Vogue Cafe

This is another late late post.

Anne and I took the opportunity of an AGM meeting on Friday night to pay a visit to Vogue Cafe, located inside Renaissance Hotel.

I've got a free dinner voucher for 2, so it is time to fatten up!

Seriously though, the food is nothing to shout about, most of the main dishes were cold and not appetising, so I'll not go in depth.

I wanted to start with some light stuff, but their starters wasn't that appealing to me, too westernised. So jumped straight into the main course. Took very little rice to go with the lamb gravy, tasted alright, I'd give 5/10 for the main course.

The Japanese selection were way better, the California rolls are prepared on demand, the sashimis and sushis were fresh, the mussels and oyster were also good. Due to fears of aphrodisiac-ness of oysters, I only consume 2, mixed with lemon juice and a tinge of Tabasco sauce. Up to this point, Anne and I were too busy eating to be snapping pictures, better rating at 8/10

One of the best option we had was Caesar Salad, we threw in extra bacon and cheese to spice things up, and it tasted heaven! MUAHAHAHA !)?!) ... opps 10/10

The deserts I had to say were by far the better lineup. By now, we were so filled up, we took time out and snapped some pictures

Main course
Desert 1
Desert 2

We had a great time, its fun to get out once in a while and enjoy free food! A minor advice for those who wish to dine at a buffet dinner;

"Take public transport, it forces you to walk and thus helps digestion!"

Outside the monorail station

Sorry for the lack of visual evidence, and yeah, I suffered terrible diarrhea the next couple of days, not sure if it was this buffet or not :p

My 83km ride

This post is long overdue. Yeah Daniel and I attempted a 100km ride on the 17th of November 2007, which was roughly 9 days ago. For this trip, I spent the night at Jus house, hoping to wake up early and prepare early.

We prepared the route via hill count, we will conquer 3 hills this time around, starting with Tekali -> Genting Perez -> last but not least Ampang Hill.

Of course, we woke up late, couldn't really sleep because...... the trumpets were noisy....

We set the alarm to shout at 4.45am, but ended waking up at 5.30 when Daniel called me. We rushed to prepared, and that was when I realize the lausai symptom were starting to plague me, had a terrible spell at the loo, hope Aunty Judy won't mind. Still, had my morning prayer, prayed that God will keep my stomach intact, and braved on.

We took the long route to Ulu langat this time, reasons? To cover more distance. The ride was fairly easy, but my high gears were making funny noises, and the lausainess were starting to drain me.

We reached the foothills of tekali and took a breather. Actually, was pretty much tempted to release, but couldn't.

At the foothill

Jus prepared me well for the climb, according to him;

"Ah this hill very easy wan la, sure can wan"

Of course can la! For him! hehe. Anyway I really pushed my heavy frame (bicycle + body very heavy) up that hill, and made it to the top with only 1 stop. Yet, Jus complained he waited for me, TRY CLIMBING WITH 100KG!!

Image compliments of Jus

Of course it wasn't a problem for Daniel and Jus, but the long, winding climbing roads really drained me. Every turn I see, you would pray and hope it is the last, but the next turn seems to shoot you down with another apex that is curving upwards. To aptly described the feeling, "IT SUCKS!".

Yet all is forgotten when you're up there, the pure satisfaction, knowing that many had tried and failed, YES THAT PURE SATISFACTION!!!! By this time, my lausai syndrome subsided a little.
We zipped down, knowing how fast my Free Wheely can go, I decided to tap the brakes lightly, staying at least 20m behind Daniel who in turn was behind Jus. Still, I hit the highest speed among us all, told you Free Wheely is fast!

We stopped by Semenyih Damm to snap so me pictures;

Taken by my phone
Daniel and I having some light moment
Ahhhhhhhhhhh Selesanya

Next up, short flats towards Genting Perez. By now, my lausai syndrome started to kick in again, this makes the hill felt like a mountain! The slopes aren't really that steep, but the climb was a daunting 10KM!!!!! For this climb, I literally took my time, peddling at a mere 10-15kmh, speeding up a wee bit at the flats.

Took a leak half way through and had an encounter with some wild monkeys. Those buggers stole one of my sneaker bar (I think). So continued on, even though my back ached so much, my stomach felt so bloated, and my butt was so uncomfortable (due to the lausai syndrome), plus the lack of sleep is starting to play a major factor now.

Was at the 8km mark up the hill when daniel called, I told him I'll continue, NO GIVING UP NOW! At this point, every turn was playing tricks on me, my eyes would tell me that I've reached the peak, yet it all seems just a mirage when yet another turn leads to another one and another one, it seems ENDLESS!!!!

Once again, all the pain and suffering disappeared when I spotted a sign that says "JELEBU"! WAH!! I REACHED THE PEAK!!!!!!!!!

That felt great, yet another hard earned victory!

We wasted no time, going downhill from here, I went really slowly this time, back was really hurting and my legs were numb. This time, my greatest fear started to unfold, I was running out of juice, my water bottles combined was left with less than 100ml. It was pretty worrying, but I had to go on nevertheless.

The ride home was disappointing, so much so I had to rest 2 times, buy a bottle of excel, push my bike about 1km up ampang hill, suffered cramps,...... lets not talk about it.

But all in all, I managed to reach the peak of Ampang hills, and there, Jus was sooooooooo tired, he looks like he was going to sleep (tired of waiting). That's about it for the so called "100km" ride.

I really hope to make it with minimal stops the next time

Heroes

Rachel told me to try the "HEROES" quiz. This turned out...

Which Heroes Character Are You?
	You are part Hiro. You are everyones favorite Japanese tourist. Your time is well-managed and you make sure things get done. On top of that, the girls always want a second chance with you.
	You are part Jessica. You are a two-faced bitch most of the time. Friends are friends, and enemies don't want to be your enemies. No one messes with you.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

I AM A NICE GUY!!! but weird, how can someone be nice and nasty at the same time?

Crappy technique

This must be one of the most crappiest swimming article I've come accross. Try and spot the "CRAP"

There are five strokes in competitive swimming, one of which is the
freestyle swimming stroke, known to be the fastest stroke. In freestyle swimming
competitions, the swimmer can use any stroke. The most popular freestyle
swimming stroke used in swimming events is the front crawl, which combines
alternating arm strokes over the waters surface with alternate up and down
flutter kicks.While many think of the front crawl as synonymous to the freestyle
swimming stroke, technically speaking, freestyle swimming means swimming in
any style. It depends on the particular freestyle competition whether swimmers
can use only unregulated strokes or regulated strokes such as breaststroke,
backstroke, or butterfly. However, because the front crawl has proven to be the
fastest swim stroke, almost all competitors use this as can be seen during the
Olympic Games where it remains the preferred freestyle swimming stroke of
Olympic swimmers in freestyle events.Here are some things to remember when doing
this popular freestyle swimming stroke:* Maintain a horizontal position in the
water. Always keep your head aligned with your spine.* Kick strongly so your
legs will not sink behind you but not too strong that you are making big
splashes. Your kicks should be powerful but not forced. With practice, they
should come natural to you including how to adjust to a high beat kick from a
low one.* Try to stretch out every stroke as much as you can and keep up the
non-stop windmill motion of your arms.* Loosen your forearms. Let them hang from
your elbows. Stiff forearms will make it harder for you to swing them forward.
Your hands should be in a firm cupped position with the fingers just slightly
apart. It is important to not, however, that firm does not mean rigid. It is
vital that you remain relaxed from your elbows all the way to your fingertips.*
Avoid breathing while swimming. You should breathe by turning your head to one
side as your arm extends out of the water. Except when breathing and your head
is to one side, focus your sight on the pools bottom always keeping your head
down.The freestyle swimming stroke requires speed, which demands not only muscle
strength but also the use of correct swimming techniques. One can achieve all
these through proper and diligent workouts and training, which is necessary in
order to become a powerful and successful swimmer.

I'm Speechless. The actual artical can be view here

Life's worth the living

I've blog earlier about a man commiting suicide at my place, I'm not sure if this picture can show the imprint he left on the grass field. Enlarge the picture for a clearer view

Swimming/Slimming sanctuary

Just completed my swimming century yesterday, a whooping 103 1/2 laps. DONT'T LAUGH!

Was joined by my dear, Anne, and the ever determined Rachel. Anne did 20 short course lap, while rachel did 40++ x 25m.

We started a little bit late because of the horrendous traffic at Federal Highway, anyhow, we only needed an hour swim. So we started at 8pm ended at 9.

Amazing, 103 1/2 laps! WHOA I felt great later, sneezing nonstop....

In total, 4 breast stroke laps, 1/2 butterfly.. muscle pulled la ok?, and the rest freestyle. Besides that, all of us had a mini competition, where rachel and anne will do 2 laps on the 20m side and I will have to go 2 laps on the long swim.

Rachel completed her 40m almost the same time as my 50, but lagged behind by a second or 2. Anne, well, she punctured after 20m.... Looks like she needs more BKT and training for now!

FELLS GOOD!!!!

Bz life

I've been running the "ant" show for the past week.

"FYI, ants are busy creatures"

Have been busy on and off working hours. As usual, work drains you mentally and physically (because you are mentally drained, you fell physically drained too), but the juicy part is always after work, yes, literally "JUICY", so juicy I couldn't find the time to post anything on my meagre blog.

Just to keep my log going;

1. Went to Vogue Cafe for a buffet dinner with Anne last Thursday. Took a few picture, but it is still sitting pretty in my phone.
2. Met the youngsters at Carl's jr in Midvalley on the same day.
3. Overnight at Jus house in preparation for the "100km" cycling trip we planned. Couldn't really sleep because the trumpet would blow once in a while.
4. Saturday, 17th November, woke up at 5.30am in the morning, prepared and started cycling.
5. Felt 1/2 dead after the trip which lasted 5 hours and only covered a mere 83km.
6. Slept after that
7. Sunday, 18th November, celebrated mom's bday in the afternoon at Vietnam Kitchen, played futsal at night, and celebrated Mary's bday at McDs at night.
8. Monday, thought of blogging..
9. Tuesday, I think I posted something??
10. Wednesday, found out someone commited suicide and left a nice human mark the the grass field. Went for Meikey's wedding dinner at "The Royal China Restaurant" of something, ate alot.
11. Lunch time in office.

Well that's about it, makan, makan, makan, .....and makan.

Good thing Rachel called Anne and I out for a swim tonight, or all the cycling, and swimming, and this and that will be go up in smokes.

Victory!

Whoa I feel like a champion!

It has been a hectic, gruelling, punishing weekend for me, but I've capped it all up with a 2km (80laps x 25m) swim just now!

Was joined by my SPM bound sister, Rebecca aka Munehneh, who completed 20 laps.

Would really like to elaborate more, but the pictures from Jus are not out yet. So stay tuned

52 Laps

Just completed my routine swim, this time, was joined by Dad and Anne. Dad says he's doing great despite his "Old Engine" (so he claims) hehehe, I think he did less than 20 laps? haha.

Anne did 20 laps too! A great improvement from her previous 9, but of course on the shorter route, which is 20m per lap.

Personally, I did 52 laps, which equals 1.3km! WHOA! felt I could go more, but time didn't permit. All in all, 1 butterfly, 2 breast stroke and the rest freestyle.

Tried multiple breathing paterns today, and true enough, found the perfect combination to get me going.

Will try to go for 2km by the end of this month, hope it works out!

Free Wheely

Since the mavic have served me so well for the last few rides, I've decided to name it "FREE WHEELY".

Oh yeah too bad it looks nothing like the orca from Free Willy

First swim...

Argh, after months of laziness, tiredness, lack of enthusiasm, lost of interest, lacking in fitness, I've finally come out of hibernation and decided to dump my heavy 98kg body into the swimming pool!

Yeah came along was Anne, dearest, here's the breakdown of the session;

Starting with the swimming pool, 25x20 m, of course I'll only take the longer path! In total, covered 32 laps which means 32/4x100 = 800 meters. Yeah, I know you can calculate by multiplying the length of the pool with the number of laps, but I'm just doing it to train my maths power ok?

4 laps of breast stroke, 2 laps of butterfly, and the rest freestyle. Done in 1/2 hour, broken into 2 session, first one consisting of 15 laps and the rest later.

Anne was still a newbie to freestyle, so she had 4 laps of leg kicking, 3 laps of right hand pulling, and another 2 of left hand pulling, not bad right?

That's my first of many swims from now on!

Could have gone much faster if my frame is still that lean 85kg, but, well, some things have to give, and some have to go, looks like weight given, and speed went....

Disastrous first day

Noticed I spelled Duathlon as "Duethlon" in the last post? It is done purposefully

Well there goes my first day of training, rain stopped me from swimming.
.
.
.
.
.
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yeah I actually woke up late but HEI! It rained!

Duethlon

Since I'm already into cycling, and not really into running, I shall start to train back swimming! That shall make me a duethlon.

To start with, I shall swim every morning at 7am. I've already got a good swimming background, and an extreamly hydrodynamic body, so we'll see how it goes

Gabai Memory

Thanks Brian, for the pictures

Day Trip to Gabai

A group of us, 6 in total, Danl, John, Rachel, Uncle Vincent, Eman, and me had a nice slow leisure cycle to Gabai waterfalls from Cheras. It was time for uncle vincent to unveil his latest installment to his ever changing bicycle. New handlebar (carbon), new bar ends (also carbon), new Stem (alloy) , new speedometer, and new brakes, WOW!!!!! I've only gotten new brake pads since the update......

My Bike

Uncle Vincent's bike

Just a shot of my bike and uncle vincent's bike.....

As usual, we started out from Justus' house, apparently, justus had to do gardening (what he claims) at PD (from what I hear), thus he was unable to join us newbies; and headed up Ampang Hill towards the lookout point. This is my 3rd time going through this hill, and a first for me doing it without stopping, averaging 13.7kmh.
This picture clearly shows Eman as the last rider reaching the peak, though he tried to claim otherwise, John was just a few seconds infront of him. Well poor john, his first ride up with a racer, and suffered he did.

That is where he suffered

His back aching la! He still pushed on though, kudus to John!

Eman with his "Mr. Sub" mountain bike. He's using a rollerblade helmet, cool eh?
Daniel and Rachel taking a breather

After the ampang hills, it was downhill, this time around, I hit my personal best of 67.4kmh. Really could have done 70, but had to react fast as my bottle cage became loose and fell off. Thank God managed to catch the bottle in time, and had to ride down with only 1 hand, the other wan holding the bottle.

We took a leisure ride, averaging 25kmh at ulu langat going towards Gabai. After a while, it dawned upon us that EMAN IS MISSING!! So we stopped and waited about 5 minutes, apparently, his chain fell off (better than crank falling off)

Where's EMAN!!!!

The ride was pretty much routine, except the part when a little malay girl, riding a racer stopped and fell down, she forgot to unclip her shoes...OUCH!!!!

After about 28km of cycling, we reached Gabai waterfalls. We were greeted with fleets of cars parked by the road side, and a group of friends who travelled by car, which include, Wesley, Mavis, Joanne, Katherina, Brian and last but not least, my lovely girlfriend, Anne.

Anne and I had a nice natural foot massage;
While Wesley and Mavis were enjoying themselves by..... enjoying themselves
Most people enjoy themself with food, same can be said here.

Anne and I later made the climb to the peak of the waterfalls, there were alot of people there, some were even cooking!
Of course I couldn't resist the temptation of trying out the natural slide, DON'T LAUGH!!!

After that, it was a routine ride towards Cheras. The hardest part was the Ampang hill again!! Made another personal record when I only stopped once to wait for uncle vincent and Rachel, right.... was actually tired too hehe. I think we waited almost 1/2 hour for Eman and John, yeah this time Eman beat John to the peak, I guess his back ache isn't a fake at all!

He neede help getting up! Poor John.......

Left shortly afterwards, nothing interesting happened, except when Uncle Vincent's chain fell off.
Well that's about it, a wonderful < 60km ride

On the other note, Anne and I noticed how much cycling can help you loose weight!

BEFORE (img courtesy of Jus where he tagged her as "Queen of Ulu Langat"):
And AFTER:

Interested? Do not call me, I don't have the authority to reveal other people's personal information! hahaha

Hazard of cycling

Yeah Cycling makes you look like you're wearing panty hose (is that how it is spelt?)

Bored

Countdown, 1/4 days left before HOLIDAY! Well, nothing has been going right today, except the part I completed the interface for object export and import.... well it doesn't mean anything, because the backend sucked. Well I really thought I'd nailed it, yeah really did, until some malfunction or something causes the routine to only load 1 record......... . .. . .. ..
.. ..
.. . . .. . . . .
. .. . ............ . . .. .
. / // /. &*#*($&^q#*&&*634
...
..... .. . . ..

ARGHHH CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW!!!!!

Where's EMAN!!!

I've posted about my first ride me pride, Mavic Aksium here, and well, I forgot about Eman's picture. Of course it wouldn't be fair if he's being left out.



So here he is,

As I've posted the last time out, he's laying down somewhere gasping for air hahahahahahaha

Futsal 4/11/2007

Well one of the most dissatisfying futsal game ever. Suddenly so many people turn out! Its been going on for weeks actually, but maybe its time to rant a little about the condition.

I've been playing futsal with a group of friends for years now. We play every Sunday...

Don't laugh, that's how we play

Just last month, we were begging people to play as everyone just went missing! Some go pak toh, some lazy, some go for bachelor's party.......... in short, everyone got excuses not to come la.

Because of that, we hired extra futsallers in the name of john and Aaron. Yeah extra people and thought those kaki ponteng wont be back...


HOW WRONG~!!!!!! Girls started their futsal this month, and sure enough, all the "Guys who always ponteng" start turning out.

Geesh, yesterday's game wasn't even a workout, played less only 4 games in total less than 30 minutes, why? SO MANY PEOPLE!!! Anything above 15 heads is just too many for a 1 1/2 hour futsal game.

Aihhhh...why am I complaining so much? OF COURSE LA! I'VE BEEN A REGULAR FOR SO MANY YEARS YET THOSE NON REGULARS ARE PLAYING MORE THAN ME!!!! OF COURSE MARAH LA!!!!!!!

First ride on Mavic Aksium

cccccLast night's riders, missed out eman, he's laying down somewhere gasping for air

Just completed me first ride on the newly purchased mavic aksium...

FUYOOH!!!! that was the only response I can conjure up. The climb feels easier, slopes felt like straights (I'm exaggerating). Anyway, did some short climbs around OUG and it felt GREAT!!!

Yesterday's trip was delayed when Daniel had to work, so our initial plan of 8pm got held back to something in the region of 9pm? While waiting, Rachel suggested we hit the hills, and yeah, we went up the OUG hill 2 times! hahaha felt like nothing really....

Here's where Rachel and I climb, twice

After the second climb, Danl finally reached home (his house is the gathering point). So we went up the OUG slopes again, this time with uncle Vincent, John, Eman, Victor (new guy). Things went well until Eman's crank dislocated and I had to help him. The lack of tools forced us to travel about 1km inside OUG to uncle vincent's house, where they finally tighten the crank properly.

Yeah all those delay! Next up, hit kesas at almost full throtle. I decided to follow the pack and breakaway at slopes (there's one short slope after OKR/Puchong bridge) and yeah the new wheels ROCKS!!!! Went up at 30kmh constant with daniel hapily drafting behind me. No choice lor, have to slow down after the slope because the guys couldn't keep up :p.

Route in Kesas

The return trip yeilded the same result. BTW, Eman and Victor did a great job, especially victor, on his LeRun Solaris with offroad tires an front suspension! Eman pulak, has semi slick tires on, always drafting behind someone, and falling back when we hit the slopes.

We stopped by OUG to take a breather, and then Daniel, Johann and I decided to hit my girl friend's house slope (lets call it Anne's slope). This can be considered the 3rd steepest climb, but it is also the longest around OUG area.

How we went to Anne's Hill

Well I did that climb and proceeded to Anne's place, where I rested, took a shower, fell asleep, forgot that I was suppose to stand by for the scheduled task for one of our client, went home, slept..............

Darn, feel like taking MC today, but then, work load don't permit, and yeah, totally enjoyed the Mavic Aksium, hoping for Kryserium next time!!!!!