retires from Apple.

What a week!

Overnight, Motorola is hip again, HP steps towards impending doom and Apple could run dry of ideas soon?

I love the IT industry, woot!  (not).

A daily struggle

Romans 7:15

What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.

Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.

For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.  Now if [I] do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 

So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.

What do you need in a job?

What do you ask for in a job? $, a good & fair manager (a mentor), a role you enjoy, nice teammates, good company.

I am now aware of what I want in an ideal state.

Counting my blessings on a Monday morning

Been feeling "yeesh" for quite a while.  The last 3 Sunday sermons were really good at SFX, really like Fr Bosco and yesterday we had Fr Eugene Vaz himself.  Wow!

So I will take their advice and focus on the good things I have, to be grateful for the blessings I have been given.

In no special order
- family.  Being back and with family I can appear before in 10mins for dinner is really nice.  Matty is a bonus.  Cousins gave me some recycled clothes last night.  I love family - especially when you stand to gain.

- sports.  Was a little deprived in Taiwan.  Now I have so much sporting events, it's throwing my life out of control.  I recall sitting at a weekday mass and thinking to myself to have to tone down a little.  I love all the opportunities I have, but just need to regain a little more control.  The more important part is having hard-core friends.  Friends equally crazy, possibly more!

- church.  I miss aspects like reading at mass & Fr Cary's fantastic sermons in Taipei.  But today I have my old ministry which forces me to sit and talk/think/dwell on my faith once a week, there's daily masses I can attend within easy access, multiple Sunday masses to attend giving me huge flexibility.

- job.  When I was without, it was really awkward.  Now, while it's not the perfect role, the company is pretty ok and I love that I am 10mins drive away from Ian's house - so I can tabao lunch over and play with Matty for a while.

- Singapore.  There was a time I didn't care whether I lived in the country or not.  Now I have to admit this place is pretty darn liveable, except for the weather and possibly too many foreigners.  On the cusp of national day, I must say this, Majulah Singapura!

Guess what came in the mail?

Surprise 1 :
A fridge magnet, roughly the size of your palm.  Personalized with my name, photo & run times.  Thank you Passion Run organizers for sending me this!  I love it!

Surprise 2 :
So I ordered wheelsets on Tue morning and guess what.  I received an SMS from the friendly neighbourhood postman on Saturday afternoon asking if anyone's home for him to make a delivery.  CRC delivered in 4 days.  Amazing. 

I promptly brought it down to Rodalink.  No more pinched tubes from now on!

Skipped tonight's ride cos I'm tired - chose to nap a little & have dinner with Matty and his parents.

BTW, Matty can flip over from belly to front and vice versa.  Comes complete with sound effects, "eeeeeeeh!".  Simply adorable.

Wheels - good and bad news

Speedy's (my bike's name) back tyre had deflated yet again Monday late in the evening.   I've had the rim tape changed, tyre changed and countless tubes replaced, yet it persistently pinches itself.  Angry!

Had to rush to Rodalink before the ride yesterday, Mickey wasn't on duty, dang.  Herman checked it perfunctorily, pronounced it pinched, then proceeds to pull a new tube in.  I saw red.  Started whining about how many tubes I have spent on this back tyre - enough to have funded an entry level wheelset which is still better than the stock wheels I currently have on.  So Herman was nice enough to offer me a spare wheel while he tried to pinpoint the fault with the errant wheel.  Incidentally that spare wheel is much lighter than my own.  As it turns out, I will need it :)

Just setting off on the ride, I already felt ominously sluggish.  At the end of Coastal Road, I was broken from the peloton by traffic lights.  Dragging the remaining guys behind me, with great effort I chased and slowly closed the gap but it was not until that last steep slope before the Shell petrol kiosk rest stop did I succeed.

On the return, again, I found myself with only JC.  Swinging turns to drag & holding 33-35km/h.  Not sure if I was tired or hungry or the headwinds too much, but I started to see stars - literally.  Fearful of falling off the bike dizzy, yet reluctant to give up the partnership, midway through Coastal Road, I had to give up - gasping at JC to go ahead.

And then like a Godsend, from behind came a train of Weeli dragging Paul, Zi & Roger.  So glad to see them, I immediately joined in the drafting all the way back.

Soon I can practise dragging on my Ultegra wheelset (yeah, I did it finally! Prompted to action by anger that Monday night).  Perhaps swing turns to drag as JC suggests.  I learned last night that drafting is not only mental, but physical!  My legs were burning, I could barely hold myself upright, I was mashing away, forget pedaling technique!  I was so tired, I was dizzy!  Yet the next instance I was back drafting, I could almost immediately recover yet keep their pace.

A new route to work

A colleague just shared a new route to drive to work.  It sounded so convoluted when I first started here that I dismissed it.  But when I heard it again yesterday, I tried it and it really is much smoother - I maintain 50-80km almost all the way, minimal stops.  And it works like a dream both ways - morning and evening rush hour.

The route : Lornie Road, turn off at Braddell towards CTE, turn onto CTE, get off at AMK Avenue 5.  It's strange eh?  Instinctively, if you want expressway, you'd take PIE-CTE ; and if you were eschewing expressways, then it will be Lornie-Marymount-AMK.  This route is a combination of both.  Like hybrid.  Like the hybrid drive I am supposed to market.  Groan.

Hardship trip to Pulau Aur for the weekend

Philip was leaving Dell and wanted a dive trip.  After eliminating various options : no leave, too far, too expensive.. we reduced to 1 destination - Aur/Dayang/Tioman weekend getaway.  Essentially just to clock some underwater mileage.  It was touted as "hardship trip", so everyone else duly backed out.  I felt a little obligated, cos no one else was going to go, and besides since I have not been to Aur/Dayang for at least 5 years, so WTH, hardship diving, here I come!

The journey there was uneventful, Philip and I chatted all the way to Mersing in a comfortable AC coach, we were then transfered onto a boat that had en-masse sleeping pads, everyone could lay down flat, albeit a little squashed.  Since I brought a warm fleece blanket, I could sleep fairly comfortably. 

First instance of 'hardship' was when we were on the little transfer boat to the resort and Philip shone his flashlight into the dark and muttered : staghorn coral.  The tide was really low and the boat was scrapping bottom, we had to jump overboard and wade in, yes, stepping on staghorn coral while carrying our luggage to make it to land.  It was hard cos the coral is uneven and sharp, it was 4am and pitch black, I was wearing long pants and carrying luggage.  While staggering in the 30m into land, I ended up with a cut on my left heel, a deep flapper.  Damnit.

Not sure if the eruption of  Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi was a factor but it was cloudy skies the whole weekend.  Which made for lousy vis.  I barely took any photos.  Instead took the time to practise my kicking underwater, need to learn to fly to chase big creatures.  Truth is, Philip and I hoped for a glimpse of a passing whaleshark - in vain.  Seriously, even if a whale shark did pass us by, the poor vis would have shrouded it!

The highlight of the trip were the doughnuts from the Divers Lodge - served as afternoon tea.  I ate 6 and almost puke the next dive.  Worth it, nontheless.  Actually the food per se, was excellent. 

Or it could also be the time when I let Philip shower first since I was still digging for clean clothes etc.  Now the generator only starts running at 7pm.  I was shampooing in cold water and wondering what time it was, when suddenly the lights and hot water kicked in.  Perfect timing! 

Did we see anything special in the waters of Pulau Aur?  Hmm... actually the marine life and condition of the corals is quite bad.  From my last dive 5-6 years ago, much deteoriation.  The only plus is that the water is cold, 26-27degrees, so hopefully the corals will start to flourish soon.  Bleaching is rather bad at this moment.

Me smirking for the camera

It was not that bad a trip afterall.  Other than some wounds : beside the heel cut - which hurt the whole time since the booties would touch it.  I also cut my right knee while washing gear after the last dive cos my flesh is softened from soaking in the sea.  Also sustained a small bump on the side of head after I was thrown off balance sitting on the boat & struggling to pull my 5mm thick wetsuit on.

Besides that, the transfers were smooth, diving was safe and food was good. 

More pictures : http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157627220886454/

Mid week rambling

Amazingly I had a pretty hectic week thus far.  Should stop saying this place is slow-paced!  Back to back meetings, then last night was on a conference call til about 12:30 midnight.  This morning back in office at 8am for a quarterly update session.  I need more sleep!

Found myself talking to a HK software vendor just now and he started off the conversation in Mandarin.  Both of us struggled during the conversation.  Wonder why we can't just switch to English since Mandarin is still a foreign language to him.

Cycling.  Reprieve.  Have excuse to go slow tonight since my colleague Jasmin & also CY (he just bought a road bike on Sunday) are coming tonight.  Will need to accompany them cycling within the back pack.  Think I can pretty much volunteer to be sweeper, unless Monica is coming - she'll be slower than them and I will leave  her behind.  Hee hee...

We are all dispensable... really?

You've heard it numerous times over, no one is indispensable in a company.  Especially true during bad times when retrenchments happen.

Yet, once in a while, along comes a person like Rupert Murdoch.  He stood by his editor so much, he closed a 168 year old newspaper?

Sure there's more in it that they reveal, but nontheless, I never expected this outcome.

From the New York times today :

A Tabloid Shame, Exposed by Earnest Rivals

By DAVID CARR

Published: July 10, 2011

In America, newspapers have been seen as an expensive hobby for Mr. Murdoch, the bane of the News Corporation’s shareholders, but as it turns out, the newspapers in Britain may end up being more costly to him in the long run.The phone-hacking scandal that is mushrooming in Britain, with arrests, skullduggery and influence peddling, would be a delicious story for The News of the World if it were not about the newspaper itself. Instead, the hunter became the hunted, and last Thursday Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation summarily slid the 168-year-old News of the World under a double-decker bus. Its final issue was Sunday.

So useful in wielding influence, if not producing revenue, his newspapers are the very thing that brought his company into the cross hairs, and delayed, at least temporarily, his efforts to expand it by gaining full control of British Sky Broadcasting, the largest pay television company in Britain.

Logic and fairness would suggest that it was folly to concentrate so much power in the hands of someone who already controlled many national media assets. So where was the outrage? Well, check who owns the megaphone. The News Corporation has historically used its four newspapers — it also owns The Sun, The Times of London, and The Sunday Times — to shape and quash public debate, routinely helping to elect prime ministers with timely endorsements while punishing enemies at every turn.

Don’t take my word for it. After David Cameron was elected prime minister, one of the first visitors he received at 10 Downing Street was Mr. Murdoch — discreetly through a back entrance — and Mr. Cameron spoke plainly last week about the corrosively close relationship. “The truth is, we’ve all been in this together,” he said.

“The press, the politicians and leaders of all parties.” To which a dumb Yank like me might say, “Duh.”

The only thing Mr. Cameron didn’t do was point to Mr. Murdoch himself. But he didn’t really have to after the tactical ruthlessness of Mr. Murdoch’s familiars was laid bare for all to see.

Newspapers, as anybody will tell you, aren’t what they used to be. Part of the reason that the News Corporation was willing to close down a paper with a circulation of about 2.7 million copies every Sunday was that its revenue was under $1 billion. (The News Corporation’s heir apparent, James Murdoch, has always seemed eager to shed some of the company’s newspapers, though I doubt that putting the nail gun to this paper was what he had in mind.)

Still, how did we find out that a British tabloid was hacking thousands of voice mails of private citizens? Not from the British government, with its wan, inconclusive investigations, but from other newspapers.

Think of it. There was Mr. Murdoch, tying on a napkin and ready to dine on the other 60 percent of BSkyB that he did not already have. But just as he was about to swallow yet another tasty morsel, the hands at his throat belonged to, yes, newspaper journalists.

Newspapers, it turns out, are still powerful things, and not just in the way that Mr. Murdoch has historically deployed them.

The Guardian stayed on the phone-hacking story like a dog on a meat bone, acting very much in the British tradition of a crusading press, and goosing the story back to life after years of dormancy. Other papers, including The New York Times, reported executive and police complicity that gave the lie to the company’s “few bad apples” explanation. As recently as last week, Vanity Fair broke stories about police complicity.

Mr. Murdoch, ever the populist, prefers his crusades to be built on chronic ridicule and bombast. But as The Guardian has shown, the steady accretion of fact — an exercise Mr. Murdoch has historically regarded as bland and elitist — can have a profound effect.

His corporation may be able to pick governments, but holding them accountable is also in the realm of newspaper journalism, an earnest concept of public service that has rarely been of much interest to him.

The coverage last week, on a suddenly fast-moving story that had been moving only in increments, destabilized the ledge that the News Corporation had been standing on. James Murdoch regretted everything and took responsibility for almost nothing. What looked like an opportunity for him to prove his mettle as a manager of crisis might yet engulf him.

Andy Coulson, the former editor of News of the World who became the chief spokesman for Mr. Cameron, has been arrested. And Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International and previous editor of The News of the World, responded by saying that it was “inconceivable” that she knew of the hacking

Sunday

Sunday July 10, 2011 was a really fulfilling day.

6am - woke up to run with Peter.  His planned route this week was 1 loop of Mount Faber - hill training!

4:30pm - Matty's baptism.  Like a little trooper, he performed brilliantly until the much bigger kid in front of us started bawling, affecting him. Michelle quickly started to pat him to sleep and he slept from midway through his baptism right through the evening mass that begun after.  So our little Catholic boy attended his first mass (albeit in his sleep) :)  The whole baptism is quite mayhem-ish.  The priest, to his credit, just keeps ploughing through the proceedings.  There were people taking photos all over the place (including me & Ian), quite messy really.

7pm - Back at Ian's place.  We were all tired.  So I went out to Chomp-Chomp, bought dinner for all of us : stingray, carrot-cake, hokkien mee, satay, satay bee hoon...  Super greasy!

10pm - washed car and decided I'll do a quick wax job.   Biceps sore from carrying Matty for 1.5hrs or I'd be quicker.  Took me 45mins.

11pm - Cold Storage to buy milk for the week.  Picked up a hunk of bread (not the sliced soft bread that Singaporeans like, but a hunk of multi-grain bread) & some aged Gouda.  Originally wanted to get brie, my favourite, but the Gouda looked good.  This will be lunch Monday.

Well accomplished day.

After-note (Monday)
- wax job was still blotchy.  Dim lighting at the car park not good enough.
- wolfed down my sandwich.  Fantastic.  Gouda tasted great!

Symphony of gears whirling

The cards were for a slow ride yesterday.

1. Invited 2 newbies : my cousin (who just bought a new Scott road bike but fearfully riding alone along Clementi PCN to build up confidence and skill with the cleats) & Jasmin, my colleague. But both declined me last minute.
2. Climbed too much Tuesday night.  I did perhaps 7 (relatively easy) climbs but still, 7!  Egged on by Jo - she was on fire!  
3. Still sleep deprived from last week - so bad I overshot my ECP exit (always a first time!) and had to turn around just before Changi airport. 
4. Hectic!  Need to rush home.  Need to pick up Speedy from Rodalink.  Get to East Coast by 7:30pm.
5. Very strong headwind.  Conversation as we cycled along the PCN leading to Coastal Road needed to be held at a shout to be heard!

Then,
- Traffic was not too bad, made it home early enough, wanted to pick Zi up, but she MIA.
- To Rodalink.  I left Speedy there since Sunday evening to oil the sticky gears - the left side gear was permanently stuck to the bigger gear and I need the smaller gear for hills!
- Got to East Coast 7:30pm on the dot - despite my missing the turn.

How it become my fastest ride :
The ride started out smooth - we were bunched up to shield each other from the wind, so it was really nice.  I tried moving to the front and with just the lead cyclist blocking me, the wind was pretty bad -  dropped back down to the middle pack.  At Shell, we first noticed Anne.  She was bitching about how she was cycling alone, unhappy that her group's missing.  Simon went over to talk to her and she joined us from there on.  The return was fast.  At some point, I found myself leading & pulling the group at 34km all the way from one of the traffic lights along Loyang until almost Coastal Road.  After I faltered, Peter gamely took over.  But he too was tired & something's wrong with his gears, it was ticking loudly. The calvary came up : Paul, Bryan, Isaac, Kah Hoe, Simon and Anne.  We bunched up again.  Nice.  Nearer to the fire station, we met Grayson!  He intersected through the group to friendly greetings, then fired off.  Splintering the group.  I got dropped.  Holding 33-35km, I was dropped.  Kah Hoe, Anne, Isaac and I tried but failed to chase the leading pack - later I found out Paul hit 53.8, Bryan 51km!   Back at F2 carpark, Anne and I exchanged FB accounts - she's 1 cool cyclist!  She's apparently a friend of Simon's friend.  And she did start off with our group from the start!  Guess she somehow followed a wrong group mistakenly cos it was a pretty crowded night last night along the Coastal Road.

Either due to headwind or the crazy speeds, there was no conversation even though we cycled bunched up (2 or 3 abreast).  All I hear is the whirling of our bicycle chains roaring away.... sheer music!

I didn't expect to be able to go so fast consistently.  Think Speedy was nervous cos I had no time to pick him up - he slept 3 nights in the shop.  The longest time he spent away from home.  Decided he'll prove himself a fast bike to me.  Haha!

Cookies are back!

For the longest time in my life, I ate to survive.  I didn't care much about food except that it does not fall into my list of 'don't like's.

Today, I still maintain a long list of 'don't like's, and I prefer if it be easily accessible : car-park nearby, no need to travel far, does not require long cooking times or difficult de-skinning/peeling etc.

Somewhere down the line though, I got infected by the foodies in my life.  I now harbour cravings.  What happened?  Gah...  My current fixation is on Old Chang Kee deep-fried, arteries clogging curry puffs & trans-fat laden cookies.

I welcomed the return of the blue cookie can in the pantry by eating 10 cookies.  Unbelievable.

How can a 5kg bundle of baby be that exhausting to look after?

I babysat my 3-month old godson yesterday from lunch til about 9pm - with his parents' assistance until they went out to a wedding dinner at 7.  Between 7 to about 9 when my mom returned to take over, Matty and I flew solo.  Well, kinda solo since Janet the helper, got me 2 bottles and warmed them up for me too :)

But I ran the full gauntlet : fed, burped, changed his stinky diaper, played with him, swaddled him..

You play with him when he's wake, and you think you can nap when he does, but just as I nod off to sleep, he stirs and cries.  Need to carry him til he falls back asleep.

I got home around 10, was in bed by 11, and woke up 9 on Monday morning.

Somehow I feel more tired than if I had ran and cycled long distances!

Vultures

Apparently, vultures exist in every office.

The guy next door to me quit.  Last day yesterday.  This morning I walked in to a aisle conversation, a colleague commenting on wanting his chair.  Me, I want his bigger LCD monitor since I have a paltry 17".

So, she broke in the door (it's easy, just open the cubical flaps, stick hand in, unlock!).  She substituted chairs, I swopped LCDs, someone else took his desktop printer...

Vultures.

I recall a similar incident in HP when the vultures circled before the final throes of death.  We pasted post-it notes on what we wanted to inherit, days before Lee Lin's last day at work.  That was simply hilarious.

BTW, I now have a 24" LCD, it is bloody huge!

To zhng or not to zhng

It all started 1 month back in a conversation with Isaac over a cycling evening.  Isaac used to ride a Rodalink 200 as well (like me) but back then he was in the midst of building a new bike and we were talking about wheelsets.  He believes wheelsets are the first serious upgrade in order of priority.  He rides on Shimano Ultegra and loves them.  The other night over a west side 65km ride, JC was also talking about that to someone else and I overheard the conversation.  Hmm... CRC has the Shimano Ultegras for ~$500.

Sounded that off Isaac last night and he thinks they are a good deal since he bought his second hand for the same price but with tyres included (perhaps another $100 he estimates).

Last night's ride started out nice.  We rode in a big pack all the way to Shell, en-route I was chatting with Isaac about wheelsets, cycling at 32km/h.  If you are thinking, wow, Fel, you are a strong cyclist, well, that I had the same sentiments only to have them crushed during the return ride when I struggled to maintain 30km/h.

Question 1 - if it's raining, would you be able to ride faster or slowly?
Question 2 - should I change my wheelset?
Question 3 - who is the target segment for a hybrid SSD drive?  Opps, been so preoccupied with this question these days...

Little things that we take for granted

A new colleague saw my FB update one evening when I checked into Novena church, came to ask me if I could do her a favour and buy her a book.  Apparently she was told that the bookstore at Novena sells Henri Nouwen books rather cheaply.  She wanted the Return of the Prodigal Son.

I recall reading it years ago, but nontheless, I bought her the book over a lunch time mass one day.  It was all of $5 and I gave it to her as a gift - thinking nothing further of it.

She came gushing to me a couple of days later about what a fantastic read it was and how much it related to her, leaving her in tears as she read it.

A few days on, she asked for a second book, Inner Voice of Love, also from Henri Nouwen.

I got it for her today, $7 this time.  She was so happy to receive it and started gushing about how she found an iPhone app for daily reading/meditation from a Catholic source.  She's amazed that all Catholics the world over (all 1.18 billion of us) read the same daily readings.  Note - she's a Christian who attends the same church as a couple of my good friends.

Just hit me how I take it all for granted, the resources I have at my fingertips : well stocked bookshops with good books at really affordable pricing & a church that prays universally together every day.

While at Novena bookstore, I also bought Matty a book on New Testament children's stories.  Now I can read to the little hyper kiddo.  Unfortuately his book cost $26 :)

Keeping in a Paceline safely

9 tips on keeping the paceline while cycling :

KEEP THE PACE The number one mistake riders make is picking up speed when they get to the front, says Ignosh. "Some guys just want to show off; others are well-intentioned—they just aren't in tune with their effort and feel like they're supposed to take a pull, so they pull." As you're riding through the line, pay attention to the group's average speed and effort. When you get to the front, do your best to maintain those levels. The goal is to keep the pack together, not blow it apart or shell riders off the back.

MICROADJUST It's nearly impossible for everyone to put forth equal amounts of effort, especially on undulating terrain. You need to make adjustments along the way to prevent what Ignosh calls the Slinky effect, where the line alternately bunches together and becomes strung out, with big gaps. "It's better to make two small undercorrections than one big overcorrection," he says.

"Think of it like driving: You don't slam on the brakes, then hit the gas; you moderate your speed." To do that in a paceline, try one of these techniques:

Soft pedal: If you feel like you're getting sucked into the rider in front of you, take a light pedal stroke or two to adjust your speed accordingly.

Air brake: An easy (and safe) way to trim speed is to sit up and catch some wind. It'll slow you down a notch without disrupting the rhythm of the line.

Feather brake: Gently squeeze the brakes while continuing to pedal. You can scrub speed while shifting up or down as needed to alter your pace.

DON'T STARE Focusing on the wheel directly in front of you is a natural instinct when riding in a line, but it gives you zero time to react should something go awry. "Keep your head up and check about 10 meters down the road," says Ignosh. "Look through holes in the leading rider—over his shoulder, under his arm or through his legs—and ride proactively instead of reactively. This will help keep the line moving smoothly."

EASE OFF THE GAS Rather than accelerating when you pull, try to ride in the line at a steady pace and decelerate as you pull off and drift to the back. "This provides the right work-to-recovery ratio without all the punchy surges that tend to blow the weaker riders off the back," says Ignosh.

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE Pacelines are designed to share the workload, so limit your pulls to a few minutes to stay fresh and give other riders a chance.

CONSERVE ENERGY If you feel tired, sit out a few turns until you're ready to take another pull. Simply open a spot for riders to rejoin the line in front of you, or come to the front and immediately pull off and drift to the back. You'll do the pack a favor by staying with them rather than working yourself into the red and falling off the back, which makes the group slow down to let you catch up.

Ever since Sin fell, everyone read up on trying to keep a paceline and doing it safely.  JC now rides like Grayson, steady constant 30km.  I've been trying to follow his super steady speed, not easy I must say, needs constant adjustment.  And the other thing, I tend to fixate.  And I mean, really fixate.  Usually like a moth drawn to light, I stare at the blinking red back light of the bike in front of me, not thinking anything, just following.  As it is with life, I am trying not to fixate on the immediate (usually small things), and to focus beyond (larger picture).  Funny what goes through your head during a 15km commute to work daily.

Tiring weekend

What a weekend!

Fri evening 10pm - cycled 55km with Peter through the hilly slopes of Jalan Bahar & Neo Tiew.
Sat morning - 5 exhausting climbs, included the overhang, twice!
Sun dawn - ran 7km of hilly slopes, climaxing with a run through Mount Faber!
Sun evening - cycled 65km at a brisk speed, up and down hilly slopes.  Naive me had assumed a comfortable pace when I saw 3 women, never have I been proven so wrong.

Total mileage of the week (Mon to Sun) : 12km run & 160km cycle.  A painful refrain this week - uphill & downhill!

My abs are sore now, not sure from the hilly run/cycling yesterday or the overhang climb Sat.  Or perhaps all combined!