Tuesday, September 19, 2006


Have you ever had such a BIG blister?
Yes, that's my foot. This is the souvenir I'm nursing from having conquered 9km. Apart from having to run in the rain (it stopped raining when the run was over) , I also had to contend with knowing my sock was somehow moving around & doing something nasty in my shoe. The moral of the story is - wear good socks. It can prevent this eyesore.
It's finally drying up & I am looking forward to the gigantic scab it will become. When the skin heals completely & the scab drops off, I'm going to send the scab to my friend in Hong Kong. After all, how often does one get scabs this big? Treasure should be shared.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Run for Hope 2006
Sentosa. Tanjong Beach to Sentosa Cove and back. 9km. 67 mins.
I'm pleased. What a great way to start the day....esp today.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Haven't read it but I've borrowed a copy of the Personal Workbook. Flipping through, this quote caught my eye and I like it.

Life is not orderly. No matter how hard we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce. - Natalie Goldberg

Anyway, in case you haven't read it also, these are the habits:

......for Private Victory.....
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First

......for Public Victory........
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then be Understood
Habit 6: Synergise
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

I have a bad habit of just skimming books for what catches my eye & not reading them cover to cover front to back. Anyway, this thing sticks out. He calls it "The Time Management Matrix" .
We spend time in one of four ways.

I. Important & Urgent
Crises, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects
II. Important & Not Urgent
prevention, pc activities, relationship building, recognizing new opportunites, planning, recreation
III. Not Important & Urgent
interruptions, some calls, some mail, some reports, some meetings, proximate pressing matters, popular activities
IV. Not Important & Not Urgent
trivia, busy work, some mail, some phone calls, time wasters, pleasant activities

Near the end of the book there are some pointers on how to start living the 7 habits. Again, this sticks out for me.

4. Spend more time in Quadrant II. Decide what is really important and work on that. Say no to those things that are not in Quadrant II and work on empowering others to free up more of your own time and energy.


This calls for a little practice.

No, I don't think so.
Sorry but I have to say no.
Hmmm.....I can't. Count me out.
That will be a no for me. N-O.
Nah....no go.
Nope.
No. No. No. Yes....it's a no.
Nada. No comprendez.
Bu ke yi.
Hmm tak.
Beh sai.
Tak boleh.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006


Aerial view
See the two dark blue parallel lines from left to right. That's the coral reef.
On this trip, we saw plenty of stuff. Personal favourites sighted were three turtles, a pair of baby black tip sharks, an adult black tip, flamenco dancer (floats just beneath the surface & related to nudibranch), a school of barracuda, also a lone barracuda lurking at about 10ft looking for prey (!), garfish hovering near our heads, trevally, parrotfish, a giant moray eel, a big puffer fish going in & out of the tabletop coral, a school of squid (it's squid season now) and much, much more.
We saw plenty of staghorn coral, tabletop, sponge, fire (don't touch!), fan coral (about two or three) and all kinds of soft coral. Apart from snorkelling at Renggis a few times, we also went to Tulai, Tomok & Genting.
I don't know all the names of the small coral fish but the variety & numbers seemed countless.
It was an excellent vacation.

Renggis Island off
Pulau Tioman, Malaysia
I was 13 yrs old when I first visited this island. Been going there, on and off, ever since. Renggis is only 100m opposite the Berjaya Tioman Dive Centre. But it is teeming with marine life. Matt is posing in front of the blue boat that belongs to an old family friend & boatman Hamzah.

Discover Scuba
Brings back memories. I was in Sec II when I took up the NAUI dive course. It took 6-8 weeks to learn & my open water was at Pulau Hantu, Singapore. Yucky. Nowadays, you still need to be at least 14 yrs old to qualify for Junior Scuba. But these two lucky fellows got to try it out because one need only be 10 yrs old to do Discover Scuba @ Berjaya.
They sat through a 1 hr crash course watching a DVD & then did a shore dive. Later they were dropped off at Renggis & did another hour at an average depth of 12m. That's Nazri the dive instructor. I trusted him with my children's wellbeing!!!!