I ran KL. I ran 21kms.

Whoa!! Have never been so semangat in blogging before!!!

See, it just happened few hours ago.
The ohm is still lingering around.
If I don't write it now,
the mood will drain off,
then i won't write about it anymore.

Make sense?

Yes.

As titled.

How can I not be proud of myself?

During high school, I have never been the athletic type.
I joined St John simply because I didn't want to be involved in any kinds of sports.
Yes, I would rather spending hours in marching and standing still in the senang diri position than to run, or jump.

Listen to me, I have valid reasons.

I used to get involved in sports activities as well.

*look far, as in going down to memory lane*

I remember, on that significant day, I was practising for hurdles race.
Then, I couldn't approach the 3rd or 4th barrier.

Guess what happened?

I hit my vahjayjay against the barrier.

....

Well, if you are a guy, and have your crotch get kneed or kicked, you might understand.

...

No, that's not the end of the story.

The competition hasn't started yet.

I still have to go on.

Yea yea there should be a backup for me because man, I suffered serious injury!!

But still, I had no idea why I had to go on.

In the end, the teacher lowered all the barriers so that I could go for the race.
The other competitors should thank me for that.

So I was able to clear all the barriers, complete the race, with tears all over my face.

Others who didn't get to witness the incident must be wondering:
Need to be so touched or not?? 200m hurdles only ma....

No, they didn't understand.
Of course.

So,
you see,
How can I not be phobic???

Then, some 10 years later, I got an Iphone 4.

(Man, this is like... totally irrelevant)

No, listen to me.
Stop interrupting me.

I downloaded this application named 'iMapMyRun'.
Basically, it's a tracker.
Being an ulu who had never seen such canggih stuff before,
I was amazed by its function:

Oh!!! It can track the route I have run!
Oh!!! It knows my distance of running!
Oh!!! It can show me my pace!!
Oh!!! I can even know the calories burned!!!

-____________-

Uber Ulu right??

Don't mind the Uluness....

It was this application that get me serious into running.

I started to explore new routes.
I started to beat my own pace.
I started to extend my running time.

That was where I started.

I could accept 2kms.

4kms was tiring.


7kms was a killer.I completed it, but it was the hardest task I had ever accomplished.

And today, I ran 21kms.

It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

I had been very chirpy on twitter, whining about how nervous I was last night.
I was afraid that I couldn't complete the route.
Man, I had never run 21kms before!!!
21kms, can you imagine??
This distance of traveling back and forth from my place, which is in Cheras, to my college, which is ATC at Petaling Street, is ngam ngam 21kms.

It's very long okay???

But no fear.
My friends have been feeding me with moral supports.
(only if I can survive by that...)
My grandma even made me ginseng so that I don't short of breath. #sweet #practical

And there it goes.

6.15am in the morning.
I was in the middle of the crowd.
Yes, other runners were blocking my way -
which, to my surprise, was an advantage to me.

So I tended to jog just because I couldn't run fast as usual.
Little baby, rapid steps.

Inhale through nose, 8 steps.

Exhale through mouth, 8 steps.

Hello.

Occasionally, when the playlist played the songs I favour, I smiled.
I can smile through the whole song you know.
And to others, I understand that it's rather creepy smiling to myself.

But who cares?

So I set the runners as targets of overtaking.

'Okay, the woman with sheer purple top,'
Overtaken.

'Next, the man with long pants.'
Overtaken.

'Then, the botak.'
Overtaken.

That was how I kept myself running.

You know what's the best part?

Usually when I run on the highway, I have to watch out for the vehicles.
Today, most of the roads were blocked for us. #queen

I know, I know. I can sense the impatient dead cold stares of the drivers.

Oh by the way. #abrupt

Almost elbow someone while taking this picture.
Sorry, that someone.

Every now and then,
there were volunteers standing by the roadside,
supposedly cheering for us.
Nevertheless, some of the volunteers looked so sour!!
Expressionless!!

Understandable though.
They had been standing for hours and they were bored.
So God sent someone like me to cheer them up, by smiling to them. *syok sendiri*

Not this kind of fake smile though.
I flashed them warm and genuine and loving smiles alright?

As you can see, everything went smooth,
until I felt the pain on my right knee at this point.
Sei.

That would mean... I had to start walking.

I had been jogging, slowly but surely, steadily,
but my right knee started to protest.
I didn't feel like slowing down, I didn't feel like walking,
I feared that once I have started walking,
I wouldn't start running anymore. #struggle

My lungs have been working excellently,
but...

Haih.

I could even feel my ovaries dropping. Inch by inch. #illusion

I thought to myself,
well, at least, I have ran the furthest in my life.

Yea, I then started walk in intervals....

When I saw the word '20km', my eyes welled.
I mean, 1km left.
1000ms.
1000 freaking metres.
How great!!

Happiness does not last long though.

My friend Goh, who participated the 10km race, rang me up.

'Oi Shang, where are you?'
'I'm at the 20th km.'
*in a belittling tone* 'Har? You haven't finished yet??'
*offended*
'What do you mean that I haven't finished yet??.... *scolding continue for about 30 seconds or so*'
'Okay okay I will try to meet you up at the finishing line'

This guy has the tendency to make me angry.

If it were others who said so, I wouldn't have been so heated up.

Seriously, I am amazed by myself.
I mean, I ran for 20kms,
and I still have the breath to scold someone while continue running.

*squint eyes*

Don't mess with me.

Anyway, I completed the route.


You know what's the best thing?

I have completed it within the qualifying time.Can see can see???

I estimated myself to finish within 3 hours 30 minutes,
and this is much faster than my own estimated time!!

2 hours and 53 minutes!!! #champion .. of self

Lesson: Don't underestimate yourselves. *winning
One more. Just to show that my earrings matches my hair band.
While the hair band matches the shirt.
*look out of the window*

Oh, it's raining now.
Thank you God.

Oh and, thanks to the parents of this pair of sisters who provided transportation.

Update: just gotten the picture from Tuan Wern's friend.And just got to know that I ranked 356th among some 955 runners.
Gun Time: 2:52:51
Net Time: 2:49:11

The big day?

Some say, it is the most important day in your life,
that is, your wedding day comes after it.

I doubt.

It was 9th of December, 2010.
Our graduation ceremony.

To me, it is merely a ceremony that I have to go through.
So what if I miss it?
My life still goes on (=_= of course. takkan you die?)
Really, that ceremony didn't really make a difference. (what do you expect then??)
I haven't started working yet. (oh that.. yea. now it makes sense)

Shut up.
Sorry, I was talking to my alter ego.
I can't go on if she keeps on interrupting me.
Sibuk betul.

Back to the track.
Well, most of the law graduates would continue furthering their studies,
we have to obtain the Certificate of Legal Practice before we could really be the law practitioners.
We are still students, after attending the graduation ceremony.
So I finally got to wear the graduation robe and the mortarboard,
which, I had worn for at least 2 times, (or 3?) since my age of 6.
We all had gone through decades of education,
2 years (or more) in pre-school,
6 years in primary school,
7 years in high school,
and finally, it only takes us 3 years to complete a degree.
3 years, are really insignificant if compared to decades of education we had previously had.
We didn't have to wake up early in the morning to catch the bus nor had our attendances taken during our college days.
We didn't have to be canned if we didn't complete our assignments. Oh, we called it homework back then.
We didn't have to stand on the chair nor by the door if we didn't bring our books.
We didn't have to be in uniform anymore - although we are still being restricted by dress codes in the college.
We didn't have to greet our lecturers in unison in the college.
We didn't have weekly assembly.
We didn't have...

Attending college seem to be easier than primary school and high school.

So what is so difficult about completing a degree course?

In your primary school and high school,
as long as you attend classes,
eventually, you would still have the chance to wear the robe and the mortarboard,
despite that there might be 7 F9s in your result.

The same thing doesn't apply in obtaining a degree.
It is a filtering process.
You have to be fine enough the go through the filtering layers.
One of my friend mentioned,
his mates in his A-level days are now nowhere be seen.
The same happens to me, and the rest of my current course mates too.
I bet that my friends in the current clique would not have thought that we would form such a combination.
We were only hi-bye friends by then.
Who would have thought that we would be discussing where to have lunch now?

The lunch gang

This is the difference between primary, high school days and college days.
Sad but true,
if one is not fine,
he or she will be left on the filter layer,
until he or she refines himself or herself.

And I have not reached the base.
I am still halfway through.
The only way I could make myself through is to keep on refining myself.

Okay!!
Done with the blues.
Relax bah people~

So nothing really special happened on that day.
It was quite a pathetic day la - I threw the mortarboard on my own - pathetic.
And I posed alone - pathetic x2.
No la, I didn't spoil the group picture, I was obediently serious when the photographer asked us to get ready.
And no la, I didn't throw the mortarboard on my own.
Not that pathetic.
Awesome shot by Jasmine Sia's dad - uncle Clement Sia.

And I performed - which was pathetic x3 because I didn't get to eat.

I swear I am not an attention seeker.

I wasn't choreographed in the middle all the time la.
Lalalalalala tell you the truth la, it wasn't a full split.

It turned out that my family reserved the food for me so it wasn't that pathetic hence we make it pathetic x2.
And it turned out that the food was blah so let us make it pathetic.

Let me tell you something la,
I wanted a boyfriend before my graduation ceremony,
so that I could have a mega bouquet of flowers,
but you know, I failed la.

Nevertheless!!
I still have flowers from my family members =D

Miao Yii and Yim Fui given me a music box inserted in shape of a grand piano,okay it is proven that I look better with fringe

and the rest of the high school mates given me my Parker pen and an organiser.Yes I stressed my because my name is engraved on the pen.

Family and friends are simply amazing.
So am I.

1111 Happy Singles' Day

Yo this is so yesterday, literally.

I didn't want to stay home because I wanted to celebrate this very special day (eh you thought everyone has the chance to celebrate huh? You, you, you, you and you and you and you also, go on and celebrate your Valentine's 七夕 etc etc etc *sour),
hence two of my besties were dragged out despite that one of them and I have to work on the very next day.
(and one of them is not even single)

Xuan music cafe @ Kuchai Lama is a place which we've always wanted to be.
One reason is that Yim Fui (original name Ying Huey)'s sister-in-law, a cafe singer is of the opinion that Xuan's singers sing well.

Another is that one day, we passed by Xuan and we saw that only a pathetic few of them occupy the table. We felt sad for the singers who can have interaction with no one except among themselves so we decided to do them a favour by paying them a visit and by giving them a chance to interact with us.

So Miao Yii (original name Mei Yi) and I both ordered some unusual drink - Roselle tea and black date vinegar. Yim Fui's was pretty ordinary - tomato juice. It's just that her tomato juice was yellow in colour instead of red. Okay my knowledge on plants is not that bad, I do realise that there are yellow tomatoes.

And Yim Fui had been busy playing this mind-fucking stuff.
I stopped playing while I had the contemplation to tear the whole thing apart.

The cafe closed at 1am and we ought to sleep by that time because as I have mentioned, both Miao Yii and I have to work and Yim Fui had been sleeping less than 15 hours in 3 days due to exam preparation. Superwoman or what??? I thought me sleeping less than 10 hours in 2 days is very geng already.

Next, we went to a place which is open all day long, my house.
(how come I feel cheesy saying so?)

So we spent 3 hours on playing with Carpy, attacking each other's acupuncture points, and playing different variations of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars on the piano.

And then it was 4am.
Which, I had only less than 4 hours to sleep.
Upon sending them back and washing up, it was already 4.20am.

So I came up of a brilliant way to prevent myself from oversleeping,
that was to sleep on the couch in the living room.
I am a light sleeper and I know that I would be awaken when my grandma open the gate.
And I thought that I would have no problem falling asleep as that is my usual napping spot.

You know what?
God read my mine, my wish was granted.
Now not only that I did not oversleep and will not be late for work, I have sufficient time to write as well.

I did not get to sleep at all.
I closed my eyes,
but something kept on running in my mind.
I wished I were dreaming but whenever I wanted to open my eyes, I could.
I hadn't fall asleep at all la.
Don't you envy that God treats me so well?

Aiyerrrrrr......
How laaaaaa??
I feel very de sleepy and it's raining now and it's good to sleep but I can't!!!!

Haiyer.
Okay geh... 3 hours of teaching wouldn't kill me.
And after that, I have 5 hours to sleep before I go to my night lecture.
It will work out well, I believe.

Oh yea, it's time for preparation.
Good morning.
And Happy Singles' Day.

My nostrils said hello.

Are you thinking, no wonder she is single...?

OverTime which we had to pay for

It sounds like we were the boss.

Firstly, I have to thank my friend Hafez for inviting us to the Flynnivessary concert set at KL Live.
I really feel sorry for wasted a ticket which entitled for admission of two heads.

Truth is, I didn't really enjoy watching the concert.
I love music - zero doubt about it.
Sad to say, I couldn't be able to find a nice spot to watch!
It was crowded even in a VIP area...

Well, only if those in front of us could sit down.

Then again, who would want to sit while watching a rock concert?

So, (sorry Hafez! If you are reading...) we decided to head to somewhere else,
somewhere of which we could enjoy ourselves better.

Then when we happily stepped out of the Life Centre,
it was raining...

Potong steam betul.

No fear!
You think a little downpour could dampen our mood??!
We were so determined to have fun that nothing could stop us!!
(only if this passion is applied in work...)

So, we decided to head to the next door to enjoy a drink or two.

By drinks, I mean mocktail. Or juice.

April and I are more of warm tea rather cold beer people.
We do drink, occasionally but if given a choice, we would opt for some non-alcoholic drinks.

I really don't understand leh why should we pay to get suffered:
Blush! (They said that this is the sign of good blood circulation)
Puke! (I have very low tolerance for alcohols)
Rashes! (Is that allergy?)
Floats! (I can't even walk properly I feel like a soul without its body)
Glares! (It's difficult to drive when every light you see glares at you)

While we were enjoying the songs played by the live band,
an uncle approached us.

Don't think too much,
he wasn't trying to flirt with us,
he was doing his job - he is none other but the manager of the lounge's.

See, things do not always sail smoothly along our will.
(that's why I am still single grrrrrrrr)
The manager spent us 1 pint (or half) of their signature Starker fresh beer each.

While we were drinking, he kept on promoting how amazing and rare and unique their fresh beers were.

Okay, I would say that that is the smoothest beer I have ever had in my life.
Kilkenny used to be my favourite but now Starker is at the top of the list. (sorry Guinness I don't like you!)
Well, Overtime is the only place which offer such drinks though.

Anyway!! I am saying so not because I got it for free!!
We still got blushed from drinking them!!

No difference from other alcoholic drinks wokeh??
It's quite mild, I didn't vomit though.

Right, spare the drinks, and back to Overtime.

I always enjoy watching live band because of the musicians.

I admire musically inclined souls.
See, I am easily infatuated with musicians, regardless of how gross they are when they are not attached to their instruments.
Well, it's like an on-off button.
Whenever they started playing the instruments, the feeling of infatuation would flow to the mind and once they stopped it, the gate would shut and I would feel deh what was I thinking?

One thing I notice is that I usually infatuated with musicians who play musical instruments that I can't play. Hence I have never had any feeling for a pianist or keyboardist.
This is one of the reasons of I picking up the bass guitar (another one of it is that I look cool!! Well, at least I am honest. Okay further more, I am curious).
If I can play the bass guitar, I wouldn't get infatuated with bassist anymore.

Deh?

Have I gone too far?

I tell you, if I were writing an essay in the high school,
my marks would have been deducted tremendously because I kept on inserting irrelevant points.

That is because I have nothing much to write about Overtime anymore.
Oh yea they have cute waitresses in cute costumes (who spend half of their working time playing with phone in the toilet) so if you have a fetish for that by all means, pay them a visit.

And since things always go against our will,
I shall now declare,
I want to stay single for life...

Err dare not to shout too loud because I afraid that God might grant me the wish.

*I think* they do love me...

Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten so many surprises + celebration from them.
One after another, I almost couldn't take it.
Well, pathetically speaking, in my life, I haven't had so many of it in such a short period!

Alright.
I am rummaging through my memories, it happened 2 weeks ago, and memories do fade through passage of time. I need time to recollect the pieces. Aiks, if not for the procrastinating nature born with me.

1) Lavazza's
This is totally unexpected. Of course, it was a surprise, as I said.

I wrote about it here.

2) Sakae Sushi's
This is a fake celebration, according to them.
It is just a smokescreen in preparation for the coming surprises.

So the same clique, 3 of them, Jia Liang, Toby and Kin Chung treated me lunch as a so called celebtration at Sakae Sushi.
And I thought they wouldn't do anything anymore after that.

Opaque smokescreen they had it until I couldn't see the truth behind the it at all.

3) Taman Mutiara's residential area
This is quite funny I should say.

We gathered not for my birthday, albeit it was my birthday eve.

We were sending off one of the Hamka members, Rip (Ripdaman in full) who would be serving in Canada.

Buay Rip!

Rip will be good.
No worries lah.

Since it was quite early after sending him off, we decided to head to somewhere to watch fireworks.
Initially, we planned to go to the Look Out Point area, BUT there comes two problems.
1) it was Merdeka eve, we assumed that we had to jam all the way up to the hill.
2) Toby would wish to spend the Merdeka eve with his crush Yen Yee (hello any of you reading here?), and it would take about 20 minutes to crash the initially destined Ampang area from Yen Yee's place, it was 11.30pm when we made all the decisions and it was more than a speculation that we couldn't make it on time.

In the end, we decided to change the fireworks watching point to Yen Yee's residential area, a place of which we could have a equal bird-eye view of the city.

Toby and I went to pick Yen Yee up while the people from the other car, driven by Jia Liang, told Toby that they would want to get Oblong burger to have a picnic supper at the hill.

(sidenote: when asked, Toby told me that Oblong stands for Obviously Long,.
=.=
And I believed.

Er... Don't tell me that you believed like I did?)

So clock stroke 12am, and disappointingly, there weren't much fireworks around.
Individual fireworks could be spotted blossoming here and there in a lonely fashion.
Silent Merdeka celebration we had there. Sigh.

Alright I was ranting and babbling to an Aunty of how few fireworks this year when I heard someone singing from my back.

And I saw a familiar scene - Jia Liang, with a cake on his hand, leading the same clique, coming on my way.
The only difference is that the glamorous square Opera cake was then replaced by a simple round chocolate cake, decorated with a National flag which we got it at KLIA (happy Merdeka!); and the birthday song was taken over by our national anthem, Negaraku. Oh yea, how patriotic!!

That was, again, totally unexpected lah.
I remembered my self hiding my face in my hands, in a similar fashion of what I did in Lavazza's.
Really, how could one have so many surprises in such a short period?
Am I blessed or what?
Yea I shouldn't be too arrogant, that might just be a by the way act but see, I get satisfied very easily, even a by the way act was able to delight me.
Plus, I shouldn't have asked much - they, afterall, had celebrated for me few days before that!

That simple act, has truly made my night.

Oh wait, maybe it's not that simple afterall.

It wasn't easy for them to get a cake at that hour, and they were able to get one from Tesco, which operated until midnight.
I don't know whose brilliant idea was that, but thank you lah kawan~~

4) Zouk Cafe
It was a planned celebration and I knew that my friends gathered for my birthday.
Yen Yee, Hwai Li and Yen Ying were already there when I reached that place.

So ordered food, chit chatted, dee dee daa daa, and I expected it to be an end already.

So you could guess what happened next.

That familiar scene appeared before me again.

Someone was holding the cake, leading a bunch of people, singing the birthday song, coming on my way.

The difference of this with the previous two surprises were that, I saw a few unexpected faces..
I never thought that they would be there!

Alright, I know that Xiao Funn, who gave me a pair of beautiful Quaver earrings would be invited, her absence might due to her usual busy schedule....but Mei Yi! My soulmate! I never expected her to be there!
Don't think too much - it was not that something unpleasant happened between Mei Yi and Yen Yee + friends, they simple were not that close.

Much thanks to the sweetest Yen Yee who organised everything!!

Oh and!! That bunch of guys whom I had seen them for *I can't recall how many times* in a roll.
I thought it was just a girls' night out!

Anyway it was much like a girls' night out because the hens were gathered at one table while the bulls at another. There were not much of interactions between the two genders. Sometimes it's just too difficult to get every single person involved at the same time due to the location.

Usual practices. We normally pen down the greetings on the spot.Hwai Li.
Yeng Chern who gifted me a pair of treble clef earrings.
Whooiyoh my pals really know me!!!

Last but not least, boys at the next table writing the greetings.
***

Phew. Surprises no more.
The one at Zouk's marked an end to my 23rd birthday.
I thought I was lucky and blessed to have spent my 21st birthday with the most beautiful fireworks I have ever seen.
I thought I was lucky and blessed to have spent my 22nd birthday in an unusual place last year.

I was pleased and I didn't expect much for my 23rd.
Now I am truly delighted, knowing that there is a bunch of people who appreciate my birth.

Thank you mom! For giving birth to me!!