My Christmas Eve Run
24.12.06 -
(To all readers: Have a blessed Christmas! I haven't written much about the true meaning of Christmas yet this year, but will blog about this first :))
I ran 16 km from my house to Pasir Ris today (in continuous rain)! :) [I used the ruler function in Google Earth] It took me 2.5 hours because I got hugely lost in Tampines and Pasir Ris among the housing estates due to the NON-CONTINUITY of the park connectors (I did think that a map would have been useful heh but I balked at photocopying the street directory and it would have gotten soggy anyway).. but it was great fun! I think getting lost makes it more fun - except for the fact that one ends up running in less nice surroundings (buildings, traffic lights) when one gets off the park connector :P
This time I was well-armed with my phone IN A ZIPLOC BAG, which also contained $10, my ez-link card and a packet of tissue :)
I started by running to Bedok Reservoir like the last time - I take the Siglap Park Connector through Bedok Town Park until I hit the big canal that runs from the reservoir, then I run along it to the reservoir. I had to double back on the canal though because Temasek Polytechnic denies access to the north perimeter of the reservoir from that direction. Then I followed a bit of park connector (recognisable by the tarmac, yellow footprints, distance markings) up to the junction where Bedok Reservoir Road turns into Tampines Ave 4. Then... it just petered out!
So I just continued running along Tampines Ave 4, which took me past the shopping cluster, which was packed with humanity - honking horns and last-minute Christmas shoppers huddling on the sidewalk (they must have thought I was crazy running in the rain - on Christmas Eve!). Haha I was somewhat embarrassed that my soaked and stinky self had to pass by all these people but I just didn't look at their expressions hahaha. I'm not familiar with that area so when I saw Tampines Interchange I ran towards it so that it would bring me to the MRT line (though if I'd just continued straight I'd have come to it anyway after passing Century Square and Tampines Mall - but I didn't know that). I was just about to follow it in the WRONG direction when thankfully, I suddenly met the friendly Park Connector with its direction markings AGAIN while going around the MRT station.
Park Connector Discontinuity #1: Instead of following Tampines Ave 4, I should have turned *right* at the first junction because I suspect the Park Connector resumed somewhere over that side. Though thankfully it was still the correct overall direction heh
Unfortunately, this happy reunion with the Park Connector did not last long because it promptly petered out AGAIN! (I'd met it at the end of one segment.) So I just kept going along Tampines Ave 4 in the direction it had been going when it had - well, failed to connect to anywhere! :P This brought me to Tampines North CC, near which I asked a young man with a pierced lower lip how to get to Pasir Ris. He told me to continue following the same road (which, as it turned out, was the correct overall direction, but it took me away from the Park Connector rather than to it).
Park Connector Discontinuity #2: Instead of following that road all the way, I should have turned left at the turning to Sun Plaza Park and followed the MRT line through the park to the beginning of the Tampines Park Connector proper. This would have led me a pleasant run next to another canal/river rather than floundering around the outskirts of Tampines :) - which at the time I couldn't even be sure were the outskirts haha!
In the end, the road I was following ended and I cut through some flats to another road (I was running parallel to the TPE, though I didn't know it). It was high time to ask directions again, and thankfully a very friendly Chinese-speaking lady directed me to look for a jogging path next to a big 'longkang', which sounded like the Park Connector. So I cut through some housing and a basketball court and to an open field... which, mindful of lightning (there wasn't any though which gave me heart), I skulked across at its narrowest point haha :) I really enjoyed this part - it was so nice being lost and exploring one's way back to the path.....
...Only to meet up with the Park Connector at the END of another segment! It ended in an overhead bridge across the TPE (which I didn't know anything about).
Park Connector Discontinuity #3: At this point, after crossing the overhead bridge, I should have turned LEFT and picked up the connector where it resumed beside the rest of the canal. This would have brought me straight to Pasir Ris Park, which was only a short distance off! And once I reached Pasir Ris Park, another 3 km would have brought me to the sea, which had been my target :P
But I didn't know that... and turned right instead, running parallel to the TPE instead of perpendicular to it, which brought me back down south! I eventually arrived at Pasir Ris (which part, I had no idea - though I was actually at the southern edge), and by following the road signs for cars pointing to Pasir Ris Park, went ONE BIG LOOP round the WHOLE of Pasir Ris, literally tracing the perimeter hahaha. I eventually wound up at... Aloha Loyang and Costa Sands, no less! Which kind of freaked me out because I'd had the impression they were far away from the MRT hahaha. Well, apparently not as far as I'd thought - because they were next to Downtown East, whose relation to the MRT I knew, and from there I was able to easily find Pasir Ris MRT hahaha. Whew! And on the way back to the MRT from Downtown East I finally met the Connector again, this time with only 40 m to go! Oh well, but by that time it was too late to go to Pasir Ris Park itself as I had to rush back for dinner so that I could go for the musical at Faith's church :P
To celebrate my return to the MRT line I went to NTUC at White Sands (which I had been yearning to see for the last hour hahaha) - originally to see if I could buy some kiddy Christmas sweets for myself and my brothers (because now that we're big no one buys us kiddy sweets anymore haha though we haven't grown out of them yet! :)) but there was very little selection so instead I bought fruit juice (a treat) for the family to drink at breakfast on Christmas Day :P plus ginger beer (heh yeah lah at that point I could only think about liquids)..
...and then I took the MRT home hahaha cos I was pressed for time. So everything in my 'emergency pack' came in useful in the end! :) the ez-link card to take the train home, the $10 to buy the fruit juice... And the tissue to wipe the seat dry after I took my drenched butt off it at my stop! :D :D
When I met my father at the door, he grinned and said, "You mean you took the MRT home in your soaked and disgusting state?? Eeee! I can smell you from here!"
Heh.
He kindly gave me a lift down to Faith's church after that :) for a good performance by the youth of her church which was simple yet powerful. I'm glad I went :) more about this another time too.
Anyway, I've just spent an hour comparing Google Earth and the street directory to find out where I went and where the park connectors really are haha (that's the only reason that I know what the roads are called lah!). So now I can run to Pasir Ris Park via the more scenic route next time :) I'm looking forward to that! But this was fun too! Though in terms of distance it still cannot compare with the time Jeremy Mong ran from his house in Aljunied to David's birthday party in the Changi chalets haha. (Jeremy [my running buddy] is currently trekking in Nepal with Sirui [my occasional psychiatrist] and Kokwei [my fashion consultant] :D I hope they are safe from Maoists and cyclospora and having a great Christmas!)
Now I want to run all over Singapore heh. I think in future I shall make longer exploratory runs further afield. (But I shall bring a running buddy along if it involves running near more secluded areas of course lah.) I'm sure with practice we could eventually run the length of Singapore if we wanted :P (it'd just take longer than it does in night cycling that's all :D :D)
Haha... the thought has just occured to me that if that were ever to happen we could even offer our shirts as advertising space and get sponsors! :D
Oh yes, and I have a suggestion for the government body in charge of the park connectors... BETTER SIGNPOSTING to tide runners over the gaps! :)
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Rainy Runs and Apple Pies
23.12.06
Heh today I actually had muscle aches in the flexor muscles of my legs after a short training time with the road relay people in KE yesterday morning (I went straight from Mo's sleepover.. after a breakfast of chocolate milk and garlic bread! I tell you Mo feeds her guests really well :))... not so much because it was rigorous at all as because it involved sprinting short distances, which I never do on my own heh.. we ran 400m, 200m and 100m just to get a gauge of how fast we were. Ironic - I can run 21 km at a pretty decent pace without getting muscle aches :D but ask me to sprint a total of 700m over 45 min and I'm aching the next day :(
(Note: I don't really know anything about road relay cos I'm someone who runs long distances by myself to work off steam but I've never run competitively before, with the exception of inter-block games, mainly because I was always too slow until this year suddenly due to running longer distances my speed over short distances also improved dramatically. I think I'm quite slow as a short-distance runner but I don't know what good or bad is so I can't tell!)
Anyway, thanks to my brother #1, who introduced me to it, I have discovered a lovely running route near my house: the route to Bedok Reservoir via the Siglap Park Connector (a total of 12.5 km from my house and back) - very pleasant route, broad path, open spaces, lots of trees and greenery - takes one through Bedok Town Park and Bedok Reservoir Park. The scenery is really nice... an oasis of countryside away from the compress of the city. The reservoir is a beautiful place (or maybe it's just that the Singaporean eye is normally so starved of a wide expanse of sky and a flat horizon that to see such a thing automatically makes the locality beautiful) - made lively by canoeists and fishermen. Only drawback is that it is NOT good to jog around the perimeter of the reservoir because the path is made of those shale crumbs (or whatever you call the stony sandy mixture that is what roads would be like if they didn't have asphalt to hold all the little bits together).
I ran it for the first time on Tuesday - by dashing out during the first lull in the rain, I managed to run about 2 km before it started raining again heh and ran in intermittent rain for the rest of it, which had its own charm, although because I stupidly forgot to take a plastic bag along my phone got wet and scared me by taking 24 hours to recover - all the same, I'm not expecting it to last much longer after all these wettings! And then the next day I read that I'd picked the wettest day in Singapore in 75 years for a long run haha. But it really helped to take away 6 months of tension... and I'd really needed a breath of clean, treeful air! :) I think I will explore these nice park connectors more and make greater use of them from now on... Maybe one day I should try finding the route to Pasir Ris Park haha :D
Anyway, today was such a productive day man. I baked an apple pie in the morning with my mother's recipe and made the dough and apple jam for another planned on Monday for the MCF party at Danson's house on Tuesday. Then I fried macaroni (with instructions). Both apple pie and macaroni were for my church youth group Christmas party this evening, and I was in charge of organising the food... Very happy that party was a success, thanks to hilarious games (under gamemaster Dezhi!), carols (led by Chee Keen), the testimonies (by Chee Kit, Shaun and Yen Chin) and the message by Hsia Pin, and FOOD, brought by everyone - just the right amount in the end :) Am happy that everyone played their parts in bringing yummy food! And glad that my apple pie was well received and not a disaster as I had feared :) (though the crust needs some tweaking cos it was so crumbly! never mind the one I make for Danson's house can be better!)
On Wednesday I'd baked gingerbread men at my house with Faith :) a very enjoyable session too. We made enough gingerbread men to fill one large biscuit-tin for each of us! :) I'd been dreaming about baking (especially apple pie) all through paeds end-of-posting test week haha. Never been much of a baker before but I'm trying to change that haha. To me baking's a very good way to relax in a stress-free way (as opposed to doing things that require a lot of brain work heh like writing poetry or drawing, which to me is 'relaxing in a stressful way' haha). I think the 3 things I like best about baking are:
1. It's a process of creation which is both relaxing and fun, and not a strain on the eyes (my eyes were so tired out in all my hospital postings!)
2. You get to make people happy
3. Other people often offer to do the washing-up after they eat your stuff haha
I wonder if there'll be time for me to try baking my favourite cinnamon cookies anytime soon! :D
If I don't stay in hall next academic year, I think I would not mind cooking dinner for my family every night haha :) I want to learn how to cook all our usual dinner dishes unsupervised within the next few years anyway (at the moment I can only follow instructions and cook step-by-step with people around to tell me what to do next)!
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Actors whom I miss watching!
22.12.06
Yesterday I went to Mo's house for an afternoon of fun and pigging out and a sleepover. Mo was such a terrific host! Within the time it took to watch "The Devil Wears Prada" and play Pictionary, she'd stuffed us with root beer floats with vanilla ice-cream, homemade warm chocolate muffin/cake with more vanilla ice-cream (a heavenly combination!), peanut cookies that she'd made herself, popcorn and cotton candy!! :D :D
We had lots of fun watching the movie and subsequently playing lots of games - pictionary, Hangman (with movie titles), 'Where In The World Is Carmen SanDiego' (board game version) and Cluedo - with a break in-between for dinner (we went to the Chomp Chomp eating place, some distance from the house, in Serangoon, where we bumped into a surprised JX who lives 2 min from there haha :)) David, Jinesh and Zhiyong (who's a great guesser for games like pictionary!) were the only guys there (they did NOT stay for the sleepover) - greatly outnumbered of course by Mo, Neela, Susan, Harti, Nisha, Kalai, Urfi, Jin Xi, Hui Lin and me (at various times of the day) :P I was so overjoyed to see my beloved David again after 8 weeks hahaha ("How can you still say that after you rejected me publicly?" ~David). Heh it was really nice being able to finally relax with such an amicable and fun group after so many weeks of non-stop work-tension!
I was very surprised to see Michael Palin pop up near the end of "The Devil Wears Prada" - just didn't associate him with these slick, big-budget American productions. That show contained some other familiar faces from the days I was still keeping my hand in as a film buff - Stanley Tucci, Meryl Streep... which reminded me of old times (when I used to watch more videotapes). I thought it was quite a good and very watchable show, with a pretty good message. More about that another time perhaps.
Then later that night when we were all rather braindead we watched a suitably braindead movie - "Deuce Bigalow" (the second one) - one of those stupid gross comedies which I guess we'd have laughed at if we'd been guys (but, being not-really-THAT-chor-lor girls, we watched it in almost total silence.. cos like Tolkien says, it's not that girls don't 'get' dirty humour, just that they see it all in a very matter-of-fact way and don't laugh at it)... yeah yeah i wouldn't have watched it under other circumstances haha :P.... during which I was flabbergasted to see DOUGLAS SILLS, no less, ("What is Doug Sills doing in this show?!?!?") as, of all things, the leader of the gigolos heh (oh dear... suddenly that handkerchief scene in 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' comes unbidden to mind hahaha...)
The point of this entry is that, watching those two movies, as well as the excellent Casino Royale with my family on Monday, got my long-dormant movie buff juices flowing again (well, at a controllable level). The last time I watched a movie in a cinema was "Ice Age 2" after end of 2nd Pros.. yep not really the kind of show I'd normally pay to see in a cinema either, but this was on a mass outing... and the last time I watched a movie before *that* was "Narnia" last December... and the last time I watched a movie before *that* was... ages ago, like maybe The Motorcycle Diaries with Dawa or Be With You with Siu Qey or something (haha not counting the charming "Singapore Gaga" with Siu Qey!). Not that I want to go to the cinema often anyway, cos normally I'm satisfied with watching quality shows at home on tape or DVD... BUT... for the last 2.5 years I have not even been watching anything on TV either - especially with increasing hall responsibilities in M2 and M3. My only contact with shows has been from the two movie marathons that I organised this year :P Which is as I desired anyway... I've been keeping my plate as full as I possibly could with hall stuff this year to occupy my mind and prevent it from thinking about sad events. So I'd kind of forgotten about movies... Until now :)
In short, I'm STARVED!!! Heehee even if I wanted to I won't be able to watch any of the following till I discharge all my hall responsibilities for this academic year lah, but anyway...
These are all the movies that came out this year that I wanted to watch but couldn't due to school!
1. The Departed (hey, if it could get pretty good reviews by people who HAVE watched Infernal Affairs, it must be good)
2. The Prestige
3. Little Miss Sunshine
4. Singapore Dreaming
5. The Banquet (my father now has the DVD though heh but I STILL don't have the time to watch it)
Finally watched Casino Royale heh! :D That would otherwise have been the top of the list! :)
These are the movies that are in cinemas NOW and which I'd like to watch [one day?]
1. Flyboys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. Curse of the Golden Flower (for the visuals.. I loved the visuals of Hero)
3. The Nativity Story
4. Babel
5. The Tony Leung show where he's acting with Takeshi Kaneshiro and which caused him so much stress when he was acting it (along with two other movies he was doing) that he lost 8 kg... yeah, *that* one
Anyway, today I went and checked up Douglas Sills on IMDB and it WAS REALLY HIM in Deuce Bigalow man... Such a great actor! What a waste of wit and talent! :D Poor guy must have been broke or something hahahaha...
Speaking of good actors in bad shows, I notice that Eragon has a STELLAR supporting cast. Yeah not that it's a bad show lah I haven't seen it myself so can't pass judgement, but I haven't heard a lot of good stuff about it. Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle and John Malkovich worr! Don't play play! Which is actually why it OUGHT TO be a good show. JX generously gave me two free tickets to it but unfortunately I couldn't find anyone who wanted to watch it with me :P I guess it's not the kind of show that me and my close friends would normally see (I'm not a fantasy buff... Dragons? Ho-hum! Give me action! blood! tragedy! romance! drama! war! "Flyboys"! or good sci-fi! heh!).. but I WOULD have taken the opportunity to go watch Jeremy Irons for free if it hadn't clashed with Mo's sleepover :( cos I think it is more important to spend time with girl-friends than one's favourite actors (who are on tape anyway), no matter how dearly loved :P
ANYWAY, just to rub it in, today's Today newspaper HAD to run an article on Jeremy Irons heh who is really one of my most-loved actors. This got me thinking again about all my favourite actors whom I have not watched in a single show for ages and ages... Not so much their looks just that they're very good, subtle actors whom it was always a pleasure to watch acting - and who have such a great sense of humour, of nuance, and of timing - and when you haven't seen them for so long you kind of miss them... Actors who have this 'make me miss them' factor include...
1. Tony Leung Chiu Wai
2. David Strathairn
3. John Hannah
4. Paul Bettany
5. Jeremy Irons
6. Ioan Gruffudd
7. Sam Neill
8. Anthony Andrews
9. Ralph Fiennes
10. John Rhys-Davies
11. Alan Rickman
12. Nigel Havers
13. Sean Bean
14. Ian McKellen
15. Paul McGann
16. Hugh Laurie
17. Michael Caine
18. Anthony Hopkins
19. Edward and James Fox
20. Julian Sands
21. John Turturro!!
I just realised - with the exception of the one from Hongkong, the one from New Zealand, and the two from America, they're all British (and, oddly enough, the distribution curve of their birthdates has two peaks - 1948 and 1963)
And, having now seen Casino Royale (which, being a Bond show that was a little truer to its Ian Fleming roots, also had a little bit of the old-world smoke-and-glamour flavour of the Saint novels), part of me regrets that Daniel Craig turned down the role of Biggles in that projected TV series haha. (With the eternal caveat of course: if it wouldn't have been a TV series that was true to the books, then better that it was never made.)
The other part of me wants him to be Erich von Stalhein. He could definitely play Von Stalhein (in 'Flies East', perhaps) - he has the look. He could definitely have acted Biggles - the wry smile is perfect, and the 'insouciant English humour' response to things like the third degree is classic James B[ond/igglesworth]... Doesn't really have the right 'look' for Biggles though - Biggles should look more gentlemanly/physically vulnerable/stereotypically Englishman, along the lines of Peter O'Toole. But oh, for an Erich like that!
My second choice for Von Stalhein would have been Ian McKellen. The young McKellen for the young EVS, the old McKellen for the old EVS. :P
