anyway... really lokking forward to the camp tomorrow and making some new bunch of great friends and seniors even before school commences.

now i am still feeling heaty all over from my ride of nearly 90km in desaru yesterday. got burnt like lobster by the time i reached home. now oi can see my tri top marks at the back.. ugly...argh... anyway desaru ride was pure fun with rolling hills... real hills unlike those at mandai road or selarang, heat like in langkawi and headwind ... better than coastal... hahaha.. tempted to go back again maybe this coming weekend... =) plus the lunch of hor fun and coconut at jade garden restaurant was yummy... after a wild wild ride =D

me: the ice in water acts as an insulation for the water underneath it, as the ice is less dense than water and therefore it floats above water. this helps to maintain the warm temperature in the water underneath the layer of ice.

student: but i always see in the movies that when people fall into water during winter, they either freeze to death or shiver alot. (giggles)

me: ok... =

me: you have to put it in relative terms. the water underneath ice is warmer relative to the air temperature outside.

so an attempt by the student to be funny...

some of you might think this is crazy.. but after having done this for 1 year plus, this waking up early thingy has become more of a habit for me already. but nevertheless, i still feel exhausted having to cope with such an exercise regime and having to go for tuition. maybe its also due to the fact that i have been focussing on clocking too much mileage for this month. so far i have about 98km of running distance and 400km of cycling distance. haha. think next month its time for speed work. would not know if my uni schedule would allow this. having to mix the studying, hall activities, tuition, triathlon, relief teaching and family all together. hmm... think have to set some time aside for finding a girlfriend too... haha... if not once i go out into the workforce i will be even busier... =D

so far my investment into this sport has been the greatest. without this sport, i could have saved up thousands of dollars. and i probably would not have went for lasik ops too... which would effectively been close to 10k in total. but then again, without this sport, i would not know what i'll be doing now. maybe i would be doing full time tuition? from day to night? maybe i would indulge in the world of dota (which is quite impossible) or maybe i would just dig into the world of books and unravel the mysteries of the wourld.. haha. i see some of my friends who have had totally nothing to do. everyday is just another day. life should'nt be this way. it is important to have a purpose and a passion in life. you set a hoal and you work towards it. that is what i've told myself. now, i'm cutting down tremendously on the number of races that i participate. firstly, because the races in singapore are just too ridiculously priced. secondly, i think it is time to prioritise my goals. with uni admission nearing this august, i could no longer devote so much time into this sport. studies first, the rest can talk later.

so much for triathlon. and for you guys out there who are excited to join this sport, don't just join because you think this is the cool and the in thing to do just because everyone else is doing it. this sport requires great amount of disciplined training and time, and the investment in the equipment does not come cheaply too. be prepared to spend alot in this sport..

so if you ask me what i have gained so far in this sport... there are things that you can see and things that you cannot. fitness, is the most obvious. secondly is friendship. how your fellow mates encourage you to go on in times of hardship. and last but not least, exposure to the sporting world. you get to experience sports at the largest scale possible. where your progress in the race is being tracked online (as in IM Langkawi), media from all over the world come down to report on the race, and of course, the atmosphere of races would always be the most unforgettable... all the way from preparation, to the anxiety at the starting line and the adrenaline rush when the starting gun is fired. of course, not forgetting the joy of finishing the race and of course, the added surprise that you've actually attanined your personnal best timing in the race.

so for every person, they have different passion and they spend great effort in chasing their dream.. have you thought about whats yours?

the day started off with a 70km ride with my friends.. what was meant to be a slow recovery ride became a lung bursting ride at lightning speed. exceeding 40kmh on the flat roads of changi coastal road. just imagine travelling side by side a military land rover and saying hi to the army guys in it... haha... then went to meet up with my friends' doctor friend... who spent over 10k in his new bike.. a totally customised guru fitted with zipp 606s and zipp aerobars.. drool.. that would be more than 3 times of my monthly teaching income..

noon was spent watching pirates of carribean with my family at gv tampines. totally enjoyed the movie. and guess what? singapore is in the movie! still remember the advertisement where chow yun fatt would say ' welcome to singapore'.. haha.. jack sparrow is still comical... and this time round you do not just see the black pearl and the dutchman pirate crews... there are actually 7 more sets of pirate crews.. which appeared during their pirate meetings... shall not divulge too much here.. go watch the movie!

night was the longest .. a birthday celebration for 5 of my npcc squadmates at kbox at paradiz centre. this is one of the rare rare occasion in which i would actually go to kbox.. a total of approximately 20 people turned up for the celebration. it started off at 7pm, and we sang all the way till 3am when the place closed. the first few hours were occupired by the girls till about 11pm.. where most of the people (all the girls) had left.. hell broke loose=). fun erupted when orthodox songs were sung.. people like weibiao would sing those chinese songs that no one ever heard of... and 987 fans like me would choose english hits like linkin park, hey ya, lemon tree=P to sing.. this is one of our tactics to get the mic out of the hands of mic hoggers such as nut=D. he has been singing jay chou songs for almost the whole night! of course, there were special performances which included worldwide hits like 'she bangs' by william hung=P, classical music like ' the music of the night' and 'all i ask of you' , all the way to nusery rhymes like 'do re mi' and of course, oldies like 'country road'. guess this is the most fun 21st birthday celebration i've ever been to...=)

effects: a tiring monday... which includes a sound sleep all the way from 7.30pm till today @ 7.30am... haha... 12 hours of sleep.

had been using my adidas supernova cushion 6 (2006) for almost 1/2 a year already... have trashed out this shoe for near to 400km.. haha... and the cushion is still working fine... well.. this shoes falls under the cushioned shoe category so the cushion is relatively thick enough to last me all the training runs that i do =).. thankfully the sole and the body of the shoe has not detached from each other yet

for a cushioned shoe and a price of $159, i felt that this was quite worth the buy =). this shoe comes with a breathable upper meshed body, which is also seam-free.. which means good news for runners as they can now say bye to abrasions. the adi-prene and adi-prene+ does provide great dynamic toe-off and cushioning effect, easing your knee and ankles of the possible stress which are encountered.

plus points aside, this shoe does have a few letdowns for the serious runner. althogh relatively lightweight, i still felt the heaviness of this shoe when running long distances of 15km and beyond. and the breathable upper meshed body is not sufficient to cool off the heat built up in the feet during long distance runs.. end result? sweat starts to accumulate, my socks and eventually the inside of my shoe got wet.

well, overall was quite impressed with this shoe... durable and provides great comfort and fit. reccomended for starters and those on the lookout for a bang for their money. mine's the 2006 edition. the newer 2007 edition comes with the formotion plate technology that provides a 3D cushioning effect.. which means better cushioning =). as for the downsides of this shoe.. well, this shoe does'nt have the climacool technology that adidas racing shoe (adizero family) has... if not... this shoe would have gotten 5 stars out of 5!!!

anyway, visited the pc show and here are some tips to buying a pc.. for the students of course!

1. windows vista capable pc=)

2. good graphics card = GeForce nVidia 8 series for DirectX 10 support

- this is to support the animations that the windows vista OS will have

3. long long battery life

4. light weight

5. card reader slot

6. dvd burner.. the faster the speed, the better

7. RAM expansion slots