StanChart 2009 - Kids' Half...

Since Paul went through all the trouble to go hom to get this camera. Here are some of the pictures!

2009 StanChart Marathon - my half....

One year ago, I did my very first half marathon at SCM. Yesterday, I did my 3rd half marathon!

I was apprehensive.

I had trained for the Army half in August, but due to work picking up at the office, I couldn't quite train for the SCM half. As you know, I always want to improve on my previous timing, so with no training, I was considering giving up my race slot.

The running I did leading up to this was basically TNF in Oct and GE 10k in November. In between, not a whole lot of running cos my ankle was just a bit dodgey. I thought it best to just keep off it so that it would heal properly.

2 weeks before SCM, I decided that I might want to give it a try. I decided to cram my half marathon training into the 2 weeks leading up to race day.

Sun, 22 Nov - 10km
Wed, 25 Nov - 15km
Sun, 29 Nov - 17km
Thu, 3 Dec - 4km (taper)

I was told that preparing for a run isn't like exams where you can cram at the last minute,..... but what choice did I have. I needed to just clock enough mileage so that I can at least finish the race.

Race Day - Weather was nice and cool. Flag off time was 6:45am. If I could finish by 9am, I guess I wouldn't be caught in the sun for too long. Armed with my Garmin, I was off. Although I had little training, I was targeting for 2h 06min (i.e. 6min pace), I would have been happy to have just beat my previous time of 2:11 though.

The route was a little demoralising cos it seemed like it was looping all over the place. The atmosphere wasn't great either with just a few scattered ppl with big sponge fingers falling asleep by the road. It didn't really matter - I was on a mission.

At the 10km mark, I was about 58min into the race and feeling ok. Not as fresh as the Army half, but not gasping for air or anything like that. I would say throughout the race, I felt pretty much the same. So-so. Unlike in the Army half where I punctured at various points. I plodded on....

I decided to follow a similar strategy to the last half marathon. I had 3 gels which I took at 7k, 13k, 18k. I have to say that the water points didn't really coincide with my gel consumption plan, so I ended up with a very dry mouth with gunky chocolate Gu gel a lot of the time. I guess I could have been more flexible with when I took my gels, but I needed to "stick with the plan".

By the time I got to the F1 pit, I was tired but still able to pretty much keep at a 5.5 - 6min pace. No punctures this time. By then, I knew that I would be able to make a PB and possibly meet my target time..... I finished the race 2:05:46 (157 / 4892) woohoo!

What I am REALLY puzzled by was how I managed to beat my previous time when I did so much more training previously..... I thought hard about it and I can only think of a few things that could have contributed to this result.

1. I did some weights in the gym for the last 2+months (to build core)

2. I am now a pseudo vegetarian (I don't eat meat but I eat fish)

I seriously think that it is due to me being vegetarian. For one, previously when I used to take gels, I never really knew if they were effective. I never felt anything significant, but took them all the same as instructed by Paul. This time, each gel hit was clear. Somehow my body was able to feel the effects.

Do I think I can improve on my timing from here? One would think yes seeing as I went from 2:22 to 2:11 to 2:05. But the truth is, the next step (sub 2hrs) will be quite a leap for me. Simply cos so far, I have not been getting faster as such but just improving on my endurance (i.e. running non-stop) Now that I can achieve 2:05+ without walking, it means that I need to do speed work (i.e. intervals / hills) and I am in 2 minds about that cos I don't want to get big legs! :P

Anyway this is something to mull over while planning next year's race calendar....

Paul was running with me (although he didn't sign up). But he was just doing his usual Sunday run. He did 10km, then drove home to get his camera before coming back to the race. He wanted to have his camera ready to get pics of Emma and Cate doing the Kids' Dash (750m).

There were lots of activities for the kids. Body Art, Gladiators, Bunjee thing, hoops, golf, bouncy castles. Check out the pics below....

That Thing You Do - WARNING... Some serious chemistry going on here!!!

You saw Cate's practice dance. Here is the actual performance. You have to watch to the end cos that's the part with the romantic "freeze stare" between Cate and her boyfriend Joshua. The two of them are just so adorable together.

Epitome of The Chew Sisters

Love this pic of my 3 favourite people in the whole world. This single picture captures each of their individual characters to a T.

Monsoon Rain

If anyone is familiar with the giant monsoon rain between Bukit Timah Road and Dunearn Road.... check out how it was filled to the brim today. There were literally waves - you could go surfing in there! Now this is what we call RAIN.

Shady Soph

Check out Sophie in pink shades. Where do you get such tiny shades? They actually belong to Emma's stuffed toy. See below doggy with bulging eyes!

Sisters @ GE Womens' 10k - 2009

On Sunday, we did a "family run" @ the Great Eastern Womens' 10k.

We all met at mine and drove over together with our hubs. We didn't run TOGETHER, but it was fun sharing pre-race and post-race stories before and after!

I was apprehensive about the run having done so badly at TNF just the week before. I wasn't sure if I was just bad on the trail or deproved so much that was just bad all round regardless of terrain. I felt somewhat pressured (by myself) to beat my previous GE 10k time. (See previous race report here).

The weather was PERFECT. Not hot at all. The route was very nice and easy cos it was pretty much flat all the way.

Less than 1km into the run, I bumped into someone and my GARMIN watch FELL OFF!!!! Ack! I looked all over for it but couldn't see it anywhere on the road. I started yelling "Where's my waaaaaaatch!!!!" Luckily, a another runner told me that he saw something fly into the bushes. (on hind sight, what was a guy doing there?...) Anyway I went hunting around the bushes and true enough it was there. Ended up carrying the watch in hand throughout the whole race.

I had to pick up my pace. Wasted a good 0.5 min looking for my watch! It was still the start of the race and there was still a crowd. I kept my breathing steady and tried to keep at roughly 5.5min pace. I would say I was feeling pretty ok through most of the race. Not as fresh as I felt at the Army Half but I guess that is expected seeing as I hadn't been running much lately.

Meng & Paul were not allowed to come into the race area, so they ran outside the barriers - kind of with us. Apparently Paul thought I was much faster than I actually was and was running way ahead looking for me. It wasn't until he spotted Lin when he decided to stop and look for me BEHIND cos it was impossible that I was ahead of Lin. (who btw ran from HOME and still did 49min! Mad.) Paul eventually spotted me at around the 5km mark and pretty much ran along side me the rest of the way.

At the last km, I was beginning to feel tired. I hadn't taken a drink or anything (there just wasn't time). Paul was cheering me on the last few hundred metres. "Comon! Go! You will be able to do it in under an hour!" Man, I wasn't sure if that was meant to be encouraging or discouraging! I was still hopeful at being able to beat 56.5min..... but I guess it was not meant to be..... I came in at 57:10min - about half a minute slower than my last GE run.

I wasn't too disappointed. At least it wasn't too far off.

Elaine and Jasmine did fantastic. Elaine hardly runs and did 1:02hr. She will be able to break 1hr in no time! Jasmine, who only just started running regularly recently, improved her time from the previous week at The Human Race by TEN minutes (1:10hr)! Great job girls!!! Thanks Paul for the support also. xoxo :D

That Thing You Do - Sneak Preview to Cate's Concert (N2)

Cate will probably not be very happy about me publishing this cos she is SO SHY! She was even too shy to dance in front of Paul. Hopefully she will get over her nerves before the actual concert!!!!

I think we need Kai Ma Ginny (a.k.a. Kai Ma Jukebox) to teach her the right lyrics!!!

Link for those who can't see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LpaYnNpvok

Team Muddy Gras @ The North Face Race - 50km DUO

Paul and I were Team Muddy Gras doing the 50km duo at TNF yesterday.

We were far from prepared but weren't going to miss it seeing as my sister was the one organising it. I was excited to see the fruit of her several months of labour.....

Pre-Race shot of Team Muddy Gras - still fresh and unaware of what was to happen to us!!!

Race started at 10am (hot!) but I guess the consolation is that it was in the trail so lots of shade.

By about 6km into the race, I was feeling pretty tired,.... never really found my rhythm (I never really do on trail to be honest) but to this point it was the familiar MacRitchie trails.....

Then we got to the crazy Bukit Timah Hill part. It was so steep that everyone was literally just trying to make it up the hill. I didn't see anyone running,.... I was struggling just walking up. I thought I was going to have an asthma attack! (not that I am asthmatic, but now I know what it might feel if I were!)

As you can see from the pic on left, we did make it up in one piece and managed to get a nice shot by the summit rock. :D This was the u-turn point 12.5km into the race. It took us almost 2 hrs! Yikes! Hopefully we won't miss the cut-off and end up DNF (Did Not Finish). I ain't gonna treck / run / jog / walk 25km to get a DNF! No way!

Going downhill was fun. Wheeee!!! I sure didn't envy the people I saw who were still on their way up!

Spirits were high since we were past the halfway mark, but it got harder and harder... I just wasn't prepared. Paul was with me sometimes but was ahead most of the time and waited at certain junctions. Don't think he found it very fun having to do that. Although I did tell him to go ahead and I could just meet him at the end.

By the 18km mark, my back was crazy aching and I couldn't really see Paul who was somewhere in front. Funnily my twisted ankle wasn't giving me any troubles at all. Well, the only trouble was that I couldn't actually do much training at all prior to the race due to the twisted ankle but during the actual race, it only threatened to buckle once or maybe twice, but in general behaved itself.

Anyway, with my crazy aching back (weak core?).....I suddenly reached enlightenment. I got my phone out and made an appointment for a full body massage for that afternoon (+ foot reflex for Paul). What a great idea....the thought of 1.5 hrs of full body massage after the race kept me smiling for a few more kilometres despite the backache.

I enjoyed the trails, we were introduced to lots of other trails. Check out the picture on the left at about the 19km mark. I felt like we weren't in Singapore.

Paul and I usually do the 10km MR loop every weekend, but now we can explore some of these new routes.

Back to the race,.... the last few kilometres were quite painful for me. I just didn't have much energy. Towards the end of the trail, there was the tunnel of sunlight. "Follow the light....." I ran on towards the light and there was Paul waiting for me so we could finish together as a team. :) The last few hundred metres I was suddenly full of energy. I guess I was just happy to be finishing. Woo hoo! Embarrassingly, I think I took around 3hr 50 min to complete the race, but am so pleased to have finished! My first trail race.

Team Muddy Gras - Post Race

That's not all, after the race, there were Subway sandwiches, and yummy yoghurts and fruit. Not cheap bananas and apples type of fruit, but yummy sweet strawberries and grapes!!!

Team Muddy Gras with Elaine who was looking exhausted after being up all night and she still had to stay on another 10hrs for the 100km solos to come in!

So far, have heard lots of positive feedback from others too, so well done Elaine and her team!

...And am not just saying this cos she is my sister. Trust me, if it was crap, she would know about it from me..... ;)

Bakin' with Emma

Emma looks forward to her next birthday as soon as her birthday is past. So by the time it came to her 7th birthday this year, she was well excited and ready for it!!!!

She requested for a party at home (rather than outsourced). The trade-off was that she couldn't invite ALL her friends. I was hoping that would change her mind, but Emma was pretty insistent on having a "Home Party"... and so we had "Bakin' with Emma" where only a handful of school mates and her motley crew of cousins were present.

Chocolatté Cupcakes (Emma named the recipe) was on the menu....

Goofing around with her cousins (and "Your-Piano-Is-Out-Of-Tune-Kat")

Homemade Banner - Alright considering this was created the night before!!!

Method Instructions that Emma & I put together the morning of the party!- Looks simple enough.... but I wasn't quite prepared for the mess and flying mixtures! (all unintentional I'm sure!!!)

And the baking begins....

The outcome -MASTERPIECES!

It was a bit hairy trying to get 70 cupcakes baked in my teeny oven while trying to get the kids fed lunch - but I would say all in all, it went well. I'm not sure if everyone else had fun but I sure did!!! :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!!!

And then there were 8.....

Below is a little collage of all the "Tay" grandkids on their 1st birthdays. All these "1st Birthdays" were celebrated at Nana's. As you can see, Nana kept the same highchair for a good 12 yrs just so that everyone got a picture in it. Straight after Sophie's picture, Nana binned the highchair!

See if you can guess who's who and match up the babies above with the motley crew below.

Am so glad that my kids have lots of cousins. My kids adore their cousins and a simple meal together is just FUN-PACKED. They don't seem to get enough of each other.
Answer key:Top Pic >> 1st Row - Nicolas; Steph; Ems; Soph; 2nd Row - Myra; Mark; Matt; Cate
Bottom Pic >> Behind - Mark; Nic; Matt; Front - Myra; Ems; Soph; Cate; Steph

Army Half Marathon 2009

Yesterday I completed my 2nd half marathon.

Paul and I woke at 4am, both of us having attended 2 different weddings separately the night before! I was pretty disciplined..... no drinking, no social smoking,... didn't even stand near ppl who were smoking. Funnily though, I had serious problems finding CARBS at the wedding! It was a western buffet, but there were no fries, mash or anything like that! The best I could find were some bread rolls. There was A LOT of yummy meats though! I ended up eating 2 large plates full of meats. All sorts of meat! I have no idea if that was any good for me, but what the hell.

Anyway, back to the race.... Paul kept telling me that the race would be fine and that "the crowd will carry me". I wasn't sure. I already had 2 failed runs that week. I had an 8km midweek run which I just couldn't finish.... had to walk home after 4km. So you can imagine how I felt about having to run 21km. I was also worried about doing worse than my previous race at SCM cos I do believe in trying to do better with each race if possible. Afterall, SCM was my virgin half marathon, and I also did it 4 months after birthing (Sophie), so surely I could beat my post-pregnancy half marathon timing?

I had a loose goal of 2hrs 15min.

Paul was right,..... the crowd did carry me, .... I was hoping to keep close to about a 6min/km pace as far as possible. I was feeling pretty fresh for about 14km doing 5.5 to 6 min pace. The water points were well spaced out, distance markers were also good (quite unlike SCM), waves of starters well spaced out. I didn't experience any bottlenecks. All in all, I thought the race was really well organised.

At around the 10km mark, I was just under an hour and was feeling pretty fresh which made me review my 2:15 goal time. I decided that a sub 2:10 timing was looking like a possibility and sounded much nicer (and faster) too. I just had to keep going at this pace and still have 3min to spare!

Alas, it was not meant to be….. at around the 14km mark, I started feeling tired and it was up and down for me all the way till the 18km mark where I punctured. I was kiasu again this year and had 3 gels (40min, 1hr20 min, 1h45min) I think the last one didn't really kick in properly though (not to one of the gels was also expired) I was just willing myself to MOVE IT! I was literally DEPENDING on the motivational banners that these kind mascots were carrying!!!

“Pain and failure is the difference between Men and Boys!!!” – Not applicable to me
“Pain is temporary, pride is forever” – Wow! Go Peng GO!!!

I am not sure, but I think the present that Paul got me for my birthday helped me quite a bit - Garmin Forerunner 310xt. It is a little bulky and certainly seems hardcore for a novice runner like me! Paul got it for me cos I kept running the wrong distances for my long runs and had to keep repeating them (waste time!). Anyway he only gave it to me after I was done with ALL my long runs so this was the first long run that I was going to get to use it. I LOVED IT! With it, I could pace myself quite effectively. When my pace was getting to under 5.5min/km (which I knew I would never be able to sustain), I would slow down. If I saw ppl running past me, previously, my instinct would be that I was going too slow and try to catch up but when I checked my pace, and found that I was still running under 6min, I continued on steadily and didn't speed up.... conserving energy.

The 310xt allowed me to extract the data and split out my pace throughout the run which was rather nice. It concurs with where I punctured. :P Below is also a cute little video showing the graph of my speed along side where I am on the map at that time.

As you can see from the table, somehow the race was about 270m longer than 21.1km! Anyway, by the 21km mark, I had missed my revised sub 2:10 target and came in at 2:11.... which I am still happy with. :)

I have already decided that I won’t have the time to go for a full marathon end of the year at SCM, and who knows, I may never have the time,… but since I have this spanking new toy thanks to Paul, I will be doing the half again end of the year for sure…..

** Thanks Shem for the track sessions. Despite me doing pretty crappily during the track sessions, am sure it helped in improving my timing. :) I think it definitely helped me keep stronger for longer...

8:22 ....with pride

We were fortunate enough to get to watch the National Day Parade practice earlier in July. Not all the props were there and also we didn't get to see the real McCoy ministers that Emma is such a fan of,.... but we had the goodie bags and saw most of the performances in their almost full glory, not to mention the fireworks!

On National Day itself, we watched the parade again on TV. When 8:22pm came, Emma and Cate ran over in front of the TV with their little hands on their hearts, to say the Singapore Pledge with the rest of the Nation. (Well more Emma, cos Cate hasn't learnt the pledge yet).

I am proud to be a Singaporean.

Happy 44th Birthday Singapore!!!!

Sophie is 1!!!!

 

Well Sophie is not quite 1 yet but I just couldn't resist posting this picture of the sisters. We celebrated Sophie's birthday a couple of days earlier at Nana's house. I can't believe she is growing up so fast. Well,aving said that, she is 1 with no teeth and can't walk. Hmmm.... I guess me babying her all the time is just making her stay a baby! I'm not complaining.

Sophie is Sleep Trained - NOT....

Just to update those of you who had been following the whole sleeping training Sophie episode.....

Well, she has settled into a routine that I can live with. It is by no means perfect, but I am not going to traumatise myself nor Sophie at this point in time.

Sophie is able to be put down in her cot when it is time for bed (usually about 10pm). She may cry for a little while but is normally settled in about 5 min or less. Typically she will wake at about 3am for a feed or a cuddle of sorts which exhausting as it may be, I still look forward to. Then she will go back to sleep on the mattress where I will leave her till the morning. She typically wakes about at around 8am but it does range from 7am - 10am.

Would you consider this a success? Well, I think so. My main objective was to be able to get the little madam into bed without too much of a fuss and having to sleep with her. That part has been accomplished. At least after putting her to bed, I will still have some ME time. Part II of sleep training where I try to get her to sleep through the night will be KIV-ed until further notice....

Final score --> 6.9/10

Over and out! ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sophie Sleep Training - for real.... (30th June Update)

Sophie has picked up some bad habits since the London trip where she has been sleeping literally attached to me. After returning home, she has also decided that she refuses to sleep in her cot. Since Paul is away for the entire month, I thought I would take the opportunity to enjoy her babyhood and just sleep with her and respond to her every whims and cries in the middle of the night. It has been exhausting, but I have enjoyed it cos it is "our time" together in the peaceful quiet of the night. This is very unlike my usual phylosophy where I am quite a nazi about sleeptraining so that us adults get a decent nights sleep,....but what the hell, she is my last baby,.... I will never get these moments back again.

Anyway, I have been letting Sophie behave in this terrible manner all month and Paul is coming home soon (next week) and I am not sure he would be too impressed with me sleeping with Sophie everynight.

Start 22 Jun - this leaves me with about week to do this.

Night 1 - 22nd June
10:30pm Fed to sleep - placed in cot
12:00am Awake. Cuddled and placed back in cot at the following intervals (2min, 5min, 10min, 20min, 30min) Elapsed time ~1.5hrs
6:00am Awake for a feed before sleeping till 8am
Interim Assessment --> Not too bad for the first night - 6/10

Night 2- 23rd June
11:30pm Fed in arms and placed in cot in sleepy state. Sophie cries at the following intervals (2min, 5min) Elapsed time ~10 min
7:00am Wakes for feed and goes back to sleep until 9am
Interim Assessment --> Very good. Fingers crossed that it is not a fluke - 9.5/10

Night 3 - 24th June
10:30pm Rocked to sleep without feed and placed in cot
5:00am Wakes for feed. Placed back in cot after feed. Sophie cries at the following intervals (2min, 2min) Elapsed Time ~ 5 min
8:00am Wakes for feed.
Intermin Assessment --> Not too bad considering was not fed to sleep - 8/10

Night 4 - 25th June
11:30pm Fed in arms and placed in cot in sleepy state. Sophie cries for 2 min and sleeps.
6:00am Wakes for feed where I fall asleep with her on mattress until 8am.
Intermin Assessment --> 8/10

Night 5 - 26th June
11:00pm Fed in arms and placed in cot in sleepy state. Sophie cries for 1 min and sleeps.
5:00am Wakes for feed and placed back in cot without fuss after.
8:00am Wakes for feed and back in cot until 10:30am.
Intermin Assessment --> Undecided if this is considered a success. Going to sleep part was good but not sure I like the 5am feed. I do have to be "reasonable" though. - 7/10

Night 6 - 27th June
11:00pm Fed in arms and placed in cot in sleepy state. Sophie cries for 1 min and sleeps.
3:30am Wakes. I leave her to cry hoping that it would stop
3:50am She doesn't sound like she is settling anytime soon. I go to her and cuddle her before putting her into cot. Note - no feed. (have decided on loose rule not to feed if it is before 5am). Sophie continues crying.... I go to her and cuddle her at intervals of 10min, 20min, 20min, 20min.... It keeps like this until almost 6am after which she sleeps until 10am.
Intermin Assessment --> Apart from fact that she slept quickly, Night #6 was a complete disaster! Tempted to score it with a big fat ZERO but must give credit for quick falling asleep. - 5/10

Night 7 - 28th June
11:00pm Fed in arms and placed in cot asleep.
3:00am Cried for 2 hrs!!! (can't be bothered to even put down at what intervals!)
5:00am Slept and can't remember what time she woke up!
Interim Assessment --> Repeat of the previous night! I am officially TRAUMATISED by this. Sophie crying for 2hrs was just too heart wrenching. I have decided already that if she wakes in the middle of the night, I will feed her. --> 5/10

Night 8 - 29th June (night before Paul is back...)
10:00pm Fed in arms and placed in cot asleep.
10:30pm Awake. Fed and placed in cot again.
4:00am Awake. Fed and placed in cot again. Cried at intervals of 5min, 10min, 10min (Elapsed time ~40min)
8:00am Woke
Interim Assessment --> 6.5/10 I had to feed her but that is much less stressful as compared to having her cry for 2 hrs. Also, I think she was a little harder to put to sleep after feed cos she was also traumatised by the previous 2 night...

Night 9 - 30th June (Paul is back)
10:00pm Fed her to sleep. Placed her in cot where she cried for about 5 min before sleeping.

I think I will continue tracking this for 2 more nights,...

Will keep updating this entry until sleep training is stabilised..... but I think we are almost there!!!

姐妹 - Sisters

I love having girls..... THREE girls. They are about 3 yrs apart and I am lucky that they just love each other to bits. No doubt they will have their little bickers but that's all part of sisterhood.


二姐 helping 大姐 with her apron as they prepare to play "Chefs & Bakers". As usual 大姐 has to be in her leotard. **roll eyes** I do love these scenes and am happy that the 3 of them will have each other forever....


Here is 二姐 teaching 妹妹 how to crawl. Now Sophie can out crawl any of us! You don't realise it, but is actually quite difficult and painful for an adult to crawl! Strangely though, lil' Soph still can't sit up unassisted at 9 months.... hmmmm....

25th Percentile????

When the doctor told me that my little Kitty Cate was on the 25th %tile in terms of her size,.... I didn't really think too much of it. Just thought she would be nice and petite.

But last week, I received a picture of Cate with her classmate in preschool and I'm not being funny or anything but we are talking completely DIFFERENT PROPORTIONS here! Check out the picture below,..... it looks like Cate has been artificially superimposed into the picture!

Little precious.... do I need to feed you more????

Training Religiously

Wow, has it been that long?.... Cate was just done with chicken pox last week and Emma is now down with it. So as you can imagine, I have had my hands full....

Emma, needless to say has been a TV addict through her stint at home and while I am normally quite strict with that, I am not sure what else she should be doing with her time! I do ask her to play with her toys, do some craft, do some assessment papers, read books, play the piano,.... but even after all that, there is A LOT of time left, so that's where the TV steps in... (I know, bad mommy)

Anyway, yesterday, Emma was watching the St Philips's Boy's choir on TV.

I asked her what she was watching. Emma's response (completely seriously), "They are Catholics training to become Christians." :O

I couldn't help myself and just cracked up. I don't know how she got that idea or what she thinks she has done in her short life to to have"graduated" from a Catholic to a Christian...

Anyway before my several Catholic friends and family take offense, I did correct her.

Kids says the darndest things....

2009 Singapore Biathlon

Singapore Biathlon 2009 - 1.5km Swim, 10km Run

Last weekend, I participated in my very first full distance race. Somewhat a delayed posting but only cos I have been beeezeeeeeee........ :)

It seemed like a natural progression to do this race, so I did. It didn't matter that I hardly trained for it. I think since Corp Tri 2007 (which was my last race that included a swim), I swam less than 10 times. As for running, I haven't been doing a whole lot of running since the half marathon in Dec, but for this year, I've tried to run the 10+km Macritchie Trail with Paul at least once a week. Not a whole lot, but enough to ensure I finish. Paul was perpetually nagging at me to swim cos he was worried that I would drown in open water (bless him), but I assured him that while I may not be a speedy swimmer, I am pretty drown-resilient.

Anyway, the day didn't start off too well with me not getting much sleep cos Sophie had a 40C fever all night. Paul and I headed towards the east with the top down enjoying the cool morning breeze. ;) We got there about 630am for registration and body marking. It was still dark and I found my little transition square to lay out my stuff. (I don't know how slim the organisers think we are, but those transition squares are tiny!)

The swim was a single loop, which was nice. The initial leg out was crowded with too many people and at one point someone was literally hanging on to me from behind and pretty much using me like a kickboard! I stopped, grabbed her arm, twisted around, pulled her out of the water and sternly told her not to use me as a float. I mean WTF! Anyway, after that I swam pretty leisurely on, lots of people passing me by as expected. The toughest part was after the u-turn point on the way back where I think we must’ve been swimming against the current and I felt like I was swimming on the spot. I swam on, fighting the boredom,.... I wasn't tired, but I was painfully bored. I even started swimming backstroke at some point in an attempt to break the monotony…. Then I saw people with different coloured caps swimming by. Oops! The next wave is overtaking me. Man, that sucks.... Then it started to drizzle, making backstroke somewhat uncomfortable with droplets falling on my face. Fine. I flipped over to make a better effort towards the shore. I think it took me about 52min for the swim. Haha....Appalling! But hey, I didn't drown - Yay!

I ran through to transition area, relieved to be done with the swim. Looked out for Ruth (kids' Godma) who was my communication channel to the kids. Got some reassurance that no one has called about Sophie, hence she should be fine. Phew! I packed my things into a trash bag in case the rain got heavier and was on my way…

The run was fun. I have slowly started to enjoy running. So with the nice cool overcast weather, I did a slow and comfortable jog in about 1hr.

My 1st full distance race completed – YAY!

My total time was 1hr 57min. Which kind of means I spent about 5 min in the transition. Oops! Will work on that for next time…. Anyway I managed to keep within my loose target of completing it under 2hrs.

Sophie - Back to NUH... AGAIN :(

This weekend has been a sleepless one. Sophie has had a pretty high fever up to about 40C that started Friday. I spent the whole of Friday night sponging her to keep her temperature down. At 5am, I had to start getting ready to leave for my race (Singapore Biathlon). Anyway, thank God I did not drown swimming 1.5km in the sea after a night of close to no sleep.

Sophie's temperature seemed in control all Saturday, so it was quite unexpected when I had night #2 of no sleep cos her temperature spiked to about 40C again and refused to go down despite the sponging for literally hours. By the morning, I was exhausted and worried about my poor little baby, so I decided to take her to NUH A&E. NUH was great again. I left NUH with instructions to pretty much do what I had been doing (i.e. keep her temperature down with paracetamol and sponging) but at least I got confirmation that it wasn't UTI or some bacteria infection (after a urine and blood test).

Napping Sunday afternoon was not an option cos we had made plans to take Ems to watch the ballet (Cinderella). Here's Emma with one of her 1st friends ever - Charlotte Chang. Am afraid I can't tell you too much about the ballet,... I was somewhat in and out of sleep for the entire 2.5hrs. Ok, so napping was an option afterall,.... but not SERIOUS napping!

I am looking forward to getting reacquainted with my bed and the ZZzzzzzz-Monster tonight ............. Over and out!

Sophie is 7 months old today

Doesn't time fly... On solids a month now. Still no teeth as expected. Able to roll, can't crawl but able to move lying on back using head and legs to push upwards. Just about sleep trained i.e. Able to be put down in crib while still awake provided she is tired enough and has spent a little time hanging out with me beforehand. Able to sleep for about 6 to 8 hr stretches.
Sophie is everyone's little precious at home. Xoxo

Twins.....3 years apart

Our entire family look alike. It starts off with Paul and I having great 夫妻相, which really means that we never know who our kids look like since we all look the same. (The general theme here is smaaaaaall eyes.)

Anyway I can't believe how much Cate and Sophie look alike. It's almost like Sophie is Cate's twin who arrived 3 years later! (So that was what all those extra pounds were, and there I was trying to work out...)

25 Things

Since I went through the trouble of noting down the 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about myself on FB, thought I would just put it on my blog too.




1. I am sleep training Sophie as I write this so am feeling super stressed out as I wait for her to cry out the next 4 min.

2. I am a movie buff. I love watching movies but strangely seldom really like the movies I watch.

3. I am a night owl who wishes she was a morning person and till today kills herself trying to be a morning person (in vain)

4. I have a very bad temper but for those who are surprised by this, it's either cos you don't know me at all or cos I am really controlling (something I have been working on for a while now)

5. To my dismay, I have a crazy sense of smell. I can smell anything and everything however slight. When I walk in public and I see someone about to walk past me, I make a point to hold my breath in case I catch a whiff of something.

6. I love the smell of the breath that comes out of my babies' noses. I inhale it like I am a drug addict.

7. Paul and I got engaged 4 months after dating and have been married 10 years now.

8. When Paul wakes up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, I wake up a little too to listen if he has turned on the tap to wash his hands. (although I am half convinced that he just turns on and off the tap for my benefit without actually washing his hands )

9. 4 mins is up and am off too cuddle my Soph to reassure her that Mummy still loves her....

10. I am still working at my first place of employment since graduation

11. In a strange way, I kind of like injections (not drugs or anything), and even stranger thing is that Emma has taken after me and looks forward to her vaccinations.

12. I love being pregnant even though it makes you fat and uncomfortable most of the time.

13. I love natural childbirth even though it hurts like a B!+@#.

14. When I was at uni, my staple diet was Coke, profitarolls, ready salted crisps. Luckily I had a high metabolic rate but no such luck now!

15. I am feeling super stressed out with Sleep Training but I know I must persist.

16. My favourite cuisine would be Japanese (Swordfish Sashimi, Chirashi Don, Uni Sushi, Ikura Sushi)

17. I love durians but don't like anything else durian (i.e. durian ice cream, durian cake, durian pudding) I also only eat from the durian stall in Balestier (Combat) and only really like the bitter ones with plenty of durian taste.

18. I am a home body. I like staying home and reallly only go out with close friends.

19. I don't like chatting on the phone much at all. Even to make quick arrangements.

20. I am naturally a very messy person but I cannot stand living in a messy place so I am constantly torn in my own home trying to keep things tidy.

21. I love my 3 girls more than anything in the whole world.

22. I am almost always in black but make a conscious effort to wear other colours.

23. While I am reasonably well traveled, in actual fact I don't really like traveling that much and would be perfectly happy taking weeks of leave and hanging out at home (especially with my favourite little people)

24. I was in the tsunami in Dec 2004

25. I have reached number 25 and Sophie is still screaming her non-existent nuts off. G'night!

人日快乐

Today is the 7th day of Chinese New Year which means it is everybody's birthday (人日). Today is also when Sophie is exactly 6 months old. :)

Here's wishing everyone a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

New Blog Header Pic

This is the first time I am changing the header picture of my blog. Really it is cos I need to add Sophie's face in somewhere!

As most of you would know, I am hopeless with photo editing and such, so this is really the best I can do (with the help of fab online photo editing tool - www. picnik.com)! It doesn't look great but it has my favourite little people in the whole world. One may ask, "Where's Paul?". Well he is not little, and I am not his Mummy. ;P Truth is, it is hard enough to get all 3 kids into a picture, let alone Papa who is normally the one behind the camera.

Well, this is it until I get round to getting something else together or skilling myself up on the creative side. At least I don't have to feel guilty about Sophie not being in there. (But now should I feel guilty that Paul isn't there?....)

Sleeping Goddess

Here is my little Soph fast asleep in bed of pillows. Poor little precious has been ill so not sleeping so well at nights. As with mummy...
Fringe tied back to hopefully keep her cooler. With our austerity drive, she has to sleep without the airconditioning!
Don't you just want to bite this little munchkin!