We interupt this special programme ...

to post a video that Vic found. Finally, Sting and Edin Karamazov with "In My Life" by the Beatles. Scrumptious. It sounds better in real life tho, trust me.

Climb Malaysia (II)

[Ah, nothing better to start your overcast Monday than Beethoven's 9th. Irony, I likes!]



After the disappointing experiment of Gua Kelam it's no wonder that the next days found us in Bukit Keteri. On the first day, what started out as a rainy, let's-get-back-to-the-hotel-and-sleep-the-whole-day thing ended up in very nice routes. And we climbed and we climbed ... The rock was nice and sharp and the routes much harder than the routes in Thailand with the same difficulty. From this point of view, I hate thailand, it made me think I can climb hard(er) routes, only to be thrashed by Malaysia...





In the afternoon, Doris and I went up into the caves of Bukit Keteri. The view from upstairs was magnificent. Other than that, nothing spectacular except I banged my head on one of the cave's ceilings. Stupid, I am.




We goofed around in the caves











Watched the guys get whacked by a 8c+ ...



The next day while the rest of the team went Thailand which was just across the border, Sandra was kind enough (Thanks, SAN!!!) to stay with me in the wonderful town of Padang Besar, where there was. N.O.T.H.I.N.G to do. Abso-fucking-lutely nothing to do. We went around some shops in the bazaar and then settled (with Cassandra who also stayed back) in a nice halal (did I mention perlis is a very strict muslim state) Thai coffee shop for about 2-3 hours. The food was very good, especially the Tom Yam, and I got to exercise my super power of ordering-by-pointing (where you point to the food on somebody else's table and say "Satu" (one) with the additional raising of your index finger, just in case). Next we found the bus driver and retreated to the air-con comfort of the bus, where we slept/read until the team came back.

Climb Malaysia (I)

So after a grueling 14 hour bus ride in which we sang and most of the team slept,




and after a very good night's sleep in Hotel Federal in Kangar, in which i switched off within 10 minutes of lying down, the first climbing day found us in Gua Kelam Park. Or whatever it is. The routes were un-eventful climb-wise. The climbs were easy, but!


My first climb of the trip found me on a route that was next to a route that Planet was climbing. And that route. had. a wasps'. nest. So I got stung twice. No biggie.


We switched to some other short and easy routes. My leading mental was good. Much better since I've realized that my inner talk was bad.


Lunch and a short rain found us eating inside a chinese temple. I was probably the first caucasian to visit those remote parts because people really never stopped staring at me. Ah well ...


The second part of the day found us going through this very very nice and big cave to some other crag. Yet again we found wasps (they were to disappear later), so we retreated to our morning climbing spot.





I started leading a 6b but by the second bolt it started to pour again so I had to downclimb. We spent the rest of the day just bumming around and watching our team mates play silly yet enjoyable card games.


All in all, the first day was disappointing. I wouldn't go back to gua kelam for anything, not even for the chili plants or for the fake waterfalls.

Backk!!

Safe and sound, only bitten by two wasps. Updates asap.

Dropping by for a quickie

Leaving for Malaysia for 1 week to climb in about 6 hours. It is now 01:01 am and I am not asleep which spells trouble for whomever will be close to me during the 16 hour bus ride (OMFG) from Singapore to Perlis. Thank goodness we are chartering a bus!! I am looking forward to 4 glorious days of climbing, even though I feel bad because I am leaving Marian to move the both of us (yes we are moving, but this is another post). On the other side, I will come back a saner me, and from this benefit he will. These days have been full of cleaning, saying goodbye to friends, buying new pairs of shoes (1 orange, 1 golden, and 1 black) and new blouses (3 green). The sales have hit town and so I am recycling my old shoes and buying new ones (happens every two years). I miss climbing and I hope to get enough of it in the next days.
Rope - check

Runners - check

Money - check

Shoes - check

Passport - check

In my life

Heard this song last night (duh, 28 years since John Lennon was shot) sung by Sting and accompanied by Edin Karamazov on the lute. It was amazing!! Spent the whole morning searching for it, but I wasn't able to find sting's version on youtube. It gives a very mellow tempo to my very slow and sore (from the marathon) day. Sting is [still] hott!

4:57

Amazingly, we finished. I had a stitch about the 17km mark, brought on by the fact that I drank to much. Note to self: MODERATION!! We got at 21 km after about 2 hrs. I gave Marian my knee guard at around 22 km. He hit the wall at around 27km. He says that he couldn't hear me when I was talking to him. At all. Brr, horrible. Anyhow, we had a power gel, we walked, we dragged our feet, had some more water, some more 100 plus, i told him what was happening, why he was hitting the wall (they say your body runs out of glycogen from carbs and has to switch to fats) He was running but more walking that running. Anyhow, I think what got him through the end of the wall and running again was one particular runspirator. He was a big caucasian with a bell. Yup. one of those bells that you see on cows in Switzerland (or so they say). This marathoner was walking and this guy was right behind him banging the bell in the marathoner's ear yelling "I'M NOT GONNA STOP TILL YOU START RUNNING!! I WILL NOT STOP TILL YOU STOP RUNNING!!" ... So the poor guy finally started running and the runspirator finally stopped but told him "YOU'D BETTER NOT STOP, I'M WATCHING YOU!!!!" After seeing this, Marian started running :)) Better run through the wall than have somebody bang your brains dead, I always say. Marian hit a second wall at around 37 km. I'm not sure if this was a wall or he only had breathing problems - from the 35km mark to 37 we run only on one side of the road, while the other was FULL of cars, buses and stuff. It was horrible. Exhaustion gases are not something you want to breathe in so far down in a run. I am very proud of us that we finished. Am very proud of Marian for enduring what he did and still finding the strength to run just a little bit more, and then a little bit more again.

I wore the romanian flag on my back. For the first 20 km or so, it also had a piece of paper on it saying "Romania", but because I kept putting water on my head, the paper finally tore. Nonetheless, 200 meters or so from the finish (and going a bit uphill on esplanade bridge) another runner (singaporean) told me "Good job, Romania!" : I was yet again encouraging people around me run - this is an achievement, I am very shy towards strangers, so sometimes I just say in a very little voice, "come on, come on" ...

I'll just make a list of people/things that I saw. I am too tired to write coherently (next year I will try to run under 4 hrs. Running for 5 hrs is gruelsome).

• Somebody's printed t-shirt saying "Running for presidency next"


• Somebody's piece of paper saying "I am running on the power of my own farts" - he ran out of fart-o-power around 30 km (if you are going to write something that stupid, at least make sure you are damn fast)


• Somebody limping wearing horribly worn out shoes; poor guy looked in PAIN. Good thing a friend was walking with him. A new pair of shoes would have gotten him a long way.


• Somebody carrying a backpack (not a water-camelback), but a big school bag. I'm pretty sure we overtook him, I would be very upset with me if we didn't.


• The bell guy moved just before the 41km mark. Thank you.


• The Kenyans or whatever, running in east coast park. The then first two guys were literally running shoulder to shoulder. FAST!!!! Whoa!!!


• The guy in the brown singlet. He would be walking and us running behind him. I would say come on, come on, seven/six/five to go! He would start running, then we would stop to walk, he would overtake us, then he would stop to walk, i would coax Marian into running some more, then we would overtake him again, I would say come on, come on ... and so on...


• Doris just before the finish line. THANKS for: being there, texting me at 3 plus am, taking the above pic, cheering for all the runners!!! I also cheered the kenyans with a big ALLEZ!!!! So sad to have missed Cherlyn, but at least we had a good excuse!!!


• One runner was bouncing a tennis ball from time to time. I guess it was a good distraction. I don't know about other people, but a marathon is definitely not boring.


• The very pro looking evacuation SUVs. Around 39 km people were dropping like flies. Must've been the Ferraris.


• The Ferrari expo at 39km. Oh why?

A nice odd number

Queued up for 2 hours to get the race entry pack for this year's Standard Chartered Marathon! The queue started from the MRT, and it had about 150m until entering the expo hall where you were in the queueing pens. No pasta this year unfortunately, I was looking forward to cooking it. Goodie bag is also a bit disappointing, you can see that we are going through recession. Ah, life is cruel. As always, the guys' running singlet is much nicer than the girls' one. It definitely has a material that I like more, and a nicer blue.

First nightmare

After my previous foray into almost missing out on important events for which i've trained and trained, it is no wonder what last night's nightmare was about: You see, it was marathon day you see, and, see, the marathon started at 05:30 am see, but um, we woke up at 1:30 pm. So I wailed and I screamed and I wailed some more, and I screamed some more. Not only that, but rushing to the marathon I had forgotten not only my watch and iPod but we didn't have any food! (looking back, this is a totally different scenario, isn't it?)

And I say to these nightmares: Bring them on, sista!!

Namez

[Took a break from blogging because my wisdom tooth is finally out and I have been enjoying the benefits of solid food. Good, solid food, mmmm.... Like breadsticks, rice, veggies, meat, mmmm ... Went to climb asia on Friday to buy myself a pair of green climbing pants, yupee!]

Why is it that inventors don't name the things they invent using such that the name reflects their own name? Is it modesty or they don't think that the products will survive? Or is it because they know they would sound bad? Like EdisonWire, Beller etc. Or is it because they invent so many things that their names will confuse people? Like DaVincier would it be an airplane or a submarine? Or are you considered an inventor iif you build and work your prototype, and it is accepted by the general public as it is? Why isn't the rabies vaccine called Pasteurite? (quite a good name, right??) Then like that everybody know who invented what, and CREDIT will be given (a good sign of a good future academia is their sensitivity to giving credit, i guess :D)

On an utterly unrelated thread, Doris named my left fat thigh John and my right fat thigh Tucker. I am now officially eating for three. I have tried to google John Tucker but all I can come up with is "John Tucker Must Die", and to that, I fully agree. May we have a very short life together.