The KL Rat Race - Master Stroke!

Euphoria could not describe my young team's first ever "medal" win of the KL Rat Race.... And how better more to do the master stroke at the crown jewel event of the corporate world!

The Rat Race this year was a lot more subdued probably due to the issues at Bursa earlier of the month for the system failure, the poor performance of the local share market, and the low sentiment of the economic impact from the US sub prime issues.

The usual suspects in the CEO race was not there, and the large RHB team in the past was eclipsed in all areas, including the podium finishes, when the CIMB team upstaged the competition this year. Even Digi, who sent in the largest contingent this year, with 10 teams were subdued in moderate white polo tees with yellow lining, and the two yellowmen and the mobile toilet Celcom PowerTools folks did not seem to really push the atmosphere.

Or maybe, in my 6 year to support the Rat Race (Ran 4 of them, and supported 2 of them, this year with the honor of "choosing" the team and being a back seat driver!), I felt a satisfaction of bringing a team and driving them to achieve a 2nd place finish, and also I finally felt a different sensation - one of a great team at work, charged, and delivering in high performance, and I no longer need to be in the active driver seat.

Congratulations to the team, if you work for it, if you dream it, you can achieve it. The "secret" is that there is no "secret" but to do the best and enjoy the journey.

Don't be surprise the competitive blood is in me that I would like to "qualify" for the Rat Race next year, as we will dream of yet another way to win. What spirit!

Photo - Candid on one of the CEO reps - This looks like a Usain Bolt action, looking behind on the last bend to see if any competitors coming

Amateur Photographer

Can you imagine, after two years and still an amateur photographer?

Dusted my camera recently over the spate of activities, and had taken it out to three separate outings as an amateur photographer, the first was company outing at Lumut which I was the lead organiser, the second the company badminton tournament and the third, the KL Rat Race.

Read on for later posts of these events.

Photo : Since I am in the photo with my camera, obviously I did not take this photo! My comment was that all "semi-pros" and "pros" photographers have a blog or facebook photo with their face partially covered by the camera. The logic was that the camera was an important identity, but most photographers shy away from the camera themselves. That started my attempt during the weekend company trip away where there were MANY DSLRs to take the opportunity for SOMEONE to take that "semi-pro" shot... so... nice or not? Now to take some good photos to post together with my "author" shot...

My parents read my blog!

I would like to welcome my mum to cyberspace, officially! She read my blog! I will need time to recover from this shock ...

Well, seriously, this short entry is specially dedicated to my parents - for which raising me to who I am now, and I feel humble and honored at the same time to be trying to be now in return teaching you about the things such as internet which the opportunity was never available to both of you back then.

With the internet, satellite TV, CNN, online newsfeeds, SMS alerts, we are in a world of information and opportunities aplenty to use or enjoy the knowledge brought about by these sources. Let us hope that we continue to use this information wisely and enable the next generation to prosper further from knowledge.

Ancora Imparo* - I am still learning ...

*latin motto of Monash University, my alma mater

Let the Games begin ... 08 08 08

Photo - from Business Week


Only China can stage the Olympics opening ceremony in the way they did on historic 08 08 08 at 8 08 pm...

Suffice to say that I am so incredibly impressed, and upset as well that I could not get to see the repeat - I was at Lumut for an offsite meeting and community office event - and sneaked off the post dinner activities to snuggle in the karaoke room on and off, and waited for the opening ceremony lighting of the Olympic torch.

And it was well worth the wait.

Li Ning, 4 times gold medalist for China, and a balding 40+ year old entrepreneur now, was hoisted up via suspension ropes to the stadium walls, after being passed the olympic flame, and proceeded to simulate a run through the stadium walls - a sight to behold - no runner could contain the delight of seeing the amazing choreography which showed the impression of Li Ning running magnificently against a spotlight on the stadium walls (when he was just being swung around and swaying his legs simulating a run) whilst a scroll unfolds, depicting the history and culture of China. And finally to the torch, which had been erected minutes before, and lighting a fireworks path which traversed to the torch and lit to flames...

Let the Games begin...

Note - I am indeed a pure sports fan surprising to some people - I was so impressed with the road race cycling (yup, I aim to own a bike by end of year), enthralled by the weightlifting (eh, how come they are so muscular and still so light in weight...), waiting always to see our badminton boys, pinpoint impressed by archery, even watched rowing skulls... (no time to blog!)

The mountain, my inspiration, my bogeyman

My second trip up Mt Kinabalu last week is by far most memorable, and with a slight tinge of regret of not conquering my bogeyman again, the summit trail. The story behind the decision I made whilst sitting in the dark on a long table at Gunting Lagadan a un-heated cabin, staring at two empty bottles, cold, damp socks, not finding a basin to throw up and having that silly altitude headache and everyone asleep ... well, that is a long story. Suffice to say, I had my laziness strike at the wrong moment, and that sitting in the dark and in the cold slows my willpower and makes me wonder why I wanted to try the summit another time in suffering ...

The last time I did the Mt KK trip, about 3 years ago, on Merdeka weekend, I did the peak, and for a good 1 year, I never wished to step near any mountain again! Instead I discovered a world of peak fitness, spurred by the KK trip, and my encounter with KC and his group, and subsequently Rat Race, and my rediscovery of the passion of running. I never looked back.... and what a great 3 years it has been. There were many ups and downs, but for health, my passion in sports, my running career, has taken me from Rat Race to 10k to 21k, multiple 21ks, and finally the Marathon this year. And I decided on a spur of the moment to take on KK again.

I related to my team, who made the trip worth it, that the sunrise was overrated, the Timpohon trail was easier, but no one listened, instead, I am quite proud of those who conquered the odds, braved the elements, and enjoyed the real test of endurance KK brought.

I encountered by bogeyman again, travelling to the summit, and not shy to say I did not make it because on the spur of the moment, I did not want to push myself. Instead I discovered something more real and valuable about the trip - that it was fun to travel at ease, with great company, simple pleasures and when doing the same thing again, makes a difference with the company.

My souvenir for the trip, a deep gash in my elbow, still healing, and my knee is still recovering, although not in pain, but getting up is not as easy as it used to be.

As age catches up, I have that sudden thought, would I dare to venture Everest base camp next year?

And the next question quickly comes to mind, what is stopping you?

40% Effort, 40% Willpower, 10% Science, 10% Technology ... and a heart for glory

This was quite an interesting conversation. It was about our upcoming trip to Mt Kinabalu, done on a one month preparation. I would rank my fitness level and readiness about middle of the pack despite I have run races for a while. Climbing is certainly a different set of muscles... However in terms of Effort, Willpower, Science and Technology, I think I would rank top 3!. Effort because I do believe in training, Willpower because I am an endurance runner first before a climber, Science - I've discovered Phiten (http://www.phitenmy.com/), and Technology - the walking stick I have from China and my trail shoes....!!!

Three years ago, I had not participated in any races, and I climbed Mt Kinabalu, with about 3-5 months of training on and off. This time, I believe I have more of willpower, effort, science and technology to counteract the lesser time for training.

Above all, I believe I have the "heart for glory"....

Anyway, another story here - I saw a malay lady, she was panting up the stairs at Batu Caves last saturday. I was on my 4th round, but almost starting to feel the pain at the calves. She stopped, and I decided to strike a conversation with her to lepak a little. She asked whether I was going to KK, and I replied, yes, next week. I asked her when she is going, she said, in October. Then she told me, she is 54 years old (she looks like mid 40s only) and she was loaded with a backpack and adequately dressed for training. She asked me how old I was, and whether I thought she can make it to the top. I said - "I think you can". She had the "heart for glory" and I knew I inspired her when I said that without hesitation! (She even took a photo with me...). The next thing I knew, she was on round 2 and 3, even though she said she will only do 1 round.

See you at the top!

Siemens 10km Run - what are you running for?

The theme of this year's Siemen's Run is quite cool - What are you running for? I thought about it before the race when I read the info of the run and I guess I did not have a real answer, the closest I would have would be ... I am running for "life".

Running has always been pure fun, and for someone with a non-athletic background or family or physique like myself, this has been my personal achievement, and puts a whole meaning of being alive and healthy.

I had not run for a proper race since the Sundown Marathon, this means almost 1month+. How time flies... the only running I've done is in the gym, and from 2-6km only. However, this 10km was not competitive to me, but still I felt an urge to "do well" because it was ... only 10km... heheh, kiasu. Caveat was that I did Batu Caves stairmaster training yesterday, and my calves was a bit painful...

It was good to meet a few good friends on the race this time, some of my colleagues (about 6-8 of them!) who did not run often, or first timers, came by, Wai Fun and Lee San came with their friend Liew (who was a familiar running face), and I saw KC, Tey, Boon and some of their friends.

This was a well organised race, high turnout, good atmosphere, water stations every 2 km+, a band to send you off, and a lot of cheerleaders on display the last 500m. I ran a pretty slow but comfortable race, and did think that I had a personal best, unfortunately was told it was under-distanced. But, for charity, and all the fun, and for a comeback race for me to running - loads of fun!

Next race? Maybe Penang Marathon if CM Lim Guan Eng can get the funding act together...

My calves still hurts ... this is so strange ... I used to have sore thigh muscles after any race, but from the sundown marathon onwards, I've lost that, is it my running stance? Now my calves hurt doubly due to the race and yesterday's training... hmmm

Hiking to Wangsa Hill / Pak San / Bukit Putih

Runners are asking, so how have you been since the great marathon attempt? The truth is, I've been over-resting! And also, a new challenge came up, and I've decided to do some cross-training over the last few weeks.

This was from a hiking trip last weekend to Pak San @ Wangsa Hill @ Bukit Putih, a surprise little hideout near Taman Cuepacs, somewhere I could not describe how I got myself to. As it is, Cheras itself is unknown territory to me...

The trip is a preparation for our July 20-24 trip to Mount Kinabalu. This will be my second climb of the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia, and not looking down upon this attempt, some last minute training is needed. Actually, this was a last minute suggestion hatched up over an abalone meal, where one of my colleagues decided that eating abalones was too rich despite it being a milestone dinner occasion for that project, and he felt he had to work himself harder for his next target. Me, I'm just in for the ride...

Anyway, back to this Pak San. It was no simple feat. The mountain has levels, we were probably up to Level 6 and then came down. Apparently there is Level 7 and the summit, but my team did not know how to get there. This thing about Levels is almost like those computer games, you battle battle and then you reach the next level... or rather like learning kung-fu...

In any case, we did spend about 3.5 hours there, went up the 6 levels and at level 5, detoured off to a waterfall off the path, which turned out to be a tiny regretful moment, as the detour descended sharply, and that meant, we had to climb back up from the waterfall before proceeding to descend fully.

My calves never recovered from this hiking activity. Furthermore, I sustained an injury to the ball of my feet, as the shoe just cut into my skin, causing a deep bleeding blister which hurt all the way down, as it scraped against the same edge of the shoe. When I got back to the car, I had a 50c coin equivalent blot of blood on the sock, and the whole week it took a long time to heal as it was a common area where any shoe will rub against.

Surprisingly, I loaded my backpack with my DSLR, whom I've ignored for almost many months... so there you go, a few pictures to share here.

Pic 1 - Level 3 - there, you know when you reach each level
Pic 2 - Selamat sampai ke atas Bukit Putih Stesen 3
Pic 3 - A bit of fresh green vegetation
Pic 4 - I almost grabbed this thorny tree crossing one of those fallen trunks. Teaches one to check what you are reaching out for... yes those are thorns...
Pic 5 - Tiny waterfall and some bit of wading and cooling for the sore feet, which was put to a more severe test climbing back up. Not worth it!!

Supporting the KL Rat Race for the 5th year...

I think it has been 5 years. 3 years I ran in the Rat Race, and 1 supporting as photographer. This year, the inaugural Rat Race will be on 19 August 2008.

I called myself motivational coach last year, and doubled up as a photographer (albeit a lousy one!) on race day.

This time around, I have only one target (and I don't need to run the race) - this year, I want to get two prize positions (top 3 only.. geez - this is a pretty high target!) . One in the team event, and one in the CEO race. Forget about cheerleaders (can't beat the cool Yellow Man last year), forget about costumes (can't beat the real corporate folks like Nestle, Ikea, UEM, etc who has money...) - two teams, two CEO reps and two prize positions.

I am a lousy coach, not a great runner, so this year, lets see how good a strategist I am.

And then on race day, I will be the photographer again, heheh...

The Running Alternative to Driving...

Coming back from an overseas first marathon at Singapore must've set my kiasu factor on... it was quite worth it as my tank was almost dry...

It just went to queue for 20minutes for petrol - the price hike is on at midnight tonight, when RM 2.70 per litre sets (currently at RM 1.98 per litre).

Now, would anyone consider running or biking to work? Would anyone consider to change jobs to save petrol cost of travel?

Post-post marathon post-script : For strange reasons, my body recovery for the marathon is so much better than even a 10km race - within a couple of hours, it was just some minor thigh muscles ache, I was even on heels and away to work the next day without much hesitation. It is either I am a night creature or I'm a real sucker for extremes, I hope I can remember what else I must have done differently...

Sundown Marathon postscript

Some pictures taken by my non-running buddy who was in Singapore with me and saw me off at the starting line... (notice all the pictures are DARK). Obviously I miss our friendly malaysian race photographers, and the pacesetters photo on cert thing...

Pic 1- Odyssey premium service bus - going was a long journey due to friday traffic, but coming back was ok.

Pic 2 - Collected the race pack (ok, the pack had nothing much except one t-shirt, a customised number tag, and a bottle of mineral water and hundred plus). Carbo loading at Mandarin having my favorite chicken rice at Chatterbox (using carbo loading as an excuse, heheh)


Pic 3 - My sundown customised tag - they gave you a means of name you want printed on the tag and a new chip system - it was just a RFID string with a transmitter wired to the back of the tag.

Pic 4 - Sundown comes, midnight arises, getting ready for the race

Pic 5 - Warming up for the race - why does nobody warm up? I was a bit surprised that there were tons of participants (4000 I was told!) and yet, everyone was SITTING around. I had a bad feeling this was one of the marathon techniques I was not aware off... (or is it a singapore thing?)

Pic 6 - See, sitting around even for those at the first of the line. They must understand the pain and conserving energy...

Pic 7 - Go-go-go

My first marathon was an away trip - to Singapore, which revealed a whole new world of running to me and the 42km finisher tag - priceless..!

The race started in humid 12midnight the ungodly hour when everyone is getting ready to sleep. I was fortunate to have booked the hotel next to the race starting point at the last minute over the internet. It was a simple 5 mins walking distance away.

I had no strategy, but I carbo loaded dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner before the race, drank lots of water to hydrate my body, slept the afternoon to rest, and brought along 4 packs of powerbar gels.

At the starting line, my first surprise was that, there were A LOT of people! Wow, Singapore is a really fit city (I will find out more later!). There was no way I could look for my colleagues (4 of them were running) or others I knew who were running this race. I did find KJ at the starting line and we started together, at the 5hr marker.

The starting was really cool, but eventually we were chaperoned off to a side of the road walkway even at the start, this became a congestion traffic point (CONGESTION at a MARATHON?). It also made me dizzy when I see so many runners stomping all around me...

0-10km - This was all the way around some flat pancake road, along changi, all the way somewhere to the civil airbase. The airport road was really really long (nothing like RMAF) - planes booming along the runway (and the passengers probably looking out and seeing these ants at midnight+... (we were wearing the shiny glowing concert band thing!)

11-20km - The east coast park was a bit more windy, and a nicer place to run. Although at some point there were people having picnics and all on the side, it was a strange distraction. At 20km there was a turnback, so along here I saw the other two of my colleagues - KH and SA, on the other side. I was still running ok.

21-30km - The unknown territory begins at this point as I had not run beyond 21km in my poor preparation. I was still going quite well, and at 21km, I was around my usual 21km run pace, but body still feeling good and legs feeling ok, at this point I knew I could make it to the finish. It was all a countdown from here. This part was the most weird route of the race, it went through a few overhead bridges, many park connectors (ie running next to people's house in lanes), and some weird smaller pathways. I lost a bit of momentum here, as there were many people walking, some of them even block the path.

31-42km - The countdown, and also halfway, last hour, it started to rain. It was a real motivation for me to run faster. At this point, I was surprised my feet were just numb, but no cramps, aches or anything and really jogging was much more comfortable than walking. The finishing last 2km, I almost walked it, except for last 1km, when you know you will finish, you kind of slack off... but... what a feeling - the finish arch was ... euphoric, I ran like 100m speed the last 50m!

Some comments :

1) Singapore vs. Malaysia - a couple of things - Malaysians will never sign up with such fervor for a marathon. But, as I expected, there were still many Singaporeans who were not really experienced athletes (ie they were walking much of the race beyond 10km or same pace as me). I was wondering where singaporeans run and train since there was not much space. I realised during the run there were these connectors pathways between apartments... The other thing I wondered was about warming up and this sitting down thing - most sat around the starting line - is this a new technique?

2) Route - What the heck are bridges doing in a run? I think I did about 4 bridges, I cannot remember. One even had stairs... and the final little bridge one lane to the finishing area ... But kudos to some lone person cheering you in the middle of the night in weird nooks and corners, at least won't get lost, and also they had toilets along the way.

3) Carbo loading, hydration, gels, socks - I cannot underestimate the value of these three factors. Beyond 21km, I felt good enough to go for another 21km, due to these three factors, and the socks and shoes are important to avoid blister and have a good run

4) Chaffing, Pain and Post Race - The only comment I had post race was - I now know what is the reason why you need vaseline to avoid chaffing (during shower after run). The other was that extended pain can be avoided with good anti-inflammation cream, warm up and I am an advocate of powerbar recovery drink.

I am not sure when I will run a marathon again, but you can be sure I will be better prepared... ! For the record, I ran for more hours than I usually sleep - this is an achievement! Thanks to all for the motivation.

Sundown Marathon 42km Finisher

I did it! My first marathon run completed at Sundown Marathon in Singapore - this morning! I did not sleep the whole night. The feeling is, ecstatic. Every km beyond 21km was a new zone to me, I freely admit to not advocate my not enough training approach. But, with a bit of careful treatment, carbo loading, gel packing, pacing, and the night race, I finished my first marathon despite not a great timing, but I fully enjoyed this race.

It is a question of sufficient preparation and eventually, mind over matter, and now I fully understand why the experienced runners are addicted - "pain is temporary, quitting is forever" - I saw this on one of the runner's shirt.

Let me savor this for a moment ... will write a proper race summary and some photos later.

RMAF 10km - 25 May 2008 - better late than never

Many thanks to mr tey for the photo, very gemuk but funny that i am smiling all the way to the end from this funny rmaf run...

I had signed up for this race a couple of weeks back, in the 10km category, in anticipation that I may wish to race for Sundown next week and needed a bit of rest (more on that later...).

There is always a first for any race. I had done a DNS before (Did not start), never wish to do a DNF (Did not finish), but this was a LTS (Late to start!!!) - my first start late race!

Looking back, I can actually see how funny it is, but I was really close to giving up and driving back. I had surfed around the net looking for directions to parking for this run since two days ago, and failing to do so, I set off at around 6am, and reached around the Sungei Besi airbase area in around 10-15 mins. My first mistake was not able to get onto the partially blocked slip road, and ended up on the SMART highway lane. So, I headed to KL and turned back. Second attempt following some small signboards, ended up in a blocked slip road, the cop asking me to go go ahead. And I ended up in Cheras direction, turning back, another block, and the cop asking me pusing balik. By then it was almost 645. After pusing balik, found the road to the airbase blocked off, but this time, there were about 5 cars also trying to inquire. Finally seeing how there was less than 5 mins to starting, I moved ahead and parked like about 750 m from the turn off. And ditched all the gadgets and ran to the turn off, only to find a man directing further ahead the entrance to the airbase. And ran to the entrance, almost 7am flag off time, only to have the man in the entrance telling me to run forward for a BUS!!! What the ****?? By then, I was almost running pace, had run almost 1km+, and got onto the bus, together with a handful of similar fated persons about 8 persons, and the bus waited for a minute or two for stragglers. And as the bus moved to the other end of the airbase, the bus driver pointed to the airbase and said, hey, the category C,D,E,F is flagged off, there they are running on the airway, maybe you should get down and just join!!!! It was not funny.... :-)

We took the bus all the way to the starting point being pure sports-people. And there we were, after alighting from the bus, squeezed past the barricade of the next flag off category, to jeers and cheers of bunch of army men, and me and 3 other guys quickly sped off, where the last of the category E/F people who were walking were almost 3/4 off the airbase runway. So we were about slightly under 10 mins late all in....

The good news was that, the late start made me so concious that I did not want to be last. Paced with veteran C3167 Syed Ahmad (who was in the late bus!!!) who told me he ran in last week's race, and he was furiously also trying to catch up after parking far away. We looked really weird trying to potong these young kids starting to catch up almost at the end of the runway (about 1km+) - these kids were walking, and me and this veteran malay man was furiously running the runway to catch up. It was almost weird also because C3167 ended pacing throughout the race with me, finished almost the same time, and the first 3-4km, I almost felt strange, he was running faster than kids who were probably less than 1/3 his age, and I was in my blue Singapore Marathon souvenir vest looking really out of place among the kids dressed in the event t-shirt and most of them were Malay. So I look like some SPG running with an older man... ahem.

To be honest, this was one of my best 10km for the year - I ended up clocking about 1hr 6m in a pretty comfortable run - but the master clock was flashing 1hr 45 for the half marathon runners when I finished - this means we were about 9 mins late (the half marathon started 30 mins ahead). And pour salt into wound, there were few runners in 10km category, and I missed medal position number 50 by 2 persons in front of me!!

Note - Finally found a hill more nasty than double hill - the one at the back of Kuen Cheng school, where the Chinese cemetary's are. Yes, we ran past almost 2km of chinese cemetary. At one point, I joked to one of the girls that it gives you more motivation to run faster since both side of the road was lined with cemetaries. She said, well, if you dont disturb them... but well I said, huge stampede of runners waking the dead up early in the morning... heheh.

Funny episode, and good run, glad I went and still persevered despite being late. Now, come to think of it, the runway looked pretty short....

And I had to hike another 1.5km back to the car... (making this a 13km race? haha!)

Antara Anyer dan Jakarta

Song name - "Antara Anyer dan Jakarta" - Sheila Majid

I received a SMS from Hendra today that he was meeting with one of my ex-client team members, GPU. Hendra used to work for me in a bank merger project in Jakarta - I was there in 1999. It brings back a lot of memories. Hendra would not have messaged me if he did not have the same flashes of deja vu - meeting with people from the past... this was one of the good project experiences I had in my career in consulting. After all, there were very few of us who has these fond memories still around the same company.

How time has passed ... It was a time when I was still young, impressionable, motivated. I headed out to Jakarta during the period when Megawati was elected president. The previous election shed blood and many did not want to go to work at Jakarta at that time. I was just promoted at that time and was eager to "take on new roles". I was promised to lead a technical team, and my "friends" - colleagues I was close to was going for the project. It was led by a good charismatic leader. The team had already been there for a while to build the merger plan. It was time to implement the plan.

This was my most memorable project. When I went there, I was given a pager. The pager was a security device which the firm subscribed to using a security consultant. The pager provided key information to tell you when to run or when to stay put, it also had different levels of security alert.

But I found the country very friendly and safe. I actually really liked the people, the client and found a lot of comfort in the environment. I "co-led" a fun team, a small 6 person team which managed the technology integration aspects - in my final role - I was a one person leading about 20 men in rollout teams. Thinking back, this must have indeed been very challenging for a chinese female like me then. My co-team manager was an easy going local - he is still around the firm. My client manager was a steady individual, who drew a lot of strength from my input. We got along very well and I was a good trusted advisor. I presented in Indonesian to the CIO twice. We rolled out 20 branches, and in one incident, we were locked in a branch overnight due to security issues outside. I was driven around by a driver who was a standard norm in indonesia. My driver smuggled durians into my apartment for me when I asked for the "best durian" in Jakarta. I slept in a room with 15 other females during a "client away" trip. During our weekends we would go to Puncak (the hillsides) for some jagung bakar. I created a reusable warehouse for recycling equipment. I worked in that warehouse which was small size of two conference rooms, underground, with about 20 smoking men all the time. I had the worst rollout incidents in this project - all things went wrong at one time that it was 2 nights of sleepless nights before we were able to go off. I regret that I left in a hurry, because after that I left for another offshore project in Taiwan.

The Sheila Majid song Antara Anyer dan Jakarta still hangs in my memory of those days. Not because of any love story (thats what the song is about!), but the experience and the people whom I met, and that I never went back there for the last 9 years - I said I will be back but I never did... it brings back a lot of memories.

And the best thing was, I did go to Anyer. One day, a few of us asked our driver to drive from Jakarta to Anyer and to the corner of Java island, took a ferry to Sumatra and back. It was just another town at that time, but when I heard the song, I knew the meaning will always ring in my head as long as I remember the good old days then, the camaraderie of friends and long lost acquaintances. I cannot remember all my team members, but there are a few HP, ESS, GPU, AW - these are my clients who were mad enough to be with me on that journey.

I hope I can say again, I will be back. I miss those good old days, and respected all of the people I was with then.

New Balance Pacesetters 15km 18 May 2008

Thanks Tey for the photo. What was I looking for, I looked quite tired! I hope I did my big smile for the camera cert... heheh

This was my second NB 15km race. The first one I did in 2006, whilst last year, I skipped it due to illness.

I've never felt so good about a race for almost a long long time. I had really not run for about 2 weeks+, not even in training, drowned in work and also this nasty lingering cough. I skipped the 30km night race last week, and decided to pull out of Sundown on the same day last week due to lack of practice.

Today's race went quite well, even though I was almost 6 mins worse than my time in 2006. I could not tell if it was just the standard decline in my performance in running (as observed in all the races!), or it was just the change in route. This year the route was indeed a bit more challenging due to the teasing ending but not yet when there was almost about 2 km more towards the end near Padang Merbuk, and the last 1 km, we had to do the KTM loop which is a nasty hill which punctured everyone.

This year's race also saw a unique medal - in shape of a NB shoe!

I surprised myself with a consistent pace, and I throughly enjoyed my new found toy, my ipod shuffle with a mix of silly chinese songs (Twins!) and real rock stuff from Eagles, INXS. My collection of MP3s in iTunes were a mixture of CDs I had ripped from a few occasions, with equal mix of chinese and english titles.

All in, I had a good continuous running pace, with only and yet only the 2nd hill of the double hill and also the final KTM bit which taxed me and forced me to a walk. My knees felt fine and I had no blisters and I did not push myself to the limit at the end to manage my own exertion.

This run is my post-retirement run. I could make it a comeback run, but I am still not sure. Now I am indeed tempted to go and try the Sundown just for the heck of it, but as I told SCH this morning, the problem I had was that I did not know how to quit and stop. Having never encountered injury and also immense body stretch of a marathon, I would have no idea when is the breaking point.

This is coming from one who has not hit the wall before. So how would I know unless I try.... still... I cannot imagine being carried off to a hospital in singapore all because I wanted not to waste my SGD 50 for the race fees...

Think about it for one more day.

Weekend Deja Vu with Australia @ Hunteroos Race

I have not blogged for a while. Almost 2 weeks plus ... Perhaps to refresh my POV and blog status, I thought I'd restart with the lighter side of things. Last weekend we participated in the Australian Hunteroos Race. Almost very excited to be going for another "treasure hunt" after the last disappointment with the Trailblazer's Race, we were all gung-ho and arrived at 3 Kia Peng all eager.

Firstly, this was not a treasure hunt but more an Amazing Race. Secondly, it was the most well sponsored "race" we had ever encountered. They served breakfast, provided T-shirt and caps, started the race at 9am (which is unusually late), and had wine, beer, and huge lunch served, even with Angel Hair pasta.

I played the didgeridoo (what?) for the first time (see Pic1-that is not me). Yeah, that australian aborigine music pipe. Me, running with a nasty cough was huffing and puffing all my saliva into the **** pipe and some young punk telling me, you have to loooose your lips and "blow softly" do not need to take hard puff. Just try just try... after like 20 times on the "didge", I was almost annoyed that he was not even looking at me when I made some almost music sound. Finally out of pity of this bronchitis sounding participant (me), he finally said, one last attempt and I will see, and in my final puff, he gave the the points. I cannot believe I would pay to do this!

We all got a chance to do the Flying Fox for the first time in the KL Tower (see pic 2). I heard of a reverse bungy, but never knew they equiped the tower with a flying fox from AJ Hackett the bungy experts. Well, the Flying Fox cost almost RM 30, and I would have not paid to do it if on my own, as it was a short distance, but as part of the race... greaaat! What was really disappointing was that I leap off the stand, had a real good relaxing swing down, posed for the camera, and MISSED the "trump card" extra point kangaroo shirt man standing next to the camera-man!

Lastly, as another part of the race, we had to eat a slice of Emu and a slice of Kangaroo, not knowing what was each and identify one or the other. Mr JS ate the entire Emu happily without sharing and we were in such a disappointed state that we had a pretty good time kidding ourselves and convinced the organiser to give us another piece to try. Well, it is indeed the first time I probably tasted Emu but maybe I had eaten kangaroo meat before. It wasn't too good to share these "endangered" national animals of australia as toasted meat for the participants... especially with a team who calls themselves Skippy (us) (the Australian bush kangaroo, according to Ms JS).

That was the weekend for me, got home flustered from over-excitement in the earlier part of the race, some disappointment mid of the race, and a full stomach end of the race.

But, kudos to sponsors. Just not too happy with organisers for some "flaws"...

Life is a one take movie

Just feel a bit low today. One Kilkenney beer and it still did not solve the problem. And truthfully, I have only myself to blame. Anyway, its one of those days, I am bogged down by too many worries at work, I have been on panadols every other day for the last 3 weeks+, wish to not have any more instant noodles, wish for more than 3 hrs of sleep, not feeling worn down and just plain not be bothered by the fact that I am not able to respond to things I need to do.

Life is a one take movie. One of my old friend's mother passed away on Sunday. I did not manage to attend the wake. Since when did I have friends with parents who pass away? The first thing that hit me was that I am really getting old. The second thing which hit me is that I really hope she had a peaceful and fulfilled life, which I am sure she did. And when it comes to my time, what do I wish to see on my tombstone or recited at my wake? I feel very under-achieved in life and having lost so much time on useless worries.

The processor is really tired.

Social Business

Book introduction excerpt here
I bought this book over the weekend. I read it last night, the first two chapters - the prologue and the introduction, albeit having one of those incredibly exhausted days.

Muhammad Yunus is indeed a genius - a worthy receipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (together with Grameen Bank) in 2006. When the Nobel Peace prize winner was announced, I was a bit surprised to hear of this unknown man - such is the world of information and capitalism, that those worthy causes which do not generate profit and publicity does not gain much worldly attentions.

Here is a man who developed and built Grameen Bank, igniting the microcredit revolution, and at the same time, working on loans to poor women to conduct business and creating the social capability for them to lift themselves from the poor via small businesses. Loans were all less than USD 100 and yet it was capable to enable these women to be entrepreneurs and start new businesses for them to survive.

This book talks about a new idea which I found refreshing - social business. The idea of a social business is about a no profit, no dividend based business which seeks to address social issues ie. poverty, malnutrition (the example was contribution and establishment of Grameen Danone which provided yogurt to the poor in Bangladesh using a no profit scheme and at same time distribution channel of the Grameen women, enabling the poor to be part of the scheme).

The introduction itself was captivating, it addressed why World Bank, Governments, NGOs and Corporations with CSR intent was not able to address the social dilemmas but it required a new form of business called social business where these issues could be discussed.

A worthy read.

Beijing Olympics Torch Relay Fun Run - April 20

Photo credits to Hon You, from pacesetters/KC's blog site.
Pic 1 : Sieh Kok Chi, Olympic Council, with supposedly an "original torch". Everyone was quite hyped to be standing so near the "torch". Apparently Sieh ran as well...


Pic 2 : Starting line for the run...
Pic 3 : Me, with some "pia" spirit at the end, trying to speed up to potong someone...
Pic 4 : My buddy Wai Fun, also most loyal to the Olympic spirit, greeted by the samsung supporters on blades.., she is not a regular runner, but bravo to Orange Run last week and Olympic Torch Fun Run this week - great achievement...
Pic 5 : The finishing line, a bit informal but quite rah-rah as well.


Location - Dataran Merdeka, distance, around 5.82km (as seen from pacemaker blog)

This was the fun run I was not about to miss. Although it was hardly advertised and boasted a distance of only 5km - this was a good and relaxing run and also a great spiritual run for me as I uphold the Olympics as the greatest sporting arena for the modern world.

Probably two lines of strict opinionated thoughts - the Olympic Torch Relay has been to many countries and disrupted many times by pro-Tibet or human rights activists on China's stand and treatment on the Tibet issue. I am, and I think very much all whom I know still stand strong on that the Olympics is a great sport - do not mix politics with the Olympics. The effort of the athlete and also the spend on staging the greatest event for 2008, and for Asia to hold this center-stage in Beijing, this itself is a testament of the meaning of sport. I support the Olympics meaning and uphold its principles, and this was what the fun run was for. I hope the real Torch Run tomorrow will not be disrupted, and from what was advertised, we are targeting 80 key Malaysians who has contributed to sports and sponsorships to take the 16.8km Torch Relay, starting at Dataran Merdeka and ending in KLCC.

Despite a small crowd, it was very heartening to see people of all ages, young and old, take on this race, have the spirit to wave the sponsor's flags at the finishing line and also having a great simple sunday run.

Footnote - As this was just a 5km run, and also incredibly unfit, I had a first hand experience in dashing to the finishing line. I was racing this girl, for the last 50m, and we "sayur" one other lady - in the end I lost to her, I think I was running like it was 100m race - it really brought a smile to me as it was just plain fun to put on the speed and run like no tomorrow, even if it is just to the finishing line. I wish I had run a bit harder along the way, I probably missed a medal (top 20 only) by one or two minutes, finishing around 39:00 min at very easy pace.

Two Days and Two Monuments @ Sydney on April Fool's Day

The Sydney Harbour Bridge, site of fireworks every new years day...
Ah, I told you I was there for two days, this is the evidence. It was a great sunny day.

Magic turns people on....

I guess you give everyone a bit of time and put them into dinner and dance fancy dress theme, they are very creative. Magic was the theme of the simple but magical dinner and dance last Friday. Photo credits from the photographers, Kok Leong, and mostly Chin Geh (whom I stole most of this post since I could copy it).

The wardrobe was a clear winner of the best dress event. The guy who can think of the weird and unique spend as little as possible, understand what is needed to socialise his idea of best dress is definitely a smart young man.

Men who put on eyeliner or body paint deserve mention as superhuman effort to try to look good and can spend some time on it. In today's society, this is also an exception...

There was evil and tail pulling amongst even my most goodie two shoes team members. Women who smile and chooses to dress as witches are suspicious. So are good guys who can look extremely evil under camera.

There was a bit of flesh baring as well... again women held their ground with nice flat tummies and the sex appeal won the day for the best performance event with a bit of belly dancing - eh when was that magical?






Whatever turns the younger generation on.... it was a fun night!

Trailblazers Hunt 29 Mar 2008

This was the first treasure hunt for the year for our team. After announcing internally to my regular team that we should target to conquer the top 5 position this year, it was a slow start fro the treasure hunt season, thus finally in end March we got the chance to get onto this hunt. Of course the disadvantage was that the usual suspects of experts had already a few down their belt for the year, and were more fresh... and of course it was another CoC.

There were a few things at stake here, we agreed we would go for Kiwanis Hunt (which was quite expensive and some of us a bit tight on schedule), if we emerge top 15 and of course the standing promise that if we ever achieve our top 5 breakthrough I promised that after this "breakthrough", the next hunt after that I will drive my car for the hunt!

The bad news is that of course we messed up, and probably turned up more than the Kiwanis participation limit for the hunt, and did poorly in overall compared even to a team whom we know with two members who were our colleagues and were not regulars.

The good news (I'm ever optimist) is that I think we manage to break our thinking rhythm. We finally had some patience to figure out the sequence of what to be looking for and worked as a good team to find some of the answers. The only problem remains in that we had two weak areas - one was on treasures, and the other was not being careful to decipher and match the whole clue, causing us to drop a few route questions rather carelessly and figure out some of the difficult ones(!!).

So what do we need to do differently? I think we need to think about our approach clearly again, as definitely this was not good encouragement to be always hunting in the middle of the pack, and if we dont do something, nothing will improve.

One thing I noticed was how I was always told, treasure hunting is a sport. It is emphasised again and again by the experts. I do not disagree with this statement, but the beauty of this sport is that it is controlled by the brain. I know in my team, we have the capability to be the best because we have that capability within reach, whilst running a race really requires adequate conditioning of the body, conditioning of the mind was indeed more within reach than the body. But one thing I wanted to see more, in every sport, the most interesting thing is enjoyment, I do find the treasure hunt community to be a bit tight on themselves. To be honest, what is wrong about laughing about yourself or be more friendly after or before the race? Even during the race, nothing to stop you from giving the friendly competitor a bit of devilish smile. I find it odd that those who heckle the organiser are really the average joes, whilst the winners keep quiet and tense and hide their "interest".

Our time will come...

KLIM 2008 - The beginning of the end? Or the end of the beginning?

Picture credits - Vincent Leong

Blogging in reverse, I admit I had a good race. My race strategy was to take it easy as I had a terrible week of being too busy, and a lack of good practice for the last few weeks except for weekly runs (thanks to our running SIG!). The most I've ran before the race was the Circuit Run #2 within the last month and the GE 20km for the last 2-3 months. In between we had some fun weeks racing in double hills. With the nasty dry cough, I was not certain I would run about a week prior to the race, and also with the week following which I had to travel to Sydney immediately after the run. In the end I did the race because I had sacrificed my sydney trip going earlier because of the run. Again, my race strategy was simple because I knew this year, the time is longer for half marathon, 3.5hrs.

Standing at the starting line, I cannot believe that after so many runs (3 KLIM half marathons!), and four half marathons last year (KLIM, GE, Penang, PJ) I had not managed to get rid of this butterflies in my stomach feeling when I step to the starting pen (kandang!).

The loop this year has changed slightly, I was disturbed by the change because after the initial loop around KL and back to the starting line in the beginning, I noticed a good 16 minutes had gone past! When I did not manage to reach the drinks station after running for 45 minutes (it was supposed to be at 5km), I started to get weary and slowed down. This was probably my mental self also checkpointing myself that I could push myself as I needed to travel later in the day. When I slowed down, before Federal Highway, PL and JS passed me.

Surprisingly TY passed me only much later, closer towards the Sungei Besi - he is a very steady runner - he paces himself well for his large build. At the Sungei Besi turn, I was shocked to find that I had approximately touched almost 1:30 something, and this was indeed bad news but my great mind thought, well I ran the extra 16 mins at the beginning. This was when I started to really slow down after 11-12 km, and did half of the remaining race half walk and run. I shuffled past two of my companie's younger guys after about 12km near Pudu, it was such a thrill I was not last!!!

Most enjoyable difference this year was indeed the Adidas rain showers at the Sultan Ismail last stretch, who cares if I had wet shorts or wet vest, it was a cool shower!!! When I made the end I was just around 3hrs, it was a disappointment for a runner to get worse year after year, but I was quite pleased with myself, nevertheless this was also a point for me to reflect - I think I want to give up the sport for next year if I go on this way. How am I every going to go for the marathon distance? I think about it and wonder if I have to get back to the basics or quit the sport.

Postscript - Tonight, I took a box and put in my half marathon finisher medal this year. I had in the box, a collection of medals from 10-21km races throughout the last two years+ when I started running. It is a great achievement, for a person who is not an athlete inborn, but every race I see great motivational people and people who want to stretch themselves, and every year, I get more of my team to join the race. Racing is a lonely sport - as you run against yourself, but one which you feel scared in the beginning, want to retire in the middle, and a great accomplishment in the end. People ask me what I think during races, this race I ran without headphones and MP3, guess what, I was just thinking of whose butt am I following. Perhaps this lack of sensible thinking is why I really enjoy myself!

What a long week!

Phew, what a long week it had been.... and I have just gotten a small fragment of time to blog, but I do think the long week will not finally end until end of day tomorrow.

The week started the beginning of last week, when I had a roller coaster week, I was doing almost 5 different things every day / different critical things and projects related areas for the week. When I reached Thursday I was almost wiped out and I had even more on Friday. This is almost when I started to control my timing for the weekend.

Saturday - AM Trailblazer treasure hunt
Sunday - AM - Ran the half-marathon at the KL International Marathon, PM boarding a overnight flight to Sydney ex Singapore (with only 3 hrs sleep on the flight and some sore legs)
Monday - AM - reached Sydney hotel with 30 mins to spare before my training starts, PM visited a university friend whom I've not seen for many years
Tuesday - AM - day started at 8am, ended at 3pm. PM - went for a whirlwind tour of Sydney from Sydney Harbour Bridge/Opera House, boarding a ferry to Darling Harbour, visited the Sydney Aquarium, then had my Krispy Kreme doughnuts for dinner, and then a bunch of concalls
Wednesday - AM - day started with post office trip to send stuff to my brother in Melbourne, and then boarded a flight back to KL ex Singapore
Thursday - AM back to work, skipped both presentations I had, did lunch with client, and another bunch of concalls, a tender opening announcement, and finally to pick up costumes for D&D and camera equipment from brother at night.
Friday - D&D

And I am so completely drained... but I survived! I am not proud of this mad schedule, in fact if anything, I think it has finally cracked my need for speed.

When I was walking towards the pier in Sydney, on a bright Tuesday afternoon, in Sydney. I was really thinking, I need to quit this rat race. I had been coughing and suffering a lack of rest for the whole almost two weeks, and when I was walking towards the pier with a coffee in hand, with no hurry, I felt the world suddenly slowed, and I was walking down a road in sydney, going to see one of the most beautiful and famous sights in Australia. Why should I not be doing this more often? And for a good afternoon, I stopped coughing.

The soul is screaming for a rest!!!!

How Many?

Somehow, no one understood the purpose of having multiple blogs. So, no one has asked me, how many blogs do I have? I actually have 5 blogs!!! (Wow!) - two is stagnant, one is for my dad but he never wrote.

Extreme Leadership - My leadership series which I am beginning to enjoy writing a lot more

This blog - My personal blog which I've started way back in 2003

My photo blog - The photo blog which was intended to parallel one I saw in a friend's post, but ran out of gas on photos.. may be reactivated in future

Wireless Trends - A defunct (and one day I may activate it again) blog also started in 2003

Sow a Seed of Greatness - Seriously, this was my birthday present to my dad, to setup a blogsite for him, but he never did write anything. The phrase is indeed the tagline of his work - at that time he was creating motivational quotes for people.

In the course of the five years of on and off blogging, it has been a pleasure to surf and view others' writings - blogging is indeed a phenomenon of the modern internet world!

With much thanks to all who has given feedback here and there, and to Michele for asking to put my leadership series up for view within the corporation whereby I have politely declined. My thoughts are that if I write for others to read, I report, but if I write for pleasure and with good intent, I blog.

Pre-Treasure Hunt Photo Trivia

The brain has not been working well lately. I love it when I think that going for a treasure hunt will help it work faster... but well, one has got to try all sorts... Am definitely looking forward to jogging the brain cells a bit this Saturday.

I am a photography fanatic in a distance. What this means is that I have no patience to learn, but I do love good photos. Thus to bind together photography and treasure hunting, what else, here you go, photo-treasure guessing, well if it works I will do a series of ten, ok :

1. What is this? It is pictured next to my running watch for size purposes.



Hint : It has to do with the recent silence from a famous boy band from Taiwan who lost three members.

Answer when I feel like it, submit please

SMART Tunnel is not so smart after all

Caught this in the Star, after my short cut from TPM to KLCC was found BLOCKED off this afternoon. What? I thought the SMART Tunnel was for rain? I smell a big fiasco cooking up ...

SMART tunnel closed until further notice
PETALING JAYA: The SMART Tunnel has been closed since 6pm Saturday for flood-mitigation works because of heavy rains, and its management is unsure when it will be re-opened.
Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel Sdn Bhd experts will meet Monday to determine when the tunnel can be reopened, a spokesman told The Star.
The company is a joint venture between Gamuda Bhd and Malaysian Mining Corporation Bhd.

We are First Among Equals

Watch this space for more...

Blood Donation Restrictions

Can you read it? Spotted... at TPM

Anda dinasihatkan JANGAN MENDERMA DARAH jika anda PERNAH...

- Melakukan hubungan seks :

> seks sejenis (homoseks)

> kedua-dua jantina (biseksual)

> bertukar-tukar pasangan

- Menjadi pelacur & melanggani pelacur

- Menghidap penyakit kelamin

- Menagih dadah & berkongsi jarum

WOW!!!!! (get it translated if you do not understand malay- this is really blunt!)

Encounter with an ADUN

The housing area where my parents stay at recently has had a spate of petty thefts which is bordering on daring and also risky. The thieves uses a fishing style - they prey on open windows (even on upper floors of a double story house!), and also unlocked windows to pry open and use hooks to "fish" for valuable stuff. This has been ongoing nearly everyday or every other day for the last two weeks.

Last week there was a "steering committee" meeting for the representatives of the street. The steering comm was called to discuss actions to curb this. Surprisingly, the meeting was attended by the new ADUN from DAP (hey, everybody's ADUN now is opposition if you stay in the city!).

Guess what? One of the ADUN's suggestion to to rear a dog as an interim measure! Huh? What? (Even my dad was shaking his head when he related this to me!) - what kind of interim proposal is this!? I am beginning to wonder how "skilled" these newly voted ADUNs are ...

But, the message is still clear - we still need better security.

Class Act

Never been so proud of the guys.

No ocean too deep, no mountain too high, no distance too far. We can take on anything you throw at us.

This is my young team who has proven, they can take on the challenges.

Convergence and Divergence

At some point in time, some of the things converges and then one realises whether this is it. Whether this is a focal point, a beginning or a convergence before the end or the end of a beginning. Or whatever.

I have been feeling a throbbing headache for the last few days since Thursday. My body is starting to reject me! After a 10.8km run on Sunday, I felt my body broke down finally in protest - the week which I left behind on Thursday finally caught up with me and it told me I was not ok. I had a terrible Sunday, threw up my lunch, had a throbbing headache and the headache never stopped even up till now as I am writing.

I have tons of unfinished business, a few dozens of half done stuff and a lot on my mind.

My mind needs to take a vacation. It has gone beyond what my body can cope!

7 years @ TPM and still hungry...

As a consulting professional, I've always been mostly at clients site for work.

On and off, I have been at Technology Park Malaysia for about 7 years with some breaks in between (3 clients!).

This morning, this guy just really made me laugh - i was rushing off for a 2pm appointment without my lunch and he stopped me at the car park (do I look very friendly to young chaps - I thought everyone really thinks I look too snappily fierce recently?)

Young Malay Guy : Nak tanya, di mana ada tempat makan? Saya baru pindah office!
Me : Huh, err.... then I started staring at direction of APIIT - hesitated as it was quite far to point, then said - Disini tak ada tempat makan
Young Malay Guy : Huh, tak ada?
Me : Ya, tak ada, langsung tak ada - and started to point towards APIIT, muttered something like sana, turn right.
Young Malay Guy : (Very confused with the langsung tak ada and repeated) Saya baru pindah sini
Malay Man walking past : Makan? Di sana, kanan, ada kolej...
Me : (Nodding) Ya, APIIT... (Thinking, Ok, I can go now...)
Young Malay Guy : Jauh kah?
Malay Man walking past : Ya, 10 mins?
Young Malay Guy : Huh?
Me : (Started to LEAVE...!!!!)

Poor guy. Technology Park even after 7 years there on and off still has NO place to EAT on walking distance except APIIT (which serves paltry college kid food).

And why do strangers ask me questions like that? Just the same as the KLCC guy manning the scanner machine - sometimes he likes to practice his english on me "Good morning, how are you?" These guys do it only to specific people, and trust me, I know I do not have a "wish me a good morning face" - maybe I have a blank face and they want to see if I'm brain dead?

And I'd write more on 7 years @ TPM later...

Stress Kills

I was happily watching TV at home after work yesterday when I was informed by my mum that the notorious Klang municipal councillor Zakaria who built a mansion and had a satay house without a permit had passed away (apparently even this made it to the SMS alert from Star so many knew about it).

Me : Died?
Mum : Yes, die already (in chinese - "sei chor") !
Me : What? How? What do you mean die already?
Mum : Yes, just passed away after dinner
Me : Huh? You mean heart attack?
Mum : Dunno, must be....
Me : Wah, like "po ying" (chinese, meaning - paying for sins)
Mum : Ya, got big house also cannot enjoy... must go enjoy more la...

And at that moment, I turned on to Berjaya TV channel 502 on Astro (24 hour news), hoping to catch some of this gossip, when the TV turned to a special Bahasa talk show segment on "How to Handle Stress" - and I was watching it for 5 mins, and they mention hypertension causing heart attack, blah blah...

My heart felt a bit funny for a second. I recalled one occasion running the treadmill at a frantic pace just to get some of those overflow of info off my head... and I wonder, how come now I don't feel so stressed anymore? Or has hypertension set in within my low blood pressure?

Stress Kills...

And I am getting old too... systems stress level not good already...

(Post script - I was told that "po ying" means die a terrible death, but this guy really died away peacefully... so I wonder how many nasty SMS he received before his heart give up...)

With sincere apologies that I do not intend to make humor out of people's death, just the coincidence and realisation is that we should all live with less stress and also with every moment fulfilled always.....

Malaysia Decides - Tsunami of Change

The "rakyat" has spoken. I am shocked but really proud to be in a democratic country yesterday. The 12th election just saw a tsunami of shock defeats and a wave of change sweeping across the nation, with heavy casualties amongst top politicians, handing over the coalition its worst performance since our independence.

As predicted in the last blog, the winds of change, coupled with a long list of undeniable dissatisfaction points of the existing government had brought huge wins for the opposition, and to my surprise, the coalition lost the 2/3 majority although maintained a simple majority.

The tsunami effect had been totally unexpected even by the politicians themselves. The people carried the sentiment of problems and voted out many incumbents instead choosing for the opposition, sending a strong message to the government for a need for change.

Selangor, my home state, and Kuala Lumpur where I work, will be ruled by opposition.

A PAS MB (Chief Minister) will rule Kelantan and Kedah, whilst Keadilan MB will rule Selangor and DAP MB will rule Penang.

We will have a bunch of lesser experienced, young, enthusiastic, parlimentarians in the opposition party, whose consensus needs to be agreed to change the constitution.

We will have three strong opposition parties in the parliament.

Meanwhile, the Barisan Nasional alliance will be required to do serious soul searching on the brand of race based politics and examine the need for stronger leadership across the various component parties.

What does the future brings after the tsunami has cleared and everybody realises they need to get back to their regular life?

The optimist in me sees that the Barisan Nasional team needs to examine itself closely, because they need to do a thorough post-mortem, understand the real reasons for the dissent, give up self denial, cut off the cancerous bits, bring in fresh blood, transparency and socio-economic progress for all, and reinvent themselves - because they can only get better in the next 2013 elections. Be man enough to accept defeat and rebuild for the future. Whilst the opposition will be stronger after given a chance, they could also be weaker if they are not effective.

The people have spoken, have you heard them?

Now... get to work please, all you Yang Berhormats...

Election Fever

Pic - SS2 Ceramah on 7 Mar - it was raining.

The winds of change are blowing. It is a question of change with new or change with old, but I am convinced that this Election Day for Malaysia, on March 3rd 2008 will be carried through with a gust of the winds of change.

I am truly convinced the national coalition, Barisan Nasional will still win the elections and retain a 2/3 majority, hence achieving a mandate for the next 4 years. However, the elections fever has really caught on with the nation, and with strong challengers, new, young blood, unsolved mysteries, allegations of corrupt practices, the governments coalition front should brace itself for a tough fight, and surprise wins and loses will be in store for the rakyat and the government.

I am not advocating directly the opposition's vote, but this is my first elections which I have truly felt the need to exercise my vote, and I whilst I have not made up my mind, I am determined to exercise it responsibly.

This elections, for the very first time, I have attended two lively ceramahs thus far. Although I did not sit through (or rather stand through) the entire ceramah, it was very interesting listening to the speakers, and last Saturday, the first time I attended the ceramah, I went with my parents!!! And yet, old and young turned up, and I saw a friend also bringing his parents. And this is when I know the winds of change is blowing. Very much like Obama vs Clinton, see where Obama is - he is a fiercely strong and motivating speaker. And this is where I see the opposition has changed since the last elections. No longer a paltry 50-60 people last time I saw the ceramah in 2004 elections outside a restaurant we frequented, now the opposition draws a 2000-5000 crowd nightly and with a concerted effort, driven by information.

If you are a strong patriotic citizen, I urge you to listen to and be informed, to seek knowledge and make a responsible choice.