Fri Run

Attended a wedding dinner last night. Ended late but I'm glad I managed to wake up at 5am for my mrn run.

Initial intent was to run the same route as Wed since I was struggling so hard on Wed, but I was feeling kind of breathless and lethargic even before I start the run! This is a first!!

Anyway, still felt breathless just like Wed so decided to run a longer distance (if I could) but on an easier , flatter route.

Managed to run for about 1hrs 20mins, should cover slightly less than 12 km.

Think I need to rest more to let my body recover completely. Else I'll be having more chuan runs.

Excuse to slack! No LSD this weekend! :P

The Chuan Run

So apart from the happy memories that accompanied me back from Cameron Highlands, I too got an unexpected (and unwanted) gift : A virus infection.

After a day's rest at home, I'm back to work today. Due to schedule issues, I decided to run to work this mrn instead of Thurs. Although I was coughing occassionally through the night, I felt alright enough and hence decided to proceed with the run this mrn.

Oh man, it was a laborious run. I felt breathless very early on and had to slow down. The mild slopes that I had no problems with in recent months were a slight challenge to me today.

I had to cut short the run knowing that I better not overly tax myself.

Total distance shld be about 10km or less, 1hrs 11mins.

Hope I get well soon!

Happiness Is ....

You come back from lunch and found that your kind colleague has bought you something.

Last week it was soya bean drink.

Today it was soya bean drink with grapes and a note to say that the grapes were very sweet.

This kind gesture never failed to put a broad smile on my face. This very wonderful colleague of mine is a gem. She is a very senior staff, but she has no airs and is always very willing to share her knowledge and help me out. She doesn't play politics and just does her work diligently. She is very willing to teach me the ropes, and open to my suggestions even though I'm just a very junior staff. One of the very rare people I look up to in my department / organisation. In fact, she is the only one I look up to here!

Its only this year that I got to work with her, as we are in the same team for a project. But I'm so glad that I'm in her team, else I would have DIED without the direction nor assistance. We supported each other, and confided in each other, especially about the work issues.

She has this very sunny disposition that just drawed me to her so naturally.

Anyway, I'm just happy to have a wonderful colleague like her to guide and teach me. That's another consolation about working here :)

Anyway, her sweet gesture made my day. :)

BlessedJazzy

Cameron Highlands & The Strawberry Family

LT, the ringleader, who started planning MONTHS ago rounded up a few of us to join him in the Project Deepavali Makansutra.

And so the four of us boys and girls gathered in Jurong last Friday evening and headed up to M'sia for a long weekend of food, fun and fantastic company.

LT assigned each of us a role, with LT being the leader of the pack. YK, the vehicle controller, AL as the treasurer and me, the slacker. :P I was given a list of the places to jiak and my job was to decide what to eat. Easy job eh ? :P

We rested in KL for the night, but not before a late dinner followed by supper. The next mrn we headed out early for breakfast, but the dimsum that we had was lousy and hence we ended up back in our hotel for their complimentary breakfast which by the way tasted much better.

It took us another few hours before we reached Cameron Highlands. We checked in to our accomo at The Lakehouse. Oh, it was such a quaint and pretty place!! We luv it (ok, at least I do). The place looked like an old English cottage with a cosy lounge, restaurant and 18 rooms. We stayed in one of the suites which was fairly spacious, with all the basic amenities except that there is no TV! Ok, but it really forces one to find other entertainment instead. In fact, think we managed to interact more without the TV to distract us. We watched a movie about marathon (thanks to LT for bringing the DVD!!! So well planned!!!), we chatted over supper around the dining table viewing photos and gathered around our bed to chat late into the night. That was quite fun really. The beauty of the lack of modern distractions like the TV & internet.

It was a really nice & relaxing weekend with the bunch. There were lots of easy banter and laughter. The company was great and everyone was easy-going and very agreeable. We just headed anywhere we felt like going, in very relaxed pace. We whiled away our time in Starbucks, in the night market after dinner and just soaked in the sights (and food) and had tons of laughs at one another.

The only unfortunate thing was that I caught a cold in the 2nd day no thanks to the odd weather in Cameron that started out HOT and turned chilly in the late PM. Thankfully YK had meds with him that he gallantly shared with me, else I would be in worse condition now ...

All in all a very good trip thanks to LT for organising and the very easy and nice company of the group. I couldn't have asked for more :)

PS: And oh, Roentgen, the food pics are from us all to you. WAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *evil luff*

ContentedJazzy

Fish Mart Sakuraya

We had wanted to try the Sakuraya Fish Mart @ South Buona Vista Road.  The last time we stumbled upon this place, it was on a busy Fri nite.  Hence we made a mental note to come visit this place again some other time.

And so we went last Thurs night after the movies.  Ok caught the movie 20th Century Boys which is so freaking lousy and boring I don't think I wanna spend time to blog about it.  Anyway, so we reached the fish mart and it was thankfully not crowded.  We chose the sashimi from the freezer and handed it to the counter staff to have it sliced for us.  So here is the sashimi.  Cut into small chunks.  Verdict: Nothing fantastic.  In fact, not very good.

We also ordered the agedashi doufu, tempura etc.  Forgot to take snapshots, but seriously, don't think you missed much because the food is rather disappointing.  The doufu was tasteless, and the tempura - non descrip to say the least.

Would i return ? I would come back to The Village for drinks etc, but will definitely give this Jap shop a miss.

We later had drinks at Harry's just downstairs.  The place wasn't busy and hence was nice for a quiet time just chatting and watching ESPN.  Caught some sports on tv and let the world pass us by ... it poured later in the evening and helped cool the weather even more.  Nice.

Happiness Is ....

When you enjoy your day and all you can do is smile / laugh and nothing seem to get you down ....

I was on half day leave yesterday and we went to Central for lunch.

FINALLY get to try the famous ramen shop which had a perpetual queue - Marutama Ramen.

Think it is less crowded during lunch so we easily got a seat.  The menu is limited, basically just three types of ramen with some side dishes which we didn't order.

The ramen was YUMMILICIOUS!!!  Even the fussy eater partner raved about the food. So you can be assured its good.

This is what was left of my ramen.  I forgot to take picture of it until I was half-way through :P 

While happily tucking into the hot ramen, i saw a big piece of something that looked like tamago on a plate.  After enquiring and found that it was indeed egg (dashi), we ordered a plate.

I can only say it is just as heavenly .... yumz!

And when u see that the shop is patronised by lots of Japanese, you can be assured of the quality of the food.  We saw many Jap streaming into the restaraunt while we were there.  Yet another strong evidence that the food is authentic & good! :)

  

Ran this mrn. Usual Thur route.
Weather was cooling, so different from last week where it was hot and humid. This made the run so much easier. The sky is brightening much earlier nowadays.

Total time taken : 1hr 4 mins.

Did a spin and since I hadn't swam for a while, decided to swim during lunch. The weather looked so sunny but right after I got into the pool, the sky started to darken and the breeze blew the leaves into the pool. The pool looked quite dirty today. Yucks. And not to mention the pool is oh-so-crowded!!! Had to keep switching lanes to avoid bumping into people ... sigh

Ran-Biked-Swam today. Now I can rest and pig out :P

Incidental LSD

I decided to make some changes to my weekly routine this week due to some holiday plans over the weekend.
Woke up still feeling tired and all, and was still contemplating whether I shld run even after I changed into my running attire :P

Anyway, there was a slight delay this mrn and I started the run 10mins later than usual. Ran the usual Tues route and was surprisingly feeling quite alright in the run. By the time I got to River Valley, I realised I was conquering those more difficult stretches rather easily. When I got to Esplanade, I decided to skip the spin session (since I dread that class anyway as I dislike that particular instructress - nothing personal, just that somehow I tend to drift off in her class) and continued with an LSD.

So I carried on the same route that I took 2 Saturdays ago, and this time instead of going to National Stadium/Kallang, I turned into Tanjong Rhu. By then the sky was already bright and there were quite a number residents up and about doing their mrn walk/jog.

I ran one loop along Tanjong Rhu, before heading back the way I came.

I was feeling very good in the run today. Can't explain why. Guess there are bad days, and there are good days. Today just happens to be one of the rare fantastic ones. The air was cool and fresh and that really helped in the run. The only one thing that marred the run this mrn was on the return leg at the Sg Flyer stretch. Suddenly two dogs ran towards me out of nowhere and one of them started barking at me and baring its scary teeth. I was caught off guard and I screamed. I stopped immediately and walked away hoping that they wouldn't follow me. The dogs were like ready to pounce and bite me!!! ... thankfully they left me alone after following me off their "compound" .... boy was I frightened!! I thought I would have been bitten!

By the time I got to Raffles Place, it was past 8am and CBD was already buzzing !! Not a good sign as the wait at the traffic lights were much longer and also meandered through the crowd. I was quite worried about bumping into some colleagues on my way up the building, as I really wasn't prepared to have them see me dripping in perspiration and their questioning about where I ran etc.

Was really late for work today coz of this LSD. Total time taken (with water breaks) 2 hours 37mins. Hope I covered a half marathon.

My goodness. I almost cannot believe it that I did an LSD on the first day of the workweek! I feel that I'm nuts!

Oktoberfest

So much for my lame attempt in burning off some fats yesterday.

I put it all back (and with a vengeance) last night with pork knuckle, 5 beers and potato wedges.

And I felt woozy just after the first one (and on an empty stomach).

Haha ... 

I think I lived in a cave.  Used to work in Suntec but I never ventured to Paulaner for the years that I was there!  It was only last night that I finally made my way there!  We were early so got ourselves a cosy corner and just chatted and watched the crowd filter in gradually.  It was a pretty nice place to hang out.  Not too noisy so you can still hold a decent conversation.  The live band wasn't something to rave about.  But they were playing music of my era (as pointed out, the crowd there weren't all that young haha) so that suited me well. 

One horrible thing about the place was the BAD and LOUSY service.  I really dislike the wait staff, especially one female phillipino one.  Prolly the alcohol made me less combative and saved her some serious bitching from me.   :P

Night in Rodanthe

I read this book by Nicholas Sparks many years back. My first book by this author and subsequently I devoured all the books by him.

So I was excited when I found that this book has been made into a movie and starring Richard Gere!

And so we went to watch on Sat. We weren't expecting to catch the early mrn show but as luck was on our side, we got there just in time. Sat down just went the show started. We need not sit through all the trailers and advertisements. Perfect.

Anyway, to me personally. I think the movie didn't disappoint. Granted that my failing memory has forgotten the story (almost) completely save for the ending, I enjoyed the movie. And definitely the beautiful inn right on the coast.

Oh ... and did I say .... Richard Gere is still oh-so-charming at this age!!!!!!

Labrador Park

Ok so I didn't have to work on Sat. So I couldn't decide where to run, and I was concerned because without a clear end-point, my determination falters.

Anyway, decided to do a short run today and run towards Labrador Park and back. I was feeling tired very early on, and just trotted on slowly towards Labrador Park. By the time I got there, I was close to giving up on the run and spent over 10 mins walking.

Realised that there was a new extension to the park. It was officially opened on Fri (17 Oct) by SM Goh. Took a few random pics around this new extension. Basically nothing much .... just a very short extension










Surprisingly, the run home turned out to be more consistent and easier. Many times I thought I would stop when I had to run up a slight incline, but I didn't.

Many water and walk breaks in this run. Took a total of 2hours 4 mins ... accordingly to mapmyrun i did only 12+km. But seriously I think that's a gross underestimate. Should have done a little more than that (at least that's what I hope).

Ok, better run next time :)

TV Drama DVDs

I received a parcel this week.  In it contained a few DVDs that can keep me occupied for a while.

hehehe ... Thanks to this one kind soul who took the trouble to burn the series into the DVDs and mailed it to me.

You are an angel :)

Weekday Runs

This week passed so quickly and before I knew it, its friday already (super big sigh of relief).  And I'm so glad I'm not working tomorrow! Two full days off work! YIPEEE!!!

Tues Run - While lacing up, I noticed lightning flashes across the reddish-hue sky.  Thunder roared occassionally too.  I groaned as I didn't want to cancel the run but wasn't looking fwd to being soaked through.

Anyway, did the usual Tues route.  Air was heavy and still and it was a little difficult running in that condition.  It started to rain when I passed Delta Road but decided to carry on (of course I stopped the ipod).

Thankfully the rain subsided after a while and it sorta cooled the weather a little, and I was able to finish the run comfortably.  

Noticed a tear in the front of my left shoe.  Time to buy a new pair.  Bang wall for not grabbing a new pair last month when she sees it on 40% off.  Damn.

Thur Run - By Thur I was feeling kinda tired.  The run was slow with super heavy legs in between gasps.  Not a very good sign.  But managed to finish the run albeit at a slower pace.  Same distance but 4 mins slower.  Took me 1hrs 4mins in all.

Legs are feeling very tired now.  In fact, the whole body is.  I might take a break ... let's see how.

Weekend!!! Nuah time!!!

My Sister's Keeper

What if the motivation behind your birth was so that they could potentially harvest something in you to save your sibling's life?

And what if you have to be the donor (willingly or not) over .. and over ... for 13 years?  Will there be a time to say: enough already ?

And what if no matter what decision you make, nobody wins.  Because its either one .. or the other ?

I just finished reading this fiction book by Jodi Picoult.  Its a fantastic read.  Really captures the emotions and struggles that revolved around this family with a cancer-stricken member constantly fighting for her life, and the rest simply doing what they they think is best for her. Really sad story.

A very poignant read.  

The weather is getting really HOT again !

A trip to the market with mom got me all sweaty.  I couldn't get the coolness of the pool off my head and so I hurried out of the house after packing my stuff and got to the gym in no time.  The pool was somewhat crowded when I got there but one couple left right after I got into the pool.  Perfect.  So I was able to swim in peace for a good 20 mins before the serenity was rudely shattered by the emergence of this group of teenagers.  

Sigh .... these immature bunch of boys just took up lots of precious space in the small pool and started thrashing in the waters ... their so-called lame attempt at swimming *sigh*.  And when they are not swimming, they were hogging the pool at the end of the pool ... 

Really, I thought I was in a public pool!! I was cursing and swearing in the waters and I was in a really combative mood.  Any wrong move by these kids and they would surely have gotten from me.  Big time.  To add to this unruly crowd, an AN decided to join in and share the lane with me!!! Repeatedly getting in my face...  ARGH!!!!  

But think the frustration and irritation did help to make me swim more vigorously (but my strokes could be all wrong with all the anger) and I finished the swim in no time.  

Another good swim.  The cool waters really is a reprieve from the heat. 

Sat LSD

Another day at work. But this time we are expecting to end by afternoon (hopefully even earlier!!) because we started the exercise since last evening.

So another chance to run to work ... another LSD.

Similar route as last Sat. The difficult part is always the psyching yourself up for the run, to actually waking up to run. Thankfully I managed to do both this mrn.

The initial first 10mins was quite tiring, somehow the legs were heavy as lead. However I told myself there is no way I'm going to quit today.

Made some slight modifications to the route, but should cover about the same distance of 19km total time taken 2hrs 18mins.

Thurs Run

Usual run this morning.

1hr.  Shld be about 9km ba.

Feeling some pain on my left outer ankle.  Not sure whether its the shoes .... giving myself excuse to buy a new pair *hiak hiak*

Tues Run

Another fitfull sleep .. didn't sleep well as usual.  So ended up almost overslept.

Similar route with some slight variations at Esplanade.  1hrs 20mins.

Good Form

Had a swim again yesterday morning.

The sky was looking bright and cheery when I got into the pool but in less than 10 mins it started to look really gloomy.  Weather lately has been really unpredictable!

And before I knew it, the sky cleared again.  Really odd -__-"

Anyway, I had a very excellent swim yesterday.  Not sure why, the swim just felt right. The body, the strokes, the water, everything, just seemed aligned and I was able to maintain a consistently faster pace and even surpassed this lady who used to be ahead of me (ok, maybe she was doing a slower swim ytd haha).  Ah well, doesn't matter.  I just felt good about the swim.

Just hope I get more of such experiences ... 

Sure helped chase away a lil of the Mon blues! *thumbs up*

R&R

Things started to look bleak right after lunch ytd when things failed to work as planned and caused the rest of the activities to be delayed.  We were preparing ourselves for the worst case ... that we would likely need to work past midnight.  Friend smsed to ask about my progress and whether I'm done and my bleak reply was of coz not, that I would likely be staying til the following day.

So you could picture our huge relief and joy when things started to look up and we managed to complete the exercise at 10pm!  We were all beaming and relieved that we finally could call it a day and start our much awaited weekend.

And so I planned to sleep late but alas, woke up at 2 and then again before 7.  Unable to get back to sleep, mom & I went to the market for breakfast and casual pasar malam shopping.  Haha, I'm really not interested in pasar malam but ah well, still nice to be out on a leisure walk on an early Sun morning.

Since it was still early, I decided to check out the new gym at Fusionpolis.  

This is the roof-top pool.  Much shorter than what I expected, and not a heated pool.  But suited me well today since it was rather humid and stuffy.  Thankfully there were only two other swimmers in the pool and hence I was able to swim in peace.

The shower area ... 

Its a really relaxing dip this mrn, with the sky feeling so close to where the waters is.  Considering that the sky was gloomy, I still got a tan!  Ok but I'm not complaining coz I really enjoyed the quiet time.  Even spent some time just relaxing and reading on the pool deck for a short while before the cool breeze got a little chilly.

This is the view from the roof-top. Could see the clouds moving ...

Run to Work LSD

Truth of the matter is, I wish to run away from work.  

The irony of it is, I ran to work this mrn.

Its another longgg day at work.  God knows what time it will end today.  The last time we did it, we ended at 3am the following day, no thanks to some major screw up that caused a delay of 8 hours. Hope today will be smooth sailing.  Best case scenario, we will end at 9pm.  Somehow, I've never been blessed with good luck.

So anyway, considering that I'll be tooo tired tomorrow to run, decided to run to work today, to squeeze in my LSD.  Anyway, it at least makes going to work not as dreadful.

Took a different route since I want to cover a longer distance.  Ran pass Holland, Botanical Gardens, Orchard Road, Millenia Walk, National Stadium and finally Kallang Leisure Park (ok, so much for not wanting to go back there :P).  U-turned and headed back towards office.

Total distance should be about 19+km.  2hrs 13 mins.

I'm glad I ran today.

Bet those doing the Northface 100 are enjoying themselves right now.  

Thur Run

Almost didn't make it as Z monster was holding me captive :P

Thankfully I managed to pull away.

Missed the bus *again* so ran to work ... 

Thurs is always a short run ... so managed about 1hr 2 mins ... 9+ km ba.