Amazing race weekend

I felt like I was on an amazing race last weekend. Running here and there. And in the end ended up fell asleep in Kim Gary after having dinner with my girls. keke...

The big thing on last weekend was of course the 21km run!



On and off 10 minutes joggings before my work, and one 1 hour jogging a week before the run. These are my pathetic trainings I had for the 21km half marathon. Summore I was having flu one week before the run after the longest training (1 hr run) for one whole working week. Untill Friday only I felt slightly better. But I woke up with a stuffy nose and slight sore throat (again) on Saturday morning. Then I went out 8.30am to get the race pack and then went straight to Port Dickson for Raleigh AGM. I thought I will be back by 10 something but I calculated wrongly. I forgot to include the BBQ dinner which was suppose to start at 8pm.


Watching Raleigh Expedition video made by Shih Chung. It never fails to move me.


Exhausted from the meeting


Group photo after the meeting


Photo of the new Raleigh committee members


Quality control the watermelons. =P


5 girls prepare one bowl of cincau. lol..


Raleigh style =)

I was damn moody when eating the BBQ already coz I was sleepy and hungry (coz BBQ needs a lot of waiting but only can eat very little food o.O) Heay is generally a very nice and sweet person when she's not hungry nor sleepy but can be very scary and unapproachable when she's hungry or sleepy. Even worse if both. We left PD at 10 something and after all the traveling (Thanks to Soon I din need to drive. Sam fu sai..) I reached home at 1am. -.- Then had to wake up at 4am coz meeting up Karen my ex-supervisor to go for the run. Which means I slept 3 hours for the run only! Not cool...

Actually one week before the run I was already planning how not to go for the run. My flu had even strengthen my plan. =P So when I reached home from PD I started to plan my excuses =P

1. I didn't manage to beat the traffic to go to the run (which in the end became invalid coz the traffic was actually very clear)
2. I overslept (I had to fetch my ex-supervisor there too, she's running 10km. I can't be this selfish)
3. My knees and ankles hurts (I always have painful joints when I didn't sleep enough or sleep too late e.g. 3am onwards. But the pain had faded a lot when I reach there -.-)

So I had no more excuses but to face the challenge. If someone tells me these bullshit about giving excuses to run away from a challenge I'll tell myself "This person is such a coward". I won't tell straight to the face la coz this world is democratic. So I can't give up can I? =P


The crowd ready to start the run


Before the run. Seriously I think my arms look chubby enough. lol.

The starting of the run was not fun. Not fun at all. Coz I was still very demotivated. And when I ran many people 'potong' me as if I was running like a tortoise. -.- I kept turning my head to look back coz I was scared I would become the last runner. Very no face one le.. Luckily still got quite a number of people behind me (most of them were the ones who started late one actually.. lol)

Although kena 'potong' didn't feel good, I didn't speed up at the beginning of the run although I got plenty of energy in the beginning coz long runs should start slow then only slowly accelerate one. So I kept psycho myself that I would need the energy to complete the run. Steady speed is better than frequent rests. At quite beginning of the run I saw a white man who ran with limpy left leg. I was already feeling respect towards him being unable to run like normal people he still run with such determination. My demotivated mood faded. Later something shocking totally diminished my demotivated mood. I saw him stopped at the roadside and took off his artificial leg! OMG! I wanted to give him a thumbs up!

But I still keep my pace la. I didn't accelerate so that I have enough energy left to accelerate at the last 100m. It really worked! Throughout the run I didn't stop or walk except stopping for water at the drinking stations. Oh ya, and also when I still had 5 more km to run and my ankle hurt like hell, I stopped for some ointment for my legs from the first aid team. I didn't walk even when my ankle hurt. No, actually I couldn't walk! I wanted to give up. I wanted to walk to the end. But when I tried to walk my leg muscles were even more painful. So I kept my pace slow but in a jogging mode. And in the end I even managed to speed up at the last 100m until I reached the finishing line. It was 2 hours 50 mins showing on the electronic board. I felt an overwhelming satisfaction coz I didn't expect myself to finish this run. =) This same feeling from Singapore Standard Chartered 10km run came back to me again yesterday.

After the run I went to get the medal at the Dataran Merdeka. I went walking around to look for where to queue and bumped into my girls: GP, WY and SY! They said right before they saw me they were wondering where I was. Whoa.. I very long life lo. Hehe...

I left them to get the medal from the 21km counter. There, for the second time I saw my Korean class classmate whom I just met on Friday. We were assigned to the same group in the class so he looked familiar to me. I saw him once before the run but I didn't remember he was my classmate, just feel he looks familiar. Then second time I remember him already but I dun remember his name so I didn't call out. Then when I was queuing for the medal, I saw him again. o.O But I still dun remember his name. Then half way queuing I remember his name liao. His name is Alec. But he's no where to be seen already. lol..

Then hor.. After I took the medal and wanted to get my bag from Jeslie (a Raleigh friend who didn't run) only I realized that my handphone was in the bag. I totally had no idea how to get her. So I walked around the padang to look for her but to no avail. Then I met Hui Mei (another Raleigh friend who just finished 21km also) who also lost her friend. We decided to stand at the middle of the field hoping that our friends would see us when they walked pass. Hui Mei met her friend. I didn't have that luck. But I was lucky enough to bang into Alec again for the 4th time. o.O This time he saw me also and he went "Eh? You are... from the Korean class right?" And then we noded to each other and he went away.

After about 5 mins I was still standing there waiting for Jeslie to see me, planning whether I should ask a clown to make a balloon hat for me to wear so that she can see me easily. LoL. Then Alec passed by me again. Sweat.. 5th time. So I just smiled to him and said I'm waiting for my friend (coz I felt I looked like an idiot standing there doing nothing). Luckily Hui Mei was with me la. If not I look even more like an idiot. The 6th time I saw him, he passed by again, seeing me still waiting for friend he offered to lend me his phone to call Jeslie. But I dun remember her hp number. Very stupid one.. She helped me jaga my bag I actually can call my own phone one. Stupid.. (-.-)||

After a while Karen found me at the middle of the padang and CK (Hui Mei's bf. Also from Raleigh) came to find Hui Mei and told me he saw all the Raleigh people at the roadside including my bag keeper Jeslie. What luck that day couldn't find my bag keeper but met my girls, Karen, Hui Mei and Alec (6 times summore o.O). lol. So, standing in the middle of the field did work. =P


My bag keeper Jeslie jaga-ing my bag at the roadside while I was frantically looking for her at the padang. -.-

With Karen


And with the Raleighians who went for the run.

After the run I went back with Karen, showered and went for the next destination, sing k with Cheng Yee and the boys. Didn't get to sleep before went out. Sang until 5 something I came home, online a while only went out Pyramid for dinner with the girls again. Didn't get to sleep again. That's why in the ended I K.O.-ed in Kim Gary. Just took a nap for a while when the girls was discussing about how long they slept after the run. The first thing I came home was to throw myself into the bed. Damn tired...


Fell asleep in Kim Gary

P/s: Photos courtesy of Soon and Woan Yng. Added on 1/7/09

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Wanna share this new song by Jolin Tsai-妥協 (Compromise) which I sang yesterday until wanna putus nafas half way. lol. Nice song but I dun have enough breath to sing. lol.



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Last night walked like robot in Pyramid. Damn wat-tat. This morning working also walked like robot. When I no longer walk like robot I wanna go for swimming. I miss swimming. =) Hate jogging.

RIP MJ

26th June 09 8am I was driving to work listening to radio station as usual. The DJ mentioned about a death of a great singer. I was thinking "Oh, so who's dead again this time?"

But when I heard the name Michael Jackson when the DJ finished his sentence, I felt as if I was frozen. My hand raised to cover my mouth. The first thing that came to my mind was that "Shit! I haven't watch his concert yet! =("

It was really shocking. But I have no idea why my tears came rolling in the eyes. His death is indeed shocking, but it's kinda weird I'm that emo over his death coz I'm not a great fan of him. I dun follow his scandal news and all. I think the emo feelings today is because his death brings back my childhood memories. When the radio stations started to play his songs they brought back my teenager memories dancing to the music in the living room with my bro and mum. And the memories of singing "Heal the world" in the choir competition in secondary school with my classmates.

RIP Michael Jackson. I will surely remember your song "Heal the world". Had been attracted to the lyrics since I was 13.



I find this MV explains the lyrics pretty well. Too bad the subtitle is in Chinese. It makes no big difference coz the video explains better than the words. =)


This weekend is going to be super tiring. I have to catch some sleep now. Ciao!

Dun kiss me, killer flu...

Woke up with a nose block and neck pain this morning. Sneezed uncounted times. Went to work regardless of the uneasiness. Drove quite recklessly coz I cant even open my eyes properly. At work, the migrane started. I had to shut my eyes and endure the pain from within my head every 1 minute intervals.

I guess I'm going to have a flu.

Should I take MC tomorrow? Sigh. If I take MC I would have to see the doctor, which means I have a higher risk to exposing myself to the H1N1. For some reason I feel my flu is not the killer flu. But if I go to work tomorrow, I'll be exhausted. Dilemma...

Tomorrow got my first Korean class summore!! =( I duwan to fall sick... Sob...

And gosh! Why is it so cold when the room is closed tight with no air cond and fan? It's either the flu is getting worse or I'm just hallucinating.. Sigh..

Rookie Researcher Disaster

Weekends had always been busy for me. Go for a hike, some shoppings, camping, go back hometown, or go to my aunt's place to gossip with Zhuang and Mei. Suddenly this weekend there's nothing much for me to do. And I've done my house chores. Plus all my housemates went home to celebrate Father's day.

I'm all alone, and bored in my tiny room.

Internet can no longer give any effects to entertain me.

I tried to play the Restaurant City game in FB. I was bored after 30 minutes playing it.
I regularly checked my email. No new mails.
I dun even feel like staring at the computer screen!
I flipped open my Korean reference book and tried to study. But today I dun feel like reading.
And I dun feel like watching dramas either (the ppstream at my place is slow..).
And I've already slept the whole day I can't sleep again anymore
I feel like shopping but Audrey's back and I have no one to shop with me at the moment (and I dun feel like shopping alone coz it will add to my boredom)

Seriously I have no idea how to fill up my time. This sounds like words coming from people with no goals in life. Bad. Really bad...


That's yesterday.

Today, I'm gonna wash my car, pump the tyres, go for a jog. At least something right? =)

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I discovered Bitesize Bio when I was looking for theories behind plasmid extraction. It has a very funny post about disasters created by newbies in lab. The writer compiled four incidents he encountered or heard. I like the way the writer brought out the topic. He wrote it in a funny and sarcastic way. You can read it here. If you're lazy to read it from Bitesize Bio I can summarize for you, but in a less humorous way. hehe..

1. One incident is the usage of pipette near Bunsen burner. Careful not to place the pipette so near the burner. You don't want a burnt pipette. =P

2. Another is exploding agar. Never ever tighten the lid of universal bottle or stop the conical flask when heating up whatever solution in microwave. Not only the lid or the stopper will fly out, the door of the microwave will fly open and the glass of the bottle or flask, the agar, andthe lid will blast out. If you're lucky you might taste some of the boiling agar. This is quite a common mistake many people make. I've heard one incident in my uni some time ago. Luckily the girl was not injured.

3. Culture flasks on orbital shaker. Using masking tape or glue tack at the bottom of the 1 litre flasks to secure the flasks is not a very good idea. The flasks are so huge you think so easy fix them with the small tape meh.. Summore put at the bottom. Where's the common sense? lol.. In the end the tape or glue tack loosen, the broth spilled and the tape or glue tack lost its stickiness, the flasks knocked onto each other, some glasses shed. Lots of cleaning is required the next morning. Tsk tsk.

4. Always always balance the tubes using weighing machine, not eyes, when using the bulky centrifuge machine. According to the writer, the PhD holder "weighed" some glass tubes with her eyes, placed it in the centrifuge machine, started the machine and let it run for 30 minutes while she went off for a coffee break. The write described "The machine did it’s job, dutifully forcing it’s motor toward the desired 12,000 x g. As the rotor speed increased, the destabilizing effect of the difference between the volumed in the tube became more and more significant". And then you know what will happen lo.. the force bent the axle, causing the rotor to destroy the inner drum of the centrifuge. You won't wanna know how much it cost to change the rotor..

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I like this song from the Korean drama Boys Over Flower. Lucky by Ashily


I like the meaning of the lyrics from this song- The Climb by Miley Cyrus


Here's the lyrics:
I can almost see it
That dream I'm dreaming but
There's a voice inside my head sayin,
You'll never reach it,
Every step I'm taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what?s waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing,
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes they knock me down but
No I'm not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going
And I,
I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on, cause

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm going to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith baby
It's all about
It's all about
The climb
Keep the faith
Keep your faith

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I'm so obsessed with Korean language that I labeled every button of my keyboard with Korean consonants like ㄴ,ㄹ,ㄱ,ㄷ and vowels like ㅏ,ㅔ,ㅣ,ㅓ,ㅗ etc.


Can see the characters? Sorry that the image quality is very bad coz it's taken with my hp camera coz my camera has spoiled.

Crazy right? Haha.. But this enable me to type Korean with slightly faster speed. At least I don't need to check my notebook which letter I have to type for which Korean character. YES! All the Korean characters don't tally with the letters in my keyboard. For example, the letter K in my keyboard does not give the Korean "K's" (ㄱ/ㄲ/ㅋ).

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Oh ya! I promised I'll show my new bag right?

Here it is.

Tada!


It looks like school bag. Hehe.. But I like the big size so I can fit everything in. And I like the cutting. It's just that the colour doesn't suit me. But too bad, they only have black, grey and fluorescent red. I wanted to take the fluorescent red but it looks too childish to me.

I'm a second class fugly comedian

Here it is! The bamboo dance I mentioned in my previous post about my KK trip.

This is the video of me and Get Pei participating in the bamboo dance on stage in the seafood restaurant.


I look like monkey swinging my hands around when I failed to follow the beats. -.- I should cut that habit already.

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Was totally too high last night when singing K with the girls. Could it be the caffeine in Coke? lol. Maybe it was Ming Jia. Hehe. Before I left the room with GP and WY, MJ took a photo of me over-posing:


Gosh! I can't imagine I did that! Actually it's suppose to look funny la.. not obscene if you get the joke. As the title said, I'm getting more like a comedian lately. It looked even more funny with the sensor thing MJ edited. Too bad this comedian look 10 times more fugly than it's supposed to be in every pose she acted. Gosh..

Group photo:

Get Pei, Woan Yng, Ming Jia and me

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Had a 500m swim after work with Cheng Yee and Toh Theng. The indoor 3m deep pool was closed due to some UK school kids swimming competition earlier on. So we were left with one last choice which was the outdoor 1.2m deep pool.

It's very dirty with green cloudy water. But what to do... All of us feel like swimming today. So we just jumped in without second thought. The pool had around 30 people. I might be wrong. It could be more. It was a crowd in the pool regardless of the cloudiness of the water. The water was so cloudy we could not even see anything in the water! It was this insane. There was once when I was swimming freestyle, hardly looking forward (normally I can see the front view coz the water is clear) a big size guy was swimming towards me. We almost plunged onto each other head to head. Luckily both of us emergency braked. And then we stood face to face. Very awkward lo.

Another thing I'm not satisfied is that when all of us swim from one end to the other end of the pool, some people swam across the pool (Can I call it jayswimming? lol). Since the water is cloudy, whenever I wanted to swim to another end I had to keep poking my head out to watch whether there's anyone jayswimming to prevent myself from plunging into them.

Sigh. I miss the indoor pool coz:
1. First, it has the dividers, so sure no jayswimming.
2. Second, the water is crystal clear. You can ignore the negligeable dirt stuck to the ground coz it's too deep you can't even touch the ground unless you dive in.
3. Third, people swim there, not playing with water like those people in the outdoor pool blocking the way.. urgh..
4. Fourth, guys who swim there have good body. Keke. Seriously why swimmers body shape all so nice one le? Hmm... =P

That's why I prefer indoor pool.

Outdoor pool is RM2 per entry, indoor pool is RM3 per entry. See how 1 Ringgit can make such big difference.