elainelovestriathlon

My new place in Melbourne

2009-02-24T20:02:00.000-08:00

I'm glad to be back in Melbourne. It's great weather--sunny, warm and beautiful. Moved into my new place on Monday. I'm housemates with Iylia, who has all the furniture it's awesome. I love this place!!! But my room was empty so we went to Ikea to buy some furniture. Lots of the things we wanted were out of stock but we made do with what was left.

My empty room. It's carpeted
Large built-in wardrobe

We wanted to bring the things home in a cab, but alas, the single bed wouldn't fit. So we had it delivered. That night I slept on the pull out couch, and Iylia had spare comforter and pillows. It was actually very comfy sleeping in the living room! haha.

Very early Tuesday morning, the furniture arrived

Boxes of furniture requiring assembling

Just 3 hours later, an empty room was transformed!

A bed, table, shelf and table lamp. The bed was kinda heavy, and I had trouble fitting the beam tightly into the headboard and tailboard. So I decided to hammer it. I held a sock with my left hand to hammer on it so I don't destroy the bed frame. But due to my sleepiness, I accidentally hammered my finger! Haha it was super painful!! It was slightly swollen and the nail's kinda discoloured.

Tuesday evening Iylia and I had dinner at Lazzat. Delicious. Anyway so we headed to his storage cage in QV to pick up my things. We were debating between taking empty suitcases along to pack the stuff in, taking a cab or making 2 trips.

BUT...we found 2 dented/broken abandoned Safeway trolleys in front of our place. So Iylia suggested we push those to load our stuff. It was damn funny, coz we were pushing empty broken trolleys down the street (10min walk). Iylia was nice enough to let me have the less broken one while he pushed the one without the hand-bar and broken rear panel. hahaha.

We got into QV carpark, ran and slid around in the trolley and got to the cage where we loaded all my boxes of stuff. It was perfect! But we looked so stupid and I was laughing hysterically.
My trolley loaded with boxes, a shoe rack which I hooked onto the outside of the trolley, and tried to pull the luggage bag.

Iylia hugging his broken trolley

The trolleys were v difficult to push uphill, and on unlevel broken pavement. Iylia kindly helped me pull the big luggage while I struggled to push the trolley straight. Then near our place, a young Japanese guy saw me struggling with the trolley and ran over to help. He said I looked very funny pushing it. Iylia single-handedly pushed and pulled both things and got to the gate quicker than me and Jap guy. haha. Hats off to you, Iylia.

Got home and unpacked all my stuff. They were kinda dusty. Anyway, so here's my room now:

Some photos of my house:

The living room: flat screen TV, DVD player, PS3?, Iylia's DVD collection, coffee table, couch and a plant.
The main door, and our shoe racks. The door on the right (with the blinds) opens to a balcony.
The dining area and our bikesThe corridor to our rooms and the toilet, and the kitchen
Fully equipped kitchen!

The toilet is huge:Our own washer and dryer!

There's a bathtub and seperate toilet bowl area too. haha.
I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!!

i went for training today. Hills totally killed me but I am SOOOoooooooooo happy to see my MUAC teammates again! And Tony too! YAY =)

Mexican Vday 2009

2009-02-22T00:55:00.000-08:00

I'm at Changi airport waiting to board my flight. Leaving is almost like second nature now, I hardly think much of it, suddenly I'm here at the airport, just like going to take a train to the mall or something. Suddenly I've left the States, and I'm in Europe, then before I know it I'm in Singapore. Technically, I've already left even though I'm still in Singapore. Everytime I'm here I feel like I'm in a vacuum, trying to envision what it's like in many hours, when I step off the plane in a different place. But these days, it doesn't mattter where I am, I could be anywhere.

Anyway, I had a great 2 plus weeks back home. Didn't get to meet up with everyone I'd wanted to, but loads of time with the family, which is always awesome!

I did Lasik the moment I came back to S'pore, and that is the most awesome thing ever! No more inconveneient wearing and removing of contacts, no more hassle of brining contacts, solution and all that. Perfect eyesight, no discomfort at all. I love this feeling. Sometimes I feel like I've begun looking at life through different lenses--it's been a great 6 months, and I'll write about it more in my next posts.

Our steamboat dinner at home on the last day of CNY

The perfect valentine's day! Vday is supposed to be a celebration of love and to spend time with your loved ones, so what better way than another of our super fun dinners at home?! Yay, love it! No nervous anticipation, stupid expectations and disappointments. Bae and I making the famous Magnolia Bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes! I ate loads of this in New York. Red, delicious and sinful...just what we need on vday! haha.

The red batter--2 full bottles of food dye!

Tremendous success! They look so cute and biteable!

Rong chipped in to help put the frosting. We decided not to make our own vanilla frosting but buy the Pillsbury one from the supermarket. Bt alas! They ran out of vanilla so we made do with chocolate frosting.

Not too bad, Rong!

We made a MILLION cupcakes! we tried to squeeze them all into 3 batches and look what happened...

Due to the rotating glass bottom and the oversized baking tray, the 4 poor quarduplets in paper cups were SQUASHED WEIRDLY!!! hahaha when we opened and saw that we laughed till we almost died! haha and I kept making funny jokes about how we should go take these mutants to Janice and say: "Hi Janice, look what we made! Red velvet cupcakes! What do you think? Can we sell it at your dessert bar? NO?! But why?? We wpent 3 hours making it!" hahaha. hilarious.

Red velvet cupcakes with chocolate frosting and little red heart decorations! too pretty to eat.

And my MASTERPIECES...

The weirdo quarduplets! From left: meet the CUCUMBER, MONESTER, GHOST and POLKA-DOTTED EGGPLANT! hahaha.
Ooooh, more cupcakes with icing sugar, and a special limited edition one with moons and stars. hehe.
Ern busy at work on the decorations for our Mexican themed dinner. She's working on a cactus, if you can't tell...

Bern decorating our little Mexican hats

Rong the SAMURAI chef volunteered to chop stuff. Bae supervising.

Me teaching Rong how to cube tomatoes.

The Samurai chef with his chopped up ingredients. So cocky...
Making our own guacamole dip!
Tadah! Delicious!!!

For some reason Bae was super enthusiastic about blowing balloons. And that was infectious, coz after that Mum caught the bug and was pumping balloons incessantly. hahaha. She even accidentally pumped the nozzle into one balloon!

Bae and Rong fussing over a pack of old balloons which kept bursting. hahaha

Mum setting the tables and washed up most of the things
Anyway here are the final products:

I am embarrassed. What is this!?!? It meant to say "welcome to Mexico" in Chinese. But apparently no one knew how to write it...as you can tell, Mandarin is not our forte...
And what is this!? Don't know what language...I regret to say we might not be big on languages...
only?! let's go!

I love our crazy elaborate dinners, they're a family affair! the preparation is as fun as the dinner itself!
Getting ready
Me cooking the chicken with Taco seasoning
Yum!!

there's a photo of Dad fussing over the handwritten Lassi recipe from New Year's dinner. Haha this time it's strawberry lassi! No thanks to the airport computers, the picture was accidentally deleted. ARGHHH

Putting on the Mexican hats
Ooo, our little Mexican hats Ern made.
Dad with his. They kinda look like Jewish caps...
The fianl product! Nacho chips with homemade guacamole dip, salsa and sour cream. Taco chicken, letttuce, tomatoes, Jack cheese, onions for the Taco shells (not out yet)

Bern showing off her Taco

I was so tired from preparing dinner since arvo, that I totally fell asleep after dinner! And missed my date with Yimin at Walas. Haha, I'm so sorry! But I did watch a DVD--Get Smart with the family when I woke up an hour later. haha. fun times =)

Ok gtg, I'm about to miss my flight! Will update more when I get to Melbourne! Take care everyone =)

UK 14-24 July 2008

2009-02-12T14:30:00.000-08:00

Dad, Mum and I flew to London to visit Jie and attend her graduation.

Arriving in Bloomsbury, London
Spanish dinner Walking around Chinatown after dinner, Mum super jetlagged.

Day 2, Breakfast
i love cream tea

Primark

Dressing up for a nice dinner and musical:1 Michelin Star restaurant, Arbitus

Watching Chicago the musical

We went running along River Thames, past Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Tate Modern Museum, etc. London is still kinda chilly and dready in summer. Feels a little claustraphobic.

Oxford
Waiting for the Oxford Express outside Hyde Park

Market

Harry Potter dining hall
I absolutely love the architecture in Europe/UK. It's so intricate, so old, so different...

If I just flap my wings hard enough maybe I could fly.

Rushed back to get tickets for another musical
Phantom of the Opera musical. I am in love with the soundtrack. I love these British musicals. They're so different from American, more contemporary stories. Phantom is very grand. Elaborate props, embellished costumes and grandiose music. The lead actor and actress had great chemistry, making it even more romantic. haha.

Jie's graduation
Looking very accomplished
Soon.One of life's milestones. Dad and Mum must be so proud.

Very good First Class Honours =)
Celebratory dinner at 1 Michelin Star Chinese fusion restaurant, Hakasan

Start of our road trip...with our rented new Audi A8. Niceee...i love driving

Windsor Castle

Grrr...I gotta hold up this house!

Drury House, oldest restaurant in Windsor, for lunch
Quaint and English. Perfect.

Bath
we walked-in to YMCA. It's the first time Mum's staying in a YMCA. Dad and Mum staying in YMCA?! Impossible! Must've drove them so crazy they started singing the YMCA song complete with actions. That's a retarded "M", Dad. hahaha!

Dad lying on a street bench like a tramp trying to take a good shot of the church.
Traditional Italian food in enormous portions.

At Bath market looking for Rong's flags.

Checking out the Roman Baths

Horrible tasting water from the springs or something.

Sally Lunn's Bath buns

We went for relaxing Thermal Spa as well! It wasnt hot like the hot springs in Japan/Korea. It's just warm mineral water. We floated around with floats. There was an open air rooftop pool with glass surrounds overlooking the city on one side and the countryside on the other. All we need is some cocktail...Tis the life! haha.

Cornwall
We arrived in Cornwall in the evening without pre-booked accomodation with the intention of walking-in, but alas, EVERYTHING was full!! Desperate and faced with the prospect of spending the night in the car, we found Headland Hotel, super cushy place right on the beach. Perfect.

Headland hotel

Beautiful beach with a great surf

Little picnic holes to shield from the chilly winds
Oooo people fly in here in helicopters? Fancy.

Our new Audi A8 isn't too bad either...

Surfing!
Managed to convince Dad and Jie to take surfing lessons with me haha.

Post-surfing. Huddled in thick bath robes with a hot drink.

Hiking

Hiking in a dress and slippers? Yeah!Land's End
We had lunch of cornish pasties too
Excuse me, which way to New York?

Coasteering
Dad, Mum and Jie went deep sea fishing and so I went to check out coasteering on my own. I was lucky it was a quiet day so there were only 3 of us with 2 guides. Perfect. So we had more time to do more stuff and it was more fun.

Coasteering is super fun. It's basically coast exploration. The water was kinda cold, but there were no jelly fish so it was gd. Our warm up activity was to dive underwater and pluck a piece of seaweed. So cold and so scary. I hate diving underwater when I can't see the bottom and don't know what's there lurking in the dark.

It's about 3hours we sawm swim along the headlands, climbed over rocks along the headland, explored caves, jumped off cliffs, and dived down an underwater hole as well. Hold your breath and dive through a small cave underwater. Fun but kinda scary. Even one of the guides didn't dare because he was quite burly and had a fear he'd get stuck. Only me and another young man went through it.

During the cave exploration, it was really dark and the guides said occassionally seals will walk out and scare the people. So we were looking out for them. The guide asked me to peer into a little corner in the cave to check and when I was checking, he made some seal calls and I totally got a shock and jumped. haha. stupid.

There were no seals coz they had all gone to look for Dad, Mum and Jie out at sea who'd feed them fish.

We also swam into a lil rock pool and the guides taught us how to float face down and let the currents wash you in and out of the pool and swirl you around. It was very fun. The guides obviously love their jobs.

Cliff jumping. Super scary! It's too counter-intuitive to fling yourself off a cliff. We jumped off 2 cliffs. We were taught the proper technique and the guides told us the common mistake was the "arm chair" technique where u jump in a sitting down position, and you smack your thighs painfully on the water.

On the first jump, one guide jumped while the other stayed with the 3 of us at the top. The young man tried to go first, but he didn't dare. I wasn't so scared until I saw how scared ande hesitant he was. After many failed attempts to jump off, his father-in-law, a 60+ year old man said "do u want me to go first?" and so he did. 3-2-1 he jumped down. Maybe at that age there's nth to fear anymore you know, you've lived. haha.

I went next. My plan was totally to march up there and jump off. But when I peered down the cliff, it was super scary. The guide counted down and I couldn't do it. But on the 3rd countdown I decided I just have to not think and take that 1 step, no biggie. The moment I left the cliff edge, my entire body just froze. Paralyzed with fear. I could not even move a muscle or scream. So i did the classic armchair, but it was not too painful, thankfully.

On the next higher jump, I did much better. I stood at the edge and screamed even before jumping off, thenI managed to do the proper technique. It was really fun. I'd have loved to do a couple more jumps!

The waves crashing along the headland was actually quite strong and high, so it throws you against the rocks. The currents were farily strong and the waters very choppy, but good thing I am a strong swimmer so it was alright. Midway through the elderly man had a lil trouble breathing, probably from the tight wetsuit and flotation device, so at certain points he walked on the rocks instead of swimming.

Super exhilarating! Jie was shocked at the lack of safety/insurance procedures. Well it's true it's risky, but heck, I'ma risk taker.

Dad, Mum and Jie had gone deep sea fishing.

Apparently, Jie's alternative career path could be to be a fisherman, because she caught like close to 20 fishes!

But Dad was the real pro coz he caught big fishes, like the catfish above.

One of the big fishes Dad caught, which would end up on our table later.
Dad and Mum's obsession with lobster.

The view from our hotel is just amazing

London
Dinner at Royal China at Canary Wharf

Breakfast at Covent Garden
=)

Tropical Sunshine, Singapore July 2008

2009-02-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

Lan & I. Waddya do when you park illegally and your car's boxed in? Grab a cool beer on a warm evening pre-RJ class gathering.

Fancy lunches of gourmet burgers and beers

Sunny

NUS Rag Day:

APSC swim peeps:Xueyuan, Evan, YilinYilin, Val, Evan, me and XY
Uncle RobsWille and Joe =)
AaronJoe@ Walas with Yimin

Joey, Joe and me
Drinks @ One Rochester--Terrance, me, Lem and Val

Lem and I outside Zouk:

Helipad bar with the guys

Lan

Derrick Guo

Yee How

The coolest family on Earth
National Day Garden Party Alfresco Grill!!! =)
Red & White national colours & flower decor
The Chef
Ern, Al and me
Us kids, just short of Jie (in London)

My family =) (Jie is missed)

When we were Down Under...2008

2009-02-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

Picking up from where we left off...back in Melb in June 2008.

Jas' farewell party

Liam and I

Ray and Iylia, in case you've forgotten

Jasmine, Sophie and me

Matt Irons and I

Mordy and I

Falls Creek!!!

Snowboarding with hardly any snow

Tis what happens when sit on the snowboard like a sledge and it slips under you all the way down the slope, and the ski lifts aren't working.

pro.

Night activities

MoviePictionaryUno Stacko

So many ideas men...

Photo whoring

Falls Creek Day 2 - Mountain run & The Hike

Scrabble

Day 3 - Mountain Biking at Mount Beautywhat's wrong with smiley faces?!

Weird fetish

leaving Melb
Dave Pariossien

My sendoff
S-Club!

10km Sandown Road Race -- 41.24!!!!

2008-05-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

some old photos from San Churros with Iylia and Ray 2 weeks back.

Me looking greedy.

Highlights of my week

Thursday 15 May
Had a good painful massage with Liam. Liam's really nice, nice to chat with. haha. He is a damn fast runner/triathlete/adventure racer!

I had Bible Study at Kylie's pad. It was awesome! She baked some lemon yoghurt cake which was delicious. After that, Ray swung by to pick me up and we were headed for a nice cafe in Brunswick street, but alas, none of us copied down the address so we just stopped along the street and went into "The Oven" .

Nutella-banana pizza with vanilla ice cream--this is da shit!

Then we strolled along Brunswick where there were many Greek cafes, and Ray had never tried a Falafel so I barged in and bough ONE BALL and we tried it--some kinda spices taste which Ray didn't like. haha

Then to get rid of the taste, we bought a box of 4 pieces of chocolate from San Churros--Earl Grey milk choc and Pink champagne white choc were the best =)

Drove to Preeny for a nice long stroll while savouring the chocs. We walked to the playground and PLAYED! haha climbed into all the structures, walked across the swinging bridge, balancing beam, slid down the slide, down the fireman's pole, looked thru the fake telescope, climbed thru the tunnels...sat in the baby swing and finally swung on the (adult) swing until i had a headache!

So we slumped on the park bench and played...shoot, shag and marry! hahaha while popping mentos. Actually, Ray was rationing the mentos to contain my sugar high. it was HILARIOUS!!! I'm damn good at coming up with tough gay combinations man! Game results are confidential. haha it was soo funny.

Saturday 17 May--Sandown 10km Race!!!
I've been looking forward to this race! Very psyched up...until the morning. It was raining, windy and friggin 8degrees!

Ray came by, dropped off his handsome new bike at my place and we headed off to pick iylia and kaighin up to drive to the race venue. We followed D2's car all the way until...we had to stop at a petrol kiosk coz i had to pee...then we got lost. haha we were pathetic coz we cldnt read the map properly and were driving up and down Springvale Road like idiots...or rather, just warming up to run 3 n a bit laps of Sandown Racecourse...

haha, we got there and it was FREEEEZING! Liam was so sweet to take off his fleece jumper and lend it to me coz i was shivering and turning blue.

Liam: u shd put another jumper on, Elaine
Me: I don't have another jumper
Liam: Geez Elaine, you should've told me just now! Here, put this on. You can't be shivering like that before the race.

How sweet =) So I warmed up in a large oversized jumped which looked like a dress. But who cares, as long as you're warm. haha. I didn't do a thorough warm up coz it was too cold to be out there.

Anyway, I felt awesome during the race and kept a very constant pace throughout! I surprised myself with a smashing 41.24!!!!!!!! That's 3 n a half minutes faster than last year! Woohoo!!! haha during the race it was very windy--headwind on the uphill. And my R big toe and L small toe was seriously hurting, to the point i was certain the nails were falling off. I took off my shoes and there! Under my gold nail polish were blue/purple nails. haha. it's peculiar...

It's not very clear here, but the small toe is swollen, nail pruple. The R big toe is light blue (funky!) and it is very swollen and DAMN FRIGGIN PAINFUL I COULDN'T SLEEP ALL NIGHT!!! it hurt even when i didn't move.

Had Jap dinner with Ray in the city post-race, followed by dessert of crepes! Blueberry/Strawberry cheesecake crepe and red bean custard crepe from this place in Melb Central. Delicious!! A perfect treat for some awesome 10km running =)

Then we did the MOST RETARDED THING ever! We went into Coles supermarket and browsed around. Then I spotted this round sieve with a handle. It looked like a large table tennis bat. I grabbed it and pretended to smack it around. Then clever Ray took another one and suggested we could play badminton. So we walked inconspicuously to the fruit/veg section and plucked 2 green grapes. We considered taking a fresh springy mushroom as well, but it was kinda big. anyway, we scurried back between the supermarket shelves and started playing badminton with the grape! it was hilarious! Then grape #1 smashed and died, so i kicked it under the shelve. Then we took grape #2 and were getting quite pro at grape-badminton. but alas! some Coles staff were nearby so we ditched the match. Ray took grape #2, with a 2 step hop he smacked the grape and sent it flying over the shelf into the unknown (hopefully not on someone's head). hahaha. we burst out laughing, flung the sieves back onto the shelf and ran away. HAHAHA!!! RETARDEDNESS!!

Sunday I was feeling kinda frustrated so I grabbed my bike and headed out for an 85km ride despite the awefully painful toes/nail/feet (i could barely walk). My calves and R heel hurt alot too. But the ride was good. I felt strong, free, independent, aggressive, successful, confident on my bike. Yes, that's what I am.

Met Ray for the last 30km of my ride. You're awesome, Ray. haha. very good for a first ride on the roads...haha we then rode to Thresho's for a nice excitement and laughter filled dinner! haha! had to ride home in the freezing cold of the night post-dinner. I almost froze to death i tell ya. torture.

Monday I had the most painful run ever. it was just a 55min easy run, but both my calves/Achilles were hurting so bad i wanted to cry. anyhow had a nice dinner with Ray after. We had indian food followed by some dessert at Brunetti's.

Bleuberry cheesecake and chocolate tart. yummm...

Tuesday morning Ray gave me a wake-up call to have brekky of muffins with Wilson at thresho's. My favourite muffins, i'd definately wake up for them! hahaha. anyway after that we walked over to Video Dogs, a quaint cool DVD rental shop nearby to look for Raging Bull, this 1980 Martin Scorcese film starring Robert De Niro. I had to watch it for an assignment. Alas, the shop was not open at 10am, so we went back to thresho's, shared a date scone and big brekky then went back to borrow the DVDs. hahaha.

Headed back to my place to watch the show. It's a good classic film, very deep character portrayal which i liked. The show was more about La Motte's character--his insecurity, vulnerability and weaknesses than about boxing. Anyway...I did a swim workout after that. Can't cycle, my calves are injured.

Wednesday was awesome. I did my swim sesh in the morn, met up with Maddie in the arvo--it was great catching up!! haha. then i had a productive afternoon assignment wise. At run trg in the evening, we did a hardcore 5x1000m with decreasing rest. It was fabulous. Actually Tony said for me to do 4 coz my calf was injured and hurting quite bad. But i like pain yeah. haha. it was a good session!!! Felt tired, but great after.

Post training, 10 of us headed to The Clyde pub for some dinner. It was really nice. I had Beef & Guiness pie (delicious!!!) and some of Dave's fries =P and some of Ray's Chicken Schnitzel. haha. Jas bounced in and announced that she made the Aust Open team for Orienteering World Champs in Czech Republic! Way to go, Jas!!! We were all so happy, she's awesome at orienteering, and fully deserves the spot. It was a nice dinner and chat with the MUAC guys =)

After dinner, Ray, Iylia and me had planned an all-nighter to watch the Champions League Final--Man U vs Chelsea. haha. I'm not a soccer fan, but i'd accompany the boys. haha. the match was at friggin 4.30am! So we planned to watch a movie and snack pre-match, then head out for a 60km bike ride post-match. PERFECT eh? haha.

Ray went back to grab his bike so he could leave it at my place for our morning ride. Jas and I went to the supermarket, gossiped and giggled about girly stuff...haha. I bought a whole lot of snacks--Maltesers, gummy snakes, doritos with Salsa dip and Solo The Sub. haha. then we headed back to my place and chatted a lil before she had to leave. I lent her a pull over and scarf coz it was a cold night =)

At Iylia's place, Ray and I watched The Family Man, a Nicholas Cage show about "what ifs"...alternative paths in life if we'd made a different decision--How'd life have panned out if I hadn't left? Iylia was inking his comic book at the dining table.
Ray took sickening videos of me ranting bitterly and proclaiming my big career ambitions. haha. And IYLIA! there is a very INCRIMINATING video of you!!! hahaha.

Anyway, I rested on the couch post-movie while the boys played FIFA on Playstation of psych up for the Champs League match...haha!

3 guys huddled on a couch for Champs League Final. Except...the prettiest one on the left slept thru halftime, the 2nd half, and penalty kickoffs. Only woke up for the highlights of the Giro d'Italia cycling tour after. hahaha!

But i knew what was going on in the match coz i was constantly disturbed by Iylia the nutcase who was shouting, cheering, bouncing on the couch, jumping, bowing to the TV...anyway, congrats Iylia, YOUR team won =)

Ray and I left for our 60km ride in the biting cold at 9am. Met Wilson along the way too. My legs were spent from 1000s last night, and I was sleepy too. The first 30km to Mordi felt soooo super long! like forever and it's only halfway?!?!

Great shot of me and Ray at Mordi =) I was wearing 3 layers of long-sleeved tops, leg warmers, had a headband on as well. While the brave and tough Ray was in short sleeve?! Hats off to you man!

Ray and I. We had some competition up a short hill coz someone said he wanted to leave me behind, so i say--YEAH YOU TRY!!!

haha it was awesome, but i was soo tired after that! Came home and slept man! haha.

At Bible Study just now we had Pumpkin soup with bread, crackers and dips cooked by Kylie. We watched a sermon recording titled "indescribable". Awesome =)

also had an absolutely hilarious chat with iylia and ray online. man, i love u guys. heh heh heh. I'm loving life, and looking forward to my HOT DATE WITH DAVE TOMORROW!!! Wheee...hahaha.

AN INSANE WEEKEND

2008-05-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

Cross Country Intervals

Ray swung by to pick me up for training at Bellbird Park at 8.25 this morn. the first thing he did when i hopped into the car was whip out the camera to snap a photo of my newly painted gold fingernails. I spent a darn long time last night painting it! haha.

We picked iylia and Kaighin n got to training venue. We did 6x600m cross country reps. Very hilly, very painful. haha. but it felt great, and i ran well. Post training, D1 had a very disturbing message left on his car. It went sth like this: "I'm not sure if you're into this, but give me a call at 12345678". It was written by this GUY sitting in a blue car sussing Dave out pre-training. *Shivers* haha.

GIANT PANCAKES

We went to Queen Vic market where we waited for Wilson and had delicious GIANT pancakes!!!

Jamaican Banana (banana, peacans, cinnamon sugar, ice cream and syrup)

Iylia being idiotic when i wanted to take a nice photo

My turn to be idiotic when he wanted to take a nice photo.

Lemon and Sugar (with vanilla ice cream). This pancake was very large and thick!

Berry Bliss (raspberry, blueberry, syrup, ice cream)

Me posing with Wilson's Cervelo P2C.

After laughing and chatting for sometime, we went back and I had to take a nap and get ready for the MUAC Dinner!

MUAC Formal Dinner

Iylia came to my place to meet me to go to the dinner, and we were fashionably late. haha. i was feeling fairly self-conscious coz i've never put so much make up n dress up n all.

Dinner was great: bread roll, calamari with salad, beef steak, flourless choc cake with cream. I had coffee, champagne and red wine as well.

me and iylia pre-dinner

me and Jasmine looking pretty =)

Liam and me (I look like Val!)

d2 and d1...with one of his many fabulous expressions.

me, Jas and Kate =)

d2 and d1 looking serious and intellectual..

team s'pore looking glamorous!

me, Ray and Kaighin. Sorry I'm dominating the picture! haha

Beautiful women

Al and her bf, Alan...so sweet...

me and Ray =) nice suit, Ray.

me and Dave P...awww....
I absolutely love this shot of Iylia and me! great toothpaste-ad-worthy smiles =)

me and Al looking girly n sweet.

Dave (YEAH love that expression!), Fred, Alex and me.

This is a great shot of Al, me and Iylia (HAHA).

Dave, Tim and Al.

me and COOOL FRED!

Alcoholics! haha. there's a thorn amongst the roses...

me and Kate =)

Me and the 2 Daves...

OH YEAH!! Awesome shot!

Iylia spoiling the photo...

Team s'pore not so glam already but having lots of fun..hahaha!

Post dinner we took a tram down to a bar on Swanston. It was awesome, so fun! I had an absolutely smashing time...felt so happy...most of the night! haha. what a nice time =) thanks to Ray for taking some very funny videos, Iylia and Dave for being my escorts! haha! and all the people who were laughing amused at me...

The Hangover

Sunday morning I woke up with a headache but thanks to my trusty all-encompassing-emergency-and-non-emergency service, Ray, who called and offered to buy me breakfast. Thanks a million, Ray! A short while later he rocked up with 3 muffins and orange juice, which i happily but slowly finished off.

Checked out the videos from last night -- they were hilarious! And I look uncannily like Val...i think! hahaha.

And then the extremely helpful (and sweet) Ray started tidying and cleaning up my room for me. Hanging up my scarf and coat, arranging my shoes, washing my plates and glasses, clearing up my breakfast and wiping the kitchen. Thanks man, you're the best =)

of suppers and laughters

2008-05-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

It has been a pretty fabulous week so far. Let's see...

Monday night after training I watched a good movie at Nova called The Edge of Heaven. Turkish-German movie shot in Pulp Fiction style. Munched on a bag of Pita chips and Doritos and brain juice with fellow greedy-glutton, Ray.

Oh oh, I got back 2 assignments. H1 for my Language and Media assignment! "Outstanding" in all marking criteria areas and the comments: "WOW! One of the top papers! You certainly went beyond the assignment and demonstrated sophisticated critical thinking. Impressive!"

A very good H2A for my philosophical Sports, Entertainment and the Media essay. surprising...

Tuesday evening I met Man Kuan, my RJC classmate who's studying in Queen's University in Canada and down here for a holiday. I met him in the city--yes, I can still recognise you despite the extra 20kg...haha jk. We boarded what we thought was tram 16 and sat there chatting happily for 30min and then i realised that the surroundings didn't look familiar. Phoned my 24hr tram guide, Ray, and yes, we were not headed in the right direction. MK and I hopped off the tram to find that we boarded tram 7 instead of 16 and we now stranded in Glen Iris. Very funny, how the hell did we manage to be so cock eye!? Had no choice but to cab down to St Kilda.

I had a club sandwich at Greasy Joe's and MK had a steak. The food was good and surprisingly not that greasy...haha. We then went over to Monarch cake shop where we bought a slice of the choc German dessert and AN ENTIRE 100 YEAR OLD RECIPE CHEESECAKE. We ate the choc slice while walking along a small jetty on the beach. Very nice but very cold also.

Got back to my place and we shared a quarter of the cheesecake. Then MK cut me almost half of the remaining 3/4 to keep! In order not to end up greedily devouring the entire thing myself -- which i am definately capable of -- I phoned my emergency-weight-control service, Ray, to finish the cake off for me immediately.

A laughter-filled cake polishing session went from one hour to two then in a flash, it'd been 5 hours. Time flies when you're in good company with a good conversation.

Wednesday I had a fantastic run session--4x1200m, in which i surprised myself with my times. It's probably coz i've hardly been swimming so i'm less tired at the run sessions. Actually, it could be the fuel from the cheesecake, or the reminder that i'd to burn off that calories. haha.

After training, Ray and I visited Iylia who was ill. We passed him some recent race photos and gave him some cheesecake too =) I love Iylia's room, it's so cozy with a loft bed! We were huddled on the sofa looking at past photos...and I was snacking on some gummies and then got a sugar high again. It was hilarious! I was talk and laughing excitedly and the spoiler Iylia kept asking me to keep quiet as Jeff was studying in the next room.

Then, i had an intense laughing fit -- a common occurance of late -- while moulding Iylia's soft kneadable sketching eraser into a gross odd shape. Iylia and Ray were just standing there amused watching me laugh at nothing. I laughed until my abs hurt so much! haha hilarious. When I finally could stop laughing, I went home with a stack of Iylia's must-watch DVDs.

Thursday was a good day too. I woke up with hamstring muscleaches but still did my bike workout anyway. Met Yuhui and Dawn for sushi dinner at Seasalt. We sat next to a French family with extremely adorable young boys. haha. Bought some snacks to Bible Study, which was great. While walking home, Emma saw an abandoned Safeway trolley on the pavement and very kindly pushed it all the way back to Safeway at Lygon Court. I helped. haha!

When I got home, Wilson called to say he was very near my place and asked if he could visit me. Of coz, I don't mind nice company =) He came over with his friend, Sofian. Someone actually envies my little hole in the wall of a room! haha. Sofian is envious that my room is much bigger and cheaper than his in Degree1. We chatted about S'pore, JC, mutual friends, cycling, running etc. Fun times =)

Thurs/Friday: fellow-midnight-hunger-pangs-sufferer and concerned-caring Ray swung by to pick me up to St Kilda, where we strolled on the jetty. I love the sea, it's so vast, calm and serene. I love the sound of the gentle crashing waves. I love the smell of the sea breeze. but i didn't really like the cold winds.

We warmed up with some hot latte and apple pie which we ate on the beachside veranda of a restaurant (closed at that hour). In an attempt to undo the damage of the apple pie, we took a long walk along the coast. I love the coast. Then we walked on the sand. There was this large machine cleaning and smoothing out the sand, kinda like ice-surfacing in ice-skating rinks. We walked in the flattened paths created by the machine, examined our footprints, hopped around to create dents, i even wrote my name in the sand with my footprints. And then i stomped into tall ridges of sand in my suede boots, we touched the sea water, jumped into a large crater in the sand, walked backwards, walked fast backwards, then sat on a short wall to rest.

Ray was telling me about sea navigation. Red blinking lights indicate port (Left) side and green blinking lights were the Starboard (Right) side of ships. And about audio and visual morse codes and astro-navigation. Interesting. Then as dawn drew nearer, we started seeing more and more people, all joggers, passing by. It's so awesome to stay by the beach. We walked back as the sky got lighter and Ray dropped me off home =)

In the late morning, I got a couple of wake-up messages on my hp which I responded to then fell back asleep. I only woke up a little later to see more messages to go downstairs but alas, I overslept them and read the last message to open the door and not step on my present. I jumped outta bed and opened the door to find a brown paper bag outside.

Oooo while I was asleep I had a Thresherman's muffins-delivery service from Ray! Awwww...so sweet!!! My favourite blueberry and raspberry muffins for breakfast-in-bed. Unfortch, the delivery man had left to go home...n catch some sleep I hope! haha. What a nice start to a gloomy day. haha.

THANKS RAY!!! :)

Look forward to my next post on some cross country interval running at Bellbird Park tomorrow morning, hopefully gigantic pancakes for breakfast and then a smashin' good time at the MUAC formal dinner in the evening! Exciting!!! =)

Warragul XC & Puffing Billy Races!!

2008-05-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

Warragul 6km XC Race--Saturday 3 May 2008

It was a pretty gloomy day and we met at uni at 11am to car pool down to Warragul, approximately 2hr drive. I was with the "Team S'pore contingent" as D1 calls it...haha which is Iylia, Ray and I =)

Iylia drove while Ray navigated. We stopped by Pakenham coz i needed to pee badly. haha. it was drizzling and cold. it was a v scenic drive...got to see farms and cows and sheep haha. we got to Lardner Park and set up base in an old shed which smelt like cattle.

Race start/finish area

The guys' race was 8km (2x 4km loop), at 2.10pm.

The boys doing run thrus. D1, camera friendly as usual..

The Formidable White Train!

The men at the starting line.

Kate, Camilla and me cheering the guys on.
Spot the Melb Uni runners in the white top with diagonal blue sash.

Almost 2km into the race, Liam on the R with Grant keeping up.

Not ones to miss a good photo opportunity, Tony and Matt Irons managed to look over and SMILE. Ray trying hard to pace Tony, which turned out to be a bad idea. haha.

D1 with Andy Selby close behind.

The guys ran superbly! Liam and Grant finished near the front, an exciting sprint finish between Dave Pariossien and Hamish...haha we were jogging around the course cheering the guys on and me snapping race photos for everyone. haha.

The girl's race, 6km, started at 2.50pm. it was a 2km loop followed by the 4km loop.

Renata, our new Swiss runner leading the women's race. Damn she's looks so cool and so pro!

Yup, that's me happily running across a muddy slippery patch. Not cool or pro at all.

Oh that's me again, trying to pace Al (ahead, out of the photo).

Alison Smith, women's XC captain

Sprint finish (to the toilet)!

I had a pretty good run except for the terrible terrible stomachache i had to endure during the race! Spent the half hour post-race in the toilet...haha. i ran the first 2km in 8.20, too fast i think, but i was feeling real good. haha. in the 4km loop we had to jump over a fence into a muddy loop with many ditches. I stepped into many of the ditches coz they were too wide for me to jump across.

Tony and the guys kept making fun of me, coz we were supposed to jump/climb over the wooden fence but i slipped horizontally in-between the bars instead, coz climbing over wld take too much effort for a shorty like me!

we had our usual post race picnic...scrumptious as usual. haha. D2 brought along an old table, how thoughtful.

Then the Team S'pore Contingent took some really nice photographs:

What a cute shot of me and Iylia. My mouth was stuffed with muffin!

What a nice shot of Ray and me. I was tip toeing.

Team S'pore

YEAH!!!

Ray, Iylia, Alison and me headed back to the city, with ME DRIVING! haha so fun, i like driving! Dropped Iylia off at Melb Central coz he was gonna buy movie tickets for Iron Man for Ray and me, then dropped Al off at uni. Then headed home to bathe and change for dinner.

We had Nandos for dinner and bought loads of snacks for the movie, which Iylia was CRAZY about..expected of a hardcore comic book fanatic. haha. Nice conclusion to a fun day =)

13.2km Puffing Billy Race--Sunday 4 May 2008

The race starts in Belgrave, in the v hilly Dandenong Ranges. We meet at Liam's studio in Smith Street to take a coach bus down. I ran this race last year in 64min 55 sec and was determined to beat that this year. At least this year's chilly but not raining.

Photos on the bus ride there:

Me and Wilson...nice =)

Iylia, me and Wilson at the Belgrave train station

Me so psyched up pre-race...
Iylia excited about his race tag, or is he just showing off his chest...

The race was good, i had a solid run and felt strong...it was HILLY! between 5-8kms was almost entirely uphill. haha. the last 2km was on terrain. it was a good run! I shaved almost 5min off my time from last year!! YEAH...1 hr 10s...fabulous. Could the secret be to be greedy and overeat desserts...? haha.

Trio shot: Ray, Iylia and me on the train tracks at the finish. cool.

Me and D2, Dave Ulbrick, who finished top 15! fantastic.

me and ray.

Iylia shooting his Magnum look...or is it Blue Steel? synchronised calf stretching with D2. haha. i was picking wild "magic" mushrooms from the soil and "de-gilling" them. GROSS GROSS GROSS. patterns nightmare!

couple shot--Ray and Iylia by the lake. sweeeet.

me and iylia by the lake. awwww.

Al and me =)

Ashlea and me.

We then took the bus back to the city. But we got caught in a jam so it took really long. In the meantime, we were entertaining ourselves by taking embarrassing shots. Here are a few of the LESS EMBARASSING ONES...

Iylia as poster boy for Powerade Energy. Caffine + sugar. which reminds me, after downing an entire bottle before the run, i got a Powerade HIGH and started laughing at every little unfunny thing. How cool is that? A natural high without drugs/alcohol! hahaha.

Wilson failing miserably in his attempt to look cool.

Ray showing off his superior balancing skills--a green apple nested on his head! amazing!

Hehe im not posting any embarrassing shots of me...right, so the 4 s'poreans decided to have lunch on smith street. What a spread!

Ahh...after walking around smith st after lunch i went home and knocked out!!! haha tiring weekend of racing, but so much fun =)

Eating, Shopping, Eating

2008-05-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 30 April 2008

I lost an earring during swimming in the morning damnit! But no matter, I will be shopping with Ray on Friday =)

Iylia was back from S'pore, so Ray, Iylia and me had dinner after a tough 4x1200m run session. I ran faster than I ever had man! Fabulous and surprising. haha.

anyway we drove to Raffles Place, a Singaporean food place for dinner. Iylia had seafood hor fun, Ray beef hor fun and me Drunken Chicken Claypot with rice. I think mine was meant as a sharing dish, but i finished it myself and totally overate! haha. i was so full and sick after that.

It's so much fun man, I laughed so much and so hard the whole time. Iylia and Ray are jokers haha.

Thursday 1 May 2008

It was a terrible day in terms of weather--cold and rainy...crap...anyway i was meeting Ray and Iylia after bible study for some delicious dessert at San Churros on Brunswick.

San Churros is damn good for chocolate lovers! haha I'd been craving choc lately so Ray suggested we had supper here. We went in and -faints- so much delicious chocolate!! haha.

Rich flourless chocolate cake...which we struggled to finish...

Iylia with his Hot Spanish Churros with chocolate ice cream, and Ray with his Hot Spanish Churros with White Chocolate...mine was with Dark Chocolate. Iylia already high even before the chocolate overdose we all suffered by the end.

Halfway thru we got CHOCOLATE HIGH! And we started laughing crazily..or maybe it was just me...haha i dunno, but everything was just so funny. then i got hit by the overdose and felt dizzy...haha but i polished off the little pots of white and milk chocolates.

But I worked off some of the calories in the form of a looong walk. i love long night/morning walks with good company =)

Friday 2 May 2008

Ray and I went to Bridge Road to shop today! It was super fun...besides the crappy weather: one moment it was bright and sunny, next moment overcast and gloomy, next moment sunny, next moment pouring, then sunny, then gloomy, then sunny, then raining...CRAP WEATHER. But it gave me a chance to wear my celebrity shades, new scarf, suede boots, winter overcoat and show off my shiny ruffled blouse all in one outing!

Anyway, we went into The Body Shop Clearance Shop, which sold everything damn cheap. We were playing with all the samples of body butter. haha. And then Ray decided to try on these bathing gloves...

Frog fingers on the R hand and pig fingers on the L. I laughed until I almost died, and tried to bite off the animal heads on his fingertips. HAHA!

It was a fruitful trip. I bought a tarnished gold bangle, 2 scarves for just $10 dollars! Dark pink and black ones. I also got Body Shop 2-in-1 lip gloss for $9.95 only! And I also tried on many winter caps and hats and shades. Ray says I'm a clothes horse...apparantly it means someone who can pull off many types of clothes...ahaha.

We then went to the city to complete the shopping. I bought matching tarnished gold vintage earrings, cheap mascara and lip gloss. Then we were so tired we needed to sit down...so we sat on the tram for 30min to St Kilda to eat DESSERTS!!! Oh man...I'm so prepared to get fat! haha. It was a cake heaven! We cake hopped from Monarch to Europa, 2 of the 4 shops with millions of cakes and knee-weakening-aromas...

We went into the famous Monarch cake shop and ordered the famous Chocolate Routsdkjfshbf dunno how to spell or pronounce. it was D E L I C I O U S!!!! haha.

There!

Which cake shall I have the next time?

Next stop: Europa cake shop for some cheesecake...mmmm...

Cheesecake with sultana pie....heavenly...drool...

Ray and I stood outside examining all the cakes and deciding what would be the next dessert we'd eat there...haha.

On the tram ride back I fell asleep...all that shopping and eating was exhausting! haha. then we watched some The Simpsons before heading to Thresho's for a filling dinner. Fueling for a weekend of racing. I love The Simpsons...Homer!!! D'oh! hahahaha.

It's a 6km cross country race at Warragul tomorrow arvo, and then a v hilly 13.2km Puffing Billy race at Belgrave on Sunday. I hope I can still run with this fatty belly.

Jells Park XC & DFO shopping!

2008-04-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

Jells Park 6km XC relay race--19 April

MUAC had a fantastic turnout at the first Athletics Victoria Winter Series race last weekend! It was a 6km XC relay. We drove up in several cars. It was a beautiful warm day.

Sitting around before the start of the race.

Other club's tents

Dave Paroissien and me.

one of our men's teams--Ray, Kieran, Matt and Simon (not in photo)

I was the first runner in a women's Division 3 team with Jas and Claire. I was feeling kinda tired but had a solid run and clocked 26.11, 2min 10s faster than last year!! Woohoo...haha.

Change-over Jas to Claire

Jas and me.

Our French sensation, Fred.

Our Winter Season manager, D1

Coach Tony Brain!

Overall the club ran exceedingly well! It was fantastic. Many of these photos were taken by me on Ray's cam.

Oh oh! Craig Mottram, the top long distance runner in Australia ran for Geelong. He actually competes in just an AV race?!! Amazing! He ran the 6km XC course in a "cruisy" 16.36!! WTH! Anyway, he looked young and handsome...haha. The crowd were super excited when people realised he was there! Whenever he was about to run past a section of the course, the entire crowd will swamp from their tents/picnics to line the course, try to run alongside him, snap some photos to brag that "i ran/raced with Craig Mottram!" haha.

Fabulous running.

Jas and I in this uber cool shot taken by Ray. That's Mottram running past in the background.

The scrumptious post-race picnic!

Me devouring a muffin.

Fred made this ham and cheese puff thingy which was delicious.

Tom and his famous bakings--it's brownies today!

Craig Mottran (left) being interviewed with his fellow Geelong club runner and Aust Olympic marathoner Lee Troop, post prize presentation. Geelong won. DUH.

Just as the sun was setting we drove back to the city. I was in Ray's car with Kieran, Sophie and Jas. Dropped the rest off at uni then had dinner and dessert with Ray in the city =)

DFO Shopping--25 April

It's ANZAC day - kinda like Aussie's national day. They have a parade where war veterans march along the yarra, and the traditional Essendon vs. Collingwood footy match. I watched neither. Instead, I went DFO Essendon with Ray to shop. haha. while snacking on gummy snakes. Yummy purple and pink snakes for me and yucky yellow and orange ones for Ray.

the highlight certainly had to be the 2XU shop!!! Loads of mega cool 2XU gear at less than half price!! I tried on half the shop. haha. wanted to get this 2XU bike tights and fleece jacket but alas...they were too big =(

highlight #2 was the shop which carried Abercrombie and Fitch!!! Awesome! I bought a light blue A&F hoodie. so cool and so cheap...

highlight #3 was this suede ankle boots we saw...i tried it on and it was really nice BUT...i'd spent too much money at 2XU i had to give the boots a miss. haha.

highlight #4 was the turquois tube dress I bought for the MUAC formal dinner. I was kinda deciding between a fuschia layered dress and this one, but i ended up with this one. It's kinda plain, so I've consulted my 2 fashion & beauty advisors, Val and Jie as to what accessories/make up to go with this dress...what'd i do without yous (plural for you).

My shopping! 2 sets of 2XU running tee and shorts, a white long sleeved 2XU running top, compression calf socks, polka dot flats, plain black long sleeved top, A&F hoodie, dress, black stockings and celebrity shades.

I LOVE this A&F hoodie!!

Haha Ray and I bummed around before heading to Lygon for some lasagna and apple pie! then the supermarket for more brain juice and yoghurt clusters--even more delicious than apricot yoghurt balls. haha. without which it wld be virtually impossible to support our high level of brain activity--watching thought-provoking films and engaging in mentally-stimulating-highly-intellectual conversations.

Speaking of thought provoking films, Iylia and Ray have been telling me about the many many awesome and classic movies I have to watch...and very relevant to my media studies as well.

Yesterday I watched Pulp Fiction on DVD. The story is told in sections not chronologically ordered. So it's pretty disjointed until the end, when the beginning is told and the pieces fit together. It was quite a disturbing and violent show...but great use of cinematographic effects and idiotic conversations. Somehow I felt the portrayal of women in the show was quite unfair. the 3 main female characters in the show had bad haircuts, and weird personalities and mannerisms. In contrast to the violent, powerful male characters with inflated egos.

The show was disturbing for its normalisation of violence, drug use and other social taboos. I recommend the show but sorry kids, it's M18+ in Aussie so possibly R21 in S'pore.

Next movie on my stack of DVDs Ray lent me is Fight Club. In one of my modules, Sports, Entertainment and the Media, we discuss about boxing and violence in sport extensively. And this morning Ray was just telling me about his Muay Thai spars. What's the lure of physical violence? To quote Esmeralda (talking to Butch, a boxer who just killed his opponent) in Pulp Fiction: "So what does it feel like to kill a man with your bare hands? It's a topic I'm very interested in."

MUAC Mt Buller training camp!

2008-04-20T00:18:00.000-07:00

Had a FANTASTIC weekend (11-13 April) in Mt Buller with the Melb Uni Athletics Club long dist folks. It was AWESOME!! AWESOME PAINFUL MOUNTAIN RUNNING!! haha.

Friday evening
Met the gang at Melb Uni track at 6.30pm and about 20 of us headed off in 4 cars. Iylia and me jumped into Ray's car. Iylia behind, me in front and Ray driving. We were snacking on gummy snakes and i was getting sugar rush. haha. it was so funny, we (or maybe just me) were talking and laughing like crazy!! haha. i think i totally scared Ray and Iylia with my incredible retardedness and maddness. haha. We stopped by Tallarook Hotel Pub for dinner with the rest of the gang. We shared some marinara pasta and fries, chatted and all before leaving.

Drove in very dark conditions but we managed to get there safe and sound thanks to Ray. haha. We stayed in a lodge in the Sawmill Settlement at the foot of Mt Buller. Alison won a weekend stay at the lodge in a race--so accommodation was free! haha. We got there and...the place was FABULOUS!!! it was a nice cozy self-contained cottage!!! Very nicely decorated with a fireplace, kitchen, and 5 bedrooms.

The living room

I love the decorations on the walls.

I chose a room and Iylia, Ray and I bunked together. Fortunately for us, we chose the BEST room! haha it was en suite--1 master bed (mine) and a bunk bed (iylia on top and ray below). haha.
Ray and Iylia (check out his retarded expression!)

It was quite late by the time we got there so we just sat ard the living room and chatted for abit before turning in. Everyone was tired.

Saturday 12 April 2008
We were up at 8am and lazed around, drank some juice.

The guys gathered around the pool table consulting a topographical map planning our run route.
We headed out for a run session--40min fartlek in the trails. It was possibly insane. Kinda like running in the XTERRA mtb trail. haha. Super rocky and dangerous. We even had to run on wooden planks across streams! It was so rocky and overgrown and hilly that my Achilles tendon was really tight and aching! There was a section where we did some 1min hill reps as part of the fartlek and it was just insane uphill, so tough!! Halfway through everyone was drenched in sweat, face red, gasping for breath! haha. but it was a good solid workout. We finished it off with some jogging and then exercises on the lodge balcony. haha.

A cool shot of our running shoes left on the balcony as we all headed indoors for some brekky.

Then it was a scrumptious breakfast of muesli with milk, apples and banana, and some of Tom's fruit cake which he baked that morning. It was DELICIOUS!!!

2 cute and fat birds sitting on the fence of our balcony.

After a nice hot shower we played Trivia Pursuit in 3 teams of abt 4ppl. haha. i hardly knew any of the answers!! I don't understand why ppl here like trivia. they have lots of these trivia nights and games here...where u answer tough questions from different categories--science & nature, art & literature, geography, history, entertainment, sports...anyway, it was a really interesting game! haha.

We then had lunch of vege burrito. haha. wraps with vege. Very healthy! haha, but delicious as well =)
Alex making his burrito.

Morton, Dave Ulbrick (aka D2), Jasmine and Kate eating at the dining table.

I then went to join some of the guys to kick a soccer ball around the back yard.
Dave Paroissien (aka D1) and Iylia showing off their soccer skills.

I also tried my hand - i mean leg - at Footbag. played like a chaptek but with a fivestone? haha. So it's a small round bag filled with beans and u kick it to each other. haha i was hopeless at it, so i went to take a short nap before our 40min "easy" run at 3.30pm.

We drove up a lil and ran in a trail...actually it was 20min constant moderate uphill on trail then 20min downhill...haha. my legs were so tired but i felt better after that. It was awesome scenery, reminded me of the Kinglake climb i did on the bike last year.

We got back and Al had prepared a plate of gummy snakes and M&Ms for us to refuel! how thoughtful =) I hid a handful of them in my windbreaker pocket and went for a stroll with Iylia and Ray in the surroundings...they were mainly holiday lodges, quite empty since it wasn't skiing season.

We had a lil BBQ of sausages--ate them with bread and salad. Then Tom (our assigned cook/baker) whipped up RISOTTO while I was sketching Iylia and Ray's faces in Iylia's sketch book. haha it was hilarious. But most ppl could guess who the faces were, but it was funny. Iylia's ears were totally out of shape. the R ear 3x the size of the L ear. haha but it was a good start..

Tom's risotto was fantastic...but alas, there wasn't enough for a second helping! haha. after that, Iylia and I went out for some star gazing. The milky way was visible as was the Belt or Orion (i think) and the Southern Cross. It was really nice. Then we went back and all of us gathered ard the TV for Zoolander while snacking on cookies and gummies. Hilarious! haha.

After the show we just sat around and chatted randomly as ppl slowly drifted off into their respective rooms to sleep. Iylia, Ray, Matt, Tom and I sat in the living room and chatted till past midnight, while i was training my balance and stability on Tom's rubber air cushion thingy.

After that the 3 of us headed back to our room and continued chatting about famous/classic movies--which made me realise i'm a dumbass! I've never watched soooooooo many of these movies which ppl always talk abt and make reference to. e.g. The Truman show, Back to the Future, Identity, Syriana, etc. haha...then iylia suddenly fell asleep. like suddenly. so ray and i chatted until past 2am!

Sunday 13 April 2008
I was awoken at 8.30am in the morning by a loud THUD. Iylia got up, sat up and smacked his forehead on the low ceiling beam. OUCH.

I got out of bed and it was cold! So i had some tea before we drove to the summit of Mt Buller for a long run. Iylia drove Ray's car up and down Buller. We were taking turns to drive. haha. the way back's my turn. HEHE. Mt Buller's really steep and high. It took us over 30min to get to the top.

A team photo of us energetic before we started our long run in a insane insane trail!

Ray turned his ankle numerous times on the rocky and muddy uneven ground. Simon tripped and fell and rolled on the rocks. OUCH. and i tripped heavily twice, but managed to regain my balance without falling. phew.

There were some impossible uphills man, just impossibly crazy i dont even know how to describe. i just wish i'd brought along my hp to snap some pictures of the view and the trail. insanely hilly and rocky. We ran about 100mins in all, and it was TOUGH. more than half of it were long long long rocky uphills sections. haha but it's fantastic strength training! haha.

A really good workout and we had loads of fun! haha. Made it back and we stretched, snacked and snapped photos before driving back to our lodge.

D2 (Dave Ulbrick) giving me a high 5 slap. Our hands were so cold the slap really hurt! Haha.

D1 and D2 (like B1 and B2 in Bananas in Pyjamas), the jokers of the team.

Iylia and me. Sharing the love in the form of Gatorade post-workout…

Ray and I.

Someone’s good idea to look unfriendly and unhappy.

Someone’s good idea to carry me, just because they could…

We had another healthy breakfast/lunch of salad and bread/wrap and fruits, before cleaning up, packing and snapping more team photos. haha.

It was not just the floors that needed some vacuuming…

D1 and me. Love those eyes…

The White Train!

Sadly, it was time to head home... =(

But GLADLY, Ray generously allowed me to drive back!! about 250km back to Melb. haha. i drove while he sat in front and iylia behind. haha. altho they joked about my dangerous driving, etc. but i drove safely and comfortably la. and i got us all back safely to melb. along the way we snacked on more gummies and chips. haha. funny. ahh, it's so fun.

Iylia and Ray are fantastic chaps man, thanks guys!

we drove to the city and parked at Iylia's place before walking to Nandos for dinner of chicken burger with egg and fries. haha terrible. then Iylia went home and Ray dropped me off home. AHHH...what a fun weekend!!! If only there were more weekends like this!

In 2 days, I’d possibly run more hills than my entire life combined…It was a great time to mix and bond with the MUAC team. Everyone got along great, and also helped out with the meals and washing up, so it felt really good =) Fun times...

XTERRA Global Tour - Australia

2008-04-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

The Sunday after the Sydney trip I ran in Victoria's largest fun run, the 14.2km Run For The Kids. Did it with Clem last year. The run takes you on a very scenic course up Bolte Bridge and the freeway and the city. It was awesome. I had a sore throat after the fun-filled hectic Sydney trip so I just ran moderately, finishing in roughly 66min 30s.

Had brunch with the Melb Uni Aths Club at The Observatory cafe after that...delicious muffins and chai...haha.

Anyway, on Saturday 5 April, I took part in my first ever off-road triathlon race!!! The XTERRA Global Tour, also the Australian XTERRA National Championships 2008. It was held at Daylesford and was a qualifying race for the XTERRA World Championships in Maui, Hawaii.

XTERRA is the world’s most popular adventure series and features Global Tour events in North America, South America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand and XTERRA World Championships in Hawaii each year.

The finish banner

I was so unprepared for the race! I didn't even know the start time, race course, etc. And I'd NEVER MOUNTAIN BIKED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! I was using a really old Giant mountain bike Wilson borrowed for me. I borrowed old mountain bike shoes from Jas and an Orca wetsuit from Maddy. On Tuesday and Thursday I had taken the bike out to Yarra Bend Park and ridden on the ROAD. I decided I needed a taste of the trails so i cycled about 500m on the gravel path next to the road. And then i told Clem that it was scary coz the bike skidded on the gravel.

During the race, i felt extremely stupid for thinking riding on gravel was scary or tough, coz that was gonna be the easiest bit of the race...

On Saturday, Wilson came by to pick me up at 9.30am, and we drove almost 2hrs to Daylesford. The weather wasn't looking good. It rained. We got there, registered, picked up my UBER COOL BLACK 2XU DRI-FIT TOP WHICH SAYS XTERRA GLOBAL TOUR-AUSTRALIA ON IT. But alas!! It was kinda big for me, DAMNIT!! Nothing fits here! S, XS, XXS are all too big still!! ARGHHHHHHHH.

Wilson's bike on top, my borrowed bike at bottom

Anyway, while setting up transition, Wilson kept trying to make me bring spare tubes and tools for the bike, and i casually turned him down saying if im so unlucky to get a flat, i'd just DNF. But little did i know, that there is no DNF in the race. It's either you cycle out or die and rot in the mountain n no one will find you. And I saw 2 or 3 ppl with flats along the way. I was extremely lucky the bike held out. The bike course was just INSANE!!! INSANE!!!

Wilson and I in transition pre-race--me still looking so happy, ignorant to what i was abt to get myself into

So the race format was as follows:

1km Swim – Lake Daylesford

30km Mountain Bike – The single loop course follows a scenic path south west along the famous Great Dividing Trail with hills and technical sections, double track, creek crossings, single track, waterfalls, dams, a disused railway line and spectacular Australian bushland.

11km Trail Run – The challenging course follows west Town Bridges and underneath the highway and follows the Great Dividing Trail on the south side of Sailors Creek with a creek crossing before returning back on the north side of the creek.

I looked around before the start and everyone looked really pro with all their pro mtb gear and stuff. I bet I was the only dumb noob around there. Some days ago, I told Sophie I was doing this race and she did not hesitate to tell me I was CRAZY and I'd DIE riding 30km mtb. Oh wells...

Got my wetsuit on, and prepared for the water start in Lake Daylesford. the water was FREEEEZZZING!! To think I din want to borrow a wetsuit initially coz i tot 1km only, just bear with the cold. But there were competitors in diving hoods even coz the water was a freezing 14degrees!!! It was maddness. the moment i started swimming, i knew this was much much much colder than my previous tri races in the sea. My entire face was numb and my hands and feet were painful--frost bitten. I couldn't breathe properly coz of the cold. I cldn't even feel water seeping into my mouth. haha. Anyway, the course was longer than 1km for sure.

In T1, my head was spinning coz of the cold and i struggled to get my wetsuit off. Then I slowly put on cycling gloves and socks and started the mtb. the first 1km was on road, then it was a sharp turn into the lonely trails...where you'd see 1 or 2 marshalls only once every 8km...20m into the trail we hit a really steep uphill and i had to come off n push coz i din change my gears in time. Another guy came off and pushed as well and i chatted with him and told him this is the first time im ever riding a mtb, and this hill was crazy.

Not long later, there was a sign which said "CAUTION DESCENT". I looked down, were we trying to cycle down a waterfall?!?! It was so friggin steep and bumpy--longs, branches, holes, rocks, stones everywhere. I got off my bike and half slid half inched my way down, clinging onto my mtb. I felt quite dumb coz ppl were flying down past me.

Anyway, the course was friggin crazy. It was so bumpy and so damn dangerous. And you hardly see a soul out there. The course was marked out with ribbons tied onto trees and arrows drawn on tree trunks. Some of the uphills were so steep I pedaled with all my might yet the bike was skidding backward, then the front wheel wld lift off contact with the ground and the bike'd tip backward. I reckon some of the uphills were so close to vertical it's impossible to ride up. On one uphill, I was kinda climbing on all fours trying to drag the bike up. haha.

But I must say, I was quite please with myself coz i rode up the crazy hills pretty well, and would overtake many ppl on the hills but of coz they'd zoom past me every descend coz i'd be going really slowly. Some parts are insane, if u lose ur balance or fall, goodbye to you, u'd fly off a cliff or break your collarbone on some rock.

The single track sections were bad...some areas I could not see the ground even, so its dangerous coz u're bumping and getting thrown all over the place. I almost fell many times, and it's a wonder i didn't fall coz i was certain i'd fall and break sth before the end of the 35km...at one point, I was so close to flying over the handlebars and cracking some ribs. Coz the bike hit a really large hole with a log at the end.

Some sections had to dismount and carry the bike over fallen trees. haha. I was gonna chide Wilson for not warning me. I watched mtb races in s'pore and assumed it'd be sth like that. But no, this is nothing like any trail in s'pore! Wilson, who has been mtb alot in s'pore and aust says this is definitely tougher than Bukit Timah hill. DUH!

Anyway the bike course was so long! it was 35km! The mtb shoes i borrowed din quite fit the pedals too well and it kept coming out while i was riding. Overall I was more tired from being scared than anything else. haha. but i was really having quite a fun time. I want to do mtbing, it makes u strong and have good handling.

Ok finally i finished the bike and went onto the 2 loop run course. 3km into the run, i twisted my ankle on a rocky descend. But i'd already endure swimming in a freezing lake and 2 over hours of mental torture on the mtb, surely i cannot DNF now!!! Even if i have to, i'm gonna crawl to the finish line. But anyway, i just continued running. The run was tough. There was a section we had to walk across a dried up river...all rocks, boulders and stones. then there were some really steep narrow and rocky paths...but it was scenic.

AH! Finally I finished the race like over 3.5hrs!! haha. it was funny. I wasnt pushing hard or anything, just wanted to complete it. My legs were quite tired from the many challenging and impossible uphills. Anyway, I walked outta the finish chute and a guy rushed up to me and said "you're my idol!!" i was like "HUH?!" he was the guy i was talking to on the first uphill when we both came off the push our bikes. haha. he said he couldn't believe i'd never mtb before and yet he couldnt even keep up with me. haha.

I do think it's an immense achievement to have completed the XTERRA, esp to have completed it without ever having ridden a mtb. but i think, this is not recommended. Some training and familiarization pre-race is definitely a must!

WAYYYY COOL! haha i came in 3rd in 3hrs 53min! what a shitty time! But apparently, I get powerbar hamper! Altho I haven't got it yet coz i din attend the prize presentation (you have to pay to attend) and i dunno if or how i'll get it. haha. I was just glad i completed it and did not come in last. Wasn't near last, and my mtb time wasn't amongst the slowest either. haha. unbelievable.

Chris Legh WON the race in 2.19!? How cool is that. yea you shd've figured out when he finished the race, i was still mtbing.

Anyway, I'd be hunting for a cheap 2nd hand mtb to go mtbing. It's like buying a ticket to break some bones. I think it's inevitable if u mtb here. But its so exciting coz I have a huge margin for improvement in XTERRA. haha. oh wells.

Anyway, it was loads of fun. And for more fun this weekend, i'd be going up to Mt Buller with the Melb Uni Athletics Club for a fun training camp. We're carpooling and driving up. Hope it's fun! Unfortunately it's not winter yet and no snow yet i think...so won't get to ski/snowboard.

But other than that, it's been busy with assignments. So back to work...

Sydney 27-29 March 2008 - Part 3

2008-04-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

A shepard dog rounding up three geese to make them run straight in a line, amongst the crowd. Sheng said he bet the geese don't even know they're dressed up so retardedly. haha. DUH!

Sheng in front of a hat shop "The good, the bad and the ugly". He said he had to take a photo with the shop as that's the name of his grandfather's favourite movie.

We then walked into the sheep shearing shed.
Oooh, there were piles of wool lying on tables and Sheng immediately rushed over to touch the wool...and got stopped by some of the officials. haha! The piles of wool were part if this week-long sheep shearing competition. They were due for inspection and grading for the prize presentation the next day. Anyway, the wool was very soft, but quite dirty.
On the stage were 2 guys shearing a sheep, in front of a camera man. Think they were filming some sort of documentary. anyway, it looked really scary for the sheep. At first, it's head was between the man's legs, so it can't see what's being done to its body. Then when the man started shearing it's wool, it began struggling and kicking and stomping its feet, that's why the second man had to come and anchor it steady. Maybe it was hurting, coz we saw some raw flesh/blood. After a while, the sheep (head no longer btw the guy's legs) just leaned its head against the guy's legs and slumped there looking sedated and retarded watching the guy shear its ass and legs. haha.
Some of the experts grading the wool. Think they assess the quality of the wool and how it's sheared? Dunno.
Milking Barn. haha. These cows have just given birth, and they are used for milking demostrations to kids. Their kids are in a small compound nearby.

We then walked out and saw a Cattle Yearling competition. It was really weird coz ppl were just sitting there quietly looking at cattle...which were just standing there quietly.

This is the Angus (Black cows) 3 years and under category. Their trainers/breeders are standing next to them with a long stick with a small metal hook at the end, which they use to scratch the cow's bellies. Apparantly that keeps the cattle docile.
They're judged on like how well its bred--bone structure, fur, colour, grooming, etc. Just like dog shows. haha. There were many different categories.

This is a demonstration of how milking is done in milk production farms. It was too squeezy we couldn't get in to watch.

We walked over to the NAB Arena and there was a horse breeding competition going on. Later in the day there was supposed to be an equestrian competition as well.
Sheng in front of the NAB Arena.

Vintage car exhibition. Nearby we also saw an antique machinery exhibition, where they had different really old motor parts (from like early 1900s).

We entered a tent which said "Save the Bilbys" Bilbys are uniquely Australian creatures which look like rabbits. But they're endangered because of the introduction of...can't remember what animal..which can eat numerous bilbys at one go...in the tent was also a cute sleeping koala!

The lazy koala! like that also can sleep...

Next we rushed over to the carnival rides section of the Easter Show. OOOHHH!! a theme park! haha the rides looked exhilarating man! haha.

After buying some shiny ride coupons, Sheng dashed straight to this octopus tentacle like ride which spins u in all directions--the 3 large arms spin round like a fan and also tilts in different directions. And the individual clusters spin forward, backward.
There it is. We went on and it feels really scary coz the seat is not really a seat, it's just a bum rest so you're kinda standing and ur legs are totally dangling straight off. It was mega scary!! I screamed the ENTIRE ride and I was so scared!! Especially when it spins forward. I keep thinking if this chest bar comes off, I'll just fall off and die. I was clinging on so tightly to it and screaming my head off. just as I was thinking "omg, i want to get off", it started spinning faster!! haha. Sheng was screaming for the fun of it. i swear my screams overshadowed and drowned out all other screams and shouts. haha.

Anyway after that i was quite shaken. Gawd, I've become a coward. I was really surprised at how scared I was! I was reminded of how when we were 10, we sat the Wipeout at Dream World in Gold Coast, and we weren't even scared at all! haha. The older I get, the more timid I get as well.

Next, we went to sit this free-falling thing. man, i was actually worried abt riding it. But i counted based on the round before ours, that the free falling was only for 5s. Only 5s of trauma--manageable.

We got on, it went up and i wasn't so scared yet, coz it'd stay up there for a while. Up there, the view was quite good and i was chatting with Sheng. But i was also v scared coz i knew anytime, it was gonna fall and i'd feel like dying! as the seconds ticked by i got more anxious. and suddenly, it dropped!! I screamed the whole 5s, but then it was over. Phew! I'm still alive. haha.

Later Sheng said during the first ride, he thought I was screaming for fun, but i wasn't! I was seriously quite freaked out. haha. Anyway, Sheng was looking temptingly at this horrendous ride, which was kinda like a longer higher version of the first octopus ride, tho it didn't really seem as scary coz the ppl weren't screaming much. But thank goodness it cost 15 dollars each, so we skipped it and opted for the "Spaceship" instead.

Spaceship is kinda like Gravatron. it spins around so fast that you stick to the wall. Sheng was very amused by it. During the ride, waa, it was crazy, we couldn't move our necks at all, and it was difficult to breathe. Also, I feel like my cheeks are sagging now, coz it pulled my cheek against the wall. haha.

After that, we went to eat a snack and watch some wood chopping competition. First competition was axe throwing finals. There were participants representing the different Australian states, and even overseas, from New Zealand, Canada and USA.

Axe throwing is crazy! You fling a heavy axe onto a large wooden bull's eye. There was a female in the competition, representing USA. We were surprised when they announced for "Nancy". when she walked out, we could understand why...she was twice the size of the guy in the photo above...haha. in the end, the event was almost swept by an entire family. Dad--4th, sons 1st and 3rd. haha.

Then it was the 450mm chainsaw competition. Who saws 3 slices the fastest wins.
2 participants compete at a time, sawing a long secured horizontally. cool man!

These events were really weird. They're kinda ancient and primitive.

Something like Chingay parade...there was music, floats, groups...

OOOh we were looking for gelato to cool down in the heat when we saw the Woolworths (Safeway supermarket) exhibition!

Food dome. We rushed in and ooo...they were giving out lots of free food samples! We took so much Uncle Toby's fat free yoghurt, chai latte, nudie fruit juice...haha. We also saw solid soaps made to look like cakes...Sheng was in love with them and said he wanted to eat them. haha.

And then we also saw an oyster exhibition, whereby they show the different stages of growing and harvesting oysters.

After that, we left and headed to the famous Sydney Fish Market!

Me on the jetty.

Sheng in front of the wholesale centre.

There were seafood eateries along the harbour. Beautiful except there were many seagulls hovering around the food!

Inside the wholesale centre were some stalls selling FRESH seafood. All types!

I bet Dad and Mum must be drooling now...there were HUGE FRESH LOBSTERS too...

Then we bought a seafood basket for 2...there!

Delicious...the prawns and octopus and fish were succulent...melt in your mouth! except too oily, too much fried stuff! haha. The Fish Market closed at around 5 so we walked to to city.

Prymont Bridge in the day

Me outside Queen Victoria Building. I love the architecture!
Queen Victoria statue.

We hopped into the supermarket and I managed to find Apricot Yoghurt Balls!! was searching high and low for them last year to bring home, but it could not be found in Melb! I'll be sure to bring some home the next time I'm back...in approximately 2.5 months!

Finally, we took a train to the airport.
Me and Sheng in the train. Time to go back to Melb. What a fun-filled activity packed 3 days in Sydney! Thanks Sheng for planning the trip and taking me around! It was really really fun! =) Sydney's so bustling and pretty and big...great for a holiday but i think i still prefer living in Melbourne...haha.

Sydney 27-29 March 2008 - Part 2

2008-03-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

The moment I opened my room door, I heard LOUD SNORING. I walked in and WTF*%^$#@*?&! There was a HUGE OBESE GROSS MESSY SMELLY WOMAN ON THE BED NEXT TO MINE!!! And the whole area was cluttered with her 3 enormous luggage bags and some other bags and books. She had long hair and it was super messy like it’d never been combed in weeks. And she took off her skirt and threw it at the side and I noticed it was kinda dirty, faded and gross. And I could see her fat ass and fats spilling out the sides of her underwear, while she was snoring like a, no, like a chorus of 10000 pigs! UGH!

I looked at my bed and WTF@#$%^& again! Where was my bed sheets, pillow and blanket?! F#$% the fat ass took it! And she put her shoebox on my bed! I was damn pissed I swiped the shoe box onto the floor with a loud bang, and her eyes fluttered a lil but continued snoring. YUCK! I went to get new beddings and then went to bathe.

When I got out, fabulous, she was awake and was sitting in the living room (with her long hair all standing up at the back super messy) chatting with some of the girls. But I think we all noticed very quickly that she was really weird and most certainly had mental problem.

Within 5mins, we heard that she
1) by 24 had 8 children

2) is 7months pregnant with twins (!!!?#@$ I don’t have to be a doctor to tell it can’t be true. one girl got a shock and said “now??! U are 7 mths pregnant now?!”)

3) she is remarried. Her first husband died during his job. She went trekking with her current husband and was surprised that she fell pregnant because she is “in her fourties. Early forties”

4) Her pregnancy is complicated because she has a tumour in her kidney. After she conceives, she will have her kidney removed. Now, she has her own self dialysis machine, and she knows how to operate it (apparently it’s in one of those luggage bags)

5) She is 43 years old and is backpacking (or are u just homeless?!)

6) She is a nurse. Started as a trainee and is now a manager.

7) She is working graveyard shifts to earn more money so she might not be back tonight, depending on whether they call her.

8) She was a survivor of the Bali bombings. She won the ticket in a company raffle draw and was there with her children. She lost 2 daughters aged 15 and 18 (she says this emotionless).

9) She was born of multiple births and no longer resembles her sisters because she was disfigured in the bombings.

10) Her entire face, cheek, chin has been reconstructed with steel because the building collapsed and crushed her head. She used to have high beautiful cheekbones and now no longer look like what she used to. (note: there is not a single scar on her face or collarbone area)

11) Her collarbone is made of steel and she has titanium stuff in her hips.

12) She actually booked a double room upstairs with her husband, but someone else booked it by offering to pay more, therefore she has to stay here. Also, because she has so many kids she has no money to stay in hotels.

13) Her husband was going to join her here but he has gone fruit picking to make up a sum of money.

14) She is from Melbourne, Sandringham.

15) She has gone to many countries including the US, middle East, etc.

16) She is now visiting her homeland. Her ancestors built this land. This building was built by her mother. Not the businesses in it, but the building.

17) One of the girls asked her when she was leaving and she said: I’m here on a job. In this area. I’m a nurse. When I finish I’ll leave. The girl asked: so when are u leaving? She got angry and said: Why do u want to know when I’m leaving? Why does it matter? The girl said: I’m just asking this because everyone asks this question here. I’m not trying to offend you, it’s just a normal question.

18) The Sydney area council has mixed her up with another woman (let’s call her Z). In the entry form to Sydney everyone is required to fill out their details together with medical history and they mixed her up with Z. (She kept repeating “I’m not this woman they are looking for.”)

19) She said if any healthcare worker knocks on the door, don’t let them in because they are looking for Z, who is not her. Z is younger than her, 39 years old, name has a Smith as well, but is spelt with a “y” not “I”. Z is diabetic and the healthcare workers give Z insulin jabs, whether she consents or not because Z is mentally handicapped and cannot decide what is good for her. But She is not diabetic but has low-blood sugar so she’ll die if they give her insulin jabs.

20) Also, she is from Melbourne and these Sydney medical practitioners have no authority over her health. They think she fits the profile of Z because somehow they think she is “slow”, but she is not.

21) She then proceeds to tell the girl she’s talking to: what do you study? You’re very smart. I’ve spoken to many people and they just don’t get it, they’re quite stupid, but you’re very smart (the girl didn’t say more than “I know what’s diabetes” and “why don’t you phone the immigration and tell them they’re looking for the wrong person”)

She especially repeated the parts about mixing her up with Z. Actually she repeated a lot of things over and over again. she did say other things as well, but the girls tried escaping the conversation the moment she paused. Haha. I was sitting in a corner (very tired actually) listening. Then I decided this woman is a freak, I have to get out of her and not come back. So I msged Sheng and asked if he wanted to meet me after his Bible Study.

Anyway, I abandoned my nap and headed to wander around the Chinatown. It’s really big! And looks a lot like HK. Haha. I just had fried rice and then walked around. I was so sleepy but didn’t want to go back to the backpackers. So I walked along George Street for 3 hours! Haha but it was nice. Sydney’s nightlife is really vibrant. There were many clubs, pubs and posh bars. People were dressed up, in groups, flocking to the bars. I really liked some of the buildings in Sydney, very Victorian. Haha.

Finally, I took a bus to meet Sheng and we sat at a café and chatted. Sheng’s really kind, genuine and sincere, very nice. After that we took a bus back to my backpackers.

The moment I stepped into the room, the girls who were sitting in the living room watching TV asked if I’d met the woman (the woman had gone “to work”). The girls were nice. They told me all their freaky stories and said I could sleep in their room (one of the small rooms in this bigger room) if I wanted to, and told me to change beds, which I did. I was really worried, Clem suggested I move out and book another place, and I seriously considered that. Also coz most of the girls were going out to party. They asked me to join them, but I was just too tired. I didn’t want to be in there alone lest the woman comes back!

Anyway, they said that the said the room smelt funny so she examined the trash bag and said there was tuna in it and dragged the bag outta the room. And she also burnt a stick of incense on the TV, which the girls had to dig out frantically coz I burnt a large hole in the top of the TV. They said that her versions of the story were inconsistent.

I shifted my stuff to the top deck of a bed a lil further and tried to sleep. But I was really scared that the mad woman would come back. In the middle of the night, I heard several loud knocks. I was so scared I didn’t dare to move. I thinks so was the girl who was sleeping on my bottom bunk.

At about 3am, 2 of the girls came screaming dashing into the room. They slammed they door and barricaded it with the sofa bcoz “with her size she can and might break down the door to get in”. They said that they saw the mad woman upstairs in the lounge/reception area. Apparantly the woman lost her keys, so she stormed up there and shouted at 3 guys who were sitting there (the guys live in the backpackers and were just hanging out near the reception area). The mad woman shouted “I need to key to room 3! Give me the key! I lost my key! That’s my key! (pointing to one of the guy’s keys) My key’s green! Give it to me!”

So the girls didn’t want her to recognise them so they dashed out and back into the room. It was quite funny. We were just chatting about the mad woman and we’d all jump at every little sound. Haha. The girls said they complained about her to the backpackers, but the backpackers didn’t believe she was mad and said at most they’d just not extend her stay (her stay was for a night or 2 I think). 2 of the girls were waiting for Rachel to come back. Rachel is a dancer and usually goes back at around 4am. They were afraid Rachel couldn’t come in coz of the sofa, and they were also afraid she’d let the mad woman in coz she doesn’t know about her.

I finally got to sleep at 4 plus am. But at about 7.40am I was awoken by loud snoring! OMG!!! It’s her! How the hell did she get in! anyway, I hurry packed up my stuff and checked out. WTH, I slept so terribly thanks to her. I was so scared the entire time, scared that she might barge in!

Spot the mad woman

Saturday in Sydney

I walked to UNSW to meet Sheng. He msged me and told me he’d packed breakfast of toast for me, from his dining hall! Thanks Sheng! That was really thoughtful =) Sheng had the whole day planned—where to get Easter Show tickets, how to get to the venue, what to see and do at the Easter Show, when and how to get the Sydney Fish Market after that. Very organised!

Sheng said the Easter Show is a huge week-long carnival at the Sydney Olympic Park. It was very popular so we should check it out. We took a bus to Circular Quay train station then took a train to Olympic Park.

The trains in Sydney are really spacious and comfy. They’re double storey and all the rows of 3 seats can be pushed or pulled to face different directions. So if say you’re with 3-5 friends and wanna sit together to chit chat, you can push the backrest of the row of seats such that the 2 rows are facing together.

The train platform at Olympic Park station

Sydney Olympic Park is bigger than Melb’s I think. We got there and it was a HUGE MEGA carnival with funfare stalls and games, soveniour stalls, exhibitions, competitions, performances, rollercoaster rides, etc. Insane!! Haha!

Me at the carnival entrance

"Showbag" stores. These stores sell goody bags filled with a certain theme of toys, candy and goodies. So they may be Cadbury goody bag, Kitkat goody bag, The Simpsons goody bag, Superman goody bag etc. Kids were carrying loads of them man! and they're not free!

Sheng and I, me wishing I had a The simpsons goody bag....haha.

Yes, I'm a kid, I'm walking towards Kids World. haha. on the left is a game whereby you shoot water into elmo's mouth. the more water you shoot in his mouth, the higher it will rise and u'll win various stuff toys. The girl who was promoting the game sounded quite sian, and she was repeating the same sentences over and over again. might as well get a tape recorder.

Funfare games like fishing out bags, throwing rings onto bottle necks, shooting hoops, bursting balloons could win you...a metre long Homer Simpson stuffed toy!! So cute! I wanted one! but then i decided its probably not worth the effort and money. And also I wldn't wanna hug Homer Simpson in bed. He's one fat screwed up bugger (but very funny). haha. I saw a Bart Simpson one, even cuter. Damn, not i feel like watching The Simpsons now!! But it's almost midnight already...and i haven't bathed after training...haha. Clem burnt me Season 10 before I left, for me to watch here in Melb when I'm bored. Thanks dear =)

Then walking along in the carnival we saw a damn retarded thing...

to be continued...

Sydney 27-29 March 2008 - Part 1

2008-03-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

Pre Sydney

It was my week long Easter break this week, and I HAD no plans…until Val suggested I fly down to Sydney to visit Sheng. Great idea, thanks Val! Haha. Oh, a lil digression: at the supermarket on Monday night, I bumped into a couple of ex-RJC guys. I walking down the rows with Ray (S’porean friend who just joined the Athletics Club) when 2 guys stopped me and said “Were you from RJC?” haha yup they were from my batch, chatted with them a lil and realised they’re Sheng’s course-mates in UNSW! And a few moments later, a tall Eurasian guy jumped in front of me and shouted “HELLO!” I was a lil stunned haha. He was my batch mate from RJC too, I think he thought I was Val. Anyway, he went on to tell me who else from our batch are here in Melbourne but as usual, I dunno who anyone is!

So late on Monday night, I chatted with Sheng about the Sydney trip and he was enthusiastic about it and so I booked the JetStar flight and my accommodation—Surfside Backpackers on Coogee Beach. The trip was from Thursday morning to Saturday night.

Fast forward to Wednesday evening. I went for raining in the freezing rain—tough session, but had a nice dinner with Iylia and Ray afterward. Ray kindly offered to drive me to Southern Cross Station for my bus ride to Avalon Airport at 7.30am on Thursday morning.

On Thursday morning, I was late to meet Ray coz I was so sleepy, and my watch was 5min slow! Anyway, it was pouring and shitty. Got to the bus station and…I missed the ONLY bus to Avalon airport. I had to take a cab down which costed me a BOMB!!! Argh!

Thursday in Sydney

Reached Sydney at 11am and Sheng kindly came to pick me up. He briefed me on our itinerary for the day, which he’d carefully planned.

We took a cab to UNSW where he took me on a campus tour! Haha. UNSW is bigger than Melb Uni, and the architecture is generally more modern. The main entrance was really grand and beautiful. The school was nicely decorated with carefully pruned lawns and gardens, sculptures, etc.

The Quadrangle

Then we walked to Coogee Beach and I saw my PATHETIC backpackers…It was not like the ones I’ve stayed at. It’s in a small building along the road, opposite the beach. Ground Floor was Macdonalds, a pub on Level 1, and the backpackers on Levels 2 and 3. The view was awesome but the rooms were not.
View from the balcony.

I booked a bed in the all female dorm, Dorm 3. Dorm 3 was a large room with a living room and a toilet, 3 double decker beds and 2 smaller rooms with 3 double decker beds each. I was sleeping on one of the beds in the living room. The room smelt funky and was cluttered, messy, old and dirty. The toilet was dirty and v dark. Ugh, I though I could survive just 2 nights there…and I barely did. Haha.

After dropping off my bag, Sheng n I had a pizza picnic on the beach.

It was great sunny, warm weather! A great escape from Melb’s wet and cold weather this past week! Ahh…the life.

We took a stroll up a cliff, Dunningham Park on Coogee Beach.

View of Coogee Beach from the cliff.

Anyway, Sheng had to get his camera to snap photo for me (coz I don’t have one) or (in his words) “I feel like you will be missing out a lot”. Haha that was true. So we went to pick up his camera from his college—v nice n cosy, with a little backyard garden, warm dining hall…v nice. We met his friend, Zhang Qi and took a bus to the city.

Sydney is so unlike Melbourne. There’re no trams, it’s buses just like Singapore. The road system is similar to S’pore, there were hardly any bicycle lanes and no silly hook turns.

The city was HUGE! Very densely packed, very crowded, fast paced. It reminded me a lot of Hong Kong, and some areas were similar to S’pore. The buildings were an eclatic mix of grand Victorian architecture and modern office towers. Some streets had bright neon displays and advertisements, and near Circular Quay there was a peculiar monorail track overhead (for sightseeing).

We alighted at Circular Quay and walked towards the famed Sydney Opera House. The quay area looked a lil like Raffles Place, but busier and more posh. We could see Sydney Harbour Bridge on the left and the Opera House on the right. Very beautiful.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney Opera House

Zhang Qi and I, at Circular Quay.

Actually, Sydney Opera House looks better from far. Close up, we realised the arcs are actually slightly off-white tiles. And under the arcs were dull brown glass. It’s quite small, and most of the theatres/facilities are “underground”, under this huge stone steps. So the arcs are just the roof. Sheng insisted we had to touch the bricks, steps, all parts of the Opera House. Haha. But the view was panoramic. We could see across to North Sydney, look back at the city skyscape, and the Royal Botanic Gardens.

We took a walk in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Some cute ducklings in the pond. Reminds me of how when we were young, we used to feed swans at the botanic gardens in S'pore some Sunday mornings before church.

Map reading Sheng guided us through the city
Check out the crazy expression on Sheng's face!

across the Pyrmont Bridge to Darling Harbour
Zhang Qi and I on Prymont Bridge, outside the Darling Habour Monorail Station.

Darling Harbour is a more bustling and bigger version of Clark Quay. There were many cafes, pubs and restaurants there.

Sheng and ZQ on Darling Harbour.

We checked out Lindt Café, the famous Swiss chocolate brand.

They had chocolates, macaroons and mouth watering cakes at $9 a slice (minimum).

But it was too pricy, so we settled for an early dinner in a pub. I had a steak and cheese burger, YUM. We then went for some gelato to cool down in the heat.

We strolled around the area then took a bus down to The Rocks near Circular Quay and had famous Pancakes On The Rocks, a pancake restaurant.

Devil's Delight (chocolate pancake with fudge, choc ice cream and strawberries)

Blueberry Heavan…truly heavenly…haha. They were devoured in 10minutes.

After that, Sheng sent me back. It was really fun chatting with Sheng and ZQ. Funny and nice chaps. Back at the backpackers, I took a bath in the dim bathroom and tried to fall asleep. The group of European girls were chatting loudly in one of the rooms and then in the living room. I overheard their conversations and I can only say: They have screwed up values.

Friday in Sydney

I was awoken at 7.45am and went for a 70min long run along the coast. I’d planned to run to Marouba Beach, which I did. It was a great cool run.
View along the coast

Some rich person's private pool with an awesome view, on a cliff edge (The mansion is blocked by the bush).
Marouba Beach. It was deserted. Perhaps it was early. in my opinion it wasn't spectacular, but this photo makes it look worse than it really is. haha.

This is Mahon Pool. They're natural pools modified by man to become kinda like a sea water swimming pool by the sea, sea water can rush in and out.

Another seaside bath near Coogee Beach.

View from my run along the coast.

Then I took a bus down to Bondi Beach for some surfing!!!

I booked a 1.5hr private surfing lesson with Bondi Beach Surf School.
Luke, my instructor, and I in Bondi Beach Surf School.

It was fantastic, I’m a natural! Haha. My instructor, Luke let me progress super fast and by the end of the lesson, I’d completed what most other people do in 15 lessons! He couldn’t believe I’d never surfed before, but said my athletic background, ability to swim, good sense of balance, flexibility and intelligence helped. Haha I sound so thick-skinned saying that, but it’s true.

It was high tide and windly so the sea was choppy and waves rather strong. He said we’d practice lifting my torso up on the surfboard for 15min, but after 1 practice, he said I can go straight to attempting standing up on the 9ft hard foam board. On my first attempt, I already managed to stand up and surf all the way to the beach. Impressive eh?

Haha. After a couple more surfs, he said he’d do sth he’s never done before, that is to “upgrade” me to a 7.6ft board. Beginner students usually go from 9, 8.6, 8, 7.6ft. He said it’d feel really different and I might not be able to stand up, but we’ll see how. I stood up on the 2nd attempt.

It was fantastic, I surfed a couple more times, all the way to the beach. The most difficult/tiring bit is fighting with the waves to get out deep enough to start surfing. He taught me how to choose where to surf by looking at how the waves crash. The sea slopes down, then there is a sandbar about 70m out, where its shallow. But, due to my height, I had trouble getting the surfboard out to the sand bar, while most other people would be able to walk there, coz I couldn’t reach the ground. Also, the surfboard is big and difficult to drag out coz of the big crashing waves, which throw you around and washes you towards the beach.

But I told him I wanted to paddle out instead of him helping to pull me out, otherwise next time I can’t get out to catch waves on my own. Yup, it’s tiring coz have to paddle hard, and when waves come, you have to push down the end of the surfboard to get on top of the wave, then quickly paddle the moment it sweeps under to prevent getting swept back to shore. But the waves throw you around so gotta try to stay on the board and paddle straight.

Once, while I was paddling out, we saw 1 large wave catching up with another (so 2 waves crashing together). I was lying face down on the board paddling out, so he got behind the board, held the end of it near my feet and pressed his weight on it so that the front of the surfboard could tilt up high for the wave to pass under. But no, it was enormous! The waves crashed on us and we both flew off the surfboard.

Yup, then he taught me how to turn while surfing, and I successfully tried backward and forward turns. It was so fun! But after the lesson, my left thumb was swollen and my right elbow hurting, from struggling with the surfboard (getting out to sea). It was quite funny coz the waves are strong and they flap the board around and throw you all over the place.

After the very fun surfing, I took a bus to Bondi Junction and did some shopping. It’s a really nice place with street mall and big shopping malls. Then I was tired so I took a bus back to the backpackers intending to sleep. BUT…

to be continued...

Lessons Learnt

2008-03-14T23:48:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a long time since I last blogged! I seriously neglect my blog everytime i return home to S'pore. A quick overview of my 3.5mths in S'pore from 22 Nov-8 March:

1) Came in 4th at the SEAG--very pleased with my effort, placing and time!
2) Did a 2.5 mth internship with Fleishman-Hillard Singapore, which was a great learning experience. Very fun and nice colleagues too =)
3) Trained running with Bern, Rong, Dad and Bae on Sunday evenings--great improvements there.
4) Met up with some friends altho i spent most of my time working/sleeping
5) Got my DRIVER'S LICENSE! woohoo...
6) Spent some quality time with Clement.

So what's up this first week back in Melb:

1) Sweltering in 38deg heat
2) Submitted my exchange application to UPenn. I should know if I get accepted by next month.
3) I changed training schedule/clubs. I'm still running with Tony (MUAC), but I've joined Fluid Movements (training provider for Melbourne Triathlon Club) for swim and bike trainings.

During run trainings on Mon and Wed, I could totally feel the effects of my off-season! My legs were stiff and tense. But it got better. It's time to shake off these cobwebs! haha. WEd evening after training we all headed down to The Clyde for dinner/drinks. I had a T-bone steak and orange juice. Yum. It was great catching up with these guys, it was really fun. There were many new faces as well, those who just joined us this sem.

On Thurs morn, I left home at 5.50am to cycle down to Kew Blvd (Yarra Bend Park) for bike training. It was PITCH BLACK in the 13km loop. No lights, street lamps, nothing. Absolute darkness. I cldn't even see the coach's face while he was talking to me at the start! The only thing i cld see during the ride was the white line on the road. Insane. And it's a bumpy hilly loop in there. kinda dangerous. When the occassional car drives past, their headlights are blinding! Anyway, I was shivering like crazy despite having arm warmers on, while some other riders were in short sleeved jerseys.

Anyway, it's a small world. Sean Foster, the head coach, used to coach Ani Katrina Deleon (i think that's how her name's spelt) from Philippines, whenever she was in Melbourne.

On Fri morn, I cycled down to SYS for swim squad, about 5.5km from my place. The session was really tiring, but good. The one downside, was that the 25m indoor pool was 2.2m deep all round! So everyone has to cling onto the lane rope/pool deck in between sets.

Yuppers, anyway I'll be joining them for a long ride-run down beach road tmr. I hope I can keep up!

Last night I met Jansen for dinner. We had Jap food followed by some dessert at Brunetti's =)

Anyway, this arvo I headed down to Word Bookstore, a Christian bookstore in the city. I bought a Bible and 3 Christian books--Just Like Jesus by Max Lucado, A Love Worth Giving by Max Lucado and Finding God's Path Through Your Trials by Elizabeth George. Sounds like quite alot to read, but I figured it's more meaningful to read these instead of thrashy magazines like Cosmo.

Sometimes, I'd browse these lifestyle magazines to try to answer my questions on relationships, dating, life, self-improvement, etc. But why consult these unreliable sources when we have a loving God who cares and understands, and whose word is true and never fails?

While in S'pore, during some very draining and exasperating times, I met someone very inspiring, someone whose actions and words shone of God's grace and heart, someone who gave very good advice from the Bible. It made me realise that God puts me through trials to teach me some lessons: to be patient, to keep praying and to trust and depend on Him completely. And about LOVE.

I remember at some point, I was on the brink of giving up and thinking I'd tried everything I could possibly do to turn things around, yet nothing was happening. Maybe it was time to simply DO NOTHING. To just surrender to God and leave it in his hands, trusting that He will guide me through, and His answers are wiser than my prayers. And when I trust Him, He works miracles and answers prayers. I read in the Daily Bread, that we can plant the seeds, water it, whatever, but it is God who makes it grow.

Race Ready!

2007-12-06T23:20:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated since returning from Melbourne coz I was busy running errands and preparing for THIS--the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Pattaya, Thailand. It will be my second SEAG! And the difference is, this time around, I am 7kg lighter, fitter, faster and stronger both mentally and physically.

Although Sunday's triathlon is a very an important race, it is afterall just another race. I've had countless running, duathlon and triathlon races along the way...but I'm absolutely positive Sunday's will be the best yet. I've enjoyed the journey thoroughly and any medal would just be a bonus.

I was looking forward to a short break from intense training after the SEAG, but after a week of tapering, I am feeling fresh and race hungry. Craving the adrenalin, the pain and the drive.

Yesterday down at the beach, I was taking a nice evening stroll, sipping a can of Coke Zero, reclining on a deckchair on the water's edge and admiring the beautiful sunset. At the same time doing a quick interview with the Team Singapore reporter. BUT, I didn't know it was to be an article on me! I thought it was merely for the triathlon team article which we are doing a photoshoot for later today! AHHHHHH....Ok, thanks Felix for writing a fine article. I look like a geek in the photo.

You can check out the article at:
http://www.teamsingapore.com.sg/publish/teamsingapore/en/games/sea/2007/news_features/news/2007/silently_confident.html

That aside, Mum, Bern, Rong and Bae just arriver this morn with our uber cool and high tech 2XU race suits! It's great to have family around--my own support crew and cheer squad! haha. The race suits fit us all perfectly and boy, do we look formidable. haha! Thanks for getting the suits for us Jerry!

Oh oh oh oh oh! I checked my this semester results last nite--STRAIGHT H1s...almost. haha! I got 3 first class honours and 1 upper second class honours, 79 marks--just 1 mark short of netting straight H1s for this semester--the entire year in fact. oh wells...it's still an 83, H1 average for the whole year, and for my entire 3 semesters at Melb Uni. I'm in a GOOOOOD MOOOOOD! haha.

I'm expecting race day to be windy, sunny and warm. Tough conditions but suits me just fine. When you've trained in scorching heat, freezing cold, typhoon, gale-force winds of up to 78kmh, steep mountains, endless hills, gravel and sand...you say, come what may! haha.

I'll put up some pictures soon.

We balloted for our race bib numbers today--i'm #16. I had no special number in mind--won't make a difference! haha.

Race gear's all in place, I'm pumped and race ready!

Gatorade Triathlon Race 1 - St Kilda (2nd F20-24!)

2007-11-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

It was an awful awful morning when I woke up at 6am! It was overcast, raining with bright flashes of lightning! not too cold though, about 22 deg. Nevertheless, I cycled 8km down to St Kilda...when I got there, I had 5min to set up transition and they were closing off the compound, and we were all marshalled to the beach for the race briefing at 745am. My wave, F20-24 was the last heat, at 8.53am! WHT, I was standing in the strong winds and rain, shivering and chattering.

Did a couple of short runs along the beach to warm up, then I swam some. The sea surface was quite chopping coz of the winds, but it was surprisingly rather warm. And I felt good in the sleeveless 2XU wetsuit...it was the perfect size for me, unlike last week's which was too big. My arms felt unrestricted and I could swim well.

I met Cam, Jo and Maddy there, so it was good! the field for this race was very strong! Many more competitors than last week's.

Finally, our wave start...just as the weather got worse and the rain got heavier...I felt really good in the water and I was pushing the swim. I reckond I swam a perfect course as well--as in the most direct route. Sighting was easy coz they had ITU style HUGE pink buoys and the HUGE bright yellow bolster shaped buoy for the corners of the triangular course.

It was a long run to transition, and the tight wetsuit was more difficult to take off than last week.

Out on the non-drafting 2 lap 20km course, I felt good until...the winds picked up with full force. Gale force. haha! The mainly crosswinds were INSANE! I was getting blown across the 3 lane course! At one point, a sudden gust of crosswind blew and I wobbled and flew a bit, so I let out a squeal/squeak. And I noticed some recreational joggers by the side turn and saw that the squeal came from a pig on a red bike. bleah! At another point, my 30+kmh speed was suddenly reduced to 20kmh with a strong gust of crosswind, that I considered stopping to hide behind a tree. I think a guy fell down...on the 2nd loop of the bike, it suddenly rained so hard it was painful!

For a flavour of the crazy bike course, Erin Densham (ITU Under 23 World Champion!!), who was the top female finisher biked 35.06 in the Elite draft-legal category. And I must add, the Elites started at 8am, when the conditions weren't as rough.

Anyway onto the run course, it was a very scenic course along the beach, with some short sharp uphills, and over road, grass and sand/gravel. The rain suddenly stopped and the sun starting peaking outta the clouds (actually by 11am, it was hot and now in the arvo, it's scorching)--that's Melbourne weather for you.

I started out fast on the run and felt good, overtook heaps of people. But then, my chest was hurting. My inhaler is actually expired. Anyway, at one point, I ran wrongly and had to turn back when I noticed I was charging into incoming runners. I didn't notice a sneaky right turn onto the beach and continued on straight on the footpath. Wonder why the marshall didn't point it out to me...

My legs starting feeling tired in the last 1km or so, but I tried to pace a girl and push it to the end...where I was greeted by a HOARD of flies...the fly population is at crisis level here. Flies like the heat and moisture--the sweaty and warm congregation of race finishers was the perfect location for the flies trying to find their way into people's eyes, ears, noses and mouths. FREAK!

Ok the official results are out!!!

SWIM: 7.03 (7th in F20-24)
T1: 1.33
BIKE: 38.21 (7th)
T2: 1.48
RUN: 21.26 (2nd fastest run in my category!!!!)
TOTAL: 1:10:12 (2nd in F20-24!!!!)

Ok, now for the most weird (and stupid) part...I decided to stay for prize presentation this time around just to make sure I collect my medal if any, though I didn't think I wld've made top 3 given the large field. I stood with Maddy near the stage during the prize presentation and...I didn't hear my name called out. I noticed the 2nd place podium was empty and assumed the girl had left...and that girl was me!? standing there like an idiot, concluding I must've finished 4th or 5th. ...WTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. and bigger WTH: 1st place winners win an Oakley Flak Jacket!!! WTF!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Last week I missed my 3rd place presentation coz I left, and this week, I stayed for the presentation and still missed collecting my prize!!! and my moment of glory. Sigh.

The race expo
Prize presentation...

Oh oh, and according to the Tri Series website, last week's ultra short run was actually 3.8km, not my estimated 3.5km--I almost can't believe I can run so fast...never underestimate yourself!

2007-11-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

I went to the poast office and picked up a missed delievery today after swim squad. I was certain it was my medal for my 3rd place at the Tri Series race, sent by Start to Finish. But no, it was a big envelop from IBC Singapore!

Hmmm...what can it be?
OOOOOOOoooooooooohhhh yum!
Apparantly IBC sent gifts from S'pore to its overseas students so they don't feel homesick? And feel remembered by the church. It was a really sweet gesture! I've been wondering how they got my address. The few times I've been to the church were about 3 years ago...my family attends IBC though...I love dried mangoes! I think I will bring it to training next week and let the Aussies try it. haha.

Speaking of church...I've been attending St Judes Church here for the past few Sundays. They have an evening service for young adults--perfect! Yuhui invited me to the church and I've been going back ever since. It's good. It's an Anglican church but the young adults' service is contemporary.

Woke up this morn and I dreamt that it was pouring, storming, raining cats and dogs--the perfect justification for sleeping in. But no, of coz not, it was beautiful sunny and warm weather, like it has been most days. I reckon now it's warmer here than in S'pore, just much less humid. Makes my acclimatisation easier when I go home in just 6 days!!

We did some speedwork at swim squad this morning, and it was surprisingly fun and lively. Some competition between Ian and me on the 100s and 50s! haha. I used to beat Ian at sprints (he's an Ironman) but he's improved trememdously in the past few months, and I've lost to him quite a few times. haha. So this morning the heat was on, spurring me on despite my sore and weak muscles from massage yesterday evening. Not wanting to dissapoint George who had his bets on me, I sprinted to 1.13 and 32.6s in last 100m and 50m sprints (push off from wall)! Fastest I've clocked in a long long time! Fabulous!!

Yesterday I did some tough intervals on my bike trainer; ride till you get a stomachache and can't feel your legs anymore tough. haha. Not that I could feel my legs after Tues' "EASY SPIN" with Wille down to Black Rock. It was 50km of pain. Strong headwind going out, and I was just dying to keep on Wille's wheel--so much for the "just getting over the flu" and "easy spinning", Wille!! Or maybe you're just a monster on the bike. Haha but it was good, I certainly needed some race paced (and above) riding.

I think there is something wrong with my bottom bracket or pedals or sth around there. There's been a loud clicking/ticking/straining sound everytime I ride. Time for a bike tune up, change of handlebar tape, cleats, chain, new Sidi T2 bike shoes, and my Zipps! Train in the worst conditions, race in the best.

Held up well during the run training on Wed at Princes Park!! UGH! Trying to run fast on the loose sand/gravel path is really a bitch. But once again, training in tough conditions makes you stronger, and makes everything easier on race day.

Time for a piggy nap before my long run later. And I'm waiting for Tony to reply my email as to whether I should do an 800m or 1500m track race tomorrow arvo, before the Gatorade Sprint Tri on Sunday morn. Oh, Liam lent me his gf's new 2XU wetsuit for this Sunday's race--not sure I want to look so pro...haha. It's sleeveless though, would feel more natural swimming if my arms don't freeze and fall off. haha. I bought them (Liam, Ren and Sharon) small pretty truffle boxes from Haigh's Chocolatier in the city as thank you gifts for helping me out with the wetsuit. It feels good doing nice things for others, especially when you had to walk for 3 hrs!

2007-11-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

Managed to wake up on Monday for swim squad..it was ok, glad I got thru it well. Bumped into Iylia after I had my breakfast of a muffin and chai. After a quick chat, I proceeded home to sign up for Facebook! I'll leave you to wonder about the contents of the chat! haha. I've been bugged to get Facebook but not till now have I done it--why? haha.

Din do much the whole day besides a 3.5hr nap, some studying and tending to my Facebook. I am amazed at how many people from all over the world are on it! And how many people are on Facebook most of the time. Within a few hours I got so many messages and friend notices.

Ran hill reps at run training in the evening, I felt great despite racing yesterday, and did 6x hill reps instead of the suggested 4. Timings were really good, so I'm pleased! haha.

Met Yuhui for dinner at Universal Pizza after trg. I had a rose sauce risotto with hot salami--it was delicious! haha. We were intending to catch a movie after tt, but ended up chatting for 4 hours straight! From 8.30pm to 12.30am!! haha! It was great...and there is still that sense of familiarity altho it has been soooo many years. haha.

Since it was so late, I called Jeremy to walk me home, and hear him tell me his great plans regarding chasing a particular girl. haha!

Heading out for a ride with Wille in a bit. Looks like a great day to be out!

Tri Series Race 1 - Mordialloc (3rd F20-24!)

2007-11-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

Woke up at 5am this morn and my hip flexors were aching from yesterday's 200m reps! Oh wells, today's race is a "practice race".

Trains dont run till 7+am on Sundays and riding 30km down to the race site would just kill my already fatigued legs. So i booked a cab for 6am. Chatted to the driver, an Ethiopian dude who used to be a pro 5k/10k runner (who was brought to Aust to train) but stopped due to injury, and is now studying Bio Chem and working part time at various jobs. Interesting...

Anyway, it was a great day today--warm, about 25deg and sunny in the morn. My race started at approx 8.16am, the last wave (female <30 years old). The distances are "supposedly": 500m/20k/5k

There was a wide variety of competitors, from noobs in mountain bikes and cheap surfing wetsuits to pro-looking people in Orca/2XU wetties and race suits, race wheels and all. There were Elite M/F category, Open ITU U19 M/F, Open ITU M/F and age groupers (ME!). There were a total of 400 participants in the Sprint race. I felt kinda intimidated in my puny Asian body, old race suit, tearing apart bike shoes, torn handlebar tape and cheap Shimano training wheels.

Good thing I met Cam and George there so I didn't feel too alone.

The sea water was cold, 18-20deg. I felt dizzy after my short warm up swim. During the race, I was kinda scared during the swim coz the cold water made it very difficult to breathe, and the wetsuit was kinda pressing on my neck. The beach was pretty shallow and I could see nightmarish-looking brown and green seaweed, plants and rocks. EEEKKS.

During the run up to T1, I was feeling dizzy and my legs felt like 2 frozen ice pillars! I managed to pull down the wetsuit till my hips while running to transition, where I began hopping around like a one-legged frog trying to pull the suit off my ankles while trying to keep balance despite the dizziness. horrendous.

The bike course was 3x 6.6km loop. It was relatively windless and flat with 4 slight climbs in each loop. I felt strong on the bike, but finished off feeling like I could hold the pace for much longer. 20km feels so short!

After a pretty slow T2, it took me about 500m to get into the "running mode" and thereafter it was fantastic. I was feeling very strong, overtaking many people. The run was a 5km loop over road, sand, dirt trail and grass and had several sharp uphills--I surged past 4 people on one of the uphills...ha! I liked the run course tho--it was along the beach, scenic and interesting. Overall, I finished feeling strong as tho I could hold the pace over much longer.

Fantastic.

Ok official race results are out. Grossly inaccurate run distance!!

Swim: 8.22.0
T1: 1.22.1
Bike: 36.18.3
T2: 1.20.7
Run: 15.16.1 (5km? Hell yeah!)
Total: 1.02.39 (3rd in F20-24!!!)

I didn't even know I came in 3rd (of 13) since I didn't wait for the prize presentation and cycled 33km from Mordi home, stopping by Elwood to drop off the wettie at Sharon's place.

Cam won his age group (M20-24), with the 4th fastest run time of the day (12.13.1)!!

The swim could've been long since the Elite M swim times were in the 6.20s. But I won't doubt my inability to swim in a wetsuit in cold waters cld've produced such an off-target time. And what a disappointingly short run!! My estimate (based on Cam's time) is that it is about 3.5km.

Oh wells, great race, great practice! I'm looking forward to next Sunday's Gatorade Triathlon (sprint: 500m/20k/5k). Hopefully the distances will be accurate!

i'll live in a cardboard box at the street corner

2007-11-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

househunting is killing me! I'd definately rather study than house hunt!! The problem is compounded by the fact tt i only need a 4-6mth lease of a studio/1 bedroom apartment. And I need it fully furnished as I do not want to buy furniture and have to find storage for it when i leave. Most single housing are expensive! and they offer only a minimum 12 mth lease. Problems problems.

I checked out a room at Exhibition Mews on Rathdown Street yest. Just behind Iylia's place! It looked fabulous from outside! Great scenic and peaceful location between uni, lygon st n the city. Rent's within my budget, studio...sounds perfect...except, it is unfurnished and small and old inside. The kitchenette area is abt half the size of my current one...and it was dark with dull dirty green carpet and walls inside...UGH! and they were for immediate lease...i only need a place in march next yr!

Shd i just put off searching till feb/march next year? hmm...then i might really have to live in a cardboard box at the street corner. Perhaps I could bring a tent and sleeping bag from S'pore...??

Anyway, i just signed up for a sprint race down at Mordi for this Sunday! It's the first race of the Tri Series Triathlons! I havent figured how to get down there by 730am this sunday...riding 30km down before the race wld take as long as the race itself. But anyway Tony says to use this race as just a transition practice and I will still train on Saturday, especially since I have another sprint Gatorade Triathlon race next Sunday, and am currently in a state of fatigue. haha.

All races in Victoria are wetsuit races so Liam helped me borrow a wetsuit yesterday. I tried it out drg the warm up at swim squad this morning and it was...warm in the 27deg pool. haha. It was slightly big, but overall ok. i cld put it on and take off easily. I'm still pretty nervous about the 18 deg sea water tho. I will be frozen. Reminds me of a sprint race in Korea i did 3 years ago. The water was like 20 deg and they said no wetsuits...actually when we practiced with wetsuits it still felt bloody cold. Well an incentive to swim faster and get outta there! haha.

I feel self conscious in a wetsuit coz i know i look like a seal...During the warm up today we did some rotation kicks and I sure felt like a seal in the water! Seals like to turn round and round while they glide through the water. Hmm...what if on race day i struggle to take it off at transition, maybe lose my balance or sth...i might be mistaken for a fat seal squirming on land...or an overturned beetle fighting with its legs...gawd. I just hope no one steps on me or throws me a red ball. haha!

2007-11-06T00:02:00.000-08:00

What better way to fill the empty silence than some of Jay Chou's lovelorn crooning to tug at my heart strings? No wait, my (broken)heart has turned cold.

Why do people listen to sad love songs when they're sad and heartbroken? Perhaps it expresses what we're feeling, feelings and thoughts difficult for us to put into words ourselves. Or perhaps it's comforting to know others share our pain. Or perhaps we want to dwell in the pain--if that's the only way we still feel the connection with that someone.

Don't I just hate the way Jay Chou describes the pain.

I'm 3/4 done. Submitted my 2 final assignments and finished my Cognitive Psychology exam this arvo. All went really well and I'm glad they're over. One last Personality & Social Psychology exam on the 20th. Plenty of time to study for that. In the meantime, it's househunting and training. And maybe some shopping too.

Today's Melb Cup Day, part of the Spring Carnival horse racing, which is basically an excuse to get dressed up and get drunk...and lose money. Oh hang on, horse racing comes somewhere in between. Today was absolutely fabulous weather--warm, bright and sunny. except for the killer winds which almost killed my legs and threatned to blow off the ladies' large floppy hats and mini flowery clip-at-the-side-of-your-head accessory.

Anyway, the Spring Carnival is a really big thing in Melb. People buy new clothes and special fashion headgear and dress up to go down and watch the horse races. I doubt anyone cares abt the race--it's all abt drinking champagne and looking good.

I think horse racing is completely unethical. Last weekend a race horse was euthanised on the course during one of the previous races. Apparantly the horse injured it's leg seriously during a race in muddy conditions and the owner opted for it to be put down on the spot--to relieve its pain or because it is no longer of any use?!

Imagine you fell down during a race and broke your leg, and your coach/parent decide to kill you to 'relief the pain in your leg'. Sounds perfectly logical doesn't it?

And Australia opposes the death penalty...it's called human rights for a reason.

To end on a happier note, listen to Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight.

Yes, you were wonderful.

2007-11-03T02:08:00.000-07:00

Yest evening I met up with Wenona and her friend, Howard for dinner and drinks. Howard bought us dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant--king prawns and roasted chicken...yum. We then went to Golden Monkey bar for drinks. It's a quaint and cosy underground bar, oriental furnishings, loud music and very dim. Apparantly it's won some Bar of the Year Award. I had a small glass of cocktail which I didn't really like. Alcohol is so not my thing anymore, not even in minute portions, unless in skincare products. I've been to Golden Monkey last year for a friend's birthday, but soon after morphed into a hermit crab which never saw the light of night.

After just 1 drink, we headed to Allure, a supposedly hip club on Bouk Street. It wasn't crowded at all...was it swot-vac, too early or was it just me? Anyway, after a little dancing and greedily polishing off Wenona's half-eaten muffin, Howard sent us home (before midnight, yes I'm not cool).

I noticed something--I'm not into the James Bond kinda lifestyle. Howard's 25, good looking (1/4 portugese, 3/4 chinese), runs his Dad's company, Blackberry touting, friendly, rich and drinks too much. Lives in a posh upmarket studio apartment at Clearwater, just above Crown Casino overlooking the Yarra River. Drives a brand new Mercedes sports car with avant garde voice activation and navigation functions. Blasts R&B music through state-of-the-art sound system as he speeds through the city. Suggests shopping for a dressy clutch bag at Prada. Jumps into a cab for a 2min ride to his car, just 2 blocks down. VVIP entry into the hottest nightclubs in town. Hires a personal trainer purely for vanity reasons. Basically, the kinda guy hot chicks would kill for. (Need an introduction, Val? haha.)

BUT, I'm not a hot chick and I don't care for the money and lifestyle.

Ok, back to my kinda lifestyle...

A couple of us from MUAC car pooled and made our way down to the Moonee Valley Athletics Track in Aberfeldie for Round 3 of the Athletics Victoria summer series track and field races. Thanks to well-prepared Tim who brought 5 foldable wood-and-cloth 'director' chairs and many picnic mats. We dragged out all our stuff and headed over to the MUAC tent and set up our picnic stuff on the grass.

Many of the guys and Al were running both 800m and 3000m, while I was only doing the 3k. So I plopped myself onto a chair and watched the races. Like last week, the program was delayed and I waited 4hrs before my 3000m race! It was a 25 deg partly-cloudy day. Napping on the picnic mat was frying my brains so I proceeded to climb up onto the park bench under our tent for a seat. Yes, climb. For some weird reason, the bench was pretty high--maybe soil erosion under it or sth, but my feet were dangling 20cm off the ground when I sat on it.

Anyway, Moonee Valley is a nice quiet neighbourhood and the track was amidst some houses, next to a river and dirt trail--perfect.

It was exciting watching the guys' 800m race! D2 and D1 ran 2.06 and 2.09 respectively in heat 2. In heat 3, Iylia initiated a daring breakaway on the 2nd lap, pulling ahead by almost 10m...before Tim ran him down in the last 70m or so. haha. And in heat 4, coach Tony...ran the first 400m conservatively in last place, then sprinted the 2nd 400m to finish among the top few. Tim suggested a mid race dope test for Tony...that blazing last 400m was highly suspicious. haha.

Finally we ran the 3000m race. Guys and girls start together, but runners were split into 2 heats--sub 11.30 and over 11.30. Altho my target time was 12min, Tony and the rest told me to run in the first heat with them, so I did.

Wala! I ran 3000m in 11.52!?!?!! Yes, over 11.30, but I wasnt last. haha. It was fantastic, besides the fact tt I kinda needed to pee. I felt strong and managed to maintain my set pace. In fact, I might've been able to run faster. Coz I ran the last 200m in 43 or 44s! Wayyy faster than my 95s/400m pace! Never underestimate yourself!

Oh wells, that was still a huge PB! I ran 3000m track 2 years ago for RJC, during the school nationals, and ran a pathetic 13.09! haha. Fantastic stuff.

Now all I need is some love. Er, I mean sleep.

2007-11-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty good week so far. Been productive with the studying and assignments--way ahead of schedule actually, so I'm pretty relax now...not that my highly efficient self had to be stressed out about work at any point.

It's only 4 days into the week and I've logged a fearsome amount of quality training. haha. and surprise, I'm still alive and moving. I have morphed into the ideal robotic machine I constantly strive to be.

Even more unbelievable, is the neat and clean state of my room. Trash taken out, toilet scrubbed, laundry done, floor vacuumed, dishes washed, tables wiped...

Perfect, everything is in perfect order. I'm ready to move on.

I feel calm, peaceful, quiet, detached and distant. Actually I'm not sure if i'm really feeling any emotions at all. I've tuned out the pain. I'm floating in a bubble.

5000m track race (in desert like conditions)!

2007-10-27T02:16:00.000-07:00

Took a train to Newport with Sophie, Iylia, Tom and Alison. Very weird location for a track--100m from the coast, next to an industrial factory with a tall chimney...just a track in the middle of a grass field, with fence surrounding it. No spectators stand or anything. just pitch a tent or bring out a rug and picnic on the grass next to the track.

Conditions were tough. It was hot (31deg, tho it feels much hotter in direct sunlight), but that's fine with me. The headwind was really gusty and strong and it was incredibly dry! Runners were coughing and choking after the 1500m race!

Anyway, the program got delayed so the 5000m started at abt 4pm. Not ideal since I was hanging around in the sun for almost 3 hrs.

Everyone started the 5000m together, lasses and lads. After just 3 laps, I needed water! My throat was really dry so breathing was difficult. I was just hanging in there. I didn't feel strong or that I could push it. I was merely hanging in there and holding out till the end! Could be the lingering effects of ATB as well. Towards the end I was coughing and my throat really hurt. Finished in 21.14, more than a minute off my target time! But a HUGE PB nonetheless! In Dec last year, I did a 5km time trial at Bishan track with TAS and ran a 22.45, a PB then. haha!

But that's ok I guess--good training in tough conditions. Bring on the heat and humidity, winds and all! Nothing scares me now. haha...the gd thing about humid conditions is that breathing is easier because your throat won't hurt even in a 10k race without water.

For a lil insight into what the terrible conditions can do--Liam ran 2mins off his PB (he ran 16.24, and he usually runs 14+min--yes he an amazing runner). David P ran almost 2mins off his PB too (altho he ran a lap less due to confusion abt no. of laps left).

I hope I'll get to do another 5000m track race here before I head back to S'pore. Hopefully conditions will be better so I can run another smashing PB! heh!

2007-10-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

Horror of horrors! My hunch that intense, prolonged heartache strains the heart, is in fact backed by scientific evidence!

Just now, while flipping through the lastest issue of Runner's World at Borders, I came across an article which said that "severe emotional stress may have dangerous, even deadly consequences according to the American Journal of Applied Psychology. The effects include IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT, restriction of coronary blood flow (something like that) and left ventricular dysfuction."

Therefore, I can conclude with reasonable evidence that...I'm on my way to becoming a psychologist. hahaha.

Rolled outta bed this morn for swim squad at 6.30am. As usual, I was inappropriately dressed. I stepped outta the house in sweat pants, tee, hoodie, winter overcoat, scarf, socks and Crocs to find that there were people walking around in tee shirt and jeans! After 10min of brisk walking to the pool, I was kinda sweating. haha.

It wasn't actually warm, just not cold enough to warrant Eskimo-style fashion. Summer has suddenly disappeared this week. Temperatures went up to the 30s on Sunday, then dipped to 10-15deg this week with dark clouds and rain! But, it's supposed to rise to the 30s again tmr.

The start of the swim session felt terrible! I was feeling sleepy, stiff and sluggish, and hadn't eaten brekky. But I felt better as the session progressed. We finished with a 400m time trial. Surprise! I swam a PB of 5.39. haha! I probably can manage a faster time but it was wayy better than my my target time of 5.50! Oh oh, the water temperature was 29.1deg, 2-3deg warmer than usual, and some of the guys were complaining. But not me, I love heat. I can't stand the cold these days--gimme 30deg days!

Anyway, I treated myself to 2 muffins and a tall skinny chai latte (like I do most mornings), followed by a nice long nap! haha. Woke up, chatted with Clem online =) then worked on my assignment.

Went for a 40min recovery jog in the evening followed by some hardcore stretching. Prepping my legs for tomorrow's 5000m track race. OOOHHH I'm excited! haha I've never run a 5000m track race before. I've done a couple of 5k time trials on the track and that's it.

Ok back to studying.

2007-10-24T05:24:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I noticed my wallet has a hole when coins kept falling around me whenever I paid for sth. To get around that problem, I've stuck blue electrical tape on my black wallet. Perfect.

Just now, I noticed my supermarket plastic bag had a hole when my bottle of pasta sauce crashed to the ground and smashed the moment I picked it up from the counter. Perfect. Good thing the cashier told me to go grab another bottle for free.

Keeping in line with my highly observant self off-late, I noticed that my heartbeat has been peculiar. Occassionally my heart feels weird - no, I don't mean the heartache. I feel like my heart is beating v slowly and labourously. Usually, my resting heartrate would be just below 60 when I wake up on a normal day, and about 70 when I'm sitting down. The past few days, my heartrate suddenly dropped to about 50 suddenly when I'm seated.

Today during lecture, as I was counting my heartbeat when I felt that same sensation. I noticed my heart was beating IRREGULARLY!! It was like 5 beats at 1 beat per second, then 3 beats at 1 beat per 2 seconds. During the slow beats I feel very uncomfortable.

I've felt like this before but just recently these sensations have been much more frequent. Maybe it's just the exhaustion or recovery. Or perhaps prolonged, intense heartache is weighing my heart down, such that mere beating is strenuous, and possibly, less meaningful.

210km Around the Bay in a Day!

2007-10-21T02:21:00.000-07:00

ATB is a must-do mega bike event in Victoria. It is part of the Melbourne Cycling Festival, which includes the last 2 stages of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Yest was the individual TT, today was the criterium. This year, about 14 000 people participated in the ATB.

There are 5 options: 50km, 100km, 210km (with ferry), 210km (w/o ferry) and 250km. I took part in the 210km with ferry, from Melb to Queenscliff (Geelong), taking a 40min ferry ride to Sorrento then ride past Mornington Peninsular, Frankston and back to the city. This is the most popular Classic ride, and all 4000 slots were sold out.

Woke up at 4.45am this morn to eat and prep for the ATB ride. Met Iylia and Jeff and rode down to the start point at Alexander Gardens. We were early, so we spent our time checking out other people's bikes--almost every brand (heard of and unheard of) were seen. There were all types of bikes--steel ones, full carbon roadies, mountain bikes, cross bikes, even 2-man-bikes!

Melb-Queenscliff (115km) was relatively flat with a few significant climbs. Most of the way we tagged onto large packs so it was good. At one point, after a pit-stop in the bushes, we had to catch back to the pack--hard work in the headwind! The first 90 or so km felt easy, but the last 25km was getting tough. It was really warm! 30-35deg! The only thing on my mind was LUNCH!!! and a break.

We were handed our lunch of: 1 chicken sandwich, 1 small piece ofchoc cake, 1 banana, 1 packet of dried fruit and nuts, 1 powerbar, 1 powergel and 1 bottle of powerade.

Queuing for the ferry--in the hot sun, harrassed by flies.

sitting on the top deck of the ferry

The ferry ride was relaxing. we managed to get onto the large ferry, so we had space to sit n stretch. I felt a lil uncomfortable tho, seasick i think (altho it was extremely stable). I was glad for that almost 2 hr break--not sure how i was gonna survive another 100km! hilly and windy too!

But all along the course, there were supporters. Some drove down and stopped at various locations to cheer loved ones and friends on, some took out deck chairs and sat by the roads watching cyclists ride past. Road marshalls gave encouragement, even drivers along the roads shouted encouragement while they drove past!

Once we started at Sorrento, the headwind was friggin strong! I dropped back from a pack to pull Iylia and Jeff, who were tired. Hats off to them for completing the ATB! Iylia hadn't trained for a month coz of Ramadan, and Jeff only picked up cycling this year (with absolutely no sporting background).

We hit a hilly section, with several wicked climbs. For some unknown reason (prob too much sugar), I was high. When Iylia was warning me about an approaching killer climb, he suddenly said "Why are you smiling, Elaine?! Why are you smiling?!" I had a psychotic smile on my face and started attacking those killer hills--with success! Haha, but my legs were burning with lactic, some leftover from yest's run intervals. I felt strong.

But suddenly at Frankston, I was suffering! Headwind was damn strong (whoever told me the winds would change?!), temperatures searing...oh, and I found out that I got shitted on--there was bird shit on my jersey! Stupid birds.

By the time we hit Mordi (30km to go), I had gone crazy. There was no pain in the legs. The only thing on my mind was "home...I wanna go home, I wanna go home NOW!". So I cycled hard despite the discomfort and pain!!!! I ran out of water as well, which sucked.

Towards the end, we were going through small streets, getting caught at the lights...and I got really frustrated--why didn't we take the shortest, most straight forward route back to Alexander Gardens?! ARGH. I crossed the finish line feeling extremely angry--worst shit ever, stupid ATB!

haha, but now, I'm really glad I completed it. It was a real challenge, and good training too, esp with the type of terrain, heat and headwind...The longest ride I'd done b4 ATB was 120km in a day, and I hadnt ridden more than 105km at a go for the past few months, so this was tough!

Slumped on the grass at Alexander Gardens for a long time before finally GETTING BACK ON THE BIKE to ride another 5km home.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's off day and massage!

I'll post more photos when Iylia sends them to me =)

Jayco Herald Sun Tour Stage 6 - Individual TT

2007-10-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

Grabbed a mango smoothie and a pide and went to Alexander Gardens to watch the 8.6km Individual TT penultimate stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Also, to check out the GO Bike Expo to exchange the jersey for Clem--but alas! I could not find the BV tent!

Anyway, it was cool, like the TdF except fewer people n media. Mainly Aust teams, tho there was one Japanese team. Team Astana was there too. I thought they'd shut down. Anyway, I got to watch Stuart O'Grady ride to a 2nd best time of the day. Amazing considering how badly injured he was at the TdF just 3 months ago.
A team's base under a tree--mechanic performing a bike check.

Team Astana rider in the starting chute

The beep goes off!

The finish line

The GO Bike Expo didn't feature too many bikes, it was more like a cycling accessory garage sale. They sold 2nd hand items like gloves, arm warmers, jersys and even skins. There were new stuff as well, sold cheap. The booths were set up by the different teams.

Unfortunately I had to leave early no thanks to a bad bout of diarrhea since yesterday. I have no idea why. Oh on top of tt, the skin on my feet is dry, flaky and peeling! Disastrous, had to vacuum the carpet yesterday.

Weather today is warm! mid to high 20s (hellooo flies!). Tmr, when I'm riding the 210km Around the Bay in a Day, it would be 31deg!!! Oh wells, I'm not complaining, i prefer the heat to the cold.

Fabulous week of training again, several solid run sessions. Managed to improve on previous times, especially on Wed's hills where I slashed 4s off each rep from last week. Did a hard 50km bike ride on Thurs down Canterbury Rd towards Mt D. Super hilly and super strong gusts of wind.

I was really struggling through this morn's interval session, but Tony said I coped well despite 3 big weeks of training, which would end with a 220+km ride tmr. I was in pain and pushing it right from the first 400m rep, but still managed to hold decent times. Had brekky at Thresho's with Sophie and Bry after training, which was very enjoyable.

unbreak my heart

2007-10-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

2007-10-14T02:31:00.000-07:00

GUESS WHO I BUMPED INTO TODAY?!?!

YUHUI! My best friend in primary school! I bumped into her outside Safeway supermarket. I was on a mission to grab dinner at 5.30pm, after leaving Borders (near Safeway). Then i walked passed someone whom I thought was Yuhui. But i shrugged it off. 2 seconds later, she tapped my shoulder. HA! impossible!

She's been studying Performing Arts at Monash for 2 years now. We didn't get to chat much as she was on her way to the supermarket with a friend. Apparantly she just told her friend she hasn't kept in contact with val or me. I got her number tho, we have to catch up! It's been so many years since we last met, usually at inter-school events. I still have a small photo of us displayed in my room in S'pore, taken at the playground near her house where we used to play after exams.

On top of that little surprise, Clem msged me today, and I called him later in the arvo. Things are looking good, the way I like it =)

And on top of that, I had a pretty good tough ride down to Frankston this morn. 95km. For some reason (probably coz John wasn't around), the pack started hammering it on the way to Mordi. My fatigued legs were struggling on each uphill! haha. Most of them turned at Mordi (coz John wasn't around), while 5 of us continued on to Frankston.

The way back was tough. I'm not sure if it was the unrelenting 50km of headwind or my million layers of clothing on a warm 24deg day or the lack of ingested calories or yesterday's intervals, but I was feeling the pain. haha ok, it wasn't that bad.

Rushed home to check the results of the Kona Ironman World Champs. It was really weird. Many of the pre-race favourites DNF! Including Norman Stadler, Michellie Jones, Natascha Badmann. Macca won--it's high time you won, after all that arrongant shit you've been sprouting the past many years. Craig Alexander, my race favourite came in 2nd! Yay! In the female's race, some unknown Great Britan girl won--Chrissie Wellington. Sam McGlone came in 2nd--her first ever ironman!

Short course athletes with the speed and intensity do amazingly well in long course, often beating the veteran and long-course-only athletes. Don't you just hate their talent! haha. I noticed many of the pro Ironman athetes are in their late 30s into their 40s!

There's an article entitled "The Perfect Pair" in Nov's Triathlete Magazine. It's about Emma Snowsill and her partner Craig Walton. It is very similar to Clem and me! Except the triple world champion part, and the Commonwealth Games gold medalist bit, and the Olympian part, and the "most revered non drafting athlete of the past decade" bit.

Other than those bits...

"At a glance they pose a striking couple" (Yes) "He is thoughtful and intense (?) while she is a petite blonde (Asian) with a penchant for mischievous fun" (Yes) "And this glamorous couple (definately) forms the perfect partnership" (Of coz)

"We try to do as many sessions as we can together and fit our programs in as much as we can, even if we just start and finish together and do our own efforts individually." (Yes!)

haha ok enough nonsense.

most improved female athlete

2007-10-13T04:27:00.000-07:00

Another fantastic week of trg! I'm pleasantly surprised and very happy with my run times! haha. we ran 1000 reps on Wednesday, and I ran consistent times averaging 3.52 each. Ran 400 reps this morn, and I had to double check my watch times--consistent 85s each?! And i was feeling strong! Fabulous fabulous, and the weather's getting warmer, 20+deg days. Love it, tho I would like it even warmer, like 20-30deg! I can't stand the cold these days, not even mild cold and chilly breezes.

Today we, the melb uni athletics club, had our "End of cross-country start of track season bbq". It was good fun looking at photos, eating n chatting. I won the "most improved female athlete" award, one of the 4 serious awards. To be fair, if you were as slow as me to begin with, there's certainly lots of room to improve. haha. But that is definately good encouragement. The other serious awards were "Performance of the season", "Best fresher" and the most prestigious "Golden shoe award" (for accumulating the most points at winter series races).

I also won the "Flavour Flav prize for biggest watch relative to hand size" and "Hidden Triathlon Superstar". haha. Other crazy awards were like "Al Smith perpetual throphy for loudest cheering", "Brown bear prize for hibernating over winter", "William Webb Ellis prize for the only person still interested in the Rugby World Cup", "Maxwell smart prize for secret training that never stays secret", "Dave Ulbrick shield for not doing anything embarrassing", "The Tony Brain Prize for regularly embarrassing himself" and "The Hamburgular Award for best grimace at the end of a race". haha! and lots of other customised silly awards for everyone!

Iylia is really nice, he called me just now at dinner time n asked if he could come up to my place. He said he got me something to cheer me up--a tub of cookies and cream ice cream!! Which we ate 1/2 of, straight outta the tub. I told him this arvo about the past few days, how I've been oscillating between feeling numb and devastated, and unable to eat, so he decided to bring me some comfort food. That's really sweet, thanks Iylia!

Things seem better now, but it's all so uncertain. I feel detached and confused.

2007-10-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

I've been back in Melb for a week now, and suddenly, it's warmer (10-22deg) and daylight is long! Sun rises before 6am and sets abt 6.30pm. Fabulous! Everything's so much easier when there's sunlight, and when it's warm. I'm looking forward to 20+deg temperatures!

Trg has been going great. Stepped up the training load and intensity to build-peak for SEA Games on 9 December. It's all going fabulous, and I'm tired but coping well with the training.

This morn I went for a long ride with the melb uni group. Rode 105km to Whittlesea and then up Humevale and back. The journey was undulating with several tough climbs on the way to the Mount (kinda like to Mt. Dandenong). The Mount/Kinglake climb was a beautiful 7km uphill climb, with a consistent gradient and terrible road conditions. Very scenic and very good training.

Another 6 weeks of the tough 7-week block of training before I head home and acclimatise/taper for the SEA Games.

Oh I got my exam timetable, and it sucks! I've got 2 assignments due 1 and 6 Nov, and 2 exams on 6 and 20 Nov. Was kinda hoping the first paper wld be later, so I can race Noosa. Anyway the good thing is, the 2 weeks in btw the papers will give me some time to study, settle my housing, pack up and race the first sprint race of the Gatorade triathlon series. Sounds good actually.

Only another 3 weeks of sch to go!

2007 OSIM Hong Kong Triathlon ITU Asian Cup

2007-10-01T05:38:00.001-07:00

I was in HK from fri 21st Sept to Tue 25th Sept. It was fabulous. Jie came along to support me. thanks Jie! And we did lots of shopping after the race.

The HK Triathlon went well despite horrific conditions. Pre-race, I was really worried about the swim after sighting 2 big brown jellyfish near the swim course during race recee on Friday. Also, the race route was changed from previous years. The bike course was particularly hilly. 4 loops of 10km. On each loop, there is a steep 400m climb, then a long 1.5km climb just before the 5km turnaround. The 10km turn around was at the foot of the steep 400m hill. Insane, I was braking like crazy but still going down was scary. The run course was 4 loops of 2.5km, plus a 1km extra bit before the finish line.

Race morn was bad. Typhoon warning level 1. It was raining and very windy. Setting up transition, my bike hanging on the bike rack was flapping like a leaf. The wet roads made the bike course very dangerous. Many people fell. Strong crosswinds as well.

setting up transition and preparing for a warm up jog.

The swim course was definately long, and I didn't go out too hard since I was scared to swim alone, so I just swam near jina. The bike was alright, I survived the hills. haha. Kinda think I cld've rode harder tho, but I was quite worried about the wet roads. No point taking unnecessary risks.

Thanks for the very enthusiastic cheering Jie! She was standing near the peak of the 400m hill and would take photos, shout n jump/run ard whenever I rode past. I actually felt like laughing, but going at about 9kmh, I might fall off if i laughed...if I still had the energy to laugh. Yup, and Uncle Brian would say "okok I got a photo/shot of you" everytime i rode past. haha.
going up the steep 400m hill.

Thanks everyone for the cheering and support! Definately helped in the rather spectator-unfriendly course.

The run was fabulous!! Fantastic! I was not sure how i'd feel coming off the hilly bike, kinda expecting my legs to feel heavy, but no. Not at all! I felt super fresh and fast. I was pacing an Aust athlete, White, on the first 5km of my run. she was on her last 5km. haha. But i managed to keep her within sight. I started feeling it on the last 2km of the run, legs were kinda tired. And there was an enormous blister on the sole of my right foot, which affected my running a lil.

Nonetheless it was a blazing 44.04min 10km! WHEEEEE...

Somehow I was not totally wrecked after the race, could probably have run faster but there was no competition (the elite field was huge, but they were out of my league)! The girl ahead of me, a China athlete, was 10min ahead, and the Thai athlete behind me was a further 15-20min behind.

anyhow, my new adidas Chiba Pro shoes were great, save for that one big blister and a few small cuts. Markedly better than all my previous racing shoes.

Jie took many cool shots of my race, including those above, but i don't have all the pictures with me now. check out her blog for some photos!

Post race was fabulous. Dim sum, wanton mee, street snacks, roasted pigeon and goose, etc. Good (and quite cheap) food and good shopping.

Mad shopping actually. Our motto was: don't think, just buy. haha. we had so many things to buy for Dad, Mum, Val, Bern, Rong, Bae, Clem, ZW, snacks for family, Tony (my Aust coach) and ourselves. We had several great buys at Esprit.

I think HK is similar to S'pore in many ways. Transport, housing, economy...

HK, like S'pore, is famous for its shopping and food. Tho i'd say HK is WAYYY better--you get street market, imitation goods and mega malls of high end brands...and good fashion sense/clothes. Altho I wld consider Jie having good dress sense, she made us the objects of many stares because of her fabulous idea to wear ponchos and walk around Tsim Sar Tsui. It was practical actually, considering how we were relatively dry in the typhoon.

Also, HK doesnt have many of its own attractions, it's more like a gateway to China, Macau, just as S'pore is the gateway to South East Asia's attractions. But i must say, S'pore is more liveable. Some parts of HK were just too old! Like near Mong Kok area. The buildings are so old! It is really a concrete jungle, scarily congested and crowded. Shopping on Mon and Tues was worse than weekends in Orchard in S'pore.

HK was rather heavily Jap inspired. They had alot of those kawaii stuff. Cutesy trinkets and clothes. Actually, it was like a East meets West. Lots of Western fashion and brands as well. And they had alot of snacks/food from Taiwan and China...like S'pore, not too much of its own products, things unique to HK.

HK has a very unique skyline tho. Uber tall apartment blocks (which look identical), skyscrapers and multiple flyovers against a back drop of mountains. Weird.

FYI, HK has 2 beaches on the south of HK island. One is a small public beach and the other is where the rich and famous congregate.

HK was fun yet tiring. Shopping and walking from morn to night. haha. just like the HK tourism ad "mai dong xi, chi dong xi, x5" I feel that HK is not very liveable and suddenly feel Singapore is liveable. I can't understand why 7 million ppl want, or live in HK. perhaps coz the salary is higher? haha.

Back Home

2007-09-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Singapore!!! And I forgot to bring back my S'pore hp SIM card! But thanks Bae for lending me hers!

It's been fabulous back home. I got to see Jie at last!!! After more than a year!!! Wheeee!! YES and we are going to HK this weekend..for my OSIM HK Triathlon race and to shop and eat. haha. Check out Jie's blog for a photo of us taken on her new camera.

I bought a new pair of runners. Adidas Chiba Pro racing flats. It's mighty cool. haha.

Clem and I watched Anger Management on DVD and Ratotoullie at the cinema, love that show it's so cute and funny. haha. So far, I've eaten ban mian from J8, far east chicken rice, zhi char, chilli crab and lobster salad at No Signboard Seafood, Jap food and some sick ppl food.

I fell sick on Sunday!!! Terrible, not sure if it was mild food poisoning or stomach flu. I was out for 2 days, Sun and Mon. Diarrhea on both days and I vomitted on Sunday night. Horrific, my room still kinda smells like...macaroni soup gone sour...

haha but I am feeling great today (Tuesday)! Just did a brick session. Cycled with LH5am group followed by a 20min run. It felt good but I was feeling very hungry! Barely ate the past 2 days. I'm now saving my stomach for turtle soup and yam rice for lunch!!! Sluuurrp..YUMMY!

Clem and I. Altho I've been ill, I've been happy too. Coz Clem took care of me, and he's been very sweet n nice =)
=)

Homebound!

2007-09-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

A hectic and tiring 6 weeks have just flown by. I've finally completed my assignments and will be home in 49 hours!!! WOOHOOOOOO. It feels so weird. Up until 1 hr ago, it wasn't confirmed I was coming home. And less than a week ago, I didn't think I was coming home. And being so busy and tired, I have not actually thought abt it until now. haha. However, there are still many things to do in the next 49 hrs.

1) Go for swim squad at 630am tmr.
2) Request an academic reference from my Cognitive Psychology tutor tmr.
3) Finish writing my exchange essay, hopefully by tonight.
4) Submit my exchange application, hopefully by tmr.
5) Submit my melbuni ATB form tmr.
6) Collect my melbuni cycling jersey, hopefully by tmr.
7) Attend a 2 hr lab class n a 2hr lect tmr.
8) Go for running training at 6pm tmr.
9) Buy Krispy Kremes from Melb Central to bring home (yes Clem, I sweared not to ever carry those large bulky boxes of donuts home, but I know you want to eat them)
10) Eat my fill of Thresherman's muffins, salad and Chai latte.
11) Cycle hills on thurs morn, if i can wake up early enough.
12) Pack my bike and bag
13) Call and book a cab to get to the airport.

And there's always the "to-do list" in S'pore. Actually, it's more like "to-eat list" haha.

1) I have to see my family and JIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haven't seen jie in more than a year. Since I left for Melb the first time. only short of Val who won't be back then.
2) I have to see and hug and kiss my darling Clem.
3) Race the Hong Kong International Triathlon on 23 Sept.
4) I have to eat hotplate dinner at home. and zhi char.
5) I have to eat turtle soup with yam rice, din tai fung, tau sar piah, crystal jade, ban mian, drink teh bing. (The list shall stop here lest anyone think i'm a greedy pig)
6) book my driving theory test.
7) Train hard.

there actually won't be time to do much. I'll only be back for 2 weeks, of which at least half a week will be in HK.

Burnley Half Marathon 2007

2007-09-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

I was really looking forward to this 21km race since it was the first race I ran last year, 2 months after I got to Melbourne. I ran a 1.43.45 last year and I was really happy about it. Last year it was 12-15deg drizzling and freezing, tho the weather warmed up during the race.

This year, it was bright, sunny and warm (18-22deg). And i ran a 1.37.15!!!!!!!! 6 and a half minutes faster than last year! That's incredible I must say. I was feeling good at the start, running the first 12km with Hollie then I caught up with Alison and ran with her for a few k's. I kept a consistent pace, between 4.30-4.40/km. First 10km was 45.50 and last 10km 46.50.

The last 4km was tough, and I had a big painful blister on the underside of my right foot. The course was undulating, with 2 hills per loop (3.5 loops). It was an Athletics Victoria Winter Series race and many of Aust's big names were there. Lee Troop (yes, that's his name), former Olympic Marathon runner (who consistently wins every race from 10-42km) was there and he lapped me after just 2 loops...haha these guys are amazing, think the top few guys ran 65 or 66min!!!

Anyway, it was a great run. And we had potluck brunch at Alison's place after the race, which is always nice. Some of them brought their partners/family along so it's great fun. Tony's son, Simon is so funny and cute. haha.

I'm feeling very happy now. I just printed out all my 4 assignments due tmr. Yippee! no more looking thru them. enough. Now the only missing piece is my airticket home on the 14th!! argh, i'm on the waiting list to fly back to Singapore 14-29 Sept, coz I will be racing the Hong Kong International ITU Triathlon at Plover Cove, HK on 23 Sept. I'm really looking forward to it! Yippee, a half marathon PB + finished assignments+ hols soon...mmmmm =)

Thanks darling =)

2007-09-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

Today, Saturday, is my sleep-in rest day! My first complete rest day in 5 weeks!! that's coz im running the Burnley Half Marathon race tmr morn. Anyway, I was shocked outta bed at 7.30am coz my doorbell was ringing. OOH I've got a parcel. Groggily, I dashed downstairs to pick up a big box. There!

A parcel from Clement =)
I opened it and....hmm...treasure hunt. those white foam things remind me of what we put under our christmas tree every year as fake snow. and which i kiapped between my toes at night to straighten them out (coz my big toe bends inwards).
Heh, a cute bear, a small naked (talk about decency...) version of the "I love you" bear I bought for Clem some time ago (His was wearing a red tee...). Apparently, he says in his letter that my bear has to be smaller than his coz i'm smaller sized than him. hehe.

OOOH a tea mug for me to drink my hot tea/brain juice (aka diet fruitade)/Sustagen. I love the picture there, it looks really sweet. 2 tattered teddies having tea, nice and cosy.
There! My bear sitting on foam pieces in the mug. Comfy eh? haha.

Yes dear, I was struggling to open the box which the mug was in. And I saw some signs of struggle on the box flap and thought to myself "i'm not the only one who can't open this box" haha.

Yup, there was a very sweet letter as well.

I read the letter about 4 times over, put the bear on my bed and went back to sleep...until noon time =P

Happy Birthday to me.

2007-09-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately I haven't actually thought about today. Well, so it turned out quite a terrible day UNTIL...i read Ern's blog and received a monstrous bouquet of flowers!

First, Clem didn't know it was my birthday. I waited till 2plus am last night hoping he'd msg me, but no. Not till the arvo when I msged him tt it was my bday. Well, it's ok, it's your hp's fault. That's why I remember your bday in my head not my hp. (also, what's the big fuss about special dates eh?)

you did get me a present but I just haven't received it, so what am I complaining about eh?

And thank you for the cute bday song.

Second, I can't get a flight back. But now I feel less incentive to come back since you don't seem too excited or anything. Oh wells, Jie's back anyway and I haven't seen her in ages!!!

I read Ern's blog and it was SOOO SWEET! Thanks guys! I miss having bdays at home. Dinners, cake, bday song and presents =)

Oh n I received a huge bouquet of flowers from home. My first bouquet of flowers in my entire life. I did receive some flowers here n there over the years, and one from Hakeem at prom 2 years ago.

What a surprise, when I thought I was gonna be pathetic and not get any presents today =)

Oh and Val, happy birthday!!! I wanted to get you a cake sent to your place. BUT I spent 3hrs translating English to French and French to English on Dictionary.com! And i had to check a map to find out where Cergy Pontoise Cedex is. But it failed, there seemed to be no such delivery service. Unless the french translation was wrong or sth. Well, I will get u a present and send over soon =)

Anyways, I had a bday cake!! Jeremy called me to go over to his place coz he bought me a slice of strawberry cheesecake =)

My week out of my hermit crab shell

2007-08-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

On wed evening i had a team dinner (MUAC) post training, at University Cafe/Restaurant. Had yummy Risotto Pescatore, lots of chatting, then gelato with Iylia. As we were walking back, we were shivering like crazy! esp me. My hand was shaking so violently i was gonna drop the ice cream cup n my voice was trembling uncontrollably. hahaha.

Anyway, went for a 60km ride on thurs since it was great weather--warm and sunny.

Friday was good too. I met Jansen for dinner.

Jansen

Iylia recommended a Thai restaurant at Chinatown. The food was good, ambience was really nice. There was a pianist playing pop/love songs on a grand piano. We left when he played Lips of an Angel by Hinder, very nice. We walked ard then went from Freddos ice cream to Koko Black to Brunetti's, where we finally found a place to sit. Our dessert!
Creme Caramel
Nutella cheesecake

I have been feeling piggish all week, terrible. haha.

Anyway it was good catching up. We chatted for like 4 over hours! Jansen said "Didn't I tell you you need a guy to settle you down?" he said that almost 4 years ago now, back when i was crazy and cynical. haha.

Sat i had a tough run training in the morn. I was feeling shit man, legs stiff but i tried to push it anyway, thinking of all the food i had the night b4. hahaha. post trg i had brekky with Iylia who told me that since coming back (3weeks), i have jumped from blissful down to the pits.

Yuppers. In the arvo Jansen called me to go play frisbee/soccer/touch rugby at Princes Park with his friends, so I went, tho i was v tired. It was a beautiful day to be out in the sun anyway. I ended up playing touch rugby n soccer with abt 15 other ppl for 2 over hrs. It was really great fun. And i realised my hand-eye and leg-eye coordination is not as bad as i thought! i scored a couple of goals man! haha.

It was v fun playing with his friends, they are fun and nice. But i think they think i'm a mad woman...so maybe i won't be invited back to play with them...

Anyway by the night, i was paying for the maddness on the field. I was starting to ache terribly. Esp my hip flexors, so much so that i cld barely lift my legs up to cross them or just to walk. i wld not even think abt walking up stairs.

Woke up early this morn to ride. I cld not get outta bed properly. i think every single muscle in my body has micro tears, i was hurting worse than i ever did in years! must be those dormant muscles rudely woken up during the games yest. Still, i limped to get changed and met the uni group for a 100km ride to Frankston. It was shitting cold, drizzling and sleepy. I was surprised I cld even pedal! haha. it was an enjoyable ride nonetheless n the weather cleared up.

Got home, limped ard the whole day. My hip flexors, mid and lower back n sides are the worst hit areas man. I had dinner with Jeremy and then went for more dessert. Can't help it la, it's the 100k. hahaha.

What Matters Most

2007-08-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE --Rick Warren.

Day 16 - What Matters Most (an excerpt)

" The Best Expression of Love is Time
The importance of things can be measured by how much time we are willing to invest in them. the more time you give to something, the more you reveal its importance and value to you. If you want to know a person's priorities, just look at how they use their time.

Time is the most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money but you can't make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. your time is your life. that is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.

It is not enough to say relationships are important; we must prove it by investing time in them. Words alone are worthless. "My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action" 1 John 3:18 (TEV) Relationships take time and effort, and the best way to spell love is "T-I-M-E".

The essence of love is not what we think or do to provide for others, but how much we give of ourselves. Men, in particular, often don't understand this. Many have said to me, "I don't understand my wife and kids. I provide everything they need. What more could they want?" They want you! Your eyes, your ears, your time, your attention, your presence, your focus--your time. Nothing can take the place of that.

The most desired gift of love is not diamonds or roses or chocolate. It is focused attention. Love concentrates so intently on another that you forget yourself at that moment. Attention says, "I value you enough to give you my most precious asset--my time." Whenever you give your time, you are making a sacrifice, and sacrifice is the essence of love. Jesus modeled this: "Be full of love for others, following the example of Christ who loved you and gave Himself to God as a sacrifice to take away your sins." Ephesians 5:2 (LB)

You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. "God so loved the world that he gave..." John 3:16a Love means giving up--yielding preferences, comfort, goals, security, money, energy, or time for the benefit of someone else.

The Best Time to Love is Now "

2007-08-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

Should I tell you i'm sad or down? You'll chide me for being depressed and say it's not your job to cheer me up. and that it makes you tired. Ok, i know you're stressed and have other things to bother about. Maybe sleep will evaporate this saddness.

Should I tell you I feel neglected? But you'll scold me for being unfair to you, for expecting you to always be there for me. Ok, i know there are things you have to do and things you want to do. I just wish I could erase this feeling of neglect.

I dont even dare to ask you for anything. You'll say I'm too demanding. I guess I must be too demanding. Ok, i don't need any more than you willingly offer.

Wait. before you get angry, you do ask me if i've eaten, ask me what i'd like to eat, and many more. You care about me. I really have no right to ask any more of you, do I?

These are really not big deals. You can ignore it if it doesn't make you feel good.

First 2 weeks in Melb

2007-08-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

It's been 2 weeks now, pretty fast coz I've been drowning in work!! 2 essays, 2 lab reports and 2 presentations due soon. And i've never written lab reports before and have not done the Statistics module most would've done last semester. oh wells...Not to mention i missed 2 weeks of uni and have to catch up. sigh...

Training wise, it's been good. But picking it up gradually with 8 sessions a week last week n this week.

Last Sat evening I went to Jeremy and Terrance (my ex-neighbours)'s new place at Seasons, an apartment block just across the road. It was really nice, cozy, great view and made me feel like moving out. I'm a lil sian of staying alone coz it's scary, and i'm sick of my room. But anyways...Terrance's room wall was plastered with his gf's photos. He said he pasted them up himself. How sweet. If i didn't be thick-skinned n go to Clem's room and put my pictures up, there wouldn't be any.

Sunday arvo I had a lunch gathering at Jeremy and Terrance's place, coz Ven is leaving Aust for good and returning to M'sia. Terrnace and Victor cooked pasta, chicken and baked oreo cheesecake! Gosh! haha. Nadia made truffles which were really good, and brought more food. It was a feast of homecooked food! haha! There was one prob tho, they're mostly M'sians and I don't understand any Malay! haha.

I had a tiring day and late night on Monday 13/8/07 training and doing my assignments. But I didn't set my alarm on Tues morn since my first class was at noon. I slept like a pig and only woke up at 12.03 the next day!!! I was was totally stunned!!! Double checked the time on the clock, grabbed my books and ran all the way to school! I could not miss the class coz we had to hand in our tutorial work for grading!

On Wednesday 15/8/07, I saw LOTS OF NAKED PEOPLE. It's like last yr's NAKED PIRATES thing. In the morning when i just finished class at 10.30am, I saw a bunch of naked ppl running ard -- they must be cold! Then i went to the library to do some work and they ran in and hung around too! Then i noticed there were some girls, but mostly guys. Maybe they're playing a game. Anyway, when I went back for lecture at 4pm, they ran into the lect theater, round the stage and back up and out! I couldnt tell if they were the same bunch of naked ppl. What is this man, ANNUAL RUN AROUND NAKED DAY???!

I ran in the Yarra Bend Park 6km Cross Country Race yest arvo. It was fabulous!! Weather was warm and sunny, there were heaps of participants and supporters. We (MUAC) pitched a tent with picnic mats. I had a great race, finishing strong in 26.50. 1.5minutes faster than at Jells Park XC race 3+ months ago! haha. We had tea after the race, lots of yummy food. Met up with Sophie and Madeleine (who drove me there). Very good fun.

Last night I went to Tyler's party. Tyler's one of the guys who run with us. He's from the US, doing postgraduate at Melb Uni. His place was nice, there was finger food and drinks. I spoke to a girl who studied at Uni of Michigan, so it was really helpful for my exchange planning. Met some other really funny and interesting ppl as well...like a Japanese girl who kept asking Iylia and me to speak with a S'porean accent coz she likes how it sounds (?!?!?) Yup, and some of the MUAC guys were there too, so we had a very good time. Tom baked brownies for the party, on top of the choc muffins and anzac biscuits he baked for post-race tea.

Oh Iylia was telling me abt his date with this girl in the morning. They went for a bike ride down along the Yarra river (how romantic). He offered to bring sandwiches so they could have a picnic at Studley Park (so sweet). And the best part is, he slept only 4hrs the night before, woke up at 6am to MAKE THE SANDWICHES HIMSELF and wash the toilet coz he didn't want her to see the house in a messy state!!!!

post OSIM triathlon, pre Melbourne

2007-08-05T00:05:00.000-07:00

SUNDAY 29 July 2007

So OSIM triathlon was finally over, time for some relaxing and unwinding!!!

Had lunch with my family at Spageddies (YUM!!!) and some dessert afterwards. Then went to town to meet my Clem to watch The Simpsons Movie then off to the post race dinner. It was alright, the entertainment was erm....*ahem*

We took a short walk by the river after that, just like last year. Here's a shot of us sitting on a bench rummaging through our lucky draw goodie bags n my 3rd place goodie bag.

MONDAY 30 July 2007

I had lunch with Clem and we spent the arvo looking thru his proj. Quite interesting. Anyway, we had STEAMBOAT & HOTPLATE dinner!!!! my favourite!!!! Very delicious with Dad's secret sauce. We were all busy helping out preparing the food and setting the table.

A grand feast. Imperial maid pouring drinks for everyone.

OOOOHHH time for some pigging out. Instead of arranging the food around the plates, Clem happily washed and piled the mushrooms into a heap of mushroom salad! Very funny.

Watched Stomp the Yard on DVD with Clem later.

TUESDAY 31 July 2007

Had lunch with Dad, Mum and Val at Crystal Jade Kitchen. Dim Sum and mango pudding. Fabulous!!! Met Clem and we had dinner at Chomp Chomp. Prawn noodles soup, ice kachang (brown sauce and milk only), egg beancurd with glutinous rice balls.

WEDNESDAY 1 August 2007

I had breakfast with Dad, Mum and Val at Coffee Bean (tis the life man!!). Then Lan picked me up in his huge Merc for lunch at Rochester Park. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called Min Jiang. Ooh, he used the valet parking service even tho the carpark was nearby. hmmm....Anyway, lunch was very delicious, and very nice too =)

Met Clem after that and we did a 40min jog in the evening, followed by dinner at my place.

THURSDAY 2 August 2007

Val and I went out for some shopping. First, i decided i hated wat i was wearing (spag top and a skirt) so we went to far east plaza and I bought a short retro looking dress. very nice n comfy and cooling! then we walked all over orchard, got Val's coffee -no, caffine- fix, bought val's tai tai looking Aldo bag and checked out some poser gym wear for val to pose at Planet Fitness. hahahaha.

Then we went to The Cathay so I can cut my hair at Olsen's shop--MAZU on level 4. He just opened his own salon and it's very nicely decorated, very comfy and very affordable!! So finally I cut it all off. A short bob, shortest hair in what, 6 years. haha.

Oh ya, Val cut her hair short on Monday. Our obsession with short hair. haha.
concave bob.
Don't we just look fabulous?

We had dinner at home, Clem came over to join us after school. We were all going to The Chocolate Factory (aka Laurent Bernard's Chocolatier) for some dessert.

My darling and me.
Val and I acting posh at Double O, with champagn in hand. haha. We went to Zouk and it was closed!!! GOSH are we back dated!!! Times have changed....nono we've moved on. haha anyway it was ladies night at DblO. We are indeed getting old. After 1 hour of dancing, we were so tired we had to slump on the sofas outside. then we went home. at 1.15am!!!! haha. We used to dance until 5am in the morn! haha. And we felt oooold. But it was pretty fun nonetheless, just unwinding a lil.

FRIDAY 3 August 2007

Had lunch with Val at Sixth Ave: Nasi Briyani. Yum. Almost every morn between 10-11plus there will be a knock on my door, Val waking me up/asking me to go for brekky, brunch or lunch. Some good company which I will miss.

Met Clem and we watched Cashback at Plaza Sing. The kinda movie they'll show at Cinema Nova in Lygon Court. We walked around a lil and we ate at Chongjin Hotpot at Suntec City. OOOHHHH i love ma la huo juo. Ate until almost burst. haha.

Clem (looking cute) and hotpot--very good combination =)

We took a stroll by the river near the Esplanade. hmm...nice. Clem came over and helped me pack. Darn I hate having to leave.

SATURDAY 4 August 2007

It's finally here, the day I have to leave. Had brekky with my family (my fav Sat morn breakfast) of kaya toast, eggs and teh bing at Yakun. Reminds me of pri sch days when we'll have breakfast of prata at Tampines central every sat morn.

Then met Clem for lunch. We had turtle soup with yam rice. I love it!!! Turtle soup and Clem--very good combination.

Then we went to walk around town. We tried out the weirdo Jap ice cream thing. Those mini pearls aren't pearls!! They're like iq balls or watever u call it. they burst in ur mouth.

There! Clem with a Bubble Milk Tea flavoured ice cream with mini pearls. Half way eating there was an avalanche! The mini pearls started tumbling down n bouncing all over the floor. hahaha

SIGH.

We all had dinner at the airport. Pasta Fresca de Salvatore. It was good. And Dad, being mad, exclaimed so loundly that their glass food display was disastrous. He then went over to scrutinise the UGLY, WEIRD and RUBBISH displays of RUBBISH inside. hahahahaha.

SIGH.

And here I am back in COLD COLD melb. I miss my family, I miss my Clement. The past 7 weeks have been perfect. I always look fwd to the breakfasts, lunches and dinners i have at home, with Val, Mum, Dad and the rest of my family. Val talking abt her job and the customers (24/7), running with Rong in the evenings (before he returned to being a couch potato), hearing Ern yakk on her hp, eating Fondue with Ern n Bae...It feels very nice.

It's been fabulous with Clem as well, our 5am rides, run intervals at Bishan Park, dinners, lunches, movies =) And how he imitates everything I do...and making them look 100000 times more retarded. I wish you were here.

I've never felt so contented and glad.