Olympics Aftermath...

I miss the olympics already. I forget sometimes that I have transformed to become a great armchair sports-person... so here are my few comments and memories of the greatest show on earth (and they have been influenced by later events...) .

1. Diving - what an awesome dive from Mitcham of Australia to overtake the chinese diver for Gold, with an impossible near perfect executed dive, on the last dive. Even the armchair sportsman was impressed. A true champion... but... did you know he was gay? On google I discovered this - rather I would think, what is the big deal? But it seems that these groups highly publicise his win - lets just say they are proud of him! (Picture Credit to the site).

2. Swimming - I probably got tired of Michael Phelps after his 3rd gold. No doubt, he is one of the best olympian in history, if not the best. But what really impressed me was the emergence of the lesser nations - ie. The Korean who won the breaststroke - he broke the China-Australia-America domination!
Picture Credits to Korea Times

3. Athletics - Usain Bolt, need I say more? And the biggest screw up for US for both their mens and womens 4x100.

4. Athletics - Yelena Isinbayeva - awesome focus and mental strength. She said - "The world is my runway and I am here to perform" and perform she did, at 5.05m

5. Badminton - Lin Dan - sorry to ignore Lee Chong Wei here, but Super Dan played an awesome match in the final. I would never say Chong Wei did not perform, but Lin Dan performed exceptionally well!

6. Tennis - Rafael Nadal - congratulations to the newly crowned world number one - best match was with Novak Djokovic - this was really more the gold medal match than the other one with Fernando Gomez.

7. Weightlifting - you would not believe I would watch this, but not only myself, but countless other armchair TV addicts during the olympic season loved weightlifting. My favourite lift? The chinese lady who said she can, and shattered the world record. I cannot remember her name

8. Soccer - playing under the 42C temperature for the final - congraulations to both Nigeria and Argentina!

9. Cycling - Road racing all the way to the great wall of china. Fantastic route and challenge.

10. Marathon - And... the finale, one up for the marathon woman - Constantina Tomescu (38 years old!!!!)
Congratulations and I did watch both the men's and women's marathon. What impressed me was despite the contrast of the two events (womens was in the rain, mens was quite hot), I was humbled by these representatives who really battled themselves to the finishing line - it was inspirational to see the TV broadcast showing numbers up to 60-70 and up to the end position, despite the winner has probably already gotten tired of running their victory lap. It signifies the effort and the triumph of the marathon, and the human spirit.

With this, I hope to have the same inspiration 4 years later from London 2012.

Great show, Beijing.

Fired up over fireworks... MIFC - Spain!

To the nicely choreographed soothing music and numb knees, three precious hours of standing and the nasty rain cutting into the routine, fireworks has never been so beautiful against the Putrajaya sky.

The photographer, however, needs to improve her amateur status ...

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.