St. Andrews Dinner - 30 Years since I left school !

Saturday 30th was an exceptionally memorable day for me and for all my school friends from St.Andrews. As we had 'graduated' from Sec 4 in 1978, this was especially meaninful for all of us. There were several whom I had not seen for 30 years but apart from the expanded waist-lines, receding and / or some greying hairs all of us looked like our boyish selves.Our Form Teacher Mr. Victor Wee was present at the next table and we were thrilled to meet him again.

To the 'boys' of 1978, Chew Ping Nan,Pang Seng Meng,Chandakanth,Gurdeep,Thedasidas,Michael Lim,Paul Lim,Jimmy Lee,Andrew Lee,S. Iswaran,Peter Chin,Ng Tong Yang,Ow Hing Choy,Faisal Alsagoff,Edward Ong,Fong Kar Yew, Jay Su Kian Teck,Loke Khoon,Paul Ezekiel,Heng Chow,Chiu Loo Kwong,Freddy Choy and Malcolm Lim Kian Leng ;

May our bonds of friendship last for as long as we live.

UP AND ON !!

Hazy Day 28 -08-08

Today I was downtown at about 9.15 am and noticed that the sky was exceptionally hazy so I decided to stop my car and amidst the drizzle, went out near the Padang to snap this shot.
If it reminds you of anything related to 9-11, well that day is just around the corner.

Singapore Bay Run 2008 - Half Marathon ; Good Weather but Lousy Route Management

I ran my 5th Singapore Bay and Army Half Marathon today in a time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 53 seconds. While the weather ws cool and breezy, the race management was BAD. The race director(s) were probably army personnel who had never thought of how the route would be run with 10,000 runners and made poor errors of judgement. My thoughts :

1. The start at 6.30 am was fine but there were approximately 10,000 runners doing the 21km and from the start, we headed down from Espanade Bridge down Shenton Way and barely 500 m into the race, we were running through a Construction Site!
Yes, construction workers from Bangladesh,China and India were on either sides of the new Marina Boulevard cheering us on. NUTS.

2. The roads cordoned off were only 1 to 2 lanes at some points so it was very squeezy and we were bumping into each other as well as elbowing or maneuvering round the slower runners.

3. Water Points - Poorly managed by the various army units; they underestimated the number of runners and even as I was in the faster 25% of the runners, they were running out of water. They had the cups and the water but did not estimate properly how many cups to place on the table. Many times, runners DON'T WANT to hang around waiting for the water to be poured. Wastes time.
Worse still, the umbrellas of the water points all had 100 plus signs but NO ISOTONIC DRINKS.

4. Streetside festivities - Its more of a distraction rather than a booster ; too few and far between. Give me the Cheerleaders anytime.

5. 14 km to 17.5 km - I don't understand this route at all. They opened a new road hardly tarred,narrow and worst of all, with potholes, nothing but cleared land on either side. No supporters, no water points, no nothing. Felt like something out of
army trekking. We should stick to the road and forget the Marina Barrage segment.

6. Marina Barrage - Big deal, another land bridge. So what ?

Mr. Race Director - I wonder why I take part every year, spend $35.00 and go through all of this ?

12 hours before Race Day 24th August

Its less than 12 hours before I run the Singapore Bay 1/2 marathon and the preparations are all done ; I managed a good 8 hours on Friday night and I hope to have at least 7 hours of solid sleep before I can do my best. The number on my bib is V8989 which is a nice number and the Championchip is positioned nicely on my ASICS.
Though I have had minimal training - running 2 to 3 times a week for about 8 km mostly, I am confident that I will manage about 2 hours 15 minutes ; the time I posted last year which is about 6 minutes and 30 seconds per kilometre. I will run with a bottle in hand - like a drunk - and bring along 2 PowerGels.
Wish me luck. It should be fun

Wen - Steady ; Jia Wei - You Rock

Singapore's Table Tennis Ladies Captain,Li Jia Wei tried her best in the true Olympian spirit but was not able to overcome a gritty Guo Ye (World No.2). She lost in the Bronze Medal playoff last night -22nd August 2008 and there were 4 million Singaporeans cheering for her with every singles smash,lob,backhand and topspin plus every airpunch she made.

One may view her dainty moves around the table-tennis table as similar to a 'princess' and compare that to the gtitty Chinese No. 2 as a 'tomboy' but there is no denying that Li Jia Wei is a world-class athlete and the Beijing Olympics have proven that she is indeed in the top 5 table-tennis players in the world right now. She wrote on her hand "Wen" which meant "steady" to ensure that she kept a steady head and control her emotions.

Yes, she was disappointed and cried but I admire her discipline,tenacity,mental toughness and most of all her sacrifice to reach the pinnacle of the sport which has given Singapore so much to be proud of. The world remembers only the winners but not those who had slogged for hours every day for the last 10 - 15 years to compete in a match or race lasting no more than 1 hour or even 10 seconds (see 100 metres) and at the end there is nothing so show for it, if you are 4th,5th 16th or 35th. Ordinary people will never understand or experience the feeling of this greatness or happiness or sorrow - at the highest levels such as the Olympics.

At the end, it is the Olympic Creed which we should be mindful what Bishop Etherbert Talbot said in 1908 :

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part,just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.The essential point is not to have conquered but to have fought well"

Silver is our Gold ! Well Done Ladies !

The whole of Singapore was rooting for our Women's Table Tennis Team on Sunday 17th August 2008 at 7.30 pm.Playing to a packed 5,000 partisan crowd at the Peking University Gymnasium which included President Hu Jin Tao no less in attendance, our ladies played their hearts out and used their wily brains to try to outfox the Top 3 table-tennis players in the world.
We lost 3 - 0 but our ladies are our national heroines which our children can strive to emulate. Li Jia Wei, Feng Tian Wei and wang Yue Gu. You have accomplished Mission Impossible. I am so proud of OUR ladies.

Money Changing Tips

As a frequent traveller round the region - I do 2 trips a month to Malaysia,Thailand,China and soon Indonesia- I have noticed that the Bureau de Change or Money Change Booths at the Singapore airport while they offer "No commission" on the money which you change, the 'spread' in which you buy and sell the foreign currency is wider than if you were to purchase at the
overseas airports such as KLIA or Suvhanabhum.
An example, at KLIA yesterday, the rate which CIMB bank buys S$ (you sell to CIMB ie. they pay RM) is S$1 = RM 2.31
And the CIMB bank Sells S$ (you buy S$ or when you exchange back from RM to S$) at RM 2.39 = S$ 1.00
So for a S$ 100 exchange you get RM 231 ;
When you change back you pay RM 239 to get back S$ 100.
So in essence the bank earns RM 9 ; or S$ 3.89 per exchange of $100 or 3.89%.
You lose RM 9 in essence.
In Singapore, a check at the local bank exchange shows RM 1 = 0.435 or Sells RM 2.29 for S$ 1
When Buying the RM, local exhange is RM 2.44 for S$ 1.00
The spread is then RM 15 or 6.5%
You lose RM 15 in essence.
Conclusion : Don't change foreign currency at Changi, change at the overseas airport when you arrive.

Olympics Beijing 2008 - Go !

Go Team Singapore ! Table Tennis Gold awaits ! Only China to Beat for the Gold ! You are Winners already !


Malaysia Boleh ! Beat Li Dan for the Gold Medal ! Go Chong Wei !

9th August 2008 National Day Horror Run

This morning I decided to run at 11am,at East Coast Park after dropping off my wife at gym class. Having rested at least
9 hours the night before from a short 2 day trip to Malacca I felt that this was the perfect opportunity to get the body conditioned for the Singapore Bay half marathon (24 August) barely 2 weeks away.

I started the run quite ambitiously wanting to do a complete 12 km and get my body used to the distance. The first
6 - 8 km were quite smooth, however, the heat started to pick up after 11.30 am and the throngs of people coming to the
East Coast Park were making things difficult as I had to swerve to avoid the prams,bikers and small children.My pace was about 5.50 min/km which was quite fast given the temperature and I was wearing shades. At around the 8 km mark,my breathing became quite laboured and I stopped at the wash area to douse myself.

I continued again for another 1.5 km before stopping once more as I was puffed. After walking for 1 minute or so
I continued and ran slowly all the way back to the start point.

This is recorded as the most trying run for me this year and I call it the Horror Run of National Day for all
the mistakes made during this run.

This is to remind myself not to make the following stupid errors in future :

Error # 1 : No proper Hydration. I did not drink much before embarking on this run.It is not good enough to have fun at
Aldy's and down 3 beers - and take it as hydration.
I should have drunk at least 1 litre just before I attempted to run this distance of 12 km.
I also should have drunk lots of fluids the night before.

Error # 2 : Too Hot to Run. What was I thinking ?
The temperature from 11am - 12 pm was 33 to 34 deg C and humidity was in the high
80s. Unless you want to have heatstroke, this is NOT the time to do distance running unless it is raining or
overcast.

Error # 3 : Body was getting Too Hot.!
My mind was very lightheaded and I was braking out in cold sweat near the half - way mark.
Luckily there were several washpoints along the way and I doused myself.

Error# 4 : Wrong Place to Run; This was very packed with thousands of people having Barbecues,Pitching Tents,
Roller Blading and Cycling on Running Path

Error # 5 : Too ambitious.Distance was a little long to attempt as my past runs were all about 8 to 10 km.

When I finished running I actually said : "Oh God !" ; It was not a sigh of relief but a reprimand to myself
of all the wrong things to do leading to this Horror Run. Hopefully I will learn my lesson and do better in 2 weeks.

6 months Lag Time before Belt Tightening ?

Every day we see that the world economy is not doing well and that there is a MAJOR recession looming.On the flipside, we see that the annual NATAS (travel fair) has record bookings for holidays for the end of year holidays, Singaporeans have this "heck care" attitude that 'I want to enjoy now never mind about the world economy' which is quite disconcerting or is it that they have already factored the recession in ?

My opinion is that many people (myself included) have our heads buried in the sand and are in denial.America is on the verge of bankruptcy (thats my opinion) and whether the world can depend on the 2 emerging economic superpowers to save the day is anybody's guess. Chinese and Indian companies are muscling in (already) on infrastructure projects like Energy Grids and Steel, and of course the tourism sector still is buoyant from Chinese and Indian tourists. But the downstream future for S'pore in my opinion is quite pessimistic, looking at what Macau and Las Vegas have experienced major losses, the first time in a long while. So whats the upside ??

So I will cast my hat in the ring to say "Save $$ now, Minimise new expenses and frivolous holidays. Keep liquid preferably in EUROS, buy Gold and look for good bargains in equity like REITs (thanks Roland).

Its not while knuckle time, but my money is staying right in my pocket for the next few years.

Early Morning Run Upper Bukit Timah - Singapore Zoo

This morning,3rd August, I made an appointment with Loo Kwong, my friend from primary school, (40 years !) who is an avid runner too and we both set off from his place at Hume Road (Upper Bukit Timah) and ran all the way to the Zoo at Mandai Road, a distance of 11.03 km as measured by the Nike band. My pace was 6mins 29secs per km and time taken was 1 hour 11mins.It was a nice cool morning when we set off at 6.12am. I wans't sure of the route and we made up the route along the way Originally we wanted to run to Johore Bahru (!).Only sanity and lack of a passport stopped us. Next week we have Roti Canai at
J.B.!
The SportsBand works well and is easy to activate and upload. You can register an account and upload your running log under the website www.nikeplus.com. There are forums there,10km to marathons worldwide and even challenges you can set to your vitrual or real world running friends. Its a grand welcome to the world Globalised Running !

Nike Sport Band - Cool Toy

This is the latest 'toy' from Nike, the Sportband. It costs S$ 100 from any Nike shop and you need to wear it on your wrist plus insert the pedometer with transponder into any Nike shoe (my Nike Triax has the fitting). You will need to calibrate the distance run by running around a track (known distance) and adjusting accordingly.It will be able to track how far you run, your runnng speed (pace in km or miles per hour) and calories burned. You can then upload your training log on the PC at www.nikeplus.com Can't wait to try it !

Simulation Testing for Athletes - Why Not ?

My company is the exclusive distributor for the Weiss Technik (Germany) range of Environmental Simulation and Testing Chambers for the South East Asian market and the sizes range from small table-top models to huge Walk-In Chambers to test everything from electronic parts (semiconductors),disk drives,completed products like PDAs,handheld PCs,noteboooks,handphones etc.The largest products typically are the complete assembled cars and sometimes aircraft.The manufacurers typically test the products to their environmental conditions under which they will operate or perform to a) ensure reliability ie. perform well in any conditions, be it snow, rain,high humidity or even dust and windy conditions b) weed out the weak products at the early stage so that only the strong products are put to market and therby ensuring the company's good reputation for quality and reliability.

My question to the Singapore Sports Council, if products can be tested to their extremes. why stop there ? Test our best sportsmen (of course with the proper medical supervision and equipment available) in the conditions in which they will perform their sporting challenge. That is to say, use these Walk-In chambers to simulate Beijing's temperature and wind conditions during the Summer Olympics or for altitude training which has proven very effective, why fly them to the Alps or mountains when all this can be done at home on the treadmill and simulated Alpine and low oxygen conditions ? SSC has been using the low oxygen inhaler on our top swimmers, what about the track and field athletes ? With the money invested and rewards offered to medal winners, SSC could consider buying or renting such equipment from the manufacturers or distributors (heh heh).