Ahha I am 21 already. It had been a very busy week & I guess this is gonna be one of the very memorable birthdays ever, even better than my 18th birthday celebration.

I always remember always being asked this question by friends many times, many years back on “what am I gonna do when I turn 21″ back then our thoughts are always driven on the envy of 21 age-restrictions & privileges, but that was back then.. history. When you are REALLY 21, I guess I can rightfully answer that now- MEGA CELEBRATION dudes!

Spanning 3 birthday celebrations/dinners over a period of 3 days (19th, 25th & 26th of March). The first day (19th) saw a formal 10 course dinner with my relatives at Yan palace Chinese restaurant where the birthday cake was presented at the end of the dinner. The actual birthday celebration was reserved for a rather personal international buffet dinner with my family at Merchant Court, Swissotel where the night was spent chilling out in the nightlife of Clarke Quay. The 26th called upon an informal hill top combined birthday celebration for Lester & his bro too. Caught up with my old secondary school friends, catching up on much needed times.

Lastly I would like to take this opportunity to thank all, family, relatives & friends alike for attending & making the celebration(s) a success. Not to mention all the birthday cards, e-mails, e-cards, smses, presents & angbao! Thank You!

Photos of the event are now up in photo gallery.

Dropped by the IT show at suntec yesterday & man was it FREAKING crowded. 1st time the shopping area got so packed, there was a stationary human jam lasting 5-10mins at times around the Yes! Eyewear store area leading to the exhitbition & convention center.

Link upped with John at the sony booth there where we started inching our way around the exhitibtion. Everything is roughly 10%-20% lower than normal prices in SimLim. Lots of bargains & so, hard to keep away impulsive tempation. Brought myself a Sony Dual Layer DVD-Writer (DRU-720A) at $109, together with some DVD-R & RW media. As I guess I should end my wait for a DVD-Writer since 2001… when writers cost at least $800 or so. Almost committed myself to a Jabra BT800 bluetooth headset costing $199 (no price reduction, but with a free car charger & Panasonic house phone). However, when it came to paying, I’ve reached my card spending limit! opps! Though embrassing at the moment, but Mmmm saved $200 by the bank… Though I had cash in hand at that moment, come to think about, why do I need a bluetooth headset? Furthermore, it lack some functions such as voice dailing, though it had a caller ID screen.

A bluetooth headphone would be cooler…

I hate to say this, but personally I find myself super addicted to exercise. Not to mention often missing the feeling of fatigue during my regimes… an adrenaline addiction? Maybe because of this, I see myself for the past 2 months running at least 9km (usually topping 12km) 3 times a week on monday, wednesday & friday evenings. Tuesdays & thursdays would be gym days on upper body mainly working on biceps, triceps, abs & chest. At the same time allowing my lower body to recover from the previous training day for the next. Sundays would be swim days, where I get around 1 hour of continous 50m lap swims.

I eat at least 4-5 meals a day in moderate amounts & TONS of fruits, like 2 oranges, 2 apples/pears a day. Not to mention my daily water consumption.. whoa! The feeling of getting even fitter is quite unreal, but quite satisfying at times. Not to mention the love of chasing, overtaking & lapping joggers at the park, I hope no one is easily offended of being slow in a way… Its just so fun zipping past them.. again & again! Moreover, I see myself getting more veiny all over, especially on the arms & legs. Its like am steriods or something… scary. Not bad,not bad… I hope to get my abs more profound by burning more belly fat in my runs.

All in hand, I guess I am glad to have the annual Amour Route Relay (ARR) to thank, which is around the corner on May 13th to kick start my training schedule. In which it has its own group training on mondays, wednesdays & fridays on top of my personal training schedule. This route relay involves a 1.5km sprint/run among teams of 15 runners, where of course the fastest 3 takes home the prize.

Quite shocking is the calculated distance I run every month. (12km) x (3 times a week) x (4weeks in a month) = 144km running distance covered in a month! Would so much training have an adverse effect on the body? especially the legs, such as wear & tear?

I just have to get this on my blog, its just so.. real… I had a weird dream on friday, not like your average nightmare, but something worth marvelling about. Its a about meeting this girl by the name of Sherwin or Sherene or sort. I was enrolled in Singapore Poly, DME (diploma on mechcanical engineering), a possible option I would choose to further my studies instead of going overseas (expensive) later this year. I can faintly remember it was love at first sight, she was the kind I like english speaking/educated, pretty, cheerful, sporty type who just loves to spend time with her boyfriend, even during breaks & after class. Awww…… (I will just cut the details here)

What I know about dreams scientifically is that they are usually based on real life encounters for the day or so, or sort of a mental “recall”. However, I had not met anyone called Sherene or so from god knows when! The funny things in dreams is that I get to do things logically & make effective decisions, though I have no control over it, its like watch a movie without any play controls. Moreover, it the kind which just makes you ponder on the dream for awhile the moment you wake up, & like hey why did I choose that? Would I do that if I had the control or in real ife? Though there are exceptions & there are people who actually dream about the future & so, not to mention the ever popular deja-vu feeling you get from your dreams…

*sigh* I wonder when would I ever get to meet her again…

*jumps back to bed*

There is a new additonal section to the site, called SG happening – Makan places in Singapore. This is a soft opening of the section, which is still under construction. I am still in the mist of compiling the full food list at the moment. In the meantime, if you have any good places to recommend around Singapore, do feel free to drop me an e-mail at shaun @ shaunchng .com.

Add a niffy new plug-in to the blog today, namely an additonal field which requires people to enter a security code (from a randomly generated graphic) in order to successfully post a comment. Something any average net surfer can do, but not spam-bots. Though I personally hate filling out such unnecessary code-like-thingys even before I could get anything posted, this is one of the best anti-spam options available against the hundreds of comment spam I get a week. Come to think about it, spam comprises of 60% of the internet traffic, a great waste of bandwidth, not to mention money both adding to inefficiency & not to mention annoyances. What is the use of spam? what do people get to gain out of hundreds of viagra, poker or mortgage ads? dang it!

Hey if you are a previous singnet boardband 256kps user, you may notice download speeds going up to 50-60KB/s from 20-30KB/s. Possibly a typical computer reporting error? I don’t think so, especially with my downloads getting relatively faster. Not to mention surfing speeds. Strangely though this is not reflected to the public or so, as singtel always try to do so, to protray its “wonderful & caring image to their customers”. Are they actually providing free speed upgrades like what AOL always do? Not to mention singnet immediate competitor, starhub upgrading maxonline speeds from 3000-6500 for free too. Mmmm, if so.. great, just don’t raise the current prices…