The Accidental Tour Guide

About 2 hours ago, while waiting to pick up my wife who was attending a dinner function this evening, I met an elderly Japanese couple who sought my help at the road junction of Selegie & Middle Road. They wanted to know where would be the nearest money changer.

I pointed them towards the direction of Parklane Shopping Mall and offered to walk them there. However that particular money changer I knew was closed for the day. Subsequently I walked them to Wilkie Edge Mall to check if there’s any other money changer beside the one at Parklane Shopping Mall. The mall’s security guards advised us that the next nearest money changer would be Little India.

At that moment, the elderly Japanese couple started to look worried. Due to the relative distance to Little India and their worried expressions, I offered to drive them to there for them to change their money and to drive back to where I first met them.

They gladly took up the offer and I drove them towards Mustafa Centre’s 24hours Money Changer. Along the way there, I found out that they are on a transit in Singapore and are on their way to Manado Indonesia for a scuba-diving trip.

Interestingly, I found myself giving both of them a rather informative guided tour of the area and introduced them some local landmarks along Peace Centre & Mustafa Centre. The Japanese couple expressed their curiosities with the night scenes of Singapore and particularly they were rather amazed with the multitudes of Little India.

After exchanging their money, I drove them back to the place where we started off. The elderly Japanese couple expressed their heartfelt appreciation and we parted ways. In retrospect, that appreciation ought to be 2 ways. That was because I enjoyed my role as the accidental tour guide too!

Photo: With the elderly Japanese couple.

Running a Half Marathon

I took part in the Standard Chartered Half Marathon 2009 (21 km) yesterday together with some colleagues and friends. The chief motivations behind our signing ups were of participation and completion, rather than clocking specific timings. In this respect, we had participated and successfully completed the half marathon.

Personally it has been 9 long years since I last ran a half marathon and my body is certainly no longer as fit as compared to then. Coupled with limited training, the various major muscles groups in my body are now aching from limb to limb!

Running a half marathon can be no mean feat, especially for me where 'trainings' are primarily ‘downward vertical marathons’ (i.e. HBD house-to-house visits) once or twice a week and the occasional 2.4km jogs for the purpose of IPPT preparations. However those were clearly insufficient.

That morning, I met my colleagues at City hall and we made our way to the starting point. The half marathon started at about 6.50am (?) My first 5 km was smooth sailing. It can be rather fun to be running along side so many runners. It was likened to iron sharpening iron and runners encouraging runners.

At the 6km mark, I experienced an initial feeling of fatigue, but I pressed on as it was still at the early stage of the 21km run. To overcome this initial fatigue, I hymned a hymn and aimed for the next drink station with each step I jogged. The hymn and drink stations (a couple of km apart) were definitely helpful in pacing my run, especially the latter as dehydration and thirst naturally set in during long runs.

Soon after 8km mark, my initial wave of fatigue was gone, as my body became more rhythmic to the run. However my thirst had gotten worse, instead of drinking a half cup of water at each drink station, I found myself gulping two & a half cups instead. At certain drink stations, isotonic water (100-plus) was provided and I drank those instead.

After passing the 16km mark, I spotted a colleague ahead of me and gathered pace to link up with him. Unfortunately, at that particular moment, I felt a slight pull in my right calf muscle and I had to slow down. From that moment onwards, the rest of the marathon became gradually painful for me.

Some where after 17km mark, the worsened right calf muscle pull was accompanied with the feelings of cramps in both my quadriceps muscles. Soon after, I was reduced to mere limping rather than jogging. Those were one of the few moments when I entertained the thoughts of quitting, but for some reasons or other I pressed on.

Eventually I completed the half marathon in about 2-hours 40-odd minutes. I did not notice my exact race timing on the main digital clock as I crossed the finishing line because I was much in pain then. (I found today out that I can find out my exact race timing online tomorrow, 48 hours after the marathon ended.)

Running a half marathon is both physical and mental experience. Interestingly it had rekindled in me a thought, specifically a 9 years old thought (one which I urged myself upon completing my first half marathon) i.e. to complete a full marathon!

Meanwhile, the pains of my muscles linger on …

Photo: The screenshot of my actual timing (Added 8th December 2009, 9.15am)

工人党：将减少反对党接触选民管道

新明日报 （Shin Min Daily News, 01 December 2009, Page 5）

工人党组织秘书饶欣龙受访时形容， “冷静日” 或许是人民行动党的其中一个策略，减少反对党接触选民管道。 他表示 “冷静日” 当天只能进行竞选广播及传媒报道， 这样，执政党可透过基层 组织或工会组织的网络，继续与人民进行非正式的联络，但反对党就较难如此进行。

WP: ‘Cool Off Day’ Reduces Opposition Parties’ Already Limited Electoral Outreach Channels

WP’s Organizing Secretary Yaw Shin Leong during an interview described that ‘Cool off Day’ seems like one of the multiple PAP elections engineering strategies. This will reduce opposition parties’ already limited electoral outreach channels. He expressed that since on ‘Cool off Day’ only media broadcast & reports are permitted, this may result in the incumbent party tapping upon its ('non-political') grassroots mechanisms or its (pro-PAP) labor unions’ networks to conduct ‘whispering campaigns’. However opposition parties without these platforms would not be able to do so.