I didn't know that !

Below is what I received in my mailbox ....

To those who always use ez card. Like to bring to your attention on local bus service provider.

Normally, when you board the bus, you flash your ezlink card and move in and when you get down the bus, you flash your card again at the exit door (located at the middle of the bus). We all
know that if we forget to flash the card, full fare will be deducted from the card.

Below is something not known to public:-

But if you alight from the front door (the entrance) and you flash your card while exiting without informing the bus driver, the card will capture another entrance fare instead of exit fare thus meaning that two full fares will be deducted from the card as no exit was being captured for the
two entrances.

For example, you board a crowded bus at Pasir Ris (where it terminates at Jurong East) and decided to get down ten stops later. If you flash your card at the front door without informing the
bus-driver, a second entrance fare will be captured instead of exit fare thus you are paying for two full fares ( 2 X $ 1.90! = $ 3.8 0 ) instead of one fare (approximately $0.83).
This is a useful info. Here's the solution:-

Go to the "big" machine (ie machine for U to top up the card) located at the MRT stations.
1) Insert your EZ link card
2) Press the function key "Check card"
3) Press "more"

The above function will show U the last 20 transactions. Information on the fare deducted, bus no, boarding time and the boarding and alighting point will be reflected on the screen.

Hope the above information is useful to U.
Please pass this email to people you know so that they will not pay extra charges for nothing and
burn a big hole in their pockets. !

Last but not least, call the hotline line:
1800 767 4333 when the incorrect fares are deducted.

Die lah, and I do this all the time without realising :P

Sick!!!

Again!!!
YES!!!
ARGH!!!!
I'm so freaking sickly nowadays!

I planned to run tomorrow and now .... *pull hair*

Lost

I lost ALL contact, tasks, calendars, information in my phone.
Save for some crucial numbers that I have kept in the SIM card, I lost everything else. Yes, and I mean EVERYTHING!! OMG!

All this stems from my trying to setup my synchronisation between my phone & pc and I unwittingly deleted the wrong thing! There was NO warning about the consequences of clicking that button at all :( ARGH!!!!!!

Anyway, I could only blame it on my own stupidity. ARGH!!!!

I was hoping this is just a nightmare but no ..... it isn't. CRY. I'm lost without my schedule, my upcoming appointments .. my friends' contact and their birthday ... no reminders, no notes .... oh no ... just the thought of rebuilding everything ....

So if you are reading this, pls drop me a line (via sms, msn, email) with your contact details .... THANKS!!

Humpty Dumpty Run

Just couldn't get my lazy bum off to run for the past week. Finally thought to run to work .... since I have no excuse to not going to work each day, so thought I will plan a run to office.

Reluctantly dragged myself outta bed at 0510hrs. Got ready in super quick time ... was not even 0525hrs when I was ready to go. Too early I thought so I dilly dallied for a while before heading out and started my run at 0541hrs.

In my haste to leave the office the night before, I forgot to bring along the map so was hoping I know the way to the office. It should be easy, but never trust a DR .... I can never trust myself with directions and in my experiences, my instinct in the direction to take is always WRONG! :P So armed with my ezlink card & cash, I felt more assured. When I started the run I was asking myself "Will I end up taking public transport -either cab or bus to work? :P

The run was laborious ... :( Not a good start as I felt tired very early into the run .... I was worried but I told myself I just have to carry on, even if it means run/walk I would still have to proceed. As I turned into Queensway, I tripped on the edge of the pavement which sent me flying ... I was trying hard to keep my balance but failed and was left sprawling to the ground. Argh! (#*&$)(*@&()&!$#$ Thankfully it was still early and there wasn't anyone to hear my cursing :P The fall scraped the side of my right knee and both my palms but thankfully they were merely superficial wounds.

Yesterday happened to coincide with some chinese prayers or something so there were pockets of burnt incence papers along the pavement as I ran past the long Jln Bukit Merah stretch. Hope I didn't step on any of those ... if I did, pardon me .... *pray pray*

I reached my office in a few mins past the hour and decided against covering longer. Don't kill myself and save for another day ba.

I plotted the route and it actually ended in 8.82km. However, in the spirit of the CNY, I decided to extend the distance to an auspicious 8.88km! Hahahah .... HUAT ah!

Let's hope i will have the discipline to do this again real soon.

What an inspiration!

I was watching this programme on Ch 8 last night on active senior citizens.

One of the featured was this 77 years old uncle who runs marathons, and started a delivery company after retirement.

After 20 years of running (he started running after retirement), he had over 80 marathons under his belt ... and still going strong!!!

Gosh .... I'm not even half his age and I couldn't even meet his energy level & enthusiasm in life !

He is such an inspiration!

CNY Run

Thought I could hit the gym on CNY day 1 since I need not go visiting. But mom said no as my siblings would come by for a visit.
Ok .... since I couldn't sleep, so I went out for a run. I happened to pass by the Rochester / ACS area on my way home the day before (when the sky was still bright & sunny) and thought the stretch leading into the place was very nice, so thought to run there.

The roads were close to empty, the weather was good. I started the run at about 7:30am and slowly make my way out. I was wondering how long I can run since my running has been so irregular.

I passed by Rochester ... then ACS, but decided against running in that deserted lane - partly because I was afraid there might be dogs guarding the place, and also I wanted to run further hopefully into NUS or Kent Ridge ... which at that point I had not decided yet ...

Slowly trotted along - I realised I tend to run faster on the road then in the park connectors ... possibly coz the latter is just so boring and I tire more easily.

I ran into NUS ... surprisingly there were still people in NUS ... some possibly (mostly the non-chinese) might still be heading to the labs for their labwork etc. Studied in NUS for 2 years and stayed in the vicinity for so long but not once have I ran inside. The slopes proved too much for me and I had to stop many times to catch my breath.

It was a relaxing run.... ran towards Ulu Pandan Road and saw this guy also out in his run .... didn't take much notice until we got closer and realised that he is one of the gym instructors!! Surprised! I managed a "Hi!" and struggled along with my run. Didn't want to stop & chat coz I didn't want to interrupt his run anyway ...

I had to stop when I hit the minor roads before Mt Sinai as the slopes were too much for me. By then I was feeling the pain on the top of my right foot. What a queer place to have the pain!! Is it the slopes ? I do not know ....

Anyway, I run walk the rest of the distance back home and finally reached the starting point in 1hr 10mins. Total distance covered should be much less than the 10km recorded because me the DR might not have plotted the route correctly! hahahaha



I really think I should buy myself another pair of shoes. Hopefully it would reignite my waning interest (seriously there isn't much left!) in running :P Seriously, think my current pair of shoes is doing me more harm than good ... I think I shall listen to myself, and revert to Mizuno WR.

鼠年行大运！

KJ wishes everyone ....

新年快乐
事事顺利
财源滚滚

To those studying .... 学业进步

To those slogging ... 步步高升

and most important of all ... 身体健康!

I want to ....

go to Chinatown to soak in the sights & festivity of the CNY ...

go to Takashimaya to check out the CNY goodies ...

go shopping for some CNY clothes ...

Pls let me get well soon ....

Counting ...

4 days & counting ......
of non activity, no exercise, no gym ...

I'm SICK AGAIN!!!!
#*($&#@)&@#&(&()&#)(&@$(@#&(&@#$(&#(*&#$(&#$(&

What a lousy 2008. In 3 weeks I've been sick 3 times

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fri Nite Out

Dinner on Fri night was at One Fullerton. It was an un-planned dinner ... worked til 9+ and friend picked me up. At 9+, where can we possibly have dinner at ? Driving aimlessly, friend commented about that little building just across from One Fullerton. I got excited because I remembered running past that place and always wondered what its like there.

Unfortunately for us, when we got to the place (Btw, the place is called The Fullerton Waterboat House), seemed like there was some private function on-going. Just our luck. There was this French fine-dining in the same place but its too upmarket and high-class for my liking ... so we decided to have our dinner at One Fullerton. By then it was already 10pm and too late for the buffet (thankfully! :P) so we ordered ala carte.

Ordered the spinach pizza, sushi moriwase & their cuppicino tiramisu. Pizza was so so. Sushi was ok lah good. Fresh lor. Tiramisu is YUMMILICIOUS! And at $10 and such a HUGE serving. Its such a steal!!!!

We next headed to Equinox for drinks. The last time I was at Equinox was like donkey years ago. We just had a drink there and chatted a bit. The place was nice, with a good view of the area. Too bad they closed very early ... asked us for our last order at 130am. -___-" And the waitress said I looked familiar, thought I had been there before. Guess I must have a super common face haha Friend was worried of being caught with alcohol in his bloodstream, so we ended up at Tong Shui for some "cleansing" before heading home. What a good Fri night. Been a long time since I'm out giving myself a good treat.

Short Run

Checking back my logs ... my last run was in 22 Dec. More than 1 month ago!

As I was on course last Thur and Fri and wouldn't be in the office, I had no chance to hit the gym. Hence, I had to drag my unwilling body out for a morning jog.

I was so not looking fwd to the run and was thinking how much I could cover. Just the thought turned me off and I just wished to snuggle underneath my comforter ....

It was a slow and easy run and the fresh morning air helped keep me from heaving. I reached the 2km mark still feeling fresh.

Anyway, I decided not to push myself too hard and ended the run in 54+ mins covering a total of <8km.>

I could really feel the ache after such a short run. My legs were feeling a little sng in the afternoon. Guess the spin classes do not help to build up the legs at all for running. Yup, diff set of muscles I know ...

By the next morning the old nagging pain on my left toe each time I ran was back to haunt me. I decided not to torture myself and just did a slow 2km run, followed by a 1km walk before running the rest of the 1km back to the starting point.

Wanted to plot my short run but couldn't find the plotting feature in Streetdirectory ? Am I blind or that has been taken off the site ? Mapmyrun doesn't show the route that I run leh ...
Oh, I'm soooo out of touch ...

NY Resolutions for everyone ?!?!

Got to the pool this mrn and was shocked that there were about 4 to 5 swimmers occupying most of the lanes!! And its MORNING!!! This never happen before. I'm normally the only few (at max 3 people) swimming in the mrn. Thankfully I managed to squeeze into a lane, and thankfully still after just a few minutes the hunk that entered the pool just minutes before me left! With a bod like that I thought he was a good swimmer, and thought siao liao, me would be drinking in lots of pool water whenever he swims past. But turns out he is a worse swimmer than I am and couldn't last more than 5 mins in the pool. The pool slowly cleared and by the 50th min or so, I was the only one in the pool. Shiok!!!

Intended to spin during lunch. Got to the gym about 10mins before class and THE CLASS WAS FULL!!!!

What's going on?! Yes, I've had rare occasions when the class was full, but that's always AFTER I have signed up. This class is getting so popular ? Or is everyone trying to stick to their new year resolutions, and hitting the gym religiously?!?!?!

Hope this trend doesn't last as I would just end up not even hitting the gym. More excuses to slack & grow fat

Run ? What's that ?

Been toying with the idea to go back to running .... but haven't coz no motivation to.
Just couldn't drag myself out to even do a short run.
Was even contemplating to go BG run, but didn't know how long the distance .. and considering i have not ran for so long, how to run at an acceptable pace with the rest ?
Will end up they have finished the run and I'm probably still 20% into the run. So no point joining group runs now, might as well run alone ?
So there goes the cycle. Can't run in group, so run alone. But run alone, no motivation.
Hahahaha ...

How can I get back my interest in running ? hmmmm ...

Terminal 3

Met up with friend to check out tour packages at the travel agency. We both have leave to clear, $$ to spend but no clear ideas/plans as to where to go. So got some of the brochures and shortlisted a few places before taking a queue number to check with the counter staff on those packages.
Met a friend there ... its the season of bumping into acquaintances. Met 2 other ex-classmates on Fri. Both I just pretended I didn't see. haha, yes, me = dao. Can't really be bothered to strike up a conversation.

Anyway, my friend and I narrowed down to 2 possible places to visit : Turkey or Japan. Both are still pretty cold, so aiya, not sure whether its a good time to visit. Though there would be a good chance that we would get to admire sakura if we choose the latter.

Was telling my friend about the new T3 and we both just gamely decided to head there after checking out the tour packages.

The sky was turning a dark grey and by the time we reached the airport, it was already pouring.

As we took the train, we reached T3 and was greeted by the buzz at basement 2 - where all the cafes & shops are. There were many of those shops you see at our usual malls like watson's, ntuc fairprice, candy empire, helen (the accessories shop), sunglasses hut. For the food they have the Kopitiam food court, yakun, secret recipe (it looked really small and open, not really a place i would want to sit down at), popeye.
We walked around a bit, headed to Level 3 and 4. Level 3 has more higher end restaurants like Crystal Jade Shanghai restaurant (something like that), Harry's Bar, Brewertz, Gelare, Dian Xiao Er etc.
Level 4 is the departure viewing gallery. Again the place was crowded - think many families took the weekends to bring their families to the spanking new T3 as a family outing. As it was pouring outside, the visibility was low and we couldn't see much of what's out there except for the wing of the SQ plane.

Feeling peckish, and wanting to try popeyes (my friend has tried but not me), we headed back to B2 for some popeyes. I behaved atypically by deciding to eat at popeye though the queues were freaking long. Think everyone just patiently queued coz there isn't any other outlets here in SG. Its either try it now or come back to T3 some other day. I chose the former. After queueing for a few minutes, I realised the queue wasn't moving. The service was just extremely SLOW. They have abundance of food (not that the bottleneck was at the food production), just that somehow the front line staff just taking their own sweet time. But ok, the food was ok. Definitely better than KFC!!! They have this nicely baked "biscuit" which is actually quite soft to the bite. Especially when its just hot from the oven and you peel open the biscuit, mmmmm ... heaven.
The chix was also soft & tender & not at all oily. So unlike KFC that is tough and totally disappointing. I made a mistake in my order and hence didn't get their cajun fries. Instead ended up with coleslaw :( If not for the snaking queue I would have definitely gone back for the fries. aw well .... another time then ...

Was reading Hungrie Pijjie's blog and realised they were there too. They also had popeye's so you can read about it there ... hehe

NY Resolutions ?

New Year passed in a flash ... and its already 2nd week of 2008.
Been feeling down lately, more so than usual ... and lost ....

Was at the gym this morning, and someone commented about her new year resolutions. Then it struck me that its a brand new year, and I haven't thought about what changes I want this year.
Not that I ever stick to my resolutions ... but I didn't even attempt to make any. Then I had this small little conversation with myself that goes like this ...

"NY Resolutions? What's the point of making any if I'm not going to stick to it ?"

"That's such a defeatist view. If you don't even try, you will not even have an iota chance of succeeding"

Considering that I'm having some health issues, I think I ought to seriously look at how to improve my health. That shall be my objective for the year : To improve my health.

As for the action plan ... got to put more thoughts into it.

New Experiences

Sometimes I don't understand how bosses work. Tell me one thing ... but when the appraisal came, wrote another. Nothing bad about what he wrote, but it gives a not so accurate representation of what I want. Was a bit perturbed. Dun want to confront him in the open, so dropped him an email instead. He didn't reply but I had to wait around coz the appraisal thingy must be completed by today. After waiting around til 6+pm, I told him him I sent him an email. Then he sort of smiled sheepishly and I explained how I interpreted the report. He then agreed and said he would amend and re-send to me.
The revised version was a slight improvement. Not ideal but well, just have to make do lor.

But I'm proud of myself for speaking up. Just the day before he was telling me to be forceful in stating what I don't want to my big boss. So ok lor, I'm just heeding his advice and practising what he taught :P

_____________________________________________

Never a fan of what xbox or psp (though I had toyed with the idea of buying one previously), so naturally I'm not in the least attracted by Nintendo's wii. Finally had a chance to play with it on Fri nite. Haha, quite fun. Its all those simple, no-brainer games that requires only hand and fingers coordination. Very enjoyable actually and we played til past 1am, it helps keep the Z monster at bay. Even strike at bowling ... woooo hooo!
_____________________________________________

My friend's apartment has a nice pool. Plan was to wake up and hit the pool BUT as usual, KJ the lazy pig just admired the pool from afar, and never got around to doing it. :P
*tsk tsk*
_____________________________________________

Went to NTUC Finest @ Bukit Timah Plaza. Been wanting to check it out but never got a chance to til Sat. Finally!! Felt so sua ku. But I have to say I'm not impressed with the variety there. Its not that fantastic afterall. The overseas produce isn't all that interesting. I think I got more satisfaction shopping in NTUC @ AMK Hub. More spacious, exciting and definitely livelier! But it sure is a LONGGGG time since I last stepped foot into Bukit Timah Plaza. Think the last time I was there was several years back when I went to visit my ex-lecturer and we had lunch at Bukit Timah Plaza. The place still retained its retro "charm". I'm surprised such a dated plaza can survive til today. Brings back memories of the times mom and I would be there shopping for some necessities ....

We had lunch at this nondescript stall that sells instant noodles. I didn't get my chance to try the korean 炸酱面 that I have been meaning to try (after watching all those korean dramas) so when i saw this stall selling "black noodles", we thought to try. We also ordered the ramyeon noodles. Thinking that this stall is manned by a korean, I would get some authentic food but alas, realised that upon taking our order, she promptly opened 2 packs of instant noodles and started cooking. Haizz, disappointing.

Nontheless, a very enjoyable Saturday. And now back to the grind of everyday life....

Starting the Year ...

I was so glad I didn't have to stay late on NY eve. Plan was to go for a swim & shower ... wasn't feeling right since the night before and after few mins of the swim, I was completely breathless. Not a good sign at all. I struggled for another 30 mins and gave up when the pool continued to be packed and one AN decided to swim beside me.

Went to watch I Am Legend. I enjoyed the show!

Still wasn't feeling right so went to see a doc in the evening. Darn, NYE and seeing a doc. Hate that. Doc said I probably have the viral infection as he sees an increase in such incidences lately.

Spent the whole of New Year's day in bed and drifting in and out of bed (though the med doesn't cause drowsiness). While people are starting the year doing the Ultramarathon at MR, I'm just nuahing at home. -__-" This is not good, not good at all.

Hope I feel better soon.

MBWA

A term I learnt from my big boss recently. I think this is again one of those army terms ? Probably the guys will know better.

Anyway MBWA meant Management By Walking Around. My interpretation of his explanation was : to manage by walking around, "feeling the ground" so as to see, know, understand what's going on.

It was sort of like a wake up call to me. Though he wasn't referring to me when he talked about MBWA, but I thought it was very relevant to me. To manage a project, I have to be in touch with what's going on. I can't constantly hide in my cubicle and work through emails (which is what I'm most comfortable with ... which makes me think I previously should have continued being a programmer! haha!). I have to MBWA, I have to get out and see the people, talk to them and gather the latest news and info.

I tried that out yesterday with a small selected group of users who are friendly and kind. My first baby step.

A good lesson to end the year. *thumbs up*

Happy New Year

Since I'm likely not being able to do any posting on NY Eve, so like to wish everyone including myself a Happy New Year!

D Day

Lots of frustration when you have no say over timelines etc.
Anyway D day is 31 Dec.
Whether I can survive or be condemned would happen on Monday.
But seriously I'm calm about it. I just fighting fires and doing whatever I can.

My every waking hour is spent in the office. I go home just to eat and sleep.
Work long hours, no rewards nevermind. I still have to pay my own cab fare every night. Can't claim (i think). So it effectively means work harder, get paid lesser. Quite frustrated actually.

Anyway, this explains why I am in no mood to do anything nor talk to anyone. No mood to reply to any emails let alone check on those facebook notifications / requests etc. I couldn't care less what is going on around me. I lose energy to exercise. I just eating and pigging and not exercising much and just growing more obese. What's new yeah ???

I need a break fast. But Phase 2 is hot on the heels after D Day. Let's see what happens on Mon first. Maybe I would have to clear up my cubicle by 1 Jan. hhahahahha ... frankly, I wouldn't mind that at all. :P