Summary of 2014

I'm really excited to do this entry because I would be able to look back how 2014 has been to me. I'm gonna break it down into a few categories:-

Career
Most of you should know that I'm currently working in Democratic Republic of Congo as an accountant. Not a place for the faint hearted but by God's grace, He has sustained me throughout 2014.

I've learned many things from this job as I have a very good, helpful and knowledgeable COO.

I also learned how to apply Proverbs 15:1 ("A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger") at work as dealing with local Congolese and Indian expats can be a pain to the ass sometimes.

Family/Friends/Vacation
It's a little hard to separate these 3 together unless I'm backpacking which is something I really wanna do. Hopefully in 2016 as planned.

Democratic Republic of Congo - not a vacation of course. A country I'm working in.

Adelaide - was there for Sam's wedding and it was my first time being a best man. Thank you for the opportunity.

One of my greatest achievement in life is bringing my parents to Australia. It's a place where my mum talks when it comes to a choosing a country for a vacation.

Sydney - was there for Nic's wedding. Another beautiful wedding.

Bangkok - flight delayed for a day, so I managed to walk around for a day.

Johannesburg - had more than 14 hours in the airport, so I decided to get out and walk around. It was cold!

Perhentian Island - I just love beaches and crystal clear water!

Mount Kinabalu - this is something on my bucket list! Glad I did it with Jason.

Pulau Langkawi - was there for Reuben's bachelor party. One of the best planned party so far by Joshua. Keep it up!

Sports and health
I had the chance to run with an African. I was really inspired by the book 'Running with the Kenyan'.

I played football with the local Congolese here. But I only manage to touch the ball three times throughout the whole match. Bleh. Kena look down cause I'm Asian. Haha! Hello, I'm Asian David Beckham in high school ok.

I've been putting a lot of hour in my weight training. I think I've loaded at least 5kgs of muscle mass. Insanity cardio abs really helps define my abs but still a lot to work on. Have to consider a cleaner diet.

Others
Joining the Ultras
I think this is my first time watching a live football match. The memorable thing about this match is, it is the Suzuki cup finals between Malaysia and Thailand and we joined the ultras which was a crazy experience. The atmosphere in the stadium was ecstatic and full of energy.

Meteor Shower
It was my first time seeing meteor shower, the experience was priceless but I didn't get to share this moment with anyone special. The funny thing was, I received a flyer from a friend regarding this meteor showing sighting in USM. I only decide to go at 2am because I can't sleep but I'm glad I did it. In the span of one hour lying down in the middle of the field, I sighted 1 fire ball and 6 meteors. =)

Frequent Flyer
I've always wanted to be a pilot but I just don't have the grades to be one. But God has been pretty kind to me. For 2014 alone, I flew in 30 different flights. That's quite an insane figure for an accountant.

I also had the chance to fly in a private plane chartered by my company. I felt like a first officer.

City Hunter Treasure Hunt
It's a treasure hunt event organized by my church and I'm glad I joined it. I had a lot of fun partnering with Deriss and decoding those clues and questions. Winning this was a surprise! Wohoo...free starbucks!

Break the Code
First time playing this and I'm glad I did this with my close friends. Quite surprise that my brain comes in handy in times of need. Hehe!

Conclusion
2014 is one of the best and most challenging time in my life. It was great that I get to travel and share memorable moments with friends and family. Tough because I have to be away from them every 4 months. I wouldn't wanna be anyone else but me because 2014 has taught me to be wild at heart. The challenges I faced everyday has turn me into a better person, a more mature and patient guy who is ready to accept bigger and tougher challenges in 2015.

I really miss racing and competing in triathlons, marathons, floorball tournaments, etc. I hope to do more races when I'm back permanently in Penang and travel to more countries!

Singapore with the Sons of Twelve Day 2

Started our day with Dim Sum, the funny thing about this place is, there are no open till around 9am. Even when there is no one in the restaurant, we had to wait to be seated. We were already getting use to queuing. The food is nice; you can taste quality in them. We had a heavy discussion over breakfast facilitated by Joshua. Besides feeding our body, our soul was fed that morning.

Nic checking out the menu

We visited to aquarium after breakfast.

@ the SEA aquarium

Sam massaging

Headed to Orchard road after lunch to attend church. It was held in a hotel meeting room. The atmosphere was pretty warm, with friendly ushers and smiley faces. Worship was good, sang a few songs that I can’t get off my head now. The preacher shared a message entitled ‘Love is Simple’. 

@ church, Changi Christian Fellowship

Quickly rush back to our inn to change, get a quick bite and headed straight to the Zoo for the night safari. I was really really looking forward for this. For me, this is the last piece of prawn you keep till the very end of your meal. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be the way I expected it to be. It was too dark and the animals aren’t that active. Going to the Zoo made me think about Orange and Shadow. Didn’t know they could make me miss them this much. Damn it! I think the most fun part was making Josh walk till his feet feels like breaking; massaging his sole of his foot when we stopped for short breaks was just hilarious.

The boys

Josh snoozing

 As we finish the tram ride, we contacted Aaron to come pick us up. Is always in the car, we talk about life and things we did in the past. It was really nice, reminiscing on all those memories and things we did in the past. We arrived at Serangon for supper. I think we overate that night and we were just stuffing food into our mouth non-stop. Felt like we eat a lot over there. By the time we got home it was almost 2am.

And that was the end of our trip. 5guys on 4wheels, 3days and 2nights in Singapore with 1 big happy ending. It’s an honor and privilege to have great friends and company like Joshua, Nicholes, Sam and Aaron in that trip. I don’t remember laughing this much ever since I was 5. 

One for the memory

Home with Shadow <3 br="">

Singapore with the Sons of Twelve Day 1

The last time we were down there, Orange went missing and I had to cut short my trip. So for this trip, I had to make sure Orange and Shadow are properly secured and placed in safe hands before I could leave in peace and enjoy my trip. I really don’t know what I will do if it happens again. Don’t even dare to think about it.

Anyhow, again we have to thank Aaron and Jean for planning us a great trip and driving us around with a nice ride. Our schedule was super tight, like how the guys put it, tighter than Aaron’s asshole. Not much of a breather, but just enough to carry us on the next day.

Nic, Sam and I took the bus down from Penang, whilst Josh flew down from KL. Last year, Sam and I took 8 hours to reach Singapore, but this time, freaking 12 hours.

We were glad when we finally step foot into the inn Aaron booked for us; Rucksack Inn. 5 of us in a room including 1 stranger.  3 double decker bed all squeeze into one small room. You can hardly move on the floor area but it was nice and cozy. It’s a recommended place if you’re on a tight budget. 

Our Room

Sam & Josh at the entrance

Right after we dropped our bags and freshen up ourselves, our tour begins. We had lunch at a hawker centre in Maxwell. Right after lunch we headed to Sentosa.  We started with the Luge & skyline, which is quite similar to a go kart race except there is no engine in a luge. Speed comes from the gravity as we start at a higher point, with the skyline ride. The ride was fun; it’s a mixture between a kid’s fun and an adult’s fun, partly because you can’t accelerate at will. It would be more fun if the track was longer. Josh commented that he’s gonna beat all of us due to the bigger inertial he has after quoting some physics formula. Haha. But he ended up last in all 3 races.

Skyride to the starting line

After our yummylicious dinner at Geylang, we headed to a more relax activity; Gardens by the bay, to watch the light show. It’s the only thing you don’t have to queue in Singapore.  Amen to that!

@ Gardens by the bay

Marina Bay Sands

We went back to Sentota to finish another round of Luge. Then it was time for supper. I missed the mussels at Robertsonquay last year because Orange went missing. So it was my first time being there. Cui Lin met up with us over there as we fellowship with mussels and drink. We toast for Sam as he is nearing the end of being a bachelor. Sweet! Headed to our inn with bloated stomach and happy hearts. After a round of poker, we were all ready to hit the sack after a long day. 

Supper

Zzz

Lake Kenyir Triathlon 2013 Race Report

Three of us namely Sam Teoh (Driver), Jason Chew (Bell boy) and I left Penang at 7am heading towards East. The journey there was gruesome as expected. Including breakfast and a few toilet breaks, we arrived at our hotel around 3pm. Sam felt that my car was underpowered compared to last year. The culprit for this is none other than our new passenger this year. Ha!ha! He can really sleep! Whenever we stop for toilet breaks, he will still be sleeping in the car.

Jason sleeping

After checking into our hotel, it was food hunting time. Don’t really have much variety as it was way pass lunch time. Just stopped at a kopitiam for pan mee and headed back to our hotel after lunch. The sun was just generous with its heat that day! Took a long nap till 7.30pm until I received a text from Soongs announcing his arrival. Met him and his gang at a chinese restaurant for dinner and headed back to our hotel room again. We were staying in Kuala Terrenganu which was about an hour drive from Lake Kenyir Resort, so the plan was to depart from out hotel at 4.30am the next day.

Still sleeping

Trying to sleep

Sam watching some TV

Fun fact: That Trek was the bike I used for my first tri back in 2008. Was Soong's Boss'. Now it's Soong's

Sam relaxing after a long drive

Jason and his PSP

Finally a photo of me and Soongs! Bananas for supper

We were there early, like really really early. 5.30am, it was pitch dark and you could see a few souls wondering around with their bikes. As the sun continue rising, more and more athletes checked in their bikes at T1. The place where made Jason Chew drool all over, you could see excitement in his face. Wondering up and down the lanes filled with expensive TT bikes. He was like, I’m gonna save up and buy this bike and buy that bike. 

Having breakfast after setting my bike up

 The lake was opened for warm up around 7am onwards. I was talking to a friend telling him we gotta swim 2 loops around the buoys then suddenly a man interrupted, “I overheard you guys talking about swimming 2 loops. Did you attend the race briefing last night?” I replied, “Uhmm…no.” He smiled and said, “It’s only 1 lap because last year a lot of people cheated in the swim leg. So the organizer decided to change it to 1 loop.” No wonder it looks bigger than last year. Moral of the story, don’t miss race briefings! I only got to know the distance is slightly longer than last year on the race day. The race format was 1.5k swim 45k ride and 11k run.

Walking to the Swim start

The Swim - 45.17 (SIPEK SLOW!)

I don’t think I have any improvement from last year. (before I saw my result) I swam slower than last year! Damn it. Still slow and the reason was because I didn’t train much on my swim throughout the year. The significant increase of participants this year changed a lot of things from last year. Instead of 1 wave in the swim, they had 3 waves this year. I was in wave 1. I think my improvement this year was I did not swim out of course that much. I stayed close to the buoys and followed the rope line at the floor of the lake.

Exiting the lake

T1

Coming out from the water is the best feeling ever, for me that is the start of the race. Which is bad! Problem with the exit was, T1 was located around 300 meters away and you need to run up the slope. I almost got cramp while I was heading towards my bike. I was surprise, knowing my body well, having cramps at the early stage of the race was not a common thing. I stopped running and started walking. I was surprised to see so many bikes still hanging at the steel metal bar. Where else, last year when I reached T1, there were only a handful of bikes which was really de motivating.  I quickly put on my bike shoes, clipped on my helmet, grabbed my power gel and left T1 happily.

The Bike - 1:36:39

I am pretty comfortable with the bike course as this is my strongest area. The route is 99% similar to last year, didn’t really feel much difference with the additional 5k to it. This year was definitely better than last year; at least I was able to draft a few bikes along the way. But I could not follow them till the end, they were much stronger than I am. I was sitting comfortably at the wheels of a Penang athlete in the last 10K until we hit the last climb, then I was on my own again. That killer slope was the same as last year, and I was prepared to face it. That’s why this year, I rode without my aerobars, I know it’s not gonna help much since the course is pretty hilly. The decision to drop the aerobar helped and I was able to climb up without stopping. There were many who were walking with their bikes at that point. Last 5k was pretty flat. But the last 200 meters was uphill again. I knew I am gonna suffer in the run because I've gave all I got.

Getting into T2

T2

I saw Jason waiting at the transition area and he broke the news to me that one of Soong’s colleague had a bad fall and her front wheel were badly dented. It was terrible.  I was surprised to see her at the end of the race, no major fractured or broken bones, just scratches all over her hands and legs. As I was putting on my running shoes, I told Jason I was really tired. My legs are sore from the climbs, etc etc etc. He didn’t say much, just ask me to run.

Me complaining but Jason not giving a sh*t

The Run - 1:15:34

The sun was already up and rocking. It was hot and humid. Last but not least, the 11k run, which was really different and longer from last year. It was more hilly too! The first 2-3km is the hardest because of the switch of muscles and also because of the hilly course. I tried to stay with this girl which I managed to until the last 6km. That was when I gave up pacing her. She was not that fast and not that slow but I have used up too much energy at the bike leg. Now I had to pay the price for it. At every water station, I drench myself in the ice cool water to get me going. It works for a few minutes, then I would stop and walk again. My muscles were protesting. In the last 3km, we had to cross the dam as per last year. The surface of the dam was bad and rough. It kinda made me use more energy running on a surface like that. I checked my watch when I hit the dam, it was an hour of running already. I tried to run all the way but failed again. Fatigue started to kick in. I overtook an ‘Ang Moh’ but I had to stop and stretch my legs, he overtook me and tells me, you can smell the finishing line, come on, finish it. That gave me the last boost to overtake him and cross the finish line with an official time of 3hr 37minutes 32seconds.

Yay. I can smell it.

Finisher

It is always emotional crossing the finish line where the commentator reads your name loudly, seeing crowd of spectators waiting at the finish line and receiving your medal. It makes those gruesome driving, body torturing and sleepless nights worth it.

Back at the hotel with my "maid" and sole supporter. Sam had to rest in the hotel because he needs the energy to drive back to Penang.

I have to thank God for His protection, for keeping my bike free from any mechanical failure, for bringing us back in one piece and for being able to enjoy life. Special thanks to Sam for his willingness to sacrifice his precious time to travel more than 1,000km just being a driver and Jason Chew for being super helpful throughout the entire race. 

As I packed my stuff and collected my bike, I walked pass a couple, both did tri also. The gf was really manja asking her bf to help carry her stuff for her, she claimed she was tired and the poor bf had to carry her stuff and bike for her. Sweet stuff in sweaty outfits. Perfect blend to end my post. I hope I won’t fall into temptation and register again next year.