I turn 25!!

I turn 25 today or rather I am 300 months old!!A quarter of a century on the earth! As always birthday was well spent with the family. Hopefully I will become wiser and better person this year.

And yes this is Memories third birthday :) Incidentally this is my 100th post on Memories. Hope there will be more posts in the coming year though the situation looks bleak. So a three deck brownie to celebrate all the events.Woohoo. Cheerios.

Sgcares

Of late I have been associated with the philanthropic organisation called Sgcares. Every time I associate myself with new events I feel there is so much people can do for the less fortunate people. The feeling of giving back to the society was not the only criteria which influenced me in taking up the activities. But some events are really an eye opener and they are the things which keeps you reminding how little yet significant role you can be in the development of some other person.

I had the chance to teach in the yesterdays activity. I taught before and I have no qualms in saying that I prefer teaching intelligent students to less intelligent ones. The students didn't seem interested and I being very tired didn't give any thought for the next one hour. I just wanted to give my level best without expecting anything from this student. What surprised me is how quick she is in understanding and how interested is she in learning. The moment I started teaching I knew given proper schooling facilities she can be extremely successful. And for the next one hour it didn't matter how noisy my surroundings were. Only thing that mattered is how much I can cover in that period. The session wasn't long enough in terms of time but it did provide a meaningful experience. Somethings are just meant to be experienced.

PassionRun 25Km

My finishing timing in the marathons is going from bad to worse as years are passing by. The reason is because of the inadequate training. The first time I ran I practised rigorously sticking to the schedule without any breaks. Rain or shine my run would not be missed. But during the subsequent marathons I was busy and could not make any schedule and practice runs. And the result: awful finishing times.

This is the longest run I participated so far. 25Km. The tract is flat not having the flyovers like the Singapore marathon. In spite of that I could not finish within the target time. I finished in around 2H: 55M. I didn't train much for this event. But I wanted to finish in 2H: 30M which was reasonable target for my preparation. Everything was on target till I reached the 17km run. The inadequate training had its affect. Cramps started to develop similar to the one I had in SCSM in 2010. But because of the prior experience I some how managed this time and reached the finishing line.

The moral of the story: Train hard if you have some unrealistic target

A Trip To Langkawi

This is the trip which I wanted it to be very memorable. Memorable because there might not be an overseas trip with my whole family in the near future. The place not only was a let down but also led to some not-so-pleasant memories.

Firstly, I may have been expecting something more of Langkawi than what it has to offer. What I expected to see was the pristine blue water in lines with the Phuket. But what I seen was nothing close to that. It was the normal beach water everywhere. I was later told that pristine blue water is quite a distance far from the shores of Langkawi and needs a whole day trip. Duh!!.What a let down.

The trip started with some rip off at the airport. We were charged 60 % extra than the usual taxi fare. I would have cursed the guy had it not been for the taxi driver he sent, who was very friendly and a great guide for the entire half day. He showed the whole city within half day, covering all the important places including the famous Cable Car and the Eagle Square. I didn't realize until then that Langkawi can be covered in lesser time than one can cover Singapore. So finally ended the day at the Cenang beach which is supposed to be the most popular beach in Langkawi. But to my surprise the beach was occupied by approx 100 people. Dejected with the crowd and the surroundings we took tickets for the next day Island hopping, hoping it to be a better experience.

Things didn't change the next day and the island hopping was no better than the previous day places except for the speed boat experience. We were taken to the nearby islands and which were some 20 min apart from each other and from the mainland. The islands were just like normal places with no-so-great shores. Pregnant Maiden Island was the better among the 3 islands. The best part of this hopping was the eagle watching. Somewhere in between the islands is the place where most of the brown eagles reside. A wild life photographer would have loved this site. The eagles would occasionally fly over us and would drop to the surface of the water as if it just caught a fish from the surface. It was so fast that it was difficult to ascertain whether it caught or missed its prey.

Finally came back to the Cenang beach and wanted to add little adventure to the so far boring trip. We decided to do some Parasailing and after some deliberations zeroed in a colorful parachute and decided to give a shot. May be we should not have done that. But as always nothing is predictable and the most unanticipated thing happened. Some how during the course my sister ankle bone got fractured. She might have not enjoyed the sailing considering the agonizing pain in her ankle. The doctor back home conformed that there is a fracture.

While booking the tickets I was in a dilemma whether to stay for 2.5 days or 1.5 days. I am glad that I sticked to 1.5 days. This place has nothing to offer and the price you pay is not worth it.