Yerp, I'm mad. I think I absolutely am. 21 km run? Yerp, I'm that nuts. But I'm soooo doing it anyway. This year's KL Marathon will mark another history in my life as a runner. I'll be attempting my first half marathon. 7 more weeks to go before the big day. Have I prepared for it? I'd like to think so. Hehe.

I did some training and had a lot of help from an online source. Yerp, you read that right. There are sooo many source online that can give any beginner tips on how to run the first half marathon. My favorite, of course runnersworld.com. I particularly like their video training section. I'm more of a visual person, so I need to see all the action on motion instead of just static photos. Best of all, some of the videos are by some professional trainers or athletes. That means, I get to learn from people who are THE BEST in their field for FREE. What more could I ask for, right?

So, all the best of luck to all those who are joining KL Marathon this year. Happy running!

Ok, got to go. Cheers!
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Even if you're not a fan of Marvel's Comics ... you should not miss this movie! It is an awesome, awesome movie! Honestly, I've been waiting for it to come out since last year ... so imagine my excitement when it opens in Malaysia this week.

To be honest, there was never a dull moment in this movie from the word go till the end. There were some humor thrown in and the actions from the superheroes were just mind blowing! I personally love the dynamics between each of the superheroes .. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye. None of them really outshines the others which is good.

I really enjoyed watching The Avengers and I bet you too. Go watch it if you haven't yet done so! Trust me you won't regret it after coming out of the theater.
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I can do it!!! 04/23/2012
 
What am I talking about? It's the half marathon (21 km) that I've signed up months back. Yerp, NOW I'm confident that I can complete the race. I actually had a little doubt whether I could make it to the finishing line without losing any body parts along the way. Heheh! But after finishing Energizer Night Race (15.5 km) last Saturday night ... I know I can do it! My doubts have somehow diminished after the race that night.

To be frank, 15.5 km was the farthest I've run competitively.. so far. I think I did quite well for a first timer. I managed to finish it in 2 hours and 21 minutes. YEEEAARRGHHH!!! Completing the race was quite a breeze ... literally! There were quite a lot of natural cold night breeze at certain spots along the route so I wasn't feeling too heated up for most of my run. Usually my muscles will start to ache around 8 km mark but last night I didn't feel/notice any muscsle pain .. well not until the last 3-4 km. So, I ran quite comfortably most of the race.

I started to feel a sluggish much towards the end of the race because I've ran out of carbs in my system for
sure! If I consumed another energy to go into my 3rd hour then I would have finished the race comfortably too. Running the race at night also has another plus point for me - as I wasn't easily dehydrated and that helps me focus on my run and not getting muscles cramp too quickly.

So, yeah ... I think I can surely finish my first attempt at doing HM during KL Marathon this June. If I can complete a 15.5 km ... what's another 6 km will do to me? Heheh. I just need to stick to the current training I've been doing ... ensure that I have enough energy gels on race day .. then I should be alright. My only worry is .. when the sun starts to risen. KL Half Marathon Starts at 6 am. So, I'll be running in the dark for the 1st hour before the sun starts showing all it's glory. I just hope that I will not be toooo dehydrated to run long and far around KL that day!

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Tadaaaaa .... this is exactly how I looked like at my last 10km race for Brooks Half Marathon in Bukit Jalil. The cool part is the organizer ... decided to put this picture in the cert. A cool effort by the the team and definitely a first. :)

For those who haven't download their certs yet ... please click here. Put your bib number in caps to download your cert. Otherwise you would only get blank a pdf file. If you couldn't remember your bib number ... don't worry head to this blog and search for your name.
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I've always preferred to donate blood at Pusat Darah Negara. Simply because every blood donors will be given some light food afterwards (free light food!) and also tablets to help your body to generate new blood. If you donate your blood at mobile locations, those tablets won't be provided from my experience.

So, today I went to Pusat Darah Negara at Jalan Tun Razak to donate blood. My first blood donation for this year. According to the small little red book that keeps record of all my blood donations so far, I have donated my blood 5 times since July 2008. I didn't donate any blood for the whole of last year (what a shame) but I intend to start donating blood regularly this year. You can locate Pusat Darah Negara from the map below.
Blood donation is such a simple process. Since I already am a registered blood donor, I just bring my little red book every time I go for blood donations. I handed my book at the counter, then proceed to a weighing scale. If your weight is less than 45 kg then you can't continue to donate blood. My weight is obviously ok so I proceed to get my middle finger pricked to get some blood out for some blood test. If I'm not mistaken, it's a test to check if your blood has enough counts of hemoglobin. Mine was ok so they let me proceed to the consultation room where my blood pressure is recorded. I had to do it twice because the first time my blood pressure was slightly low than normal. Then it went back to normal the second time. Phew! At this point I headed out to the blood donation room 2. Yay!
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My little red book
There are many beds available in the room. Basically just pick and choose which one you prefer to lie on. I chose the one that is close to a tv. Heheh. The room is air conditioned so it's very comfortable. All the nurses there are very professional, the process of poking my skin with the needle to draw out blood is literally a painless process.

But then I felt slight dizziness and tingling sensations all over my body just after a minute my blood started to flow into the blood bag. I called the same nurse who attended me earlier. She advised me take a deep slow breaths. I followed her advise and hey it works! I started to feel more at ease and the dizziness and tingling sensations slowly subsided. I continue to take more deep slow breaths. The nurse said that it's normal to feel like that as the blood pressure tends to drop slightly. Huhuhu. I was quite nervous at first but felt a little relieved when she stayed beside me until I said I'm not dizzy anymore. So, in about 5-7 minutes, my blood bag is full. The same nurse took out the needle and let me just rest on the bed for a while. After about 5 minutes another nurse came and replaced the cotton bud on my arm with a plaster. It's time for me to get up from the bed and go to the cafe where I was served with light food.
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I took banana and the cream roll bread home because I can't finish it there.
I helped myself with a serving of meehon, 1 half of tuna sandwich and a cup of hot milo. The rest I took home. I took one tablet of folic acid and 1 tablet of Ferrous Fumarate (iron) before going home. With that I said goodbye to Pusat Darah Negara feeling good about myself.

I just realized (after reading PDN website) that a donor who have donated blood twice a year are entitled for free Hepatitis B vaccination. So, another reason to go for blood donation ey! Pusat Darah Negara website is here for you to learn more about blood donation.
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I want another house to move into. Not for investment. Preferably a landed property. But I can't have it right now because I'm broke. Heheh. So, all I have for now is to dream for this house. I call it - My dream house. Duh!

I'm against landed property because most house break ins occured on landed properties. I'm not keen to get a dog to guard my house because dog is noisy and I don't like furry animal anywhere near my house. So my easy solution is ... buy a condo. Then again I changed my mind about getting a condo simply because of the hassle for family and frieds to come visit you as often as they like.

You see, my aunty recently moved into a condo ... quite close to my house. So it is natural that my family and I visits her there often. Thing is, it makes me cringe to go there because we have to stop at the main entrance to ask for visitor parking. If there are none (usually happens on weekends), I have to put my car in reverse and find a space to park outside. Now, if it rains (happens too many times now) .... I arrived at my aunt's house almost soaking wet. That's not all, once you arrived at the lobby of the condo, again you have to register for the guard there to let you pass and take the lift to go up. How much more of a hassle can it be to visit your relatives who lives just nearby? Don't let me go on telling similar countless experiences of visiting friends at their non landed condos/apartments.

The bottom line is, there are pros and cons of owning a landed property vs a non landed property. But If I have a landed house like this one here ....
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Image source http://www.modernhomeidea.net/2011/07/07/cool-house-design/
Wow! Only a spiderman can break into this house I imagined! Heheh. So yeah, if I have tons of money to build a house much like this one then I probably change my mind about owning a landed property.

Oh, I haven't yet gone into the reason why I wanted to move into another house. Well, here it is .. I want more space for myself. I am currently paying the mortgage for a 3 bedroom apartment. Just nice for my mom, 2 sisters and me. Remember that I want more space? Why you ask? To put my growing number of books and magazines (will soon fill up a room if I keep buying new materials) and also a little gallery for all the not-so-fantastic photos that I took. There you have it. Wait! If I have a bit of extra money then I'll throw in a little gym in there as well. Cool, huh!

Another cool design.
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Image source: http://www.modernarchitectureconcept.com/truly-cool-house-design-with-modern-interior/
Ok, I think I gotta go back to the real world. Chiao!
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Actually, I'm short of time but still wanted to get the entries (yes a few of them) for my trip to Korea which was last year outta my head before I  abandoned the idea forever! Just to let you know  that I went with my sister and one of her friend (in case you're wondering)

The flight from Kl to South Korea took about 7 hours. I booked a return flight Air Asia and that cost me
RM620 (return flight).

3 words to describe this Incheon International Airport.
1) Spotlessly clean
2) Spotlessly clean
3) Spotlessly clean

Nope, that wasn't unintentional. I can tell you that you won't be seeing any speck of dust as soon as you
arrive at the airport. Nope, not even in the toilet. Impressive!

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One section of Incheon International Airport, South Korea.
_We arrived around 10 pm and we decided to call it a night at the airport itself then headed out to
check in to our hostel the next morning. But first we have to take the shuttle train from the arrival
gate to the concourse area.

***FYI, visa is not required for Malaysians who wish to enter South Korea*** All you need is just a valid passport! Yay!

Since we decided to catch the first train out to Seoul next morning so we had to hunt out for the train
station. I remember from the arrival gate I took the elevator and went down to the lowest floor, turn  
right and then walk along the travelator until you reach the next section of the airport.

Sleeping at the airport is completely safe. The security guards on duty always wander around all night. They don't sleep! I know because I barely slept  that night. The aircond was blowing like crazy cold! Haha.
I'll continue with my journey from the airport to Gimpo Airport to catch a flight to Jeju Island very soon.
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Ok 2011 comes and go just like that. My question to myself is ... what I actually did last year? Well, let' see ... the most memorable one would definitely be the one week trip to South Korea. :)) Then the many runs that I've completed. The runs that top the list would be Shape Night Run. A 12.3 km run and I've completed it in 1 hour 37 minutes. (My first time at attempting a 12 km run hence my best time for it!). Then of course the trip with the coolest buddies one could have asked for - Shaz, Emma, Syue, Syar and Ana at the end of November to Belum Rainforest in the northen state of Malaysia. :))

That was just the highlights of last year. But is that all?

...
...
...

 Then it hit me. I also did a lot of  .... THINKING for at most of last year! Yes, thinking! Many, many, many thoughts were in my head. (Still is!) Most of it were how I'm going to lead a better life. I'm not saying that I don't have a good life but there are things that I wish I could have more of. (Aren't we all?)


In fact, there are two things that I wish I could have more off. No 1 is money (who wouldn't!) to enjoy holiday trips to foreign countries and places that I've been dreaming about. No 2 is having the time to do my traveling in my own sweet time (the one where you can just leave without asking anyone's permission to do so). Isn't it awesome to be able to have both money and time and just do the things that you really care about?!


Some people may say that it is impossible to achieve just that (having both time and money) unless you're a big boss of your own company or something like that! But I like to break that impossible chain. I suspect that It'll be a long way to go and a lonely path to venture but I think I'll get there eventually. :)) 

This new year comes with a new direction in my life. So, what is your prospect this new year?

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Malakoff in Bukit Kiara. It's about 2 weeks from now. A 12 km run ... errkkk! Since this is the last race I am entering this year ... I should make it the best .. right? Last time I tried doing 12 km was in 1 hour and 37 minutes (Shape Night Run) ... I even surprisde myself with the timing but I did run hard that night. So, I wouldn't wanna fall behind that timing.

Hmmm ... I'm targeting to finish this last race at 1 hour 30 minutes. Looks like an achievable target to me! So, I've 2 more weeks to train for this ... wish me luck!
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I'm back! 11/02/2011
 
Hi y'all. Wusup? Have you been peeping into my blog ... checking on any new posting from me? No? Heheh.

I would like to say that I'm back to blogging after a hiatus of ... let me count ... 9 months. But, but, but, but ... I'll take it slowly.

There are so many things happened in the last few months ... both emotionally (jiwa kacau) and physically. The emotional part was just tooo draining. That's why I decided to stop writing. I'm afraid that I might write things in a wrong way. Ya know the one that I meant it this way but people take it in a different way. Heheh.

But I decided to keep a positive head and move on. So I think the time is right for me to actively post things on my poor abandoned blog :) I don't even know why I bother to write again to be frank. It's not like I have thousands of loyal fans following my blog! But still .. I like to write sometimes and this blog is the best way to express it. :) 

Now that I got that cleared .. let's move on shall we.

As I was saying, there are many events that took place in my life but the most memorable one was obviously my 1 week trip to South Korea (Seoul and Jeju Island). There are sooooo many things I want to mention about that trip but I don't really know where to begin! Haha. I still don't have all the pictures with me ... thanks to my sister! (I should remember to haunt her to get hold of my pictures.)

Till I get my hands on all of my pictures ... I'll leave you readers with these pictures of the beautiful early autumn season in Seoul and Jeju Island.

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