Count down begin: 7 days to SCM...

The event of the year for me will be taking place in less than 7 days.

Hopefully I can cross the finishing line...

Life and death, hits and misses...

Lots have happened since my last blog entry...

Ah Meng from the Singapore Zoo, our iconic tourism board ambassador, died at the age of 50 years old....attracted 4000 people to attend her funeral. (I don't think I will even have 1/10 of that no. of people attending my funeral).

Fei Fei, Lydia Sum died after long battle with liver problem....

Edison Chen scandal continues for a few week... he finally apologizes and leaves Hong Kong entertainment scene...

Singapore won the inaugural Youth Olympic 2010, created one of the longest queue for a public event, produces a splendid budget surplus, then loses a limping terrorist.

Dinner@Canadian Pizza Kitchen

Another late post on a gathering cum dinner that took place last Thursday.

Met up with Dave, Chun Meng and Keng Wee for dinner at Forum's Canadian Pizza Kitchen. Teck Han was having RT and couldn't join us. KC also didn't turn up due to other commitment. It's quite tough to get everyone together as everyone has their own life and program nowadays.

We had the famous Peking Duck Pizza, another pizza plus pasta for the main course. Then we had 4 different desserts to share. I immediately fall in love with their chocolate souffle!

The famous Peking Duck Pizza

Chocolate Souffle (very good!)

Brownies

Besides the delicious food, it was also good to catch up on old times. Hopefully the next meet-up everyone can make it...

Stanchart Singapore Marathon 2007

I completed my second Stanchart Half-marathon on Sunday and achieved one of the goal I aimed for - broke my personal half-marathon record: 2hr 25 min.

Although it was 10 minute short of the timing I wanted to achieve before the run start, it was still a satisfying run. For more mundane details of the run, read here.

After the run, collected my medal, took the free 100 plus and banana, and then met up with Dave and WL (who came to take pictures of gals) at the Cenotaph.Dave and me at Cenotaph (after the run)

We left WL to go on his hunt for chio bus and head to Raffles City S.C. to wash up and changed. Took a quick breakfast at Coffee and Toast and went back to the finishing point to wait for KC's arrival. He finally showed up at 10.41 am. I managed to squeeze through the crowd and took a few shots of him.

KC doing the V-sign

The runners

I brought my camera along as well and took some photos. They are available on my multiply website.

I was too exhausted to drive so the four of us (including WL) met up with another ex-classmate Vipula at Raffles City (again) for lunch before heading home.

It was a good conclusion to the whole year of training :-).

My Space @06-02/03

My cubicle on day 1 at the new premise:

This is probably the neatest it shall get....

Team photo (though one was missing)

For more photos from the opening ceremony, look here.

For a naked view of the office before we moved in, click here.

A-Mei World Tour 2007

First time hearing A-mei (张惠妹) live in concert. It was worth the ticket value as she delivers many familiar hits, which the audience sang along aloud, much to her surprise.

It was also heartening to see local talents so prevalent in her concert crew. Tay Kewei and one of the Dreamz FM member Jim (林 倛 玉) were part of her backup vocal team. A few of the band members were from Singapore, including the musical producer.

The 1-day concert was three and half hour long, with encore session taking up more than half hour. I couldn't help humming to songs like 解脱, 我要快乐, 记得, 原来你什么都不要. She also 清唱 天天想你, in memory of of the late 张雨生. and of cos the duet 最爱的人伤我最深.

A-mei started the encore segment with a couple of unplugged performance. Then eventually (almost) everyone, including me (who finally stood up after relentless poking from aud), was on their feet towards the end as everyone clapped and sang along one of her old hits 牵手. The backup vocals were call on stage to sing along 姐妹 and she also made every one of her band sang the chorus. It was hilarious and fun.

She may not be a dancer, but it was still worth while to hear her performed live!

Nightout@Gotham

It is CL's last day today, so a few colleagues (actually quite a "few" - about 17 of us) met at the Gotham penthouse for a drink.

This is the first time I am at this kind of joint...Didn't knew what it was known for, until someone talked about it during lunch.

There are 3 performances daily: 10.30 pm, 12 midnite, 2 am

Music from 10 to midnight was to my liking. thereafter I was almost falling asleep. The crowd was relatively 'old', with more ladies (of cos) than men.

We hang around until 2 plus when kf also came along.

After sending a sobbing colleague home, I turn around to join kf, cl, sslim and irean for supper at Aljunied.

Finally reached home around 4 plus and hit the sack at 5 plus.

Tremors, tremors, tremors....

Multiple tremors felt in Singapore within 48 hours. But I felt none.

This blogger has details.

(Most expensive) Marathon of the year

I finally found the mailer I was waiting for amidst my messy table.

As expected, this year the registration fee has increased yet again. Being a previous supporter of the event, I still have to pay 18% more (see last year price here) for the half marathon event. If I missed the 31 July deadline, I will have to fork out $45 (16 Jul to 12 Aug), $58 (13 Aug to 9 Sep) or $65 (10 Sep to 14 Oct)! I am pretty sure it's not just because of the 7% GST, but rising cost as well....

Anyway, was misled by a faulty link on the website and couldn't bloody register. Then I read in hardwarezone forum that some people have registered. So I went back to the website and sure enough, the link is available in Registration -> Register Now!

#$%&! The webpage designer ought to be shot.

For more details on the event, read here.

Singapore Bay Run 2007

Formerly known as Sheares Bridge Run/Army Half Marathon, this annual event organised by SAFRA National Service Association will have a different ending (literally), at the new NDP platform.

Date: 26 Aug 2007
Flagoff time: 5.30 am.

More details here.

Yet another Real Run

After the badly publicised Real Run Club Terrain Race in April, I thought that's all for the year for New Balance sponsored event, until I heard from Dave about the 15 KM Real Run at Changi Exhibition Centre...

Read more here.

The Year of Jacky Cheung World Tour 07

Finally got to go for the Jacky Cheung concert (学友光年世界巡回演唱会) on Saturday; I wanted to go for his previous concert when he was here few years back, but somehow I miss it for some reason.

The indoor stadium was fully packed, with fans raising illuminating sticks and his names.

He started with 3 fast dance hits (爱火花 and 2 other songs that I wasn't familiar with) and I concluded that Aaron Kwok is indeed the better dancer :p.

In between songs, he spoke in both Cantonese and Mandarin, chat about his daughters, wife and sang his own song composition 摇摇 that he did for his first daughter and 讲你知 for his wife.

He also injected broadway style singing into the concert, with songs from Snow.Wolf.Lake (雪狼湖-爱是永恒) and another production which name I didn't catch (Updated: its call 如果·爱, adapted from 陈可辛's movie of the same title.). His band was fantastic, with the standard drummer, keyboard, guitarist and foreign talent assisting on trumpet and sax, and 4 Chinese ladies playing the violin, viola and cello (弦樂四重奏), playing to the tunes of 一千个伤心的理由,一路上有你,只想一生跟你走.

His encore was exceptionally long (an hour at least)! Audience were extremely high when he sang more of his classic love songs (吻别,每天爱你多一些, 情书, 我等到花儿也谢了etc). The night concluded with the song 祝福 (Blessing), where the entire stadium was filled with audience's echo/humming along...very nice atmosphere.

Considering that he entertained for more than 3 hours without break (except for occasional costume changes), and sang most of his classic hits, it was still value for money.

Saucony-100 Plus Passion Run 2007 (Updated)

Read more here...

Night out at Timbre

What was supposed to be a simple and small dinner affair turned out to be a slightly bigger gathering at Timbre. As Pronob was in town and wanted to meet up with our ex-colleague Victor, sk (for the ten thousandth times) suggested dinner at Timbre. Choon (also from Mountain View) and Andy were the unexpected guests of the night. So together with aud, kev and bernard, we squeezed around two small tables enjoying our 1-for-1 beer and food...

My minestrone soup....

Very nice Lamb Rack...The band Timmy....

Timmy was superb. I must say the lead looks cute too. Totally enjoyed their 3 gigs which lasted till 1.45 am. Definitely a place to go back again.

My Secret Garden@Sculpture Square

I was invited to attend an ex-colleague's wedding dinner reception that was held at a small establishment located in Sculpture Square. I was not unfamiliar with the location, this being my second visit, the first experience was a wedding lunch reception of a colleague. It was a casual but nonetheless significant event for the bridegroom (and his bride of cos) who went around entertaining his 70 odd guests. Unlikely the recent wedding dinner I attended in May, where everyone at the banquet table were all total strangers, I was glad to be in the company of a few ex-colleagues, whom some I had not met for quite a while.
We chatted, had beer and watched the slides that was put up, while anxiously waited for the food. The beer they served had a nice fragrance to it.

The lobster bisque was served around 9 followed by the the Caesar salad with salmon sashimi, some half hour after I consumed the soup.

As usual, the MCee tried to have a little fun with the newly wed....The long awaited main course (crayfish spaghetti ) was served at 10. It went down well into my stomach, considered that I was pretty hungry.
I didn't get to taste the dessert though, as I had to rush back to pick up my little one. Guess I would have to find out from my ex-colleagues, one of whom had the honour of an extra serving of the brownies that I ordered.

EOS Experience Day

Date: 16th & 17th June 2007
Venue: SKI 360º, East Coast Park

More details here.

Mizuno Wave Run 2007

Race Date: Sunday 22nd July 2007
Venue (Start/End Point): Temasek Poly (TP) Sports Stadium
Distance: 10km and 5 km (Fun run)
Reporting Time: 0630hrs
Race Start Time: 0730 hrs

Categories and Pricing
Mens open ($20)
Womens open ($20)
Mens veteran ($20)
Womens veteran ($20)
Non-Competitive Fun run ($15)

Registration Details
Registration closing date: Sunday 15th july 2007
Register personally at the following Mizuno & World of Sports outlets (VGO Corp):

• Mizuno Paragon
• Mizuno Marina Square
• Mizuno AMK Hub
• Mizuno Vivocity
• WOS Plaza Singapura
• WOS Jurong Point
• WOS Toa Payoh
• WOS Heartland Mall
• WOS Takashimaya
• WOS Velocity @ Novena Square
• Feder Sports
• Running Lab at Funan IT Mall & Velocity

Runner Entitlements
Goodie Bag containing:
(For all categories) Mizuno Limited Edition Event Singlet worth $25.90
(For competitive only) Mizuno Shoe Bag worth $19.90
(For non-competitive only) World of Sports Socks worth $9.90
30% discount on Mizuno regular-priced merchandise at point of registration.

Source: VGO Corporation (Updated)

I had a dream...

...that I will strike Toto tonight...muahahaha...

Okay, thou shall not be greedy, kena second prize also not too bad;its estimated to be 1.2 million.

Crossing my fingers and pray hard. If my dream comes true, then I can pay off my mortgage and auto-loan!

Money, money, money!

National Stadium Tour (Free!)

Period of Tour: 3 May to 30 June 2007
Days of Tour: Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays (excluding public holidays)
Tour Duration: 2 hours (approximately)
Tour Time slots: 10 a.m. & 2.30 p.m.
Admission: Free

Organised by Singapore Sports Council, catch a last glimpse of the stadoum before it officially closed on 30 Jun.

For query and tour bookings, please call at Tel: (+65) 63409517 or email at ssc_sports_museum@ssc.gov.sg

First read about it here.

Saucony-100 Plus Passion Run 2007

8 July 2007, East Coast Park (Carpark E2), 7:00AM

More details at the official website here.