idealism

Life at a Standstill

If life can be captured in a form of media, my life now is like a badly taken photo…

The Effort Pays

When my work-life balance went haywire last year, so did my physical well-being. Prolonged spending of long hours at work made it hard for me to spare time for gym or any form of exercising. My IPPT results took a downslide, which was why I had to return for RT.

(For those who aren’t familiar with the abbreviations, IPPT stands for “Individual Physical Proficiency Test” and is an annual standard physical fitness test to gauge the basic physical fitness of an individual. It is compulsory for all able Singapore males. RT is the “Remedial Training” for those who did not manage to pass the IPPT for the year.)

So I started changing my lifestyle a little in March. I joined the gym, planned some cardio and weight training and watched my diet. I aimed to lower my BMI and build some strength. I targeted to pass the next IPPT.

After 6 months, it’s finally pays off!

I just took IPPT on Tuesday for RT Phase 1 and I passed. Not only did I clear everything, including the 2.4km run, I actually made it for a silver award!!! That’s $200 monetary award! YAY!!!

The real reward for me was not the silver award or the money, but the achievement for the efforts I have put in. It’s a good feeling when you see your hard work and perseverance pay off.

Coming up next (perhaps)... 1/2 marathons!

Long Distance Life

It has been a busy week. We’ve just moved back to Singapore and now making preparation for Sunsun to stay at my dad’s house, so she’d have company while I travel for work. From next week on, I’d be flying to and fro KL every week… Flying to KL on Monday and back in Singapore on Friday. It will be more hectic but I know I’d manage.

It’s also a good chance to catch up with friends. I’ve not met up with many friends for a while now. This time, an ex-Gillette colleague just flew in town and there will be a gathering of ex-Gillette peeps this week. I can’t wait to catch up with them.

It’s Good To Be Home

Just got back in Singapore on Thursday and life felt like being hit on the restart button. It feels good to be home again.

After running a few errands on Friday morning, we spent the afternoon at VivoCity. Met up with Sam for a haircut. If you’re in Singapore and is adventurous for a funky hairstyle, look for him at Esprit Salon. Sam has been my only stylist for the past 5 years… except for the past year when he went back home to Kuching for an attempt at starting a business. He now back and he’s SNIPPING!!!

Cobie just had a small accident at home while playing in Annie’s room. He lost a claw on his left paw. Two days later, we noticed him limping and we found some infection on the paw where he lost the claw. Naughty Cobie!!! He must have been licking on the paw. Brought him to the vet and he’s got bandaged for the day before we put an Elizabethan collar on him.

My sister Jerrica is back from Perth! We had great time catching up. Last night, we even had dinner at 60s Live Seafood @ Fairways Drive.

It’s a nice open air restaurant nicely tucked away behind riding club, next to the Green Fairways Golf Course And Driving Range. Becky recommended the chilli crab and the BBQ crab. They’re FANTASTIC!!!

Movie Marathon Weekends

We made plans to head for Urbanscapes 2008 on Saturday…

... but that plan DIDN’T HAPPEN!!! Wails~

Instead, we ended up heading home early after some long fruitless hours at the Zara sales and picking up some dinner. I figured it was probably a little late by the time we left KLCC.

So we got 5 movies to enjoy for the rest of the night…

Kung Fu Panda ... started off light with some funny animation.
Eastern Promises ... some serious shit. Not for the faint of heart. If you like to catch some bloody brutal violent Russian mafia shits with a lil bit of free-willie, you’d like this one. Starring Viggo Mortensen who played as Aragorn in LOTR.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead ... dark and twisty. Despite sad misfortunes backfiring some ill intentions, I enjoyed the wicked sense of humor.
The Spiderwick Chronicles ... light yet adventurous. I had this lil kink for faeries and orges, but this movie was rated “PG” so there was no naked faeries. Bummer!
The Ruins ... if you like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes crossed with Apocalypto, you might like this movie. Lots of blood and explicit scenes, but killer vines don’t seem to scare me a bit.

I know… that’s some weird combo. To be honest, I have no idea how we ended up with this combo of titles to such extremes, but overall it was a good mix of comedy and tragedy for one night.

Although… I did end up wishing I had some whiskey at 2am.

Anything You Want…

Some girls hate it. Some love it. It depends on your capacity to meet up to the ‘anything’ she has in mind. In my case, it’s plain ‘I-hate-to-pick-the-wrong-answer’ anything…

From experiences with the 4 (or was it 5?) ex-girlfriends and finally now my wife, deciding on an answer to a simple “What shall we do tonight?” has always been mixed with several layers of sublimal trick questions. After a bit, one will realize it takes some screening through a multi-layered checklist before you’d want to answer anything.

... Did you forget what you promised her before?
... Is it an important date tonight?
... An ex-pet death anniversary?
... Am I forgetting what she hates?
... Will it be too selfish to do what I want?
... Is that a test or an offer for my choice?

“Anything you want…” was always the easiest answer, but there can be negative implications:

1. You’re too lazy to think. You don’t care.
2. You may end up spending more than you thought.
3. You’re ignorant of new happening places. You have no life. You’re boring.

So I stopped with the ‘anything’ answer. Over the years of courtship and dating phase, I did some homework to avoid being stuck with not knowing where to bring a date. Sometimes an idea can be repeated with a little new twist, like ‘I heard there’s a carnival there’ freshies. It worked out fine.

After marriage, things started to take a different turn. There’s no more excuse. You’d soon run dry of idea. More effort is needed to spice up the life of facing the same face everyday. From “Let’s go to the same old places again”, it will gradually move to “Anywhere is fine, as long as it’s with you…” and then to my current spot… asking her “Where do you feel like going tonight?” before she asks.

I kid you…

Seriously, it’d come to a stage when she’d understand you’re just being human and can’t always come up with Casanova ideas all the time. In time to come, she will know the meaning of ‘reasonable’ and will even suggest something for you. In my case, I do mean it when I say ‘Anything you want’... I just want her to get what she wants. I’ve never refused any reasonable proposal.

It gives me a better bargaining power after she gets what she wants. Heehee…

What Is Happiness?

How do you find satisfaction in life?

Strangely, this question didn’t come from my teenage sister. It came from my father, who is soon turning 60 next month.

Dad came over to KL for a visit. We were having dinner when we chatted on various topics. One of the persisting topic that is always mentioned over dinner is how depressing it is when his girlfriend from China can’t get visitor’s visa into Singapore to be with him, and how he finds the family so dispersed at home due to his frequence in China over the past years.

It’s a tricky situation, if you ask me.

A brief background of this… After Mom passed away 14 years ago, Dad went into a depressive state for a few years and his kids were left to learn independence. In fact, we were used to independence from him before Mom’s passing as he used to be outstationed at the factory in Indonesia for work. Over the years, we took care of ourselves while giving Dad enough time to heal. By the time we, the older kids, went abroad for studies, Dad was well enough to return to work at the factory. That left Annie, the youngest, to spend her primary school years mostly by herself.

Years later, Dad wasn’t happy with the restructure of the manufacturing team during his absence so he left the factory and started his own marketing company, venturing into Malaysia and Greater China markets. During one of his trips to China, he met the woman who eventually became his girlfriend. They have been together for 9 years now. While he’s trying to save his ‘dispersed family’ in Singapore, his short-lived attempts backfired and found comfort from this girlfriend in China.

So over the dinner, he was complaining to me about how he lacks satisfaction in life. He lost his wife at age 46, found nonahievement in his career at age 50 and now torn between his girlfriend and his kids at 60. How worse can a mid life crisis get?

I told him…

Don’t persist what you can’t change. My sisters and I are already adults and we have been independent half our lives. Instead, let us adapt and live on. Perhaps one day your girlfriend will be granted the visiter entry and you’d spend more time in Singapore. When my sisters get married, they’d appreciate family life like I do now and spend more time at home. If everything goes as smoothly as you want, then where’s the challenge in life? Where’s the excitement?

Key word is patience.

Not sure if he understood my points, or he was just nodding out of fatigue. I’m already taking over his much neglected business to relief him from stress so I hope he’d get better soon.

My Non-Alcoholic Days

To be honest, I’m utterly bored when abstaining from alcohol.

Not that I drink a lot. I used to but those were the younger puking days. I could easily settle for Johnny Walker these days before the abstinence.

I’m abstaining because of my liver. The last time I had a blood test in April, doc told me I’ve got fatty liver and it’s affecting my cholesterol level. That’s why I’m working hard at the gym these days. So that’s why I’m not drinking at all.

But I hope this will end soon. I long to visit the clubs here in KL. Clubbing without drinking can be torturous.

So for now, I’m settling for coffee and earl grey. Tricky part about that is the different venues. Kopithiams (coffee shops) may work for a while but I get bored easily. The kopi tok-kok sessions can be a great way to catch up with friends, but I’d get restless. I’d rather have my caffeine overdose at home where I’d have my trusty PSP handy.

I’m still a lazy mofo… Heehee

Adrian has been asking me out for dinner/kopi so many times, but I’ve been too busy/tired with work+gym. Sorry bro. Haven’t and won’t forget ya.

FTOTD:
Mellow yet catchy. Remixed by Gareth Emery. Emery was aka GTR and is the creator of my all time favorite hard trance track Flood Control.

Too Much Gym?

Had a whole weekends of edginess and lotsa movies. Even got a rheumatic knee.
Not sure if all these are due to working out at the gym 4 times last week…

Losing weight is hard work…

Actually, my main aim is to reduce BMI. Need to lose the fat in my liver and keep my cholesterol level healthy.

Anyway, here’s my favorite track these couple days. It helped me soothe my nerves.

CFNM

Just learnt a new acro…

CFNM: “Clothed Female Naked Male”

... don’t ask me how I found it.