Happy 大年初一 = GOOD !!

I had a FANTASTIC & really enjoyable 大年初一!

As I don't need to do any CNY visiting nor have to stay at home to wait for relatives to visit, I always have the whole CNY to myself. Interestingly this year I found two other friends who share the same luckury :P (CNY lah, everything also must be lucky lucky haha :D). We didn't think anyone else would be free to join us on 初一 and hence we decided to spend this joyous day together to just visit, nuah, jiak, workout (yes yes, workout! to dispel at least 8% of the guilt of CNY bingeing :P), and more nuah & jiak.

Due to some pressing matters that cropped up at the very last minute on CNY eve, DOP was not able to join us for the morning activities that were initially planned. So some changes were made and NOO & I decided to carry on with our morning plans before DOP were to meet up with us.

8:28:58am. Met up with NOO for a short run. After my long stretching (nowadays I try to stretch more before starting any runs), we started our slow jog. Just few steps after we started the run, I saw this spanking new school building that turned out to be my primary school! I got really excited and trotted up the little slope to get a closer look at my school. Wow, the school is now so big ! Seeing the big school logo really evokes so many old memories of my life back in primary school!

We ran and even managed to run past the site of my old primary school. The buildings were still there and didn't look any older than what my impression of it was. What a treat to be able to see both the old and new school buildings all in a morning! Both NOO & I had fun just reminiscing about the good old school days ... funny how the school looked so much smaller, how the road leading from the school gate to the assembly area seemed so much shorter than what I remembered it to be :)

I am soooooo glad to be doing a road run on CNY day 1! Hopefully this run symbolises more good & painfree & injury-free runs for the whole year. :) A BIG BIG THANK YOU to NOO for running with me at my slow-slow & short-short distance!! *big big bow* And THANKS for reminding me to slow down my pace at some point, and to allow me to extend my run a little to reach 5km in all! Yippeee! Finally cross 5km!! Can strike off one of my wish-list for Feb liao! *super broad smile*

10:18:08am. Next up, our first visit to the new spanking Fitness First club at One Raffles Quay. DOP was originally suppose to join us at the club for some workout and had made prior arrangements for NOO to visit as a guest.

Wow! The club ...
is ....
AWESOME!!!

Its HUGE & so new, with all the new gym equipments, rows and rows of treadmills facing the waters, rows of LCD TVs, a cool corner with sofas and chairs and magazines to nuah & relax (with a wonderful view to boot). We were both in awe!

After our own conducted tour of the club, we started our respective workouts with NOO trying to build up his muscles with some rowing, while I gamely hopped on this Cardio Wave elliptical trainer thingy. I first tried out such a machine during the Mizuno Wave Run last year. Even had a pic of me doing that back then. That elliptical training takes a little getting used to. Instead of going forward like in a running motion, this one goes sideways, so it exercises a different part of your muscles. I was feeling the lethargy on my adductors very early into the workout (GREAT!) and managed to up the speed bit by bit. NOO saw how I was enjoying myself and joined me after completing bulking up his upper body (haha). I called it quits after 20 mins feeling that I have warmed up sufficiently to go for my resistance training.

I was just soooo impressed with the weights machines! They are all brand new and they even have this panel attached to each of the machines to show the number of reps you do. Later DOP told me that these machines also allow you to record your training and to customise the training accordingly ? Not sure how that is possible since it only has an (+) & (-) button only. Nevermind, I'm sure we will find out more in due course.

We were expecting the gym to be peppered more with Ang Mos out on their workouts and less of chinese (since most should be out visiting?). But what surprises us was that majority of the gym rats were chinese and only saw a handful of ang mos out pumping iron.

I finished my workout with my typical HIP strengthening exercises. Wow, even the mats are brand new and I didn't have to suffer smelling all the sweat that had soaked right into the mat when I lie face down to do some of my strengthening work. Shiok!!!

Haha, can tell NOO was just as excited as I was at the gym! He said he almost felt like a boy in a toystore with all these new gadgets to play with. I couldn't agree more! I was having loads of fun exploring the equipment too! Later NOO came over excitedly, while I was doing my strengthening exercises, to tell me about the cool Kinesis equipment that the club has. I saw those machines but had no clues what they were until NOO explained to me how they worked. Its really cool! A quick google explained what the Kinesis Equipment does:

• This revolutionary new system is constructed of four panels with unique cables, grips and weight stacks that allow movements to be easy, natural and without restrictions


• Kinesis is a unique human-centric, resistance-based training system. It is not a machine but four panels of grips, cables and weight stacks that allow for 360-degree, three-dimensional resistance-based motions


• The objective of Kinesis is to re-establish the correct balance between mind and body resulting in a better quality of life

Again another new thing that I wasn't familiar with!!! (think we very suaku because later DOP told us that FF is one of the last clubs in SG to have this equipment! -__-")

We then just nuah-ed at the club "lounge" to enjoy the beautiful sights & sky while waiting for DOP to contact us and also to plan what to do next before our movie at 5pm. We nuah-ed till our stomachs protested and guided by our growing hunger, we washed up and left our newfound toyland in search for jiak.

Not knowing what or where to eat, we decided to just walk til we find some place with food that calls out to us. Sadly, most of the shops along Clarke Quay were closed and those that were open seemed either too upmarket or not something our bak tors (though churning like a busy washing machine by then) were interested in. So our stroll for food turned into a trek and we finally found this quiet little restaurant in Robertson Quay that serves Turkish cuisine. It was quiet enough (with only 2 patrons) & neither of us had tried Turkish food so we were game to try. Our bak tors both hoorayed in unison as our food came and we finally tucked into a good relaxing lunch close to 1:08pm.

Next up .....

Onion Rings & Just Follow Law ....