SKI - Sure Kena Injured

The title is just to grab attention. One of the most exhilarating sport one can participate in while he or she is still fit and active is to be able to ski. My family and I have gone for ski holidays for 2 straight years and I am frankly hooked. There are many affordable ski packages to places like Korea and China and they have excellent resort facilities as well as top end ski instructors and equipment for rental. I can't afford the Swiss Alps experience yet but would LOVE to try the Jungfrau mountains (Swiss - German) at least ONCE IN MY LIFE.

One of the downsides, is that one has to be a) fit and have some stamina and have b) strong bones. It is not recommended for people above 55 years old unless they happen to be sportsmen who have been very active all their lives. The strong bones and coordination part is ESSENTIAL because there will be times when you will fall (how do you learn then ?) or when you have the misfortune of bumping or someone bumping into you and then it is a mad rush to a) stay on your feet and stay balanced and b) avoid hitting ski-lift poles or even out of bound barriers. Every year, hundreds of skiers do get injured or even killed, due to many reasons, so its not a sport for the desk-bound person.

Personally, it is a great sport with its fair share of thrills and spills as part of it. I can't wait to hit the slopes soon !

A Night on the Town - Heritage

Wednesday night, I had visitors from Germany and Malaysia, so after dinner, we headed for Duxton Road to sample some of Singapore's nightlife. Tucked away somewhere at the centre of Duxton Road, is this little nightspot, JJ Atlante which features, Heritage, Singapore's PREMIER rock and blues band. I was taken aback that this band has been around for 37 years and the original band members are still around and doing great gigs.The average age is in the mid 50s for at least 3 of the members.

Heritage Band is fronted by leader Atwell Jansen (with the skull cap) and is typically a 4 piece band. Showtime starts at 10.45pm (quite late for early risers like me) and there are 'guests officers' with foreign accents for those so inclined. They played hits from the 60s and 70s from Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Led Zepplin and Bad Company. (Roland Take Note !!)

For my money, 3 draft mugs at S$ 26 dollars and to watch one of the BEST bands in Singapore is a GREAT Singapore DEAL.

Karate for All

I am a member of KSK Karate Club located in Tanglin Community Centre since 2002. Headed by Sensei Chia Kwek Fah, it currently has about 100 members of which 30 are currently active. We meet every Sunday at 5pm (for seniors) and 6 to 7.30pm for the rest of the members. Any body with some basic fitness can join the club. Fees are $60 for a term of 12 weeks.

Mr. Chia holds a 7th Dan Black Belt - Shitoryu Style and has approximately 45 years (!) experience as a karateka and easily 30 years as a coach. He was the coach for Karate in Team Singapore in the 2005 SEA and in the past held many titles,including Asia champion - kumite category.He has several Chinese poetry books to his name, and is currently managing his business offering consultancy in photography,martial arts, sports science and Chinese calligraphy.

My opinion after having taken up the art for 7 years now is that it is a tough sport,which requires endurance and a high degree of flexibility and agression. Many junior members, ranging from 5 years to 16 years old have 'graduated' to senior belt status (brown and black) and the art teaches discipline, respect for seniority,agressiveness and humility. Basic techniques are the leraning of many blocks (uke or barai), punches (tsuke),kicks (geri) and stances (dach). Also threre is the aspect of kata or form,which is the application of the above into a structured pattern or 'war' dance.

For the seniors such as myself, we can pick up additional skills like disarming agressive attackers, free sparring (kumite),
and learning of Sai (three pronged pincer), nanchaku and even the dong fa (baton used by police).

Most of all, it showed me that the human body is capable of withstanding attacks by effective blocking techniques and then applying trained strikes at the opponents vulnerable parts rendering them harmless.

Picture shows, Esther, Ricky Ng, Me and Looi Teck Kheong.

School Hols are Here, Time to Party !

Cycling



Watering the Garden



X Box 360 Time for Noel and Andrew


This is the time the Boys so richly deserve,at the year end when all the exams are over, its time for some FUN, so this is IT.

42km,150m Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2005 - Real Drama

The date was 5 December 2005 morning, I can still remember the incident as clear as yesterday. This was the 3rd full marathon I was attempting and it was HOT and humid.I had my arranged supporter, Kannan, from Malaysia who had come all the way from Malacca to help supply me the Gatorade drinks and Powergels. We had arranged that he meet me at specially designated locations to hand me the "life savers" as I estimated there would be a thousand runners in front of me, and probably many thousands behind me. This was the MOST dramatic ending to my marathon runs which I am not going to forget soon.

The race started at 6.00 am, it was smooth sailing for me for the first 10km or so, I was near the faster runners - not the elites, nor the chasing bunch, but somewhere in the first 25% or so. I had been pacing myself and had trained religiously for this run which I thought would be a managable distance,as I had run it 2 times previously, once in Penang (2003) and once in Singapore 2004.
I WAS SO WRONG.

The first 10 to 14km was the stretch from the Esplanade Bridge right down Shenton Way to all around Marina Bay area and back before looping back to Robinson Road and head towards the Padang and the Esplanade Drive and down to Raffles Avenue.

The race was carried out on a hot morning, and by the 23km mark, I had a cramp on my right calf. This occured somewhere around the 6 km mark at East Coast Park. "Oh Oh", I thought, "Not Good and so early into the run." By this time, at 8.20am or so, the first Kenyan runner finshed the race. I was only half-way through !!

I managed to squeeze some Counter Pain Gel on my leg and carried on. At around the 30km mark, I had a another muscle strain, this time on my left calf. Again I stopped and applied some stretching and some muscle cream. The time was about 9.30 am and I had met Kannan once but had missed seeing him on the 20 km segment, as there were just too many runners passing by for him to spot me and I was probably bunched up with my eye on my leg rather than people or supporters.

By the 32km, I was pouring water down my head to douse myself and try to ignore the ache. BAD MOVE. The water trickled down to my legs and seeped into my running shoes. As I was hot, I intitally felt relieved with the water energising me.So I started drinking a bit more and pouring plain water down my head. My shoes by this time were squishing in water and I was literally running in SQUISHY SHOES.

Finally, the end point could be seen, 40km, just 2km more to go. I was preparing myself for the photo opportunity and with the thousands of spectators cheering us on, it was a massive boost to my very tired limbs. With 100m left to go, I thought to myself "Go for it buddy, break the 5 hour mark !". So I started to accelerate with about 80m left to go.

The exhilaration was with me, I was taking the cheering and shouting and started to move faster.60m, 50m,40m, ..... then WHAM !

My left hamstring tightened so very tightly that I pulled up and stopped totally. I was in extreme pain and lost my balance, and fell flat in front of thousands of cheering spectators !! The announcer who was announcing the numbers started shouting my Bib number and by sheer willpower, I tried to get up. I was blocking the other runners who were making their way to the 'chute'.

Another runner stopped by to help me back to my feet,but he let go of me after 10 seconds and I was practically 'legless', my legs were all rubbery and I could not even stand let alone run.

I fell back again on the road, and the announcer and the people were going crazy. I was doing a crazy stand up and fall down routine and runners were passing me and I almost knocked one down. Finally, a quick thinking medic ran to me and together we ran across the finish line which was probably 20m away.

I had slaps on my back and strangers coming up to shake my hand, all I wanted to do was sit down and I sat down with my aching body for 45 minutes and drank about 2 bottles of 100+. I had never felt so awful and relieved after a run in my whole life !

Finally when my body recovered, I was able to pull myself up,get my medal and find a taxi home. REAL DRAMA. RESPECT THE DISTANCE.

Thailand Tiger Zoo

Located in the province of Chonburi Thailand, there is this lovely little zoo called Tiger Zoo and I had the good opportnunity to visit it last year, this photo is my momento of me and some distant 'cousins' and I am in my long sleeve and silk tie. I wonder why people call this dressing the 'monkey suit' when the monkeys are all dressed up in T-shirts ??

There are several 'social experiments' which amaze people, fully grown female
tigers suckling pigs in the same cage. Fully grown sows (female pigs) suckling tiger cubs and I also got the chance to feed a tiger cub milk. At three months it is already weighing almost 20 kgs !

My staff will get the oportunity to view the REAL Tiger Show from Thailand soon as we have a major project in the Eastern Seaboard in the South East Thailand in January 2009.

Visit the website www.tigerzoo.com for the attractions.

Thoughts on Cooking from a Novice Chef

I am a novice cook and these few months I have been given the opportunity to cook breakfast for my family,so I bought this book "Healthy Appetite" by Gordon Ramsay (who else). For those who are not familiar, Gordon Ramsay is the foul mouthed chef who has several Michelin star restaurants in London and other parts of the world. He has his own cooking show,on AFC or Asian Food Channel and my wife, May is a fan.

Cooking is very much an art with scientific techniques applied, and you have to be on your toes, all the time in the kitchen.
The chef is like the "Commander in Chief" and he has control over everything when he creates his dishes. The mind must be thinking of what to do next, for how long, apply what, pace the stir fry or steaming, when to turn over the food, fire level,
seasoning, tasting and a whole host of other parameters. I am a beginner or a Novice so these are my initial thoughts on cooking.

Tasting the food at the beginning and before it is finally served is a must, as is the Presentation of the food.

The result ? When your guets or your family tuck in and the expression on their faces is the reward. It can be
priceless. Try cooking, get in touch with your creative side.