F1 in Singapore

Singapore hosted F1's first ever Night Race located in the City District of
Marina Square,Stamford Road,Raffles Boulevard and Raffles Avenue. With more than 500 million people watching and easily half of Singaporeans either at the Race circuit,at the local pubs,restaurants or at home, it was an enormous success with plenty of thrills,crashes,screw-ups (Ferrari mainly) and the never to be forgotten "yeeoum" sound of the V8s of those phenomenal cars driven by the ice-for- blood drivers of world class standard.

For the record, Fernando Alonso (Renault) won with Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Lewis Hamilton (MacLaren Merceded) taking 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Lewis Hamilton leads by 8 points in the 2008 drivers category. Felipe Massa - poor guy - lucked out when the pitstop turned into a refuelling nightmare with the fuel pipe still stuck into his car and those stocky mechanics ran the 100 m to the car like they were in slow motion ! They need someone from Jamaica in their team.

I tried very hard using both my mobile phone 3.2 MPixel camera and the Olympus 7.1 MPixel with ASA400 shutter but could not freeze frame these speedsters.

F1, Singapore has arrived finally.

Ah Beng without wheels - a self descripton of Myself

A funny thing happened when I was out for my weekend run yesterday, let me explain. It ALWAYS starts like this, I plan to do a 8km or a 10 km around my housing estate. I had planned to start at around 6 pm and run the loops at the forest near our house - filled with lovely flame of the forest trees and a family of wild cockatoos, followed by the route to Mount Rosie, Malcolm Road, Whitley Road, back to Bukit Timah Road. That is 1 loop and 5 km (I measured). I planned to run 2 loops or10km as part of my marathon preparations for the end of year Standard Chartered Marathon.

I started rather slowly wanting to 'take it easy' at about 7min / km pace and up it later on. As I finished the firstloop in the forest, I heard some footsteps and turned back. It was another runner, a Caucasian chap about 30+ and quitefit looking. He was running about the same pace as me. "Run your own race" I mentally told myself as I ran according to my pace.

The footsteps got louder and soon we were side by side. We did not say a thing or greet each other as is sometimes the case, we runners are very friendly most of the time. I on one side of the road and he on the other. Soon he was starting to up his pace a little. "What, you wanna race issit ?" I mentally told him. " Not on MY HOME GROUND you won't !". So I increased my pace somewhat to about 6min 30 secs per km.

We both came to the foot of Mt Rosie, I could see he was struggling. I opened up and 'attacked' the hill. With each step I caught him by a few feet. Three quarters up the hill I caught up with him and could hear his panting. I ran like a man possesed and sprinted down the hill past the community centre and ran below 6 minutes per km all the way on Duneran Road and back to my house. I turned to look back triumphantly at the 'small victory' I had achieved and saw him about 100 metres behind.

I was out of breath when I reached my house. I cooled down and had a swig of Gatorade.

Oh and I stopped, thats was it I was puffed out running a fast 5km all focussed on beating an angmoh and messed up my plan to run the 10km distance.

So much for planned my Long Slow Run for 10km. Me the Ah Beng without wheels just spoiling to race anybody.

Strategy for Tough Times - Which One are You ?

RECESSION, WHAT'S THAT ?


RECESSION, IT WILL NOT AFFECT ME IF I DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT !


CHASE HARDER FOR MY DINNER,STAY LEANER,PLAN,CHANGE DIRECTION,ATTACK

What My Mother Taught Me

My mother, Anna, will be 78 this year. She lived through the 2nd World War and married my father, Geoffrey in 1959. She came from a once wealthy family whose fortunes tumbled after my maternal grandfather left the family in Hong Kong.She is the eldest in the Wen family of 4 sisters and 1 brother and all who are residing in Singapore.
She is very thrifty on herself but doted on us 2 sons and although her wealth came through shrewd property acquisitions and stock market picks over the last 25 years, she never splurged on herself like taking expensive holidays overseas. When the time came for us 2 sons to enjoy some overseas holidays, she readily gave with love.
A personal assistant in the Ministry of Health for over 30 years, she still keeps in touch with many doctors who are active in the Ministry or who have left. A personal friend was the famous pathologist Dr. Chao Sie Ching who passed away in 2000.

So what did my Mum teach me ?
1. Don' sweat the small stuff.
2. A dollar saved is a dollar earned
3. Help a friend in Need

Here's to you Mum

Shanghai - A City moving at Top Speed

Night View of Pu Dong taken from the Bund


Top Speed of 431 km/hr !


Pic shows Kannan and Somsak beside the 'Lie Che' or Mag-Lev Train


Pic shows Pu Dong from the Huang Pu River

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.