Earth Hour 2010

Earth Hour came and went. This year I was out with the family so I guess you can say ‘we did switch our lights off’. There seems to be more awareness of the environment and this Earth Hour movement this year as the estate also got into the act with reminders to residents to switch off their lights and power and also the estate would do it’s part by switching off non-essential lighting during that time. Even our Church got into the act with dimming or switching off lights. More corporations I heard have pledged to participant in this year’s Earth Hour, I guess maybe the recession is still affecting some and cutting power bills would be a way to save cost and not to mention the environment. The family has done some part to help with recycling, newspapers are recycled, plastic, glass and tin cans are recycle and now I do a quick rinse of the cans before I bring them down to the recycling bin to remove any food waste.

City Square Mall

Visited City Square Mall over the weekend and I must say that it being touted as the first ECO-MALL really does live up to its name. Parking for one was rather interesting as it not only had parking for the handicap but also special lots for families and even hybrid and electric cars. Its a pretty spacious mall we were there for their official opening and so there was some events and shows going on. We did not stay long just had lunch at Uncle Sam’s Claypot and did grocery shopping. Don’t mind going back another day to check the other shops at the Mall.

Power Pram

Found out on Tuesday when we were at Sentosa that pushing a pram can be advantages. We took the monorail from vivocity to Sentosa and with the pram you get to bypass the queue and they will allow you to use the lift and you get priority in boarding.

After the run

Well it’s official I did the North East run in 1hr 55 minutes. Not a bad time considering it was my first run of the year and I was taking it slow. Actually the first run may not have been this as I had contemplated going for the Zoo Run in Feb but I figured running with Lion pee, Elephant dung and Monkey poo was just not for me.

So what’s next it’s the PAssion run at the East Coast with a distance of 25 km which I will definitely take it easy as there will be the Sundown run soon after and that would be something I was really looking forward to.

North East Run 2010

The first North East Run was held in Pasir Ris on 14th Mar 2010. It was also my first running event of the year. I had signed up for the 16km run which would wind its way around the Pasir Ris / Tampines area of Singapore. I paid $30.40 for the event since I was a PAssion card member. Which basically entitled me to a Saucony running vest, it was red in colour and a goodie bag, more on that later. Here is the vest with my running bib number, taken with the missus’ handphone.

I was actually a little sick before the run as I was down with a cold virus, but managed to recover somewhat to be able to run on that day. Since I had stopped running a while to recover from my cold I figured I would just take it easy with this run (it being the first for the year as well … had planned on 6 events this year) So I was all prepared for the run, did my usual pre-race day checks but this time I had an extra item with me. The missus as usual was the sceptic about all my runs. She ‘see me no up one’ and would joke if I could actually complete the run. 'Bring your handphone’ she would say, ‘don’t forget your bus pass to get back to the finishing line’ she would call after me, ‘remember to get ambulance sent you to Tan Tock Seng as it is the nearest to the house’ she would comment. Anyway with the longer runs and all that I decided to make myself an ID Tag. One of those types where you can put your name and emergency contact details on. I figured its useful and also you can use it in various sporting events as well. It looked cool as well. After consultation with the missus (since she is my fashion guru) I got the Orange coloured band, since the idea was to make it prominent.

So I set my alarm for 4am, woke up at that time, decided to just get another 5 minutes shut eye and low and behold it was 5am !!!! I was late. A mad rush to get up and change into the attire, had a quick drink and slice of bread, got into my running kit, had my anti-chaff cream on and it was off to Pasir Ris Park for the start of the run.

It started on time at 6.45am, it was an interesting run I would have to say with a few surprises. First surprise was that there were overhead bridges to clear, I saw that on the route map and thought that it would be interesting but as we had to clear 4 overhead bridges, it soon became clear that it felt like I was doing a vertical marathon as well. Second surprise was that they did not close some roads and we had to wait at the traffic lights for the police to stop traffic at intervals for us to cross that really was not very good as it disrupted the rhythm of the run. Third surprise was besides the overhead bridges, we had to cross over a couple of ‘flat’ bridges, those with no stairs just to get over the canal. One of these was actually a suspension bridge, which started bouncing and I think I was thrown like 50 metres into the air at one point. it was really funny running over that bridge, luckily the return route did not cross it, Did not think it was really safe running across it. if that bridge broke I think it would be bigger news than Jack Neo.

The first 5 km or so was really tough I was not really into it until about the 8 km mark when I felt comfortable and I believed I managed to get back in under 2 hours. I was really hungry by then and I wolfed down 5 banana's which I probably should not have :) Collected my goodie bag which had an Alive Mixed Nut Bar, Enervon tablets and Block Up! sun block cream plus some coupons and the Medal for completing the run and made my way back. I think I injured my groin area now with all that stair climbing.

IT Fair

I decided to pop down to the IT fair at Suntec today after my NorthEast 16km run in the morning (more on that another day, once I sort out some pics) I should have known better than to pop down on the last day of the fair.

It was early afternoon when I started to make my way to Suntec after Church and lunch. There was already a jam along Nicoll Highway and that is just to get to the parking area. In the end I decided to get out of the queue (it was really not moving) and headed for the Esplanade as the Marina area was already full (those signs that tell you which shopping centers have parking was really helpful) The Esplanade had less than 50 slots available but when I entered it looked a lot more. Anyway I parked and walked over to Suntec. Damn the crown was HUGE. It was so bad that just getting to the second floor, they had security marshals to regulate the flow up the escalators.

I decided to give the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors a miss since I was not really looking for any telco or cable TV stuff. and I headed to the 4th floor where the big companies had their booths. Since I was also kind of pressed for time I had a look at the map layout and headed for the Cannon booths (which were near the entrance – thank goodness) I needed to get ink for my printer and photo paper. You would not believe this but the paper I was looking for was SOLD OUT !! so were a few other types of paper. Since I was there I pop to the Cannon camera section and at the DSLR booth, a few models were OUT OF STOCK !! including the EOS 450D (base kit, they still had the zoom kit) and the new EOS 550D and a few other items as well were either out of stock or running low. I went back to the Cannon paper section and picked up some other photo paper and the ink. Then it was off to the 6th floor.

As the 6th floor mainly had smaller companies I had to walk around a bit. Finally found the stuff that I needed which was an external CD/DVD writer and a wireless mouse (a really cheapo looking thing) further down I got my Energizer Rechargeable batteries and they gave a free charger as well to go with it. Finally I swing by the games section but did not get any games this round. That was it a 2 hr tour of the IT Fair it was just too damn crowded to make me want to stay too long. I also notice a lot of those pamphlets thrown all over the floor it was never like this at the previous editions of the IT fair.

Babies Baptism

7th March 2010. Our babies, Nigel and Natalie had their Baptism. Here they are in their Baptism attire, a white attire which was given by my sister which had the words ‘Nigel was here first’ for Nigel and on Natalie it read ‘ Natalie arrived shortly after’.

It took some time for us to get both of them fed and changed. We did it quite early and soon we were off for the 4.30pm Baptism of Infant service to be held at the Church of the Risen Christ in Toa Payoh. There would be 8 babies in all to be baptised, so I guess you could say we made up 25% of the group.

It was a short service there was a reading which I did. The anointing of the Oil of Salvation, the Baptism itself, the lighting of the candles and the wearing of the white garments or in this case it was their bibs.

The event was attended by just family and the god-parents

A photo of the Priest who did the Baptism – Father Stanley. Daddy with Nigel Jacob Long and his god father Gordon. Mummy with Natalie Agnes Long and god mother Cecilia with their baptismal certificates. The kids are wearing the white bibs.

And here we are, babies and mummy and daddy.

Prep for Kids Bap

Finally submitted the forms for the kids to get their Baptism last week, very long overdue, the god parents had their briefing. The missus went with the God Father and God Mother to the briefing held last Thursday, I did not attend as I stayed home with the kids as they were throwing a little fit that day. But it seems I have been nominated to do the readings. Over the weekend it was a mad rush to get some new clothes (had to be white with easy access to the front for the anointing of the oil) for the kids as they seem to be out growing their clothes quite quickly.

Final 15th

28th Feb is the 15th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year and that’s when all the festivities are over. We had a simple sit down dinner at a local restaurant, simple dishes for us as a family to share.

It’s also the last day for Lion Dances to welcome the new year but I notice this year it seems there were more Dragon Dances than Lion Dances. I saw a couple of Dragon Dances which I don’t normally see during the festive season.

Shops are also clearing their stock especially for ‘Yu Sheng’ the raw fish with salad which is tossed to bring good luck and prosperity. My count this year for ‘Yu Sheng’ is 4.

I think after 15 days of feasting, I’ve gain a couple of kilos which I now need to work off.