Warded!!

Alrightey.. my first hospital admission!!

Diagnosis : Severe Bilateral Community Acquired Pneumonia.

Suffered for about a week, but thanks to very supportive friends (esp ST, Pris) and family, and the great bunch of doctors and nurses in SGH... I'm well again!!

Buuuut, I learnt a few things along the way that I hope if I go back to clinicals I'll remem to or not to do:

1) Never order a drip with KCl supplements - it hurts like hell, and i couldn't even sleep a wink

2) Always listen to the patients needs... even if it was a simple cup of water

3) Nasal prongs dries up the nose.. till can get cracks and nosebleeds.. good to moisturise the nasal passage once in awhile.

4) Just generally be nicer to patients... it sucks being sick..

:)

Well, trudge on!!

Mud race.. lotsa mud

Last weekend was the Nomad X-Capade Race weekend, and it ended too soon. This time, I partnered with Shaff for this multidisciplinary race that involved MTB, road biking, abseiling, kayaking, rock climbing, and mud crawling/trekking. Venue: Batu Dam, Selangor. Time: flag-off at 8am. Fun level: Limitless.

Travelling down to KL itself was a big challenge. We cycled down to the pick-up venue early in the morning. Yayy!! Saw some of the SAC folks there as well. :) hehe.. Chad is partnering YK in this race, and well, they make the funniest couple ever!! Back to the bikes. As they did not have enough people to book a proper truck transport, we had to pack our bikes at the bottom carriage of the bus. There were 2 buses, and about close to 60 humans, which meant that the bikes need to be packed nicely into the carriage. To fit it all in, we removed the front wheel of the bikes. Took longer than expected and after all that, we were told that we have to change buses at the Malaysian customs!! NOOOOO!! Then why did we go through all that trouble for. Next, YK realised that he brought his niece's passport, not his!! haha.. so he called his wife to pick his up and bring it down. OK, so that's over, the passports are all checked, the bikes all packed, we finally set off.

Reached the SG customs.. no problem.. reach the Msia customs.. all hell breaks loose. We had to reassemble our bikes and wheel them over. And, it's Saturday morning, so the place was jostled with people trying to get across. Managed to get pass fast with the Msian passport, but the rest (non-Msians) took about an hour to get across. hehe.. twas funny to hear their accounts of how the elder folks would just cut queues to get in front of them. Well, we packed all the bikes onto the Msian bus and after everyone has settled, we set off again!!.. phew..

In the bus... on the way

Stopped for breakfast and lunch.. yummy.. good ole Malaysian food, and finally reached our destination at about 2pm. We were already late. We got all our stuff out, reassembled the bikes and head up to the race area where skills testing were performed.

Assembling the bikes at the start

Registration was ok, equipment check done, and first station was the abseiling station.

Shaff at the registration tent

I have not abseiled in a long long time, but with Shaff's and the testers help, got it done fast and easy. Next, at the kayaking station, I played arn as usual :) hehe. While waiting for the briefing to start, I met up with Raymond and Elaine, the ever energized bunny!! hehe..

Everyone being tested...

Called up Ivy, and managed to convince her to come down and pick us up (with Elaine's help - TQ Elaine!!) and well.. briefing started late, full of corny jokes, ended late, and finally, when Ivy picked us up, it was already quite late. Shaff and I initially planned to camp at Batu Dam for the night, but seeing that we can store our bikes at the race site, and that the place was.. hm.. we decided to bunk at Ivy's. :) (TQ IVY!!)

Ivy and Callie picked us up and brought us to a Peranakan restaurant. The food there was goooood!!!! mmm.. so in love with that fish now.. mmm.. But anyways, after dinner, headed back to Ivy's place, prepped for the next day and off we were to bed.

Proposing to Ivy... hehe

Woke up at 4+am, got ready, and off we were to the race site. We arrived early at about 6am, and the place was quiet. Got out our bikes, registered and got our bandannas.. yes... badannas.. and prepped up. Everyone started to fall in as well. Flag-off time fastly approaching, everyone started to line up at the start, the VIP gave a speech (I think.. I wasn't listening).. and as the clock hits 8... GO!!!

Pre race pics!

The start was a slow start as it was short road biking session before we double back, cycled a bit of an up-slope and hit the trails. At the trails, the racers start to spread out and the stronger ones were already far ahead. The trails were nice singletrack trails, buuuuut... the first part, or about 70% of it was up-slope.. and although some of the slopes were quite rideable, it was short lived with braches, tree trunks, rivers along the way that just stopped all the riders in their tracks. This continued on for a hour or so... till we finally hit the the downhill part!! yay!! the downhill was super fast and furious and FUN!! hahah.. unfortunately, I got a pinch flat at my back wheel.. and we stopped to changed it. First spare - valve broke, change again. Second spare, phew.. worked.. maaan.. talk about bad luck. Anyways, apparently, due to the difficulty of the trails, the organiser cut the full trail from 3 loops (killer, big and small) to only one big loop. That's saying something.. but then again, I do hope to come back here again and go try all the loops.. :) Finished the MTB part, and back we were to Batu Dam, and onwards to the jungle trekking (aka mud trekking after the rain) at Batu Caves.

Crossing a stream

The first part of the trek was to climb all the way up to the caves.. which was easy. Then a short bit of caving.. which was easy. Then jungle trekking all the way to all the chkpoints.. which was SUPPOSE to be EASY.. until it RAINED!! haha.. A heavy downpour came upon us and we were all drenched. The trails turned to mud and had ZERO traction. Most of the time, we were on all fours... trying to not slide of the hill. This makes Genting TB looks super easy. We got lost abit while gg from one CP to another, but recovered fast enough. After a looooong while, we got to CP8, where we split up for the abseiling bit. Shaff did the 100m abseil, and I went on to do the 50m cave abseil.

My big black butt!

All was well, the trek to the 50m abseil was easy and with more traction. The wait to abseil, however was wrought with cold winds. I was shivering itself.. and I really pitied all the abang-abang who was guarding that CP. okla... loooong wait... why? - on 3 ropes, the racers were stuck.. sigh.. so waited about half and hour just to get on the abseil. The abseil however was really nice.. after all, its a cave abseil... into the dark. Bumped my shin against the rocks while going down however... and towards the end, almost had forearm cramps cos twas hard to feed the rope throught the ATC. Finally, one more swoosh and I'm down. phew.. short and sweet.

Now comes the next harrowing part.. need to trek back to the rock climbing area, bypassing two other chkpoints.. sob sob.. more of the mud and slides... mudslides.. the parts I hated the most were the sideways traversing parts where there was no grip, nothing to hold on to, and well.. I just kept slipping downwards.

Reached the rock climbing area, Shaff was not there yet. Started to worry. He shouldn't need to take this long if nothing happened.. ok ok relax abit and went to clean up abit at the nearby shower. OK.. Shaff is not back yet.. hmm.. wait wait.. Talked a bit to Samuel and he said that Shaff got lost and did 3 loops around the same area looking for the 100m abseil CP. Oh maaan... I hope he's ok. Waited a while more, and he started to come down.. he looked tired. Finally, he made it!!.. We got onto the rock climbing part next where Shaff climbed barefooted... woots.. amazing..

After cleaning up abit and refilling the water station, we head on back to Batu Dam and on to the next part of the race, river trekking. When we got there, the organisers said no more river trekking in the river, but river trekking at the banks as the waters were too high after the rain. Alritey, so we slow jogged abit and trekked abit and finally reached the kayaking session in super fast time (trying to hit beat the cut-off time marr). Got into the kayak, and started kayaking. Here's the funny thing: we're suppose to find some passwords on some buoys and tell them to the CP guys at the end of the race to finish the race.. we hunted high and low for the first kayak.. can't find them, then just continued on towards the end... when.. lo and behold, the two buoys were there. If only we knew earlier. Anyways, Shaff did most of the kayaking.. I was already half dead... (TQ Shaff!!).

Reached the shore, got out, and hurray!! Ran towards the finishing line and we were done!!! YAYYY!! WE FINISHED!!! phew...

At the finishing line...

Life was just surreal then.. another race finished. I was just soo happy.. hungry and well tired :). We met up with the faster racers, congratulations flew here and there, and we got a small towel for the effort.. haha.. SMALL blue towel. Went to clean up the bikes, equipments and ourselves and headed down to EAT.. waaa.. haven't eaten the whole day. After the prize giving ceremony, we all got onto the bus, rested, had A&W for dinner, slept on the way back and... reached home with smiles..

The weekend was great.. but it just zipped by so fast.. I'm really starting to fall more in love with adventure races. I hope there are more to comes, but i do need to improve on my MTB skills and get a lighter bike if I wanna race more seriously. Well, see how it goes... and trudge on...

(Pictures courtesy of Shaff's camerea!)

Lost and Insecure...

Lost and insecure.. this phrase keeps popping in my head.. even till now.. started from a song that I had in my PC (no other things to play, office blocked Youtube), well, and soon after, it started to remind me of how life is. We're all insecure in our ways, some insecure in their jobs, others insecure in looking for that other special elusive ONE, and even when you found that ONE, sometimes, insecurities comes in asking whether he/she is really the ONE.

I like psychology, I like human thinking, and I like sparring verbally about it, but the one thing that always stumped me was human feelings. We describe it with words, but how do you describe feelings to a person. MelM says I'm a feeler, which I totally agree upon, as I do use a lot of my feelings to get through things. People who know me well enough will always know, behind my happy and somewhat brave facade, what I feel, which brings me to the first 3 words of this post.

Lost and insecure... that's what I feel now. I've been secured in my place for far too long.. securedly holding my feelings in place, securedly braving through obstacles in one piece, that no matter how busy or worried I am, I stay strong. But sometimes I can feel a crack coming through. Maybe it's due to the stress the past couple of weeks... finding a place, getting a new housemate, moving, work, exams, papers, presentations, and the usual activity stuff, all in the month of June. I somewhat feel drained.... (phew.. lucky semester break is coming... but only one week.. damn...)

But that said, I rediscovered some parts of me that I forgot, like calling my mum when I'm stressed and staying in company of fantastic friends who only want the best for me, but the one that takes the cake is my confidence in going up heights again. I lost that confidence during my skydiving head knocking incident that left me looking like I just came out of a street brawl, but now, I'm looking forward to the thrill of feeling the wind against my face, the ability to move freely and free from being stuck to the ground, and well, just enjoying a superb scenery that only being in the sky can provide.

Living almost up to 3-0 already, the few things I've learnt is that...

"Things and people may come and go, but the experiences and memories stay on. Learn to live and learn to share and learn to give. Sacrifices are worth making only if what you get in return deserves it. Nothing lasts forever... but there is beauty in limitation... "

ohh, and one more

"always tell and show the people you love that you love them... be it family, friends, and even frenemies... ".

Man.. I feel old..

:)

Trudge on, y'all!!!

Another chapter of life...

When something ends, another begins...

The past few weeks brought a LOT of changes in my life... that time literally flew past me again at like a speeding bullet.. and now... reflecting back:

1) moving out next mth - new hsemate(s) and new place ... now need to settle agreement and packing

2) changed from a primary runner to a primary cyclist - MTB and roadie (singlespeed)

3) no more PTSD (developed since that hard knock on my head during my solo skydive) from heights ... realised tt when I went climbing tt I wasn't afraid of heights anymore!! YES!!! time to save more money and go back to skyjumping..

4) between a need and a want.. what do I really want, and what I really need.. which is more important.. hmm.. can't decide..

I'm still scared and unsure of my future though, but as usual.. things happened along the way to reassure me that life is great by just being alive, and tt I should never take anything for granted cos its all there for a purpose.

I know this is gonna sound so Great Eastern and all, but...

Life is great!!!

Trudge on..

Last weekend...

The typical Jonie weekend is baaaaaack...

Friday: Shaff drove us up to KL in his convertible.. with the top down. Arrived at Ivy's... chk in and zzz

Saturday: met up with the gang.. and rafted at KKB. Nite - dinner at Pappa Rich and Otai burger

Sunday: Climb at Camp5, 1Utama, lunch at Nando's and then back to SG, with the top down again...

Amazing weekend... and as Monday comes, I realised.. a Jonie weekend is when the weekdays are for recovery from the weekend activities...

:)

Trudge on..

How to recognize an informatician

Wrote this for my homework this week:

"An informatician looks and behaves like any other person, that is, until he starts to talk. Within seconds, informatic jargons like SNOMED, CPOE and CDSS starts spewing out, and, from then on, there is no stopping the verbal diarrhea. To make matters worse, when two or more informatician gather together, it can seem like they are conversing in a weird alien language altogether. Although life can be busy for an informatician because most still hold on to their day job as clinician, nurses, and even IT managers, they always exude passion in their love for the latest gadgets and EMR (Electronic Medical Record) systems. Understanding their nature is not easy, as one will need to delve into the deep realms of “technology”, “healthcare” and “workflow processes”. However, no matter how technical an informatician may be, deep down in his heart is a caring and gentle soul, who’s only aim is to see that all patients receive the best and safest level of care in their medical treatments."

Trudge on....

Volunteerism... hard work

As racers, we rarely understand what go on in the happenings of the volunteers (not internal supporters), and after volunteering twice.. I am beginning to understand how hard it is. I love the support I get from all the volunteers, but to be one, I realise is so much more harder than to be the participant itself.

1. Volunteers come in early and are usually the last to leave.. so if you think running for 4-5 hours in a marathon is hard, try standing and cheering for 7-9 hours. So don't think the people are happy there as well when you're the last one in and you're not even putting in the effort to finish faster.

2. Relentless energy and support is a must-show.. and its not even to support themselves, but volunteers have to support others... and it's always harder to be happy for others when it is a torture to stay put in one HOT and UNSHADED place for the whole day.

3. It's HOT out there and volunteers in Singapore seems to get very little water/food (except for the water/food stations ) Some were even refused water/food when they asked for it... sux, right.. I know...

4. Most volunteers don't get proper briefing... it is left to the minimal.. so if they don't know the answers to the questions... blame the organisers, not the volunteers.

5. Very minimal training is given to the volunteers.. hence, don't expect basic first aid except from the medical ppl like the paramedics. They won't know how to hand you water or food as well... remember.. minimal training can sometimes mean ZERO training. So cyclists, pls be a bit more understanding when the volunteers dun run with you to hand u your drink.

I had a good time yest.. and the people were great... I think I'll be extra extra nicer to the race volunteers from now on... and I hope all the racers out there do too!!!

Can't talk alot for now!! so trudge on!!!