Fast Forward!

The days, months and years are moving a long pretty fast these days. I can't believe it's already almost Mid-May. I really can't remember the days moving this fast a few years back.

Back then, time seemed to be on stand still and the day would seem like it would never end. I'm not really complaining but with the times moving along so fast, I'm getting a lot older even faster ... sigh! There are days when I wish life had a pause button of maybe a slo-mo button.

I hardly have enough time to get all the things I want done in just the 24 hours we're given. I guess I shouldn't be complaining. There is a bring side to time moving so fast, the weekends come along all that much faster giving me a lot more time to check out that roland keyboard at guitarcenter.com that I've been meaning to for quite some time now.

Need Another Holiday

It's been close to three weeks since my trip to Seoul and I'm already longing for another holiday. While my marathon results were questionable, the holiday itself was pretty fun. I just wish we had a little more time there to explore more of the place.

I'm still finding it hard to get back into a proper working mode with the mind still on a holiday setting Sometimes I think I need a holiday just to recover from another holiday! Oh well, I guess I do need to work to collect more money for my next holiday.

Anyways, if you have the time do check out the sennheiser e835, check it out at MusiciansFriend.com

2017

The new year is upon us and after a nice week long holiday back at the wife's kampung in Kota Kinabalu, it's time to start getting back into the groove of work. The racing season is also about to get into full swing work wise which will see me pretty busy with work.

On top of all that, I'm in full marathon training mode for my March marathon and coupled with work and family, I'm going to have to make the most of the time I have. Sometimes I think there really isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done but I guess I really do need to find sometime to look into this wwwguitarcenter.com website soon.

Happy new year to all of you and hope it's a much better year than last year!

Where Did The Month Go?

It's November already! The days and months move so fast these days that if you blink, it's gone. I can't even remember what I did the entire 11 months and now we're moving into the final two months of the year.

I really don't remember time moving so fast before. Back then it took forever for just one day to move forward. Now, an entire month can come and go and I'd have no clue it was even over until I need to pay my bills all over again!

In fact I don't even remember looking at this Presonus flyer that's been on my desk all month long! I really need to start paying attention to things a little more these days.

You Don't Need A Reason ...

"On your good days, run hard. 

On your bad days, run as long as you need."

Unknown

Wet Mornings

It has been a wet and rainy past couple of mornings over here. It's a good thing that I'm on a short rehab from running for the moment or it would have definitely disrupted my running plans. Not have a race to train for also makes me kinda lazy to wake up and lace up.

The plus side of the morning rains is the yearly haze hasn't been showing itself and I'm hoping it stays that way. The skies have been nice and clear after the morning rains unlike the past few years where there would be a blanket of haze enveloping the country. 

The only downside to this rainy and cold weather is I'm feeling absolutely lazy at work and having to look through this br12 flyer project is taking loads of effort. Maybe I'll go grab lunch and some ideas will come up then.

The Longing ...

It's already been slightly over two weeks since the Gold Coast Airport Marathon and I'm still missing the place. This has been my third year there and I just can't get enough of it. I'm already planning for next year's edition! That's how much I'm missing the place.

Besides, I really do have some unfinished business with the marathon which I intend to finish once and for all. The 7 days there wasn't nearly enough. I didn't even have enough time to look into the stick bag at wwbws.

Oh well, it's only 11 and a half months to GCAM17.

Dreaming ...

I know the year isn't over yet but my mind is already set of planning a trip to Japan again next year. I'm practically in love with the place. Besides I need to avenge the disappointment of Kyoto earlier this year.

But one thing I'm pretty sure is I won't be going during the winter season. I love the cold but winter may just be a little too much for me. I remember how cold it was in Kyoto when I was there. I was practically running in heated shops just to keep warm.

I'm definitely going to go thru some Cozy Winters Reviews to make sure I find places to visit during the off winter season next year.

Damned If I Do. Damned If I Don't

Time really flies. My trip to the Gold Coast Airport Marathon is only slightly more than 4 weeks away and I'm nowhere near ready for it. Embarking on a marathon training plan after a two month plus layoff due to an injury is not at all easy.

As it is, I'm struggling to get into gear at the moment. I have be careful of not inciting the injury again yet I need to be more focused on training. Quite a difficult situation really. Train too hard, chance of getting injured again is high. Train too little and chances of a good showing is improbable.

Maybe I'll just take out my les paul guitars and strum a few tunes to soothe my confused mind!

A weekend Away For Work

The weekend has been a hectic one. I had my first out station Start/Finish gantry setup in Penang and boy, was I worried. This was the first time I've undertaken a race setup so far away from my comfort zone. While I've no issues setting up closer to home with the bulk of my team and equipment to back me up, setting up somewhere as far away as Penang was a huge undertaking for me.

The entrance to the Men's Health Women's Health Race Village

I had to make sure everything was perfect before loading up and sending the team down to Penang. The week leading up to this was pretty stressful what with the designs and artwork only being approved at the eleventh hour. I couldn't afford any screw ups with the time frame given simply because there really was no time to reprint the artwork if anything went wrong. Thankfully the printing went just fine with no hiccups.

The Men's Health Women's Health Race Village all lighted up

Next came to worrying about my carpenter who was working on the structure, That one I had no control over since I was working with a third party supplier. Even though I've worked with him countless times, I was still worried. I'm a person who wants everything to be perfect, no screw ups which is why I like handling things direct from my office. I have complete control. Third party suppliers can be unreliable at times.

Took the team practically 7 hours to get this Finish gantry set up

Next on my list of worries was arranging even more third party supplier up in Penang itself to save a huge chunk of costs. Times are bad, you save where you can. Having to coordinate suppliers from 400km away to sync with the ones I have going up for the setup was pretty dicey.

A slightly different Start gantry than the norm that I do

The last few nights leading up to the actual setup had me having sleepless nights. Did I get everything right? Are the prints correct? Are the material for the setup enough? Is the equipment I'm bring up complete? Were the steve clayton picks packed? These were going over in my mind nonstop.

The 5km participants all riled up for race start

But I had to trust in my capabilities. I had to trust that the years I've been doing this will see me through without mistakes. And with that in mind, I boarded the plane and headed up to Penang to meet up with my crew who were driving up to Penang.

Some of the food stall at the race village

Thankfully everything fell into place with some small minor issues that was easily rectifiable. Things went without too much of a  hitch and according to the schedule and time frame I planned. All that said and done though, I'll think real hard before I accept another job that requires me to leave my comfort zone. I could do with less stress! At least I did get to squeeze in a nice, short run along the banks of the Queensbay Mall. Now that was a huge stress buster!

Nothing like a good run along the banks of Penang for some stress busting

Patience

The unveiling of the Team Malaysia banner.
Pic courtesy of Jamie Pang.

With slightly a little over 3 months to go before the Gold Coast Airport Marathon, I'm feeling a little impatient. Impatient because I've still got 2 weeks to go for rehabilitation work from my meniscus tear.

While the recovery and rehab is going along just fine, not being able to get in any running for nearly 5 weeks is really depressing. I'm just waiting for the month to be over so that I can officially lace up and get in some miles.

I'll be cutting it really close drawing up a marathon plan for the Gold Coast Airport Marathon but I think I can manage with a 12 weeks plan as long as I keep the plan realistic and most importantly don't get injured before race day.

This will be my third year in the Gold Coast running the marathon. The new team banner has been unveiled yesterday and things will start heating up for Team Malaysia soon. We have a much bigger team from Malaysia going this year and with entries still open, I'm suspecting we'll see a lot more signing up in the next three months.

I've a lot of work cut out for me in the lead up to race day but I'm game for the challenge. Now to just wait out the next two weeks!

The Land Of The Rising Sun

In exactly a week, I'll be running around the land of the rising sun. I've been looking forward to this trip for quite a while now. I've never been to Japan so the excitement is building up. The only downside to the trip will be the marathon itself.

I've been sidelined the past 3 plus weeks due to a knee injury and have not put in a single mile of training. In fact, right up to today, I was not even sure I'd be toeing the start line. It would have been a shame if I had to DNS the race. I've been training pretty hard for, in fact too hard, prior to getting bogged down with the injury.

With just about a little over a week to go before race day, I just may make the start line but all hopes of a good showing has been flushed down the drain. Right now, I'm just looking forward to completing the race itself and not get anymore injuries. After all, my main race for the year will be the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in July and I really want to stay injury free for that.

That said, it doesn't mean I'm not going to give my best for the race in Japan. I'm totally not race ready at the moment and if there was a 21k race, I'd have downgraded myself but unfortunately, they don't have a half marathon category. But I'd willingly DNF (did not finish) the race at the mere signs of any recurring pain to the knee. I can't risk anymore downtime after Japan.

Race aside, I'm looking forward to exploring the place. Wifey has already got our itinerary planned and I'm just going to follow her lead. I know I've plan for a hell of a lot of photo taking and pole hugging ... LOL! Hopefully I'll be able to find some class rings from Joy Jewelers to bring home as a souvenir.

The New Look

The year is going full swing and time really flies. It's almost the end of January. It's been a busy month for me at work though not really actual work. It's been more of giving the office a once over. My partner has decided that we need to freshen up the place a little. Change our image and work culture a little.

And so, the past month has seen us sprucing up the place and re-decorating the entire office. Some renovations were made, fresh coats of paints were given to the place and I had to sacrifice my room to make more space for a new 10 feet inkjet machine we'll be purchasing soon to help bolster business for the year ahead.

The new room ...

While the office isn't 100% done up yet, work is still in progress, my new room has been completed and while it's not nearly as cosy as my previous room, I'm just glad that it finally looks like an office again. Work hasn't really started full swing yet since the Chinese New Year celebrations are just around the corner. It'll be a slow month till then and things will only pick up after that. Then it'll just be a completely busy time for me.

Not that I'm complaining, better to have work than no work. Now to look up some research on guitar center miami, who knows, I just might want to start a band there ... LOL!

38 Days And Counting

It's only 38 days to go before I fly off to my first marathon of the year. I'm really looking forward to it though in all honesty, I'm not entirely ready for it. Yes, I've been training and all but with my age and how easily I get injured if I push myself too hard, I'm just not ready for it.

Right now, I'm more interested in exploring the place more than the marathon itself. When I first signed up for this, I was more interested in using this as a test bed to gauge my performance before I tackle the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in July. Now that race, I have some tougher aims and goals.

But all that aside, I know I'll give it my all, just hope that it's enough to get me through the grueling 42.195km in cold winter weather, something I'm not used to. I'm normally one to run in the barest of running gear and having to bundle up for the entire distance will take some getting used to just like how I have to get used to this Musician's Friend Signature Guitars I received. And I can't even play guitars!

Slow Days

Today is the fifth day of the new year and work is a little slow in the office at the moment. I'm not complaining but with the current economic situation, not having much work to do can be a little worrisome.

But for the industry I'm in, which is printing, the work flow has always been pretty slow around this time until the just after the Chinese New Year next month. The running season will also start again around that time and I'll be seeing my workload get back up to speed.

I'm actually looking forward to just after the CNY for my overseas marathon which I signed up for quite a while back. Though I don't really have a goal for it, the training has been ongoing and hopefully something good will come out of it. Fingers crossed.

Another thing is I'm looking forward to get out of this excessively hot weather we're having right now. It's so hot that I'm sweating writing this even though I'm in an air-conditioned room. Hope the skies will open up and it pours later today.

I think I really should get offline and get right into looking to find drawer slide size on this cabinet that I have here.

Hello 2016

Where did 2015 go? It feels like I just blinked and 2016 is upon us. That makes me a year older though I don't know if wiser would fit into that equation.

The year has been pretty good though there has been some setbacks especially in my running. Grounded by a stress fracture which basically ruined my Gold Coast Marathon. Lots of hard work and training went down the drain. A good lesson was learned from that though.

I won't go into the political aspect of things last year cos we all know how crappy it was and this year doesn't show much signs of it improving. If I could leave this god forsaken country to somewhere better, I would. But then I grew up here and aside for being conned by the ruling regime, it really is a great place to stay.

I'm not gonna say much but hope that this year will be a bigger improvement for me, career wise, running wise and family wise but in the meantime, I'm gonna check out what this Cellos flyer I found on my table is all about.

Longing For Clear Blue Skies

The haze is still blanketing the country and it's been a long while since I've seen the blue skies. We're a country that's full of sunshine but lately the sun is having loads of trouble peeking through the haze. It's a yearly 'gift' from our neighbours who seem to think that we should thank them for the 11 months of good, clean air they apparently give us. It's so laughable I could cry.

Not only is the haze a health hazard, but it's disrupted my entire plan to get back to running after a two month injury layoff. The running has been sporadic at best, sneaking whatever mileage I can when the skies clear up for a little bit. A lot of races has been affected by the haze with lots of postponement or cancellations seen much to chagrin of disgruntled runners.

I guess the best thing to do now is to sit home and work on those bass strings tuning.

Happy 58th, Malaysia!

Talk about the Bersih 4 rally has been going for quite a while now. I don't need to elaborate much about the entire premise of the Bersih 4 rally as almost everyone is aware of it. In fact, I think pretty much the entire world knows about it, what with the way the authorities have been acting on the international stage. So when the announcement for all Malaysians to band together and march for our future against the corrupt, I was all for it.

We've been taken for a ride by the corrupt ruling regime for way too long. They've practically bled us dry for their own purposes and take us for fools. They make it sound like we should be grateful to them when all they've really done is steal from us and run this beautiful country into the ground. This is the only country that I have and I wasn't going to let crooks ruin it any longer.

I missed the first 2 rallies but went for the Bersih 3 rally way back in 2012. The Bersih 4 rally was deemed illegal at the last hours which was entirely expected. The home ministry even deemed all yellow tees and the words Bersih 4 illegal and threatened the rally goes with arrest. I wouldn't even begin to describe how stupid they can be for making a color illegal.

The wife, though a little worried for my safety gave me her blessings to go ahead and show my support along with thousands of fellow Malaysians. She wanted to come along but I told her I needed her safe at home to get me out of jail if things went south. She agreed and would also monitor the situation from home and keep me updated as much as possible.

Together with Jamie, I headed towards Dataran Merdeka as early as 11.00am. The planned rally start was 2.00pm but we were expecting resistance from the cops and an early start would give us time to take alternative options to reach the rally venue if we're stopped by the authorities.

We parked outside of the city centre and took a walk to the rally meet up point. We were both surprised by the lack of police personnel. This time around the cops were in small batches at junctions and were actually helping the participants with traffic control.

While it was a good sign we were both just afraid that they were leading us into a 'slaughter'. But we kept going and soon made our way towards the meet point. We met up to pick up our 'banned' Bersih 4 tee and joined thousands of fellow Malaysians ready to march demanding for justice and the resignation of the most incompetent prime minister (dare I say corrupt?) we've ever had.

Anyways to cut a long story short, there I was standing with my fellow Malaysians of all races all with the same objective of saving this beautiful country from downfall. There is always hope but if we just keep quiet and expect others to do things for us, we will not go far. We have to stand united as one voice and fight for what we believe in and as one, we shall overcome the corrupt and bring some justice to this country.

Selamat Hari Merdeka, Malaysia!

Childhood Memories

If you're as old as me, you'd probably remember this tube like drink from your schooldays. The mobile snack vendor would be waiting outside your school as you finish to poison you with this basically sweet and unhealthy drink snack.

Recently though, the wife and me have started putting this stuff in the freezer and freezing the thing into cheap ice lollies that taste divine after an exceptionally long and thirst quenching run. The sugar rush you get from it more than makes up for what was lost during the run and the cold, mind numbing sensation you get from it is enough to make you wish they came in xtra large sizes!

Damn, I feel like having one right now!

Weekend Crazies ...

The weekend is almost upon us and I simply live for weekends. While most people would relish sleeping in on weekends, me on the other hand wake up at an ungodly hour of 4am to get ready my weekend marathon training session with my running group.

The Gold Coast Airport Marathon is drawing nearer and the training plan has moved past its halfway mark which leaves no time for slacking off if I want to achieve some semblance of a good race in Australia. There are days when I question my sanity at having to wake up so damn early on the weekends. But there is no easy way out for anything in life.

So, I'd better look into that DiMarzio pick ups quickly tonight when I get home and then call it an early night. The bright side is I can still squeeze in an afternoon nap once all the running and house chores are done!