Christmas with Tim

I was supposed to spend the month of December in India whilst the boys are in France. I had planned some yoga & meditation time : Shivananda Ashram in Kerala, Ama Ashram, Osho in Pune...... After the bombings in Mumbai, my mother kept telling me not to go to India ; and though I adore my mother, I wouldn't normally pay much attention to such doom and drama. But for some reason, my inner voice told me I shouldn't go. So, I was debating if I should follow mum & dad on their Dubai holiday (but wasn't sure if they really wanted me along!); go with Chin and the girls to Hawaii and do the womens marathon (would have been great but I could not get tickets); or just stay here and learn to do nothing and be by myself!

Anyway, in the midst of searching for tickets to Hawaii, I, with no apparent reason, prior planning or warning, asked for a ticket to LA. 1 week before xmas, I managed to get a flight to LA on redemption miles on SQ. Either the recession is really bad or God thought that it was time that I made that trip to America to visit Tim!

Tim and I have quite the history. He's my very 1st boyfriend and we have a love story that spanned 2 decades and 4 countries : America 86-87, England in 2000, (where we both lived but didn't manage to get back together) and eventually in Singapore & KL 2006-2007! Tim returned to the US 1year ago and there was talk about the boys and I following, but nothing was cast in stone. 2008 was quite a special year for me though: My new spritual awakening, quitting my job ...... and the boys just seemed so happy and settled in Singapore that moving to America really didn't seem like the thing to do.

1986 in Kansas (Ellsworth Dormitory, KU)

1987 in Kansas (@ Cedarwood Appartments)

Nov 2005 in Bangkok (when we got back together again)

Dec 2005 in Whistler
Feb 2006 in Spore (when he decided to move over)

April 2006 in Vegas (when he proposed by the Bellagio fountain)
Sept 2006 @ Mum's Place (Tim's birthday)

Dec 2006 in Brisbane
Dec 2006 in our house in Bangsar
2007 Miso Ramen @ our favourite restaurant in KL
Dec 2007 in Spore (just before he returned to America)
Dec 2008 in Vegas (@ the Barry Manilow Concert! :)

So, here we are now; 22 yrs of history and living on 2 different continents!

Mekong Road Trip (and end of computer saga)

The mini-computer that was blessed with milk is now out of the workshop with a new motherboard and reformatted hard-disk. To be honest, the engineers at the service center tried really hard to salvage the files and did actually manage to start-up the computer so I could retrieve my files. I brought the computer home and with good intentions, started transferring all the files to my Lacie hard drive. We had friends over that day though and I was so distracted that I thought I had transferred everything, but I had not. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I did not copy over my journal from the trip nor any of the photos! Fortunately, I had uploaded some photos onto facebook so at least we have a few low-res photos to look at........... SINGLE MOMENT SINGLE ACTIVITY. When will I learn?

We flew from Singapore to Bangkok and started our journey from here through Thailand, Laos, back to Thailand, to malaysia then Singapore. Trains, buses, pick-ups, taxis, boats....

The trains were by far the best mode of transportation. Clean and safe. We took 2nd class sleeper trains whenever possible and they were fabulous. The lower berths (marginally more expensive) are so huge that all 3 boys could sit and play cards on the bed! Trains in Thailand are definitely cleaner than in Malaysia. We could smell Malaysia once we crossed the border!

VIP buses in Thailand and Malaysia are pretty good too. (Try out the Green Coach from ChiangMai to ChiangRai!)

Buses in Laos are however a different story. They have VIP buses which are double decker buses and air-con buses which are slightly cheaper. We were going to do the 2 day slow boat down the mekong from HuayXai to LuangPrabaeng but were dissuaded by a tour agent who wanted to sell us VIP bus tickets instead. The bus ride was horrific. The VIP bus was NOT a VIP bus and was filled with village people puking away and spitting everywhere. The bus broke down after 1/2hr and it felt like the driver was on some sort of death mission to run us off the mountain. The bus from Luangprabaeng to Vientiane was not much better except this time we did it in the dark so we could not see the edges of the mountain..........

Crossing over from ChiangKong to HuayXai by sampan

Riding at the back of pick-ups and in jeeps....... much to the joy of the boys!

The most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. (LuangPrabang)

Temples galore........ I would normally be able to give you the names of all the temples we visited but they were in the journal; ya, the one that was erased! Well, the temple on the extreme left is a pretty famous one in Vientiane. I think there are 50,000 buddhas in the temple.

Our favourite past-time. Massages @ USD4/- were so irresistable; we had one everyday!

New found passion : Go-karting! "Almost as good as ski-ing"

Boys went to cooking class in Chiangmai and made the best curry I ever tasted!

Catfish in Nongkhe
Boys doing their bit for the environment by picking up rubbish along the streets in LuangPrabaeng! The "game" (who can pick up the most rubbish!) was introduced by Philippe from ThongBay and the boys quickly got into it!

Favourite places to stay : Baan Hannibah in ChiangMai. Beautiful teak house with gorgeous beds and fluffy duvets!

ThongBay in LuangPrabaeng with amazing views of the river and gorgeous gardens for the children to play.

Golden Triangle Thai-Laos Border

Remote villages in the mountains of Lao Akha Woman in Hilltribes of Thailand

LoyKrateong Water Festival in ChianRai (We released floats into the mekong and balloons into the air to wash away our sins and to ask for blessings.........)

Playing with tigers @ Tiger Kingdom in Chiangmai. (Don't go. It was very expensive and not worth the trip!)

We climbed up some hill in LuangPrabaeng (it was written in my journal.........) and saw Buddha's footprint. "Was Buddha a man? Why is his foot so big?" exclaimed the boys. haha

Waking up at 5.30am to see the monks collect alms in LuangPrabaeng. (It was horrific how the street vendors were hawking food and making the tourist buy stuff to "feed the monks". )

Our favourite cafe : Joma in Luangprabaeng. (Cinnamon buns, de-caff cappucino, warm sandwiches.......... yummy)

We visited our old house 138 Lor Maarof in KL and got the tour..... They built a pond in the front yard and turned the house into an office!

But the best part about the trip was all the people we met up with. old friends and new friends.............

PENANG- Jasmin (knight in shining armor), Shannon, Johan and Farrah visiting the site of the Tsunami!

BANGKOK-Having breakfast with Olivier (Shanghai) after yoga

KL - Michelin friends

LUANGPRABAENG - Pascal from ThongBay

NONGKHAE - Richard & Pum who picked us up off the streets and welcomed us into their home.

Train trip - Laotian American uncle with stories of war, prison and fleeing the communist!

Singapore Marathon - 1st Half-Marathon

I ran my firt half marathon on Sunday and am very proud to say that I completed it; running all the way! Slow, but still running.........

I woke up at 4.30am to chow down a piece of peanut butter bread before heading off to get a ride from sister Peng and BIL Paul. My darling sister had bought me much needed equipment: body glide, gu-gel and a super thick pair of socks to protect my blistering feet!

We got to Raffles City before 5.30am and I still managed to be late for the 6.30am flag-off! I met up with galfriends; Chin, San and Lynette and we mucked about going to the toilet, eating bananas, drinking red bull and were 10mins late starting. The girls were so super-lapak about the race that we ran at snail's pace and chatted non-stop for the 1st hr. I have only run with Chin once before and found the chatting quite disconcerting since I normally need to be quite focused when I run! I am however very relieved that I ran with the girls this time because the chatting helped me pace myself and made the whole run go by so quickly!

I ran with my pedometer but the distance per the distance markers and per my pod were so different that it confused me. (At the end of the run, my pod read 24km!!! Think it is time to get it calibrated!) The 12km mark was probably the most difficult. Chin had been up since 2am recce-ing the site for work so was not taking the run seriously and Lynette had a bad knee and wasn't really allowed to run. Both girls dropped off at about the 10km mark and I pretty much ran with San all the way except for the last 2km. I was starting to hit the ceiling and needed to pick up speed to stay focused so I "abandoned" ship and went ahead.

I finished the race at 2hrs33mins (chip time), 11mins behind my alpha-sis Peng (that gave birth 4 months ago!) I could probably have done it quicker, but I didn't kill myself over the run and actually had fun! (995th place out of 3,000 people is within the 50th Percentile so Nic won't give me an ear-full this time!)

The champ of the day was Stephan though. He ran the 750m kids dash like his life depended on it. He kept telling me that he wanted to get the Gold Medal. I told him that everybody was gonig to get a Gold Medal anyway but I guess he didn't believe me! Honestly, I had difficulty keeping up with him!
Steph collecting everyone's race kits!

All in all, it was a great day. I felt so good after the race that I was ready to head-off to Hawaii to do the Marathon with the girls this weekend. I was all psyched up to go but could not get a flight! sigh.

Mathieu is 10 going on 40!

Mathieu turned 10 on the 3rd December and had a week long of festivities!

1. Joint birthday celebration with cousin Ysabelle organised by Nana.
2. Sleep-overs and get-togethers with God-Bro Tzen Wei and the Wong Kids!
3. Massive playdays with the Fus & Mas.....

Mat had super-duper bday presents; i-touch, polar watch & heart-rate moniter, mission mars lego, electronic building sets..... I was kindda envious of his presents!

Everything seemed a little too grown-up for me though. He had a grown-up birthday cake at Nana's (with 1 big candle instead of 10 little candles!), decided not to have a cake at home but wanted durian ice-cream instead, requested to have sushi for his birthday lunch. What happened to the boy who wanted Power Rangers Birthday cakes and remote control cars? The kids are growing up so quickly!

WHY I HAVE NOT BEEN BLOGGING + Summary of Mekong trip

We have been back from our Thailand/Laos/Malaysia roadtrip for a week now and some of you must be wondering why I have not written anything about our wonderful experience!

I actually kept a little journal whilst on the trip (on the super-duper small Kojinsha mini-computer that mum got me), but Stephan spilled a glass of milk onto the computer at Starbucks in KL and the computer is pretty much fried! Photos and journal with it! Computer is now in the repair shop and I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will manage to resurrect the computer from the dead!

In summary, the trip was great, but we went a little too quickly through the countries and did not really have time to settle down into a routine anywhere. It was therefore quite tiring in the end. The boys were really great on the treacherous bus and train rides but were not terribly enthusiastic over the temple visits.

LuangPrabaeng was of course the highlight of the trip and we stayed there for 5 days. Everywhere else was pretty much a blur...... chiangmai, chiangrai, chiangsen, goldentriangle, huayxai, vientiane, Nongkhe, penang, KL!

The 2nd highlight was Penang where we stayed with Jasmin (my knight in shining armor from the tsunami) and his beautiful family. Kids had a whale of a time with Johan and Farah! We went to the Penang Club for dinner (site of the big accident). It was a pretty windy day and Nic kindda freaked out and made a fuss about having dinner on the patio. :) LOL

We met tons of people on the trip. Old friends that we had planned to meet (Olivier in Bangkok; Joe in Chiangmai, Jasmin in Penang; David, Veron & Michelin gang in KL..........), old friends that we did not plan to meet (running into Molly & Rodriguez from Crete on the streets of Luangprabaeng was quite the surprise!), new friends that we made (the taiwanese-thai couple that are migrating to brazil, little pascal from ThongBay, Pom & Richard from Nongkhe, the American-Laotian and his war stories, the Thai boy that spoke chinese, Sheila and Neils from Holland and the countless people that welcomed us into their homes, gave us food, shared stories with us and played with us. I think the people that we met along the way was what made the trip so special!

Anyway, I hope that the computer man will be able to salvage some photos from the computer and I will be able to post them later. :)

The Virgin Sprint Triathlon

Me with Tri-buddy YenYen

The afternoon before the race, I decided to take part in the Osim Corporate Traithlon, using the alias, Grace Ong (Bib #3130). Grace, Chin's cousin, was ill so she gave-up her slot, and me, crazy woman that I am, thought I'd just go and wing it with zero preparation and training.

In all honesty, it didn't turn out that badly. Firstly, they cut down the swim from 750m to 200m because the weather was bad. This helped tremendously as I really cannot swim and the plan was to do the breast-stroke all the way anyway. Chin and San had this great idea that we should find some fast ang-mohs so we could draft behind them (this is supposed to conserve energy). Anyway, it was a bad call because I ended up being pushed really close to the rope behind a very erratic swimmer and ended up tangled in the rope! Since it was only 200m, it really didn't make much difference with the time.

The 2nd leg was the 20km cycle. I have only taken my bike out seriously twice since I got it and I ride at a snail's pace of 25km/hr . I was also a little apprehensive since the roads were still wet from the heavy rains. Well, this was the tougest part. The 3 laps just went on and on FOREVER..... people were passing me right, left and center; including the handicapped who were just amazing with their stamina and guts. Boy was I relievedwhen it was over! My butt was hurting, my back was aching, my thighs were burning from rubbing against the bloody saddle!

After that, things could only get better! The 5km run was a little difficult to get into since I was still reeling from the torture of the bike, but once I got into it, it was actually the best part of the race. All my joyful running training helped! yeah!

Well, I (aka Grace Ong), finished 47th out of 73 with a time of 1hr and 31min (6.06m swim, 54min bike, 31min run). Not great, but respectable in my opinion. Mat, on the other hand, was a little harsh with "But mum, you didn't even make it to the 50th percentile!". Guess he gets that from me (sheepish look).

So that's it, my virgin sprint tri! Technically, I am still a virgin though as a sprint (and this is a cut-down sprint at that!) only qualifies as 2nd base........ the home-run will come when I do the Olympic Distance. The target is to do the OD before I turn 40 so I have some years left.....