Last Saturday - Happy Birthday Darius! (No CAKE!?) held at the Caribbean condo at harbour front. Its literally a water city, yea cool with swimming pools, fountains here & there, but otherwise not my taste of housing (No CAKE!?) with a giant longkang running through the whole area, like Venice? haha maybe not… I just find Singapore sea water too strong smelling, dirty & stinky to appreciate, just ask any Scuba Diver (No CAKE!?) & you will know why we don’t like to dive in Singapore (No CAKE!?) either. Met up with Elrick earlier that day before to get Darius Bday gift, got this neat punk rock T-shirt over a few Devilish shirts I’ve shortlisted in Queensway, the rest are just too sinister I guess. Coupled in with that are 2 pairs of neoprene socks courtesy of Elrick & Derek with the (& most expensive) Barracuda mousepad.

Nevertheless had few nice intro games of Tennis courtesy of Darius Dad (Thanks Uncle!) who booked it for us. Played tri-doubles (No CAKE!?) with Yiying, Guetping, Weijian & Elrick as coach. Till Sir-Artillery-Addison came into the game, started whacking & losing 4 tennis balls out-court straight at a go…

Left the party round 11.30pm only to be greeted with an empty habourfront bus interchange. Derek was there too & guess we just stood there staring at the Timing Board in disbelief for 5 mins or so before actually realising that we continue doing so, we might even miss the last train - which we caught on our way in (No CAKE!?).

Catching the last train is kinda cool too, with staff running all round the station telling people to get in or NEVER! & all the underground tunnel lights are on too, so I could actually see how wide our tunnels are, not something we can see everyday. Exited the train at my stop with a rather interesting platform announcement politely telling all commuters to SCRAM from the station as there are no trains left for joyrides boy! or we will CLOSE & leave you to starve here for the NIGHT! Bwwhharrr!

Well thats all for last Saturday, on a more present side, I’ve never had funny dreams so often lately, especially being school & exam related ones. Well I do not know how you can define a nitemare, but can one in an exam situation where I could not attempt all questions and get 100 be considered one? Arrrghh! & though the exams are fast approaching too, but yea I really had such a dream… so free, so helpless in an exam, thats really so scary…

Waited dingying-ly long for my bus today only to see it arrive 20 mins later, not one but a CONVOY OF 4 OF THEM TOGETHER! Omg… All Superbuses… Caught TV mobile onboard then & heck there was Elmo on Channel News Asia! Dancing away to the start of each program each time a string of commercials ended. Niffy!

There was some petition booth at FC4 collecting signatures before closing day today against the change of the current Kofu management. & man was FC4 packed man, with most stores sold out before 1pm.

Last by not least, I am finally GSM contactable! Till I drool over a SE p990i, I am currently using my sister’s old Nokia 7250i in place of my now disfunct Siemens SX1. Dug around my home drawers & found that on top of a few old DECT phones, a Nokia 880, Nokia 3315 & my old Siemens SL45! Interesting things you can find lying around the house… its like a mini treasure hunt!

With the Semester Exams sighted on Horizon, been very very busy with tests, projects & reports over the last few days. Not to mention catching up on tutorials & eventually *qualify myself* to dig up the blackboard for sample papers to do in practice for the semester exams due in 2 weeks time. This term is extremely short, with an increased workload & modules taken - a very bad combination. I think this is the worst it can ever get as second year is usually the most toughest period of study. Hopefully the ‘A’ modules next Semester will be much easier. I guess I will be training most of these few weeks by myself & may not be able to make it for official track training till the exams are over. Mmainly as training takes time & usually ends too late to actually get anything productive done for the rest of the night. As of today, I have 5ICAs, 4Races, 3Papers, 2Reports, 1Presentation to do till end August. Busy Busy Busy.

To wrap things up short & sweet, happenings worth noting for the past week & present:

North East line was down on Monday, due to a power cable breakage failure. Conincidently on the day where I rode through the line my very first time the day before (Sunday). Maybe my Magneto powers after the Mizuno Wave Run could have caused it. Dammit

Universal Studios gonna build Singapore’s 2nd IR on Sentosa, promising a themepark bigger than that in Hollywood (ride area only) & spotting more indoor (not to mention air-conditioned) attractions. Whee! looks like we will be seeing Doc Brown, ET (The ride) or The Mummy Returns Indoor inverter coasters in the not too distant future… right on our shores!

My Phone Died yesterday (KIA), Thursday. Refusing to boot showing only a white screen. Would be considering a Sony Ericsson p990i, had been considering this range of SE phones since the P800 around 2001. And Sony Ericsson phones are definately much much better than what it was many years back (remember the problematic T68/T68i & T610?). It’s hearty to hear too that SE is the top ranking & best rated brand overall now, topping the charts at Cnet too.

We have 3 days left (As of 28th Aug) till Food Court 4 closes on 1st aug, with a contractor change & Kofu leaving the current premises. So as told from after asking the cleaner auntie when clearing our plates during lunch today. The place will be down for a month, renovated with new stores. BBArghh!!!! No more favourite Chicken Cutlet, Pasta, Fried Rice, Nasi Padang & Giant Bowled Ban Mian! Arghh!!!! FC3 & FC6 will IMPLODE with lunch crowds! well.. unless they move FC7 (aka mobile FC) to the T16 plaza area, not to mention the ultra long queues presently for fatty drippy Ramly Burgers at FC7, aka the business side.

Happy Birthday DARIUS! Hehe wait.. just wait for us at your party tomorrow! Brrwhahahaa ya know swimming pools & birthday parties definately don’t mix! Now where do I keep those cable ties & super soaker… *deep evil laugher*

Mizuno Wave Run at Kovan last sunday was a one the first few leisure competitive run events of the year - being able to get the track team all together. The atmosphere is definately an intro to the many major public competitive runs for the juniors, contray to the previous X-ctry & Newpaper Big walk. Everything looks set towards the 1/2 marathon or marathon target for many at year end. Finished the Mizuno 10km in 50:39 after passing the finish (personal timing). This timing includes the delay taken to cross the start line & one traffic light stop in the run itself, so I guess a 46-47min timing should be a realistic actual timing, which is actually kinda cool, considering this a a terrain run with a timing close to my IVP 10000m flat event last year. Met up with SGRunners there (this race’s group is huge, you can’t miss them!) for a photo shoot at the event, surprised Bee & Renohtaram can still recognize me, hehe.

SP Track & Field Meet 2006 was on last Wednesday afternoon. With most of us from track being sports officials. The star being Mr David stealing the show with the best show of bloopers for starts. Nevertheless it was a good event with track (in the various represented schools) raking in a respectable number of medals & trophies. CLS bagged the largest overal points & took the challenge trophy (considering they are the only ones there).

SP Track & Field Meet	And They are Off!	Looking Spanky?

Millege for last week (7 day period)
Long Distance Conditioning, Training 3.3km in 12min (2sets), Tuesday - 6.6km
10 rounds Tiong Bahru park, Saturday- 10km
Mizuno Waverun, Sunday - 10km
Total Millege/week = 26.6km (89% of 30km a week target met)

Millege for this week (7 day period)
SP Gym 3+1 Sets Weight Training, 6.5km threadmill - Monday
Sports Event - SP Track & Field Meet 2006 (Judge)
SP Gym 3+1 Sets Weight Training, no threadmill - Friday
Total Millege/week = 6.5km (22% of 30km a week target met)

Got a mailer from SCM few days ago, guess I will share it here for those intending to run it this year.

This year could be the last year for the season Stand Chart could be organising the marathon, (Exon Mobil was the previous organiser for a few years back then). Moreover those who ran the event last year as usual will get a promo code for use in this year’s event as a mailer discount. $33.60 is really low for a professional world-class marathon (& compared to the $85 standard fee) & this is excluding further discounts if you charge the fee to your Stand Chart card. Apparel sponsor is still from Adidas, so expect some more cool running jerseys for collection on the Race Expo day, not to mention another cool new clima-dry finisher’s shirt when you complete the marathon.

Standard Chartered Marathon 2006 (SCM o6) Details:

Race Date 3rd December, Prices are accurate as given in my Mailer.
This year’s Singapore Marathon will also be a part of the greatest race on earth (similar to that of the last).
Current response is quite good as compared to the last, remember those on the track team who want to join let me join asap so I can register for you as an early bird + standed chartered credit card discount.

Running is not a sport, its a disease! haha…

With the Poly 50 behind us, what else can a tried track team do after a race but chow to our hearts content at our campus’s food haven outlet? Besides a few gloomy faces since the last emotional turn for many, things are starting to get back on hand. In fact training on Friday saw one of the biggest attendance of grad seniors joining in with us (with the exception of a few nostalgic bumps & sudden unprepared piggy back attacks from leslie). Though Poly 50 was in the dumps, it served as a very rewarding opporunity to bond seniors & juniors together.

Training was a little slow for most of us, having not recovered fully since last wednesday’s race, even I felt the wave of latics. Took much of a slow recovery run (4×400m) 3 sets totalling 4.8km total & sustained 1.6km 6mins 20s on the 1st set. If this pace is very much set even in this condition, most of us can see at least a sub 9.30 & below for our 2.4km Napfa & a Gold in the bag easily. I guess Napfa talk is quite the hit now, calling upon a small pullup gathering at the back of the stadium before strengthening exercises. Did 15 pull ups.

Currently on the forefront, it all sets up towards IVP in the near distant future with Mizuno WR on the immediate front.

Mizuno Wave Run 2006 Registrations will close tomorrow (16th of July) Those who have not registered please do so at the selected Outlets (Registration & tag given on the spot):

Mizuno Paragon
Miszuno Marina Square
WOS Isetan Orchard
WOS Plaze Singapura
WOS Jurong Point
WOS Toa Payoh
WOS Heartland Mall
WOS Taka
Feder Sports @ Peninsula Plaze
Running lab @ Funan

Please note SP Track:
Mizuno WR (10km) competitive registrations are to be done personally, submit receipts (original) to me or any of the seniors for claims.
New Balance Real Run (5.5km/10km) - Get forms from Huida, submit to Alex + $25
AHM/Sheares Bridge Run (10km/21km) - Get registration leaflet from Huida, submit to me or Elrick + $18 (I will try to get Discount for all priced at $15 though only for Safra members)

Cheers & keep running!

The Poly 50 thread has indeed grown to one of the hottest & widely discussed topics on the net (with over 76k hits & ranking top 5 on Google & Yahoo sg within 3 days). I would like to express my heartfelt thanks towards the various constructive points, concerns & issues raised in the discussion, either through the thread directly, e-mail, gsm, or through word of mouth from both parties, neutral parties, student bodies & the general public alike.

However, the discussion started going out of hand resulting in personal attacks & flame bait which are unethical & in my point of view have no constructive means but to sow discord & worsen the situation. Therefore in the name of good to prevent any further damage & conflicts between clubs, (esp between track & field & dragon boat) the previous thread is now CLOSED & comments LOCKED.

In the sea of discussion & feedback I’ve got, let me summarise in overall with no ill intentions intended:

To the Teams:
You can’t deny that the poly 50 is always an annual battle between the favorites – Dragon Boat, Track & Field & CLS, so cool down as sports people & respect the judges decision. The most important thing is not getting 1st, 2nd or even DQ but to all know that we ran our best with the spirit which what makes Team SP, as mentioned in the Olympic creed:

The spirit in sportmansship is the essential need of not to having conquered but to have fought well…
- The Olympic creed, Baron Pierre de

We all know about the bad organisation & conduct of the race, its everywhere, you can’t deny the notorious campus-wide notions towards the organisation, but its no point thinking about the past, however, people can change for the better.

Track & Field know how Team 2 got DQ, I believe Dragon Boat Team 2 also have their fair share of the story why their team got DQ as well. Mistakes made by the lap counters are all beyond all team’s control that is something we all have to accept. Even with claims that Dragon Boat Team 1 cheating, (due to a wrong lap counting mistake claim), this is also something uncalled for & beyond their control as well. So logically & rightfully speaking, arrows should not be directed all at them. If any offense are made or so, I apologize on the behalf of the flames laid by the general public & for SP Track & Field, (as those comments shouldn’t be there in the first place). Ultimately, the thing is that we all know we fought well & both clubs have all their teams in the top 10 out of over a hundred teams, isn’t that a good enough achievement already?

With this, the only way to change is largely on the participants. Constructively, we all have learnt lots of valuable lessons from the event – Teams, not only to TRAIN HARD, RACE HARD, but RACE SMARTLY as well. After all its only a school event, so I guess we can give & take there & the least we all need are internal conflicts between the top 2 Sporting Bodies in SP, so lets just cool down & don’t cry over spilled milk.

Be rest assured that next year Track & Field will be back with kickin’ butts again! Watch out!

To SAA & Sports Club:
From here there are many lessons learnt, you should know about the utmost importance of the lap counters - they are the most critical deciding factor in the race. Here are some suggestions raised to improve on the next event:

• Make counters comfortable by pitching tents/providing water at the counter tables so they can be a productive & helpful bunch.
• Make the helpers eat, drink, play, sleep & think Poly 50 before the race, the worst thing are an unprepared last minute bunch from various clubs who don’t even know the full conduct of the event.
• Have one counter per Team so they need not micro manage.
• Have electronic lap counting & lap timing where runners pass an electronic card for all 50 laps (similar to champion chip, etc & labelled for their team to prevent mixup) & run through a gantry to count laps all laps shown ‘live’ on a large electronic scoreboard & signals an upcoming girls/guys lap. (Job for EEE)

Peace!

The last week is all about recieving the results of the mid-semester tests & of course accepting them. My Grades are not very fantastic this semester, about 10% lower than my standard grade the previous semesters, with the exception of a few 100% steals, heydoda!

Damage Report:
Mechanics II: 100%
Engineering Maths: 100%
Wildfire Pro-E: 100%
Thermofluids II: 88%
DTS: 83%
CNC CAM: 83%
Product Design & Dev: A
GEMS: ICA1 - A

My target for this year will be at least 4 DIST & the rest minimum ‘A’s, the best is to maintain at 5 DIST & GPA 4.0. All these are MST results anyway, so can’t really count the chickens before they are hatched… Nevertheless, had not recieved a reply on the $$ SP scholarship application $$, hope I can get it this year.

Anyway, with the X-country season ending, the 3rd Quarter running season is back again in force, starting with the Mizuno Wave Run on the 23th this month. Did registrations at the Funan’s Running Lab today. Got an interesting number of 1944 (yi qiu se se, slowly die die?)… Haha at least its not as bad as one of the number tags one of my running friends ever got - 174 (yi qi se, all die together?) no one will want to run with him sia, haha. Nevertheless, here are the race details:

Mizuno Wave Run 2006 Race Schedule & Details
Event Date: 23th July 2006
Registration Deadline: 16th July 2006
Venue: Kovan Hub (Former Hougang St21 Bus Interchange)
Distance: 10km
Reporting Time: 6.30am
Race Start: 7.30am

Competitive 10km Race Cats ($15 Reg fee):
Men’s & Women’s Open (No Age Limit), Men’s Veteran (>45 Years) & Women’s Veteran (>40 Years)
Non-Competitive 10km Race Cats ($10 Reg fee):
Fun Run (No Age Limit)

Goodie Bag (All Cats)
Mizuno Event Dry Tee (worth $39.90)
Mizuno Drawstring Bag (worth $10.00) + vouchers & goodies inside
30% discount all Mizuno products upon registration at outlet

Last but not least, brought a pair of cheap $14 Sony Earplugs for use in my 21km Half-Marathon & Singapore Marathon this year… these babies can’t last me one season at all. Also on gadgets, its stationary to the Maxes! I am always crazy of all-in-one stationary, (not to mention an impatient enemy for correction fluid). Got a new PILOT Feed Pen ($6.50) with Black, Blue & Red ballpoint inks + a built in refillable CORRECTION TAPE dispenser at the back! Whoa! & I thought my current Mitsubishi Uni Ballpoint + 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil + 5cm Stick Eraser pen was an All-in-wonder… Now all I need is these 2 pens & I can throw my pencil case away…

Poly 50 training is speeding up, would be training my team & bonding them before the big event next wednesday.
With powers come great responsiblity - Being a Poly 50 Team Captain

Millege for this week (7 day period)
SP Gym 2+1 Sets Weight Training, no threadmill - Tuesday
Poly 50 Circuit training 10 Team Laps (600m) - Tuesday
SP Gym 3+1 Sets Weight Training, 5.5km threadmill - Wednesday
SP Gym 2+1 Sets Weight Training, no threadmill - Friday
Poly 50 Circuit training 10 Full Laps (6000m) - Friday

Total Millege/week = 12.1km (40% of 30km a week target met)
My Millege is dropping alot these weeks, sigh…

Currently Listening: Fort Minor - Where’d You Go

It had been about 2 years since I’ve eaten at the Metro-Y Coffee House at YMCA (along Stevens road). Previously about 5 years ago, it was the best place for Chinese style Claypot Chicken rice. Indeed the best so far I’ve ever tried, even beating the popular ones at Clementi & People’s Park Food Center - not too dry, no burnt taste & rice at the bottom, yet topped juicy with chunky chicken, greens, chinese sausages & traces of salted fish for taste. Not to mention the juicy steaks from the western menus on hotplate, tenderising!

Till the Metro-Y Coffee House changed hands into the Colors Coffee House 2 years before, things were down the drain - their Chinese chef left & the western menu got revamped, offering a fine dining experience, a nightmare to quantity orientated eaters like me. Our last visit years back was definately a turn down, well.. till Mum decided to bring the family there again yesterday after our years of absence. At first glance things hadn’t changed much, few of the old waiters & waitresses were still around, some were even promoted to cashiers, etc and amazingly they can still recognised us. Otherwise most of the staff are all new. Sitting at our usual table, layouts are all still the same. Cultery & cups are all still the same (duh) where I can only awe at the remarkable quality.

Yummy Claypot Chicken Rice	YMCA Colors Set Beef Steak

Nevertheless the really interesting thing is the food. The chicken claypot rice ($7.50 current, $4.50 3 years ago) is like resurrected , almost like the old one though the rice was a little burnt theres room for improvement. The favourite beef steak is not served on hotplate anymore but for half the price ($22.50 prev, $12.50 current) we get soup, bread, coffee/tea & single scoop ice-cream dessert. Not bad food & quite affordable too, I guess I should see myself going there to eat more often too.

All things looks set, the pace is definately warming up now with 6 weeks left to the semester exams, it should be all study study study very soon.

Recieved my Pro-E Wildfire test results on Friday, got a spiffy 100 marks for it. For that, our teacher awared the top 3 in class with a HP mousepad each & a choice of hotwheel’s “final run” Toy Cars. Interesting stuffs toy design teachers have as inventory…

On the world cup, one of the most impressive saves so far is that by Germany’s Goalie Jens Lehmann, who saved twice in a shoot-out to give the a 4-2 win on penalties over Argentina yesterday. Ending their World Cup quarter-final 1-1 after extra time. Lehmann saved penalties from Roberto Ayala and Esteban Cambiasso, while Germany scored all four of their spot kicks.

I guess in Singapore, the main reason why people watch soccer is not much for the sport, but to ensure that their bets, either directed to Singapore Pools or Peers alike remain profitable. Just think of it & observe it’s always on the bets, not much on country or team loyalty to the extent. If I can run a betting business I would definately had already done so ages ago, not that the government actually holds & operate this monopolistic cash cow, hey we have casinos too right?

On a sidetrack, got myself a 4GB Imation Mini Thumbdrive & a 2GB Kingston Elite-Pro Compact Flash Card for Sheena last Thursday. It had been some time since I wanted a large thumbdrive, it beats lugging my current 40GB ‘portable’ harddisk around Campus as well.

Would be swimming tomorrow morning, had been sometime since I did for the last 2 weeks. Now if I can only decide on what swim shorts to wear this time as my last old Speedo shorts was ripped open cleanly at the butt centerline doing my visit to downtown east’s Wild Wild Wet 2 weeks ago, lucky I had spares that time… haha long story!

Millege for this week (7 day period)
SP Gym 2+1 Sets Weight Training, no threadmill - Tuesday
400mx10 (4km total <100secs/round, 1min inbetween rests) - Tuesday
SP Gym 3+1 Sets Weight Training, 4km threadmill - Wednesday
SP Gym 2+1 Sets Weight Training, no threadmill - Friday
(400mx4)x3sets (4.8km total <90secs/round, 3mins inbetween rests) - Friday

Total Millege/week = 12.8km (43% of 30km a week target met)

This was a very fun & interesting visit, but haven’t really got the chance to share it on the blog - The visit to the CLS plastics workshop in SP last month. Had some really fun & interesting encounters of a “gluey kind” there, despite the rather ever-looming smell of liquid hydrocarbons & machines humming all around… & Yes did I mention it was fun? There were some rather nice machines & processes which really caught my eye. Haha enough talk, guess the pictures will speak for themselves.

Plastic Injection Machine	Cool Satellite Thingy	Discussion in the Plastic Workshop

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