Weekly Flurry of Updates

This has been a really tiring week; which is something I seldom feel. Simply because, Clarisse has been sick for the past week. 3 trips to the doctor, (1 more today), and she's finally looking better. Cooking chrysantumum tea, TCM herbal soups, porridge, etc.etc. so many times until I'm so demoralised by her not getting well.

But finally, a relief today as she's finally almost recovered.

No amount of work wears me down like the sickness of a loved one.

Meanwhile, I've also been busy with old project datelines, new projects, a huge surge in repair jobs almost having 2 per day, etc.etc. And I'm attempting to plunge a foot into the music industry... hush hush I'm not gonna reveal what's happening. But the odds look rather good for now.

Oh yes, iPhone is arriving tomorrow. I'm planning to sell it on Yahoo Auct, starting at 1.2k, with buy now price at 2k. If this is successful, I will be importing another 2 or 3. Good money to earn on HYPE. ^_^

But the only worry is that it's only a month since it launched, so hackers have yet been able to unlock it; in sg, it can only be used as a iPod/Wifi Internet terminal. Only reason it won't sell will be this.

Only in the event that it doesn't sell at my target profit margin, then I will use it for myself.

Well since I was clearing my hp memory card, thought I'll post up some stale pix.

SUPER REWIND!!

December 8: The first 13-odds in my life! And self-drawn some more. As I've told many people, after that day I've had 6 or 7 weeks of bad luck at mj. 2nd time I got it was slightly more than a month ago; seems like same thing happened, cos I've been losing since that day until like 2 days back, which I figured is also around 7 weeks of bad luck.. -_-|||

I don't believe in such things, but statistics seem to be putting me down.

Last July, visited Clarisse's parents in China. However, we spent our first day in Shenzhen, and this is the view from her one of Clarisse's mum's best friend's many Condos all over China. She's one of those property speculators. Made good money by investing in Shanghai property in 2001, so now she's got property in many cities all over China.

We needed a place to stay, so she let us bunk over in one of the vacant units. It really looks like Sg condos; but the difference can be found when you're on the ground. It's a lot less orderly over there. I didn't take any other photos cos I didn't have a cam, nor did Clarisse's family, and I locked up my handphone as Clarisse's brother is a little delinquent, has a problem with stealing. Thus, no other photos for the trip.

My lousy hp camera makes the condo look like plastic models. Seriously, they're not. They're real buildings. -_-|||

Feb 14 2006. That's the Taka fountain behind us. That's when Clarisse and I declares as the day we started. Actually, it was quite ambiguous. We never really knew when we started, but somehow decided to throw darts blindfolded and decided that V-day is the day we started. lol.

October 16 06. That's Clarisse with her Orange juice and my Mango sorbet, from the Bistro outlet at Orchard Towers. Familiar?

Of course. Cos it's the same one mentioned in Wanz' blog, which she went with Sheen.

I've been there umpteen times. I really mean umpteen. Started with Gabriel. He brought me there a couple of times, once with Neo around. Then when Jon was back from holiday, we added him in and went there for food. Then I went there quite a few times alone with Clarisse.

Thus, there's no denying about what Wanz said - the food is nice, and value for money cos the serving is really huge. All mentioned above can testify for that! woot!

Aug 14 06. Our half-month anniv. Clarisse and I had just shifted into the new place in Bishan, excited and all with the great kitchen in store. So on our half-year, she baked us a Yam Cream cake, knowing that I lurve yam. The yam paste was all hand-crushed, thus it's a cake full of lurve. ^_^

19 Feb 06. This is...erm...I don't know. This is so damn random. Just like my thoughts. lol.

21 Oct 06. Remember Mushroom Park I mentioned 3 posts ago? Well I forgot about it, but the first time we went, with my parents, we did take some pix with my hp, I just forgot about them.

The steamboat pot.
The plain soup is one of the best parts of the meal.

The many kinds of mushrooms on display.

29 Aug 06. On Jetstar once again. This time, for the APEC-TIC conference as a Junior Delegate. The reason I attended was as a entrepreneurial participant. Met a few nice people there, esp from Japan and Thailand, as I made some good friends from there. And the Japs are so accustomed with sleazy culture that they do not mind talking about such things openly, which I couldn't really get used to.

That's another nice sunset pic. Jetstar flights back from tw take off at 5.40pm, so I always pick the window seats to get a nice view of the sunset. It's something I always look forward to.

Well this trip, I tried to look for Jiahui during my free days. However, that proved to be much harder than I thought it would be. Mutual friends are split into 2 factions, with 1 siding me and 2 siding with her. I don't know, but I have a hunch some money is involved with them siding her. Anyway, the one on my side tried to dig out information in vain, while the other 2 deathly denies all information despite keeping constant contact with her.

By the time I came back, I kissed my $$ goodbye and told myself to really learn this hard lesson. And value it for e rest of my life.


FAST FORWARD!

Ok, we're finally back to current events.

Went to find Clarisse last Monday for lunch, and took another road to Marina Food Court. The result is spotting a really nice garden we didn't know exist before. Here are 2 pix of the nice little spot.

Dinner the same day, after meeting with clients and gym. Wore my new blazer, and it's really comfortable; the material that is. When I was younger, I never understood why parents try to look for cotton clothing, and why cotton clothes cost so much more. This is the day I understand.

But... other than the comfort, wearing the blazer feels the same as if I were wearing a 50-buck blazer bought from the back alleys of Taiwan. It doesn't make me any different from who I always was - me.

Saturday, 28 July 2007.

OSIM International Triathlon.

I joined the triathlon as a representative of GS, and it was sad cos Clarisse was still sick that day. So I went alone, and after my leg of the race, went home asap to take care of her.

I did the mini triathlon, with 200m swim, 10km bike and 2km run. It wasn't so hard, but the toughest part was the transition from swim to bike. After a sprint-speed swim, legs are soft and wobbly... and immediately after the swim, there is a short 200m run up a slope (overhead bridge) to change over to the bikes. While legs are still soft, mounting the bike is amazingly difficult. The rest is less of a problem.

But of course I can say that cos I did the mini.

Nevertheless, the satisfaction of completion is pretty darn fulfilling.

I did 27 out of 100-odd, which figures to be quite ok considering it's my first time. I'm thinking of doing it again, and to take the triathlon up as a staple sport; but it's a really expensive sport. The cost is in the bike.

This time, I took bike borrowed from Clarisse's colleagues, so no cost. But to own a bike would easily cost 1k. And a good bike would cost significantly more, I was told by a bike enthusiast. One athlete was using a really expensive carbon-fibre bike, and during the transition he could easily lift up the bike which weighed less than 2kg. Thus, I figure that I'll tag along as a "spouse" of an employee every year, until I can easily afford such a bike, before I go into the olympic events. Figures to be around 5 years later.

estimate: 3 more years of mini, 2 more of sprint (double of mini, half of olympic) and graduate to olympic. Really hope I can do that. Will work hard towards it.

The transition area, with lots of people looking after competitors' bikes. Look at the crowd, it was amazing. 3,800 participants, I heard.
The GS grandstand was at the bike mounting line. This is where I rested after the race, and got to see other categories. Basically, almost everyone except the top 10-ish race leaders suffer from wobbly legs at this point. Falling off bike is really really common in this zone.

Another view of the mounting zone.

That's where you would come from after the swim, which takes place in the sea. After running up this area, you gotta run up the ramp in the background of the previous pic to reach the transition area.

That's the finishing medal.

No, it's nothing. Everyone who finishes gets one.

But the satisfaction from completion is uplifting.

End off with a nice vid.

"Stay hungry, stay foolish" - Commencement speech given by Steve Jobs, CEO of Pixar Animation Studios and Apple. He got a standing ovation.