SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2008 (24th Aug 08)

Woke up 5 am today, reached there by 6.20am & flagged off at 6.45am. Today i have participated in the SAFRA Army Half Marathon, this time round, no more "rice dumpling" as breakfast! Instead, i ate breads which can last me longer.

After 2 months plus since the Passion run in June, i have not make a single running session ever since, and it really took its toll on me. For the start, i do some slow jogging, until the 7km mark, i started to slow down at ard ECP area. I half walked half run until the 14km mark. From then on, it is disastrous. The make-shift road (those meant for construction worksite) is so uneven and muddy, not sure why it is planned that way. To avoid any injuries, i walked thru out the whole route till the Marina Barrage (abt 1.5km away). After that, i continued my run. Partly due to some muscle-ache on my thigh area, i struggled to complete the race. In the end, i took abt 2hrs 52mins 07 sec to finish (my expected timing is 2.5hrs). (Will update again once i got the actual timing).

At Pandang, it is more worse. The field is all covered by mud, and i have to maneuver ard to collect the finisher meadal and drinks. In the end, my shoes became brown. Luckily, once i reached home, it started to run hreavily up till now. And my next run? The KPE 10km run in September... :)

* Congratulate to my colleague Jasper, for completed the run too.


*** Tomasz Kuszczak (Poland/ Manchester Utd): This is not a very special figure. But is rare coz he is the 2nd choice Goalkeeper in Manchester Utd. Normally, only the first choice keeper from each club is released in the Series. But for Series 40, he is released too after Van Der Saar in Series 32. Two keepers to be released in a club. 1st time...

Primary School Reunion 2008

Wow, it's been 15 yrs since i last saw my primary 3 classmates from Cedar. I am in P3-2, and after which, there is some changes here & there and we are shuffled into diff. classes. Even though it is only a small groups of 4 (includ. me) turning up ytd, it is still quite a miracle to see one another after all these yrs. They are Matt, Serena & Alec. Matt is taller and slimmer now, Serena is prettier and Alec is a bit flabby. But there isn't much changes to their face though.

After we met, we went for dinner. Then took a walk to Sky Garden and chat. I have a poor memory, so sometimes need to think hard if they mentioned a name of who & who? and especially those teachers that have taught us before. Actually there is a reunion last yr, but i am not informed of. So this yr, it is so fortunate that the no. ppl attending manages to increase by 1 (that's me). Otherwise, most of my classmates are either overseas now or working ytd.

But overall, i have really need to thanks them for organizing this reunion and hopefully more of them can able to meet next time. Thanks to you all :)

*** Convention 2008: This is a rare collection of players in their respective away jersey, from top left (clockwise) - Torres (Liverpool), Tevez (Man Utd), Malouda (Chelsea) & Walcott (Arsenal).

16 days of enjoyment, now back to reality...

It's been a week since i came back from UK, and i have finally managed to shake off the jet-lag problem now. For the 1st few days since i'm back, i can't really sleep well during the night as it is about 3 to 4 pm in UK then. But i have to adjust back fast as i have to go straight back to work the following day after touchdown.

Well, this is my 1st time going overseas with a fren, and this experience is really great. We followed the tube map, did some research online & with some help from his sis & brother-in-law, we can basically explore anywhere within the zone 1 to 3. Anything further than that, we have to top-up.

In UK, we been to Tower Bridge, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Madame Tussard, the Emirate stadium, the Stamford Bridge etc just to name a few. Outside the zone 3, is windsor castle & the Old Trafford.

Then we went to France for 4 days, Eiffel Tower, the Lourve Pyramid, Arc De Triomphe Etoile, Notre Dame, Stade de France etc.

The ability to spend & not working is great, as you can enjoy & relax urself there w/o worry abt anything at all. Just sleep, eat, spend & take photos. The most nasty part abt this is that, someday ur enjoyment will end and this is when you are back to reality.

Back to Singapore, right after i landed, i started to work the next day. All the work that i have abandoned for 2.5 weeks all came to haunt me: urgent shipment, endless problemetic product failures, missing tools & equipment, broken pins etc.

Then the following week, my part-time school term start, lesson on Mon, Wed & Fri every week from 1800 to 2100.

All these, i have to endure for the next 4 yrs. And hopefully, that's is when i can go on holiday again :)

*** Old Trafford - the Theatre of Dream: it's is really my dream comes true to visit the stadium of my favourite team of all times, Manchester United since 1997. The journey is expensive, but it's just a once in a lifetime experience. :)