A good laugh for the day- the video of Doug Zongker’s “Chicken chicken chicken” lecture at the click:

The lecture slides in PDF for those who wish to zap them for the exams.

Chinese new year comes earlier this year than the last. It’s good bye to the year of the rat and welcome the 2nd animal on the Chinese Zodiac, the hardworking Ox. Lets hope the bovine power will bring a bullish year ahead for many. Nevertheless, despite the downturn, CNY is still a period of festive joy, performances, not to mention family reunions with family and distant relatives.

Many wishes to all the Chinese celebrating 2009 with the year of the Ox, Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Yearly Chinese Zodiac Outlook for 2009

Managed to get a preliminary list of all the running and sport events to be held in Singapore for this year. For more comprehensive details such as venues, organizers and external links, check out the listing on my main page under “Events”. You will be able to get a bird-eye’s view of the lineup to date.

Hope this list will prove useful for anyone planning out your 2009 running event calendar or a training schedule to suit the events you are intending to run. Do note that I’ve omitted MR 25 trail runs, if you wish to view the MR25 runs, you can check out their calendar here.

In addition to these dates, I will be sourcing out details which I will feature as event info on my blog when I get the details. I will still be confirming few more details with the event organisers for this year, at the moment these dates are more or less confirmed to date.

Behold! the runs and such for 2009!

Note: This list is non-exhaustive and more events will be added/updated over time. If you spot an error, feel free to let me know. Cheers and keep running!

There was something rather interesting in the mail today. A nice thick white plain envelope addressed from the University of Cambridge identified via a faint stamp on the corner, nothing fancy, but an avenue of anxiety- The time is right at it is this period of the year where admission results are announced, this will definitely be the result of my university application.

I remembered receiving admission rejection letters from NUS and NTU before- they are simply small and skimpily thin “cannot be bothered” letters of pain and sorrow. So this “package” packed quite some punch, so there must be some weight to it, not to mention a calming reassurance of something not just “a rejection letter”.

So I sat down with the envelope in front of me and opened it. To my amazement, right at the top of the pile was a letter stating that I’ve been offered unconditionally to do my undergraduate course and masters in Cambridge University. Whoa! Packed inside are several questionnaire papers and college information leaflets for freshmen as well as internal scholarship application forms.

There is a financial condition however, which I have to provide acceptable evidence that my scholarship provider is indeed genuine and able to meet all the fees of the course. So I guess I will have to refer that to them then.

I cannot believe I’ve got into Cambridge purely on my own ability! I’ve made it! Cambridge 2009 here I come!

Happy new 2009 everybody! May it be a good, safe & prosperous year. May all your wishes come true!