Another update of my New Year’s Resolution.
Based on my Nike+GPS running app, I have ran 155.34 km so far in 2012. I need to run more often!
Another update of my New Year’s Resolution.
Based on my Nike+GPS running app, I have ran 155.34 km so far in 2012. I need to run more often!
I went on a daytrip to the Johor Premium Outlets and bagged some great finds!
And I officially turn 21.
For the 6th time.
This is the last year of my mid-twenties – and as with all last things we ought to honour the cliche of saying I want to make it count, as though NOT saying it will make it disappear.
A year closer to who I’m gonna be, but nowhere near who I (thought) wanna be. Perhaps I should rethink that; people shouldn’t decide on life direction so definitively too early in life. Especially when you’re as prone to fickle-mindedness as me.
But this year especially, I am grateful for all the dear friends around me doing things to surprise me and make me happy. Such as surprise book in the mail, surprise meal, surprise presents … it’s particularly heartwarming to know people put in effort. Reminds me that I still have a heart to be warmed.
So thank you to all of you who have cracked your brains trying to make this birthday memorable for me. :)
Zen Japanese Restaurant is a vegetarian restaurant I discovered too late. The food is great, the current location at Midlink Plaza is great, but they are moving (as Midlink Plaza will be undergoing refurbishment) to somewhere deserted near the Expo.
Went to PS Cafe at Palais Renaissance for brunch last weekend. Had truffle fries. Don’t think I can ever eat normal fries again.
Went for the 2xu Compression Run with the sister last Sunday. I was mis-registered for the 15km category instead of the 10km. That’s why it took me so long to blog about the event because I was hurting all the way to my fingertips.
(Nah, just kidding.)
The route was, again, my home turf in the Kallang Riverside area. We flagged off from Nicoll Highway MRT station thereabout, made a loop at Suntec City, up the Nicoll Highway into somewhere near the Stadium, come out and go to the Kallang Riverside, run to Beach Road and to the F1 pitstop and making a roundabout at the Flyer and ending at the start point again.
All thanks to the VIP who turned up 10 minutes late to flag us off, we endured 10 more minutes of scorching sun by the time the sun rose. It was an exceedingly warm day; most people were not on form due to the weather. To think NEA said it was going to rain in the morning.
The map, if you are interested. According to my GPS I ran 15.75km, I think that somehow includes elevation or something.
According to the organizer – my nett time is 2h 10 mins, my gun time is 2 h 12 min 39s. This placed me 584 out of 953 among women runners. In the top 60% thereabout (or bottom 40% depending how you see it). I aimed to finish the race in 2 hours, seems like I have lots of improvement to be made. Will I attempt 15km again? I’m not sure. I rationalize my bad form this time round with crazy weather and lack of training (severely undertrained in March), but I think a lot of it is matter of the mind too. But now that I’ve done 15km, 10km doesn’t seem at all that scary.
I won’t deny I am a picky person, especially when I comes to food. Friends know my quirky (or, difficult) food rules, such as not eating animals without faces (e.g. clams and all kinds of bivalves), gourds and marrows, raw food, innards*. Only my family knows by heart (most of) the long list of things I will not eat, such as okra, asparagus, pineapple, kiwi, pumpkin…. the list gets pretty long. Sometimes I wonder if I’m actually being intentionally difficult, then I realized – why should I apologize for not want to shovel things I don’t want to eat into my mouth, or resort to pushing around on my plate?
I don’t know when this picky eating habit started – I figured since I was young. Because of the abundant food choices at home, I was able to pick and choose. If I don’t like something, no one will force me to eat it. I am always reminded (by my family) of the time I hid vegetables under my noodles because I didn’t like them. Perhaps that was the moment of revelation – I don’t have to eat what I don’t like. Of course, that came with some nagging and 20 years of mockery, but you get the idea.
Sometimes I wonder- for a picky eater, I’m pretty fat. Aren’t all picky eaters supposedly malnourished children who have to be force fed full-fat milk? Never happened to me. I compensate variety with volume. I just eat plenty of what I like, and none of what I don’t. Should I feel bad about it? I’m not sure. I don’t hate all vegetables. In fact I love vegetables such as carrots, celery, broccoli, kale, spinach… Let’s just say there doesn’t seem to be much more harm in overdosage of vegetables compared to an overdosage of cockles.
I Googled on why I am so picky about food, trying to find out if it’s some psychological trauma or childhood incident that made me this way. Then I found out I am not the only person in this world to hate egg yolk. Or icky things like raw fish and oysters. I sometimes think my taste preference as infantile, but I do think there are children who eats more variety than me. I used to feel inadequate somehow at my lack of sense of adventure when it come to food. Now I just say fuck off. Life is too short to fret about how people judge you by what you eat.
* With exception to cow’s stomach – the one with the numerous villi.
I am in the midst of packing up my current workplace and moving to a new building. It’s a rather surreal process, knowing that this is the last few days you are spending in a place you’ve been sitting for the most times of the day for 10 months. I have to pack that 10 months into a couple of boxes, not knowing if there is space for everything at the new building. The new building is nearer to where I stay, in a vicinity I know like the back of my hand. There’s this sense of excitement; it’s like getting a new job but mostly it’s anxiety know we have to hit the ground running come April. Knowing I now have to lead a team and be responsible for them, that’s rather scary too. But all in all it’s a good change, and I’m grateful for it.
I caught the media preview of The Lorax on Monday, and boy it was fun and educational! The movie talks about Ted, a boy in love with with a girl, Audrey, and dying to impress. Ted lives in Thneedville, an artificial paradise where the air is bad and trees are fake. Audrey dreams of touching and having a real tree, a seemingly mythical plant that very few people remember. Ted’s grandmother advises him to go to the Once-ler, outside their utopia town. The Once-ler is a grouchy old man who blames himself for the disappearance of trees and their beautiful environment. He tells Ted his story, which involves The Lorax, the guardian of the forest, and plenty of cute cuddly bears. Together, they battle the nemesis and try to save the environment. Do they succeed? Watch it for yourself.
I brought the little 6-year-old niece to watch the film in 3D, and the effects are great at certain parts! My niece actually reached out and tried catch the fluttering petals. The moral of the story is great; it is about depletion of resources resulting in poor standard of living for people. It also critiques large corporation exploiting people. The cute animals helped too. This movie is funny and enjoyable, highly recommend it if you need to unwind after a long work week!
Took part in the 2012 NTUC Urun today at the Floating Platform. I signed up for the 10km Competitive Run category because I wasn’t sure I could do a 10km and climb 30 storeys in the other category. The last time I did a 10K it was a trail run, so this is my first road run! I haven’t done a mob road run since 2007. This time round I set a target for myself, to complete the 10K in 90 minutes.
