Your face it dances and it haunts me.

Your face it dances and it haunts me.



It was not as hard as we had feared, and I dare say it was more enjoyable than those shorter but heatstroke-inducing beach runs we subject ourselves to in the afternoons. Saw several familiar faces, and even bumped into May right at the finish line (instead of the middle as planned, haha).

The start was a bit of a pain with the massive crowds surging ahead, and we reached the 2km mark feeling like we had already covered 5km. Seeing the top Kenyan runner on her last 2km apparently made us imagine we had run more than we actually had.

Chugging along, we finally got into a comfortable pace. We even picked up a new friend Su along the way, who was looking for someone to pace her through her blisters, and the three of us pretty much ran the remaining 5km together.

The rhythmic pounding of the tarmac in a sunless sky was hypnotically therapeutic, and somewhere past the 8km mark, I almost found myself wishing that the run would last a while longer. The sun was mercifully absent, the air smelt of the sea, and the crowds had dispersed so I didn't have to worry about tripping over anybody's legs. It was a great run, and what mattered was that my running buddy and I raced towards the finish line and crossed it together. 1 hour 23 minutes and 10 kilometres of non-stop running, we did it babe. :)

Sadly, I think this would be our last race together, at least for the next few years. She's been accepted to her Tokyo post-grad programme (yay!), and would be uprooting herself next March. I'm not sure if I'll ever find a running/swimming/beach/anything buddy to fill her shoes. I may have to end up uprooting to Tokyo to maintain a semblance of a healthy lifestyle, haha!

On a separate note, yesterday's Flea.Fly.Flo.Fun flea market was not so much a money-making event, but more apt for people-watching. There seemed to be an unspoken dress code of high-waist tulip skirts, and we soon had trouble telling our patrons apart. Whatever profits I made have pretty much been blown on my own flea-market shopping and today's bookfair cookbook spree!

Need sleep, and maybe one heck of a foot reflexology session.

Running in the rain.

Running in the rain.

The thought of running in the stifling afternoon heat was unbearable after all those afternoon beach runs, so I set about clearing up some work while waiting for a long run in the cool evening.

Fast forward a couple of hours and I awoke from my 20-minute nap (I know, it's becoming a hard habit to break) to overcast skies peppered with evening sun rays. That jolted me out of bed, and I was changed and out of the house in ten minutes. Unfortunately, the occasional raindrop on my first round evolved into a full-blown storm when I was halfway through my third. So I pretty much sprinted my way through, and returned home drenched and sweaty.

Not that I minded the experience. Dashing through the veil of rain was liberating, to say the least, but I would have appreciated a longer run though.

On a separate note, it looks like Marine would be coming down from France sometime at the end of the year!

Riding on the post-run high.

Riding on the post-run high.
music: jason mraz - rainbow connection

The wonders a good talk with old friends (thanks Jane, Jinli and Faggy!), an unexpected feel-better e-card from B, a good night's sleep and a good morning run can do.

Though I'm still far from tackling 10km, I am pretty sure that my legs wouldn't lead me to breakfast at the halfway mark if i keep up these runs.


I feel good. Now off I go to trace my heritage at the Peranakan Museum.

distance: 4.05km
time: 29 mins 16 secs
pace: 07:13mins/km

Incubus - I Miss You.

Incubus - I Miss You.

To see you when I wake up
Is a gift I didn't think could be real.
To know that you feel the same as I do
Is a three-fold, Utopian dream.

You do something to me that I can't explain.
So would I be out of line if I said "I miss you"?

I see your picture.
I smell your skin on
The empty pillow next to mine.
You have only been gone ten days,
But already I'm wasting away.
I know I'll see you again
Whether far or soon.
But I need you to know that I care,
And I miss you.

By some twist of luck, B and I have been able to work out our schedules to chat every night this weekend. Monday marks the start of our food diary blogging (we're keeping it private so you don't see how much junk we put into our mouths), and our supposed healthy lifestyle plan. He's already gone running twice this weekend, for an hour and a half each time (that basically overrides the total of all my runs since my return, haha). I'm motivated to keep up. Oosh.

The Training Diaries return.

The Training Diaries return.

Me: Eh I think our beach route is about 3.5 km.
Lanxi: Only?!
Lanxi: Oh my God. We have to run 3 times of that...
Lanxi: WTF!!

I've just mapped our usual beach route using the extremely user friendly www.mapmyrun.com, and I'll recommend the tool to anyone who's curious about the actual distance they cover during those leisure runs around the neighborhood.

Our 10km route looks awfully long, but we have slightly over three months to gear ourselves up to make it through, and not be one of those who give up halfway and head for breakfast instead.

I haven't seen Evan's training plan yet, but I have a feeling it's not gonna be pretty...

Off to bed. Our weekly (I hope!) beach runs start tomorrow.

Hanging up those running shoes.

Hanging up those running shoes.
music: paolo conte - via con me





The Shape Run came and went by so quickly. I reached home at 11ish, and that was after the run, breakfast and snake-long queues to collect stuff. It felt good knowing I had accomplished so much, and half the day hadn't even passed me by! Maybe I should make it a point to wake up at 5:45 a.m. fortnightly. Or monthly.

I've been awfully busy of late. Assignments are piling, and I've been to the movies a little too often as well. Surprisingly, both the food-related No Reservations and Ratatouille didn't make me feel like hopping into the kitchen to (attempt to) whip up a storm.

In case you haven't heard from me, I've gotten India as my exchange placement. I was a little disappointed, but I believe that things happen for a reason. At least now I know my sixth sense ain't that wonky, haha!

The more I think about it, the more it feels right.

It's that time of the week...

It's that time of the week...

When I experience the bittersweet joy of starting the school week on a Tuesday, inevitably thinking back on the weekend, and wondering how time has flown by me yet again.

And feeling slightly shocked at how much and yet how little I have accomplished.

Let's see.

I had a much needed catch-up with Flora over lunch when the rain thwarted our plans to hit the pool, and we were once again amazed at how much we had in common, 'cept that I experienced most of the things she is going through right now a year ago. It's kinda uncanny for I always thought of us having different values and moral beliefs, but perhaps humans in general are fundamentally identical?

Then it was movie night with my dearest Oh-Cynical-One. I am crossing my fingers that the chick flick we caught worked some of its magic to erase her worrying jadedness. License to Wed redeemed itself from the abyss of chick flick cliches with its witty lines, and had us snorting several unwomanly guffaws that mortifyingly reverberated through the cinema.

Next up was the morning beach run - my second practice session with Lanxi, who has turned amazingly fair over her two-week Europe break. And check out the running gear we were decked out in - we didn't plan it I swear. Even our sports bras were of the same colour, haha!



The wardrobe synergy trailed along on our run, though it was more of a bad than good thing. It could be the sweltering heat, the lack of sleep or maybe an insane loss of stamina, but we were both pretty knackered half-time into the run. We sucked it up and finished it, but it wasn't one of our better runs definitely. We must do better this week babe. It's our last before the actual thing!

Checked out Timbre with Shaun J., and I am really pretty impressed with the Goodfellas. So it wasn't quite the mellow music I was hoping (I had my fingers crossed that EIC would be playing), but the band, especially the hippie bassist leader, was super engaging. The crowd lapped it all up, and there were more than several intoxicated Caucasians dancing, with a poster that said "Get Up and Dance" to boot. Times like these I wish we didn't have such Asian inhibitions, but well, it just ain't in our blood eh?

I taught my first piano lesson this weekend as well, to two sisters who caught on pretty well for beginners. And of course, there was the impromptu margarita and nachos session with my dearest AA friend, where we tickled and befriended a very bemused waitress at Cafe Iguana with our warped sense of humor.

Granted how I had to catch up on deprived sleep and work on easing the semester's workload in between engagements, I am pooped. But happily so. Time to dig into the readings with gusto... urgh.

Pounding pavements in chilly air.

Pounding pavements in chilly air.
feeling: wide awake at midnight
music: janet seidel - c'est si bon (it's so good)

My runs have been a little lacklustre lately, and it's hard to want to get up and out after a couple of successive uninspiring sessions. It could be the bite in the air, or John Mayer singing into my ears, or the fact that my body's just not cut out for morning runs, but I had one of my better runs this evening. Ahhh.

It's been quite a weekend - a birthday, a gathering, and yet another birthday. I almost always get my knickers in a twist when it feels like I'm not gonna have any time to myself, but I found time to have breakfast with my aunt at the cafe outside on a rainy Saturday morning, as well as to spend a bit of a time in the library reading up on yoga, ayurveda and DIY painting books. I've yet to get around to even choosing the colors for the walls. Nor to scour furniture shops for a new desk, bookcase and tv chest.

Those can wait. I've got plans to chase the blues by baking up a storm tomorrow. And I'm able to do so 'cos I've managed to switch newswriting tutorials to Wednesdays. So tomorrow'll be just a semi-killer Tuesday. 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. straight. I survived last week, so tomorrow should be easy peasy!

Off to bed, not that sleep's gonna come easy after how I concussed earlier in the afternoon, or how hard I laughed when my aunt tried to teach me how to roll my tongue for Malay. But I'll try.