Car Engine Stalled

 Just when I was almost reaching my house this moring, the car-engine's sign appeared on my dashboard and the car seemed to loose power! Arrhh!!.

I was wondering what has happened? So, I drove around for a while to decide what to do. Stop, switched off the engine. Wait for a while and then started the engine again. Nope, there was some fault. As the car repair shop is next to the petrol kiosk which is opposite my house, I decided to drive there and ask the mechanic.

I left my car with the mechanic and went home, after giving him my phone number. I tried to check on youtube and google to see what is happening and whether anything serious has taken place. 

Hours later, the mechanic called and told me that the spark coils and spark plugs have damaged.

So, sometimes thing happened when you least expected. As I prayed about this, "Why this must happened to me?" Well, be thankful that it happened just when you reach the mechanic and get it fixed for you. Imagine, the car stalled at the expressway! Then, more problems of finding the car agent and calling the tow truck to bring the car to the mechanic. 

And so, I am thankful, the car is fixed within a few hours and not much of a hassle. Although it is painful to pay for the repair.

This is part of life. Bad things can happen anytime. Be thankful and be grateful for any help that come with it.

Agape 

Macritchie Treetop Walk

Surprisingly, even when I arrived at the Windsor Nature Park @ about 1pm today, there were many people going to Macritchie trail. Perhaps, people came in the afternoon because it was raining during the morning. The trail was muddy and slippery.

OK, Windsor Nature Park is connected to the Macritchie Reservoir and nearer to the Macritchie Treetop. I park my car at the Venus Drive Carpark. So, the distance from Windsor Nature Park to the Macritchie Treetop is shorter, about 2.4km.

After parking, the entrance to the park showed 2 maps, (1) the whole central water catchment, and (2) Windsor Nature Park, which is a portion of the whole water catchment area (which include Macritchie Reservoir and leading to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve).

After walking along the trail, I came across a huge monitor lizard. It definitely longer than 3 feet!

Thankfully, the lizard walked away as we were looking at it instead of coming toward us. Saw some monkeys and cocks along the way. These are common animals in any Nature Parks in Singapore.

As I walk along, the trail was quite muddy due to the morning rain. Some parts were then piled with rocks. Certain areas were renovated with wooden planks and slits for better walking. The trail also branch out to a road at certain area. That was where I saw some monkey coming out of the foliage to look for food. Also, be prepared to climb up and down stairs which can be very steep and long at certain part of the trail. About 500m towards the Treetop, I came to a very steep road and decided to run up.

Finally, I reached the treetop. The path is very narrow and it was converted into a one-direction route. The suspension bridge is quite short. I googled and found that it is about 250m long. It give a good bird-eye view of the water catchment area.

At the exit, it is more steps of up and down. The distance back to the car park is 3.7km!

The return route is a different one-way back for about 2km. Thereafter, it merge to the on-coming route. I reached the entrance of the Windsor Nature Park @2.30pm. Still, there were a few groups of people just making their way into the Macritchie Trial, even though the park is supposed to closed at 5pm!. It took me about one and a half hour just to brisk walk a round-trip with some jogging in-between. Wonder how these late-arrival can complete the trial before the park closed?

As I reached my car, my whole T-shirt was wet. I then drove home with wearing any shirt!

PS: In future hiking, remember to bring extra T-shirt.

Bye!

Christmas Block Party @ Tampines Block 492H

 We had our first Christmas Block Party with the residents in Tampines Block 492E & 492F today! The turn-out was very good and the responses from the residents were excellent.

Pastor David and me helping up in the arrangement before the party

I went there early to help in the packing of the goodies to be given as gift for all attendances. 

It was raining quite heavy even before the event started. Pastor David somehow managed to find a mop and started cleaning the floor! A true servant-leader in action!

Dances, songs, food, and also the Christmas Story were dramatize to help the residents know the true meaning of Christmas. The children had their fair shares of games and every participant took back presents of soft toys.

Children playing games

Presenting the Christmas Story

We had 2 rounds of lucky draws. The first round of lucky draws consist of 20 prizes with some simple gifts of basics necessity like tooth-pastes, washing items, etc.

MP, Mr Baey (in white)

I was standing on the left helping to give out the prizes

The second round of lucky prizes were better. The 3rd to 5th prizes were rice cookers. The 2nd prize was a LG auto-robotic vacuum cleaner. And the 1st prize was a 50 inches Panasonic smart TV! 

I told the wrong thing to Pastor Thomas who was announcing the prizes, that the first prize was donated by the Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Baey. But before Ps Thomas announced that, he clarified with Mr Baey. It happened because, Moses, the coordinator when asking me to help out in giving the lucky draw prizes, said that "The MP, Mr Baey is giving the lucky draws". I mistook him in saying that Mr Baey is donating the prize. What Moses meant was that Mr Baey is coming to draw out the winning ticket numbers for the lucky draws! Thankfully, the mistake was napped in the butt before it was made.

2 things need to be mindful of such events - (1) the rain and wind actually cause some disruption to the games and places. The floor was totally wet. Also, the wind affected the games as we were playing with balloons. (2) There was not enough chairs and most of the volunteers like us had to stand for the 3 to 4 hours.

I thinks the residents enjoyed the food and presentations. Also, the goodies bag and prizes are something that benefit them. Above all, we hope that they could understand the message of Christmas and bring blessings to their lives and loved-ones.

All the volunteers & organizers

Merry & Blessed Christmas 2022!

Agape

Half Marathon 2022 Timing

My pacing for the first 15km was quite good. I managed to maintain at a <7min/km pace throughout. It was the last 6km that I slowed down a bit. My ending was weak and that showed that I did not train enough for endurance and strength.

Among my age group >60 years old, I was ranked 51 out of 196. For a total of 9090 runners for the Half Marathon, I was ranked 3468. I need to work harder for next year!

Managed to look at some of the photos during the run, taken by the organizer:

Just leaving the starting line. I was at the front-center of the camera!  (The guy carrying a sling bag). Hmm...

We were half way through, still dark.

Coming to the end, past the Singapore flyer! (Brighter now! :)

This is at the finishing line. The one at the left of the photo was me!

This is my certificate for the Half Marathon 2022! Just to keep it here so that I can compare it with next year 2023 run and see any improvement.

Bye!

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2022

 After 2 years of COVID-19, the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2022 is back today!

It started with a rain pour before 5am. Thankfully, I was standing inside the sheltered Pen-D. Most of the runners were drenched. 

So the run was push back half an hour but was still drizzling. The run was good and I managed to complete the run without really walking, except when drinking.

A few lessons I learnt from this SCMS 2022 which hopefully will help me to prepare better for future runs:

1. Training run to be longer than 20Km

During my training run, I did the longest and only 20km run 2 weeks ago. So, the preparation was not adequate. Unlike previous years of full Marathon runs, I ran many >26km run. So, it is important to do more 20+km run next years. Also, I should build up strength and speed for shorter run like 12km and 15km.

2. Prepare for wet weather

I carried a small bag today which contain my wallet, phone, a pair of socks and some plastic bags. Unfortunately, it rain today and the bag was not really water-proof. Hence, the sock, which was supposed for me to change into after the run was slightly damped! On hind-sight, I should have put the socks in the plastic bag. The most important part of the body after a run is always the feet, to keep them dry. That's why I brought along a clean pair of socks. But, I couldn't use it.

3. Good Organizing by the Ironman Pte Ltd

The whole run was quite well planned. At the end, they provided very adequate food - bananas, breakfast, icy 100-plus ice-shave;  iso-tonic drinks, health drinks, extra towels and even phot-taking. Today, I brought along a towel, which was unnecessary. Previous SCMS run were not so well supplied. Also, the starting and ending points were at the same locations and baggage collection were there also. This made it very convenient for runners; unlike previous runs which started at Orchard Road but end at the Singapore Padang. Back then, I had to take the MRT from City Hall back to Orchard Road to get my car after the run.

So, I might sign up again for the 2023 run again as the organizing of the SCMS is very good.