Slacker Week!!

If this isn't divine intervention, I dunno what is ...

On Monday, somehow my phone decided NOT to ring at the designated time and I overslept. Sh*t, couldn't make it for gym. Planned to go during lunch but the mtg overran and ended past 12:30pm ... (*&@#$(*#

Tues. Didn't sleep well. Again. But struggled to get up for my mrn run to office. Alas, shortly into my run, the strong wind and few droplets signalled a possible downpour. As I approached the MRT station, I started to experience sharp pain on my left mid sole. I have NEVER had this pain before!!! By the time I got to the station (only 9 mins into the run!), it was starting to rain and it just got heavier. With the rain & pain, I gave up and took a train to work.

By the time I got to the office, the rain had stopped. Wondered how long the rain lasted *sigh*

Did a short 20mins on the treadmill, and guess what? I didn't feel any pain at my midsole ?

What the hell is going on ???

And the best part is ..... was thinking to go for a swim during lunch ... and the signboard outside the gym stated that the pool is out for this whole week!!

Errrr ...... *shake head*

And ... last but not least ...
I'll be away from tomorrow for a couple of days. That means no exercise this entire week!!!

-_________________-"

The Miniature Earth

Shanghai Delights @ Sim Lim Square

Oooooooo ..... I FINALLY tried the guo tie at this stall!
And we luv it!!!

The skin was fried til its crispy and though its oily (what do you expect from fried stuff?) its not dripping oil. So it doesn't make you feel nauseous after downing several pieces.

We also tried the sour & spicy soup with noodles. Its just as good! For someone that doesn't like vinegar ... I was actually enjoying the dish.

Also bought popiah from the Local Delights stall. It was not bad, just that they were too stingy with the ingredients and hence the popiah was too thin. Hence the skin was a tad too thick when u bite into the popiah, so not exactly a pleasant experience. I think the popiah at Yi Kou Wei is much better, of course its much more pricey.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally tried out the Shanghai Delights stall. Definitely not a disappointing experience :)

Just another run

A simple msn msg. A short reply. A quick discussion on the route. And the run this mrn was arranged. No fan-fare. Quick and easy. No wishy-washy. I like.

We headed out from my place and slowly jogged towards Dover, cut short the distance (as I wasn't sure whether I could complete the run given my lousy condition) and turned left earlier towards NUS. The rest of the route we took could be found in the map below.

Our resolve (or rather mine!) to run faltered when we passed the prata place @ fong seng (hehe :P) but of course the trainer beside me reined me in (haha :P). Oh, I have not been here in ages and was really surprised of the drastic changes that have occured at the corner of the junction between Clementi Road & Pasir Panjang Road. The building that used to house an old 7-11 and an old coffeeshop & some other dilapidated shops has now become a brand new building with a spanking new 7-11, denise the wineshop and many other shops. Oh wow. There also used to be a pasta fresca across the street, which has now been replaced by ... Frangrance Hotel!!! Wow!!

We continued along Pasir Panjang Road, a stretch that I never pass by unless I'm at NUS for courses. We cut into Science Park II, ran up this long mild slope to which my running mate simply said "No Challenge" .... errrr hello ? I was whining away "I thought no slopes?!?!?" But ok lah, to be fair it was really hardly a slope :P I'm just unfit haha

We spent the next couple of minutes taking short cuts, climbed some stairs and emerged at South Buona Vista Road. I used to pass by this stretch and wondered where the flight of stairs that looked pretty eerie at night led to. Now I know! The rest of the way back was easy and for good measure I insisted on a 1 km run along the canal to ensure we hit the 11km.

Now as I plotted the route, I realised the route was just about 8.2km (I deducted about 400m for the short cut within Sci Park)+1km (canal stretch)!!! That's like ... errrrrrrrrrrrrr .... still <10km!!!!!>

Total time take 1hr 21mins ... for less than 10km. Sigh.

Anyway, it was a relaxing run. THANKS so much for the company! Without which I'm sure I would have cancelled the run today in the name of rest. Hehe. Still hope the pace isn't too slow ... no choice lah. Piggy auntie can't do anything faster :P

Classes for Men

Hilarious!

ADULT LEARNING CENTER
Registration by Friday, June 29, 2008

NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL
OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM


Class 1
How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays--Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.
Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 2
The Toilet Paper Roll--Does It Change Itself?
Round Table Discussion.
Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours.

Class 3
Is It Possible To Urinate Using The Technique Of Lifting The Seat and Avoiding The Floor, Walls and Nearby Bathtub?--Group Practice.
Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 4
Fundamental Differences Between The Laundry Hamper and The Floor--Pictures and Explanatory Graphics.
Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.

Class 5
Dinner Dishes--Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Kitchen Sink?
Examples on Video.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning
at 7:00 PM

Class 6
Loss Of Identity--Losing The Remote To Your Significant Other.
Help Line Support and Support Groups.
Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7:00 PM

Class 7
Learning How To Find Things--Starting With Looking In The Right Places And Not Turning The House Upside Down While Screaming.
Open Forum
Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours.

Class 8
Health Watch--Bringing Her Flowers Is Not Harmful To Your Health.
Graphics and Audio Tapes.
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 9
Real Men Ask For Directions When Lost--Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined

Class 10
Is It Genetically Impossible To Sit Quietly While She Parallel Parks?
Driving Simulations.
4 weeks, Saturday's noon, 2 hours.

Class 11
Learning to Live--Basic Differences Between Mother and Wife.
Online Classes and role-playing
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined

Class 12
How to be the Ideal Shopping Companion
Relaxation Exercises, Meditation and Breathing Techniques.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 13
How to Fight Cerebral Atrophy--Remembering Birthdays, Anniversaries and Other Important Dates and Calling When You're Going To Be Late.
Cerebral Shock Therapy Sessions and Full Lobotomies Offered.
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 14
The Stove/Oven--What It Is and How It Is Used.
Live Demonstration.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM, location to be determined.


Upon completion of any of the above courses, diplomas will be issued to the survivors.

Rest

Was soo reluctant to wake up this mrn. I'm just so tired.
Sigh.
Anyway, decided to skip the spin class this mrn and just go for a relax swim.
And I'm surprised that it was indeed very relaxing. I just went slow, very slow, and didn't allow myself to be affected by the people around me. Time passed very very quickly (surprise!) and I finished the swim in 1 hour without stopping at all. That is extremely rare. Sometimes I would have a good swim but I would be constantly checking my watch, counting down to the 1 hour mark.

I actually felt better after the swim.

Good enough to feel good about my spin later on. Of course I took it slow and didn't push myself, but I felt better today than the past couple of days.

Woo hoo! Weekend is finally here!

I Need Air !

Another run that ended with me almost passing out. And it was one of my usual runs. I haven't felt like this in years. This is not good.

I was feeling breathless for a long while and it took me ages before I sorta recovered. Was trying darn hard to breathe in properly while at work.

What's going on ???

Argh.

One of those Lives!

haha ... I was just talking about "one of those days" this mrn and I read this strip from The Born Loser in the papers

2-6 DNF

Its one of those runs that no matter how I psycho myself, I just couldn't carry on.
Its not the mentality. I want to carry on, but I .... just .... can't.
The lungs were objecting, and shortly into the run I felt a mild burning sensation in the lungs. What's going on ??
30 mins into the run, I had to have my first walk break.
And the walk breaks became more frequent.
At one point I was doing a 2-6 min run walk! But each time I started to jog, I just feel so breathless.
I gave up ... and walked the rest of the way home.
I sure hope this is just "one of those days" and i'll recover soon enough for a better run the next time.

Same spin class, conducted by different instructors, will reap different results.

I'm really liking the Fri spin class. No matter how tired I feel, I just feel better after that. That's the one class that I felt my legs aching after the class. He just really push you. HARD. He would come up to your bike and tell you to spin faster, that what you are doing is not good enough. Slackers stay away.

Good class.

And yet there are other classes where I just drift away in the midst of it all. I would be thinking about work, about other stuff (like what to eat? :P). That's the one symptom that the class isn't motivating. Sadly, I noticed one class that I used to enjoy, falling into this category lately.

Ok ... weekends coming! Can't wait!

Chao Ta!!

I'm taking a breather from work coz its been endless frustrations ... being dumped with shitload of work that others wouldn't care to do ... and no one to turned to becoz the predecessor just conveniently ignored my emails ... can't call becoz he is now in a diff timezone.

ah well ... life sux as usual

________________________________________________________________
anyway, i almost got a one-to-one session with my spin instructor this mrn! Her class is new and not well received. That poor gal was in the spin studio spinning away, apprehensive about whether anyone is gonna turned up. I was thinking between swim or spin but thought I'll just go support her and spin instead. When the time came and no one turned up, I was telling her how weird it is to be just me and her ! I asked whether we should just cancel the class. She said yeah well, typically in such scenarios it would be to cancel the class but she also didn't want to waste my time and so we proceeded. Well, thankfully another 2 guys joined us in the second or third track and we gals were so relieved! Actually quite poor thing for the instructor, must be quite a morale killer to have no one goes to her class. Especially when she checked the attendance for the classes for the other days and they all were healthy numbers. I had to console her that it was probably a new class and she is new to that particular club. Well, hope it turned out well for her.

________________________________________________________________

The sun had been in overdrive lately ... I'm getting super chao ta from the swim. A user, who was walking behind me, saw me and asked "what happened to you??". He was commenting that he thought he recognised me from behind but I looked so dark :P And just this mrn another colleague commented that I'm "burnt". Ooops, guess I am!

Tired Run!! :(

Oh it was such a tiring run today ..... just couldn't get the engine started no matter how i psychoed myself.

I was struggling every step of the way .... and I had to stop many times at the traffic junctions ... that helped me to catch my breath, but also slowed me down considerably ...

I still managed to complete my run (thankfully!!), but 2+ mins longer than usual ... :_(

My legs have been perpetually tired lately .... but i dun wan to give myself excuse to rest and slack because once that starts, its hard to rein myself in ... haha ... it would be downward spiral thereafter ....

Hope i feel better soon!

Haagen-Daz

Just had Haagen-Daz @ Holland Village.

We were considering between Cold Rock or HD but friend took a look at CR and decided he didn't want it. So we crossed over to HD.

Obviously I haven't been to a Haagen-Daz for a long time coz its a completely new menu now.

We were torn between the waffle or brownie, so finally decided to order 3 scoops of ice cream with both waffle & brownie.

The ice cream is still good. Think I still prefer HD. But the brownie and waffle were atrocious! The waffle is salty (eeeks!!!) while the brownies - two pathetic pieces of dry biscuit-like brownie. I would have expected a lot more from HD, boy am I disappointed. Think many other places (try the one at Tango just a few shops down) not known for dessert had done much better.

So guess we will stick to just the ice cream the next time we patronise HD.

Ankle Injury Talk

By invitation from kind soul T, I attended a talk on ankle injuries on Sat.

It was a small turnout at the Emmanuel Physiotherapy at Clifford Centre. The speaker, Mark, gave a very good presentation on the common running injuries starting with ankle injury. His talk was very informative including demonstrations on how to stretch & strengthen on target areas such as the ankle, quads, calves etc. The content is actually not new to me since I've been injured long enough, seen the physio countless times to know a lil about the subject matter. However, it serves as a good reminder about the importance of stretching and strengthening (something which I admit til today I don't do enough of! :P) and definitely brings me back to my CGH days when I had to endure the boring stretches in those hourly sessions..

The other speaker, Philip, also did a good job telling us about the various "laws" we runners or at least sports enthusiasts should follow. Amid the theories (almost felt like I'm in a lecture! :P) and graphs, his talk was peppered with interesting stories to drill home the fact that we have to learn to build up gradually and not load up too quickly. Ever heard of the Milo & Cow story ? I didn't until Philip told us about it :)

I was actually keen to book an appointment to see the physiotherapist about my condition but instead he offered to analyse my gait there and then, at no charge! I initially declined coz there were many others there and I was pretty embarrassed about being "showcased"! With urging from the rest, I grit my teeth and "strutted" up and down across the room repeatedly while the therapists analysed my walking gait and they gave the following observations. (The physio guy was speaking really fast and I had difficulty catching up, so I hope I remembered the correct things!)

• My left ankle is tilted at an angle (dunno outwards or inwards - think is outwards?). That is why when i run my tiabialis posterior (i think) has to overcompensate and hence my shin pain.
• This also contributed to my recent pain at the back of my ankle (soleus?). Think I need the resident SGRunners doc, Mr R, to help verify these .... hehehe
  
• My calve muscles are very very tight
• So are my ITB
• No problems with my hips (yay!!)

So he told me to do more massaging of my ankles and calves at home to loosen them. So all the above consultation, without paying a single cent. He said there is no need to pay to get sports massage when I can do it at home using a metal rod (he got his from Ikea he claimed) :P

Anyway, this guy seems very experienced and knows what he is talking about (ok, but who am i to judge?). I shall heed his advices since anyway there is no harm in doing those stretches. Ok, I must find time to stretch stretch stretch!

Looking fwd to the next talk.

No Excuses

We have been blessed with cool weather the past 2 days .... such excellent weather to sleep in !!! I was having so much difficulty waking up this mrn although I planned for a run. Drifted in and out of sleep and finally woke up at 8+, checked that the weather is still cool enough and hesitated about the run. The Voice was whining about tired legs and needing more recovery.

Thankfully I managed to overrule The Voice and methodically started getting ready and preparing myself for the run.

Today's route is the same as last week's so that I could get familiarised with the route. I'm starting to appreciate the idea of "familiarisation runs". I used to think its just to know the exact route u r running prior to the event so that u dun get lost and know where the slopes are etc. I'm not far off but I realised it is quite important to be familiar with the route. To know where are the "killer" slopes, where to slow down to prepare for a tough stretch ahead, where to push knowing that the break is near or that u r approaching a downslope etc. And with time, after training the same route, you will grow more accustomed to the route and thus improve.

That's my take and that's why in the past month, I have been running similar routes and shelve all thoughts about running the same route being mundane & routine etc. I still crave for new routes but I try to moderate that. I tell myself that i have to be at least familiar and comfortable with one route before i can afford to be tired of it and try another one.

Anyway, the first 1+ km was painful. The legs were heavy as lead and I was really struggling! I had no confidence in even completing 5km but I told myself "No excuses". Even if it meant taking a cab halfway, I just have to do it.

Thankfully the body adjusted gradually and I managed to complete the distance. I made sure I went slow and took 2 min breaks on and off, but definitely lesser than last week, and I completed the run in better shape than last week. With lesser and shorter walk breaks. That's the beauty of familiarisation run. I shaved a good 5 mins from the run.

I just re-plotted the route. I am very sure the distance mapped by Mapmyrun is inaccurate. Its not possible a 10.59km took me 1hr 7mins when an 8.5km took me 1hr. Something is very wrong. So now I'm left wondering what is the exact distance I cover. Sigh. I added 1km more as cooldown as well as to hopefully have clocked 10km in total.

Glad I managed to be discipline and head out for the run. Now I have to loosen my tight muscles :P

No $ignboard

Friday dinner was @ No Signboard in Vivocity with the division.

Seldom feel so un-excited about food. That's how the company can really affects one's appetite. :P Anyway, didn't feel like taking pics so no pics but didn't miss much.

For such a well-known restaurant, I have to say the food is really mediocre. The organiser of the dinner ordered this $499 set for each table (there were three) and we had:-

• lobster salad - seldom get to eat lobster so I'm not complaining. My fav sides of this dish turned out to be the sweet & juicy .... orange! ha! bummer
• shark's fins soup - quite perturbed that the soup is orangy. Its too thick and colleague complained that there weren't any sharks fins and its plain starch. Agree. We left the soup mostly untouched.
• deep fried toufu with minced meat - what's so big deal about this simple fare ? Nothing :P But ok, i luv toufu and minced meat.
  
• steamed fish - the flesh was rubbery. nuff said
• cereal prawn - sinful deep fried prawn with cereals. Think this was one of the rare occassions that I ate so many pieces of prawns. Luv the cereals too ... colleague was warning me about how sinful it is, but do i care ? :P
• noodles - yucky. How wrong can u go with noodles right ? Its not like the most diff dish for a chef to master. But sigh ... you will be surprised. Its horrible. The noodles were almost clumpy, soggy and its just noodles without ingredients!!! ok, i saw another bowl with mushrooms, so i think the waitstaff didn't do a good job in distributing the portions. More about the waitstaff later.
• crabs - that's what No Signboard is all about right ? Sigh, so disappointing. The crab in the chilli crab was soft, a sign of not being fresh ? The white pepper crab was touted to be their signature dish. I'm not a fan of pepper and that strong pepper smell when that dish was presented to us already sorta turned me off. So I guess I'm not a good judge to this dish.

Now to the waitstaff. Two of them. Mr BIG-Man-In-Suit first swiped my head with the lobster when he was carrying the plate away. Eeeks. Later got bumped by him while he walked past. Think I'm just plain suay that day. Whole night I was just busy answering calls from the bosses about some fire that ignited out of an email from a head to the bigger head. Haiz, stupid politics. Anyway, the other waitstaff Mr-BO was way too loaded that night. Poor guy was doing his best but with that many tables to serve, the service definitely fall short. Our plates were only changed once at the start of our meal (after the first dish). Our requests to refill our glasses with warm water were also left unfulfilled. The pot of tea wasn't refilled even though we had overturned the lid. Worst of all, Mr-BO was so busy that he must have perspired and he reeked! I had to hold my breath each time he came near ... that surely did a lot to kill my already waning appetite.

Last but not least, a few of us were quite puzzled by the decor with the black chandeliers (which a colleague commented to be gothic) with golden dragons that coiled round the big pillar in the middle of the restaurant. The whole decor just seemed so confused.

I recalled how i used to enjoy my meals at the branch at Pasir Panjang. I thought the crabs there were pretty good. And I also patronised the branch at Geylang and my friends and family also enjoyed the food there. But this more up-market branch has definitely not lived up to its name (it has in my opinion tarnished the name though).

Will I visit this branch again? Not likely in the near future, unless someone convinced me otherwise.

iShuffle

There was this teeny voice that was groaning about having to run this mrn. Nonetheless I just told the voice to just shut up, shut out all negative tots and just get the bum going.

The legs were somehow still a little tired and recently the calves are feeling real bloated and tight. Guess its time for another session with the physiotherapist. Think he is not v keen to earn $$ through sports massage ... he even suggested I buy some foam rollers to do this massage on my own. Maybe I should, just that watching the videos on this, it just seem lots of work :P But i digress.

With tired legs, I started with a slow jog and basically just shuffling my feet along. Hey, that didn't seem so bad ! I realised I was able to keep to the slow rhythm, just moving along. I didn't want to think about the journey, nor the run and I actually felt good about the slow pace.

Ok ok .. I didn't really shuffle the whole way ... and I picked up speed at some points (and slowed down at others). Today was also the iStop. There were days when I didn't have to stop at most of the traffic lights as the Green man was on my side but today just isn't one of those days *sigh*. So it somewhat disrupted my rhythm but well, on a brighter note it gives me the opportunity to catch my breath and stretch a bit. Good for the muscles.

All in all, a good relaxing short run.

Birthday Greetings ...

Haven't seen you in months. In fact I can hardly recall the last time we met. Except for the occasional emails, sms-es or msn-es, which are sadly few and far between, we have hardly kept in close contact. Sorry that we have both been busy with our own lives .... but you are still in my tots.

Sorry that I didn't manage to meet up with you lately. Nonetheless, here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday. May you have a good year ahead. Most important of all, may you be blessed with good health & happiness.

The rest will fall into place.

Happy Birthday, my friend.

Self-Inflicted Agony

Yes, I believe I have a propensity to hurt myself.
To do things that I KNOW that I shouldn't do because I am aware of the consequences.
That by doing what I SHOULDN'T be doing, I'll just be hurt physically and/or emotionally.
And yet I continue to do it.

I have just myself to blame ...

AAArgh!

Craving!!!

Weather is oh-so-FREAKING-HOT!! I'm just constantly pining for ice cream ...
Saw this on B&J Facebook and the new flavour captured my attention ...
Is this found in SG ? :P

Mom's Day Out

Great day spent with mom today. Brought her out for brunch at the Shanghai place in Tiong Bahru. Mom likes the food too! :) Tried the la mian this time. The pictures taken from my phone are just too blurry so I've given up uploading them here.

We then headed to Chinatown to see the chinese sinseh - me to treat my wrist that surprisingly is improving somewhat after the treatment last week; and mom - for her back & leg (the usual ailments from the toil she suffered bringing us up). Temple @ Waterloo Street was our next stop, our frequent place of worship. This time praying for mom's safety as she is going for a short trip come Thur.

We spent a long time at my usual shop trying on stuff and yakking with the owner who is this very nice and motherly lady who got on very well with me and mom. It was so wonderful just spending an idyllic afternoon chatting with them. Hehe, of coz buying some items help add to the enjoyment :P

Great saturday. Now time to rest. Any may I exclaim that the weather is FREAKING HOT!!!! I'm praying for cooler weather soon....

No-Fun-Run

Arranged to run a 10km route to start the weekend with a friend. Unfortunately he was down with a bad sorethroat on Sat mrn. It was rather ironical as I was the one feeling sick with a mild sore throat on Thur evening and was worried I couldn't run.

I was a bit apprehensive about running the 10km distance alone, especially when my legs were feeling slight sng from the spin the day before. Nonetheless I told myself to just hit the road and do as much as I can. Even if it meant 5km. Better than nothing.

I was wiped-out just about 30+ mins into the run. The mildly sloppy route for my unconditioned form proved too much for this piggie auntie. By the 50th minute I was doing run-walk and at one stretch, I was doing like 2min run with 5 min walk! It was totally demoralising that I told myself I shall not increase mileage if it meant torturing myself and not enjoying my run. If it meant I'll be stuck running 8km, so be it. I reasoned its much better to be out running, and enjoying it, albeit a short distance, than not at all.

Regardless, I'm glad I was out for a run and getting a tan. And I've been wanting to run the Sixth Ave stretch and am really glad I finally did. Towards the 50th min I was really thinking of giving up and just taking a bus home, but I'm so glad I just grit my teeth and ambled til the end.

ooops, I didn't realise it was close to 11km. Thought the distance was close to 10km. Took about 1hr 12mins to complete.

Cover

I just happened to hear some "singer" doing a cover of the song Journey by Corrinne May over a mandarin radio station. It was a very very very badly done cover of Corrinne's song and I'm just utterly disgusted that she completely spoilt the song :(

I waited til the end of the song hoping to catch the singer and mentally black-list her (and all her other songs) but sadly the radio DJ didn't state the name. I mean, if you can't do a good cover , don't do it! Don't spoil someone's good efforts. Its really really disappointing. She really did a HUGE injustice to Corrinne and her song.

I wonder how Corrinne May would feel if she were ever to listen to that cover.

---------------------------------------------------------
ok, some update. I just googled taiwan sites and found the culprit... . and she is none other than 张韶涵. Pls lah, stick to your teeny bopper genre, steer clear of the real music can? :P

Anyway, watched this at your own risk. Listening to her just irks me. Yes yes, its subjective. But this is my blog so I'm entitled to my own ranting.

May Day Run

Thankfully I pre-arranged to run with a friend. Else with the super heavy meal from the night before, piggie might feel too heavy to hit the pavement.

It was a short run of about 5km. Someone sabo lor .... said what cannot run 5km without run-walk ..... but was talking with ease throughout the journey and did NOT even break into a sweat! While yours truly was sweating buckets, panting away and trying to answer in between gasps for air. -____-" ok ok, this pace must be toooo slow for him ....

Anyway, was glad I at least did a run, managed to burn off calories for 10mins (considering that our body start to burn calories (or issit fats?) only about 30mins into strenuous activity.

Actually my body only started to warm up at the end of the run and I would have carried on ... but ah well, I should save it for another day.

THANKS for the run & company! Seriously, it is really so much easier to run with company. The distance feels shorter and its less tiring. I now know why I could increase mileage easily in the past, but not anymore when I run alone. How how ?? I want to up mileage.

More Jiaks

Damn. I'm just happily overfeeding myself. Instead of being discipline to go for my lunchtime swim, my plans have been thwarted either by last minute meeting arrangments with the bosses or just plain laziness. Sigh .... I was actually quite determined to swim on Wed but the mtg with boss lasted past 12. By then I reckoned the pool would be crowded, so another beautiful excuse to skip the swim.

Anyway, someone working far away came by my office area to collect something from someone else. So we met up for lunch. We ended up at this ramen shop that I've read about and passed by several times called Men-Tei Ramen. We eagerly joined in the short queue and the staff was friendly and at hand to take our orders first. The queue started to grow as we were waiting but were glad it wasn't a long wait and we were shown to our seats shortly after.

Their variety is limited and the ingredients are essentially the same (pork, some vege etc.). The differentiation is in the soup base, what with miso soup or pork bones etc. It was a very short wait for our food to arrive and well, to me the food is alright. We both ordered the miso soup base (with mine being the spicy version which turned out to be "spicy-deficient"). I'm happy with the bowl of spicy miso (not spicy at all) just as I would be similarly contented with a good piping hot bowl of instant noodles :P Guess the good bowl of ramen is wasted on me but friend commented the soup base is good. No complaints really, we both cleaned out the entire bowl of ramen.

Well, though I missed the swim, I'm glad I get to meet up with good company for lunch and chat away and spend some relaxing moments out of work, rather than just packing a sandwich back to eat in front of the puter. Alright, I admit. I'm a contented slacker! :P
______________________________________________________________

Friend and I been looking forward to this dinner. We've been working toooo hard @ work, with more shit then recognition. With loads of agony, frustration, irritation & even some back-stabbing, with little returns.

We left the office earlier than usual, was still delayed by some last minute frantic call from a user but we were just thankful that we could still leave the office.

Arrived at Dan Ryan, suggested by friend. Think the last time I was here was >5 years ago ? But the place has not changed a bit. I left the ordering of beer to him while I zoomed in on the food (hehe, what's new?). We had a caesar salad and this is what I had. Fish & Chips!!! The fish was good and very nicely deep fried with this very thin batter, and without that gap between the fried skin and fish flesh. I enjoyed it tremendously. The chips were a disappointment though. Not that it doesn't taste good or that its soggy or overly fried. Just that its not the chunky fries that I so miss :( But all in all, I still like the fish & chips. According to the waitress their fish & chips is very popular (main reason why I ordered).

Friend was stuffed by the end of his seafood platter, while I was still pinching at the bread in the bread basket. He was amused that I could really stuff myself haha

For dessert, I ordered their brownie with Ben & Jerry's ice cream while he was too stuffed and only accompanied me with a scoop of ice cream. We both chose cherry garcia but both hated it as it somehow had that almond taste that we both disliked. The brownie wasn't that fantastic, it wasn't piping hot and was too dense for my liking. It was an extremely huge piece too that for once Ms Piggie didn't finish her dessert!

It was a great nite out with great company, just yakking and bitching and pigging and boozing. A very superb way to end a weekday night and to welcome the holiday.