Malakoff Sunday

With all the postings I had made before, this posting would be the first on an actual race that I participated.

Date: 21 Dec 08

Time Start: 7:12 am

Venue: Taman Rimba Kiara

Route: Taman Rimba - KLGCC - Sime Darby Convention Center, patah balik and make another round.

Distance: 12K

Time :(unofficial 1hr 03 min)

First and foremost, I'm glad that I completed the run, and shaved 2 mins from the trial run I did a week ago. However, there are few things that I'm not satisified and I can see a lot of improvement could be done.

Woke up at 4.40 am. Straight away ate half of Powerbar energy bar (courtesy of Mantat). Manage to kubab a little bit. Went out abt 5:20. Reached TTDI arnd 5:40. While looking for parking, mcm biasa, perut buat hal lagi. So dashed off to look for the nearest Petrol station. Kali ni byk sikit keluar. Lega...

Met Azmil, with Suraya, adik dia and his children(kecik2 dah ikut daddy, besar nanti boleh jadi pelari M'sia) on the way to check in. Sampai je kat padang tu, I can see a long line (min 10) of runners queueing up to use the toilet. Nasib baik aku dah melepas. But, walking further down the field, I saw 2 mobile toilets with nobody queueing up, and tak pasal2 perut meragam lagi. Apalagi, terus la pergi melepas for the 3rd time!!!. I think I have the opposite of 'jambanophobia'. Nampak jamban je rasa nak melepas. Apa ubat dia ha???

The runners line up for the run at 6:40. Very uncomfotable dgn bau mcm2 and nyamuk yg dok tibai kaki aku. And boleh pulak rasa nak terkencing pulak masa tu. So, mcm biasa la, sprint out to take a leak.

Finally, thank god, the runners we let off at 7:12. I took the righmost lane, and was running at 60% capacity. Started tu bukak langkah on the first small hill. Just to create gaps and distance with other runners.

Had no problem on the first long hill. But, starting to fell sluggish on the second hill towards turning back point at Sime Darby Convention Center. Took a sip from the water station. And maintained a good rthym untill the hill at klgcc. I think I made a mistake by quickening my pace climbing up that hill, when I reached the peak, I felt my legs a bit heavy and I'm panting more than usual. So just strolled down the hill untill the turning back point for 2nd round.

I could not maintained the speed that I wanted to on the long hill for 2nd round. And the worst thing happened at KLGCC entrance hill. I WALKED for 30m. This is unacceptable. After walking, I was not running at the pace I did on the first round. However, to my surprise, looking at my analog watch. I have 10 mins to complete abt the last 1-2K to equal the time I made last week. So, apalagi, dgn segala kudrat yg ada, I quicken my pace and did the striding ala 400m to reach the fininsh line. And still sempat to senyum to Suraya who took my picture at the finish line.

The positives:

I know I can complete 12K

I know I can push my body for the last 1-2K.

I broke my personal best for 12K

The negatives:

Bad preparation, need to eat the right food and control my bowel urge.

Walked for 3om.

Did not maintain pace

Action for improvement:

Educate myself on better preparation (food, going to toilet, etc)

Buy heart rate monitor, pace checker watch

Train harder..definitely.

And so the DUKE was conferred

On Saturday, 20 Dec 2008, 7.30, The 'DUKE' highway was officially conferred by myself, Bandit, Kam and dozens of other cyclist/runners.

Bandit called me on Friday dgn penuh semangat to tell me about the Saturday ride. I told him I shdnt be doing any serious activity as I wanted to ease up my body for Sunday's Malakoff run. Bu tthen he said, kita layan pelan2 je, and the total distance shd be less than 30K. Its too good to resist and so I agreed.

Saturday morning, ride down to Bandit's house to pump my tyres. Kalau pakai my pump tangan yg kecik tu berzaman la nak habis pam. Started out from Bandit's house abt 7.20, went down from Akademi TV3 simpang and managed to get thru the plastic barricade to get into the highway at Setiawangsa intersection. Bandit called Kam, and he was just abut to leave his house, so Bandit ajak layan time trial. Clocked max 43km/h. I think I can tekan some more but didn't want to overload my quads (Sunday Malakoff).

Turn back and waited Kam under the Setiawangsa overhead. Kam, future IM09 came riding with just a mountain bike and without the cycling attire (short n jersey) Dia pakai seluar and T-shit biasa je. As we started off, he told us just to carry on if he's lagging behind as he was using Mountain bike. But, that did not happened, he was with us all the time pedalling effortlessly on his MTB.

From Setiawangsa, the hway took us thru belakang polis depot, belakang ttwangsa and cut thru in the middle of setapak near the Masjid Jamek. Its a bit weird bcos u never knew all the Taman perumahans existed kat area Setapak, but one thing that was very familiar was the 'tungkik' smell from the Loji belakang TTwangsa GC.

The highway stop short at Sentul. Stop for a while to check out the incomplete part of the hway. We think it will take 1-2 months more to be completed, hopefully they can do it sooner, tak larat la nak pakai Jln Tun Razak kalau nak pegi to the other side of KL.

From that point we turned back and headed to Gombak. On the way, there was this high point on one of the bridges/ramps. Stopped to look at the view of Genting and the range of moutain belakang Melawati. Kalau photographer mesti suka gile because the view was exhilarating that it made me fell off the bike, litterally. Very funny man, I forgot that I was using cleat pedals, so when we stopped, I just fell down with my bike like a nangka busuk, lupa nak unclip the shoes.

The Gombak part stops at the simpang 3(kiri Sentul, kanan Setapak). So we turned back and made our way back. The wind was blowing very hard on our ride home. That was where I learned from Kam that he had experienced the difference between aero and normal position, it can go about 20K/h.

Parted with Kam at the Setiawangsa intersection, and still need to climb damn steep hill to get out of the hill. Nevertheless, this will be my new favourite route if I need a quickie.

Morning smile

One of my colleague today asked why I smiled without no reason. I was smiling from ear to ear bcos I was happy. I was happy bcos now my blog has attracted readers that are very critical and sharp minded. It was reflected on the comments made on the previous post.

Those kind of of comments are good. It helps me to check myself rooted to the ground and be more sensitive to what I write or tell. How ppl view issues or ideas almost always depends on which side of the wall they are in. Like Charlie always said, its a matter of perception.

Even though initially the idea of creating this blog was to logged all the UP stories that my close circle of friends always discussed(bunyi intelek giler, padahal bergosip sebenarnya), but it has evolved into a place where I logged my quest to become a triathlete( disclaimer: ada unsur2 UP disini), and also a way for me to share interesting stories about the activities, places, events that took place.

But some times, what I put into writings were completely bcos I was angry, frustrated, sad, disappointed and many other negative feeling. So it can be very one sided and biased and to a point can be a little bit hostile. But, as I mentioned in few postings before, writing to this blog is one of the outlet of my emotions, hence, I can be emotional at times.

If any of you readers think that I depicted you guys in a negative way, I'm so sorry for that. I don't like to mention names when I talk about bad things, names are not important, the lessons learnt is.

Can u really save?

Saving money might be one of the important agenda to most of us nowadays... impact of the current economic crisis. But come to think of it, this is also a good opportunity for us to start investing as prices of stocks and properties dipping further down. And sometimes, for you to invest, you need to save up for you to be able to put your hard earned money into good portfolios.

Talking about saving, I'm still trying to figure out, to what extent can you save? Would it be to a point that you 'ikat perut' and suffer on the basic needs of a human being, like eating?

A friend of mine, just bought a house for half a million. After going thru the hassle of getting loans and coming out with the down payment, he is still scratching his head(even though there's not much hair left) to figure out how to fund his renovation works as he claimed costing up to 150K.

I guess, after doing much scratching, he figured that he could save a lot by only drinking plain cold water(not mineral) for his meals. It is definitely not for health purposes. If he goes to places like Nandos for example, he would specifically ask for plain water. But if he goes to say, McDonald's, he wont even be ordering any drinks. I wonder, how much can he save by doing this.

Ni semua pasal dia nak UP la. Brader, 'ukurlah baju di badan' dulu. (mcm Karam Singh Walia la)

Noah's Aqiqah

I would like to express my gratitude to those who had attended my son's (Mior Ali Noah) Aqiqah feast. People say, the more people came, the more rezeki the person(Noah) will get. Alhmadullillah, I praised the lord for the attendance on that day eventhough there was a short heavy blitz right after Zohor's azan.

One of the intent or purpose of this ceremony is to show gratitude on the gift(baby), given by Allah to the parents. And I feel so satisfied that I had performed this ritual. Insya'allah, Noah will be bestowed with rezeki and happiness all his life.

Malakoff 12K 'dress rehearsal'

Last Sunday would probably have been one of the busiest Sunday I had for quite some time. Woke up at 5.30, wanted to do a trial run on the route for the Malakoff 12K next Sunday. Decided to do the route survey first by car. Got into KLGCC, but the road leading to Taman Rimba can only be used by authorised users. Never mind, turned back and got into the highway across National Science Center leading up to Hartamas. From Hartamas got into the Sprint Highway. All the while, I was looking around on the best way for me to run, i.e; which side of the road, when to cross over on the highways, the best visibility for the traffic to see me, etc.


After passing thru the tunnel, made the exit into TTDI. Tiba2 perut buat hal, macam biasa. So as always, did my kubab business at petrol station. Parked my car at VADS. And started the run at 6.50.

The weather was excellent, just after rain, and the temperature was quite low. The route starts off by a climb towards KLGCC. I was following a group of seasoned runners (looking at the way they dressed and run). Interestingly, I managed to maintained 10m behind them all the way untill National Science Center. Proud of myself. They took the turning to D'sara Height while I went straight towards Hartamas. That was the second long hill, almost 1K I think.

From Hartamas needed to get into the Highway. Luckily there was an abandoned ramp adjoining to the Highway. It was pure more than 1K climb to reach the toll. After that, its all downhill except for a small hill in Taman Tun.

I quicken my pace as soon as I saw VADS building. My target was to complete it before 8. Successfully completed the run at 7:55. Overall, 12K=1:05. Pretty good huh? Hopefully can repeat this feat next week or do even better.

'Istikan' tea

For those of you who like to eat Mid-Eastern food, you may came across 'istikan' in the beverage section. It is a famous black tea popular among Mid-Easterners. I was told the history of the name 'istikan' by my dear neighbour, Omar Ganim, Iraqi born Qatari while having lunch at 4.30 PM in Naeb, Ampang. Istikan originated from India, (main exporter of tea to the Mid-Eastern region) was actually picked up by locals after hearing the British saying 'east can', referring to the Indians(east) drinking the tea from small(can), hence as it goes through the tongues of locals... 'Istikan'. Sounds Arabic.

What? Lunch at 4.30? Yep, Omar told me, back in Qatar they only work from 7 until 1 PM, and they are done for the day, so lunch is always at the end of office hrs. He was buying me lunch for a small favour I did for him. The food was great, as usual, but what was more satisfying was the conversations that I had with him.

He is an Economic Analyst for the Qatari embassy. His insights on local and global economy and politics were very juicy and delicious just like the food that we had. If you want to know what we discussed, you need to bring me out for 'Istikan' la. Too sensitive and controversial to be published here.

Yap..yap..yap... mr/mrs/ms 'know all'

While driving to the office this morning, listened to an interesting discussion on Lite FM. They were discussing on the effect of phsycological condition to the physiological state of a person. One of them were saying that if we dont treat the problems that we have in our head, it can lead to actual illnesses or diseases like cancer, tumor etc. He was saying if we try to keep our tears from flowing thru the eyes, the other organs internally will do the eye's job by weeping inside, thus putting unnecessary stress to the internal organs which may eventually leads to complications.

I did not listen till the end of the discussion, but one key point that i learned is that, there must be an outlet for anger, frustation or other negative feelings. This blog is actually my outlet, so today I'm going to write on something that has been bugging me for quite some time...'Mr Know All'.

In our lives, I can be very certain that you have came across a mr/mrs/ms 'know all' (MKA).

Let me try to define it first. I think MKA is a person who will try to get into a conversation, try to dominate it, and act as though they know better than the others...when in actual fact they are just bullshitting.

This behaviour is quite common amongst small kids. For adults, its just immaturity. OK, let me give some example to illustrate this. Say in a conversation, an MKA will know every person that u mentioned, been to every places that u have been, knows every gadgets that u have and off course they know everything that I mentioned better than you.

Bila u cakap pasal mamat 'X', dia mesti kenal 'X' and kenal as though as mamat tu is his/her brother. Bila u cerita pasal a place that u recently traveled, MKA will goreng as though as they had been living there for 10 yrs, so on and so forth. I think u guys are smart enough to get what I mean.

But the truth is, they dont really know. It will just force them to UP and bullshit.

So why are they behaving like this? I believe the main reason is inferiority complex. I just tagged them, as what my wife always said -> immature underachievers.

So when they are in a group of ppl that they feel superior than them, they will try to prove their worth at any cost, most of the time by 'UP'ping or lying. And you can almost be certain that they would just yap..yap..and yap.

Well friends, I'm also guilty at times. I'm so sorry for that. But I also know when I've crossed the line. At least I'm aware of it and try not to do it. Problem is with people that doesnt know that they have this problem. How do we tackle them? What I'd normally do is I'd probe and probe some more to a point that they would admit that they don't actually know what they are saying. Man, damn satisfying....

'Tekan' in Taman TAR

Yesterday I had fully exercised flexibility in my training regime. Initial plan was to do intervals in the morning followed by lower body strength training. Threw off that plan as I only woke up at 6:30, not enough time to complete everything before 7.30.

Then, I changed the plan to do pure gym work during lunch instead. Threw that off as well as I went to lunch with Azry and Azmil. Wanted to know more details from Azry as his in-law's house was just 1 house away from the land slide.

Finally, I had no choice but to do some serious work in the evening. I'm not really keen on doing my runs in the evening bcos of the weather condition. It will usually be either raining or too hot. But yesterday, knowing that I was going to have 'Lamb Mandy' dinner date with Ampang-Jelatek Foodies (Maon, Lifah, Erika, Anna), I had to increase the metabolism rate so that I can really belasah the food for dinner.

My oh my, how surprised I was after completing 2 big rounds of Taman TAR in a rather fast pace. Managed to maintain the speed while even doing the uphill sections. It was helped, by a group of 'bapuk' who was busy looking at the monkeys on top of the hill. They were whistling to me, maybe bcos I was quite sexy with my tight sleeveless T and Adidas formotion short, and the body drenched with sweat. (UPPPP siot). Well for whatever reason they whistled to, it did motivated me to run faster.

My posting wouldn't be completed if I don't follow up with food stories. Yep, we did the 'Lamb Mandy' date and it was fabulous. We literally clean off the plates, we thought we wanted to help the dishwasher by doing that. We had 2 Lamb Mandys and 1 whole ayam golek. These dishes were sitting nicely on top of big plates of rice. The ayam was juicy and succulent inside and damn crispy outside. Habih tulang2 dia pun kitaorg kunyah. (Charlie: We definitely need to come here)

Next date is the initiation of Jelatek foodies to Nong n Jimmy or is it Jimmy n Nong? Who cares?

Its a time bomb

I dont think any body was really surprised with the land slide tragedy last Saturday, it was a ticking time bomb. I felt somewhat connected to the incident as I have so many friends and relatives staying very near or nearby the location. Some are even as close as few houses from the slide. I dont want to comment much on it, just hope that everybody impacted is safe and well.

For me, last weekend was not really a bomb. Ate too much train too little. I still eat even when I'm not hungry. Come on Jabir, you are stronger than that.

Did a solo ride to Bukit Ampang look out point on Saturday morning. Pretty happy as managed to do 28-35 KM/H on flats. Struggled a little bit climbing up the hill. I was actually quite nervous bcos I saw few dogs by the road side. At that point I just hoped that they dont come and chase me, cos if they do, I'll definitely turn back downhill. I wont even attemp to outsprint them up the hill.

One other thing that made me happy is that I think now, I'm quite used to using the cleat pedals. It was tested heavily as I had to stop many times at the countless trafic lights along Jalan Ampang. Overall, did 35K in 1.5 hrs.

Sunday was an intentional rest day. The problem was, I did not rest my stomach. I was practically slogging from noon til 6. Had brunch with Maon, Alifah, Erika and Anna at Alexis. I had this hearty breakfast meal which comes with coffee/tea. I opted for coffee. They said they couldnt make it as the coffe machine was out, I need to wait for a while for them to fix it. So fine, I said I'll wait. After practically cleaned off my plate, licin bro aku sental, called the waiter to check whether the coffee machine is ok or not. It was still faulty, so I asked them to get me tea instead. The waiter went back to the bar, then came back and told me I could not get my tea too as the hot water was coming from the same coffe machine and it is still broken. Was just too lazy to argue, apala benak sgt diorg ni, pegila masak air pakai periuk ke apa ke, itu pun tak boleh nak pikir ke? After Alexis layan Starbuck's and at 4.30, belasah lagi kat PHOP in Curve to celebrate Mir's B'day.

On Raya Haji morning, I planned to run. Nak test seluar Adidas Formotion baru that I bought less 50%. But it was raining, so pagi tu mcm sedap je tidur, berat gila nak bangun. So the rain was the excuse for me. (stop giving yourself excuses man). Raya, biasalah, adalah hari perayaan untuk melihat brp byk makanan yg boleh disumbatkan di dalam perut. Damn, need to train doubly hard this next few days to burn off all the food.

Public apology to Stupe

I feel like kicking on my own backside 1000 time, in fact I shd ask Stupe to kick my behind. I have disappointed my self and more importantly Stupe by waking up late on Sunday morning. So late that if I go to the RV point Stupe would have already completed his run.

These things do happen to me from time to time. Luckily one time Bandit called me and I manage to do a 'change parade', a little bit late, but not too late.

It really hurt me bcos I have set a very high standard in terms of punctuality and getting on time. Most mornings, I would only rely on my handphone alarm clock to be woken up. But I shd know better that weekends are different. I need to wake up much earlier to be able to do the SwimBikeRun activity, so much so, that it wont disrupt my family time and maximise the benefits of having to do it on empty road, and of course, in a much cooler temp. On weekdays, I can automatically wake up even without the alarm. Note: Buy a proper alarm clock with the loudest volume.

I guess I dont need to explain much further, I did not do the 20 K. Stupe, thousands of apologies. I really hope that you wont be discouraged to ask me to join u again.

How much difference a week can make

Just a quick one. I want to congratulate my colleague Azmil for completing 10.4 K in 1 hr 05 mins. Just last week he was doing 1'28" for the same distance.

Tak tau la apa yg dia makan mlm semalam, or maybe he got something else. Ye la, mlm Jumaat...

Anyway, I strongly believe it was bcos of pure will power and determination. Next week the target would be sub 1 hr. I have full confidence that he can and he will achieve it.

Today's morning run was also part of my preparation to do 20K with Stupe this Sunday. Wish me luck guys, hopefully Stupe wouldnt have to 'seret' me back,....

Almost like the good old days

Had dinner last night at HRC. Definitely feels like going back down the memory lane when myself and the gang frequented it. Somethings do change, it has new decor and new ambiance now, but the food quality and the ppl are as great as before.

Most of us were there, the hardcore gang like Ikang, Izat, Piche, Zalee, Tesa, D, and the not so hardcore like myself, Jimi, Sahura, Ubai, Nurin and Zawiyah. Mantat..well Mantat is unique, he was always somewhere in between. Plus, the new up and coming gang led by Amir the Champion of the World, Aidan, Uqail, Malik and Adam( oldest being 4 and youngest 2 yrs old). Noah tak boleh join, kalau dia melalak takut tak dgr pasal Mommy n Daddy dia sibuk berborak. However Bagak n Ezan couldn't make it, work commitment...or golf commitment. Farouk and Af were understandably excused, new job...

Somehow or rather, or it is just me, I feel like we are getting closer again, after like.. maybe 5 yrs break. I think, along the line, they were so many stuffs going around. Nak kawin lah, tukar kerja baru lah, nak naik pangkat lah, nak buat anak lah, nak pindah rumah lah and many other stuffs. I guess now, the storm has gone and we are more stable. All of us just want to enjoy the precious time given to us by the almighty and share it with good friends.

Though its sounds like a cliche, I do feel true friendship is valued more than the $ sign.

Credits to the organisers, I'm particularly impressed with the punctuality. Keep it up guys.

And special thanks, again to Izat, semoga Allah murahkan lagi rezeki kau.

Bogged down

Little late for weekend update huh? But, who cares, a story is always in the past anyway. That is why it is called history, his-story, male chauvinist tu... Apa yg aku merepek ni.

Let's start on Friday, had a running date with Azmil, my colleague. Started running at 6.15am, KLCC park. Plan was to do 8 rounds = 10.4 K. Wanted to do round 1 warm up, round 2-5 50%-70% heart rate (hr). And the lst 3 rounds 70%-80% hr. Started off with a good pace. Increased the pace on the 2nd round. The 3rd round, Azmil had some difficulties, he was suffering from athma and forgot to bring his inhaler. So we slowed down the pace. But I told him, no matter what happen, we will not stop running and we will complete the 8 rounds as planned. And true enough, full credit to this guy, despite having problem with athma, we succesfully completed 8 rounds. This guy is one tough customer, strong will power, strong determination, kudos Mil.

After breakfast, my nose started giving problems. Asyik nak bersin je, air hingus dok meleleh-leleh. Badan pun dah start rasa tak sedap. When I reached home after work, straight away took few panadols and went to sleep. Woke up around 7 pm, but no improvement to the body.

Bandit came to the house arnd 8pm to install the cleat pedals. Yep, will be going cycling on Saturday. After installing it and lenghty explanation by Bandit, went down to try it. A little bit difficult, but thanks to Bandit's explanations, I got used to it after 7-8 attempts.

Woke up at 5 on Saturday, shoot, badan tak sedap lagi. Went out to meet Bandit at Akademi TV3 junction for the Putrajaya ride. It was starting to rain. As I reached there, Bandit called to inform that the ride was cancelled. Ok jugak, pasal badan still tak sedap lagi. But alang-alang dah keluar, decided to just carry on riding. Went down to Jelatek, masuk Jln Ampang and turn left to masuk MRR2 at Suzi's Corner. Total 15K.

Had dinner-get-together at Nong n Jimmy's with Bagak, Jimi, Sahura, Ikang, D and surprise package Mantat n Ezan. Menu - Nasi Goreng ganja, curry crab, black pepper crab, kerang and sotong bakar, tom yam syahdu, siakap steam, siput lalalala kerja, lalalala kerja, kailan ikan masin n few other stuffs.Tension gile, pasal everything was tasteless, only for me, demam punya pasal. Went to watched J Bond at pavillion after that. First time tgk wayang after Noah, very fortunate to have in-laws that are always more than happy to babysit Noah.

Same story on Sunday, badan tak sedap lagi. In fact, woke up at 10.30, very rare for me nowadays. Went for lunch at Azry's house and free viewing of 'Awang Spanar'. Went to Curve and Ikea after that. Kesian Tesa, she wanted to buy this dress kat flea market, but cash tak cukup. So we went to look for Maybank ATM (my stupid ATM cant be used in other tellers) to take out some cash. It was quite far from the shop. And we also had to change Noah's diaper. When she went back to the shop, the dress was sold off already. She was very sad....Had dinner at Ikea. Haram line nak beli makanan panjang gile, waited abt 20 mins. The worst part is, I couldnt even finish my dinner, demam punya pasal.

Starting to pay off

Yes, my gym works are starting to pay me off. All those squats and lunges exercises, really paid dividends. I was very happy with my performance last Saturday when I did the Putrajaya route. And talking about it, I want to stand my self corrected on the actual distance I did 2 weeks ago. It was not 80K, the actual distance from my house to Putrajaya and back was only 75K, did a mistake when I set up my odometer previously.

Back to last Saturday, I was particularly happy bcos I pedalled flat out the whole stretch of the hiway, from Pandan to Putrajaya, abt 23-25K. However, I did briefly stopped pedalling when I went down few hills, but really for brief moments. And I believe it was the result of my leg muscle strengthening exercise I did on mid-week. I dont find climbing hills as difficult as before, it is still hard nevertheless, but my tolerance level in enduring the pain in my quads is much better now.

Last Saturday started off quite badly for me. After doing good preparation the night before, ate a lot of pasta and went to sleep early. I found myself to be awaken by the phone, not the alarm clock, Bandit was calling me. Shit, I overslept, did not hear the alarm. Apalagi, kelam kabut la siap. So instead of RVing at the traffic light, Bandit came over to my condo. It was raining that morning and I did not do enough stretching. By the time I'm ready, Bandit, told me Shazly and Rashid had left. Good for them, dont want them to keep waiting for us.

We used Jln Jelatek-Tun Razak to reach Pandan Toll instead of MRR2, Ampang Hilir. Bandit ckp area tu byk anjing, so kalau 2 org je a bit dangerous. It was drizzling, in fact it drizzled the whole time. Bandit asked me to just 'kayuh' and meet again at Putrajaya. He wanted to do some bike fitting. So as I said earlier, almost 25K of pure pedalling. I think I did avg 30-35K for that distance, couldnt really tell the correct speed as I didnt have a watch to clock it down.

Shazly and Chipang were waiting for us at Putrajaya toll. Waited for Bandit and started cycling back, kind of leisurely, at least for Shazly. OP Boot greeted me while overtaking me, and couldnt be seen after that. That guy is fast. Reached back home arnd 9.15. Started at 6.45. 3-3.5 hrs for 75K. Ok la....

What-a-Getaway

Last weekend was so fulfilling. We had a mini get together at my parents' place in Cherating , and it was a satisfying sand(bunkers I mean) n sun weekend indeed. Eventhough I do feel a little bit disappointed for not having able to participate in Powerman, but the fun n joy we had the whole weekend was..in Mastercard's word, priceless... Anyway, I had planned for this weekend way before I even started doing the BikeSwimRun activities, which was only a little more than a month ago.

I guess I just have to tell it starting from Friday. I took the whole day off on Friday. Plan was to do 11K run in the morning, as I wont be doing any serious training for the weekend. Started after subuh. After running for abt 1K, felt something funny with my stomach. Crap, I know that sign. So I stopped running and walked slowly back, becos I think I wd exaggerate the (u know what) if I run. Managed to reach home and blasted the crap out of me. Fuuhhh..lega. Was in the toilet for a good 20 mins. So since it was like 7 plus, scrapped the idea of running (safety reason, kereta dah byk on the road). Instead went to the pool and did 50 laps. That shd be enough to cover for the weekend.

Initial plan was to push off for Cherating at 10. If I were to do that, I need to wake Tesa and Noah up at 8. But the night before Noah only slept at 3, so I think it wd better to let them sleep a little bit more. Dont want him to be crancky in the car. Anyway, I didnt commit to anybody on my travels, so decided to take my own sweet time. After waking them up arnd 10, went to fix my running shoes and picked up Noah's IC. Yes, kids now do have IC. It is called MyKid. But obviously gambar takde la. Muka budak2 kan berubah2, masak la 2-3 bulan sekali nak tukar IC.

After packing everything up, we pushed off at 12.45. Was flabbergasted to see the number of bags we brought along, evrything doubled up now. And we need to run thru everything twice just to make sure we dont miss anything. Tu pun ada yg tertinggal jugak. Maklumlah, the first long trip with baby. We seriuosly need to improve on this. Next time need to employ a better system to make it more efficient.

The whole journey was fine. Noah was being a very good boy. We only stopped once, for a toilet break. Reached Cherating arnd 4.30. The whole journey was actually 3.5 hrs, but we wasted almost 3o mins at Taman Melati McD's drive thru. Punyala byk kereta.

My father and the rain greeted us as we reached the place. He was so excited to see Noah. Ikang n Dee were already there, they arrived 15 mins earlier. At that point, I just hope that the rain would not be the order of the day and the next 2 days. But alhamdullilah, the weather was fine after abt 30 mins untill the day we left.

After checking in, we wasted no time to jump straight into the see. Amir n Aidan were so excited, si Amir ni, kelakar gile, when we were playing in the sea, there was this group of young man pulling up a big fishing net nearby. Kitorg pun busy body la nak tengok. Nampak je ikan2, ketam, siput etc, si Amir lari lintang pukang takut.

That was also the first time Noah stepped on land and in fact touched the sea. Just dipped his feet few times. Letak je kaki, dia angkat, letak, angkat. Maybe the saltwater was giving a new sensation kot, but he was also definitely having a blast. Relax je tak pakai baju kat tepi laut atas tikar, mcm Mat Saleh tgh sun bathing je.

Bagak n Jimi arrived arnd 7. Had dinner arnd 8 and straight away went to Karaoke after that. Before the trip, there were so much hype about this Karaoke session, especially from Jimi. She thought it wd be a 'gimme' for her n Bagak to be named the best duo. Well, well, well, we were just so dumbfounded to witness the awesomeness of Dee singing Ramlah Ram's Kau Kunci Hatiku. Habis dia pukul semua org. Lepas dia nyanyi takde sapa berani pegang mic lagi. Sahura n Ezan arrived just in time to witness this.

End of Day 1.

Day 2.

Went out at 7.30 to Kijal with Bagak for golf. It has been a while that I havent played with Bagak, one of the persons that I enjoyed playing golf with. Arrived there arnd 8.15 after stoping at petrol station, to do...what else, crapping la. Bagak started off strongly with a bogey whereas I had a double par. But as we played on my scores keeps getting better and better. Managed to get a couple of pars and few bogeys on front nine.

Back nine was a whole different story. Started off ok with few bogeys. But it all started downward when I put my approach into the pond on th 12th. It became worse when we played the 2 jungle holes. I lost 6 balls in that 2 holes. After getting his second of his 2 pars on the 1st jungle hole, Bagak and I just simply agreed on not keeping the score anymore. Teruk sangat.

Reached back at Cherating arnd 1 plus. Had lunch and went to rest. Meanwhile the other guys were playing kites as the winds was quite strong.

Ohh, almost forgot, while myself and Bagak were playing golf, the others had a blast as well. They started off with pool and sea sessions in the morning. In fact Ikang had few fantastic shoots of the rising sun from horizon. Then they went for brunch in Hai Peng kopitiam and went berserk. They almost had a free meal if it was not for Ikang. Ye la, semua pakai cun2, seksi2 n glamer2, terbeliak mata org Kemamang tgk, kalau mintak makan free mesti dapat punya, Ikang kacau la.

Lepas Hai Peng they all came back. Some went to sleep, waiting for the next melantak session, which will be at gerai Satar. So at 4, we all went to this famous shop kat Kuala Kemaman. Agak risau jugakla, pasal tempat tu byk org alim2, budak2 ni belasah pakai seksi2. But, peduli apa, janji dapt soru. We ordered Satar, otak2, kepok leko, mee calung and ICT. Huh? ICT? What the hell is that? Well, its a local short form of Ikan Celup tepung. Power la org Ganu ni.

Amir mcm biasa sudah buat bisnes kat kedai tu, same as what he did kat Hai Peng. Budak ni memang kuat 'kubab' la. So lepas makan balik Cherating, and jumped straight into the sea again.

Mlm, we had a BBQ dinner. All the sea food were so fresh that some of them were only marinated with salt, u can taste the sweetness of the fish's flesh. Lepas makan, layan MU vs Arsenal while the girls played cards and gossiping. Masa tgh tengok bola, Amir was pestering me to go for karoke. Budak ni dah gian becos the night before dia dgn Harazz dok melalak-lalak. So I told him 'kalau nak karoke kena ada at least 5 org', saje je nak bagi excuse. Si Amir ni punyala determined, dia sudah pergi balik bilik and panggil the girls to go to the hall to fulfill the minimum 5 ppl. And they just couldnt refuse Amir's request. So layanla karaoke lagi. But this time, it was all his show. He asked me to sing with him lagu tentera (Si Baju Hijau - Carefree ) dekat 5-6 kali. Sampai naik biul org lain dgr lagu tu. Ezan siap melekat dlm kepala lagu tu sampai balik KL.

End of Day 2.

Day 3.

Had breakfast and main dgn budak2 kecik atas sampan. Bagus jugak, kira I did some sweating dgn budak2 ni kira mcm training jugak la. All of them checked-out early so that they can layan Hai Peng seround lagi, so Hai Peng it was. Semua org balun cukup2, ye la, lepas ni tak tau bila lagi nak datang. After meal, wished e'body farewell and went back to Cherating while the others went straight to Lanchang to Elephant's Sanctuary. After lunch, pushed back to KL arnd 3.

All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend. Good fun, good company, good food, what else could u asked for. Need to do this kind of activity every quarter....

I broke the chain

Folks, last weekend was another milestone clocked by me, I did 80K (patting my back). But of course, there must be some drama behind it.

Started of the ride at 5:05 Sat morning. As most ppl were still snuggling up in their blankets, I forced myself to wake up at 4:45. Was actually worried that I couldnt get up as I only went to sleep at abt 1 am. But man... I couldnt miss the opportunity to ride to Putrajaya with those crazy Ironmen (Stupe, Shazly n others).

Met up with Bandit at his house abt 5:15, Then we rode down to simpang Kg Pasir to join the others. The plan was to go to Putrajaya n back using the new Putrajaya highway (Kg Pandan). Total distance abt 100K. I was innitially sceptical, mostly bcos of safety reasons. First, we'll be doing it in the dark, and secondly we'll be riding on hiway most of the time. And not to mention doing it with freaking Ironmen.

But Bandit assured me of my worries one by one. He'll provide me with safety lights, the highway's emergency lane is very wide n not to many cars use it and lastly, he said they(ironmen) wd only be doing avg 25K/H.

How wrong was Bandit. They were doing 30-35 from the start. I only managed to keep up with them for abt 15K. Then, I can only see the tail end of the safety light from the last person like a small red dot at the corner of my eyes. Damn, those guys were really fast.

As I was left alone in the middle, (5-6 guys in the front group, 2-3 at the back) I could feel something wrong when I was shifting the cranks. It produced some weird noises and I could just feel that the chains are not sticking. Eventually, my worst nightmare did materialised. The chains just snapped.

Crap, I was in the middle of the hiway, and to make matters worse, I was on the elevated part of it. Need to at least walk back abt 5-8 KM to normal road. But I didnt panicked cos I know Bandit brought along his toolkit and he was behind me.

Stupe and Kam stopped by and offered help, but I asked them to carry on as I know Bandit will help me fix this problem. After few more minutes, the sight of a hulking man in a gayish red jersy was definitely a sight of relief, here comes SuperBandit....

Bandit straight away assessed the problem and told me that everything will be allright. He wd just cut out 2 chains(the broken ones) and re-clamped it back. But there's one problem, we couldnt get the particluar tool out of its barcket. It was too tight. We tried to get it out in so many ways, even using our teeth, but to no avail. But Lady Luck must really be in our side, while we were struggling to get it out, a CRV pulled over and the driver came down. That guy(Mat Salleh) was a cyclist too, we could see his Cervelo lying at the back seat. This poor guy was actuallly lost, he was trying to find his cycling grp. Their RV was at Midvalley, so this guy was heading totally to the wrong direction.

Anyway, we borrowed his tool to unlock our tool and gave him the direction to go back to Midvalley. Thanks and gd luck to u man.

From that point on, myself and Bandit was just pedalling at our own pace. We re-set the target -> we will stop at the next R&R and wait for the main grp to turn back so we could join them again. We use these moments together (sounds gayish) to do some bike fitting on me. So Bandit did assessed the way I cycled, my body position, the way I shift the gears so that I can enjoy the ride better.

During our stop at R&R, bandit shifted my saddle to the front, with this new setup, the pain on my shoulder and neck were not as bad as last week.

As we were waiting for the grp, OP AJ came zooming past by us. This guy is 55 yrs old but looks fit as a fiddle. Salute to u sir.

Then we decided not to wait for them but ride slowly as we were very sure they could catch up with us. And so they did, we joined back the big group back home. This time they were really doing avg 20-25K/H. Thank god. Myself and Bandit couldnt wait to do this route again in a fortnight.

I envy lawyers

Lawyers are cool. With so much bad perceptions on them, I just want to go against the tide for once. I might be biased bcos my sister, my uncle and few of my close friends are lawyers. And the thought that when I was small, being a lawyer was indeed in my list of what I want to be when I grow up.

But guys, let us give credit to where its due, bcos we know there are many honest, hardworking and smart lawyers out there.

Actually, I was particularly impressed with lawyers in my company. This morning, I was asked to attend Anti-trust policy training conducted by the law dept. I was so amazed to see how easy for them to explain a concept or answer questions in a very eloquent, clear and concise manner. U could just throw the whole kitchen sink, they would still be able to handle it in such a cool and confident way.

Having said that, that doesn't mean I like all lawyers. They were also few occasions when I felt like choking them to death thru my experiences in the whole house buying/ LAD claiming process. But when I think again, I was so mad with them bcos they were good. They practically can argue any points or facts thrown at them, and I salute that. But luckyly I have the Housing Tribunal to help the housebuyers.

Well to all the lawyers out there (the good ones of course), hats off to u guys.

Jabir dah 'steam'

Relax...pls don't get the wrong idea. The term 'steam' as we know it, had been used to describe men's physiological condition, but it can also be used to describe the out most joy or feeling.

Well it was Bandit(fellow OP, my senior from RMC), who said 'Jabir dah steam dah', when we completed the ride from Genting-Peres to Lata Tekala. Well, he was 100% correct. Mmg I dah naik steam. It was quite obvious as I had this 'puas' look on my face when we stopped to load up our drinks in Lata Tekala.

And now, I can declare that 'cycling' is indeed for me. Not to say that I'd be focusing on doing it alone, but I think I have enough experience to say that I can do it to complete a full triathlon. One needs to complete 40KM of cycling leg based on Olympic standard. I did 65 KM last weekend, which in term of distance, I have covered the requirement. Next step is to focus on timing.

Ok, lets talk about what I did last weekend.

On Saturday, I did arnd 8KM of running in the morning. It was a failure actually as I had initially planned to do 11K. I think(just making an excuse), it was due to overloading of protein the night before. We went to this restaurant 'Bif Sentral' near my house. On Fridays, they have buffet for 25 bucks. The amount of red meat that I had was a little bit too much, no actually, way too much than what I ought to have. So the next morning, when I did the run, my calf just felt so heavy. I made the decision not to run extra 2-3 K. But to reciprocate that, I sprinted up a hill about 300m. But still, I'd regard the whole run as unsuccessful becos I did not achieve my earlier target.

Arnd 12, I met up with Bandit to test out the road bike that he wanted to sell to me. After few pedals, I knew already that this bike will give me a totally new experience, mainly bcos its a road bike. So far I've been using Chipang's mountain bike, which has totally different features from a road bike. That was one of the reason why I wondered whether I shd pursue cycling or not as the weekend before I did abt 46 K using mountain bike, and it was not really a pleasant experience. With some basic modification to suit my body, and newly purchased cycling short (very, very important), I'm all ready for Sunday's ride.

On Sunday, the plan is to do BT18 - simpang tiga - Genting Peres - simpang tiga - Tekala -simpang tiga - BT18. Its gonna be T-shaped route. Ride from BT 18 -simpang was an easy 11K flat road. Good for warming up. Next was 9K of hard climb to Genting Peres, at times, I was cursing to myself, why did I sign up for this? But for the last KM, I was practically cursing to Bandit(sorry). He told me it was only 8K climb, I dont know where he got that 1KM discount from. But as I reached the peak, it was well worth it. And I enjoyed it even more during the ride back down. That was the 2nd Phase.

The 3rd phase was from Simpang 3 to tekala, it was abt 10K ride of rolling hills, not as tough as Genting Peres. But the challenge was that the road is more open and we were exposed more to the heat of the rising sun. I was doing this leg with Chipang, except for the last 2-3K, Chipang had to stop to fix his chains but asked me to carry on. The view was quite nice as we were riding along Semenyih Dam. As we reached Tekala, we re hydrated ourselves and rest before the last leg home.

I started to really struggle after the killer hill in Tekala, most of it bcos of the heat. Suddenly the view is not so nice anymore as I started to feel the pain in my shoulders, especially when I need to tilt my head up to look for directions and oncoming traffics. (Note: need to work on neck and shoulder in the gym).

We stopped 3K before pekan Bt 18 for Laksa Buyung, fully recommend this. So while waiting for the food n drinks, I was quite amazed to see small crystals of salt appearing on my arms, and I was not sweating at all. But, as soon as i started drinking, suddenly my body was drenched with sweats. So, earlier, when I was not sweating, I was actually dehydrated, hence no sweats only salt coming out from the body. After Laksa, we rode back to Bt 18. Had another meal in the Kopitiam. Bandit mmg terer, gila byk dia belasah kat Koptiam tu.

All in all, it was a very satisfactory ride. Good enough to convince me to buy the bike from Bandit. 2 key points
1.I was using the right type of bike
2.I wore the padded cycling shot, It had tremendously minimised the pain in my ass that I had the weekend before.

So guys, I think I can do cycling, and betul cakap Bandit, 'Jabir dah steam'. Just did 10K spin on Deepavali morning after 1K swim pasal dah naik gian dgn beskal baru.

I can feel my lungs expanding

It is such a wonderful feeling. FYI, I have not smoked for almost 2 weeks now. For the record, I never intended to stop anyway. I was forced to actually.

Main reason - I felt like dying. Seriously, I can feel the oxygen not going up to my brain, almost to a point of hallucination.

What happened? In my quest of getting fit, fit enough to join triathlon competition, 2 weeks ago, I ran with Stupe(The freaking 'Ironman') for 15 KM. It may not sound so difficult, however, nobody says running with Stupe is a walk in the park. We were doing 5'30"/km for the first 4-5 K, and short sprinted up few hills on our way back. Those sprints really took its toll on me.

Man, I'm telling you, my lungs felt like burning, exploding and all the other horrifying feeling that u can imagine while doing the sprints. Stupe didn't say much when he saw me panting like hell. He just said, 'u need to stop smoking bro'.

From that moment on, I did not lit up a single cigarette. And not surprisingly, I'm feeling much much fitter and stronger now. In my daily workouts (running, swimming. gym), I pushed my self much harder than before to make my heart rate faster. And I do not(so far) felt the same pain sensations as what I had 2 weeks ago. In fact, sometime, I can literally feel that I'm taking in more oxygen than before. I cant explain it, but I really do felt it.

I just hope I can be strong enough to stop smoking for good....

Is 'cycling' really for me?

I dont know and I cant answer it for certain until I tested Bandit's road bike. In fact, this would be the topic that I want to share for this posting.

Since starting distance running (tak de la jauh sgt, max so far 15K), the thought or the urge to really trying out triathlon becomes stronger and harder to ignore. And Bandit's invitation to join his 'rubberman' gang was just too hard to resist, and came at the right time.

But even before I start, there are 2 main issues.
1. I dont have a bike.
2. I know I will be hurting my ass, the end of my tailbone to be precise, thru my experience so far of doing stationery bike in gym.

For problem no 1, I was fortunate enough that Chipang was more than generous to let me borrow his Mountain Bike, helmet and gloves. For problem no 2, well, I'll explain in details later.

The plan was to complete about 50K distance on Sunday morning. Route - the whole stretch of Guthrie Corridor Hway, from Bkt Jelutong to Rawang.

I'd be crazy to go and ride without having any practice session. So on Saturday, met up with Chipang at Tasik Permaisuri Cheras in the morning. He taught me the basics on cycling, things like wearing the proper gears, some terms eg; cadence and of course how and when to shift the gears to minimise usage of energy and maximise performance. We did about 12K just circling the park for few laps.

It was a good session to prepare me for the next day, but, as I mentioned earlier, I could already feel some tingling pain at the end of my tailbones. Chipang told me its 'sikit aje, besok aku bawak gelled saddle, mesti OK punya'.

Come sunday, I woke up at 6. Gobbled up 2 donuts and a plate of leftover Kuew Tiow from the night before. And managed to 'kubab' twice before going out of the house. Reached Shah Alam toll arnd 7am. And since i can still feel some deposits in my stomach, decided to 'kubab' for the 3rd time. Fuhhh..baru lega.

We all met up at Bkt Jelutong Golf Academy. It was 15 of us. Bandit stole the limelight with his gay-ish new bike, damn sexy. We pushed off around 8, it was smooth sailing for the 1st few KM. But as we entered the hway, the first long climb was the real test. I was struggling a little bit, more of it bcos I was disheartened to see all the other bikers easily passed over me with their canggih road bikes. U see, I was using a mountain bike, the main disadvantage was that mtb uses off road tyres which is 3 times wider and have more tractions compared to the slim road tyres. Furthermore, the body of mtb are built sturdier and tougher than road bike, hence it uses heavier material. In summary, I had to used 3 times more energy to a road biker.

But again, this was not the major hurdle that I had to face. It was actually the pain in my ass, no, literally pain in my ass. For a trained cyclists, they knew how to distribute their weight correctly between their legs and the ass. So even when they looked like they are sitting on the saddle, they dont really put all the weights there. Unlike me, being a newbie, I basically put most of my weight on the seat. And this had put tremendous pressure on my tailbones, hence the pain in the ass.

So after riding abt 23 KM, we reached exit Rawang. By this time, my ass was already in unbearable pain. We stopped abt 20 min. Continued the journey back, and the target was to stop at halfway point (hentian Elmina) for breakfast. For the 13 KM journey to reach there, I only sit like 20% of the time, I had to stand or sit using my sisi bontot, ala2 senget mcm perempuan dulu2.

At Elmina, we stop for abt 40 mins. So I took this oppotunity to really sit comfortably. As we started back for the final strecth, pain was just too much for me to hande. This time, I think I only sit for about5-10% of the time. And I was pedalling quite hard just to reach back ASAP. So to them yg nampak aku pulun kayuh, its not bcos I'm super fit, its more bcos I cant stand the pain and wanted to get it over with.

We reached back arnd 11. All in all, it was a satisfying ride bcos of the distance that I covered and the calories that I burnt, but I cant say the same for the 'ass pain' part. My highest gratitude to Chipang for lending all the stuffs to make this possible and sticking with me the whole time even when I was practically not moving (bila naik bukit kdg rasa mcm tak jalan je). And thanks to Bandit too for giving me all the tips to minimise the 'ass pain'. Not to forget, all the other OPs and cyclists for letting me join the 'rubberman ride'.

Lessons Learnt: I seriously need to get the paded cycling shot. If i really want to cycle, I think I need to consider purchasing custom made saddle, bcos of my ass problem.

I can see the finish line

My face was beaming with smile at approximately 9.45 am today. The President of the Housing Tribunal has made the judgement and its in favour of me. Alhamdullilah. I really think the Housing Tribunal and the Housing Act had served its purpose, which is, to protect housebuyers.

Eventhough the settlement will not be paid in lump sum, none the less , 11 mths installments is still good enough for me. At least I can better plan my budget rather than going crazy if I got it lump sum.

However, I still dont think I had achieved absolute victory yet, as long as I dont receive all the PD cheques in my hands and no money going into my account, it is as good as nothing. Still, I have to bear with the anxiety. Hopefully I can stand it for the next 11 months. Well, at least now I can see the finish line....

I'm not strong

Few happenings last weekends made me realised how weak my mind was. I could have turned the tables on few occasions if I had stronger minds than what i perceived I had.

I was not strong when I stopped 3 times during my weekend run with Stupe. I know for a fact that I will be doing certain distance, yet I did not prepare my self well enough for it. So when this situation came, I had to rely to the mental toughness that I thought I have. How wrong was I, I was clinging to my dear life just to complete the distance. The whole time when I struggled I always blamed my self for not having enough rest and taking better food the night before. That was very negative, instead. I shd be focussing on the positives and my strenght to complete the run. I'll use this approach for the next run.

On other occasion, during an open house actually, I was also not strong to tell off a friend of mine for making an offensive remarks. It made me mad and I carried that feelings to bed. I shd have handed the situation better by using my superior mind rather than just be subject to abuse. I need to be more creative when faced with this situation.

I have to be strong, I can be strong, I'm strong.

Tunggu punya tunggu...tak dapat jugak

I wasted half of my day in the Housing Tribunal.

Arrived there arnd 7.45, eventhough the hearing was at 9. After a nice plate of Roti Arab and conversations with other hopeful claimants, talking abt how we are going to spend the money once awarded. I still end up writing to this blog, again, to express my disapointment on this whole house buying process.

The reason was simple, the defendant(developer) was not present. They, however did sent a fax to the tribunal around 10am claiming that they never received any notice to attend the hearing. They are using Raya as an excuse saying that the staffs in the offc had gone for holidays, thus nobody was present to receive the registered letter containing the notice. Memang pandai putar.

The implication though, was very significant. Why? Even without the defendant, we as the claimant can still actually get judgement from the tribunal. And the judgement can be very much in our favour. But bcos they are not present, the defendant can appeal it to the High Court saying it was not a fair judgement, thus making it a legal issue which is not covered by housing act and therefore can further prolong the claim process.

Luckily, the tribunal president advised us not to accept any judgement and just bear to attend another hearing which the latest will be on Dec. So the waiting game still continues. I'm just hoping that I'll get an earlier hearing.

Word of advice, if u are facing this kind of situation, go get the housing act booklet and read it. It will prepare u better with all this developer's tactic.

12.65K in the bag

Before anything, let me first wish all of u Selamat Hari Raya. I hope u had a joyous Raya this year wherever u may be.

The 12.65K is not money, I wish it is. It was actually the distance that I covered by running. As I said in my previous posting, there are some targets that I have set for my self. It seems now I have achieved 2 of the targets. Alhamdullillah.

The idea of running that distance was mooted by Stupe. Well he initially said it was 10K, but he conned me. I dont mind anyway, bohong sunat. In fact, I did not take much deliberations to agree on taking this challege, as I felt pretty confident after doing the hard hours in the gym during lunch time in Ramadhan. It paid off.

So yesterday, I woke up at 5.30am all fired up to start the run. However, the preparation for the run was hampered with the stomach problems I was having. I had too much to eat on Saturday during an open house. To make matters worst, I had a plate of 'Onion loaf' plus my main course at Tony Roma's for dinner. So, I'm sure u guys know what was coming. I had to take a crap twice before we started running. So there goes all the carbs that I have been packing since Saturday. And not to forget, the after effect of doing the nature's call.

But I'd given my words to Stupe, and I'm not one to back out from it. So we started running at abt 6.30 from Bukit Aman to Income Tax offc in Jln Duta. For the first 6-7 KM it was OK. But then, we started the hilly route turning back from Jln Duta. I just wished I had lungs as big as hot air balloon. It was really difficult doing the sprints up those hills. But hats off to Stupe, he inspired me to keep on going no matter how slow I can go. But I did stop for a brief 10 seconds, so that is something I need to improve for my next run.

After those difficult hills, it took me abt 1 KM to recover. I was running very slow(sorry Stupe). But as I recovered from it, I managed to maintain 6"07' min/km for the last 3-4 KM.

All in all, it was a very satisfactory run. I have to thank Stupe for inspiring and keeping 'slow' with me thru out the whole run. I can't wait to do this again next week.

* Some stats : 12.65 km in 1:20'23'' with an average pace of 6'21'' and 1022 calories burned.

Getting Fit

Getting Fit while fasting, sounds hard isn't it. Not really, at least for me, I needed just a little bit of tweaking of my mindset.

FYI, I have been harping about being fat and flabby since I got married, geez..it was 4 yrs ago. When ppl were making remarks that I've put on weight, I'd always give creative excuses, bak kata org, sekadar nak menyedapkan hati. And recently, when my wife was pregnant, my excuse was "I gained weight bcos I had to accompany my wife to satisfy her cravings. Kesian tgk dia makan sorang2". What a whole-lot-of-crap.

Enough is enough. The turning point to me was when I realised that I can comfortably fit into only 2-3 pants/jeans. Seluar lain kalau pakai, lemak terkeluar.

And there is no better time to start loosing weight than bulan Ramadhan, u are forced not to eat anyway, so that was a plus.

I dont want to get into details of my fitness regime, but I have few goals that I want to achive;

1. Can fit back into most of my pants
2. Loose at least 4 kgs
3. Getting fitter ( target to complete 5 rounds klcc park/ 40 laps at my condo's pool)
4. Tone the muscles, subjective

Basically, I go to the offc gym 4 days a week during lunch time. And on weekends, I play at least a round of 9 holes. So far folks, after going thru almost 3 weeks of fasting, I've lost 2.5 kg and I can fit into few more pants.

So go dig out your exercise gears and start hitting the gym.

Freedom of Journalism

In a democratic country, do you think journalist has the freedom?

This topic has kind of interest me with our country's latest development, especially in the political scene. The mass media, especially the printing media in Malaysia had been accused of being biased and favouring certain quarters, be it the govt or the opposition, well mostly govt, as they wd be the easier target to attack bcos they are in power.

I think, even in the most so called liberal and democratic western countries, there is no true sense of freedom for the journalists. They are just working for media corporations which are owned or rather majority controlled by certain people or organisations. Capitalist in action.

I can be very sure, whatever that is printed wd be in favour of whoever that controls the media corporation. So, in a way, the reports coming out from this media wd never be fair, independent and unbiased.

So to me, the freedom is actually being implemented if the distribution of the publications are not being blocked. The consumer would then, shd have the freedom to choose and read whatever that is available in the market. Having said that, this scenario can only happen if the journalists themselves produce responsible, factual and accurate reports.

There's always 2 sides of a story...

Of courage and sacrifice

I promised the readers that I'm gonna talk about our history, I have to put that on hold first, but still, I will touch on Merdeka spirit.

My close friend is coming back to M'sia for good after completing his Masters Degree from Cambridge UK. Few of us were quite hyped up in preparing for his homecoming dinner.

We are going to celebrate his success in completing the studies. But to me, I want to celebrate it to honour his Courage and Sacrifice. Why? Because it's just hard for me to understand why he was willing to leave his very comfortable position in Petronas to pursue further studies.

Obviously, he's not materialistic, and definitely not one who likes to be praised for. We had talks before he left, and he told me one of the main reasons he wanted to go for it because this is his way of contributing to the nation. He said he wanted to use his newly acquired knowledge and experience to help the nation. I could sense the sincerity in his words. He was not just saying it for the sake of saying it and to win my favour, he doesnt need to in fact.

Not many of us ever thought about this. We are just busy filling our pockets and indulge in easy life. We never really bothered what is going to happen to our nation. We would just say that we have done our part by voting, well, let me tell u. Thats not enough.

I just have my outmost respect to him as he has the courage to change, and making few sacrifices to achieve his goal. To me, this is the true spirit of Merdeka. Having the sense of freedom and wanting to appreciate the freedom by advancing in one's life, and giving it back to the nation. So OP Farouk, congratulations again and may god bless you.

Appreciating Malaysia

In conjunction with the recent Hari Kebangsaan dan sambutan Kemeredekaan and the coming anniversary of formation of Malaysia, I think it wd be fitting if we just go back a little bit and reflect back the struggle of indipendence and the formation of Malaysia.

I will be putting in series of facts, chronology of events, lessons learnt in my writings. I have always been interested in History. I think everything evolves around history. What ever we wish for, we plan or we decide almost certainly be based on history. Because whatever happened 10 seconds ago is also history.

I'll get my resource and reference from one single book 'Malaysian Studies', a text book being used in KDU. I borrowed this from my brother in-law. My objective is just to remind myself and all the readers on what had happened to our country in the past and how we have become what we are now.

What's UP?

Hi! What's UP?

Well I have a baby boy now. That is really2 UP, my emotions la, bukan UP as in UP.

So I'm using that as an excuse for not writing to this blog for almost a month. And for almost that period, I have been cocooning myself in the vicinity of my home and office only. I have not been to anywhere except when I need to buy provisions for the house. So, I cant tell much abt UP stories.

Having said that, I do have some occurences where people really get on my nerves...

The norm in our culture is to visit the parents and the newborns. We are very grateful and thankful for those who had visited us presented us with gifts and wished us well. However, they have to be 1 or 2 that really get on my nerves.

In one instance, this person and his family visited us at the hospital. During their visit, my baby was crying a little loud. So this guy looked at me with disbelieving look and flicked me with his finger on my elbow instructing me to pick up the baby. Pantang betul aku org main cuit2 ini. I just tell him off saying that I purposely want to let the baby cry, tak nak bagi dia manja. And the baby did the most wondeful thing, he immediately stop crying as if conspiring with me and to prove that guy wrong. High five kiddo.

In another instance, it has something to do with UP. I'll call this as 'backdoor self praising' which I learned from '30 Rock'. Its actually UP, but hidden in a general statement. Well, naturally when people visit newborns, they will say things like cutenya baby ni, byknya rambut baby ni, putihnya baby ni and etc.. That's the norm, people will look at good things about the baby and praise the parents.

Well, this one particular person, she came with few other people. When other people were admiring my baby she would follow up those statements comparing to her child and saying that her child pun macam tu jugak masa baby. As if I stole a blue print from her and construct my baby to be exactly like hers. Come onla Cik Kak, you had your glories and praises, please let others enjoy the moment....

UP on Golf Course Part 2

It has been a while since I last wrote to this blog. Just some new catch from my recent golf game.

1. It was a par 3, guarded by bunkers front left of the green and huge lake to the right. Angin kencang gile mcm kat St. Andrews. Distance is 159m. On normal days, I'd take out my 5/6 iron, but bcos of the wind, I opted for 4 iron. I didnt hit a solid shot, nevertheless the ball went straight but short about 10 feet to the green. Safe. Now my buddy, asking the caddy to give him 6 iron. The caddy told him its a strong wind he might not make it. With a straight face, he told the cadyy, I pukul lagi kuat dari angin.... UP!!!!

2. Again, it was a par 3, 212 m downhill. I have no choice but to take my 3 wood. Hit it solid with an easy swing. The ball went up very high and again stop short of the green. No rolls or whatsoever. After finishing the hole with a stupid bogey I made a remark to my buggy mate. "Kalau aku pakai 3 iron tadi mesti dah on dah, aku pukul 3 iron lagi jauh dari 3 wood". Without letting me to continue my sentence my buggy mate shouted aloud UPPPPP!!!. He..he..he... kali ni aku sendiri yg UP. OK la tu, sekali sekala nak UP jugak.

Common Sense

I want to tell two instances where common sense is non-existent.

1. Last Wednesday I went to The Housing Tribunal to register a claim on my developer. Becos most of the owners wanted to make the same claim, we have devided ourselves into few groups and wanted to submit the claims together in few batches. Obviously there were some forms that need to be filled up and signed. One of the form, u need to have 4 copies complete with signature. So, during the submission, there were abt 10 claimants from my group including myself. As I was submitting it at the counter, the other claimant next to me started raising his voice. Apparently, he had problem with his form. This bugger had filled up and signed the original copy only and then xeroxed 3 other copies to be submitted. The clerk at the counter couldnt accept it as the signatures were photocopied from the original one. And to make matters worse, they were 2 signatures in the form, the other one being his wife, and the wife didnt came for submission, so he couldnt even amend the forms. They kept arguing and this bugger kept on repeating that nobody informed him abt it. I think it is common sense, it's an official document, why the hell u want to give a photocopied signature. And this guys is a GM in one construction company. Pls la..GM pun tak reti ke? In the end, the bugger had to accept the ruling. He needs to go back, do the forms again and sign it on all 4 copies.

2. Two days ago, I had summoned repairman to my house to get my aircond fixed. After doing the investigation, they told me the problems were with the motor and the blower. Both needs to be replaced. I agreed with them, but they have to come the next day to fix the new parts cos they need to order it first. So yesterday, they were supposed to come arnd 5.30-6.00. But by 6.30, they was still no signs of them. Finally abt 6.35, they called me. Actually they had been at the lobby area since 6, but the security guard didnt allow them to go up. They have a strict instruction that contractor can not enter the area after 5 to do any type of work. The reason behind the ruling is that all the works by contractor will be very noisy, other residents will complain. I can agree and understand with that. But come on la, just putting in a blower and the motor it wont be noisy at all. I'm fine with the guard, he was just doing his job and receiving orders. Nevertheless, I said I wanted to talk to the supervisor. So I called the supervisor and explained the type of work that will be done, he told me he understood but he cant allow it, by giving the same reason. Now I'm getting furious, if he said he understood then why still give the same reason. Pls, some common sense here. I demanded to talk to his GM to get my approval, well, at least the GM has some common sense and let me thru. I wasted 30 mins trying to explain my problem to ppl with no common sense. I wonder what can be done to improve the level of common sense to ppl, I dont think there is any school or course that teach u that.