Running on the threadmill

I got an email today from a friend bragging, I mean telling me how she has improved on her running. The reason:

Because she has new shoes!

Hahahah... it's like the old Nike Ad I used to 'worship'. I thought I jumped higher with a pair of Air Jordans. No, I REALLY did!

Anyway, I've been telling her that Ive been training my runs on the threadmills. Eileen, being the kind, loving person that she is immediately told me to get my lazy ass outside and start running because the outdoors is good for the feet, the lungs and the soul. Ain't no nothing like running outdoors. Besides real roads don't move underneath you....

Well it's true... until recently that it's been raining so much I decided to train in the gym. Here's what I do. I crank up the speed to about 10% faster of what I can run outside and put a 2%-4% gradient to it.

What do you know.... I actually find this working very well :P It's like doing a tempo run, except that I can't cheat because the machine won't stop (ok, there's this time where I lower the gradient down a bit). I find myself getting breathless very fast.

Still.. I have to catch up with Eileen - she's WAY fast

Preaching the gospel to myself today

Lord, you have establish a new covenant with me in Christ

In this covenant You Lord, will put Your laws into my mind, and write them on my heart, and You will be my God, and I will be your child.

... and I shall know you, intimately....

because You will be merciful toward my unrighteousness or my wrong deeds, and You will never again remember my sins.

Tools for reading the bible

Jenmama asked me yesterday what are some of the tools I used to read the bible and to search for hebrew/greek meaning.

Well here are some of the sites I use:

• Esword.
• My light saber really. Download their FREE software and other plugins. It comes with dictionary, commentaries, maps the works. I usually start my study with this tool reading 3 to 4 translated version of the scripture.
• StrongNumbers.
  
• A site giving explainations to all the words, the occurence.
  
• Spurgeon's archieve.
  
• A site having all his past sermons. His sermons are always good read to learn more about scripture and he's an awesome preacher.
  
• Bibleontheweb.
  
• Bible on the web
• Blueletterbible.
  
• A site for all kinds of bible tool. Concordance, dictionary, different translation. The only downside is that its a bit slow.
• Google.
• It's always important to compare the findings of a site with many many others. So keep searching.

Cheesy B grade movies

I love movies and I'm a sucka for cheesy movie. Like REALLY crap Cheesy movies.

So crap I think some of them should pay me for watching their show. Take this show for example: The MAGUS. When I first watch the show, I thought it was a 1980s movie. The screenplay was so bad it could pass of as comedy. Wait, was the genre really comedy? No, it was action thriller - maybe. But have you seen a thriller going REALLY slowly to the end? It's made last year and it's made so bad I think any amatuer youtube production is better!

We all know that cheesy movies have the same story line, screenplay, script. What many don't know is that they ALL have the same sound track! Yup, you read it right. They all have:

1. mystical, inspiring music for the beginning
   
• when the hero is still innocent
2. boy meets girl music
   
• when the hot girl appears
3. bad guy music
   
• when the bad guy first appears, think star wars when darth vader first come to visit
4. hero training music
   
• yup the training, or learning the 'secret' skills. usually accompanied by some older guy telling him to 'seek yourself' or 'seek the wisdom that cannot be found'
5. boss fight music
   
• you know the last fight, usually by this point the girl is covered with little cloth, tied to a table/pole/rock - immobilised.
6. hero gets girl music - kissing, making love, fading to black then credits - back to inspiring mystical music.
   

Despite knowing all that I'm still a sucka for it. Especially when the movie has a title with the words: Ninja, *enter exotic word no one understand here*, fist of the *****, boy-who-is-nobody-is-the-chosen-one

No wonder I make such good friends with the DVD uncle :)

Reading the bible.

A while ago I posted my first comment on RPK's website. Someone was saying why the bible is such and such..... misquoting it.

Actually many ppl misquote it. Including many christians and me! :) Anyway I'll just post here what commented there:

http://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/content/view/5551/84/

The bible are often misquoted (even by christians) because many times context is not taken into account. Without context, you can make the bible say anything you want. As an example the Bible tells us: 'There is no God'.

What in the world am I smoking? But when we read it further it says Psalms 14: To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."......

The bible is a 'story' gathering many years old and contary to popular believe it's not written in english. it's a Jewish book. Written by Jews in Hebrew and Greek (in the NT). So in order to understand them, one has to really study the culture of the time, the language of the time, and the context of the text.. and follow the story (time/era is important).

For example, (for the purpose of this comment), the main era can be seperated into pre-law (abraham's time), law (moses' time), post-law (jesus' time). Each period is marked by a covenant God has cut with man. Hence we have the NEW testament which is a NEW covenant made by Jesus. So when the NEW covenant was made, the OLD is past. Not that the OLD is not relevant but a NEW covenant was made on top of that, one that supersede the old. Much like renewing a agreement with new (less) terms - in which Jesus fufilled the law and paid the price of the law which is death. The book of Hebrew in the NT explains the connections between the New Covenant and the one concerning the Law.

Other speeches of Jesus, parables of jesus, epistles (or letters in modern day) like the one he quoted about dogs and hands can be better understood this way.. by reading into the context, who he is talking to, why was he saying it, what point was he trying to make and some the lingo of the day.

In modern day we can hear a father telling to a child: do not play with fire or else you won't have dinner! The context of such a sentence was that it was spoken to a child about maybe 4 years old? The same father could tell the same child of 18 years old: Go light the fire in the charcoal, we need to get this bbq going! Was the father inconsistent? No. He was simply speaking to a different 'crowd'.

Lastly, the bible is not written in English. As a random example, the writer quoted:

1 Timothy 5:5-6 But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.

This NT is written in greek which means: But she that liveth in pleasure - Ἡ δε σπαταλωσα· She that liveth delicately - voluptuously indulging herself with dainties, it means one who indulges herself in good eating and drinking, pampering her body at the expense of her mind. The word is used in reference to spoiled children.

Dead here also means: θνήσκω thnēskō
Thayer Definition:
1) to die, to be dead
2) metaphorically to be spiritually dead

So it's not saying that they live as 'naughty girls' or a person who can' t be 'merry'. But as a person with cares for mostly about eating and drinking and without much on top, without a purpose in life, like spoiled children is spiritually dead.

Well, in any case I hope this help the writer start reading the bible better. I would recommend him/her to read a book on 'how to read the bible' by JI packard' before s/he studies the bible.

From the star

Thursday April 17, 2008

To heaven and back

By SARAH CHEW

A grave accident leaves a young boy paralysed and in a coma. When he awakens, he displays extraordinary abilities. His mother documents their story in a book.

Retha McPherson is a striking woman with piercing eyes and she wears four-inch heels, as can be expected of a former beauty queen.

But those eyes tear up when she speaks about her experiences in 2004, which she writes about in her book, A Message from God, that was launched in Kuala Lumpur recently.

It began on June 19, 2004, the same year Retha, a Christian and an image consultant, was chosen as Mrs South Africa.

“My life was so perfect,” Retha wrote in her book. “I had a wonderful loving marriage, two beautiful healthy children and a successful business.”

Against all odds: Aldo McPherson and his mother, Retha.

All that was to change when the family had a car accident on a highway in Free State, South Africa. In an attempt to avoid a stationary car, her husband, Tinus, swerved onto a watercourse and their vehicle rolled over several times. When Retha came to, her children Aldo, 12, and Josh, three, were gone.

“My children flew out of the car,” recalls Retha at the launch. “When we found Josh, he only had minor cuts but I found Aldo on the other side of the highway. I could feel his cracked skull and blood gushing out. I couldn’t feel a pulse.”

The paramedics arrived on the scene by helicopter, revived Aldo and punctured his collapsed lungs to insert respiratory tubes.

Aldo had a four-hour operation in Union Hospital, Alberton, Johannesburg, and doctors informed Retha he had serious brain injuries.

Tinus, in an e-mail interview, remembers having to deal with the trauma and guilt that followed the accident since Aldo was the one who bore the brunt of it.

“I felt so responsible for the accident and the first few weeks after were the lowest points of my life, seeing him on the bed and not responding to anything,” he says.

“I stayed with him in the intensive care unit for a week and doctors told me to say goodbye to him,” Retha says. “On day 12, they told me, ‘Mrs McPherson, you have no medical funds left and we cannot detect any brain function. So we are going to take Aldo off the life-support machines. Either he lives and becomes a vegetable, or he dies’.”

That day was a defining one for Retha and her family, because as she prayed in a room by herself, she felt as if God was talking to her.

“Despite my son’s condition, it was the best day of my life,” she says. “I felt peace, love and acceptance all at one go. I even forgot about my son, everything just disappeared.”

It was then that she decided to take her son home. Two months after the accident, Aldo left the hospital. Still in a coma, he was hooked up to respiratory machines and a feeding tube.

When he was 12, Aldo was hospitalised and hooked to life support machines after an accident left him paralysed, comatose and severely damaged his brain.

One side of Aldo’s body was paralysed and the other, spastic. He was blind in one eye and could not open his mouth to eat.

But Retha refused to accept his condition and with depleting finances, set out to slowly help her son recover.

At the airport one day, she saw Aldo’s favourite candy called “sour worms” and bought four pieces. Every day, she would stick one in his mouth and on the fourth day, he opened his mouth. From then, she began feeding him soft food.

Six months after the accident, he ate his first hamburger.

At the book launch in KL, Retha showed photos of her family putting Aldo on an exercise bicycle to strengthen his legs although five people had to support him.

As Aldo’s limbs strengthened, Tinus would cycle with him on a tandem bicycle.

“I borrowed a tandem bicycle and put Aldo on the back,” Tinus recalls. “Initially, we had to strap him in, even his hands were tied to the handle bar.

“We soon got the hang of things and three months later, we completed a 40km cycle race.”

Only eight months later could he speak and almost a year after the accident, he could see with both eyes. In April 2006, Aldo stood up for the first time in two years and a year later, he started to play football although he still falls down often.

Aldo’s story

Four months after Aldo’s accident, a therapist suggested putting a pencil in his spastic hand, which eventually relaxed, so that he could doodle.

“I held his hand and he started to write. I knew then that his brain was fine,” says Retha. “Even now in school, people still have to support his wrists when he writes because he has a twitch.”

Aldo communicated through writing and one day, he wrote that he had gone to heaven.

“In heaven, we played and sang for Jesus, the angels were all around us,” Aldo wrote. “No one is sick there.”

Aldo had also written that when Retha found him at the accident scene, his spirit was “taken up” and he could look down and see what had happened and describe the details.

Retha admits that she and Tinus kept all this a secret at first, not wanting people to think that they were mad.

During his recovery, Aldo communicated frequently by writing before he could speak. This is one of his notes in which the first few lines reads 'faith in God'.

Aldo, however, kept telling her about his heavenly experiences and once, kept making a circular motion with his hands over his head.

“Tinus and I asked him to stop it, but he wouldn’t and said it was about two boys, Dwane and Anton, whom he had met in heaven,” Retha reveals.

Aldo wrote letters to these boys’ parents telling them that their children were healed and happy, but were concerned about their parents. He put the letters in envelopes and gave Retha their addresses.

“I thought to myself, ‘This is too much, the medicine is too strong’,” Retha laughs. “I told Tinus that we had to get Aldo off the medicine somehow.”

But Aldo was adamant and in the end, the family made contact with these two families. They found that indeed they had had boys by those names who had died. When shown family photographs, Aldo could point out their faces. Anton had Down Syndrome, and the circular hand motions were Aldo’s way of describing it.

“Anton’s mother told my husband that she had been taking pills for depression,” says Retha. “But she has gone off the pills since she received Aldo’s letter.”

That was not the only incident which stumped his parents and others around him. One time, he had a “vision” of water flooding housing areas in December 2006.

“He kept telling me to put sandbags around our house because water was coming. Then he wrote ‘Mum, you’re going to need rest because you’re going overseas’,” Retha recalls. “I told him, ‘I’m not going anywhere’, because I usually don’t travel in December.”

Two days later, the Dec 26 Asian tsunami struck and because Retha was Mrs South Africa, she was asked to go and help those affected in Aceh, Indonesia.

Apart from Aldo’s extraordinary ability to “see” difficult situations and people’s thoughts, Retha reveals that he is a normal boy who is struggling with his weaknesses.

One eyelid still droops, he has stitches and bruises due to falling every few steps, he speaks in a painfully slow monotone and has epileptic fits when he is tense.

“When he talks, he puts up his hands even in public, we don’t know why he does it,” she says. “Some people don’t react well to him, especially initially when he hung his head and drooled – people would stare at him and say ‘look at that freak’.”

Tinus describes the entire experience as a “very lonely road” and not many friends were willing to walk the journey with them.

But he and Retha have learnt to take things in their stride, because they have seen the big leaps in Aldo’s recovery.

“Aldo is now in a regular private school where he is the only ‘disabled’ child,” Tinus explains. “He has a private tutor who picks him up at the house in the morning, takes him to school, helps him there and then she will take him to speech and physiotherapy in the afternoon.”

Though Aldo, now 16, has come a long way since the accident and defied medical logic, some have asked Retha if she is disappointed that Aldo is not completely healed.

But Retha points out that people are more likely to believe their story when they see Aldo in his recovery stages. She is thankful for the journey that has made her family selfless.

“I tell my husband that nothing in this world impresses me anymore,” she reveals, adding that she realises that not even good works can make her happy.

She is on a mission to share Aldo’s story.

“Before this, I was an image consultant but today, I do workshops in church sometimes on total image – body, soul and spirit,” she says. “How can you tell women to dress up when they are hurting inside?”

So far, Retha has travelled to the United States, Indonesia and Singapore to promote her self-published book. A Message from God has reportedly sold 25,000 copies around the world.

Retha ended her book launch here on a light note about Aldo’s hope to marry someday. “Aldo is praying for a woman who loves scars!”

Check out their webpage here.

Getting fitter

Well it has almost been one year since we went to mount kk. I remember it's that faithful trip that made us realiase how unfit we were both were. So we decided since then to improve our health, fitness.

We started off with just running around kiara park. I remember the first time I ran more than 30mins, my first 10k run. Then I learn how to swim and my first time swimming in the beach where my feet could NOT touch the seabed. (I was saying,' I'm going to drown'.... for 30mins until I realiased that I wasn't going to)

Then in January, we joined a neighbourhood gym. The weights, cardio... hmmmpppmmhh. I must say I enjoy my workouts very much now. My body is leaner. I got 2 1/2 packs instead of 1 big one! The 'V' is starting to form (I'm thinking I'll stop at daniel craig in james bond or matt damon in bourne series) Although I'm still far from my ideal weight and my 10km run is at 75mins (from 81mins) I'm glad I got fitter.

I just feel so much better about my own body. More energy. I look better in my clothes too. Lovin' it.

These couple of months

feels like years because so many things has happened!

Of course one of the biggest thing that happen since my last post is the outcome of the Malaysian election.... and not erection as somone once pronounce it! hehe.

It still feels sureel that BN has been denied their 2/3 majority - because really I think they haven't really let THAT news sink in yet!

Well that's the thing that makes Malaysia politics interesting.

We just never know! hahaha

Is AAB and Khairy working Anwar?
Is Najib working with TM?
Is Najib working with AAB?
Is AAB and the SIL working with Anwar?

Wah... so many questions unanswered. Feels like I'm watching a sitcom... so until the next exciting episode of Malaysia Hari Ini.

Easter pt 1

Easter this year is at March 28. I remember that I got to know a new friend called Christ about one week before Easter some years ago. Looking back it has been an awesome 9 years.

Having just celebrated Christmas a month back and Easter a few months down the future, it got me thinking about the relevance on easter to us Chrsistians.

I thought it odd that Christmas is celebrated so widely, so intensely, so viraciously, so much over the world these days by christians. I mean we eat, drink, throw parties, buy presents, shops go on sales, we go on shopping madness, the world's financial system takes a rest, we get our promotion...etc Meanwhile during easter, we go to church, sing a few songs have a good rest - maybe even check on our stocks.

However when I read the gospel, more chapters are devoted to Jesus' death than his birth. For sure, if Jesus wasn't born how can He die? But I was thinking, do our actions do speak of our belief - and it seems we don't see much relevance in His death.

Is there relevance to how he died to many of us christians in this urban age?

I wonder how many of us christian thought about it. I know I did. I used to wonder when I became a new christians, what does his death mean to me? I mean I know that believing in him makes a christian but now that I'm a christian, so what? My life got better sure, my bad habits got less and less? (This is not to say that I did like being christian, I loved it. I just wanted more of God)

But really how does this guy's death relate or affect my my work, my relationships, my life...etc? Hey I... the big I.. still have to work as hard you know! It's a dog eat dog world out there man! It seems being a good christian also mean that I MUST be of a good example to turn people to God. Pastor says, we are doing this and that to sow the love of God... and we shouldn't complain because we should work like we're working for Jesus - the bible said so.

Sure... I mean I love serving and He deserve our service because of what He has done. His great love.

However when I think of God that way: He is there and I am here. I'm here to serve Him who is 'there', wherever there is. He seemed formal and distant at best. We pray for Him to help us in our work, relationship and then go about working on our work without Him. Worst, I only 'pray' to Him!

You must be wondering if I'm smoking something. Nothing wrong there to pray to Him but I find it very wrong if we ONLY pray to Jesus. Whatever happen to TALK or LISTEN or JOKE or ASK...etc?

Jesus died and rose again. He endured the pain and took our sins. Now that He is risen, He realllly is God.

I think most people see easter as that - He is now God so serve Him.

But if we look beyond that we would clearly see how that has relevance to our lives - every part of it. One of the 'things' He did which I am thinking of right now is how His death and resurrection made us close to Him.

Even if you don't serve Him, don't pray to Him, He is now very close to you. Even if you have done wrong, or not obeyed you're VERY VERY close to Him. His spirit dwells in you. The Holy Spirit dwells in us as a gurantee that He'll come back. Gurantee man! This gurantee can happen because He rose!

Our relationship with God now is very very very close. We don't have to be more holy to be close to Him. We get closer to Him like how we get closer to a friend - by developing a relationship. He wants a relationship with me not my holiness - for at best my holiness is like used sanitary pads (in the bible it translate in greek to filthy rags). His spirit who dwells within us will help us, teach us into all things including our work, our relationship... etc

We can now enter boldly to the throne of God. What used to be limited only to the High Priest once a year IF he does all the rituals correctly is now accessibly to me -wirelessly (literally :) ), instantly and at anytime.

So how does all this affect our every day lives? It means now God is not distant anymore. In fact Jesus only called God once just before He died, the rest of the time He called Daddy. For us, He's now your best friend, who comes by your place to comfort you when you're down. When you screw up, He's there to help you. When you don't know how to finish your work properly, He'll guide you. You know the time when you screwed up so badly your best friend help you 'fix things', He does that too. When you're bored, He's there to talk to you.

I used to think that if I follow his examples, I WILL be able to get better and achieve more. Sure I did. Now I found a better way, I do it with Him, along with Him for 'He writes His laws in my heart', 'He leads me to quiet water'.

I'm not saying we shouldn't serve I am however saying that He does not need us to serve to love us more or He loves us any less.

He is closer than you think.

No, really...

He was talking to me....


The biggest news in our country.

You said it best... when you say nothing at all.

After the song got popular, it became a cliche. Ha ha, and how true, how true! And I don't mean it in a sarcastic kind of way.

My journey started after listening to a sermon last year when I 'discovered' that if I give honour to my parents, God will honour me! Wow! He promise to bless me if I honour them. Awesome. Of course, we're supposed to honour them, God just throw in the bonuses if we do them like giving us long satisfying life...etc

Then I 'discovered' that if I honour God, God will honour me too. Simple.

Then I thought, what if I honour my friends? Give them honour. What would happen? Others reciprocate. Give respect and it will be given back. You get to make better friends, love more and learn more about people around. Life got more interesting.

The amazing thing I found out about this is that I have an unlimited amount of honour to give. How much honour can I give? As much as I want! And the more I give, the more I got back in return.

Ok but how do I give this abstract thing called 'honour'? I learnt later that most times, I can give 'honour' to friends by listening to them. People just love to talk. Incredibly, they love to teach! and I get to learn so much from their lives! ..... and all this while I was trying to get people around me to talk more so that I can learn from them but really all I had to do was to keep quiet! hahaha eric just loved to talk!

Thank you Jesus for this important lesson this year.

where we came from

I stumbled on this article about spoilt youngsters. The usual complain about the younger generation not knowing how to appreciate the good stuff given to them. Yes, we've all heard it before, that during our father's time they had meat only a few times... Tough times indeed!

I used to frown on such article, which we have heard a million times. This time it touched me. Perhaps I've grown up a bit. Having been through some tough times in the last few years has indeed changed me. It has thought me about determination, belief and faith....

...I certainly appreciate things given to me much more than I had before. My relationships, my faith in God, my ownerships of toys... they are indeed all blessing from God.

Remembering the times when I had little, really thought me to appreciate things when I have

And so I'm reminded to think about where I came from: for once I was sinner. But while I was a sinner, Christ came for me in His grace that I may inherit his gift of righteousness and be joint heir with Him.

Where I came from?... Man, I don't want to go back there - a very bad place to be for sure.
Where I am now?... as Christ is, who is seated on the right hand God, so I am, as joint heir. Really, it's the best place to be - on earth and on heaven.

What I learn about Singapore

Contary to popular belief I think cars in singapore are cheap, relatively.

It's all relative I guess and I'm comparing it to Malaysia. Yes! Malaysia. Why because Malaysia's import tax on cars are what 300%?! Perhaps this is to protect the local car manufacturers... or whatever but this make imported cars in Malaysia super ex!

Would you believe that on the road prices for cars like Hondo and Toyota are about the same!!!! Perhaps Malaysia a bit more cheaper. Imagine that, Malaysians are paying Singapore prices for cars! So the next time you buy any new car in Malaysia think about that.. is it really worth it? :P

BUT.....

Second hand values of cars in Singapore is super cheap. Mainly because cars here can only 'last' 5 years due to the COE so second hand value drops tremendously. (but I heard you can renew it to 10 years).

Also the mentality that 'old' cars of 5 years are hard to maintain - esp the continental cars. Which explains why a friend of my bought a jaguar x-type for less that sgd80k!!! And a tourag is advertise for 50k OMV (plus coe, plus tax maybe 120k---- retailing in Malaysia 1 million).

brilliant.

and to those who believe that continental cars are hard to maintain, thanks for helping me keep the 2nd car cost low :)

Cost of Happiness

is RM23.00 ++ at KFC

During one sad day last week, wife gave me a treat to one my favourite restraunts. KFC. My happiness level increased almost 25 points in my 100 point scale.

all it cost was rm23.00 ++ which is a KFC original 3 piece chicken dinner set + 2 piece chicken snack plate + rice + salad.

I had 4 piece of chicken, chicken skin, oil and fats. yummy!

the animation that thought me communication...

A picture speaks a thousand more, they say. I suppose then an animation speaks a thousand more. As it is so with this one. I hope blogspot is able to show you the animation. It's a picture of a 'dancing girl'. Now which way do you see her spin? Clockwise, or anti-clockwise.

When I first got this picture, I saw it spin anti-clockwise. (Means apparently, I'm more analytical) and the friend who send it to me saw it spinning clockwise.

As we discuss it over IM, our frustration mounted. No HELL way it's spinning clockwise I said and my friend replied, wtf are you talking about?! It's definitely not spinning anti-clockwise if you ask him.

The spell was broken when a colleague of mine remarked, 'wow, what an interesting animation.. i can see it spinning both ways.'

What the FUCK?! Both ways? Of course I only said it 'internally' (hahaha...)

Finally, after about 1 hour, we analysed the gif file - frame by frame ... (see I guess I'm left brain afterall) and discovered how one can see it go both ways - clockwise AND anticlockwise.

It's been months since I received the picture and since then it has thought me a valuable lesson on communication. I can be right while at the same time wife can also be right. Who's to say she's spinning clockwise or anticlockwise. Both could be right - at the same time. Unless one is standing from the top and looking down we don't know for sure which way she's spinning.

In our daily lives I discovered, sometimes, NO, in fact, many times both are right.

The picture also planted the thought to me that sometimes, if i bother to calm down (hard), listen (very hard) and put myself in the other person's shoes (so so very hard) I may just see things spinning differently. Funnily, the result this is usually a very light and happy feeling!

Now that I can see our lady spin both ways, I'm happy. Hey I may even brag a little about it. It's great feeling to know that I can see more than 'meets the eye'. Knowing this truth it seems has set me (more) free and it should do the same to you too... because whoever you're having an arguement with just now, you were right. Perhaps so was s/he.

*if you're on facebook check out the 'brain game' since blogspot can't show animation

What I learn from the running sports....

You take it, step by step and lap by lap... and you improve minutes by minutes, seconds by seconds.

I'm glad I finally broke my 40min barrier to run 5 rounds in kiara park today. I'm happy

Terry Fox Run

The 2007 Terry Fox Run happened last Sunday. Though some of our friends FFK in the last minute, LiPing and I, Jit, Mom and Liang still went for it.

We had a great time.

The weather on Sunday was superb, bright blue sky but not too hot. The place was crawling with people and the whole place was oozing with a certain positive vibe! It was just beautiful to be there. The crowd was made up of much diversity - all coming in for a cause and to have some fun. There were, Chinese, Indians, Malay, French, Americans, Brits, Aussie (I only guessing from their accents and many other languages I cannot identify)....etc etc

The stores providing the endless supply of water, muffins, milo, bananas...etc also add to the 'Fanfare' mood. It was really fun la.

The run however was ok only because seriously, their organisation of the run wasn't too good. We were supposed to do 6.75km only but due to the lack of direction we did one lap of the kids route and then another one of the adult long route. We estimated later that we ran about 10km using Google earth :) Awesome technology!

Here is the kids route:
And here's the long route:


But all in all, it was still a fun day with family and friends.

Bouncing......

So I am enjoying my run. Then I see this well endowed woman running my way... aiyah... so big boobs, running sure bounce la. Why never wear sports bra? Not pain meh?

Let me tell you woman, I can identify with you this. Not that I have boobs la but I do have...

*sigh*

... belly

Well, it bounces. It wobbles. It feels weird. When I move forward, I can feel it still at the back, when I'm moving upwards, it's just bouncing downwards....it move the opposite direction of my motion.. not exactly, simple harmonic motion! hahahaha....

Thankfully, it's closer to my centre gravity.

Fear Factor

Couple of weeks ago, I went for a birthday party of a friend. We started a business together years ago but has since went our seperate ways. They went on to be successful network builders.

Anyway for her birthday, after a couple of beers, they decided to play 'fear factor'. What's the 'fear factor' ? Eat whatever is served to you.

We have FIVE contestant - the bday girl also la - and the loser down one beer.

Deng Deng Deng.....

Hahaha.. a used sanitary pad! Eat the 'leftovers'

Ewwwww.

Actually it's just tomato ketchup and a delicious piece of chicken. It's no wonder we often hear, crocodile, snake, rabbit....etc all taste like chicken. In this case, also chicken. Real one. I know looks like nuggets from... nvm la.

Contestant, ARE YOU READY?!


Someone said at this point, aiyah I drink beer easier la. Can just drink ah? Of course not, then where's the fun for us the spectators? Where's the fun in that FOR us? Must Eat!


Ack-tua-li, quite tasty..... taste like chicken la! hahaha of course la. it is chicken. :P I guess it's all in the mind isn't it? Is durian tasty or stinky? In this case, the challenge is greater for the woman and so here it is.. she gladly down the beer (wash off the 'blood' taste').

Terry Fox Run

Wife and I are really enjoying our runs for the last couple of months. It's a new sport we picked up. Besides the exercise the obvious physical benefits - more stamina, stronger legs, great way to lose weight - it's also an excellent way of de-stressing. We've found running to be almost always refershing. After a good 30mins-1hr work out, we feel that we can take on the world again!

So what better way have fun with friends and family and raise funds for a cause? None other than the Terry Fox run. Terry Fox is a guy who ran, with one leg, a marathon a day for a consecutive 143days, totalling 5,373km while he was suffering from cancer. He was forced to stop when his condition worsen. He died about 1 year after he was forced to stop.

Wow! What determination.

A gang of 9 of us will be going for this year's run so friends who are reading this and would like to join us for the run do gimme an email or put a comment here. The run is just 5km and 7km. Run, jog, walk, crawl, cycle, rollerblade is welcomed as long as you support the cause - by buying the tshirts.

For more information here's the link again.

Terry Fox, Determination