Vouchers

 

Ever seen what $10,000 in $10 vouchers look like ? Well here it is :-

Actually it does not seem that much just 1000 pieces. It was a gift from my bog boss who donated the amount to the team and we all shared in it. We could select from Takashimaya, NTUC or Capita Land Vouchers. It was a nice early Christmas Present for the team.

An awful incident happen at Whampoa Market recently me and the missus was having breakfast there and there was man who was slumped on a table some people tried to help him. The ambulance was called, a biker medic or whatever those paramedics on a bike are called arrived first, started CPR on the man, before the ambulance came, they tried to stabalis him I think before they took him away in the ambulance. quite tragic. I hope the guy is ok but it really looked serious.

What A Week !!!!!

Well it has really been a very very hectic pass week. It started with me and the missus finally finding a new dinning room set for the 6 or 7 year old dinning table and chairs, the legs were a little wobbly and you had to screw in the screws once in a while but it's still in good condition especially the glass table. Delivery was in 3 weeks and we needed to get rid of our current set of furniture. The missus called the Salvation Army and yes they do take away used furniture as long as it's in a reasonable condition. They came mid week and took away our dinning set they were quite professional according to the missus, took everything away and even had a receipt and thanked her from the Salvation Army. So I guess if anyone wants to dispose of bulk used items you could always call the Salvation Army and they can collect the items. Anyway's it's for a good cause.

We had dinner with some friends also during the week, we were at this teochew restaurant somewhere around the Paya Lebar area I think, lovely dinner but I forgot the name of the place ha ha  ..... it was just after the announcement of the $2 COE prices and there was a fair number of people looking at buying cars.

My car also got bumped by a Taxi. Here I am waiting at a junction for the car in front to move and everyone was stationary and for some unknown reason the Taxi behind decides to 'kiss' my backside. I could feel the bump. Got out of the car to inspect the damage but surprisingly there was none, Apart for some scratches on the bumper of the Taxi, everything else looks fine, I think due to the height of my CRV, the taxi may have hit under. Everything seems ok so far for the past few days. Was really worried that there would be a mess with the accident but all looks good.

A funny incident happened the other day while I was driving the missus around, we drove pass an transvestite or 'ah-qua' and the missus commented that he/she looked good and that he/she even had better hari than hers. We had a good laugh about that.

I also went for my Eye check up at the place I did my Lasik. Finally after waiting 6 months, the doctor finally said that my eyes are ready for the enhancement. IT's got astic of about 125 still and hopefully the doctor will correct this. Looks like I have to go under the knife again.

Singapore Vertical Marathon 2008

Over the weekend I participated in the Singapore Vertical Marathon. As I had a complimentary hotel stay at the Fairmont, me and the missus decided to check in over the weekend, I'll be able to get up a little later the next day then since Swissotel is just next door. We got an extra room for the nieces and nephews and aunt. Since it was the nephew's birthday as well we have dinner at Prego's the Italian Restaurant. The food was great dessert was good and the staff at Prego even gave us a free cake with a candle to celebrate the Birthday.

A Complimentary Birthday Cake from Prego's

Since there was time still and we were here at Raffles City, did some shopping, was at Robinsons and saw a nice shirt, found my size and the sales lady asked if it's my Birthday, we told her, no just buying as a Christmas present. The next thing you know she says she'll add a tie to go with the shirt at no extra cost. Well I'm not sure if every shirt comes with a tie or not but it was a nice surprise Actually we were just there to collect Christmas Wrappers.

Finally back to the hotel room to rest up for the night, set my alarm as well as the hotel clock alarm and lucky thing I did that as for some reason my watch alarm did not go off and I was woken the next morning by the hotel clock alarm. I got up changed and dressed in my running attire and headed down to the Swissotel.

 

The Swissotel The Stamford Singapore Vertical Marathon has been a yearly event since 1987, this year they had over 1500 participants their largest number to date. Participants are divided into age groups and there is an Open category where you get to compete for a place to the USA to compete in their own vertical run. It's a run up the Swissotel which is the tallest Hotel in Asia. It's a race up 73 floors and all 1336 steps to the top of the building.

All participants had to register on the day to collect our timing chip and race number tag. There was already a queue when I was there. Joined in and got my tag and chip, tied that on and did some warms ups. Everyone was there. The oldest participant was 81 and the youngest was 16, even spiderman was there, here he is Spiderman and Friends.

Incidentally Spiderman is over 50 and still very lively, everyone wanted a photo with him. The race started at around 8am, the participants were sent off depending on the age group and in waves of 6 people each time. There was an interval of 30secs to 1 min between each wave.

When my age group came it was almost 9am. I happen to be standing in one of the early details and was off at around 9am. The run took us into the Swissotel stair well. It's not a straight ascend up, halfway through or almost 2/3 through we had to switch to another stair well and you go up in a different direction. It was really gruelling, by the 10th floor everyone was walking in my detail, I was just counting down the floors, from 10th to 20th to 25th to 50th to 60 to 68th to 70th and finally 72nd, one more last flight of winding stairs and I reached the top.

It really was a relief to reach the top, almost fell down when you are climbing up the stairs and then suddenly you run straight the muscles were geared for climb, almost lost my balance there. Well I am so glad I reached teh top, my timing was not the most fantastic but I managed to do it within 20 mins. A good start. The view was really good only thing was it was really sunny and the sun was getting in my eyes, No wI understood why some people wore sunglasses, I was thinking at first why they would do that when you were running INSIDE the building ! Guess they have done it before.

Some views from the top.

 

 

After the climb we got to stay on the roof for a while to cool down catch our breath and get our medals and drinks before heading down, more stairs to climb down to the Equinox where we took the lift back down.

The only thing that spoilt the whole event was there was some printing glitch for the certificate printing and in the end somehow a range of number beginning with 31xx were not printed. I was in that range of numbers. In the end had to wait like 3 hrs before they finally found what happen and had to reprint again.

So would I do it again next year ..... hhhmmmmm..... maybe :)

Christmas comes early

It's that time of year again, you know it's here once you see Christmas decorations being put up at the Malls and you start getting brochures for all sorts of promotions in the mail both surface and electronic :) It'll be a quiet event this year for the family, maybe just a small scale down dinner as it's still the mourning phase for my father-in-law. Minimal Chirstmas Shopping to do ha ha ... I'm currently also preparing for this weekends Vertical Marathon up Swissotel, 73 floors of it. I injured my foot the other day but I think it's recovered sufficiently for me to do some stair climbing. I figured the last timing I toold was like 6 minutes for about 30 floors, the time incidentally is what the top runners would be needing to scale the entire 73 floors and I am only half way up !! I think I should be able to make it up there within 20 minutes .... I hope ..... target time for me. I've been askign the missus if she wanted to join me but she keeps saying she'll rather take the elevator up. Tried to get her to join the New Paper Big Walk but she felt it was too hot to walk around. Anyways let's see how this climb goes and hopefully I get to the top.

Ice Kachang

I've been running up stairs the last week -- well actually only 3 times so far, as I signed myself up for the Vertical Marathon run up Westin all 73 floors of it, with 1300+ steps. So far I've managed something like 600+ steps and boy was it tough. Just hope the knees hold out to the end. I think it's cool to get up to the top of Westin.

I collected my goodie bag today for the run which would be held next week. They gave everything except the race chip (to record your time) and the bib number which they said will be given out on race day. After that we had dinner at Raffles and ordered the Ice Kachang for dessert. Now the thing about Ice Kachang for me and the missus is that we don't eat the Kachang -- don't ask how then it's Ice Kachang -- we both don't like the Kachang so we either eat it still or in most cases when we order Ice Kachang we take out or leave behind the Kachang. Here's what's left fo teh bowl after we've gone through it.

New Shoes

Recently bought my new pair of running shoes. Very similar to my previous pair, will need to break them in. A light pair of Nike Free.

Tampopo

Recently me and the missus had dinner at this Japanese Restaurant called Tampopo at Liang Court. It had this really cool conveyor belt system where you could order your sushi and it will be delivered to you direct from the conveyor belt to your table.

I thought the contraption was really cool when it gets to your table it will push the sushi out onto your table from the conveyor belt, so the sushi does not just go round and round on the belt.

The place was famous for it's Black Pig noodle which basically is pork from a blank pig !! It was not too bad, something unique but it does not look that.

 

Halloween

31st October is Halloween. It's not really a festival celebrated in these parts but my estate decided to have party. I guess it's one of the occasions where the kids get to wear a costume. There was a best dress contest, spooky party games and they even went treat or tricking around the homes. It's a little different I guess in a high rise. The organisers even decorated the lifts with spooky dim lights, 'cobwebs' and even a spider or two.

The lift which was decorated I think it's suppose to turn the lift into a cave.

'Cobwebs' and you can just make out the 'spider' on the web.