Interstate2009 - A hill that is a wall and a Gunung that is Flat

I have never seen such nice country side as in Negeri Sembilan, Johor and Melaka by bike. There are many first that I take away from this interstate:-
a) This must have been the nicest Interstate route that I have the privilege to be on.
b) I have also never seen 3km/hr achievable and balance able on a bike.
c) I have never seen my heart rate reached more the maximum of 110%.
d) Bukit Inas bring new meaning to Bukit (14% climb) whilst the flat road to Gunung Ledang is a surprise.
e) A new meaning in bringing a new secret weapon to Interstate 09.
f) Being close to nature and having some of those items splattered on ur face. I have never dodge so many cow dung left on the road in my life.
h) A near equivalent mountain bike trail route (tarmac) is a nice addition.
The room was ok but the company was great. Lets one sees that other side of people when u are sharing the resort together.

The graph above was taken from Shaharin of KOTRT

Beyond the viewfinder - Ironman Langkawi

My trip to Langkawi was to serve several purpose. They are a) to recce the Langkawi Ironman route to see whether is it doable from my standpoint, b) to provide bike support mechanic, c) to be supplementary photographer and d) to provide emotional support to comrades doing the ironman.

Typical of me, the journey was full of preparation.

Bike support Crew

I had prepared a toolbox complete for a full bike support with pump, pit stops and even a first aid kit. I had also shipped extra one pair of wheelset being the paranoid person I am. I was extremely happy that this wheel was made to good use by a close fren of mine.

In becoming the Bike Support Crew, I had planned my route in an anti clockwise direction against the ironman cycling so that I can see quickly whether they had needed help. At roughly about 4 pm, we made our last round on the bike route to ensure familiar faces were finishing the last route before we drove back to the Transition.

Camera Support Crew

Having been away from photography for the last 25 years, the world of DSLR takes a bit of getting used to. AJ was kind enough to loan me his wonderful SONY for me to use on that day and I had a blast using his camera. Having very little talent with photography, i had to leverage more on preparation.

Upon arrival in Langkawi on wednesday, Arif was kind enough to take me along for a full recce on the bike route. I noted some vantage points and some stopping point for me to take photograph from. Being the paranoid I am, I took the car out for another spin to familiarize the route the following day while supporting the Ironman on their warm up bike practice. Although majority of them got lost on their bike, i still manage to take preliminary photos with my compact as part of the documentation of their journey to the Ironman.
When our head cameraman came, I took the team again on the route (after bike checkin) to finalize the distribution of work and our camera stations. The team which comprises of Shazly, Jim, Luvis, Jason, Mervyn, Fatini, Aini, TSB , Hafiz and myself must have been the biggest camera crew on Langkawi. Having known that we will have an early start on Saturday, most of us took our dinner early and had an early nite.Race Day preparation was frantic for me. After waking up at 4.00 am, we had breakfast and i drop of the Ironman to their race start station and went back to Bayview to pick three other camera crew (chick crew). Our first assignment is the Pre Race and the swim. At the swim, we work as a team to document every angle of our Ironman comrades. Jason was the lookout, shouting the numbers and identifying the swimmers, Shazly was on the pontoon for frontal shots, I was covering the approach, Fatini was covering the showers, Jim was roaming around doing what he does best - expressions.We later rushed to the bike route. Shazly and Jason was on scooters, some of the team were on the Innova and some were with me. First stop for bike was the bus stop at Padang Mat sirat (before the airport) and subsequently the last hill at Bukit Malut.
Though we had planned our logistics reasonably well, we had overlooked some of the road blockages and the jam that the Ironman had caused the Kuah town. We got stuck in Kuah town for nearly 45 minutes before deciding to park at Bay view hotel and walked to Istana Condo to cover the run leg.

As the nite came, Tini, Aini, Lin and I decided to move on to Jetty point to cover the finishing. We had anticipated some of our colleagues will be coming in at about 8:30 pm. We sat down for a quick dinner at the Jetty point stall for laksa and coconut water knowing that we will be having a long nite until 2 am on sunday morning.While waiting for dinner to come, i received disturbing call from Patrick to say that Maysenn had required medication and pain killer. Maysen at that time was Istana Condo when she met Patrick and asked me to be at Seaview Hotel so that she can take the medication. Since the road was jammed, i decided to leave the rest of the crew and chose to take the first aid and ran to Sea View and met her just in time. Deciding to stay on until i can see her coming back in the next loop, i took my rest near the TomYam stall with TSB and team.

After seeing that Maysenn had recovered and knowing that AJ was in the last loop, I ran back to Jetty Point to cover the end at the Finishing Ramp. We finished the nite at about 2:30 am after sending Aini and Tini back to the hotel. I also wonder how I survived the 22 hours.

Emotional Support Crew

The way I looked at it, Ironman is majority part preparation and training, most part being there and finishing the event and some parts having the mental determinition to finish. I hope i can play some role in helping out comrades finishing the race although deep in my heart, i know the determinition has to come from the ironman himself/herself.

But in summary, it was a good learning experience for me. But, I had to aggree with ariff, the takeaway is that I had with all my colleagues and comrades is the friendship and the spirit of camradare of just being there to saviour the moment. The rest is the job, be it as participant, as a camera crew, as a spectator. I had lots of good memories.....

Broga Revisit - Batu 18 (Anti Clockwise)

Just to accompany some of my frens who has decided to do a recovery ride to Broga, we decided to start this 138km ride from batu 18 at 7:30 am. I also decided to document the ride by taking the relevant statistcis and ride profile. We have reached quite a distance in training/conditioning for some of us to look at the Broga Classic route as a recovery loop for Ironman training ;-)

The whole loop is approximately 138km and there are generally 3 major climbs. Bukit Lenggeng, Bukit Tangga and Peres. Coming in from Batu 18, the first climb is kilometer 58 just after Lenggeng town, next is kilometer 65 ie about 15km before Klawang and final climb upto Peres is at kilometer 100.
Coming out of Batu 18, the terrain can be considered quite flatwit a very slight incline upto the foot of Peres at kilometer 11. The ascnet here is only about 100m by kilometer 12. We will be greeted with a scenic route near the Semenyih Dam between kilometer 16 until kilometer 20 where we will expereience a 70km/hr descent into Tekala rest area. For the next 15km or so, it is generally flat into Semenyih town. We will be greeted with slight rolling hills from Semenyih into Broga and subsequently into Lenggeng.
We stopped over at Lenggeng to have our meal before attacking the Lenggeng hill which is made of two small ascent. This two ascent is averaging 90m per climb. This is approximately a 9% climb (90m climb in 1000m) . As we go down the second hill into Pantai, u can easily achieve 75km/hr coming down this hill into the Pantai junction. Taking left will lead us to Bukit Tangga and Klawang.
Bukit Tangga is a long ardous climb. The statistics suggest a 6% climb ie 280 m ascent in 4800m distance, that is if you are climbing from the Pantai side.

After tackling Bukit tangga, our journey back seems straight forward seeing that it is only about 54 km back from Klawang to Batu 18. Unfortunately, we have to tackle about 15km of rolling climb. We will be climbing a distance of 340 m in a distance of 15km. Although it suggest only a 3% climb, unfortunately the statistics belies the climb in itself. The gradient maybe average 3% but most of the time, u will be faced with about 5% climb over a duration of about 10km. And this is normally done under a hot sun of about 1:00 pm or about 3:00pm, depends how fast you reach this point. We will reach the peak after a distance of 34km from Klawang (or about 118km on the odometer). Going home is a breeze once the peak of Peres is reached.

LtDL - Post Mortem

Interesting first for the Letua Team....

Lim Yew Ming got his wish to participate in the le Tour De Langkawi as a rider ;-). He got his wish.

L2A has set its target this year to get at least a stage win. It has got green jersey in the past, but Stage win has eluded any Malaysian team from the begining on the Tour. This year, L2A not only managed to get its target of getting a Stage win but also to get the Polka Dot and Blue jersey.

Its a shame that riders that L2A has nurtured like Anuar Manan, Haidar, Nur Ridzuan cannot share this glory, but best wishes to them as they have left for greener pastures in MNCF and the Malaysian team.

Cyclist is a team sport, not only you need the soldiers that is capable with talent of a leftenan and a Captain, but you need to have the Colonels and the Generals to marshall the team forward and be selective in its battle, sometimes you cannot win all battles.

Getting 2nd best Asian Team and 9th best overall team is no small feat for a team that has been in competition only 3 years. Racing with skimpy budget and borrowed equipment from patrons can sometimes be very challenging. Best wishes to L2A and choosing the right fit for the LtDL this year and my congratulations to Joe Nayan and the boys.

First Medal of 2009

The Great Eastern 30k and 20k run began on the 18th of January. This is my first medal of the year 2009. Its been slightly more then a year when I first started to run in this sort of "competition".

It was scheduled to be flagged of at 6:00 am but the 30k was flagged of 15 mins late. I began my 20k run at 6:30 am. The people planning the route were either sadistic or just wanted to see the runners suffer physically and/or mentally when doing this run. The amount of hills that we had to cover is "challenging", and when we thought we were going home scott free, we were greeted with more hills and made to suffer climbs until the last 1km into the finishing line.

There were many pacesetter members who had kept motivating me to the finish line, but the motivator of the day must have been Alex (Powered by Jesus fame). He kept me company for the last 3 km to ensure that i finished in good time.

I was quite pleased with my time (ie shaving of 30 minutes from previous 20k run time) and completed the course in a comfortable 2 hours 45mins. For someone who is quite heavy set, fighting diabetes and water retention, i think i did fairly OK.

Statistics from my Garmin:-
Average Speed : 8km/hr
Pace: 7 min 30 per km
Average Heart Rate :160 (Max 173)
Calories : 2095

Entry into 2009, riding with a BANG!!!

3 memorable sentence to the begining of my year 2009:-

a) Can u pick me up this morning, my car tyre has a puncture
b) The peloton is too fast, we need to save the legs for the upcoming lenggeng climb
c) After this accident, i think i will have to lay of cycling and pickup remote control helicopter

The story unfold in early morning of 2009, when i receive a text from Adeline, to say that her car has had a puncture and she needs a lift to Batu 18. I am usually cautious when this type of things happen, especially when i have had my schedule drawn up the night before as to when i should leave the house and when i should arrive at Batu 18. We pushed off from her apartment at 6:35am and reached Batu 18 at 7:25 am.

We pushed of late at about 8 am and reached Semenyih at Haji Khalili's house after a short stop at Tekala to regroup. Haji Khalili's hospitality is fabulous. Shout out to him, his wife and his neighbour.

Upon pushing of from Semenyih, we plod on cautiously towards Broga. The peloton at this time has already picked up speed and we where thunderously riding into the Broga right of turn at quite a phenomenal speed. Just about 5km out of Broga, i decided to drop of the peloton as I knew we were approaching Lenggeng and there is a hill climb after Lenggeng town (actually its an excuse becoz I was dropped). Farid (Firdaus brother) passed me and i shout out to him, "Save your legs, we have a climb up next just after Lenggeng town", to which Farid nodded and slowed down together with Jaja.

Just as I finished the sentence, and came down the hill, we could see in front of us, the first peloton had stopped and bodies were strewn by the roadside. Out of the 8 people in the peoloton, 4 went down while the other 4 narrowly escaped. I could pick up the silhouette of Adeline sitting in the middle of the road dazed. As I arrived, I could see Firdaus lying on the grass and Azahari lying faceup with his arms pressed to the forehead. Blood was gushing from his forehead as we tried to apply pressure to the keep the blood from spewing out. Alim and me worked out a system to use what ever cloth available (Kash's sling, my glove) to apply and tie Azahari's forehead to stop the blood. Meanwhile, everyone worked as a team to get the bike organized to one side and while others help the other injured to the nearby house. Passers by called up the ambulance while we camped out at the nearby house (Haji Mokhtar). I am so proud and happy to see such graciousness of the Malaysian public and how the team worked in such an emergency.

Summary of the casualties were as follows:-
a) Azahari (Axy) - Broken shoulder, 2 inch deep gash near forehead (20 stiches on forehead and 10 stiches near ear)
b) Azri (Pine) - Dislocated bone on shoulder
c) Adeline - Concussion (broken helmet), gashes all over face (lips and chin), shoulder, hand
d) Firdaus - major gash on shin and thigh, state of shocked.

Two ambulance took them to Seremban Hospital for Xray and treatment (lessons learn - bring ID when cycling and wear a helmet)

Tuan Syed Hasyim and Ahmad Ramli took all the broken bikes back to Batu 18. Our sincere and heartful thanks to these Old Putera Boys, in being there for us. Farid and me packed up the bikes in the respective vehicles and pushed of to Hospital Seremban after hearing that Azahari had to be admitted.

Upon arriving at the hospital at about 4pm, we were sad to see our colleagues in such deplorable state in a crowded ward. There has been many casualties in the new year, that the wards are fully packed (what use to have two beds now housed 3 beds). After discussing with Azahari, we came out with a plan to check him out of Seremban Hospital and bring him back to KL to check him into Ampang Puteri Hospital where he will be closer to this family. It was during this time that he shared his concern of perhaps not being able to ride a bike for the next 6 month to a year and he may need to change hobby, once his wife sees his injury. This really touched and moved me.

Arrived at Ampang Puteri at about 630 pm and placed him at the emergency room where another Xray had to be done and his wound got stitched up and washed. He insisted that he is OK and assured me that his family is on the way and bid farewell as i need to send back another casualty back to her house to face her mother. I left him at about 7pm and called to check on him every 45 minutes. Send Adeline back and reached home at about 9pm after having a light meal along the way.

This is one major casualty that has left me quite scarred, and i need to evaluate my riding routes and style. Anyhow, i thank everybody involve and was touched by the solidarity of all riders involved. My only regret was not being able to keep my promise to stay on to accompany Kash in her maiden ride - next time Kash. She has also covered this crash in her report here. (Thanks Kash for the photos)

We are athlete (the before and after story)

I can sometime be quite cocky and i sometime have disillusion of grandeur of being an athlete. If one is look at my physique, one would have thought that I belong in the 3 stooges gang. Anyway, i thot i might as well relate what happen in my dream of being a weekend athlete in Singapore doing the Singapore Marathon.

Actually, it all boils down the sentence "We are athlete, ....". It all started with a group of us taking the MRT, and trying the be the gentlement, since there was a seat available, i had offered it to Maysenn. She retorted, "No, we are athlete, we prefer to stand". So we went round Singapore taking stairs instead of escalators and preferring to walk rather then taking the MRT all in the name of "We are athlete".

Now, come after race day, we were walking like crabs. After taking the taxi home, we had this monumental task of trying to walk up the apartment of just 4 flight of stairs. The words, "we are athelete" went into oblivion. Walking up/down a flight of stair case was suffering. We even took lift down and up to the MRT. None of us dared to utter the words "we are athelete" anymore.

On a sidenote, Ihave never seen so much people in my life. Its as if the whole of Singapore has turn out to run. Event went all right except for us being wrongly directed in circles in finding the baggage sorage area. Other then that we had a breeze of a time.

Conquering and managing fear...

I seldom talk about my fears and these are the fear of drowning, heights and darkness. The fear of drowning stems from the fact that in my growing up years, I was nearly drowned three times. This is further compounded by the fact that i cannot swim and thus does not assist me in trying to get into water to learn to swim.

I cannot remember how I acquire the fear of heights, but I always have horrendous dreams about me falling over the cliff, though its commonly falling over the edge of the bed.

I suppose the fear of darkness comes from my upbringing, being continuously threatened by bogeyman and ghosts by uncles and aunties.

Last week, the company decided that staff are required to undertake team building exercises organized by Nomad Adventures near Kampar. The team building consist of undertaking some rope works and Skytrex tree canopy walk, white water rafting in Kampar river and caving in Gua Kundu. Imagine, I have to control and manage all my fear in just one 2 day event.
Arriving there on Thursday morning, we first had to undertake the tree/cliff rope walks at about 20 to 30 feet in height. The debate that your mind have with your heart can sometimes be very deafening as your fear trys to conquer you. I had to control my fear as I took the challenge of climbing the first vertical wall climb and as I progress, the rope works became more and more difficult. By the time, I reached the point of no return, we were already 30 feet above ground and I had to grit my teeth to finished the challenge. Reaching the ground after 1 hour, i was sweating like a donno what animal, and was glad that I managed to finish the obstacle, but more importantly manage my fear heights.
After lunch, the next challenge we were told to do is White water rafting. It had drizzled along the way, and we were told by our facilitator that the event could be cancel if the water gets to unruly. Arriving at the top, we saw torrents of water gushing near the bridge and was told that we could be having a category 3 or 4 rapids today. The instructors looked happy but some of us were beginning to have worried look on our faces. The safety and pedal briefing prior to the start didn't help either as we were reminded what to do in the event the raft capsized.

The river has 14 rapids and drops, and we were broken up to a team of 4 in two rafts. There were other people from ING which amounts to another 6 raft. Our team mates in the other raft were not so luckily having capsized at the start of the challenge and was swept away. All together 6 raft capsized and overturned. U can see people being swept away and even after being rescued, some were shivering with trauma. We were quite fortunate that we had a very experience boatman/guide and managed to go through the drops and rapids control ably. Having gulped much of Kampar river water, i was relieved when we finished that 8 km river trip after more then 2 hours. Much of the time spent was also trying to regroup and salvage other team mates that have been swept away.

The next day, the next challenge entails us to explore gua Kundu. What was not informed to us is that exploration of the Gua also means ascending and descending 15 to 20 feet vertical walls in the dark. Armed with 3 candles and a compass, we had to find our way in the caves some no more then 3 feet by 3 feet openings. Some of the memorable ascends are a two staged 15 feet , 60 degree climb using ropes and secondly a 15 feet 80 degree drop into a recess/cavity. The ending is a spectacular opening at the top of the limestone caves with a long flying fox ride for those who might want to take up the challenge.
We later descended via a short cut which was equally challenging if not more then the climb in the dark. It was via a 60 degrees jungle mud walk (since it was drizzling the nite before). I nearly kicked the guide down as I slipped my footing. Reaching the ground, i have never felt such euphoria of relieved as I can feel the feet on the ground.

The take away that I get from this is, i sometime surprise myself that I am willing to take up something new at my age. I am also surprised that I can complete some of these task and quite happy that my fear did not over ride my logic and make me a non starter. Over all, I quite enjoy myself in the last two days although my body says otherwise.

Drive, Cycled and Ran the Penang Bridge

Congratulations friends who had participated in the Penang Bridge Marathon (PBM). Met Wendy, CK, Adeline, Maysenn, Kam Kasturie, Kar Yan, Adli, Roger, Admiral, Azmaar (my saviour), Tony Q, Saiful, Abu Power and most fantastic Tey (our favourite photographer - we owe him a lot of lunches and dinner). My apologies if I have missed out other names.

I can now safely say that I have driven, cycled (Interstate2007) and ran across the Penang Bridge.

Morning prep for some of us began as early as 1 am on Sunday morning. Prior to this, we arrived in Penang after a 6 hour journey from KL and getting stuck at the entry of Penang with a massive jam just before the PBM toll house. Pick up our kits at Queensbay Mall and went around Queensbay Mall for some late shopping. Decide to carbo load at Kassim Nasi Kandar (near KOMTAR branch) just before 6pm. Went back early to get our planned beauty sleep. Most unlikely as we soon found out as there was lotsa people making lotsa noise at B-Suite.

Decide to leave "early" at 2 am, but unfortunately road block had started, hence had to do "involuntary" warm up by jogging to the race site. Race start was very uneventful, after watching CK, Senn and Kar Yen started, some of us decided to loiter around for the next 1 hr 30 min waiting for our own flag off.

I actually surprised myself by being able to run all the way from the start line to the turn around mark (which was 12.5km).By about kilometer 15km, i was on a walk/jog/walk mode until km 20. Reaching the 20th km mark, with the road being clogged up by the Fun runners (10km) (mere excuse on my part), i resigned myself to just mere walking back. The actual reason being is that my knee had given away and the ball of my feet felt like bursting. It was the longest 5km walk back (1 hour plus) as I embarassingly hobbled to the finishing line. The absence of drink station on the way back and it being finished does not help many of the marathoners. Some even thought that it is very inappropriate and pose a danger to some slower runners, as the days get hotter and some runners might dehydrate.

Reaching the finish line, I was quite surprised that I was given a finisher medal since its about 4 hours 10 mins passed the start time and I had thought that the cut off was 3 hours 30 mins. I thanks god and every one else who had given me the motivation along the way to finish the race and not wait for the sweeper bus like many this year.

Overall, its good training before Singapore Marathon which is due on the 7th December 2008. Looking back, if someone was to tell me that I will be running 25km, last year, i would have dismissed the thought as rubbish, but now looking back, i am quite surprised that I can become this insane and did it, more so since we just came back from Powerman the week before ;-).

Coming back from the DEAD

When u are old, sometimes u wonder whether life is going to dish you anymore lessons ;-). Yesterday, I learnt many valuable lessons.

Lesson 1 - Preparation for cycling event and multisport event is different for oldies like me.
We, being the forgetful bunch that we are, can be well prepared in bringing everything to the Transition area, but not to pack it in our jerseys. Case at hand, after my 5.5km run, i was on my bike phase, i had a pucture 5km before the transition area. What do I have, tubes - but no tyre levers, no pitt stop and no pump. I thought my race was finish and i had already started to walk with my bike back to the Transition start point until 2 saviours came to my rescue, which brings me to my second lesson. Lessons learnt, bike stuff are best kept with the bike during race.

Lesson 2 - There are many kind souls out there who was willing to make sacrifice and give motivation, when all seems lost.
My hats and hearts go out to Azmar for loaning me his pump and to Bandit for loaning me his tyre lever and another pump. I had asked them not to waste time with me as I had lost my steam as i saw all the cyclist/runners that I had overtaken me had gone pass and I had lost about 10 minutes already. I was also not in the mood to continue my race, as a dear fren of mine (May Senn) had passed out at the begining of the race and was concern to get back to transition to find out how she is?

But credit had to be given to Azmar and Bandit for being the gentlement that they are and made sure I can go back to Transition area gracefully and not walked back the 5km. While changing my tube, Tony another fren also had a puncture. Seeing that someone had blessed me with pump and tyre lever, I stuck out another 10 minutes to helped out Tony with his puncture.

I cycled back quietly thinking my race was finished. At transition, as i was sitting around and looking for May Senn, I just couldnt find her, so I though "Well, since I had a bit of time, might as well finish the race, even if I had to walk all the way", which brings me to lesson number 3.

Lesson 3 - Complete your objective, you will have one less regrets
At this point of time, I was not in the mood to race, adrenaline had gone down, legs felt heavy, donno what happen to senn, seeing all the people I had overtaken during cycling all passed me by a good 30 minutes. I went out walking, taking a powerbar in hand, and as I walked out, I saw there were many other runners who were worse off then me who had cramps. I started running again and was doing my running/walking stint just before the second water stop. After that, my legs came back and managed to run all the way into the stadium to be greeted by recognizable faces. So much satisfaction, horrendous timing but the feeling of coming back from the dead is a happy one.

Say it While U can!!

We sometimes go through the day and we take our friends and partners for granted. Though the Music video of this song suggest something about world peace, i find the lyrics fascinating about taking chances and not procrastinating. The song is by Daughtry:

"What About Now"

Shadows fill an empty heart
As love is fading,
From all the things that we are
But are not saying.
Can we see beyond the scars
And make it to the dawn?

Change the colors of the sky.
And open up to
The ways you made me feel alive,
The ways I loved you.
For all the things that never died,
To make it through the night,
Love will find you.

What about now?
What about today?
What if you're making me all that I was meant to be?
What if our love never went away?
What if it's lost behind words we could never find?
Baby, before it's too late,
What about now?

The sun is breaking in your eyes
To start a new day.
This broken heart can still survive
With a touch of your grace.
Shadows fade into the light.
I am by your side,
Where love will find you.

What about now?
What about today?
What if you're making me all that I was meant to be?
What if our love, it never went away?
What if it's lost behind words we could never find?
Baby, before it's too late,
What about now?

Now that we're here,
Now that we've come this far,
Just hold on.
There is nothing to fear,
For I am right beside you.
For all my life,
I am yours.

What about now?
What about today?
What if you're making me all that I was meant to be?
What if our love never went away?
What if it's lost behind words we could never find?

What about now?
What about today?
What if you're making me all that I was meant to be?
What if our love never went away?
What if it's lost behind words we could never find?
Baby, before it's too late,
Baby, before it's too late,
Baby, before it's too late,
What about now?

Last Action Hero

I sometime salute the ability of the USA to be able to project a positive image of itself as part of its defence mechanism and strategy of protecting its sovereign state. I have always believed that countries that need to protect its sovereignty needs to do the following:-
a) Have a mechanism of Self preservation
b) Have a protection mechanism against attack and lastly
c) Be able to project a positive image of the country by any means.

The reason why i brought up this issue, is that sometimes most of us are so convinced that what ever that was presented to us in CSI episodes and movies are taken as fact and we do not take the trouble to investigate whether such a claim is plausible. I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger taking punches at this in his movie "Last Action Heroes" about how most movies misrepresent the reality of people in California.

I was told and informed that there may be a possible requirement of the powers that be to be able to determine the exact location of a cellular caller to within 10 feet. Now, upon checking the FCC website and getting some of the vendors (who by the way are US based vendors), most of these technologies can only ascertain the location of the cellular callers to about plus/minus 150m.

The irony is not that we are to explore and recommend the best technology suitable as recommended by the FCC, but that can operators look into some of this solution becoz we have seen it in the movies/CSI. I am reeled because our bearing is now changed from basing on facts and standards to what is available on movie scripts and the TV.

Nevertheless, the conclusion that i draw here is that the US has been able to project its superiority through this new media that we are now not able to tell fact from fiction. Now, how about that for projecting positive values. Not only do they lead in a) and b), but now to our mind they also lead in c).

A Few Good Man - Wish I was!!!

I have always been fascinated by the movie "A few good Man", especially this part of the interchange of argument between Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise.

Excerps

A Few Good Men
written by Aaron Sorkin

Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I'm entitled to them.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessep: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!
Kaffee: Did you order the code red?
Jessep: (quietly) I did the job you sent me to do.
Kaffee: Did you order the code red?
Jessep: You're goddamn right I did!!

I some questions the motives and intent of the leaders and the Government, but sometimes I myslef will always wonder, " Have I done enough to contribute to the safety and wealth of the country...". "Am i reaping the wealth (and as Jessep says), they provide the freedom , and we reap the freedom and yet question them on how the freedom is provided for".

A point to ponder nevertherless...

Interstate 2008 - Another Done on checklist

This year Interstate can be summed up as follows:
Day 1 - Like Roti Puree (with a high ascent) - 131km
Day 2 - Like Roti Nan (With undulations and rolling hills) - 178km
Day 3 - Like Chapati (Flat) - 155km

But if you just go for the Interstate like some of my friends just for the bike ride, then you are actually missing all the fun( Its almost like looking at the trees and missing the forest). You get this from their conversation that only describe the ascent, descent and nothing else. I look forward to the Interstate as a place of self test on rides, enjoying the scenery, enjoying the company and enjoying the food (along the way and end of the road).

It was funny when i was sitting round the table and i was discussing the nice water fall that we stopped by before Bahau and the nice beach that we were at before Kuantan and the nice authentic nasi lemak that was served at a gerai near Rompin. Some of my cyclist friends actually missed this and some even missed the accident that happen near them too.

On the first day, we set off from Kajang early morning and was on to the foot of Peres by about 745. The scenary and mist on Peres was wonderful. Adeline, Senn and me was supposed to set a small peloton to Bahau, unfortunately Senn had difficulties with her contact lens and had to abort the ride. We waited for her for almost 30 minutes before pushing of for Bahau upon hearing that she has gone up the car. At kilometer 90 (Pertang Town), the route took us to a challenging climb and rutted road that was bad on my wrist. There was also a lot of aroma from the bomb that cows had excreted and dodging these bomb are quite mind boggling. Lessons learnt here is never to take two bowls of ABC before continuing on long ride. Otherwise you might just barf. Nearing Bahau, there were quite nice kampong scenary that made me reminisce of times when young. Reached Bahau just before 2 pm.

Second day, the Marshall car lead us out of Bahau (quite a quaint old town) and lead us to the junction that lead us to the Bahau Keratong highway. This road was built to cut across the palm estate and also serve as the security road (air craft can land- so I was told). May Senn, Adeline and me made a small pace line together with one other KOTRT boys and headed for Kuala Rompin. We had to surrender the peloton as Adeline's shoe cleats came off and I had to do some minor adjustment. We pushed off a few minutes later and caught up with Boot (Letuang) and made another pace line until we caught up with PK's peloton.

We worked together until the turn off to Melati at kilometer 51. At kilometer 60, my saddle bag came off and I was debating with myself whether to rectify this and loose the peloton or not. After about kilometer 75, i thot i had better rectify the saddle bag and also refill at one of the support car stop, while PK's peloton continued. Adeline was nice enough to slow down as I caught up with her 2 km later. We also caught up with Boot and work together for another 10km or so (ehem, we somehow lost Boot) as me and Adeline worked until Bandar Muadzam. As I came about just before Muadzam Shah, a smiley face of Joanne greeted me (she is my support car driver) and May Senn was also there (having hung on to PK's peloton, she was nice enough to also wait for me at Muadzam). Went into Muadzam looking for gerai at the Bus stop, where Jeff, Tan Seng Khooi and Terry was just about to finish their lunch. We had the longest lunch ever, having stopped there for an hour.

It was a good time to regroup as the Letuang Boys was there as well. We left off at 12:00pm and worked a pace line until Kuala Rompin. There were nice stops for Water Melon and Coke along the way and we reached Kuala Rompin just about 3pm. Had also a nice Kentucky chicken just before the dinner that nite, somehow Kentucky in the outside of Klang Valley taste different.

Day 3 began with the Marshall car leading us out to the Kuala Rompin Kuantan road which has one of the most beautiful scenery and beaches that I have seen. I also had the opportunity of eating the nicest nasi lemak at km 34 and the nicest nasi dagang at Pantai Lagenda. having being burnt out following the fist peloton for 21km, i set a pace line with clarence and Ivan for another 13km until Clarence wanted to stop for food. We had nasi lemak and pushed of towards Pekan. I survived only another 26km before surrendering the day due to in inflamed pimple near my a**e. My leg and body say ride, but my Ar*e said "U gotta be kidding me, please, please stop".

Well, I played support car driver for a while and we raced of to support PK's peloton and reached Kuantan at about 1230. I also had the nicest nasik Ayam and mee maggi sup while waiting for our rooms to be readied. What a memorable Interstate08.

Ok, done all together 380km for 3 days, it was more then my expectation, i am happy. Without any training.

My dream bike

A fren bought this and I have been salivating on it....

I am still waiting.....

Prices of petrol has gone down. Why has the price of my nasi lemak and teh tarik has not gone down yet. In fact, the price of nasi lemak has gone up 10sen this morning....

Lesson learnt to holiday on the cheap in Australia

Sydney is actually a city full of back packers hotel. The room rates ranges between AUD18-30 per nite and depends on the sharing basis. Generally, the rooms are twin bunked double decker which means its 4 to a room. Its quite nice when u think that most of the time you will be out. The best location is to choose a backpackers hotel near the Central station in Sydney.

Running around in Sydney is relatively cheap if you want to take the torist day out. In front of the Central train station (which u can find the Greyhound Interstate service and other Intercity travel options), there is a Sydney Hop on Hop off bus. It cost AUD30 for a days pass, which u can go to 30 top tourist destination at 15 min intervals. U can choose to hop off for ur photo oppurtunity and get the next bus at the same stop. The Hop on Hop Off also has another loop which goes to Bondi Beach. To me, for AUD30 (which works out to RM90) its a nice way to familiarize with Sydney.

Eating however can be slightly expensive if u are depending on 7-Eleven stuff like MARS bar or Crisps. It cost an average AUD3.50 for those. I would recommend to take either take your meal at the Hungry Jacks (Burger King to us Malaysian) , Donor Kebab or Fish and Chips. The meals will set u back an average of AUD7.50. I was more dependent on these kind of meals during my stay in Aussie.

Internet Access in Sydney is realtively cheap. PC terminals which are available almost in every corner of Chinatown is available at between AUD1.50 per hour. U can choose to upload your photographs and news in the eveing when most shops are closed. Sydney shops do close early at about 5:30pm.

Positioning - Where are we ?

a) Strategy is in the positioning.

b) Hubbing or being a hub and Centre of Excellence all points to position where every one finds u as the reference.

c) Hubbing helps a country like Malaysia to boost its economy by the influx of money be it from investor, tourism, spin offs and also letting the money flow from persons to persons

d) Malaysia has been known to want to position itself as a hub in many areas. In the Telco industry, as a tourism destination spot in this region and perhaps a a champion for the third world or muslim nation.

e) To do this, it needs to compete. If it needs to compete, it needs to execute these plans, lest other neighbouring countries execute it first. If we are loose as a none first mover, we ourselves are to be blame.

f) Sometimes, i often wonder, do all of us share this position or are we people who fail to see the big picture. Industry, businesses and rakyat will wonder whether the policies and direction of the country is not clear and consistent.

g) Case in hand - Avril Lavigne concert. I am not a supporter of the concert and neither an opposer. But to cancel it will also mean to position the country as not a destination of interest for entertainment and lo and behold, our neighbour gets the cake. This is taking prosper thy neigbour to the other extereme. To make matter worse, our people will go down south and thus enrich the economy of Singapore.

h) I have nothing against Singapore, but the issue I have is for us not to compete.

i) Even in the F1 scene, our efforts seems lacklustre in the promotion of the event regionally and we are more concerned on the issues of management of the F1, whereby the Night race of F1 is being promoted aggressively by Singapore in Malaysia.

j) To make matters worse, we cry foul when Singapore was bidding for it and competing with us. Why, because we could be scared of the competition.?

h) I am a firm believer of the Microsoft saying, let us evolve internally and make our current software extinct before being made extinct by other outside.

I am getting more confused by the days, as we seem to shooting ourselves in the foot and moving our position from the also ran to the follower and later perhaps as non-relevant. I am very sad.

Snipets of Observations - Aussie style

Olympic Coverage in Australia

One thing i noticed when watching TV in Australia is that the news coverage cover so much about Aussies sports person which is gunning for medals that you would have thought that the Olympic revolves around Swimming and Cycling. You need to switch to BBC World or ESPN to get some other news. I missed ASTRO since we are able to watch a broader spectrum of Olympic coverage since none of our sportsman are potential medalist and Astro would have finished their coverage in 15 minutes if it was to focus specifically on Malaysian sports man.

Public Transport in Adelaide and Sydney

Such is the effeciency of Public Transport in Adelaide and Sydney that within the space of 3 days, I was able to cover and see on average about 60% of Sydney and Adelaide. Armed with a yellow pages and a well coordinated bus route map, I was able to travel from one end of town to another at very little cost. I thought I would have to rely on Taxis, not necessary, buses, trams and trains are order of the day.

Internet Access

Sydney is a metropolitan town where internet kiosk rules the day. There is almost a kiosk with 3-4 terminals every other three shops. Even 7-eleven has internet kiosk. Rate is about AUD1 to AUD2 for every hour use. Unfortunately, the same is not true for Adelaide, being a city with a high older population, internet access is more available in houses rather then on the streets. There are kiosk but not in every corner though and access is slightly higher at about AUD 2- 3 per hour.

Cycling Objectives - Lessons reminded

My recent visit to Australia has reminded me and has brought me down to earth.

The two cities that I happen to visit is Adelaide and Sydney. Both are cyling friendly cities which has dedicated bike lanes and bike facilities such as bike parking spots and bike friendly public transport system.

The cyclist over there are not very hung up on fashionable bikes but cycles with an objective of health and getting to destination. Unlike me, who of late, seems to be drawn to having a nice bike and nice jersey but is horrendous in the art of cycling. Bottom line, I have been adultrated with the wrong sets of culture and values.

Even visiting bike shops, which much to my wifes' disgust, i noticed that the stock of high end cycling stuff are rare. Frames such as Specialized Tarmac SL is a rare thing and Groupset such as Campy Chorus/Record, Shimano Dura ace/Ultegra are kept in jewel case and brought out for select few customers. Bikes that are equiped with the Shimano 105 (for those in the know) are considered high performance equiped bikes.

Wheelsets such as Token are considered highend rims and is kept together with the Zipps and the Reynold. I think, we in Malaysia are spoilt for choice and spend extravagently on cycling without actually looking at the proper objective of cycling (in this case for me, I have lost my values)

My take home is that I should be grateful for what I have invested and lets focus on the sports and not on the bike.