June 3, 2010
Some time ago, I did something that could be construed as truly stupid or truly brave. Or perhaps, bravery usually requires some level of stupidity. Either way, after about 5 months of saying I’d sign up to ride the Singapore Mountain Bike Carnival 12 hour marathon solo, I actually bit the bullet and did it.
I’m by no means terrifyingly fast on the trail. And I’d also just spent pretty much most of 2009 off my bike and in front of the computer, smoking, drinking way too much alcohol and losing fitness. Even though with my brand new not-underweight-any more body, I can perform once impossible feats like run 10km without dying and cycling for 8 hours at a stretch, it’s still only been 5 months of more or less proper training peppered with knee injuries, overtraining and the odd health problem or two. So you’d understand why I feel slightly less than confident about surviving this race. (Read the rest of the post on GetSet’s page here)
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Tags: GetSet, Mountain Biking, Sports | 
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May 31, 2010
As much as I’d have loved to give you a shot from Saturday night’s Mountain Bike Marathon, there’s nothing doing about it. Mainly because I was so bonked out trying to finish 12 laps by 5 a.m. shooting things didn’t even cross my mind. I will however present you with a momentous occasion in history. It being the one time when my cat, Greg-hiss Khan, who in his first introduction to a dog at the age of 8 weeks old, hissed at the poor dog so loudly it ran away from him. Sometimes, there are moments in life that does not wait for you to compose the perfect shot if you want to capture it. This would be one of them.
Buddy the dog came over for a stay over the weekend. And Greg-hiss was introduced to Buddy after two days of snuffling at each other through closed doors. Gradually, we could trust Buddy to stay calm while not leashed around Greg-hiss and Greg-hiss to not stalk Buddy while Buddy was walking around minding his own beeswax. The result? A harmonious co-existence of sorts. With Buddy occasionally making timid advances at Greg-hiss which are soon wilted by Greg-hiss’ evil looks and Greg-hiss being a big coward by running away everytime Buddy happens to be in the same room. They aren’t fighting, no one is injured, no one is mauled. They even decided to come take a nap with me in my bed while I slept off another nasty post-race headache. Together.
Good grief. Let the sky fall down, my dog-hostile cat is finally getting along with a dog.
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May 29, 2010
12 hours. 12 laps. 90km. I’m in pain ya’ll. Will upload photos from last night. Props to Alex for standing around, packing my crap for the race, mixing sports drink, changing batteries and doing random crap for an increasingly cranky woman who must not have been anyone’s idea of fun after lap 8. For now, ouch. And I want food.
Foooooooood!!!!!!
Posted in Sports | Tags: Mountain Biking | 3 Comments »
May 28, 2010
People, I’m in trouble, methinks. See, tonight, I went to Tampines Trail, sat in on the later half of the race briefing and took a look around the team ‘tent’ (more like team lot) we paid 70 bucks for. Then I plunked down 20 bucks for an RFID timing chip and came home to put it in with the rest of my kit. You see why I’m in trouble now? Because in 17 1/2 hours, I will be racing the 12 hour mountain bike marathon. Category? Women’s solo. SOLO, people. Sure I’m in this year’s solo for the experience, I haven’t had enough training to talk about setting a personal best ladida. Yes, my road training has made me a bit stronger than I used to be, 3 laps of the trail was once impossible but now doable for me. I’ve learned to race smart and apply tatics I’ve picked up reading cycling magazines and watching 24 solo. And I’m stubborn, dammit, stubborn. So stubborn, I know I would never cave in a long road ride and call a cab. So stubborn, I will climb two hills and then top it off with a third steep one after 80 odd km.
But it doesn’t change the fact that I am a ball of nerves for tomorrow. Because I still cannot make a hairpin turn on the first attempt confidently. And because after practising on the rocks to avoid the hairpin turns….they’ve closed the section off to avoid needing to evacuate anyone. Phooey. BUT, I am stubborn, dammit. Do or die, I will finish this race, I will survive all 12 hours. I will do my darnedest best to finish 12 laps of the trail….
I will also try not to throw up now.
Did I also mention that my method for coping with the nerves seem to be incessant cooking? Because I have. In today, I’ve made sheperd’s pie, meat loaf, brownies, lasagna and salsa. And suddenly, I have enough food to feed me for the next 10 meals or so. Holy s**t.
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May 24, 2010
My dad has this giant bowl in the living room. Its so fricking huge, I could probably sit in it and fit. Then again, I might then crack the damned thing and he’d kill me because I think it’s an antique piece. Or at least a Very Difficult To Source piece from their days in Beijing. Anyway, once upon a time, that bowl held goldfishies. Until we got a cat and sometime later, the goldfishies start committing suicide. I will assure you that the two events are in no way linked. The cat was just not agile enough to try and jump for a bowl which contents it could not see and anyway, fish are just ornery like that. They like offing themselves for fun so that you can one day step into the bathroom at 6 a.m. in the morning and nearly smoosh a fish carcass and thereby be traumatised for the rest of your life. *AHEM* Not that it’s happened to me.
But anyway, the bowl now holds wine corks. Its another weird thing about my dad, he keeps wine corks. Which is all dandy and fine and who am I to judge anyway, I’d keep back issues of Mountain Biking UK without ever reading them for up to four years. Besides there are some pretty cool corks in there. Its all good as long as you don’t get it into your head to swish your hand through the corks because the dust bunnies hiding in there are pretty spectacular too.
A kid in school was playing dominoes with his Lego block today and I felt inspired to do the same with the wine corks. Then I found this one cork I really liked, it has a castle on the top. Don’t ask me why of all corks I decided I liked this one, its just the way I groove…
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May 18, 2010
Last night, I lost my temper after nearly losing a limb or something. Returning home from the trail, Jeremy had just turned off and I was riding past this road where cars were turning in from the other side. If I remember my basic theory correctly, anyone going straight has the right of way, the vehicles making the turn must give way. I wasn’t going that fast so I let the first car go and then went on riding ahead. The taxi behind it saw me going straight and decided to make the turn anyway. He just managed to miss my front wheel by a few inches. And while I was sitting there stunned for a moment, he sped off. And my reflex kicked in, I flipped him the bird.
Thankfully he had to drop his fare off a little away from me, so I recovered enough to chase him down and ask “what the ****?” And he started apologizing in the way that people usually do when they just want you to bugger off and get on with things.
I’m not proud that I lost my temper. I don’t think there’s any reason to lose my temper even when someone has nearly maimed me. But it makes me a little scared. Its only a week before the race, I’ve been training 5 months for it and have made a lot of progress physically. In a few seconds, someone very nearly wiped all that out because he was sleepy or distracted or something. There’s no excuse, there simply isn’t an excuse to put another human being at this kind of a risk. ‘Sorry’, however sincerely said, is not going to cut it. What’s ‘sorry’ going to mean to someone when you’ve taken away their ability to walk, be independent or taken away their life? I don’t care if there are drivers who think its ok to run cyclists on the road down because apparently, we don’t pay road tax so we don’t belong on the road. We’re human beings too, its a sad reflection on our society if people think a human life is worth less simply because we aren’t paying a certain tax. It shows us how far Singapore has degraded despite all the efforts to make us a better, more gracious society. From what I’m seeing, all these efforts have failed, not just because people are running other people down on roads, but look at the way we exploit other people, animals and the shitty way we treat others. Its not right, its utterly disgusting, even animals behave better than half the people in this country do at times. How wrong is that?
Posted in Randomness | Tags: cycling | 2 Comments »
May 16, 2010
Hi there. I’ve lagged on Project 52. Again. Seriously, my ability to shoot one damn photo a week seems to be deteriorating. Jesus. But never minds, I’ve trawled back in my archives and found photos I’ve meant to post but never moved them from Chloe onto the computer. Sad, right? Part of my trouble is that when I do see something truly spectacular that begs to be shot, I’m usually on the bike or running and Chloe is at home. I’ve been shedding stuff on my training rides and runs now to the point where even Amelie doesn’t go with me for any rides 50km and below, she only runs with me when I’m running home from work and that’s about a 6.5km run.
Anyhows, I will scrabble up and post. And maybe next week, I’d stop procrastinating getting the lomo’s film developed and post those. MAYBE.
Week 17: Gumby
At least, that’s what I think he’s called. He’s the window…thing sitting at Papa Palheta. Right next to a window scribble I love that consists of the first two words of William Blake’s poem ‘The Tyger’. I’ll post a photo of those words when I’ve figured out how to shoot them…
Week 18: Good luck charm…
Mountain bikers are supposedly notorious for changing their bikes. Except for the few times we meet that one particular bike. That bike is the equivalent of meeting Mr./Ms. Right. Sometimes, it even trumps Mr./Ms. Right. This is the decal on the headset of my Voodoo Hoodoo. The Voodoo is The One as far as mountain bikes are concerned for me. The frame and I have been through endless rides together and I even raced my first triathlon and duathlon on her. Sure, Electra is a beauty on the roads and take me far but Voodoo Sal and trail riding will always be my first loves as far as bikes are concerned.
Week 19: Pee-a-boo!!
I’ve been playing around with Chloe lately, learning to experiment with things to come up with photos that I like. This is a particularly fun one I took while being diverted from my task of cleaning up my desk. Somehow, the neat line of pins make me feel really satisfied.
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May 10, 2010
I’m down with a major case of grumps again. I seem to come down with them quite a bit this year. This time, the cause of 3 weeks of breaking my training schedule because I was exhausted and sick. Somehow it seems like a constant battle between my mental and physical needs. Its always a matter of fulfilling one need to the detriment of the other. See what I mean? No? Ok, neither do I. But yeah. Its important that I get out to run or ride at least once a day everyday if possible, otherwise all things go to hell and I get the grumps and try to eat everyone in sight.
There’s nothing much fun going on, I have a major case of the wanderlust again and to make it even worse, I’m canceling my plans to go on the Thailand-Singapore ride in July because of certain factors like school, work and finances. Every morning I wake up fighting the urge to get on Electra with a few things and just go ride up north without saying a word to anyone. Its time to get my life sorted out so I can start planning on cycling the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage next year…
Posted in Randomness | Tags: Random Ramblings | 2 Comments »
May 9, 2010
I’m in one of those moods where I don’t want to talk. So photos will have to do it…
Also, scottie tote!!
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May 7, 2010
There’s this…thing on my desk. It sits on my drawer at eye level. Its a little hourglass thingy I picked up at The Brooklyn Superheroes Supply Store which is also the NYC chapter of 826 National. If you have no idea what they do, please have a look-see at their website. In short, they provide free writing tutoring to children in their communities. This is a cause I’m extremely passionate about. When I was 9, creative writing classes saved some shreds of my self-esteem after 3 years of being labeled an underachiever in school. It became a thing I could do and I loved to do. It was that writing class that sparked off my love for reading and writing and years later, would get me into a poetry mentorship program as well as my college degree. I am currently working on a project that intends to introduce a similar concept to Singapore, free writing tutoring for children within communities. A creative writing class in a private school really saved my self-esteem and helped me finish college, it would be great to open that door to children whose parents can’t afford expensive creative writing classes for them and give them this tool to building their self-esteem and expressing themselves. The project is now on hold due to certain circumstances but if anyone wants to get involved with it, please let me know and I’ll kick the thing into drive.
But anyway, this thing is called ‘The Evil Blob Containment Capsule’. I have a fascination with blobs. I love then. My now deceased sourdough starter was named ‘The Blob’. Something about the word ‘blob’ just gets me. Blob, blob, blobby, blob. Equally fascinating is watching the blob in this houseglass, going from one compartment to another and back again, forming bubbles and lines.
BLOB!
Posted in Causes, Project 52 | Tags: 826 National, Causes, Project 52 Peeps!, Writing | No Comments »
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