Well, after two weeks of indulging in food, alcohol and gambling, Chinese New Year has finally come to an end. Indulging in all my vices can't be good.. I'm glad to say I tip the scales at only 1kg weight gain.. NOT GOOD..
One thing I didn't give up on was training.. I love training.. I'm addicted to training.. it's absolutely "free-ing" to push your body to the limit and see where it takes you. I used to think that adrenaline was over-rated.. but not anymore.. I look forward to training every single day.. sometimes I wish I was training everyday and not just every other day!
But I'm glad for the training this Chinese New Year.. cos it only means I could indulge more with food and alcohol.
So what did we do to close the Chinese New Year period? Why.. we held a party of course! It was a pool party which supposed to start at 5.00pm.. but true fashion of Kuching-ians.. people didn't start showing up until past 7pm. By then, the pool party ended and the BBQ has started... I love BBQ.. nothing better than charred food on your plate I say! (No I'm not being sarcastic!) It was an awesome party, with steak, hot dogs, squid, vegetables.. plenty of yummy food to go around. Or so I thought, until we totally ran out of food for late comers.
That's me and Karen.. Frankly speaking.. I was so wasted I had no idea when that picture was even taken.. I had so much fun.. drinking whiskey and chatting to people.. when suddenly the spiked jelly (spiked with 750ml of Rum!!!) hit me and I started getting dizzy.. thus that's the end of the party for me!
But what an awesome day.. first was the Colored Rush Fun Run, then the pool party when I got thrown into the pool.. twice.. then the BBQ.. we let off some fireworks at the end of the night and that was how we closed Chinese New Year.. with a bang!
I realised that many of my posts recently do not have any pictures.. that's probably due to my aversion for cameras.. don't like being in pictures unless I can guarantee that I look hot in them :) Probably should carry my camera around with me more often.. but for now, my blogs shall remain pictureless..
So recently I took part in the Colored Rush - Fun run... which was a 5km run around Kuching city. It's a charity run for the World Children Cancer Foundation and we each had to pay RM30 to participate, and we get a free T-Shirt with that. I took part mainly because it was a stepping stone towards running 10km, and I wanted/needed to test my stamina...
I trained hard.. mostly on the treadmill (well, only on the treadmill) and found my stamina pretty good.. I could run 5km in about 45 minutes.. not the best time.. but still pretty good! Can you believe that after 2 months of training, I've grown so much stronger and my stamina is pretty damn good..
So anyway, this Colored Rush was the first time ever that it's done in Sarawak. What makes it colored? No no no.. it's not a multi-racial run.. although there are people from all walks of life there.. it's colored run because each participant is given a bag of colored powder, and before the run, everyone sprays their powder around so each person will end up covered in different color. I wasn't too keen on getting dirty.. but it's all part of the fun. We couldn't wait to get colors on each other, but was told to hold off until the final countdown.. but the crowd was over-energized that the countdown never happened.. it was awesome seeing the cloud of colors going around though..
After a 30 minute delay.. we finally set off on the 5km run, which took us from Civic Centre, past the General Hospital, up Batu Lintang, down Bampflyde, past Sarawak Club and back to the Civic Centre. I started jogging at my pace.. but my pacer was way in front of me so I had to run faster to catch up.. and that was the start of the end.. midway through Batu Lintang.. my legs gave up. I couldn't run anymore.. my mind tells me to do it, but my body just shut down.. my lungs were bursting, my legs were aching.. I just couldn't do it anymore... I had to walk... so my pacer walked with me and I said I'd start running again when we reached Bampflyde.. the nice part was when we past Batu Lintang, I saw PrincessBling and hubby with Hunter.. watching us jog/walk past... it was such a nice welcome. Anyway.. back to the race.. when we hit Bampflyde, I started jogging again.. but alas, it wasn't to last very long.. I just couldn't do it anymore... I've hit a wall and my legs could not go on. I was so disappointed with myself.. most of all, I let my pacer down.. and that kills me.
In the end.. it took us 45 minutes to complete the fun run.. not a bad time.. but with all the training, it should have been better.. but now I know.. running on the road is very different to running on the treadmill. I need to start training on the road more often than on the treadmill... given the actual environment (the heat and the humidity) compared to working out in a full air conditioned gym.. I might make it a habit to run one day every weekend.. in the evening.. sadly.. I'm not prepared to wake up that early in the morning to run.. not yet anyway :)
On a side note.. colored powder given was NOT WATER SOLUBLE! I had my face dyed purple for the rest of the day and I'm still picking out red dye from my ears.
Overall, I had fun, but I don't think my pacer will sign up for any more runs with me for now.. haha he hates running and only did it for me.. and to disappoint him like that.. I need to train harder and push my body to the limit. Next time.. quitting is NOT acceptable.
Recently we had a long break due to the Chinese New Year festivities.. I love Chinese New Year.. it's the season to drink, eat and gamble.. when else can you participate in all these vices and have an excuse to do it?
Chinese New Year Eve
Every year for the past 4 years (or was it 5?), our family heads down to a family dinner at Toh Yuen (Hilton) for a family reunion dinner. Not much of a reunion since we see each other every night for dinner at home.. haha.. but it's always nice to get out of the house and be served by others and have a night of fun and chatters..
Then it's home time when we exchange Ang Pows (us unmarried ones waiting eagerly) and then we wait til 11.55pm to set off the firecrackers and fireworks! I'm not sure how this happens but each year, it seems that I'm delegated to light the shortest fuse for the firecrackers! That's why I'm sorta fearless now when it comes to lighting the crackers.. and I'm always the one lighting the fuse for the fireworks! I love it when midnight strikes.. when the night skies get illuminated with the bright sparkles of the fireworks, when the air is permeated with the sounds of boom from firecrackers being lit to scare off evil spirits..
We let go 3 firecrackers and 5 fireworks that night... before finally calling it a night and drifting to sleep amongst the boom boom bang!
1st Day of Chinese New Year
We always have an open house on the first day of Chinese New Year. That's when everyone is invited to our house for lunch.. I love entertaining people.. although when it gets busy.. I tend to hide in the comfort of the bar area (NOT drinking.. just having a barrier between me and the people!) and chat to the few who came to hide out there with me.. hahaha..
Pigging out on all the food because today is NO PALEO DAY! YES! I had permission from Muscleman to go off Paleo for that one day!
After our house 'closed' for the evening, we headed out to Aaron's place.. he has this beautiful mansion on top of the hill overlooking Kuching. That's when things got messy.. with the combination of too much alcohol and not enough food.. but I had a great time there! I had a great conversation with MuscleMan and it was nice.
2nd Day of Chinese New Year
This is when we pay back visit to those who visited our open home on the first day of Chinese New Year. This year, we visited 8 houses from 10am to 4pm... OMG were we exhausted by the end of it.. I was happy collecting Ang Pows (yes.. I still get them!) but it was hard not to binge on food, especially since I was on the Paleo diet again... once we got home, I took a half hour power nap, had a shower and was off to Johnny's house at 5pm for his open home party. That was always fun.. loads of booze and food..and great company.
I left at 12am.. and then started the drunken walk from home to Justin's house for gambling.. I didn't last very long.. and had to be accompanied home (I insisted that I was alright to walk home alone) but ahhh... another great way to end the day.
The first two days are the most important days for Chinese New Year in our family tradition.. by the time it came to the third day, most of us were just enjoying the holidays and going off doing our own thing.
Me, I started training for my 5km fun run on 23rd February 2013. Muscleman has offered to run with me, and it's going to be a challenge because I'll be running the entire 5km.. no more running 1km and walking 4km.. I'm challenging myself and giving myself a run time of 45 minutes or less. So hence the training begins...
