Taipei & Flu

Feeling very sick now, having caught flu while in Taipei... Guess I was totally weakened after the marathon and became susceptible to bugs. Sigh...

Anyhow, came back from a short business trip last week, based in Taipei and travelling all over Taiwan for 2+days. Had time to do some strolling on the first night, and decided to take some "tilted" photos.

Instant Mee & Chocolate Mud Cake

Spent the last 2+ hours in the kitchen, messing around with the production of a chocolate mud cake... and i realized something ...

I had recently made a mistake with a friend's wedding - thought it was a lunch, but it was actually a dinner; I had recently mistaken an appointment date from another friend, such that I thought the appointment was one week earlier; and just now, somehow, a 100 gm portion of unsalted butter became 250 gm... siao liao! And that part is the icing, which is the most important part of a chocolate cake, according to moi.

The whole "ordeal" of baking and clearing up took so long that I became very tired and settled with instant noodles for dinner. Of course, the explosive 7-Up over-shadowed the mess from the cake, but that is another story.


The cake turned out a little dry, and messy... but at least it tasted like cake. Ha ha... it is surprising how low expectations can help make things seem okay.

婚礼进行曲

听了这首胡彦斌唱的歌，觉得他唱得非常感伤...



Perfect for building on to melancholy for that ideal dark cloudy and windy day...

Marathon with personal best time

Just completed the Singapore StanChart Marathon with my personal best time according to my watch. Felt really good during the run, while I was initially worried about "cramping out" in the middle of it. The key milestones were 20-21 km (where I had embarassingly succumbed to leg cramps during a half-marathon few years back), 25-26 km (where I had to walk instead during a previous marathon), and between 30-42 km. But I wasn't particularly concerned about the last part, since cramp-then-walk-lor...

The weather was great, being mostly cloudy and windy in the early part. The sun did come up about 9+, but it was manageable, even with the sparse shade.

One worrying thing during the run was a strange and cold sensation on the head, and a weird heart beat. The cold sensation on the head could be due to my attempts to lower my body temperature by dousing water on my hair. Probably not a great idea, since I had not done so in the previous few runs.

The weird heart beat was more of a concern, with the number of runners who complete their ordeals and seemed fine, but collapsed some time after. Better monitor myself from here. No longer the young 20-something guy.

Just remember the great feeling during the run: hey, this is going well. my body is tired, and in pain, but all within tolerance. and i am moving pretty consistently, only stopping to drink water every now and then. i can stride, but choose to move slowly. i can look at the people around me, at their REASONs for joining the marathon, though there were a lot less people who put their REASONs on their back this year. i choose to smile at the supporters, who were cheering the runners on. i choose to smile and be curious about this lady who had a rag doll of a child strapped to her back, as support for the Children's Cancer Foundation.

Now that the 7th marathon is complete, i wonder if 10 is really all i should be planning to do. Well, we shall see.