a decade and then some...

In November 2005, I wrote about looking for my buddy, PJ. Thanks to the internet, the search ended in 2007 when I found him through Aline, a mutual friend, on an online networking portal. We later hooked up through MSN Messenger and then Facebook - not that we chatted a lot over MSN or send pokes or virtual gifts over Facebook much. As I have mentioned in my post in 2005, PJ has not been good with writing e-mails. He is the kind of person who you would enjoy his company in the flesh than over a conversation over MSN or the phone. So, yeah, we exchanged a couple of short e-mails and the occasional short chats over messenger since. I am so glad that we managed to get in touch again.

Then, last week, he surprised me when he pinged me on MSN and asked if I am free for lunch this week. Off course, in an instant I knew that he would be making his way to this part of the world. I was elated! He and his wife, Michelle (yes, he is married now) were going to be in this part for a week or so, visiting his brother-in-law and family in Singapore before going to Hanoi for a few days.

So, I met PJ yesterday, ten years since I last saw him. He is a bit 'healthier' now but other than that, he is still the same fun guy that I used to hang out with. I could not believe that it has been ten years but PJ thought that it was only five years ago. Obviously some people have a good memory. :-P It is like nothing has changed. We were talking away like when the last time we met was only a day ago. We were catching up on what we have been up to and off course, reminisced on the good old days. How could we not? However, trying to cramp the conversations missed for the last decade into a couple of hours was difficult but it was better than not having it at all. We had quite a bit of laugh over lunch and coffee. The plan is to meet up again in ten years. Crazy but it might just work. Whatever it is, I am delighted to have met PJ again and I certainly look forward to meeting him again. In the meantime, it is back to the occasional short chats over MSN messenger.

Dinner, Seattle, October 1998



















Coffee, Singapore, February 2008

democrats to demonstrate..

When George W Bush was re-elected to the White House in 2004, the rest of the world was disappointed, yours truly included. That American election was closely followed by most of us because we all wanted Bush out and a democrat back in the White House. The one thing that I still remember till this day was what Cyrille said to me during the days leading to the election. It was funny - "the American election is being covered so much by the French media that I don’t know if I am still French." Hilarious!

So, we all waited for 4 years for the next election and hoping the Democrats can find a strong candidate to run against the Republicans. At the time, we thought Hillary Clinton is the best candidate... until now, that is. Barack Obama came along and now I am torn. I admire them both - strong leaders, great speakers and their plans to improve the American economy (honestly, don't care much about American economy, I just want the American leader to start minding their own business. You are not the leader of the free world, mind you!) sounds promising towards changing the domestic situation in America. I have not lived long enough to see how other democrat presidents fared during their term in the White House (I can always google that later) but Democrat Bill Clinton has done well during his eight year term - the American Dollar strengthened against other currencies is one indication that the American economy was doing well at the time.

Regardless of who will be running for the Presidential election, I just hope that a Democrat gets back to the White House. I am sure Cyrille will have to go through a couple of months later this year asking himself the question, "Am I still French?". However, once a democrat is sworn in as the next American president, we can move on because we know, the Democrats will show the Republicans how to run a country.

need to up the gear...

This morning, I brought my new pair of running shoes for a long jog - It is a Saucony Progrid Paramount, which I bought last Monday. I tried it out on Tuesday but thought I should try it over long distance to see its performance on my feet.

This new pair, Saucony Progrid Paramount is the fourth pair of running shoes I bought since last July. The last pair, Asics TN712, which I bought in November, gave me so much misery after I brought it out for a long jog the first time around - I suffered from aching feet and back ache which got me bed ridden all day that day. This has never happened to me before.

Prior to the Asics, I had an Adidas but it was too narrow that it hurt my feet after a long jog. Since the failure of Asics, I have been relying on my 7 month old New Balance N755, who has been there for me for some of the races I have participated, including the Standard Chartered Marathon last December.

Despite being a good servant, the N755 are not exactly a comfortable pair of running shoes, especially after running for than 10km. You can feel just how hard the shoes are. No disrespect to the brand - perhaps it was just not suitable for my feet.

So far, this new Saucony pair has been good. I was not in any pain after the long jog, like I did after I bought my Asics pair. This pair better not give me any issues because I certainly do not want to fork out any more cash and go through another search of the ultimate pair of running shoes. The last 7 months has seen yours truly heavily investing in running shoes and found a couple of them unsuitable. Painful, really, for both the feet and the pocket.

Honestly, I have not been running more than 10km since participating in the Standard Chartered Marathon last year. I am not sure if it takes THAT long for my body to recover or I have just been lazy. One thing for sure I know is that I did not have a pair of comfortable shoes since I gave up on my Asics running shoes. Aside from that, getting up in the morning for runs and other exercises has been rather difficult.

I have also been bad this week. I have been letting myself go as far as food is concerned. I have been taking in too many bad carbs, minimal intake of fruits and vegetables, eating big meals instead of 5 small ones like I am used to and not drinking enough water. Hence, a long distance run was in order this morning, whether I like it or not. I was a bit reluctant because I was concerned if I was going to suffer in pain if the shoes are not suited to my feet. I pushed myself regardless and I am glad I did because I benefited from abundance of energy afterwards.

Looks like February will be the month where I get my groove back with a new pair of running shoes to keep me going and ready for my next race! Don't let me down, Saucony! You are supposed to kick ass and you better!

time out...

I am off from work this week. 3 days of leave and I have 9 days off, what with the Chinese New Year holidays at the end of the week, including the two weekends in between this week.

I usually don't have a problem clearing my annual leave entitlement. Sometimes, by the third quarter, I would have exhausted my leave and would have to resort to advance leave, no-pay leave and medical leave or make an agreement with the boss for time off if I needed to get away from work. It is easy to clear your leave when your annual entitlement is 15 days. I have never been so lucky to get more than 18 days of annual leave and that made it easy. I am envious of those people in Europe whose annual entitlement is 25 days, as soon as they start working.

The funny bit now is that I just had this new job last September and last month, I found out that I have 5 days of leave to clear despite having taken 2 during the last quarter. The worse part is we have to clear it by end of March or it will be forfeited, which I hate, unlike in my previous employment when we have up till end of June to clear our leave from the previous year.

Having had enough of the craziness at work, I decided to just clear part of it off this month and use the remaining next month. See? I don't have an issue to clear my leave. I can just put drop everything at work and just go. Call me irresponsible but I care about my well-being. My life does not revolve around work. I can love my job but will my job love me back?? I don't think so. Even if my days off are not spent going on holidays, I just like spending time at home doing nothing or go out during the day catching up with friends for lunch or coffee. Make full use of the time away from work to do whatever you want to do. It is your prerogative.

So, I don't understand how some people just don't know how to take time off from work. I often hear things like, “I have 20 days of leave to clear but I have a lot of things to do.” If only they can transfer those leave to me. I will make full use of it. Go on major holidays twice a year and short ones in between, with leftovers to be used to get over the holiday blues. Now, that is the life! Time off from work is good because you will come back refreshed and perhaps perform better. Things will not come to a stand-still just because you have to go away. No one is indispensable these days. So, make full use of your entitlement and it will not benefit anyone else but yourself.

more sleep deprived...

A few years ago, I wrote about sleep deprived Singaporeans. Nothing much has changed since. With my daily commute to work on the train, I saw plenty of sleepy heads but the one I saw this morning must have been really tired. I don’t think that the way she sat was actually comfortable but obviously she must have been really tired that comfort didn’t really matter as long as she gets the slumber she needed before the start of her working day.

I need to get a life.

2007 - a look back...

It is a bit late for a look back at the year for 2007. However, 2007 has been quite a year for yours truly and it will be such a shame not to record the highlights down:

The year of short holidays
1. Krabi, Thailand in March with LET
2. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia & Phuket, Thailand in August 2007 with Kevin

Short holidays are better than no holidays. One will go nuts without a break.

The year of maintaining something I started
When I first started to change my lifestyle to a healthy one in November 2006, I kept thinking about how it will be short-lived. It has happened in the past. However, that is not so. It is January 2008 and I am still going. I am glad that I have proved myself wrong.

This will no longer be a highlight in 2008. The challenge now is to maintain it for the rest of my life.

The year of taking part in races
Two 10-km race (Passion & Shape Run)
15-km race (Real Run)
21km race (Singapore Bay Run)
42 km race (Standard Chartered Marathon)

Not that I have won any of the races but it was important to just take part in it. Running a full marathon in December was definitely the highlight of my 2007 and my life so far. I wouldn't even think of running 1 or 2 km years ago, let alone running a marathon. So, I am proud that I have achieved this, even if I didn’t finish it in the best time.

I am looking forward to running more races (perhaps in more challenging ones) in 2008. Good luck to me and may this year be a good a year like it was in 2007.

life cycle management - a bad example..

My goodness! Almost a month into the new year and I have not posted any entry on my lovely blog!! There is a reason (or two, or more) for that.

Crazy beginning to the year, as far as work is concerned for yours truly. Wish it was not that way but.. oh well.

Also, the minimal entry (or none of it) was due to the fact that I have been having some trouble with the computer at home. Being the procrastinator that I am, it took me a while to get the computer sorted out.

It all began when my iPod of 3 years went dead on me last October and one thing led to another, it went downhill from there.

Sequence of Events

Oct 2007 : Bought a new Creative ZEN MP3 player for my run. It was small and light. Perfect companion for running.

Oct 2007 : My iPod of 3 years went dead on me. Devastated. Daily entertainment was now in the hands of the Creative ZEN.

Nov 2007 : Research and contemplation of buying of new iPod began. Mentioned to Moh about my being in the market for new Ipod and he told me about a good deal he heard of. I took it because it was approximately 40% off retail price.

Dec 2007 : I am now an owner of iPod. 80GB ( a monster compared to the measly 15GB I had on the previous iPod). However, new Ipod only runs on Windows XP or Vista. Yours truly is running Windows 2000 Professional. Bugger! Around the same time, video card on my computer went berserk. The iPod and computer were left untouched since then.

Jan 2008 : A month without PC and iPod. Was getting tired of listening to same songs on Creative since all my MP3s are in the hard disk of my dead computer. Made a point to get it sorted. Went to buy a 320GB hard disk & Windows XP and I was raring to go.

28 Jan 2008 : Faced complications when trying to install new hardware and operating system in the last couple of weekends. One issue came after another. It is just not worth the time and money to figure out what it is wrong with it because the issues all boil down to compatibility. Much easier to just buy a new machine, what with this one is already 5 years – totally outdated.

Now : Contemplation of Yours Truly on buying a new PC. No Thanks to iPod – the root cause of all my technological issues.

Lesson Learnt : Stay relevant, dated.

My geeky friends will be laughing their toes off if they hear about the specifications of my computer. So, I am going to save the humiliation and not mention anything at all.

another year in the millenium..

Happy 2008!! May it be a good year, if not great.

another good read...

Ok, so for almost two years, I managed to keep my word and tell myself that I will not read another Dan Brown's book after reading Da Vinci's Code in 2005. However, I caved and read one last month.

Kevin and I were discussing about books we have read while he was here in August. I told him that I have read Da Vinci's Code and that I will not read another Dan Brown's book, for fear that it may be a let down or the book would have similar plots like all his other books. I said that after my experience with John Grisham books. However, Kevin told me that I should read Angels and Demons. He said that this is the best Dan Brown's book after Da Vinci's Code. Well, I was quite sceptical but I said that I will buy the book and read it after I was done with my long read, The Historian.

However, before he left, he bought me the book. I finally started reading it in early November after I was done with a couple of other books like Zoe Heller's Everything You Know and Dubner & Levitt's Freakonomics. Once I started reading it, I was no longer sceptical. It was such a page turner. I wish I didn't have to put it down but I have a life to live, so I would squeezed in as much reading time as I can during my journey to and from work and would put aside an hour in the evening to read it.

Since Tom Hanks was cast as Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci's Code movie, I had imagined him playing the role in my head while reading Angels & Demons. Although, I would have preferred the part to be portrayed by Sam Neill of Kane & Abel & Jurassic Park fame. I think he has the look of a professor over Tom Hanks. While Da Vinci's Code has a French as the leading lady, Angels & Demon's leading lady is an Italian. From the description when the character was introduced and what she was wearing, I had Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in mind playing that part. The story was set in and around Rome & Vatican City. Hence, it brought me back there. It was like living the book, which was intriguing and left me riveted!!

I absolutely LOVE this book. No regrets at all having read it but now, I am addicted as I crave for more of such reads. As I can be quite rubbish when it comes down to looking for a good read, I am now waiting for recommendations to come in for a good thriller read, which can keep me intrigue and leaving me wanting more.

seeing the football future...

In May 2008, this is how the final Barclays English Premier League standings will look like:

Top Three
1. Manchester United
2. Arsenal
3. Chelsea

Bottom Three
18. Wigan
19. Fulham
20. Derby

This is my prediction. We will come back to this in May 2008 and see if my predictions are right on the money!

stress test...

What a week! My body went through quite the stress test this past week.

Sunday

I could not feel my legs and feet after running the marathon. After some application of a deep rub & nine hours of sleep (the first time in a long time that I get to sleep more than 8 hours. I usually put 6 and half and 7 hours of sleep every night), I could feel my legs and feet again and was able to walk without much pain on Monday.

Monday & Tuesday

My thighs were still aching. Squatting down at the toilet bowl to answer nature's call or bending my legs to sit on the chair and going down the stairs was a bit of a struggle. By Tuesday afternoon, I began to feel the flu coming. The common signs - bad throat, headache and the body feeling a little feverish. It also didn't help that I did not turn in early on Monday night as I finished the book I’ve been reading in recent weeks and waking up 5 hours later to catch the second half of the live match between Manchester United & Fulham. I paid the price alright. The doctor advised that I have an early night after a light dinner and medication.

Wednesday

Despite a good's night sleep, I was still not feeling on top of the world. I dragged myself to work. Right after lunch, I had an immediate need to answer nature's call. And nature continued to call since. My stomach and bowels were rumbling and tumbling. I think it must have been that stupid fried fish bee hoon I had for lunch - they put evaporated milk in there and the milk must have been bad. My colleague who had the same thing and he said that his stomach didn't feel good that afternoon. I think I was worse hit than him.

Thursday

I thought the rumbling would be gone but it didn't. Anything I consumed turned to water. I could not believe that I endured two days of this crap… literally! By 8pm, I caved & consulted the pharmacist for a cure. Almost immediately after consuming the pills, the stomach began to stop growling and I was feeling better.

Friday

Avoided dairy just to be on the safe side. I could not afford to be sick this weekend! I have been on a 6-day work week for the past two weeks and this weekend will be the weekend where I actually want a real weekend - no work!!!. That 2 in a row 6-day work week were killing me!! I was considering going on strike. Never again, I tell you!!!

Saturday

Thank God the weekend is here. You don't know how much I have been longing for a morning where I can just laze around and not do much

The past week has been a withdrawal. I have been going to bed at 12 midnight on some nights instead of the usual 10.30pm. No physical activities at all, which left me lethargic all day this past week. However, it was important that my body get the rest it needed. I am eagerly waiting for a cycling expedition later this afternoon and also back to my usual healthy regime next week. Prior to the marathon last Sunday, I could see the laziness began to set in and I surely don't want that to happen.

pushing my limit...

It was about 24 hours ago when I was in pain from the waist down. The leg muscles were sore and feet were in pain. I could barely walk and bending my legs was an ordeal. Today was an improvement. Only the thighs are still sore. All these pains were a result of running my first ever marathon - 42.195km - on Sunday, 2 December 2007.

So, I did it! I never thought I could even run to begin with and now, a year since I started running regularly, I participated in my first marathon. It was very much a mental challenge. The first 20km was alright as I could maintain a momentum but after 30km, it was all in the mind. My feet were in pain and my leg muscles began to ache after 28km. On top of that, the heat of sun starts to get to you. Those were the challenges and I could not overcome it and was a bit disappointed with myself.

I checked the results today. Yesterday, the gun time indicated that I finished the race in 6 hours and 27 minutes but my chip time indicated that I crossed the finishing line in 6 hours and 22 minutes. It was about 1 hour and 20 minutes more than my target time i.e. 5 hours and 30 minutes. At this point, I am still stoked that I actually ran a marathon to even care about the time or my placing.(*) This being my first marathon, crossing the finish line is an accomplishment.

If you asked me on Sunday if I would run a marathon again, I would have said, 'No' what with the aches and pains. But my response from today is 'Yes, in a heartbeat!' I now know what to expect when running a marathon and I will definitely put in my best effort in training very hard for my next marathon.

Off course running a marathon is a very big deal for me and I have to let people know. Hee. Hee. So I sent text messages to friends about it. Here are the replies, which I received:

Noridah : Hi. Hope you had a good time at the Standard Chartered Marathon and improved your time. Rest Well.
(Off course Noridah thought I was running the 10km race like I did last year. I received her message before I sent out my text message but I appreciate the words of encouragement!)

Armand : Congrats! You are officially a marathoner. :-D

Andrea : Congratulations! Well done!

Ebrahim : That's amazing. Well done. That's a real achievement.

Dave : Good for you! I guess all the training paid off. Congratulations. Next time in under 6 hours.
(Now, that is a challenge, Dave!)

Liza : Congrats! Sang (our mutual Thai friend) said to come to Thailand now. She already book Thai massage for you!

Wan-Ling: Ran so much. No wonder traffic jam near my place. Because you slow lah. Ha. Ha. Ha. Congrats!

Kim Hong : That's great ! It is an achievement for you. Congrats! Rest & eat well for speedy recovery.
(Kim Hong was the one who encouraged me to sign up for the marathon and has been there with advise this past year. He, off course, is a seasoned marathoner. He completed his marathon in 3 hours and 9 minutes)

Sal : Very impressive! I'm sure there are more to come. London or New York one day eh?
(Hey! Never say never!)

Moh : Well done! Finishing it is an accomplishment. Try for your target again next year.
(He gives me stretch targets, which I always find it a challenge. Meeting the challenged target is another story. Ha. Ha.)

Polly : Well done my friend! I can't imagine how tired you are now. Morever, it was quite hot today.

Wendy : Congratulations! What an achievement. Take a good rest.

Amelia : In fact you wanted to complete it below 5 hours, right? It is not a bad result after all. Congrats for completing the race.

Rohani : Wow! Congrats! Hope you enjoyed it! Time for a good rest now. Take care.
(Enjoyed it? More like suffering it! Ha. Ha.)

Alex : Go and rest now. You earned it!!

Siew Yen : Wow! Congratulations for completing your first 42km race!

Nora : Oh wow! I am sure that's an accomplishment for you. Rest and pamper your legs silly now. Take care.

Jack : Have a good massage! And rest. You did well!

Kevin : Congratulations! Fantastic news! I'm glad you survived it! Sounded like a bit of an ordeal. Hopefully you've rested up, have a nice long bath to rest your weary legs. I hope you are taking a day off tomorrow. If not, I am sure you will be ok. All the best!!
(Kevin thought I was crazy to even attempt it since the day I told him that I am taking part in the marathon. He was just jealous but still encouraging nonetheless)

Rob : That is very good! I think that would have taken me 12 hours. Can you feet your legs again?

Kwai Fong : Give yourself a pat. Well done!

LET : Hope your legs are ok.

Now, with positive words like that, how can I not run another marathon?

* - Apparently, there were approximately 1400 female runners in the marathon category compared to the 10,000 male runners in the same category. I finished 888th place among the female runners.

a surprise admirer...

It is almost a month since I received the package of books from Cyrille, only to be made realised that there is a surprise in that package. The second paragraph in Cyrille's note made sense now:

un dessin de ton amoureuse secret
(a drawing from your secret admirer)

Well, the secret admirer is not so much a secret. The drawing is from Cyrille's little boy, Alexandre, who I had the pleasure of meeting in 2005. However, I failed to see it in the envelope when I received it because it was stuck to one side of the envelope.

I was supposed to look up the word 'dessin' after reading Cyrille’s note (what can I say? I am rubbish at French) but off course, I never got around to it until a few days ago when Cyrille asked me again because he was a little puzzled why I did not mention anything about it when I received the package. I quickly went to look for the envelope and found the drawing. Thank god I did not throw the envelope straight away after opening the package.

Here is the special drawing from my admirer:






























He knows that I like bright coloured dresses, it seems. Brilliant!

I have mentioned this before… In general, I am not well liked by children of all ages, let alone being given something like this from a kid. This is probably the first time, if memory serves, that I have ever received something from a kid. I am very touched. It almost made me cry. I never thought that he would still remember me since he is hundred miles away and I have only met him once a few years ago. This drawing will be treasured.

Merci Alexandre pour le dessin! Je l'aime beaucoup!

in pursuit of cheaper alternative?

I normally do not hesitate to purchasing something I like when it comes down to clothes or shoes. It can get a bit out of hand sometimes. Holding back has been always been a problem – buying clothes or speaking my mind for that matter.

However, last Friday, I saw this dress from the Kate Moss collection at Top Shop:

I love this dress. I think it is SOOOO me and have been thinking about it since I first laid my eyes on it. What made me hesitate was the price tag – SGD179. It will still cost more than SGD150 after utilizing my 10%discount card.

Last night, I was reading a blog, where the blogger saw the same dress and hesitated to buy. She finally bought it after it went on sale in the UK. After reading that, I went to the Top Shop online store and found that the dress is on sale for £15. After conversion, it would come round to SGD45. Now, that is the kind of price I will not mind paying instead of SGD179.

Then, I remembered that a colleague mentioned to me last week that she will be going for business trip to London in early December. I spoke with her this morning and she said she would not mind at all to look for the dress for me. Besides, with the price and that the trip is being paid for, she said that this is a small detour and that she plan to spend some time shopping while she is there. Now, this lady sure knows her priorities. She asked me to try the dress first to see which size fits well, which I did this evening after work and that made it so tempting to just buy it on the spot! I held back off course.

However, my colleague is not leaving till the week after next. I am not sure if the dress will still be available with the sale price by then. If not, I shall wait for the dress to go on sale here. If by sale time, my size is not available, I know that it is not meant to be for me to own this dress. We shall see. Buying a piece of clothing has never been so complicated like this before.

run like the wind...

Today, I bought my third pair of running shoes since July this year. None of the previous two shoes have satisfied me like the first running shoe I bought back in December 2006 when the addiction for running began. As much as I love that pair of Nike shoes, conversations with fellow enthusiasts showed that Nike is not a brand that runners would choose for running. Recommended brands are Asics and Adidas, as well as a small number recommending New Balance.

After enduring much discomfort and pain in the last 5 months with New Balance & Adidas, I went to the Running Lab at Funan Centre this evening to get some professional help for a pair of running shoes. After making observations of my bare feet, the sales person at the shop recommended me a couple of men’s running shoes. It seems like yours truly has quite big feet (long and wide) for a woman and there are no shoes in the women’s range that would fit me comfortably.

After trying both shoes, I decided to go with the Asics TN712. They are not exactly cool looking shoes like my Nike shoes or the Mizuno brand, which I tried with the Asics. However, I had to choose comfort over style, unlike when you buy your regular women’s shoes, where you choose style over comfort. :-P

I have to retire the two pairs of shoes previously bought for activities which do not require much of footwork. I still have the Nike shoes which I still wear it for my cycling sessions. They are not exactly cycling shoes but they serve the purpose for the moment.

I am looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning and go for a run with my brand new Asics TN712. Totally motivated now and hope that these pair will not let me down like the others have in recent months. I may not run like the wind, like the title of this entry has suggested but at least I will not be in discomfort during my runs.

snail mail and reads…

Since the emergence of e-mail in the 90's, you don't get much of the snail mail these days in your real mailbox. The only snail mail you'll get are bills and those stupid flyers from real estate agents, companies trying to sell their products and people offering tutoring services and what nots. But on a rare occasion, in between those bills and flyers, you'll find a postcard, a letter, an envelope with a greeting card or a small package. Those really put a smile on my face! What really put a smile on my face would be receiving a package. It may not be a surprise package but still.

Last Saturday, I received a package containing 3 small books. They were from Cyrille. Two of the books are bilingual i.e. a page in English and the facing page in French. I have asked Cyrille for a favour a few weeks ago to buy for me a bilingual book. These sorts of books are for the Frenchs learning English but I think it will also work for me to read in French with the English translation for me to refer to on the facing page. I have tried reading a French book, with difficulty before as I had to refer to the dictionary quite a lot. I was not aware about this bilingual book until Pierre's friend, Olivier, told me about it. I have tried searching for one at the local bookstores but I have yet to find one. So, I asked Cyrille for a small favour.

What I didn’t expect was 3 books (I would have been happy with one). Two of which are bilingual and Cyrille threw in the package an English book called The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. It is a science fiction book, which I have never actually read one before, so this will be a first ever in my entire life (Science fiction isn’t really my cup of tea but there’s always the first time for everything).

At the moment, I am at the tail end of reading Freakonomics. I should be done with that soon but next in line will be Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. I know I said that I will not read another Dan Brown after The Da Vinci Code but Kevin bought for me Angels and Demons after a literary discussion while he was here in August. He said that it is the best after Da Vinci Code. So, that book is in the queue and I will see if the read backs his views on it. Hence, the three books from Cyrille will be read after I am done with Dan Brown's. I have been quite good with the reading in recent months – except that my magazines are now taking a backseat… they're piling up on the bedroom floor, waiting to be read. Well, at least my spare time is now occupied with things to do.

Merci encore, Cyrille pour les livres! Je te dirais s'il sont bons!

4 is STILL the magic number…

It was toss between a good 7 hours sleep or lack of it to watch Man United versus Middlesborough LIVE on the tele at 10pm on Saturday night. Since I was tossing like a salad in bed (my friend, Aminah, likes to say that when she has trouble sleeping at night), the LIVE match on the tele won. It was totally worth it as Man United defeated Boro with 4 goals. From 1-0 specialist from the beginning of the season to scoring 4 goals in 4 successive matches made yours truly quite thrilled that evening. However, I paid the price for watching the match, over turning to bed early as I was supposed to.

this is the REAL run!

3 and half hours after the football match on the tele ended, my Sunday began – a very early start as I dragged myself out of bed and make my way to a race – the Real Run, organised by the Home Team and New Balance. It is called Real Run for a reason. I ran 12km on road, 1km on sand, 1km on trail and 1km on a runway (well, not an actual runway but sort of like an emergency runway) and all that under the hot sun. The race started at almost 8am and by 9am, the heat of the sun was unbearable. With the lack of sleep, my entire body was about to give up but my mind kept pushing me to go. I try with my might to finish the race under two hours, overwriting my goal prior to the race to finish it in 1.5 hours. As I approach the last 100 metres, I saw the timer ticket at 1 hour and 58 minutes. I sprinted to the finishing line and I overtook approximately 10 other runners. That was the fastest I ran in the entire distance. I checked my results today. I finished at number 378 of 533 women runners with a time of 1 hour & 59 minutes. I am beginning to think that I may have lost my touch at this running thing. However, that doesn’t mean that I am giving up.

Today at work, my brain may have been functioning at less than 40%. My colleague was not impressed at how slow I reacted to his jokes, comments and other things that he said. It all didn’t come together for me in my head. Although my body was energized yesterday after the race and went on to spend the remaining of Sunday with some friends, mentally, I was not functioning very well with the lack of sleep. It carried over to this Monday morning, despite the 8 hours of sleep.

I am looking forward to this weekend where I can catch up on some rest since I have not had a decent rest for the last couple of weekends. Also, the biggest game of the season so far is on this Saturday – The top 2 teams in the English Premier League meet in a clash at the Emirates Stadium. Yes, Arsenal versus Manchester United! I will be so ready to be glued in front of the tele!

a slow & late start...

The 2007/08 began in August and somehow, I have not been following with the live matches, news, etc being a football fanatic that I am. Ok, maybe I am not exactly a fanatic then. What can I say? However, I have some views on what’s going in the English Premier League from the catch-up I had so far.

Last weekend, Man Utd finally wrote off their status given by the media as the one-zero specialists, when they put 4 pass through Wigan's goal. It was getting depressing seeing their 7 out of 9 league results ended in 1-0 or goalless draw, when they usually have firing power from all over the park. So, it was very pleasing to see the good results over the weekend against Wigan. Just when we thought the magic have just started, the league matches are taking a break this weekend for the Euro 2008 qualifiers. I wonder with this brief interruption would dampened the sparks that is beginning to sparkle last weekend. I will be in a bit of withdrawal since the next league match will be on the wee hours of Sunday morning of 21 Oct 2007.

So, the special one is gone from Chelsea. I feel sorry for them really because, despite me disliking Mourinho, I think he is a good manager. You can’t deny the fact that what he did at Chelsea was a marvel. Also, it is interesting to see the league title being contended by more than just two clubs. Last season, Arsenal was not doing too well to challenge the title but I can see that they are really strong this season. If only Abramovich did not rock the boat at Chelsea, we could have had a very entertaining season, where the challenge for the English Premier League is concerned. And also, I like it when the special one would cause some controversy over his views of the matches, the rules, the referees when he was being interviewed. We are going to miss a bit of that from him. I think Manchester City may have a chance of staying in the top 5 but I have a feeling they may fizzle after Christmas.

It is going to be quite a season this one.

the way i read it...

The character of Stephen Barley in Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, reminded me of John, while I was reading that book. John is Ger's brother, whom I met while in Shanghai with Kevin and Ger in August last year. I have imagined John as playing the character of Barley in that book.

The character of Stephen Barley was first introduced when the central character and her father visited Oxford. I don't know how John came into my mind when I read about Barley. I guess there were something about his background and how he is as a person that made me thought of him. John has youthful good looks (from my point of view. Some of you girls may beg to differ) and it was hard to believe that he was 29 when I met him. Some people are just lucky to be born with youthful genes. Prior to moving to China, John was working in some universities as a lecturer, I think, but he still look like he is a student. He has such a charm as well, which I bet would make any girl, tremble at their knees. There were times when he would flatter me giving me compliments on what I was wearing. He also would take my hand before we parted ways, and then gave a slight bow. On the night before we left Shanghai, he took my hand, bow and kissed it with such gallantry (sounds familiar?) before we parted ways. And this he did in front of his brother Ger and Kevin, who gave this wierd grin on seeing it. Off course, not receiving such treatment before, I would blush and giggled a little, like any lady would. At those instances, I felt like I was brought back to the era of Jane Austen.

Also, John is so eloquent. I just love the way he speaks. I found this video of him reading some lines from a notebook we found in Starbucks while we were visiting Hangzhou. The things that were written in there were crap but he made the words sounded so beautiful, like a poem. Ok, I am exaggerating a bit but honestly, I thought he read those words with such eloquence.



John was already engaged when I met him (not like it is going to make any difference if he is not because I still will not make any move on a man, no matter how much I like him). He married his fiancée (lucky bitch!) a few weeks after we left China. When I recently mentioned to Kevin about John and how I found him a real charmer, Kevin’s response to that was, "Well, he is not that charming after all since he did not even reply to your e-mail." Ouch! Oh well, I am discounting all that and remember only the good moments. You take what you can get these days.

I realised that I have been quite mushy about these sort of things lately. It must be hormonal. So there!