the thrill of it

adrenaline rush

heart pumping

nervous

stressed

excited

frustration

fear

i think the words above well describe what i'm feeling right now. it is such a mixed feeling that i have to take one day at a time, one thing at a time, give everything my best shot and hope everything falls in place at the end of the day...

but i have a feeling that it will be great and i'm really looking forward to it. i'm not sure what will i feel when its all done and we're ready to rock, i guess the feeling will be pretty amazing. and at that very moment, i can proudly say "this is my baby"...

feeling good

i'm feeling healthy both mentally and physically, and i intend to keep it up...

after spending a week of basically not really doing anything at work, it is finally coming to an end. i've been counting down the days and right now, it should be 2 more days to go. the last 15 months as a recruiter has been very useful and i know it's now time to move on or i will regret. i hope this new ride will be the answer for what i've been missing for quite some time...

i've been planning my dinner since 4pm in the office, well yes...this is what people do when they are bored in the office. after collecting inspiration from here and there, i found what i want to make tonight. as the clock tick 6pm, i'm almost the first one to rush to the lift and off i go with 2 other colleagues; walking toward the direction of bus no.49 which will take me to The Center. i walked from there on back home; put down my things...change and off i go again first to lian hua and then to the gym. 

bought all the stuffs i need...head to the gym. ran for 30mins on the threadmill while watching the replay of  the women's individual class 5 table tennis where ren guixiang (the 4th photo in the link) of China won the gold medal in the 2008 paralympics. did a bit of weights on the machine after that and then walked home. i felt so good after the run that i thought...."hmm...maybe should sweat even more.." then i thought of the crunch yoga dvd from Jen. so yeah, that's what i did...i did the fat burning yoga. it was quite a tough session (at least for people with zero yoga experience like me)...but hey, I SWEAT LIKE MAD it feels so good! after cooling down....i finally started my dinner preparation. hehe...so what did i prepare for dinner? here you go...

my roasted pumpkin on top of salad (without dressing) that contains green veg, red pepper and cherry tomatoes.

the nike 10km human race

malaysian national day, which is last sunday was celebrated by doing my 2nd run in shanghai (erm...yeah, 2nd run after more than 5 years). and guess what? this run has 15,000 participants wor!! so, let's imagine this...it's basically jam packed with human and you are actually doing a 10km run surrounded by people throughout. 

now, talk about surrounded by people. you will think, "so what?". now imagine this, its running in the rain coz it started to pour before the gun even went off, then you will see people taking out umbrella (umbrella during a run?). halfway through, couples start to walk under their umbrella like they are strolling in a park. most hilarious was how these 2 guys lit their cigarette during the run and start to walk while smoking...

can imgine? still can't?? well, let's take a look at the pictures then...hehe

this is like 0.1% of the crowd...so imagine 15,000 of these similar 'red people' swarming around u...haha!

but anyway, it was a really fun experience. so at the end of the day we are still smiling and laughing and most importantly we felt that we've shed some pounds by doing the run (not to mention that we went for curry fish head, roti canai, sinchew fried beehoon later as our way of celebrating "merdeka! merdeka"). 

told you....we had fun! 

the spirit of the games

in the midst of my olympics fever, honfoong managed to drag me out of the house and did some shopping today. today was more than getting flowers for the house, picking up the painting from the frame shop, refilling the fridge and visiting our favourite muji and uniqlo.

our visit to superbrand mall somehow gotten us to the adidas outlet. honfoong was checking out the official tees for the china team by adidas; contemplating whether or not to buy it for her dad. when asked for my opinion, my reply was "i'm sure old folks would love it, just get it". almost immediately after i said that one old man in his 70s old walked into the shop, stopped right in front of the national jacket and asked for the price. he said “要一件” almost immediately too. i turned around and saw a middle aged woman (whom i presume is his daughter) smiling broadly. i felt so proud that my theory of old folks loving the national outfits has proven correct.

the next thing i know, the oldman was stripping off his long worn polo-t and putting on the china team's polo tee on. he straighten the tee, tucked it into his track bottom while the shopkeeper fold his old tee and put it into the paperbag with the new jacket. his daughter was out of the shop paying for his shopping while all this was happening in the shop.


i can't help but asked the oldman, “要去看足球比赛吗？”

he replied, “我每天都运动！”


we left about the same time and we trailed the couple of son & daughter to the counter for issuing of the official receipt. the oldman looked so good in his new tee you can almost feel his patriotism bursting out from him. they then left the mall with the daughter carrying the paperbag in her hand and nothing else. i'm sure they made the trip to the mall just to get the jacket & the tee. the daughter might have spent RMB 1000 in less than 30mins but the smile on the oldman's face showed that he is feeling ecstatic with his new purchase.




35 golds and another week to go...chinese air is filled with the olympics spirit. i'm so glad i'm right where the historic moment is happening...

08.08.08

i remember growing up watching big sporting events opening & closing ceremony with my family. amongst all of us, grandma is always the most excited person. i remember we seating around waiting for the live telecast after dinner, i also remember walking with her to her favourite stall to buy her favourite hot ceylon tea before the closing ceremony of the 1996 atlanta olympics...

similarly, i'm seating in front of the tv in mulan's place, waiting for the historic opening ceremony of the long awaited beijing olympics' opening ceremony. all i can think about is my grandma and my mum. i remembered both of them being very 'pro-chinese', i remember both of them supporting the china team instead of malaysia team in any thomas cup...i wonder how are they feeling now. i'm sure my mum will be shedding a lot of tears; i think my dad will too...but i can't gage what will be in grandma's mind now...i'm sure she's as excited as how i always remember her to be during all these ceremonies...

its less than an hour away from the opening ceremony now...this time around, i will not be sitting around with my family back home; waiting for the live telecast. but the thought of us watching the same thing at the same moment makes me feel good. though i can't be in taiping with my grandma; but i can imagine her sitting down watching without blinking and occasionally puffing away her favourite sticks of salem...

a good day

it is one of those days where good things just happen one after another. small piece of good news lead to another...and the best thing about it is, it all happened unexpectedly. now i know how the saying "miracle happens when it's least expected" came by...

a friend told me today might be a 'goat' day, another told me this is what you call 'good karma', the same friend told me 'all you have to do is think hard enough if you want something, and you will get it', my cousin says 'she's excited', one very important person in my life just simply say 'yeah yeah!'. i'm so happy i'm blessed with all these wonderful people around me. this should be the ultimate of all happiness; to be able to share it and having these people feeling happy for you too. 

in the midst of me feeling blessed and happy, a friend told me about her beloved dog being rushed to the vet...i'm not sure what's wrong with the dog, but i hope everything's fine. 

the newspaper woman

i've became one of the millions commuter of the shanghai metro ever since i started my job at hudson (which is slightly over a year ago). let me tell you...it is no fun being in extreme close distance with people that you don't know and it is hell if they are sweaty, has body odour, bad breath...eewww!!! but what to do? this is easiest, fastest and cheapest way for me to go to work since my working hours has became 9:00 - 6:00

upon alighting at East Nanjing Road Station (that is my office's station), i came to notice there are a group of people standing around the exit gate everyday. they should be aging around 60 years old, female and male. at first, i didn't pay attention to what they do...but slowly i realised they are actually there to collect newspaper from metro commuters. very thin copies of newspapers are given out free at stations and the commuters will normally finish reading it when they alight. these are the 'product' that these old folks aim for. they basically just stand there, mostly expressionless except for a man who smiles all the time. they don't force you to give; but when it's given they will nod their head in appreciation.

my guess is, they are probably too old to be any good in any other jobs but they do need some money be it to buy rice, veg, toiletries or whatever it is; or they might just be doing this to kill time? i don't know...

one fine day (after a spring cleaning at home), i noticed i have tons of 'Shanghai Talk', 'City Weekend' and 'Classified' in my drawers. the faces of the 'newspaper collection team' pops up in my mind and i decided all these will go to them as i've never gave them anything as i don't read those free metro papers.

i set off to work carrying about 10 copies of those magazines in my bag the next day. as i was walking out of the exit gate, i saw them standing in their usual spots. i've somehow walk towards the only woman in the group, took the magazines out of my bag and pass it to her without saying anything. her eyes pop open looking at the magazines in my hand and when she realised those are for her, she nodded her head non-stop until it was almost a bow. i noticed a slight smile on her face as i continue to walk towards the exit to my office in the midst of the rushing crowd.

to me, i think it's worthwhile of me carrying those magazines in my bag in exchange of the head-nodding and the slight smile from the newspaper woman...