hand in hand, ultramarathon we conquer

we call it a great way to end the year.. the ultra marked the final milestone for our endurance race calendar 2007.

within 10hrs 46mins, dearie and i hung on and completed 7 laps totalling to 73.5km macritchie trail run. to us, it's a great accomplishment as we weren't exactly trained up to do such a distance (the furthest distance we've clocked is the 42km marathon of running) and we were apprehensive if we could stay through the run.

doubtful as we were, we still went ahead, determined to stay together in the run, for as long as we can. dearie came up with a wise strategy to approach the entire run and having him by my side made all the difference.

we began with the goal to earn a finisher tee shirt (min 5 laps) and it was not before long, from 5 laps we calculated we would have suffice time for another 2, and that's what we did.

personally i thought the breaking point for me was at the 4th round - i could feel my body protesting and on top of the sultry sun baking us, it was quite a turmoil. but after we got through the 5th lap, the next 2 was alot mental.

by the 7th lap, we were limping off the stairs and celebrating at every water checkpoint. we know, every step ahead is one step nearer to the finishing line.

it was a great run, no cramps, we ran on feeling strong, we had fun and we promise we'll come back stronger next year.

after almost 11hrs of pain and sweat, we earned ourselves the right to be called "ultramarathoners".

piggy banks

Last Friday, dearie and I committed a sum of money for 15years, in order to make our money “work harder”. Risk level for this savings is really low, virtually none as a matter of fact, hence return is also not as significant compared to what you’ll get from investing in shares.

Nonetheless, it’s definitely a whole lot better than saving in the bank to get a $3 interest per month.

Setting money aside is important. Apart from the lump sum commitment, we’ve both started a monthly savings plan. This is the second one for myself, I’ve got 2 saving plans on going now and it’s one habit I want to keep for life – save. Like dearie often reminds me, “it’s not about how much you earn, it’s about how much you save.”

I had a long week away from work..coming back to office gave me quite abit of a shock as I realized I’ve left off quite a lot of work to catch up on. On top of the oncoming holidays happening next week, that literally means I’ve got lesser time to finish the same quantity of work. Gee.

The fruit cake dearie, mummy and I baked yesterday didn’t quite turn out the way we hoped it would. Nevertheless, it still tasted marvelous as it was our joint effort. Sweet taste of labour. =)

Misunderstanding at RL had been cleared up, that I’m glad to hear. I’m pretty certain that’s because I’ve asked HN to help me with the issue. It irks me when I’m dead sure I have not made a mistake in over-purchasing for the month but I’m still being accused of doing so. I’m so sure I can swear my life on it. This incident brought to light more things: who are the people who would stand by you as friends and who are those who would shake their heads, shrug their shoulders and buat bodoh. For my savings sake, I’ve got to hang on..it’s not that bad a place to work in. the best thing about it is being very near mummy, so that means both Saturday and Sunday I am actually able to have dinner with mummy.

Dearie hurt his right leg; it’s probably a strain on the ITB. I understand the pain he’s experiencing, I certainly hope it’ll recover soon..i don’t want him to remain as a grumpy lao bei bei.

After reading reviews on dpreview.com, I am dissuaded to getting the Olympus 790 cammie I was raving about in my earlier post. No new cammies for us now. It’s not a need, it can wait. Saving up is top of the list now. Coz I’ve busted my personal budget during this festive season. OH man!

when you are happy, i am happy

Words can kill..but words can also heal. Some things once they pass by might never come by.

I teared as I cuddled my mother. Those were the words I spoke.

Indeed, some things that pass you by might just never come around again.

I had a bad dream during the night: my mum contracted cancer..and I cried because I don’t want cancer to take my mum away from me. As dearie and christin consoled me that reality does not stand in that way - my mum definitely doesn’t have cancer.

Nonetheless, if I have to take a stand against reality, the truth is I am still gradually losing my mum, not to cancer, but, to time. Time ages every one and every living thing, like it or not.. when we were younger, it matures us, now we’re old, the weariness that time has brought upon us, is like a mask we wear on our faces and a costume adorned on our bodies. time does take its toil on our bodies. Remember how we used to stumble off bikes and rammed ourselves into the trees while roller blading, almost immediately we could shake off the dust and hobble on. Now if we do trip over something, we probably would break a bone or two.

Time and tide waits for no man.

Before I lose the people I love, I want to treasure them so that I’ll leave no regrets when they one day leave my side.

It’s hard, it takes effort. But it’ll definitely be better than to weep in grief.

Dearie and I are planning for a marathon in Australia next year and it’s one of my greatest wish to bring my mum out for a holiday. I’ll make sure it comes to past.

When my loved ones are happy, I will be happy too.

my 2nd christmas present, 1st in my life

second christmas gift for 2007, the first credit card of my life. issued by AWBank.

AWBank you're thinking? yea, AWBank indeed. it stands for, Apple Wong Bank.

the credit card? My Christmas card.

Thanks teng for the lovely cards you send to me each year. you are one impressive graphic designer. so ya, can i charge my purchases to your account? =P

ugly is the new beautiful

Eating light is good. Menu for dinner yesterday was pretty light – stir fried mixed cabbage with french beans with brown rice (for dearie), strawberry yoghurt. Somehow both of us felt a little hungry after 2 hours and munched on a little multi-grain bread.

We’ve fallen in love with the vegetarian food at jurong east recently, but as the serving is pretty big. It always leaves me feeling semi-satisfied yet semi-guilty that I’ve walloped the entire plate of rice and mock fish. Hence, unless I’ve trained hard that day, vegetarian food is not a privilege.

Dearie and I were watching the Channel 8 drama serial yesterday and he commented how Phyllis quek looked bulky on TV. I think she looked fine, to the fact that being on camera always makes one look fatter than he/she is. Phyllis probably looks perfectly good in person, while the others like ivy lee, who looks just nice on TV, are most likely stick thin. Think about it, what about those like jolie tsai who look super slim on TV, I reckon they might look like walking skeletons in person. =S

Well, that’s how beauty is defined by the media these days. Skinny=beautiful. Fat=ugly.

Gone are the days when fleshy is sexy. Now, being able to fit into a size 0 or XS is sexy.

Lament lament. When is tricia going to stop lamenting about this?

Finally, I have begun with the consolidation work. The translation kills, but I’ll have to plough through it somehow. Let’s just hope I get it right.

We didn’t manage to obtain the Hyflux shares on its IPO. Got to find some other investments to make in place. Money on idle is a waste (especially leaving it in a savings account only to collect $0.25 interest per month), it ought to be put into some form of investment so it would generate more money in return.

Who knows, if we make enough money through investment, I’ll spend some on liposuction. =P

Overheard ct commenting to the auditor about work. Pay here is pretty low, workload heavy. Only good thing is the bonus.

Well, tossed with dearie on this issue of pay vs bonus. Low take home pay means lesser savings each month. Higher bonus if spread out through the year should even the low monthly pay. Living in Singapore is getting tougher as the days go by. Prices of virtually every thing we know has gone up, EXCEPT our pay.

- fuel prices are up. Petrol prices, up. Electricity, up.
- Taxi fares up. Latest news, yesterday comfort delgro announced an increment of 30cents upon flag-down. (doesn’t quite affect me because I hardly take cabs, the only time you’ll find me in one is when my company is paying for it)
- Food prices, up. Everything has gone up at least 20-50cents. For a bowl of noodles which was $2.50, now $3.00, the increment is 20%.
- GST, up. Was 5% now 7%. That literally means, for everything that’s transacted in Singapore, the government is going to earn another 2% from it. For the extra that’s going to gnaw into my savings from the GST increment, the government has most kindly gave me $200 reimbursement. How about a monthly household allowance of $100 instead? ($100 is reasonable. $100/2%= $1500 spending per month.)

Working at rl lets me come face to face with the reality of income disparity. The number of platinum/elite cards I swipe in 1 day is more than all my cards (atm card, membership cards, discount cards) added together. Sometimes I ask myself when I would find myself within the calibre to own a platinum card too. Some day. One day.

Mean time, it’s work work work for a future. save save and save. Money doesn’t buy happiness. But without money, I think lagi harder to be happy.

if you aren't hurting, you ain't running

Joined the velocity run yesterday and my foot started to hurt after 3km. =( sera was pretty concerned about it and kept asking if I was alright. It was painful, but bearable pain. Much more bearable than the itch of not being able to run.

The aftermath - my foot hurts right this moment. I am convinced I ought to lay off running for a few days but I would still want to do macrit on Saturday.

Farhan was telling me an excerpt from the Dean Karnazes Ultramarathon man. His coach told him, “If you aren’t hurting, you aren’t running hard enough.”

I must be running real hard, coz I’m hurting big time =P

Managed to solve this big blunder I made on the antique AS400 system. PHEW! So glad the difference has been reconciled. I won’t want to get bee lan into trouble due to my mistake. Going through 1000+ lines on the excel spreadsheet can really get someone cross eyed!

Ct has been reminding me that I have consolidation of accounts to be done. I haven’t got around reading the reference book till now. i got to finish the report on 21st Dec and I haven’t got much a clue how I’m going to get it done. =S

I’m tired mentally. I can’t think about the accruals problem. I’m so tired I don’t even feel like eating. Eating is a chore.

The thought of going home is the only thing worth looking forward to, at least for now.

SCSM PB

dearie and i both did our pb marathon times: 3:44 and 4:28.

i'm really proud of my dearie, doing better than last year despite the cramp. i'm sure he can break the 3:35 barrier in his next marathon. =)

i'm really thankful for dearie who always pushes me on and also sham who has shared with me alot of invaluable training tips and the programme he passed to me. i'm seeing all the pain paying off and i want to continue to push on.

for me i finished the run with a foot sprain/strain. not to sure which one it is but i experienced a sharp pain on the outer side of my left foot when i reached the 30km mark. it's been hurting since then and this morning i discovered a bruise over that area. i really want to start training for the ultra soon...so i hope i'll recover in another 1-2days' time.

apart from the foot injury, i have suffered alot of abrasion from the waist pouch. remember how it left my sugoi top all scruffy? now my tummy and back area are scruffed up by it too =(

on top of scruffs and sprain, i've lost my naval ring too. the nice star dropped off during i-don't-know when. sobs. it's a gift from dearie when we were in sabah. sigh. now it's only left with the bar without the star. i lost half of my other titanium naval ring during the balikpapan trip too. i've got no other naval rings left except for the oxidised one.

despite of the pain and loss, this is my running peak period ever since i started distance running 3+ years ago. i hope i'll scale greater heights and push my limits further. i have faith in myself, just like i have faith in dearie. climb on, tricia.

first taste of christmas

i've received my FIRST christmas present yesterday - a UZAP MINI!

i have initially wanted to get it for myself if i did well for my marathon. dearie knew i wanted it and bought it as a christmas gift for me! yay! =D

behold, today

As I conjured my likely plans for 2008 and weighed through the opportunity costs of holding a part time job, I decided to stick with it. Dearie is right, it’s hard to find a boss as flexible as walter and I’m thankful for it. No doubt I do find the work getting a little mundane but as I really want to earn that extra, so I have to hang on. As I see dearie working so hard with his free lance projects, I find a need to keep up as well. We share the burden of building our family together. It’s a shared responsibility. And a burden halved definitely eases out stress on just one. Hence, I’ll continue to work at rl for 2008, until I really tak boleh tahan.

The recent drowning of Singaporean dragonboaters is really heart wrenching. It reminded me..

- how I used to love kayaking in the sea. Being in the ocean made me feel small, I found solitary in its majestic vastness. Nonetheless, in its greatness, lives had been and are constantly being engulfed.
- How I almost drowned the first time I swam in the open water during a sprint race. I hyperventilated and fear paralysed me. I tried to imagine how the dragonboaters could have been caught by shock of the sudden capsize. They were washed by the current underneath the pontoon after a sudden wave caused them to hit it. Under currents can be really strong, even if the water surface seems calm. Without gasping a breath before capsize would mean an even smaller chance of survival. Imagine hyperventilating from fear and not being able to reach out for air because a pontoon was on top of them. Water fills their lungs and the cause of death – drowning.
- Life and its frailty. Treasure your loved ones now. Say how much you love them today. Do not wait till tomorrow. for you won’t know what beholds tomorrow.

creamy oats

+

how i told you guys how yummy when you marry both of these together? slurpo!

rainbow after the rain

I was hopeful though I kept repeating to myself that there was much a possibility I might not get through. Rejection hit me hard in the face and it felt like a stumble on a trail run. Dearie stretched out his arms and cradled me. In those arms there was comfort and strength. He’s probably an angel sent by God =)

And so, no mba for me as the university commented i lacked the relevant working experience. For a moment, I regretted detouring into social work for the 2 years 8 months. However, in retrospection, if I hadn’t got into social work, I won’t have known Christin, a friend whom I hold close to my heart. And most of all, I won’t have known dearie, as I could not have gone into triathlons and racing if I had opted to stay in the finance line from the start. Indeed, God let things happen for a reason; and for every decision we make, there’s a consequence we have to bear.

Perhaps the rejection is a blessing in disguise. Dearie and I are very interested to do a marathon in Australia..or perhaps an ironman; although swimming in the open sea isn’t something I looked forward to.

It’s alright I tell myself, there are other things to pursue in place of the mba. Meantime, I reckon gathering relevant experience is the top of the list priority. To do well in my job, to get a good appraisal and most importantly, to yield a good BONUS! (a pay raise would be good-to-have).

The monotony of work at RL is gradually setting in. It gets pretty mundane at times. The only thing that keeps me going on is the money. What a carnal cause. Dearie asked me to consider dropping the job come 2008 but the extra monthly allowance which I can save is something I can’t bear to give up.

Assuming I earn $400 from it per month. That’s equivalent to $400/$7.50 = 53.33hrs. Per day i work from 11am to 8.30pm that’ll be 8.5hrs (minus 1hr break). Per weekend (2days) I’ll clock 17hrs. 53.33hrs/17hrs that’ll mean I need to work 3 out of the usual 4-5weekends per month.

Working at rl has greater opportunity costs these days, especially when I have to drag myself more often. Sometimes dearie would stay around to keep me company. Having him around alleviates my spirit.

Albeit gray clouds harrowing my skies, I know there’ll be a rainbow after the rain. And in the rain, I know dearie will be holding the umbrella to shelter me through it. =)

dentist says..

saw the dentist yesterday and she said i haven't been brushing my teeth properly (that's why all the decays) and she wants me floss my teeth everyday.

dentist: do you floss your teeth?

me: sometimes..erm..only when something gets stuck.

dentist: i want you to start flossing e-very-day.

me: gulps. o.k.

- me thinks. haha. i'm still with the same box of floss for the past 3-4years. now that explains how often i floss- sniggles-

lesson on trust

I learnt a valuable lesson on trust. IN had once forewarned me to be careful of my words and what I divulge to my fellow colleagues. During the week, she had gotten a hard hit by some because of a slip. It was really painful as she had so little time to react to the entire matter. It was really unfair as she was not totally at fault, cornered by two with a big tag of “urgent”, she was somewhat hard pressed. As I shared with dearie, indeed there is no one to trust at work, I can cajole around at surface but I must be careful not to go too much into my own life. I won’t know when the entire office would know of it. Some things would spread like bon fire and you’ll soon have people talking behind your back. There are only 3 persons in my life I trust with all my heart – dearie, mummy and christin. These are my confidantes whom I can share my inner most, whine my hearts out and still know they will always be by my side.

scent of a prince

And another “first time”, I bought dearie a bottle of perfume too! I first smelled it on the Men’s Health magazine Sham brought to RL. I thought it’s a refreshing scent for men, without that huskiness most men’s perfume has. I hope he likes it and would use it.

Dearie gave me a gift in return too. When I landed at changi airport yesterday, I was received with the warmest hug I’ve had in many days. Seeing him was the best gift and having the rest of the day to relax together just made it all complete. =)

scent of a princess

First time in my life, I bought a bottle of perfume for myself. Have always thought perfumes are too much a luxurious item for me to afford; usually I’ll just use my mum’s or pick up sample vials from her. I have received perfumes for present a few times, at 26 years of age, this is the first time I wanted to pamper myself with one. I thought I probably won’t have many chances to travel, so I better buy one since I’m back from a trip.

I simply love the sweet smell, pink box and glitters in the perfume. I feel like a princess with it! Haha! It does smell a lot sweeter because I bought it with my own hard earned money. Sweet scent of achievement.

sunroof experience

I’ll be traveling to Balikpapan to meet up with leadertread’s bosses and PTCP people next week. Personally it’s like a sunroof in my job scope which is allowing me to pop my head up to look what is going on. I really appreciate the opportunity and though I’ll miss my dearie for those few days, it’s heartening how dearie is fully supportive of it. My mum is happy to hear that I’ll be getting a chance to travel on job as well, reminding me not to bring a backpack as it’s too “un-exec”. My only grouse of the “wheel-around-bag” is its lack in capacity. I might just end up with a backpack anyway, in case my mum can’t find me a wheely bag.

From what I’ve gathered so far, Balikpapan sounds like a boring town; people who would visit the place are usually there for business. Things are more expensive than Jakarta as it caters a lot to wealthy businessmen who don’t mind paying more and won’t bother to haggle with prices. I’m unsure how much rupiah (not rupees, dearie corrected me on this as he told me I’m going Indonesia not India =P) to prepare as I don’t want to be stuck with too much rupiah unspent at the end of the trip. I’ll just be getting the peanut snack for my mummy and the layered cake for dearie. Would S$50 (Rup315,000) be sufficient?

I’ll go off on Monday morning and back on Wednesday afternoon. It’s a short trip and a good break from normal work routine.

I find myself running stronger these days; despite all the soreness and pain I’ve experienced through days of hard training, it’s all paying off in many ways more than one. I’m still a lot slower than dearie, but I hope to narrow the gap gradually.

This week’s training is jam packed and I hope the rain won’t spoil our plans. I think most people into sports hate rain.. unless I’m on the lazy day off slacking at home, perhaps then, rain would be ideal. Meantime, rain rain, go away!

rich tai tai splurge

either one of these of be something i'll splurge on if my dad owns a gold mine.

4gb? no way! it has to be the 8gb one! =P

but honestly, i just need a reliable player to run with. =)

shuffle in red

dearie says shuffle is gd because there's no display to complicate things. i like the one in red!

if i get a good performance bonus in apr 08, i'll buy one for myself! =D

creative, sucks.

this little guy has failed me miserably.

no more CREATIVE mp3s for me. i think a cheapo china/taiwan oem made would probably be better than this.

now i've got to find time to head down to the service counter at marina to get this idiot thing fixed. ARGH!

mind over matter

Mind over matter. I believe in this so much I kept telling myself pain on my back didn’t exist as I ran on. With each step that landed, I felt the pain on my back. I nearly teared because for a second I felt it was too much to bear. I could have threw in the towel and stopped but I just wanted to complete what I started. I’ve ended too many things in my life prematurely that caused so much regrets; I don’t want to fail myself one more time over again.

I pushed through the 35km in 4 hours; not an impressive time to boast but I’m just glad I completed it - most importantly, I did not concede to surrender.

The Nathan pouch came in real handy (although it left a lot of scruffs on my NEW sugoi running top which I am still heart broken about), as by tightening it to add pressure on my back, relieved the pain.

Seeing dearie turn back towards me was like seeing an angel from heaven. He ran with me for a good stretch and having him beside me made more determined to finish the run.

I ate really a lot for yesterday, and I’m starting today afresh. No more junk for the next few days until I go to Malaysia. Got to do more training along the week before I pig out too!

Still want to go for tomorrow’s velocity run and I’ll definitely be much slower. Maybe I can run with the ladies and just enjoy a nice chit chat along the way. No slacking for training as SCSM is fast approaching. With the 35km under my belt, I’m pretty confident of braving through scsm and ultra. The trail training also helped a lot in terms of preparing dearie and I for trailblazers.

I’ve decided to sacrifice the phoenix for the trailblazers. It has really served me well and I feel the best way to honour it is to let it “die in battlefield”. That was how my rider ended its walk with me last year. I ran the trailblazers and I buried it in the pile at genting. That’s a much better fate than the inspire which got tossed down the chute by dearie because it became too painful to run in.

Did I mention the north face shoes gave me 2 huge blisters. Ouch ouch ouch. I was cursing and swearing over the shoes over the 4hrs run yesterday. It was either the shoes or the injinji socks. Argh! Worse than wearing heels!

Really looking forward for Thursday to come. There’s so much awaiting. Popiah, chin siew noodles, genting climbing, trailblazers, KL yong tou foo and SHOPPING! I’m planning for some light circuit training during my holiday in Malaysia. Eat must burn off! Holiday here WE COME!!!