DUGONG DOWN UNDER AGAIN

Sydney Australia -> that's where I'm holed up this week. This time round, I brought my girls along with me to the land down under. It was nice to get away from the everyday heat for a week but boy was it cold when we landed on Tuesday morning -> 10degrees, even the blubber around my waist was shivering.

Thought it would be nice to spend some time with my girls especially when it's Li-Anne's birthday this weekend and also, we took a trip during "Terelle's 2nd Trimester" so as an impartial father, I have to do the same for "Thane's 2nd Trimester" :)

Met up with Jason (the Sydney 'Beng') and Miranda last night for dinner, we had amazing stuff at the Bungalow8 restaurant down by the King Street Wharf.

Check this out -> AUD$21 for all-you-can-eat mussels the WHOLE NIGHT! Mr Gung-Ho = me was aiming to devour 4-to-5 pots at least......the first green curry pot was excellent...succullent, fat mussels....second pot was laksa flavor......same succullent fat mussels as well. By then I was up to my neck in mussel meat, I must have had a years supply, there was no way on earth I could have stuck my fork into another one. Must be an Asian thing but I was just ready to down a packet of instant noodle at that stage!!

Marathon Dugong Gaining Ground

July 22nd 2007 : the first time I've ever voluntarily attended a running event -> in fact paid $20 to subject myself to 10km of torturous running on a beautiful Sunday morning. Thats the MIZUNO Wave Run. It was my virgin attempt at a long distance running event and I'd say I came out none the worse.

It wasnt' smooth sailing the entire 1+ hour, especially around the 7km mark when I was ovetaken by a huge lady dressed in a skin tight sweatsuit. I didn't let her get too far ahead before my pride took over and I almost blew my lungs out in the event. The cool weather from the early morning rain helped a hell lot....and to think that an hour before the run, Daniel the "lung-less man" who is my good-running buddy, was contemplating not turning up. Only the lure of the goodie bag convinced him to make the trip down to Bedok Reservoir with me....nah...I'm kidding, he's the well-seasoned runner whereas I'm only the wannabe Kenyan runner.

Now on hindsight, it was rather pleasant and strangely addictive...i may be weird but at age 31, I've somehow found a liking for running. Oh well, I've set a target to do the 21km run in December this year....a couple more 10-12km runs between now and then, some dark tanning lotion should be enough to make me "that Kenyan runner" who will finish on the podium in December!

Oh, I rewarded myself with a brand new pair of Asics trainers - I'm telling you, these are the best built running shoes on this planet...ok i'm a little bias but you've really gotta try out one of these babies.

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY SINGAPORE!

Ok i'm back and this time hopefully, I'll be staying for a while....staying referring to more consistent postings on my blog.

What better way to unofficially re-start my blog but to write about National Day. Ok, don't slam me for sounding patriotic but I like National Day, more so this year cause we got tickets to the Parade Preview last week. Well, in previous years, I just really liked the public holiday. But it was really nice that this year, Terelle attended her very first National Day Parade, and so did daddy.

It was great, honestly...it was close to amazing. Giant floating stage, military display with planes, boats etc...the mass participation, the remote control kites...it was all just great. But nothing really beats the last part of the parade when the everyone was singing the national anthem (well maybe 75% of them were lip synching) but it's the thought that counts. It's at that point when the full sense of pride courses through your body and sends that tingling feeling all the way up to your head. And for the record, I sang through every one of those national day songs at the end (the retro ones which were written in the early 90s -> those were the best!!)

I love this country -> not so much for the horrible taxi drivers, kiasu practices, inconsiderate people who never gives up their seats on the MRT to my pregnant wife...but I make it a personal choice to see beyond these things.

For an unnatural Singaporean (I wasn't born here), I appreciate every blessing that this country provides for me and my family. It certainly beats the rampant murders, rapes, armed robberies, corruption and biased-ness in my 'home' country.

Many things to be thankful for, among them, the efficiency of this country, the fair-ness in opportunity for everyone and most importantly, I can go to work everyday, knowing that my wife and children are safe wherever they are and in watever they are doing.

I love this country -> enough to give 2.5 years of my life to the military service when I was 18 and another 2 weeks every year in reservist training since I was 21.

Happy Birthday Singapore -> there probably isn't another country in this world where I would want to raise my children.

However, retirement is another story.............................Switzerland, here I come!

One Minute Dugong Update

OK, i've not been updating my blog...now I can start listing the gazillion reasons why but I'll spend the time giving a ONE MINUTE DUGONG UPDATE..now isn't that better?

1) I'm going to be a DADDY again!! When you're asking? My little dugong is due end-December, I'm hoping it'll be around Christmas but it's more likely to be mid-December but anyhow, Li-Anne and I are both looking forward to completing our family. Terelle will have a nice little playmate - at this point, we're a little concerned she'll be all jealous over the little baby but we'll just have to deal with it when it happens. Oh, we're not sure if it's boy or girl yet. Keep you all posted.

2) A new addition to our family this month -> Yani our Indonesian maid. She's only been with us for 2 weeks and i'm feeling super-duper pampered already. No more washing dishes, milk bottles, laundry, sweeping and mopping the floor, messy toys strewn all over...sigh...will I ever let her leave us...HELL NO!!

3) Training for my 1st marathon this year (2007) is gaining grounds. I've signed up to take part in the 10KM Mizuno run on 22nd July at Bedok Reservoir, so that will be my first step towards completing the marathon, hopefully by end this year. Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to complete another maybe 4 more before I try for the marathon proper. Don't want to end up dragging my semi-limp carcass across the finishing line.

OK, that's about it for the 1-minute update. I'll deliberate more on each item in my next posts...please post whatever questions you have and i'll answer them (if you're boliao enuff).

Wet slippery Dugong kiss for all! MUAKZ!

Dugong Stranded in the High Seas

Ok, safely back from Bangalore in one piece. Had a good working session with the team there, and as usual, I do walk out of India feeling that the team has a good handle on things. May be a 'India' thing but the camaraderie within the team is just amazing. Sometimes wish some of that energy and can-do attitude can rub off on to my own species.

Indian food in India -> breathtaking.....it's so totally different from those we get in Singapore, might be the atmosphere but whether north, south, west....it's just as good. Not good to stay beyond a week in India, I'll just be putting on the kilos....after the appetizers, I'm already filled up to my neck in excellent tandoori meat.

The year has just started but it already feels like I'm stranded on an off-shore island with an immense task on hand for the year - make the 500km trip back to mainland. Granted I have a rubber dinghy with a pair of oars at the start of the year, the task shouldn't be that bad...I mean i'd make it eventually, just a matter of time. Well, I just realised I've lost my pair of oars last week after paddling furiously for 100m. And to top it all off, I just found out that my stash of chocolate bars in my back pocket (which was suppose to sustain me for the journey) is rotten.

So here I am, staring at the most ardous journey in my career so far, with no oars and no chocolate bars. Chinese New Year just can't come soon enuff...

Dugong in need of a holiday..

4th week of January - already in need of an extended break.....am so looking forward to the Chinese New Year break....visiting with family and frens, mahjong, goodies and more goodies..

Was watching the semi-finals of the ASEAN CHAMPIONSHIPs on the gym's TV on Tuesday...have to admit it did stir up some minor excitement in me while I was doing my shoulder presses...Malaysia 1 - Singapore 1.....not that I was surprised with the scoreline...but I'm really hoping Singapore makes it to the finals like last year, so we can re-live the Kallang ROAR for one last time before the National Stadium is torn down. I'm not sure who I'd rather have in the Finals facing Singapore...Thailand seems to be the more deserving team based on skill and overall performance but the PLAY-ACTING which that team dished out against Vietnam, it sure ranks way up there with some of the best we've seen each week in the English, Italian and Spanish leagues.

Oh well, whoever get's in, I'm 95% sure I'll be there in Kallang (hopefully I can get tickets)......would love to bring Terelle there to experience it.....this is how soccer should be watched....90+ minutes of live action, screaming fans all around with half-filled mouths of lukewarm currypuffs and keropok!!

DUGONG BACK HOME

Finally, after x2 16hours plane rides and 3 days of -2degrees weather, I'm back in 'real' sunny Singapore. It was by far the most mentally tiring and at-times, physically tiring business trip I have ever been on.

Cancelled flights due to bad weather, more cancelled flights due to airport closures, long hours walking around the airport terminals trying to get alternative flights, getting desperate enough to consider making 5hour long drives on ice-covered mountainous roads just to get to SAN ANTONIO. You name it, we thought about it.

Well, it all turned out well in the end...in fact very well. The entire meeting went on smoothly - and as I would have expected, you walk out of these annual kick-off meetings feeling totally recharged, energised and ready to conquer everything that stands in your way. Well, maybe it's just a handfull of us who feels that way, but what the heck. The best thing was to put faces to names of the great people you've been working with the past year over email and tele-conferences.

Thinking back, it was quite nice actually getting stuck in LA for over a day with the rest of my team. Like I said to them that morning, misery loves company. It would certainly have been different if we were stuck there alone but with 7 miserable souls in there together, it was quite nice spending the time cracking occasional silly jokes, passing each other pathetic looks and feeling sorry for one another.

Oh well, I'm back now in hot humid Singapore.....had wanted to just dash off the plane to get back into the heat but then i got sick of the heat after just an hour.

It's hot India next week, so there will be plenty of opportunities to bake.

Watch that Aerosol Spray!

After a tiring 15+ hour plane ride across the Pacific Ocean, we landed in sunny California......not....rather it was chilly 5degrees Los Angeles Airport which greeted us. What transpired after that was much much worse...we found out that all connecting flights to San Antonio has been cancelled for the day....due to the torrid weather out there this week...-2degrees and snowing. Total unpredictable weather for the state of Texas and hence the entire state is just not prepared for this kind of weather, unlike snow cities like Milwaukee or Chicago.

Airport's been closed and roads have also been closed.

That's the United Airlines counter we spent some hours trying to find us an alternate way into S.A

In the end, we even got our tickets changed from LA into Dallas (1am flight - 4 hours) and then from there we would attempt to drive into S.A which is another 5 hours drive. Madness but we were desperate. At the very end, after all the endless phone calls, we wound up cancelling all those elaborate plans and decided to put up in LA for the night. (Advice from above)
So off we trotted to the shuttle bus stop to take us to the nearby hotel, hoping the weather would clear up tomorrow, but in any case, we've got tickets into S.A on Thursday, but our flight out and home is on Friday evening - which makes me wonder why we're going to S.A in the first place. Sigh....it would still be nice to meet a couple of folks there.

That's some strange looking restaurant (I think) next to the LAX control tower. Nothing much to do during the "8 hours" we spent in the airport figuring out whats the best and smartest move.

Moral of the story, global warming is no joke...watch that aerosol spray....

"Land of the Free...and mega-size French Fries"

..I'm leaving....on a jetplane....don't know when I'll be back again (actually it's only 5 days)...

Will depart for the shores of the United States today....Texas to be exact....won't be seeing my two girls for the next couple of days...simply crushing to a man's spirit...

Here's a picture of me, with my freshly "lawned" scalp to help them think of me when I'm battling the cold in San Antonio!
Double Muakz!!

How Wonderful the GOD we have...

He has never failed to amaze me, with the wondrous ways He chooses to work. Just found out over the last 2 months, my mum has been attending church service every sunday and she's occasionally been able to coax my dad to go with her to visit the little church just outside their house.

Spent some time reflecting upon this fact yesterday and it occured to me that since I've been a Christian in Year 2000, it's been ingrained in me that I'm the first-generation Christian in the family and the salvation of my entire family falls upon my shoulder. I mean it makes perfect sense since I'm the only Christian in the family and it's up to me to spread the faith. Everyone knows the mechanics of that...but I guess the thing we've failed to realise is what God is trying to tell us right now...."Salvation is not up to us...it's always up to Him"....

The more I think about it, the more incredible this gets....it's been almost 7 years now that I've been a Christian...stagnant is probably the best word to desribe my spiritual life at this present moment...but yet, despite all that, God has miraculous led my parents to church...which was something I've never succeeded in the past (besides the rare occassions I've invited them to church to watch my drama and church musical). I've even been told by my mum that the fellow Christian brothers and sisters in that church are always so warm and welcoming towards my parents.

There really is no better way to usher in the new year, but to receive reaffirmation from God that He is in control in All ways and in everything. A timely reminder to me as well to go back to Church regularly and more important, renew and strengthen my relationship with Him. I feel so blessed to know that He's watching over my parents and my family. What a wondrous God we serve.....

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS 2007

Here's the full list of my resolutions - and the reason I'm publishing them here is so that I can be held accountable for it, when I review the list at the end of the year. Hence, my decision to keep the list short...kinda counter-productive to make a long list and end up not keeping them all.

1) Read at least 12 books => average of 1 per month
2) Run my first half-marathon (21 km)
3) Keep to my workout schedule (in order to meet resolution (2))
4) Pass my IPPT (yes......it's a sad fact but it's true)
5) Achieve my work-targets (too long to list them out here-but they are achievable)

Didn't take me too long to work out this list, but took me slightly longer to think up of more items to add to the list. At least I have 5 items which i'm 100% committed to achieve this year. Oh well, publish first...think later...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Here's wishing everyone a fantabulous NEW YEAR ahead and to get the ball-rolling, my first resolution this year (not that I do it every year) is to post at least one entry here in me blog every week....that will mean at least 52 entries in 2007 and if I complete all of that in January, I don't have to blog the rest of the months...nah...just kidding...

Stay tuned to see the rest of my resolutions.....