Bike Cleaned and Sent for Packing

Well I got my bike cleaned yesterday and have sent it for packing. Have not clean it for a long time since I've taken a break from cycling for a while now. It's not as cleab as I wanted to, but looks a lot better than before. At least can see the silverish colour in the chain (pic). The guy at the shop was telling me that my bike, after packing, might weigh more than 15kg. I guess I got to be ready to pay those extra charges to Air Asia. Rm20 per extra kg! Ouch! Maybe I could get my uncle to help in bringing the bike over, since they are going over 2 days after me. Mmh, maybe I should call him tomorrow and find out.



Tonight, I went to Shah Alam to have drink with Azizul. I was passing him his Shape Run goodie bag which he missed. I wanted to get arms warmer since riding in Australia can be quite cold at the moment. Should be averaging 7-14 degrees Celcius. Since I was in Shah Alam, I went to look for this guy Ahmad, who sells some bike apparels. I google search leading me to him. According to him, he has a share in one of the bike shop in Shah Alam too. I wanted to go there in the afternoon but he told me that they aren't any stocks at the shop. Rather than getting the conventional black colour, I got a white one (pic). Thought it looked cool. I hope it helps in warming up when I get to ride over there.

Usain Bolt Shatters 100m World Record!! 9.58s!

Usain Bolt, the sprint king has shattered the WR for 100m in a time of 9.58!! Wow. Amazing! Even Tyson Gay or Asafa Powell got nowhere near him even though they clocked fast times. Tyson clocked his PB and an American Record of 9.71 which was just 0.02 shy of the old WR which Usain set in Beijing last year. Asafa clocked 9.84 a season best.


Everyone has been talking about how fast Bolt can run after Beijing. He virtually celebrated way before the finishing line, easing up the final strides and still clock 9.69s (WR). I guess, he answered everyone here yesterday. Click this link to video of the 100m final. Even the photographers had a hard time chasing Bolt when he was doing his celebration lap. Haha!



Another interesting final was the 10,000m Final (Womens). With defending champion, Tinuresh Dibaba, sidelined with an injury, Ethiopian runners were still the heavy favourites, led by Meseret Defar. In the final sprint, it seems Defar had the edge over compatriot Melkamu. But in the last 30m, she seems to have lost it, and Meselet Melkamu overtook her and looked destined to win. She even put up her hands in celebration at the finshing line (pic below) till she looked to her side, Linet Masai of Kenya, who edged her slightly. "Alamak!" - that's the expression of her face at the finishing line. She forgot, it ain't over till the fat lady sings! Well in this case, the skinny lady lah! Finally, a Kenyan lady breaks Ethiopian stronghold in this event and she's only 19! Click this link to see the video of the event. Linet won with a time of 30:51.24, while Meselet's time is 30:51.34. How close was that?!

How come Astro didn't show the event live since it's such a big event?! Only got 1 hour highlights every now and then. Somemore charging extra RM12?!!

5 More Days!

5 more days before I leave for the Land Down Under. Leaving this Sat. I don't even know what do I need to pack for a 3 months break there. Should I bring more running clothes or casual clothes?? I've already got 1 cycling shoe and 1 running shoe which is going to take a lot of space. Then, there's a problem with my bike. Yes, I'm bringing my bike over. Who knows I might just be doing Tour Down Under. Haha. I was told it is approximately 15kg (after packing). I have bought only 20kg of baggage allowance from AirAsia. Then I have to pay RM60 for sporting equipment. I wonder if this weight is included in my baggage allowance? If it is I think I better top up to 25kg. Anyone has any idea on this? I read the Fee Schedule, the way they put it seems to be in separate allowances.

So what will I be doing there? I'm going to do my "walkabout" as the aborigines in Australia call it. Oh, if you haven't read my earlier post, I'll be doing the Melbourne Marathon on Oct 11 and Around the Bay in a Day (210km) bike ride on Oct 18. So I guess I spent a lot of time training for that one while I'm there. Then after Oct, depending on my budget, will do a little travelling around Australia, visiting some interesting places and also meet up with some friends who are there. Also, I'll see if there's any good unis where I can do my sports management courses. Nothing is for sure yet but I'll just go look see, look see..

Australia here I come.

District 9: Review

I wasn't planning to watch the movie but was stuck at the car park in Gardens. And even if I got out from the car park, I think I'll be stuck in the rush hour. So we decided to watch a movie first. I don't know what to expect from the movie as I didn't read any review before watching it. This movie is produced by Peter Jackson, better known for his work on Lord of The Rings Trilogy.

Sypnosis:
"Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth.

Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them.

Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare - they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA.

Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable - he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide:

District 9"

As it turns out, movie was quite entertaining, but not a show for children though. Lots of body parts flying here and there. One funny thing though, I think this is the first time I have heard so many F&@% words in a Malaysian nema. I have a feeling the censorship people must have fallen asleep or they didn't know that there's no difference in meaning for the pronounced word "Fuck" and "Fock" (you know, how the British pronounced it). Haha. Or maybe it could be, there were too many of it, till they decided "tidak apa lah".

Here's a link to it's trailer. Click here

Kuala Lumpur Rat Race

This year I was at the annual corporate charity event, The Kuala Lumpur Rat Race. But this time am only watching it from the sidelines. I've taken part 3 times myself, 2005, 2007 and 2008. That was after I joined Southern Bank/CIMB. Didn't take part in 2006 as Southern Bank was taken over by CIMB during that time. It's one of the kind event that's being held in the middle of busy KL streets. Plus, the run starts in the late afternoon at 5pm. The race can be hot and humid at that time of the day. It drizzled a little before the start but didn't deter the participants of the fans away.

What's so different about this event compared to any other running races? For one thing, you have to wear your office wear (of course you are allowed to wear your running shoes) to run over a course of 4.5km around the major area in the city, starting from Bursa Saham KL (BSKL) passing thru major offices, such as Wisma Genting, KLCC, pubs and cafe over in Jalan P. Ramlee, Concorde Hotel, KL Tower and back to BSKL. To participate each team consist of 5 runners, a company must contribute RM5,000. All monies collected are given to the identified beneficiaries. To win, all members of the team must finish the race and the the team with the less total of rankings will be the winner. The categories have been expanded over the years and this year, the Senior Category is been introduced. Last year the mixed team event was introduced. There's a CEO Race as well, whereby CEOs are required to run a 1km race while the main race covers 4.5km.

Supposedly, it's a non competitive event but the race has become fast and furious of late, with company sending some of their best runners. And a lot of teams are coming out with company t-shirts or uniforms. It kind of deviates from the original version where everyone wears office wears, with the exception of staff from fitness centres of course.

This event is well publicised and I'm always looking foward to run in such event with carnival like atmosphere. Lots of cheering team all around, well dressed up and cheering loudly for their teams. Cheerleading teams also in the running for top 3 prizes. Hard to find this kind of atmosphere in any other running event, which I think it should be good in popularising running. Although, I think this will need a lot of involvement of corporate companies, but other events have something to learn from this one.

It's kind of sad watching it from the sidelines and not being able to run this year as I thought I am fitter than I was in last 3 years combined. But I had fun meeting up old colleagues or some familiar faces. I was busy taking photos this time around, but somehow due to my mediocre knowledge in taking good photographs or maybe it's my camera lah....all my photos turn out to be pretty bad. Sorry guys!

Full results for winners and report, click this link

CIMB defended the mixed team category with the top 2 runners still in the same order as last year, T.Eswaran and K. Baskaran. In the new category, CIMB veteran runners finished TOP 2 but the team could only finished 2nd. Jessica Tang who is in the mixed team as well won the mixed team women's category.

Nothing major happened this time as what happened in Adidas KOTR. However, when I was at their prize presentation, the video replay showed a guy who just collapse just 10 meters from the finishing line. I think he was the one which was taken away by ambulance (photo below). I just felt if Gary had the same treatment, he would live see another day.

I stayed there for while and had some food (free what!) but had to make my way back before the prize presentation as it appears it was going to rain.

For more photos or videos, pls click on this link:

1. Run Wit Me Blog

2. Seecube Blog

3. Photos from Photobucket

Doggie Night

Just picked up my dog, Boy, from the pet shop. Since my girlfriend is away, sent the dog to stay at the pet shop. She won't be back till tomorrow but picked up the dog a night earlier so won't get charged for an extra one night. A big change....Boy became "botak" after his hair was shaven completely. I had to smuggle the dog into my apartment as owners are not allowed to have pets at home. Hope the dog won't bark, but as far as I handled him before, he's ok. I gave him some food to eat and now lying on the floor getting ready to sleep.

Mmh...now got to plan for tomorrow. Got to be on "stealth" mode in taking the dog out for a walk and do his usual "business" in the morning. Poo poo and wee wee. Here are photos I had of him before and currently:

Once upon a time (I know, this one doesn't look neat cos I cut the hair myself.)





















Now - Shaven

A Busy Saturday (8 August)

Started the day rushing to Ulu Langat to join Yit Thing and her friends for a ride. Originally planned for a Pekan Bt. 18 - Genting Peres - Tekala (breakfast) - Pekan Bt. 18 ride. Since it was a little late, decided to cut short the ride. Some went for the extra miles to Pensun, but for some, including me, just stopped at Pekan Bt 18. Did around 40km. Anyway, just needed to get back the feeling of riding again. Going up Genting Peres was pretty good for me, maybe because I lost so much weight training for KL marathon.

After the ride, went for tomato kueh tiaw at Alex's stall in Taman Megah and was joined by Kevin and Tomato Ray. Rushed back home to have a quick shower and headed to Tien Hou Temple to witness Eric and Chin Chin's engagement. I was a little late so didn't get to see the signing ceremony. There were so many couples at the temple. It was an auspicious date for the signing the dotted lines, 8 August (8.8). We went for a late lunch after the ceremony but due to the timing, most of the restaurants are closed at that hour. We ended up in Won Kok in SS2.

Since the dinner with Dr Ray is at 6.30pm, I only had time to go back home for a short while before heading out again to A Wet Thai Cafe, in Jalan Kaskas (Cheras). Dr. Ray was back from Hong Kong for a short holiday. Since Lydia's birthday was the day before, the dinner was also to celebrate her birthday. Michelle was the organiser and good choices of food that she picked. Everyone was sweating eating more than they do in running.

VIP - Dr. Raymond (Hong Kong)

The Super Spicy Tom Yam

Pandan Leaf Chicken

This is how spicy the food can be. Look at the sweat coming out from the ear!

Lydia's birthday cake

More photos in this link

(Still can't upload video)

G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra Review

Yo Joe! Well, that's how I remember about G.I. Joe, back in the days when I was still in school. I watched the animated series and kept some of the comic's issues. Although the names of the characters I clearly have forgotten, but the characters involved in the movie do bring back the memories. Had dinner before the movie and Ooi Keat was kind enough to treat us all. So how was the movie?




To be honest, nothing great about the storyline, just action-packed combat scenes mostly. The main theme is in line with the comics, G.I. Joe (G.I. stands for Government Issue, a generic term for U.S. soldiers) vs the evil Cobra Command. Lots of special effects which adds to its appeal. Maybe some cheesy jokes in between. That's about it. I guess you can't ask much about combat movies adapted from comics. Or maybe the performance of Channing Tatum (Duke) was not up to par. Anyway, he wasn't much of an actor, even in the movie Step Up. Marlon Wayans (RipCord) suits comedy movies better, but he did bring some laughters in the movie. I just thought the storyline could have been better written. Anyway, I did enjoyed the action scenes.

Movie Trailer : Click here