Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2011(Day 2)

Day 2: Saturday 25th June 2011
Arrival of Endrew and Shufen. Fetch them at KL Sentral at around 11am. Once we had fetched them and checked in to the hotel, the whole fun began again.. haha.. The fever of the angry bird. All of us chilled out at Nicholas's room as we await Joshua to arrive as he mentioned that there is a shop selling bian mian very nice around our hotel..
Joshua and Yuan Liang, our two Malaysian counterparts, are really like our tour guides, bringing us around and recommending all the great foods to us..
Joshua arrived at our hotel at around 1pm and brought along some cupcakes he baked him. Thanks a lot for that brother. Look at all those hungry ghosts haha..

After having those delicious cupcakes, we headed over to a noodle shop selling ban mian. The name of the shop was Restoran Kin Kin..

 

If you never experience having a meal with those crazy runners from United Runners(SEA), you are definitely missing all the fun. The difference from this stall and those selling in Singapore is that the ban mian here is dry and you can actually put dried chilli. The taste is WOW!! You better try it yourself to find out for yourself the feeling

A small picture to show you what you have missed

Look at those hungry ghosts of United Runners(SEA), Endrew, Shufen, Ting Ting, Pauline.. Haha.. We just simply can't stop the eating hahaha.. Want to know more, join United Runners(SEA) and i bet you will have the time of your life. 

After our lunch, we decided to head out for some shopping. Too bad Yuan Liang could not join us as he has some errands to run. Joshua took us for a ride on his Proton Waja(super old school man) and we headed to Pavilion. 

2 years ago when i was here in KL, this shopping center has not completed building yet. 2 years has passed so fast. We reached Pavilion at around 0330pm and there we goes, on our shopping tour. You will find this very funny, as runners, this shopping center isn't suitable for us because it is just like Paragon of Singapore, selling all branded stuffs. We proceeded on from Pavilion to Sungei Wang. HOLY SHIT. Sungei Wang=Angry Bird. There we goes again, the fever of angry bird is here. We went to the same shop where Nicholas bought his angry bird pillion and Shufen went crazy. Eventually she bought herself a angry bird of her own. hahaha..

Bukit Bintang was indeed very crowded as there was a street performance on going. We went window shopping at Sungei Wang while Edmund and Melvin went to a internet cafe. Edmund was super motivated and charged with all the running spirits that he couldn't wait any longer to register for some running events. Well done Edmund.
After window shopping for a while, Endrew, Shufen and me was kinda tired so we ended up at this Uncle George cafe to have some coffee while waiting for Edmund and Melvin to be done with their shopping. Shufen has this funny habit, wherever she sits, she will sleep.. hahaha.. Really like pig sia.. haha..
Proceeded from Sungei Wang to Jalan Alor where i recommended them to this stall that sells BBQ Bacon. It's was really nice. I bought 1 packet of spicy bacon and 1 packet of honey one to treat them. Initially wanted to meet Rachel for dinner one but she can't make it. As we walked back to Pavilion for dinner at Manhattan Fish Market, I opened the packet of spicy bacon and gave them to try. Haha.. The feeling on the face was like "WOW, SO NICE LOR. TINKLE DONG TINKLE DONG" hahaha.. Everyone who ate it once just can't stop eating. My packet of spicy bacon went empty in just a short while.
We had an early dinner as we needed to head back to hotel for an early rest due to SCKLM next day. After our dinner at Manhattan Fish Market, we took the train at Bukit Bintang Station. To our dismay, the train service was down and we were told that we need to wait for half an hour for a train.. SHIT man.. Cannot take cab also, it's traffic jam everywhere.
You cannot imagine the crowd awaiting for the train. Once the train came, we were practically squeezing our way just to board the train as we did not want to wait for another half an hour for another train.. ahhaa.. SQUEEZE SQUEEZE SQUEEZE DONT CARE..Managed to get on the train with everyone.
Oh my goodness, this is the first time i have to squeeze so badly just to board the train haha.. Alight at Hang Tuan station to avoid the traffic jam and took a cab back to our hotel.
We reached our hotel at around 8pm. After chilling out for a short while at Nicholas's room again, we ended the night early at around 0930pm and headed for bed at 0945pm..

Lights off..........

Yawn.......

Sleeping.....

Shh............................

*To find out more about what happened in KL on day 3, please stay tuned

Part 3 to be continued..............

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2011(Day 1)

 

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

Day 1: Friday 24th June 2011

Finally after all the planning and administration over the past 1 month, the day has came for many of us. First oversea run in our life. Still feeling the tiredness from Thursday Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore Launch 2011, I woke up at around 9am to pack all my equipments for KL. After checking all the documents needed, Ting ting suddenly give me a shock SMS and wanted me to print out her flight booking e mail. OH MY GOD. Because i need to meet up with Nicholas Shen at the airport by 12pm. Checking my time after all the packing up, it's 1015am already. SHIT, HAVEN'T BATH YET. After a quick bath, i immediately rushed out of my house and headed to my friend's office as I had requested her help to help me with the print out of the flight e mail. 

Reached my friend's office(Raffles Place) at around 1130am. After she had handed me all the print out, i immediately rushed over to take the MRT and took Nicholas to meet me at 1230pm at the Changi MRT Control Station. As I was walking over to the Raffles Place MRT station, the memories of Wednesday/Thursday Standard Chartered Marathon SG Launch came to my mind. All the fun and laughter I had with all the crazy runners such as Lincoln, Gary, William, Adam, Andy, Dan, Joven, Emil, Sofia, Alan, Doris, Andrew, Jason, Kiat Sin are memories that will last a lifetime. Felt so happy to be enjoying the overnight queuing up with you guys. 

As I took the MRT towards Changi MRT Station, lots of thoughts came to me. My first oversea marathon at the age of 28. There were many who did it during their early years while some did it at the later stage of their age. To me, this trip is a form of inspiration to the rest of runners that overseas running is never an impossible thing. 

Reached Changi MRT station at 1220pm and as i was about to sms Nicholas to check with him his location, i turned my head and saw him beside me heading for the exit. He was also surprised to see me haha.. Started my photo taking mission and took some pictures of signboards around Changi Airport. 

As our flight is at Terminal 1, we took the sky train and headed to my destination. The feeling of heading for an oversea race is so overwhelming that words cannot describe my feeling. We arrived at the check in counter, but to our dismay, we would not allowed to checked in as the reception told us that the wave for that flight has closed. Both of us were shocked. WHAT A BAD WAY TO START OUR OVERSEA RACE!!!! After checking with the authorities, we managed to check in and with fast pace, we hurried to our gate. Some things just cannot be missed as we continued with some photo taking as we made our way to the departure gate. 

 

This is our departure gate, C23

Our flight was at 1:30pm and off we go............................................................................................

We reached LCC Terminal, KL at around 2:45pm and while checking out, I received a call from Malcalm that Ting ting and Pauline could not checked into the hotel as the hotel authorities need my details for verification. SORRY TING TING AND PAULINE FOR ALL THE INCONVENIENCE CAUSED. After all the checking up and all, met up with Nicholas's friends, Edmund and Melvin. We had lunch at a nearby cafe within the airport while waiting for Yuan Liang, our malaysian counterpart to arrive as he had offered to give us a lift to take our race pack. THANKS A MILLION TIMES YUAN LIANG.

Yuan Liang reached LCC Terminal, KL at around 5:15pm and off we go to Bukit Jalil Stadium, venue to collect our race pack. Along the way to the venue, we had a great chat and I introduced Yuan Liang to Nicholas and his friends. 

An hour drive to Bukit Jalil Stadium and here we are, collection of our race pack for Standard Chartered Marathon KL.

Wherever United Runners goes, the atmosphere will definitely be high as we will rocked the venue. As usual, this time round, we indeed rocked the race pack collection point as we had a great time taking photos and talking to the volunteers.

 After our race pack collection, we decided to head for dinner. With the help of Yuan Liang, he coordinated with Joshua, our United Runners(SEA) other malaysian counterpart on where to eat delicious food. After much discussion, we decided to head over to somewhere at Bukit Bintang, Lot 10 to have some nice local foods.

Received a call from Joseph aka Kidz Woo at around 0645pm that he had indeed reached KL, I immediately checked out with him where is he and told him to meet at Times Square as we were heading over that area for dinner.

We reached Bukit Bintang at around 0730pm and after parking the car at Fahrenheit shopping center, we went over toward Times Square to look for Joseph. Got a call from him again at around 0745pm and found out that he was at Hang Tuah Station. As i am a noob in KL, I passed the phone to Yuan Liang to guide Joseph to meet up with us.

While waiting for Joseph to arrive, we went to Sungei Wang shopping center for a short walk. Went into a shop called Hello Planet and the same old shit happened. Nicholas wanted to buy an angry bird pillow and kept bargining with the sale girl on giving him 20% discount. We kept joking around and played with some other angry bird figures on the display shelves. Poor sale girl. She must be having a hard time entertaining us as we messed up the whole display shelf haha..

Once Joseph arrived at Bukit Bintang station, we headed over to an underground air con koiptiam at Lot 10. While awaiting for Joshua to arrive, we had a chat and introduced ourselves. Shortly after which, Joshua arrived and introduced us on what are the nice foods we can eat. THANKS A LOT JOSHUA.

We hang at the kopitiam for a good 2 hours plus, chit chatting about running, running team and our eventual project for the team. Everyone of us were very excited and interested to be part of the big family of United Runners. I was indeed proud to be the captain of the team. Words cannot describe how i felt at that very moment as although this is the first time we met up, we were so closely connected as a big family. Our conversation directly motivated Nicholas's 2 friends especially Edmund as he came to KL with Melvin just for holiday.

We ended our dinner cum chit chat session at around 1030pm and headed over to our hotels, Tune Hotel and Citin Masjid Jamek. The funny part of the day started. We spent more than an hour to locate our hotels. WE WERE LOST AND WERE HOLLA. hahaha.. Keep hitting the same road again and again. Miss one turn and there we go, a long stretch of road before we can u turn and hit the road again.. It's so complicated. Eventually, Yuan Liang had to use the GPS to navigate. hahaha..

Finally at around 1145pm, we reached somewhere near Citin Hotel Masjid Jamek. After alighting Melvin and Edmund, we headed to our hotel, Tune Hotel. Same case happened. HOLLA yet again.. hahahaha.. This is just damn fun hahaha. 

We eventually reached out hotel at around 1155pm and once we opened the hotel door, guess who did we saw. Ting Ting and Pauline!!!! THANKS TING TING AND PAULINE FOR HELPING US CHECK IN EARLIER ON. After all the administration were done at the counter, we rushed up to our hotel rooms..

You think this is end of the day for us. You must be freaking crazy. NO!!! Yuan Liang, Nicholas and me chilled out at our rooms for a while before receiving a call from Melvin to meet up for supper. It was already 1230am by the time we all met up. Headed over to a nearby malay coffee shop for supper. If you think we were going to have something light for supper, YOU ARE WRONG. Each of us had an egg prata and a plain one. In addition to that, we order satays.. Continue with our talk cock session for about 1 1/2 hrs talking about some of the things we saw at KL so far and also running. Edmund was so convinced that he decided to sign up for AHM hahaha.. SEE WHAT THE POWER OF RUNNING CAN DO. 

We ended the night at 0215am and heading off to our hotel for a rest. Shhhhhh.......

*PART 2 TO BE CONTINUED......

Mizuno Mt Faber Run 2011

 

Held in the heart of Bukit Merah, this year Mizuno Mount Faber Run 2011 atttracted lots of runners from every ways of life. 

Reached at 0645am to the venue(Blk 123 carpark), I was looking forward to meet up with some of the familiar faces in running events. When i was changing up, I saw Arrow Chan and Amanda Lim walking past but i didn't call them(I was changing how to call them hahaha)

After dispositing my bag at the baggage area, I started roaming around the area to catch up with some of my friends. Saw Ivan Low, my ex ADF friend and started having a chat with him. We were chatting away so happily and memories of our old Army days started to recollect itself. Soon after which, we caught up with some familiar runners such as Arrow Chan, Amanda Lim, Tan Kim Lai and Doris Teo and took some nice pictures before the start of the race. 

*For the pictures, you can take a look at our photo gallery

The running route for the event is as below.

While waiting for the start of the race, Ivan keep telling me to go to the front. This guy keep tempting me to go all out for this event.. Alamak.. I was thinking about going for a relaxed run as i have not recovered from my groin injury sustained during Sundown Marathon. The more Ivan tempted me, the more i was motivated to go all out today.. haha..

Flag off at 0735am and everyone were going off in full torque. As usual, i was going all out for this event with Ivan running alongside me. The first 1km was relatively comfortable however soon after hitting the cross junction between Henderson Secondary School and Henderson Industrial Building, i felt an aching on my groin. I tried to endure the pain and keep pushing myself forward. Eventually, the pain took over me and i have to slow down my pace, leaving Ivan to proceed forward. The route for the run was quite tough as there are some up slopes and down slopes along the way towards the foot of Mount Faber. 

Running along the road outside SAFRA Mt Faber, i suddenly heard this familiar voice talking to me. When i turned to my left, to my surprise, it was LTA Izzuddin Amir, my ex SPEAR Coy Officer. He was trying to encourage me not to give up and ran with me. We have a short chat during the run and found out that he just touched down to Singapore yesterday night from London. 

Once reaching the foot of Mount Faber, the real test of the run begun. Up slope all the way to the top of Mount Faber. If you have not try this before, your mind will be blown away by the steep up slope one have to conquer..

Took a rather slow pace up the slope of Mount Faber with the simple thought of completing the race, I was determined to conquer Mount Faber once again.(I took part in the same event last year)

It was indeed a great experience as while i was running up Mount Faber, there were lots of beautiful scenery and some bypassers standing at the side cheering us up. Although running up slope is torturing and freaking tiring, i kinda enjoyed the entire progress. 

Once we hit the down slope, one mistake that a lot of runners did was to go all out for the downslope. This is something we need to take note as we should not go at full speed whenever we are tackling a downslope because you will tend to burn out once you hit the end of the downslope. As for me, i took the same pace as i took for my upslope and maintain that pacing running down towards the foot of Mount Faber. 

End of Mount Faber, heading out to the road and back towards the end point. Throughout the entire run, the only thought on my mind was just to enjoy the run. Just like our life, we need to enjoy the progress and everything will be fine. Indeed, by running, we can understand ourselves better and enjoy the real meaning of running. Running is not only about health, it's all about enjoying the progress of completing the race. I always remember what Mr Mohan said, "Running also must have a smile on your face"

After the run, Ivan and I went to find the rest and took some nice pictures. I also met up with a few new friends throughout this event such as Emil, Clara and Tan Kim Lai(just to name a few). It was indeed an enriching experience. I recommend more United Runners(SEA) members to go for this event next year.

A New Song

4TH APR 2011, SUNDAY, 0622PM

A new song

A new song which i been listening for the past one week
Chris Medina-What are words

Anywhere you are, I am near
Anywhere you go, I'll be there
Anytime you whisper my name, you'll see
How every single promise I keep
Cuz what kind of guy would I be
If I was to leave when you need me most

What are words
If you really don't mean them
When you say them
What are words
If they're only for good times
Then they don't
When it's love
Yeah, you say them out loud
Those words, They never go away
They live on, even when we're gone

And I know an angel was sent just for me
And I know I'm meant to be where I am
And I'm gonna be
Standing right beside her tonight
And I'm gonna be by your side
I would never leave when she needs me most

What are words
If you really don't mean them
When you say them
What are words
If they're only for good times
Then they don't
When it's love
Yeah, you say them out loud
Those words, They never go away
They live on, even when we're gone

Anywhere you are, I am near
Anywhere you go, I'll be there
And I'm gonna be here forever more
Every single promise I keep
Cuz what kind of guy would I be
If I was to leave when you need me most

I'm forever keeping my angel close
I am learning this song and hope someday i can sing this to the one that i love truly and deeply.

Look at the time

27th Jan 2011, Thursday, 0900PM

Look at the time



We are all faced with too much to do these days. But one person's challenge may not be the same as someone else's
To really maximise the use of your time, you need to have a good understanding about what your unique time management challenges are.
As you review the following 12 time management competencies, ask yourself how well you think you are doing in each of them:
1. ANALYSING
Do you know where your time is actually going? Where are your time management "leaks" that take up so much of your day?
Know what they are so that you can prevent them from draining your focus and your effort

2.ATTITUDES
Do you feel you can control your time, or do you feel like a victim who can never get on top of it all?
You need to take charge of your time to take the actions necessary to control it

3.Delegation
You don't need to be a manager to delegate. In today's world, team members delegate tasks to one another, and everyone is involved
You need to determine what you can delegate, whom you can delegate it to and the best approach to take with that person

4.GOALS
Do you know what your most important long term goals are? Determine what is really important and then commit it to a really important and then commit it to a written plan. This will help move you forward with conviction to accomplish it.

5.INTERRUPTIONS
Is your day filled with constant interruptions? Is it difficult to stay on track because of them?
In some instances, you may be setting yourself up to be easily interrupted(for example, you start a conversation with every colleague who passed by your desk).
Learn to take control of these interruptions and havbe the ability to accomplish what is really important

6. MEETINGS
Do your meetings run well? Do they begin with a clear agenda and stick to the time allotted?
If not, make sure that everyone in the meeting understands why good meeting management is important and structure your meetings differently going forward.

7. PLANNING
Do you prepare a plan each week that helps you stay focused on your most important activities? What about a daily to-do list?
Both of these should list your most important activities to accomplish first. Just be sure to allow some flexibility in your schedule for the "unexpected" things to pop up.

8. PRIORITIES
Can you recognise the difference between what is really important to do and the many urgent things that cross your desk?
Identitfy what is really important, not just urgent, and then make sure those things are included in your weekly plan. Limit them to your three most important priorities for the week to stay on track
Don't allow the trivial things to crowd out your really important things.

9. PROCRASTINATION
When you are really honest to yourself, can you admit to procrastinating more than you should?
When you begin to recognise that you are doing it, you are more likely to take action.
Break it own into smaller, shorter steps and get started. You will probably recognise that it is not so difficult after all.

10. SCHEDULING
Do you schedule "quiet time" during your day for important work or daily planning?
This can be a short or longer period of time, but it allows you to accomplish more with fewer interruptions.
Also, if you prepare tomorrow's schedule before you leave work today, you won't risk starting your day by reacting before you consider what is really important

11. TEAM TIME
Are you aware of the need to conserve the time of others on your team? Have your team members discussed the best way to not distract or waste one another's time?
If not, make sure you discuss with them the best way to reduce interruptions and barriers to team productivity.

12. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Do you feel buried beneath paperwork and e mail? Do you feel everyting is piling up?
Screen and sort all incoming communications: take action, read, file or trash. Then develop criteria for what to respond to and what to discard or delegate.
Once you have identified where your primary time challenges areas are, start to take the actions necessary to manage them effectively. When you do, you'll be amazed at how much more in control you feel, not to mention how much more productive you'll be!

Pre Chinese New Year Shopping

20th Jan 2011, Thursday, 1030PM

Pre Chinese New Year Shopping

2 more weeks to Chinese New Year. Everyone must be waiting for this day to come as it's where families and relativces gather and have lots of fun, joys and laughters.
For me, today was quite a busy day for me as there are a lot of visitors coming into the office. Visitors means a lot of meetings will be conducted. This means i need to set up all the presentation equipments and make sure everything were working well.
First task
Received a sms from Mr Wee saying that a VP from China, Hu Wei needed some help on his laptop. As a service support, my fast response was needed. Went over to the main conference room to look for Hu Wei. Found out that he needed wireless access for his laptop. Proceeded to configure the wireless for him and everything was working fine after that.
Second Task
Received a call from a colleague from HK, Clara that the laptop assigned for backup to Customer Service could not log in. After checking with her on the IP address, proceeded to remote into the laptop and did the troubleshooting. Found out that the computer name was wrongly configured. Immediately I could the computer name changed to the correct convention.
Third Task
Received an e mail from a colleague from India, Nitin that he was unable to access internet. Had a great chat with Mr Nitin and did talk a little about India and football. This issue was pretty simple as what i did was just to uncheck the proxy server settings and everything was working fine already.
Fourth Task
Katinka called and said she had some problems accessing e mails as she was in India. Did a remote with her and basically i did not did anything. The only thing i did was just to wait patiently for outlook to update all the folders hahaha.. See!! that was how amazing IT could be. hahaa..
Fifth Task
Set up new laptop for CEO William Yau. As i have previously done up all the basic set up, the only thing left was just to configure the outlook for him and mapped all the printers in SG. Headed out at 11am to deliver the new laptop to him.
Location: ST REGIS HOTEL at Tanglin
I had never heard of this hotel before actually but the moment i went in the hotel lobby, only 1 word comes out from my mouth
WOW!!!!!
After settling with CEO William Yau on his new laptop. I called Lynn, Customer Service Manager as I still have pending issues to be resolved for her.
Once I met her at the lift lobby 1U, my "taking pictures" mood came to me and i started taking photos using my iphone.
Below are some pictures I took after going into the room and after resolving Lynn's issue


Painting on the wall

The room door look like a safe

look at the nice toilet

the bath tub

BOSE speakers surrounding the room

Toilet lamp

Look so nice and clean

I think this is for hanging the clothes

The room lights

Got VOIP phone somemore. So high tech

Flat screen TV

ST REGIS Towel

Remote Control in between the beds

Nice Lighting

Nice Design



A nice table lamp



A nice picture hang on the room wall

A chair inside the Lift. How nice

A Statue of a Couple Kissing

A sweet wrapper with the Singapore Flag

Racial Harmony

One of the Lamps in the hotel haha

Indeed a very grand hotel. First time been to such a grand hotel. Somemore I am a Singaporean hahahaha.. Look more like a tourist myself hahaha.. Anyway pictures are a form of memories thats why I like to take pictures. Think I should invest on a DSLR myself too.. Hmmm....

The rest of the day went back smoothly. Received a compliment e mail from a colleague from Beijing.

So happy that my effort for good service excellence has been recognised. Keep up the good job!!!

Have dinner with Shannon and heading to take a look at the chinese new year preparation in Chinatown. It's really been a long time since i had a good time doing window shopping in Chinatown especially during Chinese New Year. We are having lots of fun and laughters. haha.. Next time those who want to join us for Festive window shopping, feel free to do so..



Thoughts of the day

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 mintues to ruin it. If you think about it, you'll do things differently