Sunset

Good photographers make good pictures or good pictures make good photographers?

I rarely have a chance to enjoy a good sunset, with so many late nights, so you can imagine my excitement when on my way back from an evening jog around my housing area, I saw the radiant sky awashed with a brilliant orange hue.

I quickened my step but had already missed the beautiful part of the sunset, and left the last 5 minutes. Nevertheless, what a beautiful sunset it is.

At times like this, I wish I could enjoy more sunsets, imagine, in our busy lives, if we see only one sunset one weekend, it is only 52 times a year. And that too, sometimes we miss the sunsets even on the weekends.

Moral of the story : Never let the moment pass by.

The Emotion Bank

Imagine a world without borders, a world where emotions can be saved and delivered. Can the internet deliver emotions?

I just had a brilliant idea.

I will create a virtual emotional bank account online. I will create an online site called emotion bank - EMO Bank.

Emo-bank will take only well wishes, deliver these to the target persons, offer subsciptions and gifts in form of wishes and physical gifts and maintain virtual balances on persons and friends.

Emo-bank is about good wishes and vibes and strives to keep everyones emotion deposits and withdrawals in check.

When you are angry, take a withdrawal of good vibes. When you are sad, emobank allows others to reach out to you. When you are happy and want to share your love, emobank allows you to express it to others.

Will you subscribe?
Would you join me in this venture?

New Balance Pacesetters 15KM Race

Picture : Alas, all this running can do my figure better... picture courtesy of KC.

My 6th race for the year is a 15KM run today. I was doubtful I would reach the end because of usual out of practice, but somehow again I did. The pattern of my races are in and out interleaving, meaning, in form and out of form. Today I took it pretty easy and was ran a relatively easy and relaxed race, although yesterday I was pretty spooked when I did the usual recon trip to check the race route - so many surprise "little" uphills - I think it took me 30 minutes itself to survey the route, so I was a bit apprehensive about running it!

Instead of race reporting, I thought I would point out the top ten interesting notes about the race.

1. Very good reception - the race was "crowded" - more so because there was only one category - 15km. Kudos to the Pacesetters for generating great expectations for the annual 15km race. From speaking to a few people, they look forward to these signature events.

2. Strong support from the participations in wearing the event vest - this was one of those very rare occasions I saw great support from the participants in wearing the event vest. C'mon, what are you keeping the vests and t-shirts for? I think showing the support is very important, reflective of a strong interest group. Of course, because of this, my friend KC the avid photographer did not have a good chance to take more pretty gals in skimpy and cool running wear shots.

3. Good field of volunteers - for the first time, I saw volunteers taking placards saying encouraging words when you're panting by - this is really cool... it brought a smile to my face and a skip in my stride whenever I saw that.

4. KM indicators well placed - this is the most motivating indicator to runners - knowing there how much is completed and how much to go, especially for those like me who are not running the route for the 100th time.

5. Interesting finishing - liked the finishing in that runners had to traverse the carpark zig-zag with spectators - it was almost like running into a stadium finish (like PJ Half Marathon) - gives you a great sense of achievement.

6. Water stations adequate - though would have done better to have more "endurance" drink. However, PACM is the only organisers who offer endurance drink, most don't even provide any.

7. Pretty serious looking officials - I was wondering if they were from New Balance or FTAAA? Because they were so serious in marking and handing out ribbons. C'mon guys, smile a bit lah... after all I got to get excited to run towards you to grab the ribbon :-)

8. Good mix of participants - Once again, despite that running appeals to the older audience, there was a strong mix of participants at all ages.

9. Green volunteers aplenty - This was a nice gesture of the organisers to provide the volunteers with t-shirts - it was a good clear indication of the number of people who were selfless in organising or assisting to make a good race.

10. Good wheather - can you believe it looked like it was to rain but it did not? The sun did not come out and coupled with the good route of the hills (okay, in exchange for the shady trees!) proved to be a pretty nice running day.

I enjoyed the race, see you next year.

Beijing Postcards-3 - Living in the Streets

I was told by my Beijing office counterpart, the average household income in Beijing is USD2900 for a whole year. The streets of Beijing seen from a tourist eyes is definitely not the common sight. On alleys, you will see the occasional beggar, which contributes to the high unemployment rate.

I was told by my chinese teacher, that the graduate getting a job in the service sector is a big deal. She came from a university degree to be a language teacher. Some came all the way to malaysia to be foot masseurs and are very contented with the salary.

My colleagues were given USD100 for a meal allowance one night. I told them, that this was a third of a whole month household income. They should be thankful. We should all be thankful.

Beijing Postcards-2 - Beijing Olympics 2008

Click here for the link to the photos I took on my whirlwind tour of Beijing.

Beijing is transforming itself to accomodate the millions of tourists for the 2008 Olympics. Pictures of the mascot - a hybrid of some form of panda bear (there are I think 5 of them) are plastered all over subways newly built to accomodate the traffic inflow. An expected 10 new lines for the subway is planned for up to 2008. Typical to China, mass development is anchored on opportunities such as the Olympics to showcase the mass, talent, capabilities and industrilisation of China.

I am sure the tourists and visitors will be overwhelmed and welcomed into the world's largest growing economy. I would love to be there for the opening ceremony of the games. See you there.

Beijing Postcards-1 - Introduction / Nike Lookalike

I had a whirlwind tour of Beijing last week, in a training assignment which I went earlier to do some sight-seeing. It was my 2nd trip to Beijing. China continues to mesmerise me in its vibrance, diversity and pure mass. Interestingly anything on blogger was censored in China, so I could not update my blog there. I would like to put in a few random thoughts, I call it "postcards" of fascinating instances in China.
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I spotted this in the busy tourist area of Wangfujing. The logo was a close copy of Nike, the slogan a close copy of Adidas - Impossible is Nothing. The merchandise sold closely resembles Nike's product lines of sports goods, clothes, shoes, etc. On closer look, the shoes were made of very thin material, but the clothes were a bargain.

Is this the new China? Where copies of things closely resembles the market, and prices are much lower than the "real thing" (there was a real Nike store down the road...). I was nevertheless both amused anad fascinated, and I have to say also, I bought a running vest from here, at a dirt cheap price. And the design was better than Nike's.

123456 Revisited

I posted an earlier post mistaking the date / time of 1:23 4/5/6 as 5th of April, when it should be 4th of May.

So what will you be doing on 01:02:03 04-05-06?

Here is what I propose :
1 SMS to send
2 the ones close to you
3 words to say
4 the things you care about
5 x 6 days in a month, a whole year round

3 words :
Thanks a lot
I love you
Wish you're here
Good luck always
Close to you
Please take care
Wishing you success
You are unique
Best amongst best
My best buddy

... Just Do It!!!

A wholesome workout

A little bit of light fare for once... to share with all my short break on a long weekend...

I love Malaysia's public holidays... today is Labor's Day holiday. Whilst I thought this was a international public holiday, apparently this is not recognised in some countries, and in fact according to a friend in Australia, some states in Australia recognises it whilst others do not.

I had a good weekend, which I would call the lull before the storm. The storm is blowing for this coming few days and onto the next 1-2 months, when work pace at my project will pick up to a full blast till the project goes live.

Saturday - We won the badminton challenge
Saturday started off a little disappointing. I was not able to watch or support my team members in the inter-department badminton challenge. I was tied up at work all morning, despite moving the morning meeting to start earlier (yes, unfortunately it has gotten to this - scheduled meetings on Saturdays?!). Thus, despite well armed with my Nikon D70s in my car, I was not able to make the trip to cheer my team members, who hoisted the trophy as anticipated. I have to give my thumbs up to these folks, what can I say when about 8 people in my project participated in the finals, in two separate teams, against each other? It can only be said that I greatly admire those who can put in their 10-11pms nights and still take some evenings off to practice, whilst others who bear the Nike's "Just Do It" style can also succeed. Diversity is my admiration for my co-workers.

Nevertheless, I managed to take a long lunch far-away in Jalan Loke Yew in town for a good sumptious unhealthy roast pork lunch and registered myself nearby in FTAAA office for the Jelita's Women's Run the next day. Yeah, somehow I justified myself for a sumptious lunch ...

Sunday - A unique all womens race
It was a rather unique all womens race I participated in. Firstly I really liked the pink free shirts. I decided to be pink for the day, unlike some regular runners who only run in their own apparel because of comfort. As I recalled in Pacesetter's magazine, women form hardly a small percentage of runners, being a more male dominated event, although it has begun to pick up a little more on the more veteran women runners.

At the starting line, I was surprised to see not as many participants as I expected, when I asked the FTAAA guy when I signed up, he said "banyak orang" (many people). The other really unparalleled instance was the usual FTAAA lady announcer did not turn up and a man replaced her instead. Then because he was trying to stall for time for the official flag-off at 730 am, he turned on the music and a Fitness First instructor jumped to the front and took the group standing in the starting pen for a 5 mins ad-hoc warm-up. It was so cool to be spontaneous! I could not imagine the guys doing this :-)

Also at the race, the other surprising thing was that there was a lot of Malay ladies participating. Probably because Jelita is a malay magazine, but it was encouraging that there were more Malay runners than I usually see in other regular public 10km races. Also, because I was on my own this time, and treating it as a warmup for the New Balance Pacesetter's 15km race, I took time to chit-chat with some of the ladies and also surveyed the "competition". The categories was also slightly unusual, as I was in a Women's Senior category for 30-40 years old. Together with the Open category, this was for 7km, whilst the Women's Junior and Veteran's category only had a short 5km. Surveying around was fun waiting for the start of the race, as it allowed me time to check out how old or young one can look within a specific age group :-)

The race itself was a bit sluggish for me as well. After weeks of non-practice, non-activity and many many late hours and weekends, the stress has taken its toll on my body, and it did not help that I had barely enough time for only once a week at the gym. The last race I did was almost 1.5 months back. I managed to make it in good time, but enroute back around the corner through the Jalan Parlimen/Dataran Merdeka traffic light, I made a mistake and stopped to a stroll. The abrupt stop made me very light headed and drained of energy, and I barely managed to walk the next 150 m to the corner of the Dataran Merdeka. Afraid that I would not be able to stand up straight much longer, I actually walked down to the carpark intending to give-up the finishing line and wash my face and go home. One lady behind me called me, telling me I was going the wrong way, but I told her to go ahead. So, there I was, sitting in my car for 3 mins, went to wash my face and returned to my car to sit down for another few minutes, very disappointed with myself. Then I did something almost absurd. I closed the car door, ran back up the steps and completed the remaining 200m of the race to the finishing line. And then I went home to sleep for almost 5 hours straight.

As a post mortem, I realised that it was not the race which nearly knocked me out, because I had the capability of running 7km with not much effort. It was my unrested state, and a very tired body that was screaming for attention. The run was a flick of a switch, a flick that told me my bulb was pretty closed to being fused and needed replacement.

Monday - Golf at Nilai Springs
My return to golf was a little less eventful as compared to my run the day before. I had not seen my golf buddy for almost a couple of months as well, and Beng, who is a member at Nilai Springs I had not seen for almost nine months.

After a good night's rest, I was amused and also impressed with myself for getting up at 545am for a 630am ride to Nilai for our game at Nilai Springs. I shot a decent game but what I was really impressed with myself was that I was so relaxed and throughout the game, I repeatedly told my buggy-mate that 5+ hours of golf, and add another 2hours of travel for the game was nothing compared to 45 mins of running 7km. How amazing the comparison is.

So, all in, I had a good wholesome workout, first the brains for working on Saturday, then the legs on Sunday, and the upper body for Monday. My body still aches, but it was a good laborer's day out!