A day in the life of...

So this is the vacation part of the trip. The weekend right after CES, I felt I had better make it up to Weeguan for dragging her around on my business and convention trip, so I dragged her on a long road trip out thru the desert to the Grand Canyon. Two speeding tickets later, we found ourselves in the pitch dark and very cold South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.

Decided to check into the nicest log cabin place we found and settled in for dinner...and lo and behold bumped into Sim Wong Hoo (Chairman, Creative Technologies) and his team. He was holding court, briefing them on the hike they would undertake the next morning...sounded like an Army field camp.

Anyways, beautiful and breathtaking scenery with a touch of snow and without the summer crowds. During the 2 days there, we bumped into family of deers, and a wolf by the road, watching us, as we watched it. Enjoy!

Las Vegas - Nobu

2008-01-26T20:48:00.000-08:00

So here I am again in Las Vegas. This time, Weeguan is able to join me, since its gonna be a month long trip (and I owe her a year end vacation...which was supposed to be in Mexico to continue here Spanish education...).

Some notable changes this year: The infamous Porn Show this year is no longer at the Venetian...intead the awards night is at the MGM, and it no longer coincides with CES, where silicon and silicone valley mix and mingle. I still remember 2006 when we had our booth at the Venetian and you see each day, very lost looking blondes with oversized mamaries stumbling (literally, since they are so top heavy) into the zoo that is CES, and for once, they are not the exhibit. Ok, I stop here, please don't flag me for adult content!

LV has been collecting a bunch of Michelin blessed restaurants that I have been meaning to try, but it would be a very loser situation if I went with my copy of Newsweek and ate alone.

But alas, I was too busy to organize any gourmet meal, but we managed to try out Nobu (this is the Las Vegas branch of the famous New York one owned by Robert de Niro, helmed by Nobu Matsuhisa and Weeguan did try a sandwich from 'Wichcraft. (by Tom Colicchio of Top Chef reality TV fame)

The verdict on Nobu?
Sushi: overpriced for the amount of protein you get on rice. I have had bigger and fresher stuff in Tokyo (ok, so I was eating at the source; on top of the Tsukiji Wholesale market, whereas the maguro in Vegas had to take a long flight out to the desert...)
Tempura: Sloppy, compared to the Tenshin, at Regent Singapore. We tried the Uni Tempura (USD$16 a piece!). I must say the SGD$25 one at Tenshin is about 5 times better.
Their signature dishes are what you should go for. They indeed do have the gourmet touch.
(pix coming up.)
Fell in love with everything ponzu. The Sake collection is of course, very elaborate.

Chris Botti at Yoshi's San Francisco

2008-01-26T01:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, its the lst night of my 1mth US trip. Decided to treat ourselves to some good jazz.

Scored tix to watch Botti's Italia tour at the famous Yoshi's. Decided to be groupies and got him to sign our CD and take a picture. Maybe one day Botti can sell that pix when i become famous :-p

The next picture here is me with Chris' drummer, Billy Kilson. (http://www.billykilson.com/).
Watch this guy, he is going to be big. His control, dexterity and showmanship is astounding, and I have seen quite many drummers live in my time. He is (of course) a Berklee Alum.

Amsterdam...

2007-12-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

So here I am again in Amsterdam. What can I say, Nokia really knows how to pamper their people. The food was excellent as usual, and the program very informative.

I thought the talk by Chris Anderson was interesting...free. Harks back to the days of the first dotcom...everything free, figure out how to monetize later. But this time, the message is, 99% free, just monetize 1%. Easier said than done. Chris consults and did not have to run a company and feed a hundred hungry engineers! :-) But I think I get it... I think.

Enjoy some pictures of the famed city. I read somewhere that they were going to outlaw the "coffee shops" but they are still everywhere. No magic mushrooms for me! I am Singaporean!

Singapore International Marathon

2007-12-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

So finally, the once a year marathon event in Singapore.
I have missed this race the last few years as it usually coincides with Nokia World in Amsterdam, and last year, I had the privilege to be invited on one of the panels.

So this year, I managed to sign up and actually race.
However, I did not get to train at all, so decided I will just do the half marathon instead of the full. I will only do the full marathon if I get to train and better my timing, or else, I really have nothing to prove to myself...I have completed quite a few marathons and my legs aren't gonna appreciate it if I wasted it on just completion.

As my life would have it, I shifted home the week prior and had to fly off to Amsterdam the day after the race, so as usual, did not get to prepare for this race.

Every night the week before, I had some official function to attend (read: alcohol and good food) and then had to unpack those 60boxes till 2am every night...

so come Saturday, I slept at 2am, woke up at 5:45 am and drove to Marina Square. I thought the race flag off was 6:30, but instead its 6:15...so I was pretty late. I started running from the Marina Mall carpark and did not have time to eat, drink or stretch...but I thought, oh hell, its gonna be 21K, my legs will have loads of time to "warm up". At one point at 2km, I thought I should just go home and sleep...I am so tired, having had 4hrs sleep most nights and only 3 the night before. but ACE paid for my race, so I should at least turn up and finish what I started...so I plodded along, still holding my car keys in my palms...

As I started from behind, I had to fight the 21K crowd of sunday joggers and break through the mass of sweaty bodies. At some point the route was so narrow I had to walk!

But lo and behold, I am surprised that I did 2:09...my new personal best. Damn, I should have just pushed ahead and break the 2hr limit. Ok, next year's goal.

I am not proud that I am so ill prepared for the race. I think having done the Half Ironman earlier in Sept helped...my legs must have still remembered the experience. Its dangerous, I could have snapped a ligament as my legs were cold and tight and have not ran for perhaps 3-4wks before the 21K endeavour. But am happy to report that I got on the plane the next day to Amsterdam, had extremely full schedules and legs were ay-okay. In fact, I went over to Niven to paint the study room right after the race and was in the new flat drilling, knocking and packing the rest of the day.

MoMA, New York City, NY

2007-09-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

So I have a weekend in New York. I woke up real early, met up with Kelvin, who is studying in from Columbia Uni. for an early run (gosh, he has a career fair thingy in campus at 9am! and he is two years from graduation! Get a life dude!). Anyways, met at 7am, and we ran south along Riverside Park from the Upper West Side. Beautiful morning, along the hudson, with Jersey across and NY on our left.

I then decided that since I am up so early (very rare!) I shall make the most of today. So on the recommendation of George, decided to check out the Richard Serra exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Really, I am no big art freak...I know my Dali's from my Kandinskys and could probably recognise a few Gustav Klimpts and Picassos. In fact, I am a huge Dali fan (as can be evidenced by the poster in my Pink Office)...and am proud to have visited almost ALL of the important Dali venues around the world: St. Petersburg, FL (1997) as a starving backpacking fresh graduate in my first trip to the USA; Port Lligat (fishing village where Dali was born and grew up), Figeuras (Teatro Dali, one his largest collection), Cadaques, Gala's Castle, all in Spain (1998, again on a backpacking trip with WeeGuan) and several exhibitions in London, Paris and even one in Singapore. So I was looking forward to seeing the "Persistence memory" at the MoMA (but its on loan to London at the time...) drat.

Anyways, some of these minimalist art is really...what can I say? ...err...dis-mini-mal?
Does this look like a IKEA Lack shelf in a new pink shade to you? :-)

Anyways, enjoy some of the pix here. There is a dark one for cat lovers, of which there are quite a few in muvee i know :-)

Oh! And I had a wonderful prix fixe lunch ($27) very good value, considering this is New York, where a bagel with chess and lox and coffee can set u back $15.

Reminds me of the wonderful degustacion lunch weeguan bought me at the amazing Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim in Bilbao earlier this year in Feb...(but that was 65euros...quite another ballgame!) but somehow enjoying a good gourmet meal amidst art is almost too bourgeoisie, high brow, almost chi chi, but hey, its new york! I can live with that! (okay...occasionally, but I still miss my wanton mee with kopi si)

A Sat night in NY is not complete without good live Jazz, so I headed to Cleopatra's Needle, a nice Zagat rated restaurant near my hotel on the upper west side where there is also live jazz at no cover. Had a simple but tasty pasta pomodoro and watched a Japanese New Yorker belt out wicked trumpet playin'...

Chicago

2007-09-10T10:29:00.001-07:00

So last week was my first visit to Chicago. I have been to the US so many times, and heard Route66 a million times, but somehow, my travels have never brought to me to the Windy City. I was naturally excited, this being one of the big Jazz city of the world. I had only one night really, so I checked online and shortlisted two venues: Birdland and The Back Room. But due to fatigue, I only left the room at 9pm so only did the Back Room. There was an okay band doing funky, Anita Baker style stuff. The keyboardist was phenomenal though...and quite a sight to behold. He had short arms, pudgy fingers and was so obesed, if he grew any bigger, he will not be able to reach the keyboards with his hands! The keyboards were just at the edge of his girth. I got a video of it, let me get it up somewhere so I can post it here. Overall great music, short intro to Chicago. Hope to be back soon!

2007-09-06T00:42:00.000-07:00

Some of you asked about my race, so I thought I will share with you my race diary, its something I write to remember key races I do. I hope it will motivate some of you to take up triathlon, or in general, push yourself. Having done the Ironman 7 years and 7kgs ago, I had no doubt I could complete the Ironman 703 (half distance). Doing an ironman really gives u a very different perspective...it makes almost any challenge surmountable. I wanted to do this race to prove to myself that I can still do it despite my heavier workload, and its also a great goal to go out and exercise a little and replenish that energy bank for the next phase of growth of the company.

AVIVA Ironman703, Sunday 2Sept 2007

Trivia: The Ironman first started in 1978 in Hawaii, when some athletes debated who is fitter. A swimmer or a cyclist or a marathoner. One of them then decided to create a race to end that debate, do all three in succession: The Waikiki Rough water swim (3.8k), The Round-Oahu Bike race (originally a 2day event, 180km) and the Honolulu Marathon (42km run). The world's first Ironman was hence created.

Recently, the Ironman70.3 format was created, this is half the total distance (70.3Miles): Swim 1.9k, Cycle 90k, Run 21k. Asia's first ever Ironman703 occured last Sunday here in sunny, humid Singaporem right smack in the city.

1100 athletes signed up, 600 from Singapore. My wave (35-39 age group) started at 7:35am...the sea off Bedok Jetty was quite choppy, it was a pretty chilly morning and the winds were up.
As if to remind us of the enormity of this endeavour, a guy from the wave before us raised his hands to signal that he is in trouble only 150m away from the beach just before my wave was to start...all of us watched with bated breathe as he is pulled out of the water. At 7:35am sharp, Mr. Teo Ser Luck (Perm Sec, Ironman Triathlete and Friend) flagged us off, and over 200 of us headed into the water. As the course was a rectangle, heading east wards, I could not see the buoy at all as the sun was just rising from Changi...I just made sure I swam together with the crowd, hoping I don't get kicked or have my goggles swiped out or swim off course too much.

Other than getting waves crashing into my face as I attempted to breath, and hence taking in seawater in my nostrils, the swim was pretty uneventful for me. I completed the 1.9k swim in just about 50mins, ran the 250m to the bike transition area and got dressed for the 90k bike leg, which will see us ride into the city via the ECP.

Hitting the ECP at Fort Road, we all got the first taste of the infamous bridge climb. Laboring up the benjamin sheares bridge at just over 15-17kph, we were to do that for 4 more loops, climbing the Sheares bridge a total of 4 times. Along the way, I saw many cyclists give up...some were walking their bikes up the bridge, some crashed whilst coming down at high speed at the Rochor Exit, others had flat tyres and were frantically fixing it along the road shoulder. It was quite a surreal sight...as I cycled passed the Marina Sands Casino project (its a crane farm!), the beautiful Shenton Skyline, the Esplanade and the floating platform, where the finish line was...the ever elusive finish line, and then cars zooming by, and a bunch of cyclist in swimsuits crawling up the bridge.

Biking has always been my strongest leg, I was doing 33-35km on the flats and hitting a top speed of over 50kph on some downhill stretches. It was exhilarating as I passed some young lads in some pretty fierce looking bikes with 10speeds (I was riding my pretty sexy looking 17yr old Zipp with 8 speed...its so old, they don't make'em anymore!). I kept to my nutrition plan of about 400 calories per hour, thats roughly a few good swigs at my protein drink, and one pack of PowerGel (with double caffeine to kill the pain and help burn fats...of which I have a good store of! :-) Along the way, I spotted Reez on top of the Rochor Bridge near Suntec City :-) That was a nice surprise!

I completed the 90k bike leg in 2:51min, just under the 3hr target I had set. (averaging 31kph). The next transition was very smooth, the logistics were very well planned. A volunteer took over the bike from me to be racked, and passed me my Run Bag, which we had checked in the day before. I changed into my running shoes, swapped the cycling helmet for my running cap and away I went.

Usually, when u get off the bike and try to run, u end up running like a duck, and I usually develop massive cramps in my quads. However, today was different. Somehow, I found a spring in my step, and headed out for the run. The weather was really hot at this point, sun overhead, it was just before noon. The run route was two loops of 10.5k around Elizabeth Park, Marina Bay, Kallang River, National Stadium, Nicoll Highway and back to the Floating Platform and was mostly shaded.

At about the 8km point, whilst trying to overtake another runner along a narrow pavement, I tripped over a root and, combined with my jello legs, I fell hard face down. My knees were badly scrapped and my right arm, which got caught under my body as I fell, was all scratched up. I quickly stood up, checked that I had not torn any ligaments or broken any bones and carried on with the run. Just ahead was a medical post. As I was way ahead of my target of 7hrs (at this point, I was averaging 6.5mins per km, which meant I will have completed the 21k in about 2:16), I decided to go in and get my wounds dressed. The young First Aiders were quite hopeless. They took forever to give me a lousy bandage, and did not have enough water to wash the wounds. I figured I wasted about 10mins in the tent.

I continued running. A triathlete's motto is "Finish what you started". I was in considerable pain anyways, so it really didn't make a difference. At 13km, I almost tripped again as the bandage was falling off and almost tripped me. I yanked it out, and left my wound exposed and continued running. In fact, I was cursing that my very expensive ($16) high tech double layer anti-blister white socks which I bought for this race will be irreparably stained with the blood that is flowing down my shin like a tapped rubber tree. I doubled my nutrition and had a PowerGel every 30mins and I chose the 4X sodium version, to ensure the cramps don't develop and my lactic acid buildup in my legs had time to drain. I drank at almost every water station to stay over-hydrated, and had some flat Coke, which gave me a sugar rush, and the caffeine numbs the pain. At about 18km, I started to feel the cramps coming. It first developed in my left toes...I had to step on my feet firmly to straighten out my toes, so they don't curl up and freeze in massive cramps, which I knew will spread to my calves and quads. I started running with smaller strides and limited range of motion...near the end, I spotted Andrew, Jade and her parents at the Lim Bo Seng Memorial along Elizebeth Park, so I perked up my chin, and pushed forward. In the last 1km, I opened up my stride and zoomed straight for the finish line. As I entered the platform, I could hear the MC calling out my number and name. That felt good. I passed the Finish Line at the Floating Platform at an official time of 6hr 13mins, clocking a 2hr 32mins half marathon. Thats quite an achivement, considering 2 yrs back, I did the StandardChartered Half Marathon (without training, but fresh) and only did 2:13mins.

Due to my travel schedule and that the past few weeks were crazy, I did not get to adhere to my training program at all. I figured I only achieved 15% of what I wanted to do to prepare for this race. I remember coming up to the Friday before the race at the briefing, I thought this will be a really painful and slow race as I was so tired and unprepared. I was targetting a modest 7hr race. But somehow, by the end of the cycle, I knew I was well under 7hrs, and potentially even 6:30. Its amazing that when u put in the miles when you were younger, your body seems to remember it well after several years of abuse (late nights, entertaining and changing time zones more than I take the MRT) and only needs a little training for it to recall and replenish its energy source. I don't know how long this will last, but I don't intend to take it for granted! Most importantly, I completed the race without any injuries. As many of you may have heard of people dying at the finish line. Its true...last month I did a race in Port Dickson and someone did not come up from the swim...his body might still be somewhere in the Malaccan Straits I think.

In hindsight, I could have done under 6hrs. I did not give myself a tough enough stretch target, hence I don't think I tried hard enough. I should not have wasted 10mins at the medical tent, I could perhaps have pushed a little harder...but throughout the race, I was mentally satisfied, as I was already way below my initial 7hr target.

Lesson: if you aim low, you will never achieve much.