Sunday, July 26, 2009

Larian Puncak Bkt Antarabangsa 26 July'09

I ahve never run at this place before. In fact, I never even came and look after the landslide tragedy. I came yesterday to survey the place and to know the route. I realise, the route was very hilly with steep hills.

As I left the house, I started to rain like cats and dogs at half way point. I had to wait like 15minutes. The race was suppose to start at 7pm. So when I looked at my watch, it was 6.50am. The rain didnt stop, so I just whack in the rain with my rain coat and reached there at 7.05am. But the race was not started yet as all of them were waiting for the rain to stop.

I didnt strech at all and never even apply my muscle cream. When the race started at 8am, I just saw around 100 of them at my category. As usual, I was with Veronica (Hot Portugese Girl). She stays there, so she has the home ground advantage.

When ther race started, the front pack just got of with fast & Furious start. One stupid old man came and stopped his bike between the runners. I just shouted at him " Puk***" and run away.

It was steep down hill for the 1st 400M and the front pack just left me. Then it started to go uphill. I tried to maintain my pace at uphill and at certain point theer were flat routes. Thus, I tried to close the gap / overtake the person in fron of me. As the uphill going more steep, Stanley and 3 other Malay guys overtook me. I just maintained my pace behind them as my strategy was to overtake them at final 500M.

Suddenly, when we reached the Petronas, the marshal asked us to stop and told us that we were at finishing line already. What the heck? there were no proper distance marker and the finishing was at juction and not straight road.

My placing was 16th. Then I realise, the distance was not 7km and it was around 5km. My pacing was for 7km. Crap.

Anyway, still amange to finish within top30 and came back with a medal.

My running mates results:
26'45 - Naresh Kumar, Pm37 (7th)
26'51 - Vincent Wong, Pm10 (8th)
27'04 - Gunaselan, Pm39 (9th)
00'00 - Ben Swee, Pm50 (10th)
28'17 - Stanley Cheong, Pm53 (12th)
28'22 - Meyyappa Manickam, Pm58 (16th)
31'01 - Ghejanthran (20th)
33'19 - Teh Seong Yee (24th)

Area B1 Toastmaster of The Year




Announcing to you "The Area B1 Toasmaster of The Year 2008/09" goes to...............................

"LOW LAI LIEN" from Deloitte KassimChan TMC.

1. She sustained the 10/10 DCP goal for 2nd consecutive term

2. Though the firm freeze the recruitement, she managed to recruite 14 members during the year

3.The club's membership dropped to 16 at Jan'09 but she didn't loose her hope and strongly came back to charter strength.

4.Under her management, the club produced a "Top 6 finalist" in District International Speech Contest'09

5. Her management enhanced the bilateral relationship between Area clubs such as DU Adv, UNITAR, Lafarge, Phoenix, YSP, and many more around Petaling Jaya

6.Succesfully bringing back "Speechcraft" to DKC after absence of 5 years.

7. When the firm had shortage of staffs, the members were busy completing their job responsibility. Yet, she managed to motivate the members and ensured them to complete their educational goals.

Let's give her our grand applause.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Siemens Run 19 July'09

Distance: 10km
Placing: 24th
Timing: 42:24

Though Im still recovering from KLIM, but I needed long run to ensure Im fit for IAFG. I got stuck in between of the crowd. So I had to get my way out. I saw Ronnie in front of me. So I just paced him. As the route gets challenging, I was lagging behind. Thanks to 5 water stations placed along the route.

I still managed to keep the distance at 50m with Ronnie. When I was at Bank Rakyat, turning into Jln Raja Laut, I increased my pace as it was only 2km to finishing. I thought that we will be turning at Maju Junction but it went further to Cycle and Carriage complex. Coming towards Sogo, I saw Traditional drummers were playing the music. Nice to see Malay, Chienese, Punjabi and Tamil, all to getehr at one place. That music really swithed on my Turbo. I knew at Globe, I had only 500M to finishing. I saw Ronnie was getting tired, thus upon the traffic light at Dataran, I just overtook him and sprinted all the way to finishing line. Finnaly, I beat Ronnie after long many attempts.

Friday, July 17, 2009

MIC New Line Up

President: Samy Vellu

Deputy President: G.Palanivel (Samy Vellu's Choice)
Dato S.Subramaniam (Old Face not giving up)
S.Sothinathan (Lost in General Election)
Only one winner

Vice President: Dr.S.Subramaniam (Samy Vellu's Choice)
SK Devamani (Samy Vellu's Choice)
S.Saravanan (Samy Vellu's Choice)
S. Vellpari (Samy Vellu's Son, who is not in his team)
T.Rajagopalu (Lost in General Election)
VKK Thiagarajan (Old Face not giving up)
Only 3 winners.

Men Youth Head: T.Mohan (Lost in General election)
T. Muthu Veloo (Samy Vellu's nephew)


My Comment:
Can all these people be trustable. No new faces. Our MIC Man happyly announce his succesor which is really unprofessional. As party president, you are not suppose to support anybody. Look at Najib. Though he supported some people indirectly but he didnt publicise it. It's totallly unethical. "Valzha MIC"

Sunday, July 12, 2009

11 Gifts to Shut People's mouth

Yesterday at 11.11am, our dearest Prime Minister has announced 11 gifts for the people's benefit.

Let's look at some of it:
20% toll discount for frequent users who pay toll 80 times a month or more via the Smart Tag or Touch ’n Go, effective Sept 1
My Comment:
Are you expecting me to spend toll for 80times which means avaerage of 5 times in 2 days. This is not a plan to reduce "rakyat's " burden but to eat more cash from rakyat.

RM150mil allocation for the Tekun scheme, which is a fund for entrepreneurs, and another RM15mil specifically for young Indian entrepreneurs
My Comment:
Does this mean that Indians are only going to get RM15mil and the rest wont be for them. This shows that you are doing segregation among races. Why can't you make it avaliable for everyone. We need unity. This is maybe to avoid another HINDRAF and tpo ensure Samy Vellu gets his seat back.

Some 44,000 low-cost houses under the Program Perumahan Rakyat in the Federal Territory offered for sale to existing tenants
My Comment:
These houses are damn low quality, where you need to spend another RM40-RM50k to do the wiring, plumbing and some goundworks. Looks like Najib has no money, so this is how he wants to get rakyat's money.

More than 7,000 individual taxi permits approved, with another 3,000 to be approved in the coming three months
My Comment:
Very Good. More Traffic Jam in Klang Valley. Every approval involves black money. More money for PM.

Setting up a new trust fund, Amanah Saham 1Malaysia, with a maximum size of 10 billion units.
My Comment:
Who's going to benefit from this? The Whole Country or only specific races?

McDonalds Olympic Day Run 12 July'09

The gisft of my harwork
The shoe that made me to move forward

The previous olympic run was during 2004 where I finished out of top 100 and came back empty handed. This time I told myself that I need to redeem my pride.
I heard that Choi (Running shoe marketer) is having FREE shoe trial at Bkt Aman. It's a new brand called "Newton". Therefore, I made use of the chance to try out the shoe and went there early. Luckyly, my size was available. When I wear that shoe, I had the confortable feelings.
The race begun, I was stuck in between, so I had to come out from the big group. I saw Amutha in front of me, I paced her for 2km, then I realised, she was going slow, so I went on my own. On my way I overtook Stanley, Teck Sin and Guna.
As the way was challenging with hills at Bkt Tunku, I had to manage my pace and not to push too much. When I reached the Parlimen, I knew that it's only 2.5km to finishing. So, I increased my pace and manage to overtake a big group of people.
Reaching towards Bank Rakyat, I realised there was a Kenyan Lady running in fornt of me. I overtook her too to make it a sweet finishing. I was placed 29th and my timimng was 31minutes and 41 seconds.
I realised that the shoe supported my running and enhanced my speed towards the final 2.5km. The shoe was light, flexible and breating.
My next race would be Siemens Run which will be for 10km. Hope I can do my season best there.


Thursday, July 9, 2009

Back to Bahasa Malaysia

Yesterday, Our Dearest Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the method of teaching for Science & Maths will be reverted to Bahasa Malaysia from Year 2012 onwards.

His reason was that:
1. Lack of staff strength for English Language
My Comment:
If you have lack of staff strength, then recruit more, increase training for them. It's important for us to have adequate Human Capital. This trainings are investments not expense. Train them during Teachers Training College itself.

2. Rural area students are finding it difficult to adapt to English Language
My Comment:
Our Vision 2020 is to see the country on par with Japan, England, US and Australia. To acheive that status, we have to move forward towards internationalisation / globalisation. How long are you going to pamper this rural people to be in rural. They need to change. Come outside their comfort zone. Make them to realise the actual international standards fo education. Looks like Kapung people will be Kampung people forever.

3. Chinese school students prefers their mother tongue to be used
My Comment:
This is Malaysia. Not China. Even in India, people are studiying history, geography and sceince in English. But they never compalined about their mother tongue as they do have Tamil Language. Moreover, the media and enviroment supports them to have stroing mother tongue.
It's not necessary to change the medium of language in order to pass the exam. Its the patriotism and love that sustains the beauty of the language.

Tun Dr. Mahathir's Comment:
“These matters, of course, cannot be resolved overnight. But it’s the Government’s responsibility to train and supply capable teachers. I’m confident that our teachers will be able to study and teach in English.
But if we can train teachers to learn English, why can’t we do the same by training them to learn and teach Science and Mathematics in English?And at that time, not many teachers knew the national language. Now, it’s all right if we mix a little bit of Malay and English, but at the same time we need to improve the ability of our teachers too"

Whatever it is. This move is just crap. It shows how SMART is our GOVERMENT.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Holiday @Krabi, Thailand

















After Hectic Work combined with Toastmasters and my Marathon Training for 1st months, I really needed a BREAK. Furthermore, Inever had chance to go "Honeymoon" since I had to report back to work after my wedding.

So I made use of my free time to gor for holidays. The best part, my manager and partner ask us go for leave to freshen ourself. I was surveying for good place to relax. Initiallt I thought of going Langkawi. But it's at Malaysia and I can go there anytime.

Since it's the 1st outing with my wife, I would like to go somewhere special. Then I thought of Bali, But I have been there, so I surveyed from my frens and the majority answers were "Krabi"

Immediately I decided and booked my flight ticket. "Lets Go Krabi".

I surveyed through internet on the nice places to visit and hotels. But realy had no idea wher im going to stay, or activities to do although I had rough ideas via internet.

When I reached the Krabi Airport, which is just 1/3 of our LCCT, there was an information counter. I approached them to ask for details of Hotel. They suggested me a hotel with good rate and location.

The hotel was good with seaview. The whole area was filled with tourist and important part no traffic jam.

1st Day

-Just relax at room watching DVD and walk around the shops and survey what to eat and shop.


-Went to Indian Restaurant for Dinner.

-Went for Nice Thai Foot Massage which was only 200Bath(RM21)

2nd Day

-Went to Phi Phi Island Tour. It's an island tour which covers 8 islands. The waters were Crystal clear that i can even see the fish swimmming around me. I also did snorkeling (1st time in my life) and the experience was just fantastic. I saw colorful fishes "live" which normally I see in aquariums and the stones.

We also witness Monkey's drinking Coke at a island called "monkey Bay".

We enjoyed the colors of sea which changes from Light Green to Dark Green and Blue.

-Went to Italian restaurant and ate pizza.

-Walk along the Ao Nang Beach

-Shopping along the beach shops.

Day3

-Went to Elephant tracking. The elephant took us a ride around the jungle for an hour.

-bath at Waterfall with strong water force

-Tiger Cave - this caves has temple at the top of the mountain. You have to climb staircase(1235 steps). The steps were quite steep, where we had to climb side ways. It was definetely a challenge for my wife as she didnt experienced it before. Although, an active person will climb within half hour but I had to guide my wife and motivate her so that she will finish the challenge. Though she was nearlly to quit half way point, be she took the courage to finish the task.

Upon reaching the top, we saw big Buddha statue and the scenery was nice at the top of the hill where we can see the whole Krabi.

-Went to Krabi Fishery Centre where there were "Nemo" fish and siakap and other fishes preserved for fishermen.

Went to Mcd for Dinner. taste was good but expensive compare to Malaysia.

Day4

-Rented motorcycle for 150Bath for 24hours and went to Krabi Town just by using the map. Manage to cover the whole town in 3hours and did shopping at hypermarket called "Big C".

-Took lunch at KFC which was also expensive (199Bath for 2 person).

- Dinner at a road side stall along the Ao nang beach which costed only 35Bath and iceblended fruit juice for 20Bath.

-Sice it was friday nite, I went clubbing and had a vodka lime.

Day5

-Checkout and back to Kuala Lumpur
Summary:
-Good place for snorkeling, kayaking, scuba diving
-can just relax yourself after long hours of work
-no traffic jam and people dont rush for things
- nice and cheap local delicacies
-good place for shopping for cloths and statues.
-Really Cheap alcohols



Shame of our athletes

Today I was watching Buletin Utama at TV3 and it was reported that our National Sepak Takraw Team lost to South Korea. What the Heck!
First, you complain about "servis Kuda", then "sintetik Ball". Now What?

This is our traditional sports and look at underdogs like South Korea is beating us. We should feel shame about it. Then the President of the Malaysian Sepak Takraw Association, "Some Datuk" said that they are still investigating the loss and possible way to improve.

Come on, the sepak takraw team was in deep shit since 90s and you idiots never do anything. But now want to talk "KOK".

The President said that for Sea Games they are just aiming for silver as Thailand is very strong. A true sportsman will never admid loss before starting the game.

Team like Myanmar and Vietnam who is using Malaysians as coach is beating us. I think all the current players should be sacked from the team and new generation should be included and recruited.

More important, take out all the politicians in the association as they are the to "makan money" and to talk KOK.

As we are suffering from financial difficulties, why are you limiting your sponsors. When "Perillys", a tabacco company was sponsoring the team and league, our team was superb.

Now, no sponsor and ministry says no to tabacco and alcohol sponsors. Come on, Europeans and American teams can do that because they have other strong sponsors, but in Malaysian thats not the case.

We were initially tarnisehed by the Football team when they lost to Laos. Then, Hockey team when they lost to France and Egypt. Now Sepak Takraw. Soon what other sports?