Happy halloween!

We did it!

Completed the Nike Women's Half Marathon yesterday in 2:23:59. I was quite happy with the time as Amy and I have been running at an 11min/mile pace during our training. Our actual pace from yesterday was 10:59/mile, wow, we sure timed ourselves pretty well.

The race was a lot of fun. On Saturday, when we had to go to Union Square to pick up our bib and timing chip, there was a whole party going on. There were booths for manicure, foot massages, whole body massages etc... The wait for each one is approximately 30 minutes, so we just picked to get a manicure.

Yesterday, we were in the city bright and early around 6:30ish. I must say, it's very different to be walking around the city when all the shops were still closed, but there were these 20000 runners congregating around Union Square, and with loud music playing and runners cheering, I felt a bit bad for the people staying at the Westin . I looked up, and for a lot of the rooms, the lights were already turned on.

The weather was mild, and I didn't even need my sweatshirt anymore by mile 2. The course was very scenic, which was a good thing, because it certainly made the run much shorter. We started at Union Square, and then cut through the financial district, and then ran on the Embacadero along the bay. So we got to go pass Fisherman's Wharf, Ghiradhelli Square, and Fort Mason. It was such a clear day that the view of Golden Gate Bridge was simply amazing. Then, we started running uphill at the Presidio, that at one point, when we looked back, we could see skyline of the city. The view from the Cliff House was also very breathtaking, with the waves in the ocean. After that, we ran through Golden Gate Park and finished at the Great Highway.

The best part of the race was when we passed the finish line, there were these men dressed in Tuxedo giving out the Tiffany necklaces :) (One big reward at the end that motivated us to sign up for this race initially, hehe. )

Still can't believe we ran 13.1 miles yeterday!

Winston's Stunt

new playhouse

The cats got something new today!

Craving for "mee hun ge" - Slurp!

Dinner & Karaoke

Nicole's first visit to relatives in M'sia was last weekend. 3 yi + 3 yi tune threw a "party" for her at "Bei Jing Lou" in Malacca.

Long lost twin

Which one is Meeku and which one is Toro?

Bangkok revisited

We visited Bangkok some 23 years ago, and then again made a short trip in 2004.

This 5 day trip last week saw Bangkok changed quite a bit. The sky train and metro has made travellers more convenient in today's Thai capitol. Despite all these, traffic on the road is still bad. We were on our own and selectively visited interesting sites of our choice.

This sky train station photo was taken from our room in the evening. The sky train is approaching from the far left. For 2 days, we made good use of the sky train.

Hotel is comparatively expensive, while public transport is cheap. Imported branded goods are higher priced compare to Singapore or HK. However, made in Thailand products offer good value for money. Food is reasonably priced.

An interesting 'Sunday market' which offers bargain hunting is 'Chatuchat market'.

It is so big that a map is available for tourists, lest you get lost inside.

Apparently 200,000 visitors patronise this market on Sunday.

You can practically buy anything you want there. Shoes, dresses, flowers, antiques, food, etc.

You name it, they have it.

We were pleasantly surprised to see kittens and puppies in some stalls. This one looks like young Marley :)

Any visit to Thailand cannot run away from temples( Wat).

We visited so many that I lost count of them.

In the Erawan ( 4-faced Buddha ) temple, near to where we stayed, there are some Thai dancers performing almost every day.

The visit to the old capitol, Ayuthaya, took about 1.5 hour each way, but it is worth the trouble. It's like the Angkor Wat of Cambodia.

One of the many beautiful sceneries in Ayuthaya.

An open air sleeping Buddha under repair.

more ruins..............
This buddha is very high up on a pagoda.

An earth quake rocked and ruin this old city,and many Buddhas were left headless???

One of the the Buddha's head has been embedded among the roots, over time.

From here, let's go somewhere different, the famous 'floating market' Damnoen Saduak.

There is another small scale floating market around Bangkok meant for tourists only.

This 'genuine' one is in the far South(?) and it took us almost 2 hours by van.

We have to leave at 7:00am to beat the Bangkok traffic jam, and be there by 9:00am.

By 11am, boats may be difficult to get, and some traders are packing to leave.

We paid 900 Baht (~30US$) for 6 persons on a bigger boat.

Favourite goods are fruits, handy crafts, local produce, hats, food etc.

More fruits.......

Panda Express?

We bought 3 pomelos for 100Baht, or a mere US$3. Taste great!

Mummy and auntie Suan See bought some freshly made coconut sugar.

Looking at mummy's smile, you know it must be a good buy:)

OK, time to sign off. Going for a little bite now.

Will write more later.

Cheers............

It's time for food :)

Hi! This blog lacks 'food talk' for a while!

So let me post some photos of our latest food hunt in Bangkok.

The theme for this trip is HOT and SPICY.

First is the popular Curry fried giant crab:

Sorry!

This dish is so good that we finished everything before we thought of the camera, hehe.

The next one is hot and hot, Tomyam Kung, as you can easily imagine from the photo:

Don't be fooled by the colour, the green curry seafood can be spicy too:

How about this red curry chicken? Unfortunately, it is not very hot!

As if this is not enough, we took a challenge for this unknown hot soup;), and the taste is yum

yum.

The floating staff is egg fried with some smelly vegetable :(

But it tastes so good!

Even friend prawns are drown with chilis

But the hottttestttttt of all food we had is this steam fish in lemon sauce. The smashed red hot chili made all of us sweat throughout. It's excellent!

The prawn cake is delicious, and the sauce is sweet and sour:

Of course we did take some decent non spicy food, like this appetizer:
Namprik:

and poh piah: the sauce looks red but rather mild by my standard

Mango salad: beware of some tiny 'chabai burong'. You must be careful what you put into your mouth.

Apart from restaurant food , road side stalls looked so tempting. But we resisted, due to hygiene reason.

However, next to this stall, the Thai dessert looked so good that it is a sin not to try:)

So we did!

This 'Koay teow soup' sold at the floating market looks good, however the water background is frightening. We passed:

The ever popular satay. We were too full then ............:(

In conclusion, Thai food in Bangkok is tasty, but I would prefer it to be a bit more hot.

However, taking all these HOT and Spicy Food comes with a price. Uncle #6 and wife had to take Imodium and carbon pills on the second last night :(

We all met for supper last night to settle all the damages. By this afternoon, uncle #1 and wife, plus mummy, are finally down with running stomachs.

Mummy has gone some 8 times in the last 12 hours.

She is well aleep now.

Looks like I am the only strong one.

My stomach is blessed for food, all sorts of food, hahaha.........

Rafiki cleaning his paws

Rafiki likes to dip his paws into the water before cleaning them. How cute!

Meeku!

Meeku is finally here! We got her last Friday, so I guess she's been with us for 1 week now. She is definitely making herself comfortable in the house, and likes to sleep on our down comforter on our bed So nowadays, we have to keep the door shut when we are not around. She is pretty smart though, when we are around, she will not take her nap on the bed, but on the floor on Matt's old comforter that we keep on the floor.

She was close to 16 lbs when we got her last week. The vet says she should lose about 4 lbs. I wonder if she had lose any weight since her arrival as she is definitely running around more, playing with Rafiki, and following us whever we go. Anything is better than that little confined space she had in the shelter.

Purr... purr...... Meeku definitely has the loudest purr of all cats! And it doesn't stop... if you can't find her in the house, just try to listen for her purr and track her down. She is very sweet and affectionate, and likes to rub her head against your hands, face, legs etc...

Welcome Ghim Hong

Talking to Ghim Hong, turns out he has a blog too... I put it as a link on the right. Say hi to him, he is settling down in Australia.

lots of writing to do

I set my defense date for 11/30/07 - which gives me approx 2 months to write my thesis... Well, i am hoping that by setting the date, I will have to write and not be too much of a procrastinator.

Videos..

updates on rafiki

It's been almost 2 weeks since we adopted Rafiki. He is a sweet cat that likes to be around people. We are really enjoying his company very much, it is really nice to have Rafiki come to the door and greet us when we get back from work. He gets very hyper after dinner, and likes to play with his toys. Here is a video of him playing with his toy mouse.

He also likes to sleep a lot-on the couch, on the floor, in the papasan chair. He also took a nap on Choonping when they came over to visit the first day of Rafiki's arrival.

For those who are wondering, we should be able to pick up Meeku on Friday. :) Can't wait!