The amazing adventures of Tweet And Ribbit

Powerman 2009

2009-11-10T21:44:00.005+08:00

Ribbit and I did our first ever DU on Sunday at Powerman 2009. It was a really fun albeit torturous experience. Congrats to my partner in crime for a super 5th placing!

Hooray for all THG members for were fabulous race company this weekend. Thumbs up to all the fabulous WWW folks - Sun Nee (2nd place), Mee Lan, Sarah, Oy Leen, Eric, Andre, Hooi Fang who all did superbly! Sarah, Oy Leen and Eric were part of Team Airborne who place 2nd in the mixed relay category.

Myself, managed to pull into a top ten finish and place 10th. Not much to shout about.Here are lots of pictures as they say, pictures paint a thousand words.

Ribbit looking all so serious on her first lap of run. Just beside her is Veron.

Me only a pretty lonely first DU.

Limping out of the bike transition

Returning after my bike loop. Note that I now only have one water bottle. Thanks to my stupidity, I opted not to wear bike gloves during this race resulting in my hands getting completely numbed from all the vibrations on the handlebar. I dropped my water bottle not too long after the U-turn. I decided not to go after it. But hey, I actually have the fastest T2 time in the sprint results! 51 seconds. Hahaha...

Thanks to Lie Wei, her sis and her parents who drove almost 90km from Taiping to watch crazy people run and cycle in the heat!

We look happy with our tiny finisher's medals. Full DU folks get a much bigger and nicer one!

With our dear friend, Saya.

Messing around with Lynn after the race.

Hopefully next year we will both be fit enough and injury free to attempt the full race distance. I'll definitely DU it again!

Sweet Weekend @ Awana, Genting Highlands - MuD MuD heart

2009-11-03T12:17:00.039+08:00

Due to my injuries ( knee and ankle ) I had not been training at all. I thought it was around 5 months, until I saw the date on my x-tray envelope dated 18 April 2009. So its already 6 months..SUCKS! I think I tried most of the treatment to treat my knee and ankle, you name it , I might most probably had it on my list of treatments. Since after KL Marathon, I stopped running completely until last week when I tried running on treadmill for 2km. I nearly passed out! My knee and ankle still felt uncomfortable if I go on fast on treadmill. I tried to reduce the speed the next day, managed to increase to around 5km. So sad!.. I'm trying not to get frustrated on how to get back the mileage but rather how to heal my injuries completely!

Anyway cut it short, I decided not to participate for Awana Genting Trialblazer prior to last weekend, after getting lectures again and again ( especially from my ex-running partner..we are separated between states now :)) Honestly the lecturing was worst than the lecturing from my mum! *bluek*. Actually I decided not to go up to Awana as well, because its always heartbreak to see people doing the event you like and not able to participate in the fun. After much persuasion ( okay I am lame ) and decided not to burnt the hotel room ( it comes with the race package we bought ) , I finally decided to go. Chin came down 2 days earlier as she wanted to get consultation from the Family Podiatrist for her knee prob as well. On Saturday morning, we drove over to Ming's house to meet her and Saya. She was kind enough to fetch Chin and myself up to Awana. THaNKs! At around 11am, Ming, Saya , Chin and myself departed from Puchong. Ming brought us to Ampang for yong tau foo. I think the shop was called Restaurant Foong Foong. The road was sooooo jam! I think its my first time to go to that area as well! Love the food! Slurp! Thanks again Ming! After filling up our tummy, Awana here we come. At this point, I'm still very determine that I am still not participating in the event.

With the crazy traffic flow in Ampang, we finally reached Awana at around 2pm. We registered and collected our event package but still couldn't go to our hotel room because they only allow us to collect the keys at 3pm. So we mingle around the hotel till 3pm.

Checking out the place....

Went back to the registration area to pick up our keys at 3pm. Saw Bee, Keat Seong and Jenn there.

Getting the keys....

Checking out the view from the hotel room

We rested for a bit before going down for the race briefing which we thought was at 4pm. Meet up with Lyn Holden and Debbie ( both from Penang ). Mingled around and waited till briefing at 5pm. Saw some familiar faces.

Lyn and Debbie ( L to R )

The crazy bunch of ppl ( ultraman, ironladies, marathoner..superman?:P )

The briefing ended around 6pm , most of us decided to check out the obstacles, despite the rain, we stil went. Thanks to Bee and Jenn for providing the umbrellas ( but we were still wet after that...ahahha.. ). The Mud DeViL might had went into my head... Opps!! ... After checking out the obsctacles, we head back to our room to bath and get ready for dinner. * Decision ...*Decision...

At dinnerrrrrrrr..... yet another DeViL...look at the dessert!

Food!! Food!

Ate too much that night!! Guilty!! 2 Devils had finally gotten into me! Next day..Decided to go for the event Told myself to take it easy and be-care-fool! ( don't be a FoOl :) ...So the adventure begins.....

GENTING TRIALBLAZER 2009

In sequence....B004, B003, B002

Event flag off at 8.30am....I was in a bundle of nerve and I knew Chin as well and I think she was worried for me as well.. ( Stubborn LyNn) I don't want to walk over...no way to walk over in the middle of the forest! Tried to go slow...go SloWww...SssssLlooww....Both of us keep checked of each other all the way..Tried to encourage each other as well. I seldom talk in runs...because I have no energy left in me.. ( lousy mar ) but I tried to make it a point I do it this time...Due to my knee injury I used my butt to go down most of the slopes! ..ahhah...So I ended up with bruises and scratches on my butt..OuCh! ...

After nearly 1 hr 45 mins ..finally came out from the trail. AliVE!! Wee!! hahaha .. I didn't realize it was going to over soon. Obstacles here we come... San and Ming screaming gave us boost to go..Decided to press the turbo power... Ran throw the MuD...SPLOOSHeD!! Jumped into the pool of mud water..I thinked the pool of mud were mostly chest high level. Nearly felt like puking! ahhah ... My specs nearly came off..after the 3rd obstacles, decided to throw my specs at the side... its better than losing them in the water of mud water. Knocked my knees on the climbing obstacles...all that went through my mind was to finish it...FINALLY...came to the end...commando crawl...there is where my right calf cramp!! Grr....Managed to complete the crawl ..both of us ran to the end! Came in 4th position under the Women Championship category with the time of 2:05 I think ( not a good time ) but anyway am glad to finish it...

crawl...crawl...

move...move....buffaloes coming :)

We are home! Wee....!

Most of the THG ppl came in with podium finished as well including Lyn and Debbie clinching the champion for the Adventure Category for Womens...Congratttttttttttttts everyone!!

can't jump too high..leg still cramp!

All of us with our prize. I would rather have throphies than the PLANT!

Congrats to Ming and San ( 2nd ) and Lydia and Jenn ( 5th ) ..THG Poweeerrrrrrrr!! ..SuperGirls!

Look at my flabby arms! ( vain pot! )

Finally it was time to bid farewell.. :(..I had so much fun. Chin followed Debbie and Lyn back to Penang, while I followed Ming and San back to KL. We stopped at Gohtong ( thanks to Victor for pointing out the error ..bad geography :P) to had a late lunch with the other THG people.

Thanks Chin for allowing me to do the race...( I know you're not willing :P )

Note:

*THG stands for Team Hyper-Gila

*Thanks to Tey and Raymond Ng for the lovely pics! You guys are awesome!

I heart Snuffles

2009-10-29T07:16:00.000+08:00

I am Ms Grumpee...

2009-10-28T14:00:00.002+08:00

It's Friday

2009-10-23T10:58:00.006+08:00

Website New Look

2009-10-22T16:39:00.011+08:00

Decide to give our blog a new layout since I have some spare time to kill. Haven't been able to train much ( nearly 5 months and still counting to recover ) and work had been very slow this few weeks. This leave me feeling very grumpeeeee! Instead of channeling it to people decided to occupy myself with something. Had received quite a number of feedbacks from friends stating of confusion on whom is actually writting the posting, so I decided that moving forward , we will include an icon on every posting.

That would represent Ribbit ...thats me!! The grumpee one...

That would represent Tweet...thats Chin Chin :)

Decided to take out the Tweet n Ribbit header for the moment.Will crunch my brain to come up with a new one soon...hopefully....

Congratulations GTS!

2009-10-06T21:16:00.011+08:00

I want to post a special tribute to my friend, Teng Sun who completed his maiden marathon. Teng Sun's first marathon bring back lots of memories for me as he ran Portland Marathon. It was also my first marathon in October 2006.

Here are some pics that his wife, Li Yen shared with our group of friends.

Looking happy which is great! I don't recall looking this happy when I ran it.

The classic Portland Marathon Finisher's T

I went through some pretty old photos and found some photos of me during my first marathon.

Finally, I cross the finishing line after hitting "The Wall" at around 30km.

Wrapped with a thermal blanket as it is 16C out there!

Talking to my friends who came support me. Great to see familiar faces on the course.

The only photo I have with my medal and Finisher's T. I was sure sulking about something!

-tweet-

Happy Birthday Tweet

2009-09-06T09:52:00.007+08:00

Happy Birthday to My Dearest Partner in CRiMe

Once in a while we come across someone,
Someone who touches our heart in special way,
On your birthday let's explore the special and beautiful world of friendship....
Wishing you a Happy Birthday!
Don't be sooooo naughty !

-ribbit-

Sage, The Gardens Mid Valley

2009-09-02T13:55:00.006+08:00

Firstly, a big thank you to my cousin, Jun who works at Sage for making the reservation and getting us such a good table. Sage is run by Chef Takashi Kimura who cooks French cuisine with Japanese inspired ingredients. It was some pretty spectacular food!

The Chef's Degustation Menu with our bottle of wine

Consommé Jelly with Uni and Artichoke Cream

Fedellini Pasta with Hokkaido Scallop and Anchovy

Seared Foie Gras with Red Wine Reduction

Grilled Japanese Seabass with Maitake and Aubergine

(the tiny slivers on top are shave summer truffles)

Wagyu Rib Eye with Asparagus and Yuzukoshou

Kyoho Grapes Granité

Warm Tart Tartin with Calvados Ice Cream

Chocolate Macaroons to go with coffee

Every course was spectacular except I didn't really warm to the Uni, which was funny since I am a huge fan of Uni and caviar. Ribbit and I also weren't blown away by the dessert. Other than that, the foie gras was sinfully delicious, the seabass was stunning and the wagyu was melt-in-your mouth!

-tweet-

Merdeka Ride for Green 2009

2009-08-23T21:10:00.009+08:00

Have been missing in action for quite sometime. My injuries ( yes you read it right..injuries not injury :( all on the same side..that make it even worst) had kept me away from lots of running events ...The long healing process is making me frustrated ! When my physiotherapist told me I could start running ( that was like 3 weeks back) I was kinda happy, but then it didn't happen because my knee and ligament near to my ankle were still giving me discomfort even during short distance walking. The discomfort subside and I thought I will give it a try to run on treadmill . After 15 minutes, I started to feel the pain starting from my toe moving up to the ankle( basically my extensor hallucis longus tendon giving me probs) , decided to stop. I'm disappointed! Didn't try running since that weekend I was suppose to join a bike ride with Chin Chin back in Penang (16/08). I could sense my fitness level had drop tremendously compared to 3 months back.....Though I'm frustrated on and off... I'm waiting patiently to start running...I wish someone could tell me when!!

Okay set aside the misery... I will deal with it, I was requested by Chin to post up the ride report for the ride event we participated last weekend in Penang. She had been posting all of the reports reasonly on the website and lost the momentum doing it..(sorry...I know I'm lazy..but I haven't been active that much...so you can't blame me of not writting right ?!! ) I will try my best to report it out.

Event : Merdeka Ride for Green 2009
Time : 7.30am to 12pm
Venue: Padang Polo
Cycling Category: Professional Ride ( 52km) , Family Ride ( 15km)

Last week, Chin Chin and myself participated in The Merdeka Ride for Green event which was held in Penang on the 16/08/2009. There were also a few of the WWW runners that participated in the event - Lyn Holden , Siew Suan, Guan Choon and Sunny. I'm not sure who in the group suggested to do a run -bike -run thingy on that day as well. Lyn, Sunny and Chin Chin had been doing a few brick runs lately...I was doubtful to join in as I haven't been running at all since after KL Marathon. Anyway after the deep massage which I had on Saturday before the event, my legs felt totally good. No pain and my legs felt so light! I decided to try out ( I know I'm crazy! ), so I agreed to meet over at Sunny's place at 5.15am to start off with a run. I woke up next morning around 4am and as about to head out Chin text and said it was raining quite heavy over in the Penang island. I was happy, thought I got excuse not to go over to early and sleep in a little ( since I had stopped running, it had made me tad bit lazy to get up early in the morning) ...after contemplating to go back to sleep :P , finally the devil side of me made up the mind to go over. Load up my bike in my car and off I go , driving across the island. It was still pouring quite heavy when we arrived at Sunny's house. Chin and myself unloaded our bike, while waiting for Lyn to arrive. I totally respect her, despite the rain, she cycled all the way from her house to Sunny's place. She was totally drenched when she reached. Poor thingy! The rain subside at about 6am. We decided to head out to run. Even before starting to run , my ligament started to show sign of discomfort. I thought the pain would go away...I tried to ignore it ( big mistake! ) and started to run with the rest. It had been a long time since I run in the morning. The morning breeze was nice that morning! Ran through the route that I had never run before. Since I left Penang, the WWW running group had indeed came out with few new running routes.Was quite a nice route. We clocked about 6km upon reaching back to Sunny's house. Lyn's needs to use the washroom , Lyn, Chin and myself decided to do another 4km to complete the 10km. Sunny decided to test out her bike for the ride later because she adjusted her seat post the night before. After completing our run, we changed into our riding outfit and waited for Siew Suan and Guan Choon to arrive. As we were about to head over to the bike starting venue, Siew Suan found out there was some issue with her brake. She seems to get panic. Chin tried to help to get it adjusted but it didn't seem successful, at least manage to release a bit of the brake tension to avoid rubbing too much against the wheel. We decided to get someone to help at the starting venue. We were quite lucky, as we were approaching the venue ( which is at Polo Ground along Sepoy Lines) we met the Kenneth running with a few of WWW runners, Chin asked him to help. He managed to fix the brake problem! Thanks Mr Handyman!

There were lots of people at the venue already when we arrived. We thought that it they would flag off at 7.30am sharp but we waited for quite a bit. Since we had time before it start, we decided to register ourself for the lucky draw, I was suprise to see them giving us a bottle of mineral water each. Where on earth they expect us to put! We opened up and drank a bit and left the remaining by the side of the road ( not littering! couldn't find any garbage can! ) . During the opening ceremony, I just realized that this event was to be written into the Malaysian Book of Records as having the largest cycling convoy. ( Cool! This became Chin and my second event for the Malaysian Book of Record ..ahhaha ) ...Anyway at about 8.15am or so , they flagged of the ride. This is the first time Chin and myself are starting in front of the pack, got a little bit nervous, not because we wanted to, its because we came late ( and headed from the opposite direction of the starting route ) and its hard to squeeze ourselves to the middle fo the group as the back was the Family Ride group.
3....2...1..off we go....Quite a bit of people were rushing and came quite close to me..scary! Tried to stop and let them passed. Lost sight of Chin admist the rushing crowd. As I was riding past Komtar, manage to catch sight of Chin, she called out to me, there were still people rushing to get past each other, some kids came pretty close to us as I was trying to catch up with Chin. Trying to squeeze their way between us...Gosh! Decided to just go on myself. Not too long, saw the first accident on the road. Not sure what made the cyclist fell. I think might be the pot holes on the road.. As we head out to the Jelutong highway, it got quite scary, no traffic control! I was wondering why they wasn't any people controlling the traffic. Everyone was on their own trying to stick in a group to be safe. Lost sight of Chin again as I headed out to the highway. I guessed she might be in front. Decided to follow a group of guys which I think the pace was alright for me. As I approached Queensbay Mall, I thought there would be a checkpoint, indicated in the event map but I didn't see anyone stopping, continued on. At about 30km or so, saw another road accident. Saw a group of riders helping a guy at the traffic light. Lyn came from behind and zoom past me :) She is not only a strong runner but also a strong biker.! I wanted to catch up with her, but decided not to, I don't think I can keep up with her speed. Decided to go on my own speed. The tortoise mode! :) As I reached the end of Bukit Gambir it was quite a long stretch of going uphill. Gosh! My quads were yelling for HELP! I was so tempted to come down to push my bike! ahhah ..but decided not to..I saw this guy who held on to the marshall bike to pull him all the way to the top. SHAMEFUL! After about 10 minutes of torturing, managed to get over the ascending hill. PHEW! ( I know its only 10 mins and here am I complaining!! Whinner! Bluek) I need to train more on hills..YUCKS! ..The remaining route was flat, I got excited decided to increase a bit of speed since I know its going to reach, but as I hit out to the road along Greenlane, the traffic was really scary, I tried to stay as side as possible. Finally I reached the ending line. Lyn reached about 10 mins earlier if not mistaken. Chin arrived not too long after me followed by Sunny. I think I did about 1 hour 50 mins for about 51km. Appeared to be slightly under distance. Hang around for a bit before heading back to Sunny's house. As we reached Sunny's and taking the bike in, we were out to run. My ligament start to hurt as soon as I put my feet on the groud, this time is not the extensor halucis longus tendon but the extensor digitorum longus tendons ( the tendons tha holds your 4 toes). The plan was to run 4km. But I just did one round , decided to stop , I didn't want to excert it anymore further. Clean up and waited for Siew Suan to arrive. Got a bit worried when she didn't turn up at the time we experted her to be back. Waited and waited finally she arrived, she told us she got lost and had taken extra route as directed by the marshall! Eiks!! ! After changing and loading back the bicycle into the car, we went for lunch with Kenneth. ( Thanks Kenneth !For waiting for us patiently )
After lunch, I head back over to the mainland. Took shower, packed and headed back to KL at about 3pm. I'm glad mom offered to drive me home to KL. She actually took the bas to KL and drove me to Penang on Friday and drove me back to KL on Sunday...Fall asleep at about 10pm that night..was so tired !

-ribbit-

Race Report: Shape Run 2009

2009-07-30T22:09:00.009+08:00

I apologize for the late race report. I am getting a bit lazy these days. Been too occupied with work, training, laziness, blah.

I signed up for Shape Run awhile back because it coincides with the Putrajaya Half Ironman. I wanted to be at Putrajaya to cheer on my friends since I enjoyed being the support crew so much during this year's Langkawi Ironman. Unfortunately, a week before the run, the organizers decided to cancel the Half Ironman due to the risk of the H1N1 virus. Yeah right...

Nevertheless, since I signed up I'm going to run it. I don't want to miss out on the RM300 goodie bag that was promised. A bunch of us from Penang travelled down to KL for this run. Kenneth and Peck Yee travelled with me. Jensen, Yoony and Chi Yuan took the bus. We all departed Penang on Friday afternoon. I took my new baby with me since I had space in the car. I had hopes of riding it with Ribbit on Sunday morning.

Friday was a LONG day for me. Upon arriving in KL, we headed to Ah Jo's (fellow runner from Penang working in KL) where we would crash. We unloaded and then waited for Lynn to come get us to meet Jensen for supper. We met them at SS2's Wong Kok. I had the "Yin Yong" thinking that I would deal fine with the caffeine. I was to be very wrong and had a very hard time getting to bed. I think I finally fell asleep at 2am. I think that I never really rested my brain at all, although my body was tired. I woke up at about 5.20am and toss and turn until my alarm went off at 6.30am. I woke feeling as if I didn't sleep at all. Terrible...

The day started early with breakfast at this lovely little cafe called Little Collins Bakery. I shared the Big Breakfast with Ribbit and then I share the apple crumble, carrot cake, cheese tart with Ribbit, Kenneth and Peck Yee. The bread I had with the breakfast was oregano and it was nice. I really enjoyed the sauteed mushrooms and the sausage even though it looked it was the kind that came frozen in a pack from the freezer section in the grocery store. The carrot cake was to die for but I didn't really enjoy the apple crumble or cheese tart that much. Ribbit, Kenneth and Peck Yee enjoyed the apple crumble more than me.

After that Ribbit and I parted ways with Kenneth and Peck Yee. Ribbit had a physio session at Physiowerkz (http://www.physiowerkz.com/index.htm) in Merchant Square. She is still recovering from her injuries (BOO!). I must say something about Physiowerkz, they are actually a fabulous physio place as compared to the most horrible Damansara Specialist physio which Ribbit initially saw. This place was recommended by my own physio extraordinaire, Anne Poh of Lam Wah Eee hospital. Since patronizing this place, Ribbit has felt a lot better and it seems that her recovery has been making a lot of progress.

After that we drove back to Ribbit's place to meet up with Kenneth and Peck Yee to carpool to lunch. On the way we passed The Bike Boutique and saw Saya unloading something from Shih Ming's car so we stopped by to say hi. We hung around for a bit while Shih Ming got herself fitted for her bike. Then it was back to Ribbit's place to get our friends. From there we headed to Jaya One to meet Ribbit's cousins for lunch at Hanazen. I had the Unagi Bento which had a super huge piece of Unagi which tasted superb. SUPERB. Ribbit ordered the Salmon with the Japanese Yam. The yam was very starchy and the texture was interesting. It tasted alright but the texture didn't agree with me. I did like the grilled squid she ordered A LOT better. All in all a fantastic Japanese restaurant and a very satisfying lunch.

Then it was back to Ah Jo's place where I took a 15-min nap. My head still felt like I was in a daze due to lack of sleep but still I dragged myself to get ready and we were off to Putrajaya at 5.15pm. Due to the brand new speedy highway we were in Putrajaya by 6.00pm. About 2 hours ahead of the run but it was cool. We went around and hung out checking out the booths around. We met up with most of the Penang group and eventually, we would meet up with Michelle, Siok Bee, Shih Ming, Saya, Frank and the rest of the THG group. It was also good to see co-workers like Sweeney and Chin How there. Lots of picture taking and at about 7.00pm I wanted to make a last minute dash to the toilet but then they started to make a call to the runners' pen. So I decided I didn't want to go that badly and hugged Ribbit for some confidence before entering the runner's pen. I felt totally crappy for this. I felt I hadn't trained enough. I felt nervous because I haven't run a 10k race in so long I didn't know what pace to do or how to start off. I was glad for Ribbit's hug. It made me feel better.

They kept me in the runners' pen for AGES! I was surrounded by sweaty men. It was hard to breathe and it was hot. I was monitoring my heart rate and I did worry I might be in trouble as even standing in the pen it was 100 bpm.

When the gun finally went off at 8pm, I ran ahead planning to find my own pace. I saw Jessica fly by and not long after that I saw Saya came by. I decided to try and follow Saya's pace and I took off after her. I managed to keep pace with her for about 3.5km before I felt I couldn't keep up anymore. I think my heartrate was 175bpm at that time. I slowed down and dropped to a hard pace that I could deal with. However, I think the damage was done. I reach the 6km mark averaging a 5:25min/km pace but after that I caught a very, very bad stitch on both sides of my abdomen.

At this point, I see tons of people I know pass me which was frustrating for me, Yee Hua, Wai Mun and Mich Looi. As Mich Looi passed I told her I was suffering. I told her I felt like passing out. She motioned for me to follow her and despite my increasing stitch, I pushed on. However, at one point it got so bad that at one point in the run I had to stop to walk up a slope. The last 3km, Chi Yuan caught up with me and thanks to the walk break, I was able to keep up with him. I managed to hang on and charged to the finish line with a pathetic 1:06:20. As I can in I swam the girl in front of me throw up. It was that bad a run. I felt her pain.

The post-run activities was a lot more enjoyable. Mamak at Putrajaya with the Penang gang and the THG. It bring back memories from my MMU hangout days here.

Things I like about Shape Run:
1. Nice, scenic route. It was really nice to run over all those bridges!
2. Well organized and good enough Goodie Bag (even though I don't think it is worth RM300).

Things I didn't like about Shape Run:
1. People who cut corners in the route. Cutting across instead of going around. You can read Shih Ming's note in Facebook to understand that this is just simply lying to yourself.
2. Night runs are just so hot and unpleasant. It was terrible!

Lesson learnt:
Never try to chase after people, it could be a disaster. Run your own race.

LOTS of pics from the lovely Ribbit. Thanks so much for coming out to take pics of us!

-tweet-

Endurance Weekend - 12-hour paddle + Century Ride

2009-07-23T21:27:00.023+08:00

Tweet and Ribbit turned 2 years old on July 14th. We celebrated it by embarking on an endurance weekend. The first was the Penang Forward attempt to enter into the Malaysian Book of Records by paddling a dragonboat continuously for 12 hours and raising RM100k for charity. The second was to attempt our first ever 3-digit cycling event, the KRI Century Ride in Ipoh. You will need to ride a 160km in 8hours.

Ribbit came back the night before on the 8pm bus. She tried to sleep as much as possible on the bus as she only arrived at 1am and we had to get up by 4am to be on-site to start paddling at 5am. I tried to grab as much sleep as possible myself knowing this was going to be a gruelling weekend. I didn't sleep much and when I awoke at 4am, I felt as if I hadn't slept at all.

When we arrived in front of Queensbay, it was still pitch dark. We unloaded, got the car nicely parked and waited for instructions from our teammates. Some history before I get into the event. Ribbit and I used to be part of this dragonboat team in Penang, called Penang Forward. We quit the team about 2 years ago because they didn't have enough women and the training schedule just got a bit too intensive for me. I no longer had that much time to spare.

Donation boxes for Paddle For Hope

However, we decide to volunteer our paddling services for the sake of charity. There were three other teams volunteering; Chung Ling High School, Anak Malaysia and Penang Island Paddler's Club. The idea here was to have each team paddle a 11km course and then switch up. The whole thing can be tricky as we had to switch up in 5minutes in order to qualify for "continuous paddling". Our team was the first team up so, we rushed to get things in order for the 6am paddle off. We managed to get everyone into the boat and we were off at 5.59am. The first part of the course was to paddle from Queensbay towards the Penang Bridge, to go under the bridge and continue on to the island on the other side. Upon hitting the island we were to turn back and head down until Agilent and then turn back towards Queensbay. There was a competition for the first round, where best time will win a special trophy.

The 11km course mapped out on Google Map

The first round actually went by easy enough but a bit challenging for me as I had to paddle on my left. My left side is not my strongest side but in order to balance up the boat, I had to do so. It was nice and dark and it was over in 1hour 6minutes. A lot faster than the initial prediction of 1hour 30minutes. We switched up and it was a 3-hour break before our next session. I anticipated the next session to be very challenging as it is going to take place at high noon. We just bummed around and take lots of pictures and chatted with friends. The next session came soon enough. As I lined up with Ribbit, our captain counted too many right hand paddlers this time and ask either Ribbit and me to sit out one session. I wanted to paddle so Ribbit could rest but Ribbit said she would rather get it over and done with so she can rest more later. I was fine with that as I most definitely, wanted her to rest more.

Ribbit the champion superwoman who paddle 3 sessions!

Ribbit came up from her second session with a time of 1hour 7minutes. VERY good time considering the unforgiving heat! Kudos to you Superwoman! We celebrated with a nice lunch at Dome inside Queensbay. Next up was my session at around 4pm. As I lined up for my turn, my captain counted not enough paddlers for the right hand side. He said he had to field Ribbit again. Oh no! I didn't want Ribbit to paddle again. She was tired! Her back was sore but we had no choice. In order to paddle to hit the goal, we needed her in the boat. I reluctantly had no choice but to see her back in the boat. By this time, everyone was very very tired already. I can feel the drag of the boat with each stroke. My paddle was starting to splash water, a sign that my arms was tired. We took almost 1hour 30minutes for this round but I was glad as we got out of the boat as I knew it was already our last session.

Still standing after the event

Ribbit and I showered and waited for the closing ceremony where we received our medals. The we waited for Ribbit's mum to come pick us up. It was then a quick dinner and then we were off to Ipoh at around 8pm. I was sharing the back seat of her mum's Vios with my bike. Ribbit's bike had gotten a lift from Shih Ming and San who drove in from KL.

The drive to Ipoh wasn't long but I just could wait to get there as I was really really tired. Ipoh just couldn't arrive soon enough but finally we arrived at the hotel around 10pm. Thanks to Shih Ming and San for checking in on our behalf and for staying up to wait for us to pass us the keys. We finally moved all our stuff from the car into the room and it was time to crash at almost 11pm.

I didn't sleep very well at all and both Shih Ming and San made a comment about me looking really tired the next day. Now, note that my new baby is less than a month old and I had only rode only one 50km ride on it. Ribbit's new baby is also about two months old and I'm pretty sure even she has ridden it more than me, it was probably not by very much. So here we are two crazy people about to bike a 160km.

We had some hiccups in the journey to Bukit Kinding Resort, the start of the Century Ride thus we arrived quite late and by the time we setup all our bikes it was almost time to start as I started to bike into the resort to the starting line I can see a mass sea of bikers headed toward me. It was a total moment of panic for me seeing that I wasn't very steady on the bike yet. I wobbled quite a bit as I tried to avoid them. A few of them yelled at me to just turn around and started pedaling but I needed to use the loo!!! I disembark from the bike and started running with it only to trip and crash with the bike. I got my first knee bruise/cut here but it wasn't a bit deal.

Some really nice and empty road to bike on

(Pic courtesy of Frank)

By the time we were done with the loo break, everyone had gone off and as we exited the resort we were greeted by a mass of support cars. I had to bike really carefully to avoid them. Shih Ming sped off ahead leaving San, Ribbit and me to pedal together. Not too long after that we were to make our first wrong turn thanks to really lousy signage. Thankfully a marshall chased after us and got us to turn back.

After biking for maybe about 20km, San decided to take off to chase after Shih Ming as seeing that we were both okay. She sped off. I don't remember much of the route since I was very focus on the road because I fear I would fall off my bike or picked up a flat. All I remembered that the first stage we hit Kuala Kangsar and the route was either flat or downhill. It was pretty nice and I was keeping at 23km/hr which would be on target to hit a 7-hour finish. The first 50km arrived pretty quick enough and it was somewhere after that in which we met up with Frank. It wasn't too bad when we hit 80km. Ribbit was obviously the stronger biker of us two as she normally biked ahead and stop to wait for this slow poke. I guess if it hadn't been for me she may have taken off much faster.

After the second water station at 77km, the route started to rise uphill gradually. The rolling hill terrain would continue until pretty much the end. I felt myself slowing down after 80km to about 20km/hr. I started to get very frustrated as I couldn't figured out what was going on. It wasn't the terrain that was getting to me but I just couldn't get my cadence up and no matter how hard I stepped down on the pedals, my bike wasn't covering enough distance. I was getting grumpy and I complained to Ribbit about the challenge. I was suffering due to the lack of speed despite a lot of effort to pedal hard.

The 100km mark came very painfully. After that I really bonked pretty badly for awhile having not eaten anything for the past 5hours. My speed was dying after 100km, I told Ribbit I wanted to quit very badly but she kept urging me on. I struggled on simply due to her urging and finally 120km came. Together with that came the final water station where I refueled and tried my best to carry on. I overheard that this year the cutoff time was 8hours 30minutes. So Ribbit told me that we now need to beat the clock and with that in mind I did start to pick up my speed more. I must say I pedal very very hard the last 40km. As usual, Ribbit was at my side urging me on as the kms drop. With about 20km more to go my Garmin died. So I relied completely on Ribbit for speed and time.

Finally I had just 10km to go. I see Lynn and Frank start to speed up. I cranked up my own speed and prayed that the ride ended fast enough. As I near what I hope was the road back to the resort, a marshall on a motorcycle rode by me saying that there was 10minutes left. I started to pedal like crazy and hope that there wasn't too much left to cover. Finally I saw the signboard that pointed to Bukit Kinding Resort. Thanks again to poor signage, I almost missed the turn into the resort but a couple of nice bikers yelled for me to turn and I did. I arrived at the finish line in 7hours 59mins 33secs. Only 27 secs shy of the cutoff time.

Still standing after the rides with our new babies

(Pic courtesy of Frank)

When we arrived Shih Ming, San and Lynn's mum had gone back to the hotel to check out for us. We would have to wait around the finish area for another 2 hours before they came with items for us to shower. And finally at around 6pm, we had dinner at the food court near Wolley's.

By the time we parted ways it was 7pm and I dropped exhaustedly into the car for the drive back to Penang with Lynn's mum.

Things I like about the Century Ride:
1. Ribbit and I had our own team manager in the form of Lynn's mum! Thanks so much for driving us all around.
2. Waterstation people, marshalls and organizers were super nice.

Things that could be better:
1. That they didn't run out of bananas for the slower people.
2. BETTER signage for all those tricky turning points.

-Tweet-

Nike LunarGlide+ Shoe Trial @ Nike Office, The Curve

2009-07-09T21:44:00.026+08:00

Haven't blog in ages. Thanks to Tweet(Chin) to keep the blog alive! Checking back my entries, the last I posted was on 18th January! Wopppss! Guilty charged! Seemed like I might FAIL again to meet my yearly resolution - NOT TO PROCRASINATE AND BEING LAZY. Hmmphh. Half the year has gone yet I'm still not even 1% kicking off my bad habit. (Lynn's Devil: Oh well...still have 5 more months right??! )Anyway, as usual I decided to update the blog immediately today or god knows when I will blog my entry. ( Tweet's eyes wide open ! )

Women LunarGlide+

Presentation by Li-Zren

San and SM

Loke & Frank

I was lucky to be invited by Li Zren from Nike Malaysia to attend the Nike LunarGlide+ Shoe Trial today at Nike office @ The Curve. Co-incidently a week ago I was thinking to give Nike running shoes another try since my last pair of running shoes back in 2007. Bingo here was my chance to give it a test run! Actually Tweet was invited as well, but due to being its a Thursday and she is in Penang, she couldn't make it..*sniff*. Since Li Zren told me the event will starts at 4pm to 7pm, I requested to my team lead on Monday that I will be heading back early today, thus I decided to be in office at 7am today.

Left work at 3.50pm from Bukit Jalil and headed over to The Curve. Luckily the traffic wasn't too bad. Took me about 30 mins to arrive there. Parked my car and took the lift up to the office. Called Frank to check where was the exact place to register and meet ( as usual me being me, never fully take note of the place to meet..bah!). As I entered the conference room (which they named it Bowerman- after the name of Bill Bowerman, the co founder of Nike. Inc) , nearly 90% of the attendees were already in the room. The attendees comprised of bloggers/runners(familiar running friends like San, Shih Ming, Jamie Pang, Pueh Tian, Frank, Loke), national athletes (Yu Fang & Kimberly Yap) and medias (Niki Cheong @ Bangsar Boy). After registration at getting tagged on the wrist with a small wrist band, proceed to the back of the room to collect the LunarGlide+ and other goodies ( Thanks Nike!). Honestly I didn't know they were giving out the shoes plus including a pair of socks, shorts, sports bra ( kid you not! ) and running vest. I thought it was just a launching ceremony or shoe trial event and giving the attendees oppurtunity to try out their new running shoes- LunarGlide+.

After changing into our running attire and put on the shoes, there were a short presentation on the technology of the new designed shoes by Li Zren followed by Yin, Niki and a blogger ( I didn't catch his name..sowreee dude.. ) .

At about 5 plus we were suppose to go out to have a short run around Damansara Perdana in the LunarGlide+ shoes, but it got delayed due to the little shower of rain. We proceeded down to ground floor , assembling in front of Fitness First for a quick warm up session by Jamie. The little rain shower finally subsided when we started running ( or perhaps the rain shower were gone when we started) . There were 2 running groups - 1 doing the shorter distance ( intended to be 2k ) while another group to do the longer distance ( intended to be 5k ) . San, Ming, Loke and Frank decided to join the longer distance group. Since I'm still recovering from injury, I decided to go real slow and stop if required. I haven't been running since SCKLM 2 weeks ago. Trying to refrain myself from running till my ankle and knee injury fully heal.

After running about 20 mins or so we were back to the front of Fitness First before going back to the conference room in Nike Sales Malaysia. Had some slight discomfort on my ankle ( not because of the shoes but from my injury ) . I can bet you the route is only around 2.5k ( thank god :p) .

San, SM and myself after the run...

O'Brien sandwhiches served... yum!

Pueh Tian and Jamie (Carboman)

My point of view on the shoes after gliding them through the wet road with its RocketScience technologies... :)

Men's LunarGlide+

Women's LunarGlide+ ( see the color difference !)
The sole

Pro:
Upon slipping my foot into the shoes, I do feel comfortable. Compared to LunarTrainer+ and Nike Zoom ( which I owned as my casual wear shoes) LunarGlide+ does give a well cushioning area around the foot and much more support on the arch. With the cushioning, the shoes still feel light.
Taking it out running on the running path at the nearby housing estate, the shoes proved to provide more grip and non slippery sole.
For the 2.5km of run, the shoes did so far impress me. No complains! I might be using this shoes for the Shape Run 2009 on 24th July ( fingers cross that my injuries will heal by then or given a green light to run ) . Until I used the shoes for longer run, this shoes at the moment seems to be an awesome shoes.
Con:
I prefer the men's LunarGlide+ black/orange over the white/orange colored shoes for women:(

Technical fact of the LunarGlide+ Women.
*extracted from Nike Review source

WOMEN’S NIKE LUNARGLIDE+
The women’s Nike LunarGlide+ features a number of key design differences from the men’s shoe that address the specific needs of a female runner.

Key Product Features
The Nike LunarGlide+ is the first running shoe to deliver both top-tier cushioning and as-needed support with the new Dynamic Support system.

The Dynamic Support system in the Nike LunarGlide+ mid-sole is comprised of a lightweight LunarLite foam core that sits within a firmer foam carriage. The LunarLite foam core is cut to fit into the carriage at an angle creating a deeper cushioned lateral side. The medial side of the Nike LunarGlide+ mid-sole features a rear-foot wedge that has been contoured into the firmer foam carriage which provides stability on an as-needed basis.
Women, on average, pronate more than men. The Dynamic Support system delivers great cushioning for neutral runners, as well as the necessary support for runners that overpronate, making the Nike LunarGlide+ appropriate for a remarkably wide range of runners.
Nike designed Flywire technology into the upper to provide the necessary support with a dramatic reduction in weight versus a conventional, overlay-based upper construction.
The women’s Nike LunarGlide+ provides the cushioning, support and durability necessary for daily distance training in a lightweight, 8.6 oz package.

Upper

The breathable mesh upper provides comfort, protection and durability.
Soft yet strong microfiber synthetic overlays are ultrasonically welded in place for targeted support and luxurious, seam-free comfort.
Women tend to have broader forefeet which can lead to fit issues, abrasions to the skin, even bunions. Nike has applied its Dynamic Fit Technology, a stretchy material on the medial side adjacent to the fifth metatarsal, which expands and telescopes out to accommodate the varying width of the female forefoot.
Women tend to prefer a more supportive fit than men. The women’s Nike LunarGlide+ upper incorporates a medial-sidech Strap teamed with Flywire technology to provide better lock-down in the mid-sole.
A two-part, gender-specific external heel counter is engineered to accommodate the higher variability in heel volume exhibited in women’s feet. By framing the heel instead of fully encompassing it, this unique heel counter balances a woman’s distinct needs for comfort, fit and support.
Molded “high-resilience” foam sockliner features women’s-specific Heel Cradle geometry for enhanced step-in feel, cushioning and support.
Reflective elements add peace of mind in low-light conditions.

Mid-sole

The Dynamic Support system in the Nike LunarGlide+ mid-sole is comprised of a lightweight LunarLite foam core that sits within a firmer foam carriage. The LunarLite foam core is cut to fit into the carriage at an angle creating a deeper cushioned lateral side.
The medial side of the Nike LunarGlide+ mid-sole features a rear-foot wedge that has been contoured into the firmer foam carriage which provides stability on an as-needed basis.
Women, on average, pronate more than men. The Dynamic Support system delivers great cushioning for neutral runners, as well as the necessary support for runners that overpronate, making the Nike LunarGlide+ appropriate for a remarkably wide range of runners.
Women, on average, weigh 10 to 15 percent less than men, and therefore will have less mass compressing a shoe’s midsole. To account for this, the women’s Nike LunarGlide+ includes more soft foam under the heel than the men’s model, providing the softer cushioning women need.
The Nike LunarGlide+ features an Archbridge specially designed for women that cups the midsole along the arch side of the rear-foot for added support without withousacrificing a smooth transition.

Outsole

The rear-foot crash pad is made of BRS 1000 carbon rubber for maximum abrasion resistance.
The entire outsole features next generation Nike Natural Motion engineering– informed by the Nike Free line of shoes – to encourage a smooth, efficient stride.
Deep flex grooves specially designed for a woman’s foot are aligned along the length and width of the outsole mirror the grooves in the midsole to promote a smooth, efficient stride.

My gratitude and thanks to Li-Zren and Nike Malaysia Sales team for organizing the session and inviting me over for the trial session ( even know me ain't a good runner, ain't glamarous either ) Perhaps in future such trial sessions would be available up north in Penang as well.

-ribbit-

Race Report: Ipoh International Run 2009

2009-07-07T21:07:00.009+08:00

I finally broke the jinx of my half marathon and ran a sub-2 at Ipoh last year. The route was pretty nice (flat and fast, but that's not really my thing) and support on the course was decent. However, MBI could definitely use some improvement in their bib collection and prize money distribution.

It is because I liked the run enough that I returned to Ipoh again this year together with Peck Yee and Kenneth to run the race. Sadly Ribbit had to opt out as her ankle was giving her trouble. I was fresh of my marathon so prior to the race I only ran on Thursday. A short tempo run. I was a bundle of nerves. Would I be able to do it again? Would I be able to run a sub-2 here? The prize money this year was significantly better than last year and I did see the amazing talent in the field when I registered. A lot of big names in running.

I travelled down with Kenneth and Peck Yee on Saturday morning. Upon reaching we went to "Tin Chun" for Ipoh hor fun, popiah and chee cheong fun. I do love the popiah here. It's very different from Penang. The rolls have some awesome filling of crispy little prawn (har mai or heh bee). It is also not drenched in soup like the Penang version.

Then it was off to Stadium Indera Mulia for bib collection. It is here that I met up with Shih Ming and Saya. MBI (not learning a lesson from past year's mistakes) takes AGES to pull up our information. Shih Ming and Saya left in the midst of this to check-in to their hotel and we made plans to sync-up again for lunch. After a century, we finally pay and headed over to collect our racepacks. It was amusing to see the volunteers pull our T-shirts out from those large MBI trashbins. I hope they washed those bins before putting the T-shirts in!

Lesson #1: Prepay for the race entry fees for Ipoh next time. Stupid me for not learning from last year.

We then went to the Heritage Hotel to meet up with Shih Ming and Saya and head on to lunch at Peck Yee's childhood chicken rice stall in town. I was overtly ambitious and ate way too much at the chicken rice stall. I would soon regret this. The chicken rice shop was packed to the brim but sadly I think the taste was average only. I think most of us enjoyed the Funny Mountain tau foo fah and soya milk we had after lunch more than the chicken rice.

We parted ways (sob, sob...) for rest with plans to meet again for dinner at Woolley, which I kid you not is a name of a food court. Not the wooly mammoth! Went home and felt so stuffed that I was pretty uncomfortable and this stomach discomfort will stay with me until dinner time. It is funny that people from Ipoh often tell you that they are going to Woolley to eat except that they almost always end up at the food court across the road from Woolley's. I guess Woolley's name is easier to remember than the Chinese name on the food court. I had lots of popiah again, which frankly is the best thing I have had there. The "mun ee mien" I ordered was so tasteless I didn't finish it and not finishing something is VERY rare for me. It is at dinner where I was introduced to Lai Chee, another superb superb runner who finishes Sundown 84k in just slightly over and hour.

We left pretty early to go back and get ready for the race. I must say I slept early enough in a room that I shared with Peck Yee in her parents' house. It was pretty stuffy so we set the timer and turned on the aircon. However, after the timer shut off the room became stuffy again. According to Peck Yee, I sleep walked my way into turning on the table fan but the fan was too noisy thus she turned it off and turned on the aircon again. She was to leave the room to sleep oin her parents's room. Thanks Peck Yee for letting me freeze to death with the aircon. At around 3am, I was so cold I scrambled to turn it off and continue sleeping until 4.25am.

Oops! I woke up late. I had wanted to awaken at 4am so there was a mad scramble to get ready.
Thanks to the food stuffing adventure the day before, I had multiple toilet adventures that morning. I choked down two pieces of wholemeal bread with peanut butter. Just as we packed up to get going, the skies open up and sheets of rain started to fall. Oh man... bummer. A wet run. Even with the pouring rain, we decided to drive to the start and well, sit in the car and hope the rain lets up.

When we arrived at the stadium, it was still pouring buckets. So we bummed around in the car debating whether to go down to run or not. My mood was seriously low at this point. We bummed until almost 6.30pm when we decided to make a dash for the start. We got out of the car and made our way as quickly as we could towards the starting area. The roads was a mess of puddles and rain was still coming down pretty hard. The gate to get into the runners' pen was flooded and my shoes and self were soak so much by then I couldn't care less what happened at that point. Let the rain come down.

We got our starting bands and huddled underneath the building for shade. Suddenly, I saw throngs of runners moving towards the gate. I guess it is time to line up... or not. Due to some big shot VIP coming late I stood shivering and freezing at the starting line waiting for the flag off. He got some pretty bad boo-ing when he finally arrived. As the gun went off, I was just happy to start moving. My muscles were so frozen just standing there.

The start felt very sluggish. What to expect when you have stood in freezing rain for a good 15minutes? We very soon branch off and I was glad I caught myself instead of following the hoardes of 10k runners. I noticed quick enough and made a sharp right turn. After the race, I would hear of tons of other more unfortunate runners that were lead astray by bad signage.

Lesson #2: Pay attention to the route beforehand so that you know where to run even if organizers have bad signage.

You can read more about poor signage and being lead astray here:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Sport/2600498/Article/index_html

I caught a sight of Saya not too long after and tried to keep her in my view until I realized she was running a tad bit too fast for me at the point. I decided to drop her and focus on my own pace. It was an almost 6min/km pace at that point but I told myself I would need to run faster if I wanted to hit a sub-2. The good thing was that the first 5k passed fast enough and I turned into Jalan Gopeng to begin one of the longest straight and flat stretch of the half. Which was from km5 to km8. At this point, I amusingly ran past a guy running with an umbrella. He tried to keep pace with me for a bit but dropped after a few hundred meters.

The next stretch was quite easy, I think the pace was something like 5:50min/km. Still too slow but I did try to keep it at 5:40min/km for most part. After the 11km mark, I started to feel a dip, which sometimes happens to me during races. However, I am better at catching myself, giving myself a mental slap and picked it up. This whole I was pacing this guy with the exact same bib number as me 050. I struggled a bit from 11km to 15km but after I hit 15km things felt really good and I started to pick up my pace and at this point I was running about 5:45min/km. I started to drop Mr. 050 and quite a number of other runners. At this point I was running something like a 5:30min/km and I finally managed to catch up to that one woman ahead of me and passed her at km17. However, after passing her, I got so paranoid that she would pass me back that I started to run pretty hard. At the home stretch I picked up the pace again to about 5:15min/km and at the last 500m I passed another woman.

Total time taken 1:55 but damnit the route was severely underdistanced as my GPS only showed 19.91km. So It may not have been a sub-2 finish had I have to run that extra km. Average pace was 5:47min/km which was much much slower than last year.

It is funny to note that last year I also ran Ipoh after another full marathon, Sundown.

We celebrated by having lunch with Shih Ming, Saya, Ben, Yee Hua at the big tree. I had laksa and yong tau foo. I spent the rest of the afternoon nursing a throbbing headache before heading back to Penang in the evening.

Thank you Uncle Kenneth for driving and Aunty Peck Yee for the free lodging. Your parents were very hospitable.

Darn it! I need a new sub-2 half marathon now!

-Tweet-

Race Report: SCKLM 2009

2009-07-01T08:21:00.009+08:00

Pre marathon:

Firstly, happy birthday to my Grandpa who celebrated his 86th birthday over the weekend!

My SCKLM weekend was packed with a lot of activities. The week leading up to the race was really busy at work with plenty of meetings/trainings so that left little time in the day for work. I had to spend my nights catching up on work. I had planned to depart on Friday after work at 4pm with Chin Leong, Kenneth and Peck Yee in my car. Unfortunately, I had a team celebration at lunch time which lasted until 2.45pm. By the time I got back to the office, it was just a mad dash to pack up and leave before traffic builts up.

The drive was smooth enough although traffic on the highway was very heavy. We did stop by a pretty good Italian cafe for pasta in Ipoh. It was called Sweet Tea Spaghetti Cafe. We had the Aglio Olio with Turkey Ham and the Tomato with Potato (I'm not kidding you!). The pricey were a bit steep but the food was pretty good! Thanks Chin Leong for treating us!

Reach KL and dropped Chin Leong off at Petaling Street where he was staying. Then on to Lynn's place to rest up for the night. I was tired but stayed up late doing stuff. You know how sometimes it takes forever for you to get to bed even when you are tired? Most of the time it involves doing stupid things like folding clothes? That was me on Friday night. Finally hit the sack at close to midnight.

Saturday was a super packed day. Ribbit and I already have breakfast, lunch and dinner plans. Breakfast was early at 8am with Alan, Bee Wooi, Jocelyn and Pang. We had it in the EXCELLENT bakery called The Bread Shop in Damansara Heights. Ribbit and I went crazy as we both love good bread and had close to everything in the shop. Highlights include the cinnamon buns, the chocolate croissant, tuna mushroom bun and the sausage cheese roll. To die for!

We then decided to leave for Dataran Merdeka so that we can get there early to collect our bibs. Surprise, surprise that upon arrival at around 10am, the bib collection had already started and was a far cry from the disorganized mess that I heard about the day before. We collected our bibs smoothly enough but the heat at that time was unbearable. In my mind, I was thinking how screw I would be if I were still be running in this sort of heat.

For lunch, we met with Shih Ming (42k -denotes SCKLM distance to be run), San (42k) and Sue Anne (10k) at Umai-Ya at Damansara Perdana. The lunch was a tad bit pricey and the food wasn't particularly good. Lots of carbo-loading took place.

For dinner, we met up with THG (Team Hyper Gila) to have dinner at around the Kampung Pandan area at a place called Rendezvous Steakhouse which has very affordable and tasty pasta. Ribbit and I both had the "Spaghetti Napolitana" which was spaghetti with grilled chicken, mushrooms and mixed vege in a tomato sauce with a hint of cream. YUM!

We tried to leave as early as we could to go back and crash but ended up leaving only at 9pm. Upon arriving home, we still had to book our Macau tickets (to run Macau Marathon in December) and I only ended up sleeping only at 11pm.

Marathon day:

Ribbit woke up first at 2am and allowed me to continue sleeping while she showered. She's such a sweetie. After that I jumped in for a quick shower. A simple breakfast of peanut butter toast for me and egg with peanut butter bread for Ribbit. We packed our stuff and was out of the door by 3.30am. We arrived at Bukit Aman carpark with sufficient carpark space for us still. Whew! I met my co-worker, Sean Chan who will be running his first marathon.

We strapped on our respective knee guard and hydration belts and was off to the starting point. I was quite nervous, as I kept worrying about how I would run a marathon after a long injury break. I tried to curb my nervousness by focusing on my mind in completing the run.

My first screw up was lining up for a porta-pottie which occupant didn't seem to be exiting it soon. It started drizzling while I was in line which never bothered me. In fact, I'm happy it did as it cooled the air down. I finally left the porta-pottie 10minutes later in a huff of frustration to drop off the bag at the baggage area before trying again. I was luckier the second time around. My second boo-boo was failure to find Siew Swan, who had carried my HRM for me from Penang. I am terribly absent minded and forgot it. I didn't find her until 10minutes before the race. Whew! Two scares before I finally lined up at the start with Guan Choon, Siew Swan and Ribbit.

The gun went off and I shuffled to the start. This time around I didn't have a race strategy, race pace or time goal. My goal was to run with Ribbit and to finish, hopefully under 5 hours. As we started running, Ribbit suggested that we try not to lose two women runners from the WWW, namely Siew Swan and Hooi Fang. My legs felt so tight and they appear to be running so fast that I got stressed that I wouldn't have been able to keep up so after about 4k, I told Ribbit and she said to slow down if I felt discomfort. However, I kept at it and soon after awhile I found myself feeling pretty good about the pace and felt I was running comfortably.

I saw Oy Leen then Tuan Tuan and eventually Mich Looi. Oy Leen pulled ahead soon but I would be seeing Tuan Tuan until around 28km. Ribbit and I tried to pace with Mich Looi for most of the way after that and it was a nice pace of 6:15-6:30. We would run with her until around 26k. After that we would lose her. By around 28k, Siew Swan passed Ribbit and me. Not too long after that Guan Choon ran by.

Surprisingly, I would feel pretty good until 35k and this was where I totally tanked and took my first walking break. After that point the race was just a countdown in my head as I countdown the last 7k in my head. I look forward to hitting the 37-38k water station as I had ran out of water in my hydration belt. However, upon arrival, I found out that the water station was closed as they had run out of water. WTF?!? Okay, never mind, I will not let it sway me. I plodded on a tad bit grumpy now. Ribbit was so kind to give me the last sip of her Cytomax. At around 39k, SP and Sunny would pass us. As we came upon the junction I was excited to hear the blarring music coming from Dataran Merdeka although I know from my GPS that we still had a ways to go.

Picture courtesy of Winnie

When I arrived at the junction I was told to turn right. I knew it! Stupid route planning. That has to be by the far the longest 3k that I would run in awhile. It was agonizing especially without water. The organizers saved themselves from my wrath by having water at 40k. At that point, I was running a lot harder as I know the end of the race was coming. Ribbit was right behind me this whole time. As we passed the 500m to go mark, I counted down each 100m as I saw Dataran Merdeka come closer and closer. As we enter into the home stretch, Ribbit and I joined hands to run across the finish line together. Woo-hoo! According to my watch it was 4:53. Yes! A sub 5-hour marathon. Not my fastest but not my slowest either.

(Picture courtesy of Ben Swee)

I must take some time to commend Ribbit who such a trooper! This power woman ran a marathon after 2 months of not training. I was only out for 6 weeks and I was lucky enough to come back from injury in time to do two long runs (26k and 30k) but she just went to the start line and still got herself a sub-5. I am so proud of you Ribbit. You rock!

Team Hyper Gila

(Picture courtesy of Jenn)

Post marathon

Had a less than spectacular buffet at Tenji. After so much hype, I was terribly disappointment. It was exactly how I felt about SCKLM. Wow! Deja vu. The evening was much better as Ribbit and I watched Eve Ensler's "The Good Body" which was being staged at the Sime Darby Convention Center. It was such an awesome, hilarious play about some very serious women's issues. Ribbit and I were laughing a lot and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Problems with SCKLM 2009:

1. NEVER RUN OUT OF WATER IN A MARATHON

I do wonder if organizers here wish to wait until some one dies on the course from dehydration like that time in Chicago before they learn their lesson. I would rather be harsh on them now so that such things do not happen. The ironic thing was, they had so much water at the finish, they were giving away bottles of 1.5litre water.

2. What traffic control?

Either get your traffic control down or choose a less ambitious route. Runs that go through the heart of the city can be asking for trouble. How badly do I want to run past KLCC, really? I practically see some cops just standing there as cars whizz by them.

3. Where is my finisher's medal and T-shirt?

You mean after running 42km, I have to walk another 2km to get my medal and T-shirt? And what am I going to do with a size L finisher's T-shirt? Ribbit and I plan to wear it together as our Halloween costume this year.

-Tweet-

Race Report: Penang Malakoff 26k

2009-06-15T20:18:00.004+08:00

After my DNF at Sundown, I was both nervous and filled with newfound determination not to incur another DNF. It was made a lot easier that Ribbit came back from KL to run this as well. We were both also very happy to have Lesley join us from Singapore as well as Frank and Victor from KL.

Trying on the Newton running shoes

(Pics courtesy of Frank)

We spent most of Saturday with our friends. We brought Frank and Victor around during the morning and afternoon and then joined Lesley and Eunice for dinner. We got to take the Newton running shoes for a test drive. Lots of eating and plenty and plenty of food. You can read more of these details at Frank's blog, http://runnerzcircle.blogspot.com/2009/06/malakoff-26km-penang-2009.html.

I actually didn't sleep very much the night before the race and for the first time in ages, I actually woke up a tad bit too late and thus my departure for the race venue was a bit haphazard. I even forgot to do some pretty important "business" which unfortunately for me, had to be done at the public toilets at Youth Park (the grossness!).

Since my return from Singapore, I have been mentally preparing myself for this upcoming 26km race. This time around I was determined to finish it no matter what. Therefore, I arrived with at the starting line determine to complete the distance and to run my own race.

Ribbit and I gave each other encouraging hugs just before the race horn went off. I decided to run with my gut feeling. That means no worrying about my pace, just to keep running, not to stop and most importantly to finish the race. I was first passed by Oy Leen, Wei Chern, Tuan Tuan and Tsen who all inquired about my knee and asked me to take it easy. I took it really slow the first 2k but when I hit the hills of Vale of Tempe I could feel myself chugging up them. I actually love 'em hills so I found it really nice to keep my legs pumping up the slopes. I sneaked a peak at my watch and saw that it was approximately 6:45min/km. It was much slower than I would ever run but then I held back. It was only 4k into the race and I had A LONG way to go.

As I cruised downhill, letting my legs carry me down I was still doing alright and enjoying the run. The stretch through the Jalan Permai was straight and mostly flat but it would slowly rise until the curve where the route dips slightly downhill. I had hope to see my friend, Pek See who stayed along that road but I didn't see her out. It was alright. I skipped my first water stop because I had decided to hold on to my waterbottle.

After I hit the T-junction that would bring me to the main road, I did hit a bit of a rough spot. I started to feel the ache in my legs. I was actually glad for this guy that started to have a brief conversation with me. I believe he was a member of Team Weeran. Thank you, for lifting my spirits. From that point onwards, I just focused on the landmarks along the way. It made the run a lot easier to focus on short terms goals, like hitting the next landmark. So from then on I counted down landmarks in my head. I managed to hit the 10k waterstop without any big catastrophe. Whew! The whole time, I kept a keen lookout for Ribbit but she was nowhere to be seen.

After the 10k mark at the Tanjung Bungah hotel, started to fall back into the rhythm and it wasn't until the end of Gurney which I took my first gel. However, when I started to head towards the Clock Tower at Esplanade was when I started to feel my pace falter and I could feel myself slowing down. It was quite a pain to get to the Clock Tower roundabout. After the turnaround my pace was just terrible. I sneaked a second glance at my watch and saw that I was running (or walking?) a 7:30 pace? WTF?!?

It was a mental struggle at that point to pick up my feet as I watched helplessly as May from WWW and another "D" category runner passed me someone near St. Xavier's. I generally do not like being passed in my last 5k but I could only watched helpless as they did as I did not have the energy or kick to give them a run for their money. Not this time. Hopefully soon.

You can see I am dying here!

Ribbit the power woman!

(Thanks Yenny for the pics!)

I think at this point I started to see "little green men" and was a tad bit delirious but I stubbornly refused to stop running no matter what. I was happy when I got myself to the turning into Youth Park. As I turned in, I was greeted by hills. Oh, lovely! I did plow my way up them, and with some satisfaction, I passed quite a number of runners. I finally came past the finish line, feeling completely crappy with my time and then headed straight to the first aid tent to get my knee iced. Lesley and Lynn were already there having their respective knee/ankle looked at.

The good thing about this race is that it was a hometown race so I knew what to expect and managed to keep myself motivated to keep moving by anticipating landmarks. The sad thing is finishing with such terrible time of 2:55 with an average pace of about 7min/km (WTF?!?).

From right to left: Victor, Lesley, Ribbit, Tweet, Siew Swan
(Pics courtesy of Frank)

In any case, congrats to Ribbit who did spectacularly in 5th place despite 2 months of injury break. This is a make of a true runner. Congrats to fellow WWW runners, Lyn Holden (2nd place Women's Open), Sun Nee (1st place Women's Junior Veteran) and Oy Leen (4th place Women's Junior Veteram). Not forgetting, Lesley for her 1st place finish. You all did AWESOME!

-Tweet-

Asics Gel Nimbus 10 for sale

2009-06-02T07:55:00.004+08:00

Brand new Asics Gel Nimbus 10 for sale. US Women's Model, Size 8. Selling for RM420 in KL. Do send me a message if you are interested.

DNF at Sundown... I SUCK!

2009-06-01T21:33:00.003+08:00

This Sunday I incurred my first DNF in a race. I quit at km15 of the Adidas Sundown Marathon. My knee hurt too much, I was getting stitches all over my abdomen and I was just not breathing right. At 1hour 51minutes, I walked off the course with Ribbit stubbornly in tow (despite feeling alright herself) and hailed a taxi back to the hotel. I ran an average pace of 7:12min/km and it was by far the worst run I have ever done. Even the first 10k was agonizing!

I had a huge internal battle from 10km onwards with myself on where was hurting, what was hurting and was it worth it to go with the increasing pain. It was a difficult decision to make to walk off the course and quit running. Quitting is mentally destroying for me and on the way back to the hotel I agonized over the decision. I am still agonizing over the decision today.

Runner’s World had an article that says when you have had a bad race to go over what went wrong and learn from your mistakes. So I have spent the past 36 hours trying to figure out what went wrong? The ultimate conclusion was really just that my heart wasn’t into it and therefore because of that I couldn’t focus. I went to the start of the race with a huge cloud over my head. I was still very worried about my injury. Having this injury put me out of running for a whole month, so I now have this chicken shit attitude for fear of injuring it again. I also ate dinner a bit too early and by the time the race started I was just way, way, way too hungry till the point where I could feel gastric juices flowing in my stomach. It is the most under prepared of all my races since I rarely allowed myself to go hungry to the starting line. My knee injury flared up again and by km5, I could feel the dull ache with each stride. Lastly, the weather was very, very unforgiving. It was very muggy, the heat was terrible and it was just so hot.

I guess ultimately I could continue giving excuses until the cow comes home but what remains is really that the heart was never into the race in the first place. Whatever it is, I am devastated until today and I’m still picking up the pieces.

I was really looking forward to running SCKLM but in light of recent developments, I am considering foregoing the race. I see no point if the heart isn’t there.

-Tweet-

Tweet and Ribbit are off to Sundown!

2009-05-29T00:55:00.003+08:00

We will be flying into Singapore on Saturday morning and out by Sunday evening. Well, how much will we both be able to run? Not very much seeing we have both been out on injury for more than a month. I just want to enjoy the trip, see how far I can go and cheer on all our friends.

I'll share how tough it is to run after 6 weeks without training.

If you happen to see us, do stop to say hi!

A pic of last year's run, just for the memories

Becoming a wiser runner

2009-05-19T20:56:00.004+08:00

As some of you know I have been on an injury break since the Bidor Half Marathon. It has been three weeks and it is an injury born out of my own stubborness. The pain in my medial meniscus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meniscus_(anatomy) started after my whopping 74km week. I ran very hard that week upon my return from Melbourne. I guess I felt I had to make up for lost time. It was five very hard days of running after a 10-day vacation. Surprisingly it felt really good. Speedwork was happening the way I wanted it to and my 30km LSD went down just fine. The next week there was some soreness (or was it pain) but I kept at it. I only really had to stop when I wanted to attempt a 21km LSD on the following Sunday but my right knee just hurt too bad to continue.

From then on I decided to take a break and to see if it would get better. Meanwhile, I saw an orthopaedic surgeon who naturally advised me to stop running. However, against his advice, at the end of that week I ran the Penang Earth Day run. It was a spectacularly bad run for me and the knee didn't hold up too well even though it was only 9km.

I decided to take another week of break but on that Sunday I would run Bidor Half Marathon. I kept it slow and easy at the start but after the 10km mark, my ankle hurt and my knee started to feel pain. I kept it up and finished the race as best as I could.

I was back the my doctor's office post-Bidor. This time I was put through a MRI on my right knee and a full length x-ray. The medial meniscus had some microscopic tears and in the process of healing there was some thickening of the soft tissue. I was advised to be off running completely and sent to physio. My injury became a source of concern for the WWW especially my friends, Siew Swan and Guan Choon. Thank you my dear friends for your unflailing support and concern.

I had a good physiotherapist who helped me massage my soft tissue and analyze my running gait. According to her my knees seem to knock together when I ran. She asked me why I ran with my toes pointing forward. I told it was because I was trying to run with my forefoot (Chi Running style). We arrived at the source of my injury which was a combination of forefoot running, slight bow-leggedness and a tendency to mildly pronate on my right leg. Due to my bow-leggedness when I land on my forefoot, the high impact would be on the top left hand corner of my foot. Couple that with the inward pronation would send the force right up to my meniscus.

Let me share that being out on injury is tough. I spend the 1st week away from running being utterly miserable. I spend the 2nd week hitting the gym and doing circuit training. Reminded me of the good 'ol dragonboat days. It was this week that Lynn came back to Penang and very kindly and patiently taught me how to swim the forward crawl. I have been hitting the pool as much as 3 times a week now to practise. Swimming is a tough activity for me to do because I'm not a strong swimmer and the thought of swimming is daunting. I fear with each stroke that I am just going to sink. Nevertheless, since swimming is the only thing I can do. I now spend an hour in the pool splashing about. Embarrassing!

I hope this injury will make me a wiser runner. I hope I will not follow new running theories blindly but I will strive to find my own sweet spot. I hope I will know how to distinguish soreness from pain. I hope I know how to take a break before it is too late. Ultimately, I hope to emerge out of this situation a stronger runner. All this rest can't be all that bad. I will only need to walk my next race after 2km, that's all!

In any case, I have something to look forward to upon my return from injury. A brand new pair of Asics Gel Kayano 15 from US. Thank you Kevin for carrying it back for me.

- Posted by Tweet-

Bidor Half Marathon 2009 Race Report

2009-04-28T16:38:00.021+08:00

The drive down to Bidor started at 7am. In a pretty hilarious mess of absent mindedness I forgot my handphone, hotel coupon and gels. Thanks goodness for Siew Swan who only departed at 2pm. Various family members had to make the trip to her room at Lam Wah Ee to pass her my forgotten items as I remembered them.

My car consisted of Hooi Fang, Gim May and Mei Har. Both Gim May and Mei Har are incidentally Lynn Guan's ex-classmates from secondary school and are currently my co-workers. Small world... We rallied up with Alan's car which was carrying Kenneth, Peck Yee and Chi Yuan.

The first stop of our journey was Ipoh where we met up with Lynn and her cousin, Mae. Breakfast a nice bowl of Hakka Mee with some fish/meat balls. Tasty! After that it was a mad biscuit buying spree where we bought all sorts of biscuits as souvenirs for folks back home. We also tried the Funny Mountain soya milk, which tasted good... but not that great, if you ask me. It had a lot of hype being featured in plenty of newspaper articles and all. We stopped Jusco just to dilly-dally around and enjoy some AC.

From Ipoh, we proceeded on to Bidor. Deciding upon saving money, we chose to drive through the trunk roads instead of through the highways. It wasn't such a good option as the traffic was slow and we were constant plagued by stoplights. Grrrr... thank you, Mei Har for taking over during this leg. My patience may not have lasted this long.

We arrived in Bidor about an hour later and headed straight for Pun Chun to indulge in the famous Bidor duck noodles. Unlike Penang's "ark tui mee sua", the Bidor duck noodles came with wan tan noodles. The noodles were nice and springy and the soup was tasty enough with the meat being quite tender. However, that aside, it was not spectacular-wow... but good.

After that we headed straight for Tukang Jahit Mexico to collect our bibs which went very smoothly. Met one helpful volunteer and asked him about the route. He was nice enough to offer us to take us on his bike. I politely decline but we found the route easily enough with his directions. We drove it and I categorized the gradient as gently rolling hills. The last part was a bit sketchy and we weren't sure if that was part of the route as we entered a narrow one way road that lead to apparently a waterfall. The last section of it was completely gravel and dust. We stopped to check out what the guy said was a waterfall although it looked like a very small stream.

We decided to use the highway this time to return to Kampar to check-in to our hotel, the Grand Kampar. We unloaded our 200 over bags (you would think we would be staying for a week!) and check-in took place slowly. Finally I got to my room and was hoping for a short nap which wasn't to be as we got a call from Siew Swan announcing her arrival. So I went up to collect my handphone, hotel coupon and gels. We were to meet up in their room to get ready for dinner.

The WWW running club from Penang

We ended up heading to Kampar Old Town for Claypot chicken rice. Somehow we amusingly split into a girls-only and guys-only table. The nine girls conservative ate two large pots of claypot rice whereas the eight guys liberally ordered three large pots only to have leftovers. Tsk, tsk, tsk...

Dinner was early and we return home to the hotel by 8pm. A couple of us chose to go walk around and check out the pretty amazing view from the hotel's roof. Then it was back to my room which I was sharing with Lynn and Mae. My knee worried me as it had been aching all afternoon. I applied plenty of NSAID cream. Some pre-race prep, some funny amusing moments with Snuffles and it was an early turn in at 9.30pm.

Snuffles with my race bib

I woke up at 3.30am and laid there in bed being really lazy. I complain some more about my knee still hurting and asked Lynn if I should just go back to sleep and skip the run. She said I didn't drive all this way from Penang to sleep in. So I begrudging got ready. Being stressed out about my knee, I overate and ate what I think was too much for breakfast. I did suffer quite a bit before the race as my stomach struggled to digest the food I had consumed.

My stomach was quesy even as the WWW met up to drive to the race start. I requested that Mei Har drove so that I could rest my aching knee. I was a bundle of nerves in the car. It was unusual for me to run any races without preparation and I had been out for two weeks.

Drive there was uneventful although we did lose Guan Choon's car but all was good as they found their way. Pre-race rituals were the usual toilet break, photos and light hearted chatter although I was still a bundle of nerves. Call to line up was at 6.45am and we all just pile into the line under the starting arch. I decided to really run my own race and stick to my own pace, no matter what.

So when the gun ran off, I let all the overexcited runners take off all around me while I slowly chugged along at a conservative 5:51min/km pace. By the km2, my pace had picked up to around 5:30 min/km but Siew Swan had taken off about 300meters ahead of me.

My pace would remain the around 5:30/5:30 min/km until the 12km mark. At that point, I sort had a pretty bad dip in my pace as my ankle had started to hurt really badly since 9km. And well, I had a short lost of focus where pain took over for about 3km. Pace at that point was about 5:50/6:00 min/km. I past Siew Swan at around 12km or so.

While running along I did make a point to observe the number of women who had turnaround so I had a good gauge of where I stood position-wise. I was very happy to see Lyn Holden in first place going hard with all the men. Way to go Lyn!

Lyn Holden powering to the finish!

At that point I was probably woman no. 12. So at that point no top 10 placing but I still had about 6km to catch up. At the turnaround I started to pick up the pace more to around 5:20/5:30 min/km. The markers were then counting down the end of the race but even with 5km more to go I stayed conservative knowing that if I pushed too early, it may be the end of the race for me.

With 3km to go, I hit the steep but short uphill over the bridge that crosses the highway. I would pass one lady here. She looked like she was struggling already. With 1.5km to go I would pass the second lady just as we entered the housing estate that would lead back to the Dewan Muhibbah. I barreled down the hills after that and as I turned the corner, I had caught up to Siew Swan. I would only pass Siew Swan at the last 300meters of the race as I charge like mad to the finish line. I was to finish 8th with a time of 1:58:29. Distance on my Garmin was 21.12km.

Tough woman, Siew Swan finishing strong!

Charging towards the finish line... I look pissed, I know...

Time was a bit slow and I felt a lot crappier than I expected to. When I stopped after charging past the finish line, I felt like throwing up.

Podium finishing for Siew Swan (8th), Lyn Holden (1st) and me

All around the WWW finished GREAT! Kudos to the WWW women! You all rock! Congrats to Lyn Holden for your spectacular 1st place finish. Thanks to Siew Swan, ever challenging and encouraging me! And constantly checking on my knee each time we meet during the race.

Most importantly, thank you Ribbit for being my support through this!

-Posted by Tweet-

Congratulations Ribbit!

2009-04-19T21:17:00.004+08:00

Ribbit did some awesome work finishing 5th place at the BHP Orange Run despite being injured for a week. You are awesome, Ribbit!!!

Picture courtesy of Tey and Frank.

Ribbit powering through the run

Ribbit with her prize

The powerpuff girls

Ironman, Mich Looi with the powerpuff girls

Day 4: Dandenong Ranges

2009-03-21T21:33:00.004+08:00

I am not sure if I stated the reason I was in Melbourne was to attend my cousin, Ryan's wedding which was to take place at the Dandenong Ranges. Today the plan was to hit the Dandenong Ranges before the wedding and do a short hike. We wanted to have a relatively late start to the morning so that everyone had ample time to rest. Si Wan's father wanted to conquer the 1000 steps at the Ferntree Gully National Park. My parents felt they weren't in the mood for such strenous activity so they chose to forego the hike. Bins and I decided then to join the Wong family.

The drive to Dandenong from where we were staying was only suppose to take 30minutes but the GPS really led us on a wild goose chase and we ended up taking 1hour to find the start of the trail. It was overhyped the 1000 steps and it really didn't take much athletic ability to walk up it. I was envious of a couple of guys/girls who were running up and down it. Wish I could have joined them instead!

After the hike, we rallied on to the fame Miss Marple's tea room to indulge in some famous English delicacies. I had the famous fingers which was basically an open faced sandwich that was toasted. I chose to have the champagne ham, cheddar and chutney one. I ordered their so-called signature tea which ended up being terribly disappointing and tasting like bad Chinese tea. Their scones were also a let down although their jam was to-die for! All in all everyone definitely indulged to the fullest.

From Miss Marple, it was a mad, mad rush to the wedding hotel at Poet's Lane. I rushed to check-in and then my sister and I scrambled to get ready in 45minutes. We managed to get ready and be at the hall by 3.55pm. Whew! Just 5 minutes short of the start. Unfortunately, the wedding ceremony got delayed by almost an hour because the priest got stuck in a traffic jam! He finally arrived and the ceremony was officiated with some pretty amusing anecdotes from the priest. It turns out he's quite a celebrity priest and has his own radio show and all. He also happens to drive a car with a huge sticker on the side with his face on it, saying "In Bob we trust".

The ceremony was (unlike Chinese weddings) very solemn and simple. Just the reading of vows, the exchange of rings and that was it. It was very touching really. I felt really touched. I do get like that at church weddings. After that a group photo session ensued and it was following by cocktails before dinner.

Dinner was 3 course with plenty of alcohol (what's new). First course was a stuffed crepe with a cream filling. Second course was a choice between chicken and beef. I choose beef but my sister got stuck with chicken as they served a 50-50 choice to each table. Turned out the chicken was so much better. Dessert was buffer style. I choose to have the pavlova (thanks to they hype from my running group mate) and an apple-raspberry crumble. The crumble was good.

Me with my Godsis and her husband, Mervyn

Ah, the infamous Tan siblings, sister Bins and bro Seng

The dinner was filled with plenty of dancing in between and more alcohol. When we got chased out of the dinner hall, the groomsmen started an after party in one of the hotel rooms but my siblings were too pooped to bother. My parents decided not to stay the night and followed Uncle Michael back. My sister, brother and I remained.

Alcohol intake: 3 glasses champagne + 2 glasses of white wine + 1 glass of red wine + 1 glass of port

Day 3: Mornington Peninsula

2009-03-19T20:27:00.006+08:00

I made a "run date" to go out to run with Geraldine (part of Frank's Platinum running group) to run at 7am around her housing area. She had just moved to Melbourne a couple months back. It was a 'nice' hilly 12k route. After the run I showered at her house while she took her kids to school. Then she came back and we had breakfast together. Thanks Geraldine for making me breakfast!

Geraldine and me, post-run

The very nice Lexus my uncle loaned me for the trip!

Then I rushed back to meet with my family and extended family to head to Sorrento Pier at the Mornington Peninsula. Today we were going on a dolphin watching tour. A total of 16 of us joined the tour. Out of that number, only 5 of us decided we were going to go into the freezing water to swim with the dolphins. My sister and I did it because we thought it was going to be a good experience.

The ship basically sets out from the pier and try to visually hunt for the bottlenose dolphins. When spotted the ship try to intercept the school. A rope with buoys called a mermaid line is thrown into the ocean and the swimmers drop into the water holding on to the mermaid line the whole time. The mermaid is for safety as well as conservation. It ensures we stay safe and not get pulled away by very, very strong tidal waves. It also prevents us from trying to touch the dolphins as that isn't allowed.

It was such a cool experience as the dolphins seem to love us and swam really, really close. They were very playful too and did plenty of cool stunts around the boat. At one time, I managed to see a total of 4 adult dolphins, all within touching arms reach. It was kind of scary at times as I worry I would accidentally kick them while threading water. All in all it was a superb experience.

Night was a family BBQ at Uncle Brian's house where we had some excellent meats off the grill as welll as some really tasty 'siew yoke' my aunt made. Not forgetting tons of beer and wine.

Alcohol intake: 1 beer + 3 glass of red wine

Day 2: Melbourne City

2009-03-19T16:00:00.004+08:00

My very ambitious sister, Bins decided we will do a walking tour of Melbourne city although I had worries on how my aging parents would deal with it. I woke up EARLY that day at 6.30am since she intended to depart at 8am. My parents took their own sweet time and we ended up departing only close to 9am.

The plan was to have breakfast somewhere along Bridge Road where the old building were preserved and converted into businesses. We decided upon a bakery/cafe called Chimmy's after seeing all the accolades it has received from various magazines/newspapers. It was a tad bit pricey but very, very good bread. Those who know me should know I always complain there is not enough good bread in Malaysia. I have found it in Melbourne! My sister and I shared the big fry up (organic sausage, bacon, field mushrooms, eggs and toast), pain perdue drizzled with honey and served with fresh strawberries. My dad and mum shared the roasted beef baguette. Both tasted fantastic!

We then proceeded via tram down to Federation Square to the ACMI I(Australian Center for Moving Images). The plan was to catch an exhibition called "Setting the Scene" there but my sister thought it cost too much ($15) and would take too much time. We decided to walk along the Yarra River bank and to hit the Royal Botanics Garden instead since my mum LOVES flowers. The walk to the Botanic Gardens was SUPER far! (I know, I know, me runner, but I hate to walk!). We didn't spend much time there as we had plenty to do.

We then took the free tourist shuttle back to Fed Square and proceed to walk to Elizabeth Street. We stopped by this hippy alley called Degraves Street for lunch at Degraves Cafe which was apparently one of the first espresso bar in Melbourne. It such a funky street to be in. The espresso was great but the food so-so.

From Degraves we walked to Collins Street which has all the designer boutiques and a lot of churches. We stopped at two of the churches to look inside. We also managed to slip in a Belgian Spoil at a famous chocolatier called Koko Black. I thought the chocolate ice cream was the best! The St Patrick Church was by far the largest and most impressive.

Our next stop was to be Smith Street where it was my turn to go crazy and shop for factory outlet sport stuff. Unfortunately, the tram stop we choose was at the opposite end of where the shops were. By the time we got to the shops, they were closed for the day. Shops in Melbourne close EARLY! Like 5pm. Gosh!

Dinner was with the whole extended family at an Italian place called The Mess Hall on Burke Street. I had the tagliatelle with rabbit ragu which went great with the glass of Persecco that I had. The pasta was homemade and the dish was very light.

The rest of my family opted to go walk around at the Crown. I chose to go home with my uncle to rest for the night as I had a "run date" the next morning at 7am.

Alcohol intake: 1 beer + 1 glass of Persecco + 1/2 glass of red wine

Day 1: Melbourne

2009-03-18T19:20:00.004+08:00

I had a simple breakfast of fresh peach, muesli and yoghurt before I set off to meet my father and sister, Bins who were staying with my Uncle Michael. My mum woke up late and when we went to Uncle Michael's place, there was a lot of dilly dallying waiting for my sister and mum to get ready. By the time we left it was almost lunch time.

It was suppose to be a free and easy day. The plan was to hit the DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) so my sister can do some massive shopping. Uncle Brian dropped us off at the Boxhill train station to take the train into the city. When we arrived we decide to walk down to the Docklands for lunch. It was quite a walk but we made it and had a pretty good lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Mecca Bah.

After that we took the tram back up and stopped by Krispy Kreme for a few donuts and coffee. We had the classic original glazed (the ones in US still tasted better) and a chocolate iced custard filled. We then seriously hit the DFO where my sister tried to find some boots and a jacket. I tried to entertain some wishful thinking by trying on triathlete suits at the 2XU outlet.

The cherry on the cake has to be dinner with Lynn's best friend, Jasmine at the Crown. We met at the Brasserie by Philippe Mouchel. I had the "Spanner crab salad, avocado cream, confit tomato, eggplant" for appetiser and "Duck breast with braised daikon, onion chutney, confit leg spring rolls, spiced jus" for entree. Together with that we shared a bottle of wine the Cape Mentelle Cabernet-Merlot. We ended with the "Dark chocolate fondant, raspberry compote and sorbet ". Perfect. I was so stuff and so guilty for indulging so much!

A BIG THANK YOU TO JASMINE FOR TREATING ME! As I said at dinner and will say again, you shouldn't have!

Overall a great start to my time in Melbourne. So much more to look forward to!

Alcohol intake: 1 glass white wine + 1/2 bottle red wine

(Pics to follow)

-Chin Chin-

Tweet's first night in Melbourne

2009-03-17T21:26:00.003+08:00

My experience flying AirAsiaX was a 3-hour flight delay thus only arriving in Melbourne at 3.30am in the morning. My poor Uncle Brian and Aunty Irene had to come pick us up. I spent a night in their camper van as they ran out of bedrooms for us and it was too late to bring us over to Uncle Mike's place.

The food on AirAsiaX was so small and cost RM16 for nasi lemak?!? And they pretty much ran out of anything on the second time around. I ended up paying RM6 for cup noodles?!? The upside of things was that the flight was 50% empty so I manage to laid myself out over 3 chairs and slept a decent 3 hours.

No pictures of Melbourne yet but I had fun with the Snuffles.

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009

2009-03-15T23:06:00.002+08:00

I did it! I signed up for the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009. So did Ribbit.

Category: Full Marathon

-Chin Chin-

Congrats Ribbit!

2009-03-15T11:26:00.003+08:00

GREAT JOB Lynn for placing 2nd at the Larian Sinar Amal! Now you can 'cheah' me makan already. Thanks A BUNCH to Tey for the pics!

Happy birthday Ribbit!

2009-03-14T23:39:00.004+08:00

Happy birthday, Lynn! It's been two years of amazing partnership. Thanks so much for always being there!

Here's a photoblog of Tweet and Ribbit through the years.

March 2007

NB 15k 2007

Gunung Challi 2007

Ipoh Half Marathon 2008

Langkawi 2009

-Chin Chin-

Langkawi Ironman

2009-02-26T22:23:00.004+08:00

Tweet and Ribbit will be in Langkawi to attend the Ironman! We are there to support our very own Ironman, Tsen.

Tsen at Powerman 2008

Tsen is the 3rd guy from the right :)

While there we will also cheer on other people we know (but who may not necessarily know us) like Michelle Looi, Carmen Leong and Emma Bishop.

-Chin-

KL City Day Run 2009

2009-02-13T23:06:00.003+08:00

The toll of travelling to-fro Penang and KL on two weekends took the toll on me. The first trip I drove my parents and brother down to KL to send him off to Melbourne to further his studies. We departed at 5pm on Sunday evening, arrived in KL around 10pm after a 1 hour dinner break in Ipoh. All of my passengers were sick and when I got back to Penang, I too fell sick with fever and a cold. When I was barely recovered, it was time to head to KL again for my sister's graduation. This time I drove my entire family. The trip coincided with the KL City Day Run and since I find it very hard to resist a race, I got Lynn, who then got Frank to help me sign up.

However, as soon as I got into KL, my fever started up again. I then debated with myself whether or not to run. Lynn said she left the decision to me as she knew I would be upset if she didn't allow me to run. My parents adamantly put their foot down about any running with a fever. I started medication again and told myself if by night, if the fever had subsided, that I would run the race. It did and I was happy! So what if both my nose was entire clogged? No fever!

Unfortunately, my parents still put their foot down. So I told them I was going to support my friends while I hid all my running gear in the bag. When I woke up, the fever had return and I wasn't breathing any easier but I knew that I was going to do it no matter what because I had set myself up for the race and not doing it would just make me very sad.

I carpool-ed to the race with Jocelyn and Lynn. At the start, we met Shih Ming and Pui San. Thanks Pui San, for being so concerned about my fever. She kept reminding me not to push too hard before and during the race :).

So, how hard is it to run with a fever and a cold? Pretty challenging but not super tough. I breathe mostly through my mouth and the fever did make me feel feverish at times but all around I pushed as hard as I could (I think) but not good enough an effort because I only finished 10th and damnit... can't get over that two digit finisher's position still.

I wouldn't blame the fever and cold for the bad performance but I will blame myself for being a pansy and not pushing hard enough. The route was overdistance by about 800meters. I took 56:02mins to complete 10.86km. Damnit once again for not being able to achieve a sub-50min 10k run... still.

Lynn however, did SUPERB as always for races and got herself into the 5th position and won herself money and a podium position. Very nice come back from a week's break from running!

Here are some pictures of our power woman (thanks to Tey).

Congrats again, Ribbit!

-Chin-

Ribbit's turn to be in Melaka

2009-02-05T10:06:00.002+08:00

Ribbit is in Melaka for a business trip... but she has returned.

Run your guts out

2009-02-05T09:49:00.000+08:00

Temperature according to Yahoo temperature is 31C despite being 6pm already. I headed out to run around the so-called Intel running track. The intention was to run like Lynn does, as hard as you can until you just break. I made sure I did a warmup of 1k at about 5:40 min/km and then I took off running as hard as I could. I didn't allow myself to check my Garmin. The intention was just to push to the max.

The results are my splits as such:
1km: 5:40
2km: 4:53
3km: 4:47
4km: 4:59
5km: 5:16
6km: 5:09

Average pace: 5:09 min/km

5km time: 25mins (excluding the first km of warmup)

By the 3rd km, I was seeing white spots in front of my eyes and my breathing just couldn't keep up with my legs. Almost passed out when I ended. I had to walk it off while I continue to gulp down some fresh air. So this is what it would need to feel like to run a 1:45 half marathon.

-Chin-

A CNY of Running!

2009-02-01T21:31:00.005+08:00

It was really, really cool to have Lynn back from KL for a week to run with me and my running group in Penang, Waterfall Weekend Warriors (WWWarriors). It is SO nice to have my running partner again! She is naturally a member of the WWWarriors despite being in KL most of the time.

This has truly been a CNY of Running.

Alone:

Jan 24th (Saturday): 10km

Jan 25th (Sunday) : 14.78km

Jan 27th (Tuesday) : 10km

With Lynn:

Jan 28th (Wednesday): 14.19km

Jan 29th (Thursday) : 15.57km

Jan 31st (Saturday) : 15.56km

Feb 1st (Sunday) : 22.42km

Here are some shots of the WWWarriors.

Jan 11th

Jan 24th

Jan 25th

Jan 28th

Jan 29th

Jan 31st

Feb 1st

I am going to miss Ribbit now that she has gone back! SOB!

-Chin-

Great Eastern Pacesetters 30KM 2009

2009-01-18T19:33:00.009+08:00

Written by Lynn(Ribbit) and Chin (Tweet)

Ribbit's version:

Never been my habit to blog immediately after a race or an event. Guess that the reason I'm a queen of procrastination! ( from blogging to doing other stuffs). Been a yearly resolution to try to correct that habit but I never been able to proudly say I manage to overcome it. Perhaps improving 5% for the first half of the year than back to square one. Anyway since today I'm too tired to anything else ( yes Lynn do get tired! ) . I decided to post up the entry of my run.

Run: Great Eastern Pacesetters 30KM 2009
Distance: 29.8km ( Recorded by my Garmin 405)
Map: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1837776
Time Taken: 2:52:15

ChinChin came out from Penang with 3 others runners to join the event as well. Dr Khoo (Siew Suan)and Dr Lim(Guan Choon) arrived around 7-ish pm because both of them got to work half day on Saturday. All of us gathered at my cousin's place in Sri Hartamas for dinner. Chin Chin cooked the spagethhi and also prepared a bowl of salad to share between 7 of us. Everyone was happy with the meal. Thanks Chin as well as Siew Suan too who lend a hand on preparing the dinner. Siew Suan and Guan Choon left around 9pm as they were sleeping over at Guan Choon's sister's house. SP went over to BC's (another Penang runner who was already down earlier in KL for work) house to stay. Light off around 10-ish pm. ( Sounds like in a hostel huh ? ) Oh well basically just everyone went to their room around that time.

Arrived at the Bukit Aman parking lot at around 5.20am. Luckily to found a spot to park the car. Saw the "Platinum Runners" ( Frank , Choi, Lawrence) were already there including Chee Kong and Lionel. Talked for a bit then we proceed on to the Lake Gardens. Felt a bit cold. I guess it was just the morning breeze. Saw Guan Choon first and not too long after that Siew Suan. As usual she looked energetic and cheerful. Holding a cup of power bar drink and a half power bar she looks like a kid enjoying an ice cream and a cup of coke! *grin*. Saw Victor at the starting line when we started to line up for the race to begin.

The air horn went off around 6.15am. 15 mins off the starting time. Tried to break off from the large crowd. When I realized I was going too fast, I started too slow my pace down a little. Was feeling alright for the first 10km then I started to feel cold. I was sweating but somehow I couldn't feel the heat on my body but instead I feel cold and soon my sweat start to dry up. I sense trouble! I had this feeling twice before and I knew what will follow later. As I cross the Duta Highway, my sweat starts to dry up my left knee starts to twitch with pain a little. I was suprised it wasn't my right knee and right archilles which was hurting for the past few days. The cold sweat feeling and my left knee start to act up even more. I felt so uncomfortable. Tried hard to keep my pace but then I knew I couldn't sustain it longer. Just felt like passing out at that moment. Luckily Frank was still within sight at that moment. I tried to keep up with him whenever I feel that I'm slowing down. By the time I hit Petronas and going up the hill , my left knee was even more painful. I started not to bend my left knee. By the time I hit back MATRADE and back to LHDN to do a loop my left knee felt like popping out or I might burst my vein. Tried to slow down again. I could see Frank slowed down a little as well and sense that he is waiting for me to catch up with him. Tried to push myself to keep my distance not too far away from him. But as we head back to the Duta Highway he drifted even further in front. I knew I couldn't push much ..going over curbs and uneven ground really jolted sharp pain on my left knee. Was a little frustrated , but I told myself I could finish the run if I keep pushing a little to the end. Hoping I don't get any other cramp.

At Jalan Langgak Tunku, Ameba ran past me, I tried to keep up with her but I knew I couldn't , slowly she drifted into the front pack too. I wanted to stop badly. But then I knew that if I was to stop and walk , the pain might be worst so I kept running. I knew my pace was getting slower.

Finally thank God, I was glad to see Lake Gardens. When the marshall told me there was 400m more to go..I wasn't any excited because I knew that when you're tired and injured 400m would be like another 4km. ALAS! I crossed the finishing line painfully but I tried to put up a smile for the photographers.

My left knee was totally busted! Couldn't barely bend them . I just hoped its just inflamation and will heal in a couple of days. I'm still figuring out what made men to have the cold sweat feeling. sigh*

After I crossed the finishing line, Siew Suan came in not too long after that, beaming with smile. *thumbs up doc! * . Chin Chin came in not too long after that too.

Gulped down 2 bottles of waters while chatting with others. I felt so dehydrated, I thought I drank enough during the run. We talked for quite a bit before heading back home.

I wasn't frustrated over this run which I normally would, I guess I knew what was the outcome when I started to feel cold. Of course I felt sad not finishing with a position ( oh well I'm not a top runner to begin with ). Anyways I guess I tried my best. I might give my knees a rest this week till the CNY break.

Picture courtesy of Frank

Picture by Sam MJ

Time to hit the sack! :) Good NighT!

Tweet's version:

"If it comes easy, if it doesn't require extraordinary effort, you're not pushing hard enough: It's supposed to hurt like hell."

Dean Karnazes

I hurt like hell yesterday, and yet I didn't think I was pushing hard at all. So what does this say about me, Mr. Karnazes?

I was dreading this past Sunday's Great Eastern 30k as I spent a huge part of December out on injury and I didn't have much time to train. I didn't have a race strategy in mind and I didn't know what pace I should attempt to run this at. After much debate in my head the night before, I settled on a 5:45min/km.

This race is one race in which I must say I have gotten the most amount of rest the night before. I conked out at 9.30pm and woke up at 3.30am. A good solid 6 hours, which is currently my ideal hours of sleep. (Although I wish I could be like Dean Karnazes and only sleep for 4 hours each night).

I lined up at the start with Lynn, Guan Choon, Frank , Chee Kong, SP and BC (who was ghost running it). Sam and Siew Swan were nowhere to be seen. The start was sudden, just a loud blast of the airhorn. As usual people were just charging ahead. It was like a 5min/km pace but I did keep that pace for 2km just to lose all the other people and to get ahead so I would have more room to settle into my own pace.

After 2km, I settled into a pretty comfortable 5:30/5.45min/km pace. I felt pretty good on the double hills, it was reminiscent of Mizuno Waverun last year. I was powering up those set of hills when I got passed by the first two women in my category, Emma and Bee. I tried to pick up the pace a bit so that I kept them both in my line of sight but they were just flying so I settled back to my pace again after a bit.

From then on until 17k, I was neck-to-neck with this girl wearing a Singapore Marathon 2007 jersey. I normally overtook her on the hills and when I was cruising downhill she would overtake me. At about 15-16k, I grab a Power gel. Since the gel was in my hand, I took it with water from the water station right after. It was such A BIG MISTAKE because it completely screwed up my stomach. From this point onwards, I hearby BANNED Power gel from my running diet. I felt a stitch coming are the turnout from the Petronas station in Hartamas and even though I pushed myself up the hill my abdominal muscles keep twitching. I also felt completely dizzy and like Ribbit my body felt chilled.

It sort of went downhill once I passed Kenny Heights. The dizziness continued, my breathing was haggard and I felt like passing out. At this point, I almost stopped at a medic post and quit but I guess the shame of quitting disallowed me from doing that and I plodded on.

It was then a 6:30min/km pace almost all the way back. I got passed by another 2 more women. It was frustrating that I didn't even have enough energy to try to keep pace with them.

Finally, at 26km, I heard Siew Swan. She has a pretty distinct breathing. She clears her throat every couple of mins. She passed me easily and happily. This was went I sort of woke up from my trance and gave chase. My legs miraculosly started working again and I keep her in my line of sight all the way until the end. Unfortunately, I still crossed the finish line the last woman in my group. Boo! :(

This was a very bad race for me. It is a new year (for us Chinese, anyway) so it is time to re-evaluate what I did wrongly this time and how to improve.

Pictures from Jason Lee

Still Wide Awake

2009-01-17T02:29:00.006+08:00

Written by Lynn(Ribbit)

Its 2:30am now and I'm still wide awake. Still haven't yawn once. Sometimes I wonder when I need to stay up the eyes just keep wanting to shut. Even caffeine doesn't help. Each time I tried gulping down a cuppa coffee - next 5 minutes I will just zonked out. The only thing that can helped is to munch on something ( Bad bad! ) Found this interesting article on the web Caffeine Free: Blue Light Makes People Alert at Night. Maybe I should make my working area at home blue so I can stay up to finish up my work :). For now I need to force myself to sleep..tummy is growling for food.better hit the sack before I ransack my fridge..*SIGH*...Goodnight People!!

Adieu Geraldine!

2009-01-14T23:42:00.005+08:00

Written by Lynn(Ribbit)

I just got to know Geraldine not too long ago last year when I moved to KL mid of last year and now its time to bid farewell to her as she will be migrating to Australia with her family. *sniff* I still can remember when I was first introduced to her in Bukit Aman ( well don't worry both of us did nothing wrong and wasn't in the police station, just at the carpark before the start of our weekend runs :) ) I was happy to meet a woman runner. What got me more impressed was that she was going for NYC Marathon..wow!! Don't get fooled by her pint size, she can really run FAST and during that time when she was training so hard for NYCM, 30KM was nothing for her...*salute*.

Jamie booked California Pizza Kitchen to gather for Geraldine's farewell. Frank, Geraldine ( the star for the night) and myself were the last 3 to arrive. Jamie, Loke, Luc, Lawrence and Choi were already nicely seated when we arrived. Decided to car pool with Frank as I wasn't too sure on how to get to KLCC. Even though it had been 6 months leaving in KL I'm still so lost. Gosh!! No sense of direction or perhaps just plain to lazy to remember the route. Bah! Of all thing, the oven at the restaurant broke down , so all of us ended up ordering spaghetti and salad. Shared my meal with Geraldine. We ordered the Caesar Chicken Salad and Portobello Mushroom Ravioli. Yummy! Geraldine, Frank and Jamie ordered desert after their meals. I had no space for any dessert anymore. BURP! After all the eating, it was time for present presentation. Frank presented the gift to Geraldine. The gift was from all of us who were there that night including Chin Chin. In return Geraldine gave us each a gift and a card. Sooooo sweet. Left the place at around 9pm. Escaped the weekend run the next day as I was heading back to Penang to attend my friend's brother wedding. Felt guilty that night after all the eating at the wedding.

Chicken Caesar Salad

Portebello Mushroom Ravioli

Apple Crumble

Miso Salad

The star of the day - Geraldine

Opening her prezzie

Putting on her Oakley Glasses...

All Smile - So hot!!

Checking out the gift from Geraldine

Reading the sweet poem :)

Good Luck and All Ze Best Geraldine!! :) You will be missed... *hugz*

Ribbit Dad's Turn 60..

2009-01-14T11:11:00.012+08:00

Written by Lynn(Ribbit)

Time Flies! Didn't realize dad turned 60th this year until Mom buzzed me on the phone and said she is driving down to KL so that we can have dinner together to celebrate dad's 60th birthday. I'm bad in remembering dates (that's the reason I never like History). She initially thought was just a family gathering and was suprized when we told her we invited other relatives who are in KL. He..He... My sweet cousin Mae helped out on making reservation at Magic Wok while I sms-ed other relatives to book their time :) . There were from both dad's side and also mom's side. Total of 19 people turned up for the dinner. One of my cousin requested if we could make it a little as the next day my niece and nephew ( yeah I am officially an aunty now!! ) need to attend school as their school term starts. Checked with Mae if we can pushed it earlier and learned from her that the place only have 2 booking time. 6pm or 8pm ( weird! ). We still sticked to the 8pm planned. Went there in the afternoon to booked the dish. Ordered 8 dishes with 1 dessert. The food there were pretty tasteful and would say affordable as well. We didn't need to wait longer before the food were served. though the place was really packed! It was indeed quite a good gathering for our family too. I will let the pictures do the rest of explanation.

Dad's cupcakes as the birthday cake.

Preparing the candles

My Ee Poh

Chooey and Mae with the 60 candle.

Gary and Me

Daddy and Me with his cupcake.

Amused! :)

My family.

Ribbit is in the papers!

2009-01-09T18:46:00.002+08:00

Written by Chin(Tweet)
Check out this article in The Star Metro:
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/1/9/central/2955016&sec=central

Ribbit is famous! Congrats to her in an excellent start to the New Year!

-Chin-

Sundown Marathon 2009 - Here I come!

2009-01-08T00:30:00.009+08:00

Written by Lynn(Ribbit)

After contemplating for about 1 month, finally Chin and myself signed up for Sundown Marathon 2009 today. Here we go again for another night adventure run. I still remember last year when I completed the race I told myself I would never run again. Completed the run painfully! Somehow when I saw their booth during SIM2008 at the Sports and Fitness Expo, I was very eager to join, perhaps to better the horrible time of 5:05 I did last year or maybe to enjoy the pain of going up pedestrian and flight of stairs , running behind peoples' backyard and alley in the night. I hope this time around it will not be a painful ending and no cramps along the way. SIM2008 incident do still flash back now and then but then I told myself 2009 will be another new beginining and learned from experience (fingers crossed). 2 of my friends (Luc & Frank) will be embarking on their UltraMarathon during Sundown Marathon. Do salute them. I'm not so insane yet to do an ultra marathon this year. I am very sure both of them will complete it without problem!
For Frank: Remember when you feel tired...think of sushi and green tea at the finishing line *grin*.

Race report: 1st Race of the year - Pacemakers Network Run

2009-01-02T21:05:00.006+08:00

Written by Chin Chin(Tweet)
Happy New Year!

Yesterday, after a long bout of injury-rest-injury-rest stint, I finally came back to a race after a period of absolutely NO running. My first race of the year which was done aptly on 1st January 2009 was the Pacemakers Network Run. The route was a 2.3k x 4 loops around Taman Tasik Perdana.

Thanks goodness it was only 4 loops, the guys had to do 6 loops. So I just wanted to get it over and done with. I tried using the running style seen in Tsen's video and which also incorporates Sam's Chirunning techniques. Basically small but quick strides and using the push off, kick-back style where you utilize your glutes. My ass hurts like crazy today though. As I hadn't done any training for about 2 weeks, and since my knee had still been hurting a week before, I ran a very conservative 5:21 min/km. Which is pathethic compared to Lynn's 4:48 min/km. My only kiasu goal was to pass as many women as I can and keep it at that. It was working well for me until about 500meters from the finish line when I got 'sayur-ed' by this girl, Haslinda. Our finish times are just 1 sec apart! I also noticed that once I tried to run faster, all my so-called run techniques just went completely out the window.

Picture courtesy of Tey

CONGRATULATIONS Lynn on a superb 2nd place finish! She only lost of to Michelle Tan so this is definitely a very good result.

Picture courtesy of Tey

Cheers! Here’s to a good race year ahead!

Small family gathering again...

2008-12-26T21:09:00.009+08:00

Written by Lynn(Ribbit)
Wanted to run this morning however it was raining went I woke up at 5.30am. Slept back a bit more. Woke up again again at 7am. Wanted to bring the dogs out for their usual morning walks but the rain still haven't stop. *Bummer*. Bathed and took my breakfast. Waited till around 9am before I took them out for their walk.

The 2 lovely gals - ( not the reason pic )

Doggie and Me

Brandy in the garden

Headed back to Damansara Perdana to meet up with my cousin Mae to do a quick shopping for my 3 cousins which we will be meeting for lunch at 12.30pm. We still at had timed before lunch Mae and myself headed to Lava Cafe for a quick snack. The churos sucks!! They over fried them. *sigh*. So unhealthy..ahhahah

At Molten Lava - Mae

At Canton-I - So much food!

At 12.30pm Aunt Monica, Uncle Charlie, Jeremy, David and Sarah arrived in 1-U. Aunt Helen called Mae to let us know that they had arrived. We were also suppose to meet up with Gary, Aunt Lily , Uncle Fong and Alvin. As usual the late gang had yet to arrive :) . Called up Alvin, he told me that he was still at Gary's new house waiting for him to get back. We decided to proceed on with lunch first. Since Aunt Monica and family wanted to eat Chinese food, we headed over to Canton - I. Waited quick a bit for a place for 15 people. By the time they seated us was already 1. 15pm. Made our orders for lunch. Chat quite a bit with Jeremy and the rest of the cousins. As mentioned in the earlier post these cousins of mine - Jeremy, David and Sarah, I hardly able to meet them. The whole family are in Sabah while Jeremy is doing his medicine studies in Negeri Sembilan. Each time I meet up with them, they seemed to grow so much ( hmmphh...am I getting older ? ?). My brother joined us a little later after his work. Gary and family joined even later. We continued to sit and chat. By the time we left, it was already 3pm. GOSH!!

My cousins - From left - Jeremy, David, Le Roy

Did a little grocery shopping with Mae after that before heading home and calling it a day... :) . We were basically at the 1-U from 10.30am to 5.30pm. I told Mae she can do a marathon already, since we were on our feet for soooo long...*grin*.

Tweet is Out of Town

2008-12-26T09:01:00.001+08:00

Written by Lynn(Ribbit)
Chin is having a 2 days 1 night trip to Malacca today with friends from Penang. I'm missing out the fun *sob*... Babysitting 2 lovely dogs in KL...

Mamma Mia!

2008-12-26T08:18:00.004+08:00

Written by Lynn(Ribbit)
Morning
Did a LSD in the morning (20km) on a Christmas Day with Jamie and gang -the route we did was part of GE 30km route. There were actually 2 groups doing LSD on a Christmas Day. Call us crazy!! :P . The one conducted by Ronnie was doing a 30km. Didn't dare to push myself to the max yet as I think I'm still recovering from injury and also Chin's knees are still giving her problem. It was an easy pace run. Chin was suffering a little from her "misbehaved" knees. Proud of her determination to finish her run as I could tell she was in pain starting from 10km. Hopefully she would let her knees rest a little before the 30km run in January. Being a crazy runner like us, sometimes its hard to convince ourself to take a break to recover from injury. So I could definitely understand why its hard for her to take a complete rest from running even though each time she is in pain she tells herself that she needs a break but after 3 days ( max ) she would be running again! Being so called crazy runners by our friends, we are always worrying about our physical level and being out of shape if we take too long rest. *sigh*. I even get grumpy if I couldn't run for a couple of days. CRAZY CRAZY!!

NIGHT

Picture from StarOnline.

Finally after waiting for 2 months , I attended the musical show yesterday in Istana Budaya with Chin , her sis Bin Bin and their parents. It was indeed an awesome show. Arrived there quite early to collect our tickets. Hate the waiting part as the entrance door to the hall is not open till 8pm. We arrived at 7pm and stand for about 1 hour before entering the hall...*grumble*. As most of you should know Mamma Mia is a smash hit musical show based on the songs of Abba. The International Tour is presented by Judy Craymer, Richard East and Björn Ulvaeus. The casts are from London’s West End. Familiar songs such as Dancing Queen, I Have a Dream, Voulez-Vous, and Take a Chance on Me, are ingeniously woven into the show which featured tale of love, laughter and friendship. From the place where we were sitted we could view the orchestra group as well. I was totally amazed! I should have bought tickets for my parents as well. Since the response to the shows were overwhelmed, they extended few extra shows, perhaps I should check if there are still tickets available for my parents :) . Birthday present for dad and christmas present for mum ? :) Hmmphhh.... I don't mind going for a second time as well....

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

2008-12-23T14:26:00.003+08:00

2 more days to Christmas...
I would like to wish all my friends and family Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
I used to remember when I was young, Christmas were normally celebrated back in Terengganu ( mom's hometown) with my parents, aunts, uncles , cousins and grandma. I missed those time...

-Lynn-

Quick Bite Summary Update :)

2008-12-23T11:42:00.008+08:00

It been so long since I last blog. Not sure where to start. As usual work and running had filled up most of my time. Perhaps I just need to put a blame on something to make me feel better of not updating my blog *guilty*. I am always curious how some people can train and perform so good in sports and yet still stand up in their job. I had been struggling to juggle my time between work and runs and it always seems that 24 hours doesn't seem to be enough. On some days after work I'm so dead tired that I just knock off as soon as I plopped myself on the bed and close my eyes without doing any running. I'm not a superb runner in any sort but not sure why I keep giving pressure on myself that I need to perform better in each run. Why can't I just go out there and do a fun run???!! Hmmphh... I can turned into a grumpy old lady when I'm frustrated. Well perhaps one of my 2009 resolution is learned to control my emotions :) . We will see...

Runs that Chin Chin and myself did over the past few months
Mizuno Wave Run 2008 - 19th October
Penang Bridge International Marathon 2008 - 16th Nov (Half Marathon 25km)
Standard Chartered Singapore International Marathon 2008 ( SIM2008) - 7th Dec ( Full Marathon)
Malakoff 12 Km Run - 21st Dec

Standard Chartered Singapore International Marathon 2008 ( SIM2008)
Congrats to Chin as she achieved her PB in SIM 2008 ( 4:31). *hugs*. I suffered badly during this run. Major cramps on the left side of my waist and leg. First time in 3 years of running that I suffered so badly. In anyway I dragged myself and completed the run painfully in 4:52 ( major disappointment) . Thanks to Sam for entertaining me for the last 15km or even more. I was very frustrated that initially I just wanted to quit but then I told myself I had come all the way to Singapore and had trained so many months for the run in anyway I MUST finish the run. Every km was indeed very painful and torturing for me. All I want to see is just the 42km marker.
I felt totally awful after the run, was in a rage of anger at myself. I felt extremely bad for making Frank stopped a couple of times at the beginning waiting for me so that I could catch up. Initially I was supposed to pace with Frank. I am glad that finally after a couple of time I told him to go ahead to run he did. If only he didn't stop I bet he will achieve a sub 4 or maybe even a 3:55.
I was basically a difficult person throughout the next few days after the race... ( sorry!! you know who ur ).

Went back to run after 5 days of giving myself a break ( was actually too pain to run , walk and even moved for the first 3 days ! ) . Did a 10km on Saturday and a 19km on Sunday after returning back to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Malakoff 12 Km Run - 21st Dec
Decided to join the 12km for the sake of having some race to end the year with. Got Jocelyn to join the race as well and also Chin since she is down in KL ( bad of me) . The route was suppose to have us running on the highway but was changed with the reason given - it wasn't safe for the runners. End up doing 2 loops of the 6km route. Started of the race behind the pack. Started real slow in the begining as I had no idea how the route would be. Tried to push myself a little on the second loop. My GPS seemed to show that the route was not 12km - only 11.19km ( so did other people with GPS) . Chin knees weren't too good on that day, as usual being the 'tough girl ' with high tolerance of pain ( selected pain :P) she made herself to complete the run by what she said were hobbling and floating around (and perhaps JUMPING ) .

Some pics to share: Pics are from Choi , KC, Tey and Lionel.

Winning look

Chin, Me, Jocelyn ( the happy go lucky runner :) )

Chin, Me, Frank, Lionel
-Lynn-

I'm back!

2008-12-20T14:39:00.003+08:00

Upon checking the last entry posted, I just realized the blog haven't been updated for nearly 4 months. *GUILTY*...well I shouldn't be blame entirely right ? (pointing finger at Chin *grin*). Since I have a bit more time now. I guess its time to give this site an update. Stay tune...

-Lynn-

Seattle Day 1 (Day 16 total)

2008-08-21T14:11:00.014+08:00

Decided to hit Seattle during the weekend to visit Philippe, who is Tina's husband and a very close friend. The biggest highlight of Seattle was meeting up with their dog, Link who looks like a bear but is the bestest, friendliest dog EVER!

We ate Malaysian food... at the Malay Satay Hut because we sort of missed it already.

We went to downtown Seattle and walked around Pike Place Market. My ultimate favourite place to hangout, because the atmosphere is so alive. We spent a lot of time at the Pike's Place fish market which can be intriguing for the tourist as the yell and throw a lot of fish around.

Me in front of the famous Pike's Place fish market

Some of the colours at Pike's Place

Some peppers on sale at Pike's Place

After that we went to Gasworks Park for an amazing view of Seattle.

Spot Mr Turtle!

Philippe and me

Day 11... Annie-Maniacs

2008-08-15T14:54:00.004+08:00

I went to paddle with the Anniemaniacs after not paddling for 3 months. It was a slightly challenging practice for me as they were peaking in performance for the Victoria race this coming weekend but I hung in there and paddled hard. I know I will hurt the next day. This practice we took out two boat with a video camera on each so we could tape the session.

After practice, we went to a fancy seafood restaurant called McCormick and Schmick's. I've had seafood there before and wasn't entire impressed. Although I hear they had a superb happy hour because they had $1.95 cheeseburgers. Happy Hour in Portland works different from Malaysia. It is normally more of a food deal than a drink deal. Most of the time with one drink, you are entitled of some really cheap and good food. Which explains my $4.95 rib eye steak that came with roasted red peppers and garlic with parmesan fries. I washed that down with one of my absolute favourite beer, a Deschutes Black Butte Porter.

Rib eye with roasted red peppers and garlic with parmesan fries

Rib eye with the porter

Day 9... let's run some more

2008-08-15T14:31:00.004+08:00

I decided I am to run from my hotel on Shute Road to the Nike Campus in Beaverton, approximately 6miles (10km) from my hotel. Then when I reach the Nike Campus I would do two loops around making my total run about 10miles (16km). Yan Nee, my co-worker was going to meet me at the Nike Campus to run the loops with me and then I will grab a ride back with her. So I was doing a pretty decent pace about 5:20 to 5:30 min/km. The roads were actually not flat, in fact quite a gradient. I died a little doing loops around Nike but was so excited to end because I was getting thirsty and needed water. I finished at around 9.20pm and I did not see Yan Nee's car at all. I was a bit peeved.

So I decided to get out on the main road to search for a grocery store to buy some Gatorade and I figured Yan Nee will see me if I walked on the main road. Even after a 5 minute walk to the grocery store, she was nowhere in sight. So I ran in bought a small bottle of Gatorade, got some change and headed to the payphone to call her hotel. No answer after 3 tries. So I sucked it in and decided to run home. I managed 5km home before Yan Nee pulled up beside me and apologize for waking up late. I hopped in and we went to Noah's Bagel for bagels, juice and coffee. YUM!

My runs uploaded:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/533502
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/533505

Ended the day at the "Bite of Oregon", Oregon's premier food festival and was a bit wasted by drinking too much beer and tasting too much wine. Went home to completely pass out on my bed. Later that night Yan Nee came over with antiacids and mushroom flavoured Cintan mee. I managed to recover a bit. Thanks Yan Nee! Even though you stranded me! :p

Le Pigeon

2008-08-12T15:30:00.003+08:00

Le Pigeon (http://www.lepigeon.com/) is a French restaurant operated by a 26-year old chef called Gabriel Rucker. I first ate at Le Pigeon with my culinary partner, Jose. Wait time for a table then was one hour. It was at the end of 2006. A couple months later Gabriel Rucker was named Best New Chef by Food and Wine magazine. His restaurant has now won Best Restaurant in Portland. The wait time for a table is now an hour and forty five minutes. You pretty much leave your name on a list and then go shopping until they call you to come back for your table.

The menu at Le Pigeon is simplistic. It has five appetisers and five entrees and four desserts. However, the menu changes pretty frequently. I went there with a co-worker. She had the pork with green beans, mushrooms, crème fraîche and I had the quail with squash, marrow, cherry tomatoes. Both were absolutely amazing! But the pork simply blew me away. How I wish I had gotten that instead! With that we had a bottle of Patton Valley Vineyard Pinot Noir, a local vineyard.

The wine

The quail

The pork

For dessert we honey, bacon, apricot cornbread with maple ice cream. You must be thinking bacon with dessert? But I tell you, it works and it was fabulous.

The dessert

All in all a complete satisfying dinner.

Day 8... Nike World Campus

2008-08-10T16:11:00.007+08:00

Nike's was founded in Oregon by University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman. It has its headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

Yan Nee and I decided to run a wood-chip trail that surrounds the Nike World Campus in Beavorton. Each loop was approximately 2.2miles. The run is littered with the amazing scenery of the Nike campus, which has its own basketball courts, football field and a huge multi-storey carpark.

The football field

The multi-storey carpark

I ran the first half of the loop together with Yan Nee at a pretty steady pace. I did the second half a tad bit faster and I did my fist half. And on the second loop around I went all out at like 5:13 min/km pace.

Yan Nee doing here thing

Spot me!

Me at the end of my run

Here is the run route:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/527742

-Chin Chin-

Day 7... burgers and more beer!

2008-08-10T15:42:00.003+08:00

My senior manager was in town and invited us all to dinner at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. The CPR as it is more fondly called is the hotspot for gatherings of my American co-workers as well as a favourite company event venue. The CPR is owned by the McMenamins brother, two very enterprising siblings who buy delapited properties and convert them into bars. They also produce very nicely crafted beers and is most famous for their Terminator Stout, which I almost always have when I am at a McMemanin's.

The day was fine and the weather was warm so we ended up outside in the lawn are on picnic tables. I had Wilbur's Jumbo Deluxe Burger which had bacon, Tillamook (brand of Oregon cheese) cheddar and a fried egg on top. It was coupled nicely by a few pints of Terminator Stout.

A pint of Terminator stout with restaurant menu

Hummus platter

Wilbur's Jumbo Deluxe Burger

Thanks to my senior manager for the generous dinner!
-Chin Chin-

Day 6... the ultimate Portland Philly cheesesteak

2008-08-09T11:57:00.006+08:00

I apologize if all my run data is now in miles because that's all I have to work with now.

I decided to run Forest Park (http://www.forestparkconservancy.org/) which is a huge network of trails for hiking, running and biking at the northwest park of the city. Simply amazing that a city can have such a huge park nearby. Annie had once ran the 30-mile trail here. I did my 20-miler here as well, almost 2 years ago when I was training for Portland Marathon. This time I return on Thursday evening to do Lief Eirckson trail which was 11.4miles in total length, one way. I decided to run as far as I could one way for 45mins and then turn around. It wasn't meant to be a tough one, just challenging enough. The run was great! I enjoyed it tremendously, there were enough people and bikers not to feel creeped out but they were so spread out it didn't intrude on your running privacy.

After the run I met up with some Maniacs, Brett and Asian John and we went to Tributes, for some awesome Philly cheesesteak, probably the best that Portland has to offer and I have Ben who is a true Philadelpher to vouch for that.

Philly cheesesteak with the works - peppers, onions, Swiss cheese and mushroom with hot sauce on the side

After that we headed off to one of my favourite local microbrewery, the Lucky Labrador for a pint. I had the Nitro Porta.

-Chin Chin-

Day 5... Beer and the Maniacs...

2008-08-09T06:14:00.004+08:00

I hooked up with John Lee (Asian John) who gave me info about my ex-dragonboat team's practise day and time. So I turned up at the docks to surprise them as they came back in. Annie was the first to spot me and her face crinkled a little as she said aloud, "Is that who I think it is?". And before you know it I was being greeted in chorus by the Anniemaniacs (http://www.anniemaniacs.com/) , the dragonboat team who made me a real paddler.

Secretly I planned which Asian John to invite them out for food and drinks after practise so we could go out and enjoy. So after they pulled up and we have exchanged hugs and pleasantries, we headed off the our regular happy hour place, Stanfords where after 9pm you can get really really cheap food with a purchase of ANY drink. Is that a deal or what? Despite knowing American portions, I was too greedy and ordered a plate of chicken strips with fries and fried calamari with basil aoili. Which of course was enough to feed a whole Asian family. Together with it I had two microbrews, a Mirror Pond Pale Ale and a Widmer Brother's Hefweizen. Both are locally brewed beers. Oregon is THE home to microbreweries and I am going to eat, drink and run my heart out here.

Stanford's Happy Hour menu

The chicken strips and fries with honey mustard and BBQ sauce

My friend, Brett's cheeseburger and chicken strips!

Deep fried calamari with basil aoili

-Chin-

Day 4... record high temperatures

2008-08-06T16:06:00.008+08:00

Portland early morning news reported that the city will be seeing record high temperatures today. Something around 33 degress celsuis with high humidity. Pooh! Only 33 degrees? Humidity? I thought I had it beat as I set off on my attempt at a 6-mile round around the Tom McCall Waterfront to the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade.

Before I begin, Portland was voted top 25 best running cities by Runner's World magazine.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-362--10142-0,00.html

And the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade is one of their recommended runs. One loop is 3miles and I intended to do 2 loops. I started out pretty fast, which is always a bad idea. I wanted to run hard and I thought I could deal with the heat but I couldn't. It was scorching heat unlike the humidity of Malaysian hit. My skin burned from the sun on it. I ended up pushing myself real and hard doing only 5km, of with I felt almost like passing out.

This is where I start running from.

Then across the Hawthorne bridge

This is the docks where we dragonboat from!

-Chin Chin-

Day 3... the eat fest continues

2008-08-04T15:12:00.004+08:00

Ok, before I forget. THANK YOU KENNETH LIM for loaning me your camera on this trip!

So the thing I like about Oregon is that I know places having lived here. I can drive out and not get lost. I know where to run. I know where to eat. I have friends, so I am not lonely.

Today I did a 10-miler (about 17km on my GPS watch) around the Portland waterfront in friggin 11 degrees celsuis in my shorts! Because you know why? It is supposed to be summer and warm and I didn't pack warm things . The first km I was shivering from head-to-toe and my legs wouldn't move because they were pretty much frozen. I think my ears hurt from the cold wind. And I saw two women running in tank tops! HAR?!?

Check out my run data here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/486829

Lunch: Byways Cafe, your typical American diner, you can't get more American than that.

Had the classic American breakfast, eggs sunny side up, sausages, bacon, potatoes and toast with coffee.

Dinner: I had dinner at my favourite Cajun place, Le Bistro Montage. This restaurant is run by lots of artsy people so it is a lot of fun. Plus one unique thing about this place is that there are no individual tables. Think back to eating arrangements like in your school canteen days. A bunch of table joined together to form a long row and you seat wherever.

I had the spicy macaroni and cheese with grilled chicken. I think this is the only place I would eat mac and cheese. Because the cheese doesn't overpower the dish. I also had a bottle of Mickey's beer and a glass of Tempranillo.

-Chin Chin-

Day 2... Oregon revisited

2008-08-04T14:22:00.002+08:00

Morning: Portland's Farmers Market at Portland State University
My ultimate place to go on Saturday especially after a long run. Berries are in season so there were abundance of strawberries, blueberries, marionberries (a hybrid created in Oregon), etc. Ann, Yan Nee and I had some juicy blueberries. These are sweet not sour like those you get in Malaysia.

I had my standard spicy Italian sausage on a hoagie roll with spicy honey mustard. YUM!

Evening:
Skipped lunch as breakfast was late. We had dinner where we were doing some massive shopping, at Quiznoz Sub. I had the Black Angus steak sub sandwich on Swiss cheese. Too hungry I forgot to take pics.

Supper:
Dessert at my favourite dessert place, voted by chefs in Portland Monthly as best dessert place. I had their award winning Amelie and a glass of Tokaji.

-Chin Chin-

Back to Oregon... again

2008-08-02T16:19:00.001+08:00

Hi,

It is time I take the reigns of the blog as my blog partner has lodged a complaint against me for not updating the blog :p. I am on business trip to Portland, Oregon to attend some technical conference and to have a series of meetings with my counterparts.

I arrived really late on July 31st via a domestic flight from LA.

Me and LAX in the background (spot the Turtle!)

I have previously lived and worked in Oregon for 2 years (2005-2006) so coming here is GREAT. Lots of people to see and lots of food to eat. Plus I can drive on the other side of the road and know my way around.

Stay tuned! Will be updating my day to day adventures in Oregon for the next 3 weeks.

-Chin-

Pizza Craving- Fullfied at Nero Vivo :)

2008-07-27T17:55:00.006+08:00

Had a craving for Italian pizza! Since Chin Chin and myself were not able to check out Nero Vivo 2 weeks ago due to power failure in the restaurant, we took this opportunity to check it out this time. We ordered pan fried duck foie gras as the starter. I love the foie gras ( sorry ! just once in a while I decided to be tad bit cruel *devil grin* ) . It was nicely cooked and definitely was very juicy! I might not have one anytime soon though I love it .. :) Next came the pizza- Pizza Tumipiaci. Fillings was with tomato, mozzarella, wurtsel, turkey ham, salsiccia, artichoke and eggs. I enjoyed it! Baked with a perfect thin crust and well spread of its fillings ( minus the egg which is not quite distributed *grin*) . YUM YUM! . We paired out pizza with a glass of Processo, couldn't remember which exact Processo Chin Chin ordered . The pizza came kinda in a big portion. I wonder how some people could finish it! . The meal would not be complete without a dessert ! Ordered their dessert of the day which was white chocolate flan served with mixed berries gelati. Everything just seem so perfect! Not only the food were good, we had a good waiter as well. Very attentative to our needs for the night! THUMBS UP for Nero Vivo! I would definitely go back there again to try other food.

Nero Vivo
3A Jln Ceylon,
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-20703120

L to R: Duck Foie Gras , Pizza Tumipiaci

The dessert - White Chocolate flan with mixed berries gelati

-Lynn-

Sushi Zanmai @ 1Utama

2008-07-27T14:49:00.010+08:00

After hearing so many good reviews of Sushi Zanmai since I arrived in KL, finally I was able to try it myself. Twice in a day! *grin*. On Friday, celebrated 2 of my colleagues birthday ( Chloe's and David's) in Sushi Zanmai @ The Curve. At night had another round with Chin Chin ( she was down in KL to do her US Visa @ 1 Utama. Both of us were dying to try it. Was tempting her during lunch! BLUEK! The place seems to be packed with peopled. Waited about 3o mins during lunch since our group was about 18 people. Luckily during dinner , we just waited for about 10 minutes before getting our seats.

There were so many food both of us wanted to try. Recommended Asama ( had that during lunch) all the fish were fresh! YUMMY... Chin Chin ordered a couple of others based on recommendation from blogs ( someone did her homework ;) )

Most the food were nice. Don't normally like the sushi rice, however the suchi rice they serverd was suprisingly nice, soft and not overcooked.

I like the caterpillar rolls because each served sushi had green freh avacado on the top of it. (YUM!). Salon Montai was delicious as well. Both of Chin Chin and myself were little disaapointed with the soft shell crab maki. We thought that it was tad bit overfried.

The Sake was just normal. Too sweet for my liking. The sashimi was awesome. All the 3 types of fish were FRESH! I like the Unagi Tofu as well.

We end our dinner with a dessert called Yukumi Daifuku. It tasted slightly like mochi . All in all I do like this place alot. Don't mind having 3 meals a day in Sushi Zanmai. ( Err maybe not... *grin* )

SUSHI ZANMAI(758027-D)
SK9a, 2nd Floor Hightstreet,
1 Utama Shopping Centre,
1 Lebuh Bandar Utama,
Bandar Utama Damansara, 47800 PJ.
TEL: 03-77242030

-Lynn-

Kuala Lumpur here I come

2008-07-18T13:21:00.003+08:00

Haven't been updating for more than a month. To be precised - 1 month 2 days. This is also the duration since I left Penang to Kuala Lumpur. I guessed most of you who read this blog knew that I'm working in Kuala Lumpur now. Haven't gone back to Penang since I left. I'm looking forward going home in August. Missed home very much. :( . Parents had been down here twice since I came down ( wondering if they are doing spot check on me :) ) Anyway I'm glad they came down. I did miss their presence a lot. (Call me a big baby or mummy's girl! ) I guessed its hard to separate them from me since I had been staying together with them for 26 years. I'm glad that Chin Chin had the opportunity to come down to KL twice as well since I moved down to KL. Being a nice sister she was down in KL to accompany her brother back to Pg and of course sending his brother back to KL. Met up with Li Yen and GTS as well during the 2nd week when I was here. Its definitely nice to see familiar faces.

Kind of not used to doing everything by myself - from waking up , preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner to washing up clothes. I guessed I had been spoilt by my mum all this while. Often took advantages of all the privileges I had. So used to having mum wake me up, breakfast being prepared while I took my morning showers, having lunch and dinner bought or prepapred and having all the laundry done by my mum all day long. ( Spoilt huh!! ? I know of friends who need to do all this since secondary!!! ). Well the reason I decided to take up the job was partly I wanted to be a little bit more independent. I guessed I'm being tested on all this now. *sigH*. I hate doing cooking and laundry! Burnt my food a couple of times! ( bummer! ) Enough of my domestic complains .

Had not been so social since I get here, perhaps I need more time to build up friendships ties. I'm glad my colleagues are nice bunch of people but they are yet to reach the status where I feel comfortable to hang out with them after work. I missed hanging out with the bunch of people in Penang - my so call running friends and colleagues. I do feel lonely and sad whenever they tell me what they did or what they going to do after work or over weekends. I know I can choose to socialize here as well but perhaps I'm not ready yet . ( don't ask me why ) .

Being away from home, haven't stop me from running, but the mileage did drop significantly :( . Couldn't push myself more than 10km . Not sure how I'm going to train for a marathon. *sigh*

Participated in Ipoh International Run 2008 on July 6th for a half marathon event. Met up with Kenneth and Chin Chin in Ipoh. Stayed over in Peck Yee's place. Nice of her to offer her place for us to bunk in for 1 night. Was quite a good race for both ChinChin and myself. Both able to break our PB . Got 8th and 9th placing. I was in a bundle of nerve lining up to this event because I was only running maximum of 10km. Somehowwas suprised to see the placing. Perhaps not much competitive runner for this race. Improved around 3 mins from last year in the same event.

Training is going to start..guess I will just end here for now for the update...hopefully more to come :)

Lynn

Hike up to Mt Tahan - Highest peak in Peninsular Malaysia

2008-06-14T12:26:00.023+08:00

Another adventure after Sundown Marathon 2008!

Elevation 2,187 m (7,175 ft)

Location Pahang, Taman Negara National Park

Range Tahan Range

Coordinates 4°38′N, 102°14′E

Got back from Singapore on the 3rd June. I had 3 days to rest and pack before I embark on another 4 days of adventure. I was a bit worried on the hike due to the fact that I haven't been doing any hiking since my last hiking trip like 3 months ago and it was just a 1 day hike. I missed all the trainings the group had organized lining up to climbing Mt Tahan. I was training for Sundown Marathon.

Volunteered to drive for this trip. We were suppose to hike up from Merapoh which was situated in Pahang.

Participants :
1. Lucy
2. Dan
3. Ken
4. CS
5. Andrew
6. Lynn
7. Doreen
8. Uncle Yong
9. Khai Chern
10. Wan Lin

7th June 2008
Left Penang at around 8pm. Head over to Cameron Highlands in 3 cars ( Drivers: Kean, CS and myself ). Arrived around 11pm. Was a little stressed driving up on the winding road heading to Cameron Highlands. *sweat*. Stopped by at a nearby coffee sop for supper before heading over to Guan Di Temple to spend a night. . Decided just to drink a cup of hot Milo. "Freezing"...brrr...

Day 1 - 8th June 2008
Woke up at 5.30am. Washed up and changed into hiking outfit. Went over to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast. Had oat with my Milo (again ) . Decided not to have too heavy meal. The rest noodle or rice and packed food for lunch. Left the place around 7.30am. Decided to ask Dan to drive as I was still a little uncomfortable on driving on the winding road. My car started to give problem approaching Gua Musang. Suddenly lost it momentum. Dan managed to stop the car by the side of the road. The car came to a complete stop. F****! What a luck. I felt totally bad to hold back everyone. CS drove to the town. No mechanic is opened on Saturday in that town. Bummer. Managed to get the tow truck number. Called the tow truck man and waited for another 40 mins. I hated myself... if only I didn't volunteer to drive...*Sigh*. Finally the tow truck man arrived. Took my details and I gave my dad's number to him so he could contact him for follow up as I will be out of network coverage for the next 4 days. Doreen and myself went into Kean's car while Dan went over to CS's car. We moved on...still feel bad... Arrived at the National Park rangers's post in Sg Relau around 12pm. Proceeded with registration. Finished up with signing up and declaring of items. Left for Kuala Juram in a 4WD. Took about 30 mins to reach Kuala Juram. Ready to set off our trek. Estimated 5 hours to arrive at campsite! EXCITED!

Final Check....

Our 4WD

Started the first river crossing about 20 minutes into the hike. Started to see the sign of leeches. Ewww! 2 went in between my toes. The road was muddy. Met the other group of university students who will be camping at the same campsite as us at Kuala Luis. There were about 30 of them. Rested for a while before heading to Lata Luis.

Crossed a total of 5 rivers before finally arriving at Kem Kor. Uncle Yong, Khai Chern and myself arrived first at the campsite at 4pm. Others slowly arrived. Started to clean up and set up tent for the night. Started preparing dinner as well.

Finally at Kem Kor

First love bite from leeches...*grin*

CS upon arrival at Kem Kor

Uncle Yong preparing dinner for us - he cooked us yam rice and curry chicken. We had sweet potato soup as dessert.

Our dinner served...

Day 2 - 9th June 2008

Set off around 9.30am. Running a bit late. Left the Day 4 food at the campsite. Those who were ready left the campsite first. Expected 10 hours of hike! First stop - Permatang followed by Kem Kubang

Uncle Yong, Kean and KC - experience sharing

CS and Me @ Permatang

View from Bonsai Hill

15 mins walk before reaching Botak Hill..

After around 8 hours of hike, we reached Botak Hill...

Me at a higher level ground. Behind where the tents are located is Botak Hill

Dinner time preparation... It rained later in the night... Wet wet!

Day 3 - 6th June 2008
Approaching near to the peak! Wee! Plan for today is to reach the peak and then to G. Gedung and back to Botak Hill. Set off at 8.30am. Hike up to the peak required roughly around 1 hour. Reached the peak around 9.30am plus. Totally got swept away by the view...Totally worth all the long hike we had for the pass 2 days.

Andrew, Doreen, Me and Kean

Spend about 30 mins on the peak. Proceed to G. Gedung next. The guide didn't seem to be very positive that we will reach G. Gedung peak. Lucy set a time that if we don't reached G. Gedung by 3pm we should head back to Botak Hill. Suprisingly the hike up to G. Gedung was not long. We managed to reach there around 2pm if I could remember it correctly. Spent about 30 mins there and had our lunch there as well.

The surrounding area was filled with small monkey cup plants.

Scenery from the peak of G. Gedung.

Started to make out way back to Botak Hill around 3pm. Reached back at around 5.30pm. Uncle Yong and Wan Lin who decided to stayed back ( both of them had been to G. Tahan twice already) were starting to prepare our dinner. Everyone cleaned up and had dinner around 6. 20pm. Rain started to pour as soon as we complicated our dinner. Didn't manage to wash our utensils. Rain was very heavy with winds. Our tent started to flood. Thunders roar loudly! Only after about an hour or so did the rain stop. We tried to shift our tent a little and made it a little dry before calling it another day....

Day 4- 6th June 2008

Packed our tent and repacked our bags. Left Botak Hill around 9.30am to head back to Kem Kor. Muddy trails again! Ewww... Took us about 4 hours to reach back Kem Kor. CS, Uncle Yong and myself were the first to arrive. I set up the girls' tent, cleaned up and start to help to prepare for dinner. Sky starts to become cloudy. When Doreen and Lucy arrived they said the current tent location might not be good as it was quite near the edge of the river bank. Shifted out tent to a higher ground. Rain started to pour not too soon. Did't manage to even finish cooking our dinner. Ran into our tent. Doreen was nice enough to do a drainage around our tent as it started to flood again not long after the rain pour. With the help of our guide, Zul they put up some rocks around the tent to make the water flows another direction instead of going straight to the tent. It works! Thanks Doreen!

Uncle Yong and I guessed Wan Lin and some others helped to prepare the dinner as the food was under their make shift tent. Dan called us for dinner around 8pm. Ran over to their tent to had dinner. For once I was really hungry. Dinner was with curry chicken, sardine and ABC soup. Bed time again...

Day 5 - 7th June 2008
I'm excited to go back to civilisation. :) Not that I'm complaining that I didn't enjoyed the past few days. I just missed everything out there. Got up around 6.30am. Washed up then helped Wan Lin to cleaned the utensils, pots, plates and cups we used previous night. Started to prepare breakfast after that. Mushroom soup and Tom Yam soup noodle were served for breakfast. Had the mushroom soup and just the noodle. Didn't dare to take the soup to avoid tummy upset. Helped to wash up and then started to pack our bags for depature. Took down the tent as well. Those who were ready left the campsite first. CS and me started moving. Andrew and Kean caught up with us about 20 mins later. All the rivers level were much higher than the 1st day due to the heavy rain the night before. The current were slightly stronger as well. Some of the rivers were waist length high...SCARY! Started to see sign of leeches again...YUCKS! Actually I didn't really care much.. :) Just wanted to reach back out soon *grin*. After 3 hours...HOORAY we finally reached Kuala Juram! Just can't wait to take off my sandals! Washed up and changed into clean clothings. Saw 3 punctured holes around my ankles. Leeches had feast again... BLARGH! The others arrived about 40 mins later. The 4WD came to pick us up around 2.30pm
Blood oozing out from the punctured hole.... bluek

The butterflies and bees (not in picture) seemed to be enjoying the sweat on our clothings, bags and socks...hmphhh...

8 of us went out to Kuala Juram first. Took a real shower there at the proper toilet. Never had I enjoyed bathing and water so much. Felt TOTALLY refreshed. The others arrived around 3pm.

Left the Taman Negara post around 3.30pm. Went to Gua Musang to pick up my car. Cost me RM530 ( arrrgghh ) The oil pump seemed to be the culprit. Headed over to the general hospital for outpatient treatment for Uncle Yong. He had a deep cut from the first day and the wound got infected. Waited for about an hour before heading over to Gua Musang old town for lunch/dinner. The food tasted delicous and it was cheap. Left Gua Musang to head home around 7pm. Dan and Doreen kept me entertained throughout the whole journey back to Penang (Thanks Guys! HUGZ! ). Reached home around 11pm after dropping Dan back home. Decided to immediately clean up my stuffs. I know that if I delay to tomorrow, I might not do it. By the time I finished cleaning the stuffs I can do that night, it was already 2am. Took a warm shower, changed into my sleeping clothings and jumped into my cozy bed....Zzzzz...

I totally enjoyed my 4 days of adventure in Mt Tahan. The friendship and companion from the other 9 people were awesome. Another hiking trip to remember.

-Lynn-

Dinner @ Cork Cellar Kitchen

2008-06-02T23:59:00.005+08:00

Another feast for celebration! *swirl* :)

Chin suggested Cork Cellar Kitchen for dinner. She read about the fine dining restaurant from a website that her god sis sent to her. The restaurant is smacked in a high business location in Robinson Road. Cork Cellar Kitchen is a baby from the profilic Marmalade Group. Being a wine lover, Chin was impressed with the wine selection they offered and what made it special was that the restaurant allows wine by glass. As I entered the restaurant, I was impressed by the wine cooling system they used. Later in the night, I realized that the cooling system they used is called The Enomatic Wine Dispensing System, developed by some of the most famous wine makers in Italy. It may sound pathetic to some, this is the first time I'm seeing such cooling system. Perhaps it ain't foreign for Chin. We waited for Kenneth to join us for dinner. While waiting we ended up ordering 2 glass of wines each. Started of with a glass of champagne - Veuve Cliquot Brut NV from Epevuay, France. I was totaly impressed with its aroma and the taste of it. Its deliciously rich on the nose and and palate. It has a creamy and nutty taste. ( NUTS NUTS NUTS ) It appears to be listed as the Number 25 wine in the 100 wines recommended by Wine.com in 2007. This classical dry Champagne is a blend of two-thirds black grapes (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) for body, balanced with one-third Chardonnay for elegance. Next was my pick - Saint Clair Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2007. It has a strong passionfruit and berry flavours. I enjoyed the wine but not so much compared to the champagne. Did a quick google and found out that this wine did won a couple of awards - Among them include Gold Medal for NZ International Wine Show 2007 and also received 5 stars Winestate 2007. Impressed yet again! Kenneth do enjoyed the glass of wine as well. He was in time to try on our 2nd wine by glass selection. When Kenneth arrived, all of us decided to order the 3 course dinner featuring Chef's signatures paired iconic wines from the Enoline range. Chin was excited and eager for Kenneth and myself to try the Seghesio Old Vine Zinfadel 2004 as she had visited the wine yard before. I enjoyed all the 3 courses. The menu was as follow :

1st Course
Brandade of salted cod poached egg paired with Howard Park Chardonnay 2005- I believed its a French dish - consisting of brandade ( a puree of refreshed salt cod and potatoes) - YUMMY2nd Course
Duck leg confit with lentils and lardons paired with Seghesio Old Vine Zinfandel 2004 - Another dish which I enjoyed very much. The duck meat was tender and moist inside. It was really good combined with lentils. The wine was lovely. I was totally blown away with this Zin.

3rd Course

Profiteroles with chocolate sauce & vanilla bean ice cream paired with De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillion 2005. The tasty sweet dessert totally melted my heart. I totally fell in love with them..

I totally recommend the place to everyone who is looking for an affordable fine dining in Singapore. 2 thumbs up
cork cellar kitchen
168 robinson roadunit
01-08 capital tower
singapore 068912

-Lynn-

Lunch @ Jia Xiang Sarawak Kuching Kolo Mee

2008-06-02T20:50:00.001+08:00

Finally after 2 months of semi strict running diet, its time to break loose! Ha ha..Actually the running diet menu ain't that bad - alternate between tuna with bread, pasta or salmon with brown rice and brocolli, fruits for desserts and nuts for snack. No spicy food..No oily food. Oh well...guess I no longer crave for spicy food that much this day so it ain't that bad for me. I still remember that I used to take cili padis ( the small red and green chillies) for every meal with every freaking food! Basically I think there just kill my taste bud. I'm glad I'm able to get rid of that bad habit. Thanks to the nagging I used to get from my 2 hiking buddies - Andrew and Kean.

Chin was so tempted to try the Kolo Mee before the run, but we decided to stick to our so call more healthy diet the day before. She read about the Sarawak Kolo Mee somuch stating that every visitors who visit Singapore should not give it a miss. So we decided to give it a try. Apparently the noodle are air flown into Singapore from Kuching, Sarawak daily. Went to Marina Square for lunch since we know that there is a branch of Sarawak Kolo Mee. Both of us ordered the dry type. I had the thin noodle type while Chin ordered the thick flat noodle. The noodle that we ordered were served dry, topped with bok chor, minced pork, "char siew"(BBQ Pork) and steamed vegetables. It also came with a small bowl of soup with wan tan ( dumplings) Both of us enjoyed the noodle. YUMMY! BURP... We were satisfied for with our lunch - Thumbs up!

Breakfast at Toast Box in Food Junction @ Wisma Atria

2008-06-02T13:47:00.001+08:00

Toast Box @ Food Junction - Wisma Atria

Legs obviously felt better today. Hooray!! Still tad bit sore here and there. Was craving for the toasted bread with floss and eggs. Browsed through the phone directory to search for the nearest Toast Box around Orchard Road. All I found was Toast, no listing of Toast Box. *sniff* Chin recalled there is a Toast Box @ Food Junction in Wisma Atria so we decided to try our luck. Headed there for breakfast! We FOUND it! :) Am EXCITED. Both ordered the pork floss bread with 2 half boiled eggs and a cuppa coffee. Ate the first cube of the bread, was a little disappointed - ain't that good compared to the same chain in Bugis which I had tried last year. Eventually discovered the bread with the pork floss was missing condense milk. Boo- Hoo- Hoo! sniff...

Missing the magic taste - condense milk. *sighChin eating the half boiled egg with soy sauce - the soy sauce was slightly different from the soy sauce in Penang...(no joke)

Sundown Marathon 2008 @ Singapore

2008-06-01T14:56:00.002+08:00

Time for another update. Had been slacking in updating the site. I guess by now most of you who are reading this blog knew that I had quit my current job and moving to Kuala Lumpur for a new job. I hope I had made the right decision. Haven't been away from my family..the longest was 3 weeks business trip to US. Not that far from Penang but I foresee things will be different. (Sounded like a spoilt kid at home) I will definitely miss everyone in Penang- family , loved ones, friends and colleagues (both in Penang and US) .

Friday 30th May'08 was my last day in office. Had about 16 days off before I start my new job. I already had my activities/ days off planned before I accepted my job. Thus the 16 days are mostly already been occupied with activities. On Friday itself, Chin and myself flew down to Singapore for Sundown Marathon on 1st June 08. We bunked into a hostel dorm (Fern Loft) on the day we arrived before moving to the Changi Village Hotel on Saturday. The run starts only at 12am ( Sunday ). The hostel was indeed clean and comfortable. On Saturday morning, we went down to around Raffles area to collect our race packs. The owner at Fern Loft was nice enough to let us leave our baggages at the hostel.

After collecting the race packs we decided to bump around in the town a little since we couldn't check into Changi Village Hotel before 2pm and wanted to have lunch around that area before checking in the hotel in Changi as we are unfamiliar of the food they have around the hotel. We decided to have our lunch at Spageddies ( to fulfill our carb load session :) as well ) . We ordered 2 types of spaghetti -Spaghetti Sauteed Mushrooms & and Spaghetti Meatballs.

LOCATION

SPAGEDDIES
Marina Square No. 6 Raffles Blvd#02-138 F&G
Marina Square(Center Stage) Singapore 039594

Tel: 6337 9156/7Fax: 6336 2176

snuffles for lunch...WOPPS ...NOT

After lunch, we started to head back to Fern Loft for our stored baggages. We took the MRT to Bedok and then boarded a bus to the hostel. Chin and me felt a bit tired by then, I know I was nervous for the run while and Chin legs started to ache a little, we took the Taxi instead from Fern Loft to Changi Village Hotel. Kenneth was already there when we arrived. Checked into the hotel and started to go to bed at 3pm! We wanted to asssure that we had enough sleep before the run at 12am. Was hard for me to fall asleep at the beginning but guess after a while, I went into snoring mode! WOPPSS.... Kevin joined us at the hotel later. Ate our dinner at 7pm and bump around in the hotel room. Fell asleep again and woke up around 10pm. Was so lazy to wake up for the run. Was basically dragging myself off the bed to changed and get ready. Bah! Same went for the rest of them - Chin, Kenneth and Kevin..

Jocelyn and her friends dropped by around 10pm -ish after their team relay event ( 10.5km x 4 ) . They all looked fresh. We were hoping we will still able to look fresh after our run. All of us were envy! We left around 11pm and headed to the starting point which was a 5 mins walk. Jocelyn and friends board the bus and we head over to the starting point. I was dead nervous by then... I decided to wear my Polar watch instead of my Garmin and only to realise my foot pod died! F***. Chin was wearing the Garmin instead. She offered to swap. We swapped the watch but then being the fickle minded person I swapped back with her and decided to follow her pace which is more constant. The run flagged of around 12.05am. The men and women Full Marathon events were flagged of at the same time. The Ultra Marathon events (84km) were flagged off around 8.30pm. The starting was jam packed. It took a while to tear away from the big group. As I hit the first water stop at 5km, I got irritated as the water was not prepared on the table. The volunteer was just pouring them into the cups as the runners approached. *Sigh* Well its not a big deal anyway..but somehow I just got irritated. I guessed I get easily annoyed during runs - am really a difficult person to handle pre and post run ...BLUEK! And the victim that got to deal with me obviously would be my running partner- SORRY CHIN! I had totally no idea of the route that will be used. As I run, I found the route to be amuzing - running passed Changi Airport, HDB flats, pedestrians, reservoirs and most interesting ( or perhaps the WORST) going over 4 overhead bridges!!! The overhead bridges nearly killed my knees especially the one which only had steps. Chin and myself took 5:05 to complete the 42km. Way off our targeted time. Kenneth and Kevin better off their marathon time. CONGRATS Kevin and Kenneth!!

Chin and Me with our finishing medal

I guessed it was the route that put us down. Hit the wall around 30km. I was suprised to see Chin boosted her energy around 36km. She started to pick up her pace and ran fast. EXTREMELY fast! You couldn't imagine that she was near to exhaustion and feeling delirious earlier on at around 28km. I was happy when I saw the 40km sign but the remaining 2km seems to be so far away not to mention when they said 400m to ending, it seems to take FOREVER ~! We ended our run around 5:05am. My legs were so WEAK as soon as I hit the finishing line, they turned so numb that I could barely feel them. I PUKE! (not immediately though) I could still taste my Subway sandwich which I had for dinner.. YUCKS! Luckily it was just liquid coming out...BAH! Collected our finishing T-shirt and medal. Rested a while before heading back to the hotel. Took us about 15 mins to reach our hotel. I was semi crawling back. If anyone was to poke me that time I think I might just collapse...I told myself that I will never run a marathon again...but now as I'm typing this blog, I do hope to run a marathon again...and hope to qualify for Boston Marathon one day...HAHHAHAHA... ( DREAMING ) . As soon as I hit the hotel, Chin and myself take turn to shower and then jump into the cozy hotel bed...Kenneth came back to the hotel around 6am. Poor dude...he was totally drenched from the rain. He said the rain came pouring as soon as he arrived at the finishing line. Perhaps it was showers of blessing...*grin*. Kevin came back bout an hour later, socking wet as well. All in all it was a great experience. Might not be doing it again but if they changed the location next year...I might want to do a night run again :).

Route and gradient mapped out from the garmin watch

Snuffles - The travelling bear

2008-05-19T17:05:00.006+08:00

Snuffles with friends..(Moo Moo Cow and the Mr.Turtle (Woopps forgot what he is called.. :) )
Snuffles trying to climb over MOo MOo's cow head...OUCH..

Wesak Day - Another day of running

2008-05-19T14:02:00.003+08:00

Its a public holiday today due to Wesak Day celebration. Its a day observed by practicing Buddhists which commemorates the birth and enlightenment of Buddha and his entry into Nirvana. Woke up at 4.45am today to prepare myself for another day of training. A last long run before my Sundown Marathon on 31 May 2008 in Singapore. The next 2 weeks till the run would be just tapering weeks! Wee! .. Agreed to meet at Chin's house at 5. 45am so that Kenneth can swing by to pick us and head over to Clock Tower. Our planned route for today is Clock Tower - Copthorne Hotel - Clock Tower and to hit a distance of 21km. Wasn't a really good run for me. Neck been aching since yesterday. Anyway managed to complete my run after 2:09. *sweat*. Not a good time though...Kenneth on the other hand did quite a good run. Completed his run 6 mins from his personal best for 21km. I think Chin did a great job as well...she ended with a strong run..

My plotted route from my watch:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/96820

Forerunner 405

2008-05-18T21:46:00.009+08:00

My new running gadget - Forerunner 405

It was indeed a great surprised to receive the gift. I was contemplating to purchase between a Polar RSD800 G3 or a Forerunner 405 for quite sometime since my Polar RS200SD had been occasionally given me problems. Case RESOLVED by receiving this gift! Tsk..Tsk
Been playing around with it quite a bit. For those who had no idea whats this gadget is all about - let me give you a short overview. Forerunner 405 is a GPS-enabled watch thats tracks training. It helps to keep track of heart rate, distance/pace and even store the running route. I no longer need to hassle myself plotting the route in google map. All I need to do is just synch the data up to the web and viola! I have all my required running details...IMPRESSIVE! One thing I'm having tad bit issue with the watch is the bezel. Seems to be over sensitive for my navigation. Kept accidentally touching the wrong option on the watch. BLARGH!

Here are some links to my running route:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87541
Note: More to come - site having some issues to load the map..

Breakfast @ Nam Heong, Ipoh and Lunch @ Ngau Kee Beef Ball Noodles, Jalan Alor, KL

2008-05-17T16:04:00.019+08:00

It had been 2 months since this blog has been updated. Guilty! Guilty! Work and marathon had just robbed me off from everything! Blame it on my time management! Bummer! I always wonder where those runners like Dean Karnazes find time to juggle between training, working and family... *sigh*Oh well...

I'm currently sitting in Espressamente Illy in Pavilion , KL enjoying my cup of Caffe Fondente while waiting for Chin's Sis to arrive from Singapore. Since I had some time to spare, I decided to update the blog.

Caffe Fondente

Chin, Kevin and myself departed from Penang around 7am this morning. Kevin wanted to drop off some stuffs back home so we decided to stop to have breakfast in Ipoh as well. I had been craving for egg tart for the past few days..so decided to head over to Nam Heong for my egg tart while Chin ordered a bowl of soupy Ipoh Hor Fun. Kevin had a bowl of soupy noodles as well added with a couple of other stuff. I think it was called "yong tau hu " The egg tart was tad bit disappointing, seems like it wasn't baked enough...the crust was under cooked. Ahhh! Grumble..

The disappointed egg tarts :(

The white coffee

Ipoh Hor Fun

Arrived in KL around 11.45am. Initially Chin was supposed to meet up with her sisters and brother for lunch but somehow something cropped up in between so the plan was changed. Dropped Kevin off at Pudu to meet his friend. Chin decided to try the beef balls noodles in Jalan Alor, This little stall is situated around the corner of Jalan Alor...Its call Ngau Kee Beef Noodles...Actually its ain't a shop but just a stall along a pathway. Both of us ordered the dry noodles with mince meat which is served with a bowl of beef balls soup. I LOVE the texture of the noodles and the lovely beef balls....*Drool*...

Uncle preparing the noodles

The menu on the wall

The noodles and the beef balls [Cost RM5.00] - Recommended!

Location:
Ngau Kee Beef Ball Noodles
Tingkat Tong Shin,
50200 Kuala Lumpur

-Lynn-

Saturday Morning @ Batu Ferringhi, Penang

2008-03-22T12:15:00.015+08:00

No running ! Weee! Woke up early anyway as Li Yen decided to do a photo shoot session by the beach today. Of course I wasn't the model. ( Too ugly to be one) Yoon Yan was the model while Teng Sun was the co-photographer [suppose to be Li Yen's documentary person ]. Chin became the make up artist. Me ???! Well just the helper around...Li Yen appointed me to become the hairdresser for Yoon Yan initially but I chicken out. Unless Yoon Yan decided to turn into witch then..perhaps I will volunteer! Tsk Tsk..Click Click Click! The photo shoot began.. after about 30 mins came this guy with a horse. He looked so friendly and offered to snap the pics for us with the horse. Keep asking us to give the camera to him so he can help us to take.*FISHY*. Yoon Yan spent quite sometime posing with the horse, next was Chin and myself. Felt a bit reluctant at first...and thought he is such a nice guy and haven't sat on a horse for ages thus told my myself..HECK why not try it! Took a couple of shots. Next was Teng Sun and Li Yen. FINALLY the black side reveals! He asked us for payment. At first he wanted to charge us like RM40/head. Was hilarious seeing Yoon Yan sitting on the chair with sunglasses trying to reduce the price with him. Got it reduced to RM20 per person if not mistaken. BLOOD SUCKER! Anyway all in all it was quite a fun experience. BLARGH!

Pre session :) Getting ready for the photo shoot session...

Photographer in action - Li Yen

Everyone has their turn on the horse..

Random pictures...

Adjourned for BREAKFAST next... went to Toh Soon Cafe. Situated at one of the side street at Campbell Street. This place served only toast bread [varieties type of bread - wholemeal bread, low calories bread, coffee bread, chocolate marble cake and Hainan bread] and half boiled eggs. Being a small cafe [not exactly a cafe - a shop made alongside of a side lane with around 10 tables] its popular in the morning. Business is good! What I loved of this place is because they still use the traditional way of toasting their bread. They toast their bread in a fire pot with charcoal. Due to this, its hard for them to do mass production of the toast bread. [You need a little patient for the bread and even the half boiled eggs to be served - if you're hungry you can eat the "nasi lemak" packed ready and served on the table] Don't miss out on their coffee. Though I'm not a coffee person, normally I will order Milo-0, I tried their coffee today and it was rich in taste. [good for my liking].

Coffee...roti bakar..half boiled eggs....

Apparently the coffee here was recommended in the STAR newspaper as well

"In Penang, the Toh Soon Cafe on Campbell Road is popular for its coffee, which is kaw or thick, and milky, which they say can keep you up and running for at least half a day before the next fix." - extracted from Addictive Brew- Sunday Metro 03/09/08

Finally after a few visit to this place, today I finally took pictures of the bread and half boiled eggs [grin]. Guess every time I was too eager to eat them and only realized it when I was already 3/4 finishing them. Besides toast bread, they also serve steam bread [bread placed over the same pot they toast the bread but instead using the steamed from the hot water]. We chat for a bit before Teng Sun drove us back. Spend the rest of the afternoon bumping around before dragon boat practice in the afternoon.

Ribbit

Phuket Vacation 5th to 10th March

2008-03-11T11:34:00.001+08:00

I took a vacation to Phuket with Alan, Kenneth and Liyen. Alan, Kenneth and I arrived there on Wednesday and Liyen flew in to meet us on Friday.

We stayed at the Little Buddha Guesthouse (http://www.littlebuddhaphuket.com/) which cost around RM50 a night and came with air-con and attached bathroom. Very clean and nice. Affordable too. It was in a very convenient location as it had a 7-11 beside it and was near the Jungceylon Mall. It was near enough to walk to everything but far enough to be away from the bustle.

We had an eventful start to our trip. We finally arrived at our guesthouse, which in the end took 3hours (supposed to be 1hour from the airport) as our driver didn't know his way around Phuket at all. He had to stop for directions for each passenger. He almost didn't find our guesthouse! We were so hungry we headed straight out to the nearby mall to visit my favourite Japanese restaurant in Thailand, Fuji (http://www.fuji.co.th/wwwfuji/). So affordable and yummy! I discovered Fuji on a trip to Bangkok last year. A bento set with salmon on 220Baht.

Kenneth's bento set

Activities we engaged in while in Phuket was the Phang Nga Bay full day sea canoe tour. With that we also visited Hong Island and James Bond Island. James Bond Island was really just overhyped since it was used in the movie starring Roger Moore, "The Man with the Golden Gun". I actually enjoyed the sea canoe tour as we got to squeeze through narrow passages and slip through water caves, where we were made to lie down flat against the bed of the canoe. That was because the the ceiling of the cave was just above me. However, I wish there weren't that many people there and if only I could paddle myself.

Squeezing our way through the caves

The sea canoe company was actually very, very decent and cost on 1400Baht. You can look them up the next time you are in Phuket: http://ppt-tour.com/amazing_krabi.html

Me and James Bond island (nothing but a rock)

We also visited almost all the beaches along the southwest and southeast coast of Phuket. Patong Beach was where we stayed and it was overcrowded, touristy, full of Western restaurants, massage parlour, street stalls (like Malaysian pasar malam only, nothing special). The beach is still nice and clean considering the amount of people that past through it. In fact, I had two pretty decent running experiences up and down it. I tend to run every where I visit so I did run on three out of five days I was in Phuket.

Karon Beach is south of Patong and is much nicer and fancier. It has the glamour resorts lining the beachfront and the crowd here seems older. The beach is much nicer than Patong with very fine sand. It is also definitely less populated.

Kata Beach is by far the smallest and narrowest of all three beaches on the southwest of Phuket. Nothing much here. The longtail boat park really close to your beach towel though. We had some pretty decent Thai "chap fan" on Kata which cost 50Baht for three dishes.

Patong Beach which is packed with beach umbrellas

Alan looking cool on Karon

Kata Beach

Liyen arrived by Friday evening. We just spend a relaxing evening having dinner, and strolling around Patong doing some souviner shopping. The next day we took a tour that would take us to Phi-Phi, Maya Bay and Khai Island.

Our first stop was Khai Island where we spent an hour snorkelling. The water was amazing! So clear and there are fishes very near the shore. The island is tiny though. You don't even have to snorkel much to see them. Sadly, the beach of Khai Island was riddled with dead corals so it was painful to pick your way through. There weren't much live ones in the water either. I saw plenty of sea urchins which freaked me out a little.

Basically Phi-Phi is made up of two islands, Phi-Phi Lay and Phi-Phi Don. Maya Bay which was the film location for the Leornardo Dicaprio movie "The Beach". Maya Bay is National Park and very clean and nice but spotted all over with tourist. There really isn't much beach area. And the island is really small.

iyen and me on Khai Island (at the request of Liyen I am using a photo she chose instead)

View of Phi-Phi Lay bay from our lunch spot (which was just a regular buffet with nothing impressive and really bad spaghetti)

The beachfront of Phi-Phi Lay

Beach front of Maya Bay (spot Liyen and Kenneth)

Me on Maya Bay

Kenneth (spot Liyen in the back ground)

Solo Training

2008-03-08T16:40:00.003+08:00

Since I am not able to join my running group to run tomorrow as I will still be at the Relay for Life event walking, I decided to do run today. Chin is still in Phuket and I didn't want to do a long run over at my place after the bad experience of mom's car being force opened at the park.[Those damn thieves!], decided to go over Penang to run. Was not feeling well yesterday, so I was doubt if I could run today. Did tell my mum that I wanted to run this morning, at 5.50am, mom came into my room to wake me up [so sweet! not so nice on the other hand because I couldn't find an excuse of not waking up :P] Drank a cup of drink and then went over to Penang. By the time I reached the clock tower [my starting point] it was already 6.30am. Warm myself up and ran. Legs had been pretty sore for the past few days. Thanks to the fartleks training on Wednesday with the dragon boat team mates I think. Pushed tad bit too much. Started with a slow warm up. I felt pretty alright when I reached Gurney Drive though I could feel that I wasn't going on my normal half marathon pace. My legs just couldn't push...was kind of frustated. Anyway tried not to stop until I reach the mosque. I managed to reach the floating mouse in about 1 hour [legs starts to hurt a little]Pushed myself not to stop but then my body and legs couldn't stand it anymore, decided to stop for water and ate my Luna gummy[yucks...taste awful- I guess I will keep to my jelly beans in future] Continued on running after that, tried to sustained running. Guessed when I hit around 19.5km I couldn't push any more, decided to walk. My legs felt like they are loaded with lead. GOSH. Tried to do walk run walk. Not sure how long in total I walked. Perhaps 2 km . If only someone stopped and sent me back to my car..I would be very happy...Hahahha... Completed my run in 2:29 [bad time for a 22.85km [as plot on google map ] Not sure if I can do a sub 2 if I continue running like that...sniff. Felt like my running had went back to square one. How disappointing...

Full detailed map

Relay for Life 2008 in Penang

2008-03-08T16:14:00.002+08:00

Heading out for Relay for Life event. Chin was supposed to be joining too this year but the SO smart me forgot to let her know that her Phuket trip clashes [SoRrY --sigh :( ]

Pic from last year. All of us will be there again this year...

The last part of our KL Trip

2008-03-08T14:15:00.011+08:00

I guess I better try to update the last part of our KL trip before I get lazy. [wait a minute...I'm lazy now actually...hmmph] After the "food feast" yesterday, everyone woke up early that morning. We need to leave the house same time as Si Wan and Meryvn left the house for church. Everyone was pretty much alert [perhaps just good enough to wake up , get shower and changed :)]After exchanging thank you and hugs with Si Wan and Meryvn with their nice hospitality, Chin, Pinny, Bins and Lean Seng and myself left. Headed for breakfast somewhere in TTDI. Didn't hit me at that point to remember the coffee shop name. All I remember was the coffee shop is opposite a bank. Blargh. All of us ordered the pork balls noodles. The noodles and the pork balls [don't get it wrong for the part of pig..please] are served separately. I think they included 2 slice of pork salami [thats what I thought it was...haha]

The pork balls and the dry bowl of noodles

After breakfast, we headed over Bangsar to drop off Bins and Seng. After stopping by for a while and getting direction from Bins, the remaining 3 musketeers headed over the new shopping mall - The Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. The first thing that we did before we even walk around was to head over to JCo. donuts [yum!]. Just couldn't resist the soft fluffy creamy donuts...besides we didn't want to be stucked in a long queue if we go there later. We walked around quite a bit and all 3 of us ended up at Espressamente Illy coffee house. All of us ordered the recommended Fondente [Latte!]. To be honest, it was a nice drink. Not just normal plain diluted Latte [bluek]...SLURP.. OOOoo.. Pinny ordered Neve Fondente[Cold Latte :P]

Just realized I forgot to take the pics after drinking the Fondente..Wopps

Recommended!
Espressamente ILLY
Add: Lot 3-10-00, Level 3, Pavilion @ 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang, KL

Spent about an hour there before we headed over Yut Kee Kopitiam in Dang Wangi for lunch.Called my brother to ask for direction. :) Checked out the route as well from the net [of course not me who did the map reading - I try to avoid doing it if possible - grin]

It was around 2pm when we reached there, the shop wasn't so crowded. Though I could say most of the tables are occupied. I was sad when they told me the p0rk chop has finished :(. We ordered a few type of food as per recommended by some food blogs.

Yut Kee Kopitiam
Add: 35, Jln Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur,Wilayah Persekutuan
Tel : 0322988108

From top left hand corner : Hainase Chicken Chop [Chicken fillet fried in a batter with a mix salad of onions, peas and potatoes] kaya roll, marble cake, stewed beef noodle, fried hokkien mee [we wanted Hainan mee...guess we mixed up our order] and the soup which came with the noodles [radish soup].

Of all the meal I enjoyed the Hainase Chicken Chop the best, followed by the stewed beef noodles. Didn't enjoyed the fried hokkien mee, guess Penang hokkien char taste much better. [Bah]. Chin and Pinny didn't enjoy the fried noodles as well.

After lunch, its time to head over to Semenyih to drop Pinny back. Pinny keep saying the place is "ulu" (malay word for remote/backwards )..HAHA ! Well I guess in somewhere..since the place is just houses and small shopping mall. Look much like Butterworth and grandma's home town. Took about an hour plus to reach Pinny's house. Spend sometime there to set up her new pc [Wooo]. I was so blur...plugged the monitor cable into the wrong place and took me about 15 minutes that I wasn't plugging into the correct place.[*sweat*]Luckily we didn't move the CPU to her friend's house down the road and figure it out. [That would be so embarrassing!]. Chin and myself left Semenyih at around 6pm plus to head home to Penang. Chin's was sad to leave her sister behind [hugz] Well totally understand since I always have the same feelings when my bro comes back to Penang and its time for him to leave. [call it siblings bonding]

We stopped by Ipoh to have dinner. We went to "Tong Sui Kai"[Dessert Street/Rainbow City] for dinner. Thanks to Ann Chien for directing us there through the phone. There are varieties of food here. Its located opposite Sam Tet Primary School. Chin ordered a fried rice from one of the hawker stall - the lady wasn't too nice :(. I hate grumpy hawker sellers! Both of us ordered the "fu chok yee mai"[bean curd, barley with ginkgo - basically they boils the bean curd until it dissolve into water form]

Fu Chok Yee MaiFried Rice

-Lynn-

Dinner at Riblees

2008-03-02T21:57:00.014+08:00

Had dinner at Riblees in Desa Sri Hartamas ( located at the first floor of Bank Islamic - No 41-1 Wisma CKL (1st Fl.) Jalan 23/70A Desa Sri Hartamas to be exact ) with Chin, her god sis - Si Wan and her husband Mervyn, Si Wan's sisters - Si Jun and Si Peng, Pin Pin, Bin Bin and Lean Seng. Sort of a mini reunion for Chin. I ordered the Baby Back Rib which is one of their signature item. Came in a very large portion [for my standard of food portion]. Most of us ordered the different type of pork ribs. Being a person who normally don't take much of ribs and steaks, I did enjoy the baby back rib. YUM! Just need to put some effort into cutting them *sweat*. The charbroiled nd specially marinated ribs arewith are served with curly fries, corn on the cob and portion of salad and barbecue sauce. The ribs were tender and juicy.

We had a couple of wines for that night too :) [with main course: Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 and couldn't recall the other bottle ] Chin ordered the American Babyback ribs. Still could beat the ribs she had in US *grin* . But I guess given a rating, she would rate the ribs slightly above average for a Malaysian standard. All of us shared a couple of dessert after the main course - Mervyn ordered a slice of Oreo ice cream cake, trifle and chocolate cake. Everyone enjoyed the trifle the most. The chocolate cake tasted burned.. :(. To pair with the dessert, we had 2 wines - a reisling [Domaines Schlumberger - Les Princes Abbes 2004 ] and a petite syrah [Bogle Vineyard - Vintage 2004] . I guess I enjoyed the petite syrah the most that night after sipping it for the 2nd time. It didn't gave me a good taste during my first sip of it. Thought it was too tannic...but eventually I began to like it... Overall the dinner was good and would definitely go back there. Would like to try their other food on their menu.

The Menu

[middle pictures]Classic American BabyBack - [right hand corner] Riblees Baby Back Ribs
[left] wine to pair with dessert after the main dinner

Petite Syrah and Riesling

Night scenery overlooking from the balcony where we sat.

RIBLEE’S
41-1, Wisma CKL
Jalan 23/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas

Short Weekend Trip to Kuala Lumpur

2008-03-02T18:16:00.009+08:00

Went down to Kuala Lumpur (KL) for a 2 days 1 night trip last weekend. Chin was sending her brother back to KL for his new college semester so decided to follow her down since it has been sometimes since I went there. Started our journey around 7am. Chin did the driving. I was not fully awake yet *yawn*. We stopped by Ipoh famous place for food - Ipoh Old Town. Normally we will eat in Kong Heng Kopitiam, but this time we went to the shop beside it - Thean Chun, as recommended by our friend Aan Chien. We still ordered our regular "poh piah" (spring roll) from Khong Heng. Chin, Lean Seng and myself ordered the Ipoh "hor fun"[what is hor fun?]. I had mine dry while Chin and Lean Seng ordered the soup base. As usual the "hor fun" in Ipoh never disappoint me ( yet )

Thean Chun Cofee Shop
Location: Jalan Bandar Timah, Ipoh Old Town. Open mornings and afternoons only

From L to R: Soup Hor Fun, Dried Hor Fun, Poh Piah

We continued on our journey after a 2 hours break. By then I guess I was fully awake. Chin got tired along the journey, so I offered to take over the wheels. (Nervous! Reason being I had never drove Chin's car on the highway before and besides her car is auto. I find driving an auto car is much harder then a manual ! Weird... Anyway I SURVIVED! Bah!)
We reached KL around 12pm. Headed over to Bin Bin's place in Bangsar. Chin's being my GPS system *grin*. Unloaded some of the stuff out before heading out for lunch. We decided to try out Jackson's Burger in Section 14, Petaling Jaya (outside 148 Jalan 14/29 to be exact). A few blogs actually recommended this place for burger. To be honest, this place was hard to find. We got semi lost in the hunt for the place, with me being an idiot on maps. We stopped by along the way to ask people around the area. None seems to know where is Jalan 14/29. [GOSH] Anyway with Chin's being a better map reader person, she roughly figured out the route from the map I printed. [Phew!]. Each of us ordered a burger. Chin, Bin Bin, Lean Seng had the beef burger while I being the ought one had the chicken burger. The burger was pretty small [enough to filled my stomach though] My verdict on the burger : Nothing spacial of the burger, its a typical classic Ramly Burger (minus the lots of sauce portion in the burger). I still prefer the Hill Side burger in Penang.

Smile! - Chin and me
The burger...
After the long wait...finally the burger has arrived :)

We proceed to Chin's god sis place after lunch.

A Long Overdue Entry...

2008-03-01T21:42:00.013+08:00

Haven't been blogging for about 2 weeks. Been struggling to juggle my time between work, running and spending time with family, love ones and friends. I'm totally bad when it comes to time management and efficiency. *sigh*.Anyway, since I had some time tonight, decided to do a quick update on the blog. Hope its not too outdated to get it posted. *blargh*

Few weeks ago, Chin Chin decided to cook for dinner. Engineer turned chef for the day. From notebook to pots and pans! She has a great amount of interest when comes to cooking. I can't even fry an egg nicely. *sweat*. She had put a great afford in making the dinner - 3 course meal. I would give 2 thumbs up for her cooking ( not being bias because she is my running partner ) . The dinner start of with delicious citrus-avocado salad with lovely toasted pine nuts. *YUM*. Next came the main dish Crusted Salmon served with sautéed mushrooms. We had Castle Rock pinot noir to accompany the salmon. Not too bad of a wine which is less than USD11 ( I think) I might be wrong..ahaha! Crepe with strawberries and muscat-yogurt was served as dessert. Not forgetting I got to try the dessert wine as well - 2002 White Riesling from Willamette Valley. Wooohoo!

panko salmon /w mushroom, crepes and the Riesling wine

-Lynn-

Land Dragon Boat

2008-02-17T16:52:00.004+08:00

Our dragon boat team participated in an interesting event yesterday in conjunction with Chinese New Year 2008 celebration organized by the Penang State Government and Penang Chinese Clan Council. The event higlighted 12 Chinese Traditional Festivals as the main theme for this year. Duanwu ( Dragon Boat Festival) was one of the event. Our dragon boat team participated in the Land Dragon Boat competition. I didn't know we can actually row on land ( besides e-rowing). The organizing committee actually built a look a like dragon boat on a look alike railway trail on the road. The paddles were customize and they actually look like a enormous stick. Our dragon boat team actually sent 4 teams for the event - Fressiynet ( our dragon boat main sponsor), Penang Forward DB and 2 teams from Chung Ling High School ( Chin Chin, Elise, Lisa and myself was the drummer). Penang Forward team manage to come out 1st. They somewhat discovered a good strategy on the 3rd round, improving their time tremendously from 24 seconds to 13 seconds! Impressive.... I didn't manage to walk around the area for the entire events, as by the time we completed the event (tad bit too many rounds ...*sigh* plus at the end when everyone was hoping to wrap up, came this long winded women as the MC) I wish I just could have smacked her to shut up ( didn't meant to sound aggressive, but she was WAY too ANNOYING! ). Went for dinner at a mamak stall nearby after that with Chin Chin and Kenneth.

A new year of reunions

2008-02-10T18:42:00.000+08:00

It has been a new year of reunions for me.

It started with the CGL97 reunion with the group. This is suppose to be the official CGL Class of 97 reunion but most of the time, only the 5 Science 1 folks attend. There is a book and a keeper of the spoon who organizes the reunion and writes about the night in the book.

This year organizers were Guat May and Christine (who couldn't make it eventually) at Palace D'India in Tanjung Tokong. It was REALLY nice to see some people, who I normally only get to see during events like these, such as Doris who now has a son! And Vern Ying (who we affectionately call Poo) and Yvonne who is now a MMU lecturer. I think I haven't met up with Yvonne since uni days.

The lovely ladies with the book of the spoon

Doris handing me an ang pow... gosh, so malu, eh!

Just a note of the Palaca D' India. SERVICE there SUCKS. Most of us spent the night being really impatient with the wait staff. The water almost never came even after many attempts to remind them. The captain who took our orders told us the one order could feed 4 person when it could barely feed 2. And it took forever to get anything in this place! If you want to go to a great North Indian restaurant, I would recommend Passage Through India along Penang Road.

A couple of us, Ai Ping, Suan Lynn, Guat May and me eventually ended up at QEII for drinks to meet up with a few other ex-CGL-ians, Jo Lynn and Marion.

At QEII with the rest of the girls

Oh, and by the way, I got nominated by Doris who was is this year's keeper of the spoon as her assistant.

The second reunion was organized by Patricia for non-5 science-ers. But still it was just basically 5 Science 2 and 5 Arts 1 folks. It took place at an open karaoke bar along Bellisa Row. This place used to be a kopitiam, with roti bakar and coffee. But it has now be taken over by Bed. There were tons of people and we didn't even managed to get to sing many songs. Most of the other patrons there mainly chose Mandarin/Cantonese songs.

To the far left is Fiona with her baby, Jenelle. Photo was taken by Fiona's husband

We ended the night at my favourite maggi goreng spot. The one located at the corner of Transfer Road and Burmah Road. Across from the police headquarters.

Yummy plate of maggi goreng

Back to Penang

2008-02-10T17:49:00.000+08:00

Finally I'm back in Penang. Arrived home yesterday afternoon. As usual my eve, first and second day of Chinese New Year will be spent with my family, grandma, uncles, aunties and cousins in my mum's hometown. I had been indulging myself with lots of FOOD ( grandma's cooking and cookies) for the pass few days!(Guilty!Guilty!) and not forgetting been constantly sleeping as well. *gulp*. I could see a small tummy on my stomach now! Was lazy to do my weekend run today actually but with all the eating and sleeping, decided to drag myself up today at 4.30am for the 6am run with Chin & Kenneth. Did a near 20km run today. I thought Tsen and Wei Chern would be buzy celebrating CNY, but to my suprise I met Tsen and Wei Koon (Wei Chern's tri-athlete brother) along the way. The weather today wasn't good for running today. Felt a bit humid at the end of the run. Was an average run today. Guess with all the eating the legs just felt heavy. Anyway I was happy to be able to run with my running partner again. That made my day!

Running Route : Clock Tower - Copthorne Hotel - Clock Tower
Time : 1hr 53 mins

Detailed Map

-Lynn-

It kinda sucks to run alone :(

2008-02-06T23:18:00.000+08:00

My running partner is travelling to her mum's hometown of Terengganu for Chinese New Year! SOB! My running group is busy. So I ran alone today. Couldn't miss out on today's run as I imagine the amount of food I will be consuming over the next four days.

I practically had to drag myself out of bed. The intention was to wake up at 6am and get running by 7am. I didn't manage to get myself up until 6.15am. And I plodded around VERY slowly getting ready. I intended to run around Air Itam dam to train myself on some hills but I considered the crazy marketing crowd I will probably meet driving up there so I changed my running plans to Botanical-Jesselton.

Target distance: 10km.
Target time: 55 minutes (5:30 min/km)

I did managed to reach the Youth Park parking lot at 6:53am. I was still so darn sleepy and it was still so darn dark that I actually took a 5-minute power nap in my car. I really like running in the morning as the weather is so cool. Plus at 7am, you pretty much have the roads to yourself. The start of the run can be best described as sluggish. My body and brain was still asleep. As I entered Botanicals it got a little bit better. I suffered on the hills in Botanicals and Jesselton. On good days I can chug up it with a pretty good pace. But on both occasions today I felt my pace slacking off quite a bit at the end.

Detailed Map Here

I ended up taking 56:21 about 1:21 minute worse than my target. Grrr... I need more hill training and definitely more interval training.

-Chin-

Francis Western Food, Pulau Tikus

2008-02-05T12:38:00.000+08:00

Lynn had a craving for western food and suggested we try Francis Western Food. She read somewhere that he was former a chef in Singapore who decided to return to Penang to open his own stall. His stall is located in a tiny kopitiam on the corner of Jalan Burma and Jalan Cantoment. Parking is pretty challenging. You need to park further down and walk to it.

The menu is quite extensive. They have classics like Chicken Chop and Fish and Chips. On top of that they do have interesting sounding choices like Baked Chicken with Peanut Butter (?!?) and Bacon Wrapped Pork Chop with Cheese.

I ordered the Chef's Spicy Chicken and Lynn had the Meditteranean Fish. Both were baked so they took awhile to come. The two dishes came with coleslaw and baked potatoes as the sides. The presentation was nice for a kopitiam western food stall.

My Chef's Spicy Chicken was topped with green capsicum, ham, canned pineapple, onions and tomato sauce. The chicken was pretty tender and juicy and the sauce was not too tomato-y. It was interesting (for the lack of a better word) but not fantastic tastewise. Lynn's fish had canned lychee, crabstick, green capsicum, canned pineapple and onions. The coleslaw had fresh pineapple. The potatoes came baked with butter and parsley. The best thing I had that night was the garlic bread which was smothered liberally with garlic butter. YUM! The theme of the night was pineapple.

Mediterranean Fish

Chef's Spicy Chicken

Verdict for now, I would rather go back to the Fort Cornwallis western food and have the yummy chicken chop. I would definitely give Francis another chance by trying the classics but I'm going to stay away from the exotic sounding stuff.

*** Be warned that the place does get busy. Go early if you do not want to wait for a table. It is closed on Mondays.

-Chin-

I am an aspiring chef

2008-02-05T01:32:00.000+08:00

Today I made a citrus and avocado salad for Li Yen's potluck birthday party. It was made off a recipe from Food and Wine. The prep time was supposed to be about 35 minutes. But it took me an hour alone to peel the grapefruit and oranges! It is a complicated job to "release the fruit from its membranes" as the recipe called for. Thanks to the lack of ingredients, I did have to do some compromising and substitution. The good thing was that the salad was an absolute hit! And finish in about 30 minutes.

Oh and in the process of making this salad I found out that watercress was in actual fact "sai yong choi". Haha... watercress is just the fancy-schmancy name.

Citrus and Avocado Salad (with "sai yong choi" and pine nuts)

Lynn very dillgently tossing the salad

-Chin-

The amazing adventures of Tweet And Ribbit

Powerman 2009

Sweet Weekend @ Awana, Genting Highlands - MuD MuD *heart*

I *heart* Snuffles

I am Ms Grumpee...

It's Friday

Website New Look

Congratulations GTS!

Happy Birthday Tweet

Sage, The Gardens Mid Valley

Merdeka Ride for Green 2009

Race Report: Shape Run 2009

Endurance Weekend - 12-hour paddle + Century Ride

Nike LunarGlide+ Shoe Trial @ Nike Office, The Curve

Race Report: Ipoh International Run 2009

Race Report: SCKLM 2009

Race Report: Penang Malakoff 26k

Asics Gel Nimbus 10 for sale

DNF at Sundown... I SUCK!

Tweet and Ribbit are off to Sundown!

Becoming a wiser runner

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Congratulations Ribbit!

Day 4: Dandenong Ranges

Day 3: Mornington Peninsula

Day 2: Melbourne City

Day 1: Melbourne

Tweet's first night in Melbourne

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009

Congrats Ribbit!

Happy birthday Ribbit!

Langkawi Ironman

KL City Day Run 2009

Ribbit's turn to be in Melaka

Run your guts out

A CNY of Running!

Great Eastern Pacesetters 30KM 2009

Still Wide Awake

Adieu Geraldine!

Ribbit Dad's Turn 60..

Ribbit is in the papers!

Sundown Marathon 2009 - Here I come!

Race report: 1st Race of the year - Pacemakers Network Run

Small family gathering again...

Tweet is Out of Town

Mamma Mia!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Quick Bite Summary Update :)

I'm back!

Seattle Day 1 (Day 16 total)

Day 11... Annie-Maniacs

Day 9... let's run some more

Le Pigeon

Day 8... Nike World Campus

Day 7... burgers and more beer!

Day 6... the ultimate Portland Philly cheesesteak

Day 5... Beer and the Maniacs...

Day 4... record high temperatures

Day 3... the eat fest continues

Day 2... Oregon revisited

Back to Oregon... again

Pizza Craving- Fullfied at Nero Vivo :)

Sushi Zanmai @ 1Utama

Kuala Lumpur here I come

Hike up to Mt Tahan - Highest peak in Peninsular Malaysia

Dinner @ Cork Cellar Kitchen

Lunch @ Jia Xiang Sarawak Kuching Kolo Mee

Breakfast at Toast Box in Food Junction @ Wisma Atria

Sundown Marathon 2008 @ Singapore

Snuffles - The travelling bear

Wesak Day - Another day of running

Forerunner 405

Breakfast @ Nam Heong, Ipoh and Lunch @ Ngau Kee Beef Ball Noodles, Jalan Alor, KL

Saturday Morning @ Batu Ferringhi, Penang

Phuket Vacation 5th to 10th March

Solo Training

Relay for Life 2008 in Penang

The last part of our KL Trip

Dinner at Riblees

Short Weekend Trip to Kuala Lumpur

Sweet Weekend @ Awana, Genting Highlands - MuD MuD heart

I heart Snuffles