All Set?

1. Collect race pack? Checked.

2. Got a set of running gear? Checked.

3. Race nutrition plan? Almost.

4. Self-imposed 'jet-lag' conditioning tonight? - okay, will watch a midnight movie then go for supper till at least 4am. Sleep till at least noon on Saturday in time for the night run.

5. Adequate training? Eh... what is adequate training?

6. Progressive training? Does running almost regular 8-10km count?

7. Tapering? Oh yes, plenty!

8. All set? Well, I've got my fingers crossed!

Best Masala Thosai and Bee Hoon Goreng in Singapore

This is the best masala dosai and bee hoon goreng in Singapore, and it's found at Casuarina Road, just off Upper Thomson Road. Specifically, the little restaurant is called Shibly Muslim Food and they aren't lying about their claims for the best crispy pratas!

Warm Russian Welcome

Our team was greeted by these signs which were scattered all over the airport arrival terminal when we got off the aerobridge.

To know what it really means, scroll down. Well at least they bothered to translate the sign into English! Have a pleasant stay in Russia...... thank you.

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Singaporean Woman Gives Up on Everest Climb but...

... but that's no excuse for bad English!
Article here: http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_242183.html
The reporter from 'my paper' didn't do justice to Linda, who attempted to climb Mt Everest but had to give up because it seemed that she was running into physical difficulties. In any case, perhaps both reporter and editor should be sacked for bad English.

Pectopah and Gayachaya Shukalat: Russian Impressions

I just returned from a working trip to Russia. Yet again, as with most working trips, my eyes are opened to new cultures and most often than not, an entire new world. Russia did not disappoint when it came to gaining new insights and experiences.

Whenever I travel, I always have the habit of borrowing city guidebooks and phrasebooks. So for my 1.5 week stint in Russia, a Lonely Planet Russian Phrasebook and an Eyewitness Guide to Moscow were always with me. They have not failed so far in providing me with the most important information. Short of a personal tour guide, this was the best hassle-free alternative. I didn't find guidebooks on Perm, Omsk, or Rostov-on-don, but information from the internet (especially wikipedia.com) provided me with sufficient knowledge to get by. After all, we would have been taken care of by our clients in those cities.

And so it was on the first night in Moscow that our team were alone and without our Russian translator. The temperature was just slightly above zero degrees and we needed that oh-so-warm-oh-so-shiok hot chocolate drink.

Well, too bad our SGD700 per room per night hotel did not even have boiling water facilities, nor did it have any comfort tidbits in the room fridge! We had to walk to a nearby Kope (read: Cafe) for hot chocolate.

At the Kope, the menu did not state 'hot chocolate' in it. It was late in the night (about midnight) so we didn't want coffee or chay (tea). I whipped out my life-saver - the Russian Phrasebook.

Russian phrasebook says that 'hot' is 'gayachaya', and 'chocolate' is 'shukalat'. I tried ordering 'gayachaya shukalat'. Waiter seemed to understand. Moments later, we were served our 'gayachaya shukalat':

Check out the extreme lumpiness of the melted chocolate. We had to dilute the thick chocolate slosh to make it seem liquidty. Hmmm.. come to think of it, we never got to find out from Olga if 'gayachaya shukalat' was really a typical russian beverage (or is it a dessert?).

And as for 'Pectopah'? The signs were everywhere, and we always went to 'Pectopah' for our food. Our english phonetics would pronounce it as 'pack-toh-pah', but seriously.... 'Pectopah' is pronounced as.... 'res-tau-rant'. Really.

And I thought foto-mat meant self-portrait?

The Long Long CheeLee Debate

Today's news featured 2 articles. One was about this 17 year old boy who gets 15 months probation for threatening his teacher. His name is Longiness Roy Neo Long Long. Whatever he said to piss the teacher off, I get a kick just by looking at his 'long' name. (I wonder if Longines will sponsor this chap).
The other article is a long standing debate between Chee Soon Juan and the Lees (MM and PM). From the way the newspapers report about the court scene, it seems that Chee is having a field day airing his political views (which by the way, don't seem to be relevant to the defamation case against him).
Moral of the stories: Don't anyhow threaten anybody with stupid words!

Aeroflop Safety Presentation

Hey, I took this video on flight mode okay! This was taken during a recent trip to Russia. It was on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Omsk.

The Thing That Floored Ironmunn

Great. This is gonna be Spoiler Alert. I know exactly what destroyed Tony Starks. Alright maybe not. But I'm very sure what floored Ironmunn when he was watching Iron Man last evening!

Dang! It was the guy sitting next to me. Let's call him 'TOF'. Sounds villian enough? TOF stands for The Oral Farter. His breath (oh God have mercy) can paralyse anyone within a 10m radius. Trust me, it's been tried and tested at the cinema near you.

Every move TOF made, his breath reeked of gum disease. Small jokes during the movie? TOF's giggles could send the film censors to rethink the rating for Iron Man. Yes, PG means Periodontal Gum-disease, and not Parental Guidance (although parental guidance is strongly advised - Please teach your children to brush their teeth!).

Yours truly, The one and only Ironmunn, writhered in silent agony. I was hoping so bad that the guy up at the movie projection room would stop the screening and put on an ad for Chlorets or at least Mentos. Dammit, if projector room guy had a Baygone or Sheltox commercial, all the better!

The Breath was so bad that I was mistaken to be the culprit. Indeed, JQ thought that it was ME who had the sudden case of rotten teeth probably caused by the acidic reaction of an earlier meal of thai green curry and sambal kangkong. Alas, it wasn't me coz TOF was overpowering. Yes, The Breath actually permeated through the fabrics and every other molecular cell within me, and hit JQ hard on her face!

I just sat on my 4th row seat fixated by an invisible epoxy made up of peripheral bad breath molecules that chemically bonded with stale cinema air. Heck, I couldn't even fall asleep during boring scenes!

TOF was so powerful that the left side of my face felt as if it was melting after being shot by ammunition from Stark Industries. Sure, someone tell me about Virtual Reality!

On several occasions, I thought I had garnered sufficient taiji energy to vaporise TOF into a heap of rotten cinema popcorn. Then I remembered that stale popcorn smelled like.... well... stale popcorn. At other times, I just felt like shouting at TOF to redeem his cinema ticket for a lifetime supply of Colgate and Phillips Electric toothbrushes. Yeah, and then set TOF on a wild goose chase. Can you imagine a ordinary looking man running around the mall and asking people for directions to the Colgate and Phillips redemption point... yeah, and dig the fact that here's some dude with excruciatingly caustic breath asking for toothpaste?

TOF ought to be banned from cinemas. No... wait. He should be annihilated by The Justice League. Darlie toothpaste should work with major disinfectant companies to produce anti-TOF agents to prevent offspring of TOFs.

At the end of the day, The Oral Farter won. How did he impact the world? The Ironmunn felt so sick after the movie that he actually rushed to the toilet. Yep, you guessed it: The Breath was so horrific that it induced the Ironmunn to purge!

Someone's gotta save the world from TOF! Help!

I hear you loud and clear!

Yes... alright. It's been 'awhile' since I last blogged. My faithful fans have been asking me to update my life, my thoughts, my travels, my blahblahblah.... In other words, everyone is just plain tired reading about 'Hills' in my blog and 'Hillary (Clinton)' in the news.

Okay, I'll restart my engines. Hang in there.... and stay tuned.