#TerrificTuesday!!!

It's a hash tag...

Yes....extremely addicted to Twitter.

Damn you....social media networks!!!!!

Anyway, Lydia came down from Ipoh for some ballet competition that she forbade us all to go watch.....coz apparently she claims that she "sucked"......

Right....

Well....a get-together we did...and here are some random photos taken this Tuesday.

(don't regret giving up Bikram yoga class for this!)

Photo-log:

* Found Lydia and Kenneth eating desserts at Tong Pak Fu @ Midvalley.....and I was bloody tempted to eat (yea, like what else is new?!) so I ordered some mango waffle with ice cream...

I personally think the ones at A&W tasted a whole lot better...but then again, I'm old-school!

* I also got a tad too greedy and ordered the tiramisu.

Needless to say it sucked.

Sucked so bad that I wouldn't have fed it to the neighbour's dog!!!! (not that I have anything against them or the dog...I'm just saying!!!)

Thankfully I had Lydia and Kenneth to help finish up these two stuff.

* Everybody wanted to check out the Mickey Mouse exhibition.....

* Yes...it's just a decorated Mickey figurine....and tons of them!!!

* You can tell I'm having a field day with Instagram!!!!!

* My favourite.....yes I know, I'm boring that way!!!! Oh shuddup......

* Someone's head is getting a tad too big, don't you think!?

* Yip and his flowery tea pot....I LOVE that tea pot!!!!! I would have nicked it if no one was watching.....ok ok, kidding....but I really LOVE that tea pot, in case you didn't read the first sentence!!!!!

*.....coz it lifts up and reveals the cup underneath!!!!!

Absolute brilliance!!!!

(yes....I just realized that I am in dire need to get a proper life....)

* I really wanted Salmon.....I don't care if it was raw, smoked or cooked. I WANT SALMON!!!!!

* Checking out photos from the ballet competition...as taken by Lydia on her camera...

Frankly I think the boys were just checking out underage girls in tutus!!!!

* Ham and mushroom carbonara......

Not half as bad as I had initially thought.....but I still like to think that I make better pasta.

(y'know.....people say perception is always better than reality....what, you've not heard of that saying!?!?!?!)

* More SALMON!!!!!! In tangerine sauce!!!!!

* The group.....(well, someone HAS to hold the bloody iPhone, right?)

* Yeah...finally dawned on me that I'm a pro at cam-whoring...thus the above photo!!!

Lydia somewhat convinced me to sign up for the Ipoh International Run on 1st July 2012.

(it wasn't that hard to convince me, come to think of it....dammit, I need to be more resistant to such convincing!!!)

Oooh.....suddenly I was reminiscing my first ever (official) 10km race!!!!

Y'know....the one that started the ball rolling....

...before I was officially deemed "crazy"....(whatever!)

Yup...that one!

Would be great to go back Ipoh again.

Hmm....I'm thinking my sabbatical on running might be coming to an end soon.

(but if anyone ask...I'm still kinda in lust with Bikram yoga and my skimpy little yoga outfits....)

Later!!!!

So.....my weekend.....

Remember about the ambivalence regarding to Sundown or not to Sundown?!?!?!

Yup...made the right choice after all.

Gut feeling works!!!!!

Anyway, Saturday (overslept and missed the running and the cycling) was stuck at work covering the netball league championships....and it is definitely slightly peculiar watching men competing in the league.

But man, do they move like lightning.....honestly putting the girls' teams to shame.

Sunday, I decided to join a bunch of enthusiastic trail runners to hit Kiara Hills.

As many of you all know (or have heard about), this part of the green lung is at risk of disappearing to make way to "developments".....

In other words, some private land owner decided it would be extremely profitable to build a bunch of ridiculously pricey homes (that REGULAR Malaysians find difficult to even cough up the down-payments) and destroy a chunk of the precious green lung that was and is so loved by many hikers and runners alike.

Malaysians and land conservation just don't quite go hand in hand.....unfortunately.

Kinda like FLOM (new handbag, was it?!) and frugal just shouldn't be able to fit in the same sentence.....

One wonders when the next great landslide will be...considering the area that they are developing for these ridiculously priced properties are situated on top of a hill......

Anyway....please read THIS blog by Tri Stupe and sign the petition.

(yes...you might be skeptical at how some stupid petition is gonna stop some gold-digging conglomerate at destroying Kiara.....so what!? If you don't try.....you'd never know!!!!)

Enjoy some pics from last Sunday's trail run....

(courtesy of Tri Stupe himself.....)

* Would you believe that despite me living a stone throw away....it is my FIRST time running that trail!?!?! I am officially PATHETIC!!!!

With Esther, Michelle, yours truly, Rupert and Agnes.

* The great big fence that was erected to block out "intruders" like us runners.....

* Works going on to flatten the hill......

* We collected the rubbish along the route....it's amazing how many crap that development can generate....

* Say NO to the destruction of Kiara Hills!!!!

* Group picture at the top.....you're gonna miss this view.....unless your bank account is overflowing and you manage to purchase a tremendously expensive bungalow here.....

.....which by the way, have you been paying your taxes!?!?! (ahem, ahem)

Post run, a group of us went for breakfast....

...and somehow along the way got talked into attending the Jeri Collet talk on Ultra running.

* This AWESOME place is located in Kelana Jaya....somewhere.....

It serves somewhat authentic Sarawak laksa and kolo mee!!!

* This is the Fairlady....(I think...)

It is some yogurt drink with pineapples, longans...the works.

* Kolo mee....(this actually tasted a whole lot better than the one I had in Miri!!!!)

* Rupert, yours truly and Cyn at the ultra marathon talk....

It only cost us Rm10 to get in...

* Aman Avtar....the race director of TMBT....

* More familiar faces....Jeff and Tony...

* Rupert had loads of difficulty staying awake....

* Jeri Collet.....sponsored by Hammer Nutrition.....(I'm just saying...)

Somewhere along the way......kinda signed up for TMBT in the 50km category.

....and to think I promised myself I'd be very VERY SANE this year!!!!

Epic fail.....

Later!!!!!

Sucks to be so ambivalent....

I thought I had already decided about Sundown...

I think I did think so....

Or at least I did think so when I last posted on this blog.

Now I'm not so sure.

What the hell happened?!?!?!

Hmm....you know when you're torn between to two choices and you decided to go with choice A because logically (gosh, don't you just hate logic sometimes!??!) it seemed like the better choice to go with than choice B....but after making that decision, a minute part of yourself (ok ok, make it a HUGE chunk of yourself) started questioning your ability to make real decisions and you start thinking...hmm, perhaps choice B was the right one after all.

I always believe that when you are making choices (coz God knows these days life is just full of those bloody choices and thus choice-paralysis is on the freakin rise!!!!), when you've chosen one, it should feel.....good.

Ok..maybe not good....but perhaps, relieved....better....erm, not as sucky as you feel when you've realized you've chosen the wrong one!

Yeah...that above.

So I did decide to go with the Sundown-choice last Sunday...despite the ECP....despite the sleep deprivation.....despite the exchange rate is definitely gonna be a killer.....but.....

....by Tuesday, I seriously questioned my decision.

On Wednesday, upon returning to work after a ridiculously long hiatus (there was the study break...the exams....the post-exam holidays....the travel to the middle of no where in Perak for fitness assessment of school kids thing.....then the clearing of semester leave....), I seriously didn't wanna be spending my weekend in Singapore.

In fact, the job of covering uni netball again this Saturday night seemed so much more appealing than Sundown.

Sigh.

So...what the hell does this mean!?!?!?

*shrugs*

I dunno....if I did, I wouldn't be posting this nonsense right now!!!!

Anyway....let's just say that I'll NOT go Singapore this weekend.....NOT run Sundown Marathon....and instead, DECIDE to stay put in KL....go cycling on Saturday morning then proceed with Bikram yoga in the evening then for netball cover at night....and a long run on Sunday morning......

Yeah.....I'm gonna decide to do so...and see how I feel within the next 24 hours.

I gotta sneaky feeling I'm gonna feel a whole lot better with this decision.

Ambivalence sucks!!!!

Later!!!

Comeback run!

I made it quite clear that I have not been running much (if any) for the past one month.

I'd like to blame my preparation for the exams but then again it would sound rather lame......

Oh I dunno.....I guess a large chunk of the reason was because I just didn't have the right amount of motivation to drag myself out every evening to run.

And the weather sucks.....(bloody heatwave and global climate change!)

Also I was having tremendous problems with my sleep......that, I'd blame the exams.

Stress always does these sorta crap to me.

And that was when I stumbled onto Bikram yoga.....and that kinda help alleviate the stress level....and my sleep improved slightly.....yada yada yada...

Needless to say I've been on a steady exercise-diet of ONLY Bikram yoga for the past one month.

I figured that my love affair with running would be reignited automatically the moment my results came out and Bikram yoga would be supplemental.....

....however, I have to admit......my relationship with running is kinda becoming like a 30-year old marriage....kinda stale and monotonous.

And like a 30-year old marriage with a couple of kids.....running also brings its own stress, frustrations and dissatisfaction.

I would gladly give up my relationship with running at a drop of a hat last week.....unfortunately for me, I had signed up for quite a few races since earlier this year.

Well....firstly there would be Sundown Marathon in Singapore next weekend...2 weeks later, Laguna Phuket Marathon......and another fortnight later, the Standard Chartered KL Marathon.

Oh...and there's also the Osaka Marathon but that's in November.....( I'll probably seek some marriage counsellor by then to patch things up between me and running, and we'll get out act together to put up a brave front at Osaka!)

Anyway.....

I'm a little hesitant about Sundown.

I sigened up under the PRETENCE by the organizers that it would not be the old route of the boring East Coast Park.....

Of course, that did not quite work out for whatever the reason which organizers failed to explain to the participants (I wonder if it is too late to make some ruckus and get my money back.....oh, just let me entertain that thought for a while!), and now I'm undertrained AND unenthusiastic about the whole entire race!

...coz mind you, enthusiasm often brought me through rough patches in a race.

I don't really wanna go.

But I don't like NOT showing up and attempting a race that I paid good money for.

So.....I guess I'm going. Sigh.

Anyway today was my first day back at LSD after yonkers of going missing and I manage to pull in a 23km run....(with a lot of walking thrown in here and there)

Don't congratulate me yet....it was suppose to be a 30km run....but I got lazy.

And man...do I miss my morning hot room session.

After having my 23km done, I'm kinda confident Sundown wouldn't be too bad.

For some reason.....when the race gets dark, lonely and kinda boring (an unofficial guarantee thats Sundown always makes), I have some of the best conversations with myself, well confined within my cranium and that always gets me back......of course, situation being the timing would almost always be 6-hours and above.

And I always love power-walking the last 12km stretch!

Oh...and the ONE thing that I look forward to the most (besides seeing my friends who relocated down South).....I'm extremely excited about checking out the Bikram yoga studios in Singapore!!!

Yes...I've said it.....I'm heading to Singapore MOSTLY for the Bikram, and NOT the marathon....

I've already found three studios and am dying to try out the classes at the Harbourfront studio!

Yeah....definitely more looking forward to Bikram yoga in another city (country!!!).....

I can hardly contain my excitement!!!

I should seriously consider writing a blog just about my journey of Bikram yoga....

Later!!!

Breakthough moment!

I've been having my depressive symptoms again lately.

Yea yea....so its actually all my fault.

I defaulted my medications for almost three weeks and counting.

Well...it started with burning the midnight oil during my study break and forgetting to take a few days worth of dosages.

Then when I remembered, I figured oh well......(then the non-adherence to treatment began)

I know......my psychiatric friends would probably ring my neck once I get back to work next week.

But anyway I had been feeling rather crap a few days ago.

I was upset....anxious.....agitated.....and just in a plain foul mode.

I decided this time around, I'd try and seek a different approach in treatment.

I seeked tough love.

And my tough-love-guide (TLG) commented, after hearing me sob my pathetic sad, woe-is-me story.......that I've never embraced being angry.

Huh?!?!

Apparently......

I've never embraced being sad....upset....frustrations....

TLG, whom have analyzed me a bit too closely (sometimes a bit freakily, come to think of it) says that my approach to all things unpleasant, thus far, was to avoid, come up with some sort of solution (unsure whether it would actually work or otherwise) or cover with up with being extra cheery and throw myself into the throngs of activities that I usually set myself up for......for example, my monthly marathons, trainings, tris, rock climbing, Bikram yoga.....and the list seemed to go on endlessly.

Sigh.

He suggested, for a change.....just NOT do anything....but feel the emotions....

Embrace it...not avoid it.

The best thing my TLG told me was....it is absolutely ok to be a BITCH once in a while.

Apparently I'm terrible at being one.

He gave me a few examples to emulate.....but I figured it would be pretty undiplomatic to list my examples down...(yes yes....being nice and diplomatic all the time won't make me any less depress...I'm on a learning curve, dammit!!)

Anyway.....he said to just be the bitch that I have full potential to becoming and unleash my anger onto those who pisses me off on a regular basis....

Erm....ok.....

Well.....I finally did!

And I have to tell you......IT IS THE BEST FEELING IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD TO TELL OFF SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN BUGGING YOU!!!

......and I don't even feel bad.

Nope...not a teeny weeny bit.

Too bad if YOU (you guys know who you are) found it offensive or taken aback or "not like me".

Fact is.....I hate your guts and I've been dying to tell you to FUCK THE BLOODY HELL OFF for quite a while.

Unfriend me on Facebook all you like.

I don't give a fuck what you think because I'm done being nice to you despite you being the fucking scum beneath my smelly Vibram Fivefingers for such a long time.

I'm done being diplomatic about things.

I'm done being apologetic.

I'm just done!!!

You can continue making fun of my job....my previous life in my beloved mental institution.....my pay being your tax money.....my frequent time offs.....my running speed.....my timing......EVERYTHING!!

I totally understand that your life has been anything but fantastic.....and putting me down in front of others and on Facebook to make yourself feel slightly more human than the fucked up shit that you are......but newsflash......

I AIN'T TAKING YOUR CRAP ANY LONGER!

Phew....that felt bloody good and carthartic!

Just what I really needed.

On a side note......to all my REAL friends who kinda got into the line of my bitch-mode-fire.....get use to it.

I can only take that much bullshit from you guys.

What!!?? You thought I was gonna apologize?!?!

Yup.....I already feel so much better.

Thanks TLG....

You may have created a monster......but perhaps being too nice doesn't suit me any longer.

Oh.....and if you're offended.....no one is asking you to read this blog!

Geez!!! Some people never take a hint!

And to my real friends (you know who you are!) , I love you guys and your unwaiverinh support.

You guys have been the best!

(but side note, don't mess around with me too much.....bitch mode still on!)

To haters.....you just wait. I'm dying to give you a piece of my mind.

Later!!!

PD TriEAThlon V – 12th May 2012 (the Happy Birthday edition!)

Latest edition of our monthly PD tri sim.....

Realized that one whole entire (yes...one freakin WHOLE MONTH!!!) of no running/cycling has really taken a toll on my fitness.

Only thing managing my bloody weight is Bikram Yoga....but of course that doesn't quite translate when you're trying your bloody darnest to ride up an incline which you've previously didn't even give a second thought about.

Yes...it was that hard.

Only the swimming part was easy.

But then again I've always loved swimming....even when I was young enough to understand what "exercise obsession" was.

This edition of our tri sim was a little bit more special than usual....

Ok....it was WAY SUPER special....as it was Nurina's birthday!!!

(I didn't ask how old was she...I thought it would be pretty rude of me....and frankly maybe when I've reached a certain age....say, 40....I'll constantly remain at 39 for many many more years to come.....)

Oh...and the turn out is getting bigger and bigger with each edition!!!

Gracie would be SO proud.....!!!!

Anyway since there aren't any glorious breakthrough in terms of my cycling or running.....I'll just stick to a photo-log of the celebration and pretend that I didn't suck that badly during the simulation.

Photo-log (yea...you can definitely tell that I'm having a thing with Instagram!):

* the official birthday cake....

* the mother's day cake......which we didn't touch....

* The happy smiling birthday girl!

* Photo taking.....and then MORE photo taking!!!

* Make a wish.....

* With superwoman, Agnes!!!!!

* Our official banner.....that to my understanding, is gonna be erected at every single tri event from now onwards......

* The birthday girl and her lovely boys!

* Sifu Richard presenting Nurina with her birthday present.

* Datuk-Besi Syerol did some DIY prior to event....and we had "prize-giving ceremony" (actually it was more like souvenir hand-outs) after the event!

* Good job, Syerol on the DIY!

* Agnes receiving the DIY medal...

* Rupert's turn...

* Nik's turn.....

(I kinda stop taking photos of every individual after that.....it's a lot of Instagraming to do, mind you!!)

* Obligatory cam-whoring with my "medal"

* Nurina says...."EAT CAKE....or else!!!"

* Obligatory photo with the birthday girl.....all those photo taking must be wearing her out!

* Rupert showing the boys how to live life....

* Frankly I thought he was being a pretty bad example for the boys...but oh well...

* The birthday present......(Gracie photo-shopped it!)

Anyway....as always I've enjoyed our PD get togethers.....although in hindsight (like always) we ended up eating more than actually burning it off.....

Now....to go get myself into more Bikram Yoga classes....oops, I mean more run training and ride sessions!!!!

Later!!!