Bring it on!

9 days left to Perth Marathon...

Signed up already... no turning back...

I'm all pumped... think this new look would make me run faster?

Oh... by the way... this is my most expensive haircut EVER! I got a parking fine for it! Parked in a lot in Northbridge that said "Ticket parking for 9am tp 4.15pm". I thought after that don't have to pay parking... how I know that after that cannot park at all??!! Have to pay AUD100 fine... damn...

Another weekend...

Our division had our end-of-year function yesterday. We started at 2pm... so basically we only worked (or tried working) for half a day.

First up, bowling at Warwick Super Bowl... my game was... average. 93 in the first game, 78 in the second... yeap, I've played better. Then, it was wine tasting at Lancestor Estates, Swan Valley. The wines are reputed to be really good... but it was in a small shed. The cold and wet weather definitely didn't help. We were so vulnerable to the winds and heavy downpour.

We gave out a bottle of wine each to the best female bowler and best male bowler... who was the same guy who got 3 merits in a row for CA and top in the state two units ago. He's such an over-achiever... (okay, maybe I'm just A BIT envious...)

As with every year, one of the partners would read out the funny things that had happened over the year. One for example... a secretary who locked out a partner from him room and because his car keys were in the room, he had to take the cab home. Another was when one guy had to drive another drunk colleague home, who was giving him directions, misled him into the bus lane (bus lanes are VERY prohibited for cars here in Perth). One more that I could recall from last night was when a partner, who happened to be a Fremantle Dockers fan booked a AUD900 hotel room in Melbourne for the final when the Dockers got into the semi-final... but the team never made it to the final... so the room went to waste.

After that, was dinner at Chester's. Was served bread and dip as well as antipasti for entree. As usual, I chose the steak for mains. The other choices were chicken or barramundi. For desert, a selection of cheese and chocolate. I have to say I enjoyed this year's function a lot better than the previous years. Maybe I AM getting better in socializing. It is included in my personal goals every year... to increase my social presence... Yes, I am deemed to be a very shy person at work.

Again as with any other Aussie functions, we had a few people getting drunk and getting really loud. On the way back to the city, someone actually puked in the bus. Reached the city at 10.50pm. I was lucky that Li-Ann picked me up. Otherwise I had to catch the cab home. Thanks darling!

Yesterday was actually our 1st year anniversary! Sorry darling that it clashed with the division function... And I made you pick me up last night too! Hope I made it up today...

We had lunch at Atrium Garden Restaurant in Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle. The theme for the buffet was Croatian Food Festival. For the cold dishes (which I think its the entree), there were mussels, crab, fish, prawns, varieties of sliced ham and salad.

For the hot dishes... pork belly, pasta, lamb chops, duck with barley, chicken schnitzel, fried calamari and fish.

Desserts... varieties of cakes and pastries... ranging from chocolate, vanilla, orange, apple strudels, mud cakes, cheesecakes and also croatian sweets.

Croatian Sweets

Sorry guys... there weren't too many pictures of the food we had... because as it was a buffet... we couldn't arrange them to be presentable enough for the photos. Even the last two pictures were taken from the website.

We then went to watch Shrek the Third at Millenium. I actually find the cinema quite comfortable... but Li-Ann prefers our good ol' Subiaco Ace cinemas as it is less crowded. I enjoyed the movie a lot... it was really funny... I rate it better than the second one... but of course, the first one is still the best. At any rate, it is much better than Pirates of The Carribean 3 that we watched last week.

We would have loved walking around the streets of Fremantle for a bit... but unfortunately, the weather wasn't too forgiving.

Anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot today. Happy 1st anniversary darling!

I postponed my long run today... well, I couldn't have ran anyway... because it rained. Hope to do it tomorrow... there's a lot of excess calories to be burned...

Balance

Monday was Shirley's birthday. Thanks Shirley for the wonderful steamboat dinner at Jade Dynasty, Northbridge! We had three different types of soup... Cheese (yes, Cheese!), Herbal and Plain. The desserts were really good too. Really enjoyed the food! It was also good to catch up with friends...

Question to fellow triathletes... what's the optimal body structure?

My increased running training in preparation for the Perth Marathon has seen a fair reduction in my size. I used to be 63-64kgs... now hovering around 61-62kgs. The weight loss is not that drastic but many have commented on how skinny I look.

Yes, comments from friends, colleagues... and Li-Ann is getting worried that people are getting the impression that she's starving me! Just a note to everyone... my shrinkage is due to my own doing and darling has been trying to feed me more fatty foods (e.g. full cream milk instead of hi-lo), which I still continue taking but burns away anyway after each training session.

Although my running has been consistently been good lately, I notice a slight drag in my swimming. Maybe I have lost a bit of buoyancy along with the fat loss. I still have the fitness to go through my swim sessions... but I don't move as smoothly through the water... and as a result, clock slower times.

Typical swimmer

Typical runner

So... how do you balance it out? Lean... mean... machine on the road... OR bubble bouy in the water?

Me at my heaviest... 72kg. Just started work... didn't know how to adapt my training schedule to my work schedule. Stopped altogether!

Me at my lightest... 56kg. Malnourished... Ate instant noodles everyday... was still in uni mah... very stingy. Also ran everyday... but got injured easily.

Weekend...

Thank you all for the encouragement and support to my previous post. It turns out I missed out on my CA merit by 2 marks. A miss is as good as a mile... but it's still comforting to know that I was pretty close.

Things have been going well... I'm pretty much recovered from my flu. I did a PB in my 17k run yesterday... 1:15.10, that's 4:25 per km average! Yeah... I know, I should be doing slower, longer runs... but any training is still good training right? Especially if I do a PB!

Then, this morning I did another PB in my bike spinning. Clocked 25.05km in my 45:10 session (33.28kph average). I had never went more than 25km before! The furthest was 24.95km.... and I did it again in the second session... 25.03km... I'm just stoked!

Li-Ann finished her exams last week. Yesterday, darling and I attended a Women's Expo in the Perth Convention Centre with Ping and Jasmine. The entry fees were AUD15 but guys get to go in for free! Considered as Li-Ann was bringing me in... the receptionist asked if I was with her... That's a first...

I found the expo a bit too commercialised... many stalls with women's products... skin products, cleaning products, lingerie, photography studio, gym membership, slimming pills... There was a fashion show though... which was quite entertaining. And we went around filling in forms at almost every stall with the (fat) hope of winning their draw prizes. Oh... and we also had multiple tastings of all the free food samples. In our goodie bags, we were given free McDonald's voucher for Deli Choice Rolls (supposed to be 97% fat free)... so at least we had free lunch out of it.

Then for dinner... darling and I went to Coolgardie Safe... recommended by my sis. The menu was very exotic... but I was a bit disappointed as there were a lot on the website that weren't served that night. I was quite keen to try the crocodile. Apparently, they are restructuring their menu. I say, the chef must have ran away... hahhah.

Anyway, we ordered the Australian tasting plate... which had a bit of crocodile in it... damper, kangaroo, emu and lots of other weird stuff. Oh... and sis said we had to order the witjuti grub... which is basically... grub... I was a bit disappointed with the size, considering it was AUD7.95.

We only had one main... kangaroo... as we felt that the tasting plate for 2 was pretty substantial. And we didn't have desert too... as the choices weren't too attractive... again scaled down significantly from what was on the website... The cashier must have thought that we were their cheapest customers ever! But... overall... a delightful experience...

Outback Australia tasting plate!

Witjuti grub... care for a bite? Tastes a bit like wantan...

Roo... roo.. was a lot more tender and juicier than the last one we had at Char Char Bull...

Just watched Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World's End. I found it a bit confusing. There were so many pirate agreements, pirate rules etc. I feel Chow Yun-Fat's role as Say Feng was a bit shortlived. Typical of Hollywood... the Asian guy dies so easily! Also, I find Keira Knightley less attractive compared to the earlier episodes. But nevertheless the movie was entertaining and a bit nonsensical (which is fun!).

Mediocre

I guess from my far-from-perfect run... 38:20.24 for 8.5km (average 4:32 per km) would tell me that today would just be... plain average.

My CA results came out today... No, don't worry. I didn't fail... I passed... But the 2 guys in my division who got merit for the last module, got merit again... that's 3 times in a row!

Which makes me think...

I'd like to think that I'm a fairly smart person. I was always able to pull out some reasonably impressive results during high school, college and uni without having to put in excessive effort. Most of the times during exams, I would be the one smiling at others frantically studying away. I guess I'm lucky in this way too...

Even for this module, I was at the gym before the exam started. While there were others having less than 4 hours sleep studying for the paper.

I guess I should be grateful... after all, a pass was all I need. And it was what I was aiming for when I first started the whole course anyway... But when people start getting merits... (and 3 times in a row too!) I too want to be one of them...

I guess I shouldn't expect so much given that I didn't work myself nuts studying. Maybe all this time of getting through with minimum effort is getting to my head. I still use the same study tactics... Maybe I should change...

But this is the only way I know how to study... How to change??

Winter woes...

My preparation for the Perth Marathon suffered a few scares these few days. First, I had a sore ankle. Don't know how I got it. It actually started on the Monday that I took a day's rest because it rained. Now, how can NOT running give you a sore ankle? It was the other ankle too... not the one that I sprained last August. Could be due to stiffness caused by cold weather. Anyway... thankfully, the soreness went away soon enough.

Then, yesterday I had a phlegmy throat. Also got it out of nowhere! It just happened after we had a planning meeting for my client assignment next week (I have 3 client assignments back to back for the next 3 weeks!). Maybe I'm just SLIGHTLY stressed (and I emphasize SLIGHTLY... because I don't like to admit that I'm stressed... hehheh)... which somehow affected my health.

Well... the phlegmy throat built up to a runny nose and occassional cough. Me being stubborn... went for a swim this morning. That could have made it worse. Li-Ann bought all sorts of herbal drinks, juices and even made me fed me more nutritious food... so that I would get well soon. Thanks darling... she pampered me for the whole of this morning... served me lunch while I was snuggling under the blanket... Love you!

Anyway... stubborn me doesn't like to admit that I'm sick (another thing I don't like hahhah)... so I went for my 17km run this evening. Went pretty fast for the 1st 8.5km... 39:05.10 (average 4:36 per km)... but my body somehow weakened before the 2nd 8.5km... 41:44.00 (average 4:53 per km)... Overall average 4:45 per km... I supposed the timing's not too bad... but I guess I should rest if I want to get well soon...

Well... see how lah... (YES, I'm stubborn!)

Anyway, last night... darling and I went out for dinner at Marrakech, a Morrocan restaurant in Subiaco. She had been working on assignments the past few days. Since she handed them in yesterday... a dinner out would be a good break. Also, yesterday was the last day to use my Entertainment Book, which gives all sorts of good deals for eating out. I have the new one for the 2007/2008 year already... can't wait to use it!

The verdict on the food... I wouldn't say it's not tasty but I expected it to be more... authentic. My lamb tajine seemed very similar to sup kambing and Li-Ann's lamb couscous tasted like mutton curry. The desert were quite exotic though... VERY sweet. There was belly dancing partway through our dinner... sorry guys, no photos of a 45% naked woman... she was probably in her middle age anyway...

No matter how tired I am from my sleepless nights doing assignments... I MUST try to smile...

Sup kambing!

WARNING... contains EXTREMELY high sugar levels