my blog

Forget what you have learned and move like a fish.

2010-10-01T15:19:00.001+08:00

I was always very proud to say I learned to swim before the age of two (thanks mom!).

I remember, kicking on that board as hard as I could and all those drills that everyone who has been to the standard swimming lessons is familiar with. For many years I swam using those skills that they taught me and what I considered to be the 'universal truth' about swimming.

When we moved to Singapore we landed at a very nice condo that had an awesome pool. We started swimming some laps with my good friend Rob. It was already too long since I have swam on a regular basis so 4 or 5 laps was good enough to get my heartbeat going like on a rave party. I was able to get a little better and do 10 or 15 laps. This was a 25 meter pool so it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either.

One day Rob, who found himself getting pretty exhausted after every workout, found this post from Tim Ferris about how he defeated his fear for swimming and how he learned a method developed by Terry Laughlin called Total Immersion. I didn't pay too much attention at the time since, I already knew how to swim!

Months later somehow I bumped again into the Total Immersion deal. This time I dug into it and it really caught my attention. There are a few videos out there on youtube that I found pretty illustrative. I decided to give it a go and it was the best thing I've done since I discovered cheesecake! Well, not really, I've luckily done quite exciting things since but anyway it was a pretty cool discovery!

I went through the process of relearning what many years of swimming classes have built into my muscle memory. It was not that hard for the most part and even though I am not quite there yet I saw huge improvement within a few times at the pool.

In a couple of days I will be taking part of my third triathlon this year, second Olympic distance, and even if I haven't trained as hard as I could I feel pretty confident that I will enjoy the 1.5km swim.

(Note to myself: I am taking the risk of posting this before the race starts, so don't you dare to drown!).

2010 is for Triathlon

2010-08-15T13:04:00.000+08:00

Note: I haven't kept up with my promise and this post has been on the draft section of my blog for quite some time now. The guilt was growing bigger so finally here it is.

After quite some time (years) of playing around with the idea of doing a triathlon I have finally done it! To date I've done an Olympic and a Sprint. In 7 weeks I'll be doing another Olympic.

Last February 2010 I finally decided to sign up for a local triathlon (OSIM international triathlon Singapore 2010) along with a few friends from work. I haven't been as active as I wanted to be so this was a great opportunity to force myself into it. I've read many times that the best way to force you into training is to sign up for an event. Then fear will help you with the motivation to train. My friends were inspiring all the way and made it a fun process.

I had 10 weeks to be ready for it. I needed to be able to:

1. Swim 1.5km in less than 50 minutes (before the cut-off time)
2. Cycle 40kms - which I knew I could do although I didn't own a bike and,
3. Run 10km - hopefully pain free

The only bit I was a afraid of was swimming that distance. I haven't been swimming long distances. Jumping once in a while and swimming 5 or 6 laps in a 25m pool didn't feel like a big starting point. Nonetheless it was a start. My technique was somewhat good and it would be just a matter of time to increase the distance... or so I thought.

I started hitting the pool 3 times a week. I bought a city/path Trek FX 7.2 bike and I did not train for running that much. Most Sundays I play fútbol anyways. My only concern was to run injury free for all the distance.

I was most worried about the swim. I was getting tired way fast and 1.5k was looking hard to achieve within the time I had before the race. So I did some more serious research and talked with a few friends about training and skills. Not that I was thinking to go very serious about the sport but I needed to be prepared enough to at least complete it.

A friend of mine once told me about Total Immersion when he was trying to improve his swimming. This time I dug into it and it was gold! I learned to swim at age two but thirty one years later I started to unlearn a few things and learn how to glide through the water! I saw progress quite fast and my biggest fear was vanishing the more I trained.

I cycled 21km to work twice a week. It was not easy on certain days but I enjoyed it so much. I felt it will go slow but steady and I was not worried.

Finally, running was less of a worry except for a common running injury called Iliotibial band syndrome that I was suffering every time I hit the 7k or 8k. I went to the doctor, practiced yoga, did strength training, bought a strap that went around my knee, but noting worked. Then I found about bare feet running. This saved my life. No more pain and I love to run more than ever before.

So after 10 weeks race day came. It was tough! The cycling was the toughest for me but I partly - a very small part - attribute that to the 35ºC and 98% humidity!

Overall it was fun and a good challenge. I did pretty good for my first event. The next week I signed up for the Tribob Triathlon which was held in April. The one coming up is October 3rd. I think I'm a bit hooked now!

I think I'm back

2010-04-30T22:17:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since the last post. Two years or so since I last wandered around here. Facebook and Twitter have taken my blogging time. But they are not the same.

It is true is that time flies when you are having fun. I've done so many things and, yet, there a many that I'm still want to do. I guess one of those was to write again this lonely blog. I figured that is a good tool to keep some thoughts handy. I like the idea of going a couple of years back and see what I was up to. Hopefully it will also let me share with friends some cool stuff I've ran into my life lately.

Today I feel like blogging once again. The plan is to post once a week at least. Let's see how that goes. There are many updates to write about and perfect subjects for the next posts. The next one in a week.

Milestone

2008-08-16T13:04:00.000+08:00

Today I realized that I had completed 250 kilometers since I started logging my runs. I got this poster thingy which is of course is more a marketing tool than a motivating thing but here it is anyway.

The race is 2 weeks ago and for some reason I am not feeling very confident about it. But according to the program that is supposed to be happening since the peak period should happen at the race and not weeks before.

After that race I will be running a half marathon. It is just a week after (Sept 7th). This one I am a bit more nervous about.

one hundred

2008-07-24T13:08:00.000+08:00

Being back from the couch is feeling good so far. Running is going good but now I read about a website and I thought I should use the momentum and try to follow a training program for doing one hundred push ups. I think it is an interesting concept of just throwing a challenge in the web and see what happens. Apparently there has been a good response. I made the initial test and was able to do fifteen. Not bad for a couch potato but then again not even close for what I want. Give it a try if you want. Yesterday was only my second day into this and I can already see it is not gonna be a piece of cake. Will see.

Why so serious?

2008-07-23T11:25:00.000+08:00

I went yesterday to watch The Dark Knight. I think it was really good. I was impressed in many ways, acting, direction, visual effects, sound! I won't go into any details since those are easily found all around the web and by far best people to review it. As I was writing this post I was in between reading some feeds from the sites I usually surf only to realize that my post started almost the same way as one of my friend's post. So I kept reading and when I was done I totally forgot where I was going with this post.

Anyway, when I was a little brat I remember going to really crappy old movie theaters. It was an exciting experience. Ignorance is blessing. I don't blame older generation who since those years haven't been back to the movies. Parking was always chaos. Then line ups. Line up for buying tickets, to enter the complex since the box office was usually outside the main area, then for popcorn and other really good but terribly expensive candy, and to enter the theater in order to get a good seat. Lots of people will send the fastest of their gang along with their jackets so that he or she could literally throw those over the whole row of seats to save those places. The theater was often hot, stinky and you had to choose between a few theaters that had less chances to have cockroaches or rats. Oh those good old days!

The movie theater business was obviously not working in Mexico. Suddenly someone with a bit more vision and an MBA in Harvard noticed the potential. Two other companies from the US did the same. Basically those three I believe have the 95% of the market now.

They understood that some quality was needed in order to attract a lot of people and that they could turn it into a good business. I dare to say that these new movie theaters were even better than many in the US or Canada.

Then again, the world is not prefect and there are always the little details that can spoil the experience. I must say that most are related to the human factor. Service is not consistent and sometimes common sense is not very common. Us viewers don't help either in many cases. I think that is quite universal. Some people think that because they pay a ticket that grants them to step over the neighbor's toes. People talking, cellphones, babies crying in a rate R movie and all sort of things happen in probably every cinema around the world.

Now Singapore. Here is very similar to Mexico if not for one thing I consider to be a big deal. Buying tickets. In Singapore you can go online and buy tickets and select seats by using a debit or credit card. Don't have to sign up into the movie theater system or any hassle like that. Their system is linked to the same bank network that is used in groceries stores or any other place where you can use your bank card to buy anything. It is fast it is efficient. You can even pre order a combo deal of popcorn, soda and a candy. Once at the movie theater there are machines to collect tickets or a fast lane with a real person behind it just in case some one more tech savvy did the booking online for lets say their relatives.
But most important is assigned seats. I love to be able to choose where I seat. You know exactly where you will be seating therefore there is no need to be at the movie theater one hour earlier to be able to grab a seat no matter if you bought the ticket a week earlier. You can arrive sharp on time and you get the same result. I have heard some people saying that they like the excitement of chasing a seat. I am sure they love the excitement of getting a crappy seat and a sore neck if they were too back in the queue. In my opinion there are way better places and things to do if you are looking for excitement. I just want to enjoy the movie. Probably the downside here are the 20 min commercials before the movie. Most of the are terribly produced. The usually throw in a few movie trailers to make the wait tolerable.

So, if you haven't watched that movie it's a good chance to go. Choose a good seat and if you can't well, get there early I guess.

18 til I die

2008-06-27T10:48:00.000+08:00

I recently started running, at least in a regular way. This has not been easy. Last year I tried to do it but was injured since a cycling trip and every time I ran my knee hurt a lot. I guess the years behind the computer finally kicked in. I thought that I couldn't let that happen to me. I remember watching people struggling to run one small block or catching their breathe after walking up a few flights of stairs. At the time I thought "ahh...that's sad".

Ten years after I was going exactly in that direction and that was hard to take in. Somehow I thought that all those years spent running around, kicking a ball, would never end. The truth is that it's amazing how fast physical condition deteriorates.

I believe the hardest bit for me was to start almost from scratch. I was getting injured since I was trying to run 4 km in 19 minutes. I was going as fast as I could. For me that was doable and it didn't seem wrong. That was how I remembered running was all about. Of course that didn't work. My knees will start suffering from and old injury and I was doing everything but improve.

Finally, I brought patience into the equation (and a training book). I started a well designed running program. I started running for about 10 minutes at a very slow pace and spent time recovering before hitting the next run, even if I didn't feel I was getting tired or needed to recover at all. I made baby steps and slowly started to build up a base. Slowly I began adding time to the runs.

The next step for me was setting a goal so I am running a 10k race in August 31st. It would be my first race since I was in college I think and it should be fun.

I am training for that and this weekend I ran 12 km almost no problem and with no knee pain. I think it would be fairly easy to complete. Not so easy to compete though. I am still far from my objective which is to complete a marathon next December. I am not sure if I will be ready by then. I know today I can do a half marathon. Again, I am tempted to skip the baby steps.

Me: We are here! She:Are we really?

2008-06-06T17:37:00.000+08:00

Recently we went back home for holidays. Since the route goes through LA I took the chance to visit my sister and some more family and friends that live in Sand Diego while my lovely wife continued the journey to visit her numerous family in Mexico City.

Yeah, I was alone and I in my wallet I had my credit card. Yeah baby! That and my love for gadgets and toys can be a dangerous combination. But it wasn't that bad! I handled it pretty ok.

So, I just came across with the magnificent idea of buying a GPS [Global Positioning System device]. Yeah, those gadgets that tell you almost exactly where you are in the globe. They are so tiny know. I mean, a few years back I could only see them in spy movies!

How could I resist of having a gadget that fits on the palm of my hand which actually interacts with satellites and that is going to tell me the coordinates of my - already known? - position! Could you resist? I could not!

My wife may not fully agree though. Neither my sister or my cousin Lisa, and a few other people. I mean I wouldn't buy a $50 anti age cream neither. So let's respect each others perspective of what is cool to buy.

And yes, I also know I live in a tiny civilized island where you can't get lost! But you never know. What if... what if?

Anyway, I bought the Garmin Colorado 300. It is great! I know it is going to be fun and actually useful when I go on a trip. I can totally picture me wife peeking over my shoulder into the GPS screen! Actually she already played a bit at home with it. Of course she still doesn't quite realizes the full potential. After exploring some features she told me: "It also has a calculator.", which I confirmed a bit excited: "Yes it even has that just in case you need it! Cool huh!". After a a minute she handed it back without too much fuzz: "Here you go, your $500 calculator". (It was less than that; at least in US dollars)

I am sure that her geeky personality will agree it was a smart purchase just as that I will be able to pay my SGD$350 debt for buying cool gadgets.

patience is the essence

2008-06-03T18:30:00.000+08:00

Today the internet is a good part of what I do and, well yeah, of what I don't do. Anyway, a few years back, I wanted to buy a domain with my name [and last name of course].

Before I go on, for those not as geeky, a domain is pretty much the "name" that you use in the internet browser that point to a website. If you still don't get it try wikipedia or else.

So I wanted my name with a .com and not some .net, .to, .ws or something like that.

Well, having "that" specific domain became something I wanted. I needed to have it. So I went shopping for my domain name!

Crap. Some guy in California had the same idea, just a month before I did! And in case you are wondering, we are not related.

He registered the domain for two years - and he never put up a website. Well, after a two year wait, I was hoping this guy would forget to renew it and leave MY domain name free (he wasn't using it anyway!). I wasn't lucky. He renewed for 2 more years.

But hope never dies right? So I went to my google calendar and I added a reminder for two years later. I know what you are thinking.

So two years later (Nov 2007) the domain expired and my alarm went off. This time he didn't renew it! But the company that sold the domain held it for 3 months just in case he wanted it back. Then, another company grabbed it instantaneously and tried to sell it to him (at a higher price of course). Finally a month after it was released!

Patience paid off after all. Now I have it! It is mine! All mine! And now what?

Hmmm, I guess it is time to start thinking what I'm gonna post there! I mean, many things have changed after six years. I can't put up my original design or content unless I'm going six years retro. How come i didn't think about this before? Yeah, I slacked big time on this.

Well, for now this blog will also live there. That way I won't feel a hundred percent guilty.

Time for some brain storming.

Persevere

2008-06-03T13:47:00.001+08:00

Persevere
1.- to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.

Here is another try to keep writing a little something about whatever.

The truth is that I was discouraged after my fish died so I stopped writing. I hate when pets die. Well not only pets but I have trouble handling any kind of death except the one of a cockroach.

After a few months now I started to look to get some other goldfish to put into that classy fish tank that I bought. I haven't found a pet shop/aquarium near my place but I will persevere. The place I bought "Tiburón" has changed. There used to be a quite qualified guy running the business. Now there is some uninterested woman who just stares to a cheap magazine while every fish is dying or getting sick back there. It is a shame. So I'm in search for a decent aquarium shop in Singapore.

I know this post is lame but I need to kick me somehow to get me started.

The less I can do is also post one of those non related subject photos that live on my cellphone.

Carta al Director General del Universal.com.mx

2008-03-07T15:28:00.000+08:00

Los que ya me conocen, no se sorprenderán sino tan sólo compartirán la cita de una empleada del Oxxo al que solía ir y gozar de su excelente servicio y capacidad cerebral: "Ese siempre dá problemas."

---

Estimado Ignacio Catalán, Director General del Universal.com.mx,

Mi nombre es Oscar Peralta y soy uno de los trescientos mexicanos aproximadamente viviendo en Singapur. Estando tan lejos de casa es, en mi caso particular, una necesidad mantenerme al tanto de lo que sucede en México. Es por eso que eluniversal.com.mx, y otros diarios en línea (gratuitos) han sido una buena opción para mí. Sin embargo me causa mucha pena encontrar continuamente un pobre desempeño periodista y editorial. Podría citar decenas de ejemplos pero supongo que no es necesario. En esta ocasión ha sido esta nota:

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/488131.html

"Llegan los collage tours a Mazatlán"

"El hecho de que gasten poco, es que viajan con paquetes de todo incluido."

Es increíble que cosas así se publiquen en el medio que sea. Supongo que la gente que escribe este tipo de notas no tiene los mejores estudios ni la capacidad que uno desearía por el sueldo que perciben, pero, ¿y los editores? ¿Acaso alguien se toma la molestia de revisar aunque sea por encimita semejantes "notas"? ¿Se encuentra la economía de un diario tan mal como para tener un control de calidad tan pobre por falta de personal capacitado? No veo excusa alguna para que sucedan cosas así.

Desde luego no es la primera vez que escribo al Universal. Anteriormente he escrito a los editores pero desafortunadamente no he tenido respuesta alguna.

Espero de verdad este correo no se redireccione al "spam folder' y que lo encuentre a usted como destinatario. Si es así, lo invito a usted a leer el universal.com.mx el dia que guste y darse cuenta de que hay mucho trabajo por hacer. Espero también este correo le sirva a usted y a su equipo de trabajo cómo una visión desde un -literalmente - punto de vista muy distinto para poder mejorar su labor diaria.

Atentamente,
Oscar Peralta

Customer Service in Singapore!

2008-02-19T17:32:00.001+08:00

Recently me and a group of friends went to Mount Kinabalu (all of my photos coming soon).

It was overall a good trip, but sadly, we booked through an awful tour company called X-Trekkers. These guys are amazing.. in a bad way. I think I ranted enough already during and after the trip. The truth is that I am not surprised since it is really hard to find good customer service anywhere you go in Singapore. My theory is that a lot of customers are used to it and they don't even complain so this kind of businesses are still floating around and bumping into people like me and probably you if you live in Singapore.

After our trip to Mount Kinabalu in Sabah we were sent a feedback form from the tour company. Without expecting too much in return we sent it and...well.. it had made it to my blog. When you think they can't possibly make things worse, well.. then there are things like this.

It is a long read but if you have the time, enjoy and remember 5.0%!

Their email asking for feedback:
--------------------------------
Hello Friends,

Hope you've had a good trip and enjoyed it too.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for joining our trip and for allowing us to serve you. Do help us to improve by having 5 minutes of your time to fill up the feedback form or just email back the best time that I can call you. I would love to see how we have performed in our service during the expedition.

Once again, we thank you for arranging your adventure holiday to India [editors note: you read right, India!] with us and hope to be of service to you and your friends in the near future.

Cheers,
Adventure in harmony with nature,

Our Feedback
-------------
Hello Alpa,

We had a good trip, and we attach the feedback form. Unfortunately the good things were not really related to the service that you have provided. Make no mistake that what we will point out has nothing to do with 'expected luxury' since we fully understand that this is an outdoor experience which is normally physically tough, rough and simple.

Here is some feedback which hopefully helps you to improve.

THE GOOD
Both expedition partners are good.

- Jimmy and his staff at City Park Lodge were great. He helped us all the time and did his best to make our trip enjoyable. He also took the initiative to arrange for beds and pay for us first at Sutera Lodge when they could not locate our booking as the booking ID was not provided to any of us.

- Via Ferrata is excellent. The first part (Low's Peak) is great. The (beginners) easy part, i.e. Walk the Torq not so much. We would never recommend to do that beginners part only. It could be boring at times and quite tiring after both climbs. Staff were really helpful and they knew what they were doing.

THE BAD

Drivers for Pick up - Drop Off

- Both drivers didn't know their way in Singapore. At first they said they knew the way until they both got lost. Last one got lost at Boon Lay at 1am. In both cases we had to direct them. It is really easy to plan a route using Street Directory in Singapore. Specially if you know the pick up points a week before. The drop took one more hour.

- Jimmy's driver which was waiting for us with an X-Trekker sign at KK airport but the drop off driver just parked somewhere and waited for us to look for him at Sinai airport completely uninterested.

- Given we couldn't afford to miss the flight from Senai to Kota Kinabalu, having a driver who did not know his way around the island added unnecessarily stress and wasted a lot of time. We spent 1.5hours just going around Singapore as the driver did not know his way and would have easily missed the plane, had the driver not speed up to 130 km/h in Malaysia.

ID Confirmation
- Upon our arrival to the accommodation at Mesilau Nature Reserve, we were asked for our ID confirmation number. This was never given to us. Neither Charmaine or me had that info in our emails. We mentioned that we were the X-Trekkers group but that wasn't enough. It took quite a long time for them to be able to check us in with the uncertainty of what was included and what not. The hotline that you have provided us was not working neither the other contact numbers that you have provided.

Timing
The schedule that we had was quite tight. Only 4 of us were able to make our way down on Saturday after Via Ferrata. We even had a last 1km dark trekking. The rest, 5 people, after 14 hrs of intense physical exercise, bad food, and 4 hrs sleep could not handle 4 more hours going down. I would guess that maybe 10% to 5% of the people that you would ever offer the tour will be able to handle an 18 hr hike under these conditions.
I think people will enjoy it more with a bit more time. In our case, more than half of the people had to rest one more night after doing Via Ferrata. The cost was around 110 Singapore Dollars and an unused night down at the City Lodge.

Price
Considering the price that we have paid we can't justify it against the service we had experienced. At the very least we should have had all the logistics solved by your staff at every stage. To be honest we could have made the trip on our own for a fraction of the cost (like a lot of people did) with the same if not better results. We think that the money that we have paid should include everything, including food at the mountain plus a good service. There is simply no justification to charge that much for making some bookings.

I hope this helps to improve your expeditions. To be honest I would not recommend going with you to anyone specially because the price is far away from the service provided. If you can raise your bar up to Jimmy's or the Ferrata guys, it would make way more sense.

Once again, we hope this feedback helps in taking some good steps to a better service and we look forward to hearing from X-Trekkers on your next steps to address the issues raised in our feedback.

Sincerely,
Oscar, Charmaine

PS We went to Mount Kinabalu and not India.

Their Amazing Reponse
-------------
Dear us customers

Thank you for your honest feedback. Your acknowledgement of our partners are good is a testimonial of our selection process. With our credible standing here in Singapore, City Park has remained our faithful partners for many years Mountain Torq, through their own background research, has also appointed us as one of their representative here Nevertheless, we appreciate your comments and offer our sincere apologies for the problems you and your friends had to face during the Mt Kinabalu trip.

We would like to address THE BAD concerns right away and re-assure you that based on your feedback, we are taking positive steps to mitigate the issues raised by you.

First and foremost, we have identified and will recommend drivers (Singaporeans) who are knowledgeable about the local roads so that our next batch of clients do not have to waste time during their conveyance. (reason why we cannot state “we use” – these drivers ought to be tourist-licensed but they are not)

Next, we shall ensure that service vouchers are provided to all our participants so that the

checking-in at the accommodations will be simpler and faster.

We are surprised that you couldn’t reach us as all our phone lines were in order and our phones switched on. In any case, we have had our phones checked as we strive to ensure that we’re available at all times to attend to our clients who are taking our expeditions.

On the timing front, we believe that with reasonable fitness and adequate training, it is possible to cover the trek comfortably and in good time. This is evident by our second group who arrived last week; they made the ascent and the descent (Low Peak Circuit) within the scheduled time.

Finally, we would like to clarify that our price is not just for making the bookings but includes the entire range of services from planning the itinerary to organizing the schedule and transport, making timely reservations and arranging services of various intermediaries so that our trekkers are spared the hassle of going through the entire rigmarole.

In appreciation of your constructive feedback, we would like to offer you an ex gratia concession of 5.0% on your next trip with X-Trekkers.

Cheers,

Adventure in harmony with nature,
The Amazing Company

Tiburon's change of address

2008-01-22T15:30:00.000+08:00

So after a few days of wait the Racetrack arrived at the office. I took back home and in a matter of minutes Tiburon was at his new home. Suddenly it all seemed different to him. Even if its a 7 second memory goldfish. I also bought a few herbs to make a better environment. I picked up some Lemon Basil and Italian Basil. When it is pasta time I will be able to drop by and say hello.

Happy 2008!

2008-01-03T11:13:00.000+08:00

Yes, another one bites the dust! 2008.. wow.. It just goes so fast, unless you are in jail I suppose, or paying your car or something like that. Anyway, just to show the happiness and excitement of this new year I am posting this photo.

I found this 'pretty' bike parked outside the office. Under different circumstances it would have reminded me of my bike. Not sure if this guy/girl is getting ready for spring. Although there is only monsoon season in Singapore. Too much for a first year post. Like my friend Celina said: "I had to post the year". Done.

Racetrack

2007-12-28T14:17:00.000+08:00

Having a fish sounded like a good idea for a pet while staying in Singapore. And it was. His name is Tiburon and he is quite tough actually. I think everyone as a kid sometimes gets to own a fish, at least for a few days or even hours. Yeah, the suckers die really easy. Either you put the two wrong fish together and they fight, or one gets fatter the moment you are not watching. Sometimes they also multiply like crazy and before you know it you have 40 little swimmers being chased by their own parents.

Anyway, I love my fish. He has survived days of hunger and a few days of a not so clean water. I had to ask my friend John to look after it once cause I thought 6 days without food could be too much and I didn't want to push it. Then when I went back to Mexico for a couple of weeks he stayed at Robs and Fung's place which at that time was just a few steps away.

I read somewhere that a goldfish will only grow to the size of his home. And his bowl is not like a suite. I think he grew a bit during the first year and now he can't really swim to far before hitting the glass. They are swimmers too. (It's great that I am doing some research after a year). I also found out that they have a memory of 7 seconds. So I bet Tiburon has no hard feelings for what has happened lately. Anyway, for being such a cool fish I decided to look around for a new home (new bowl) for him. Besides it was Christmas and whatever...

I found this awesome infinite bowl fish designed by IL-Studio. These guys are in Amsterdam and they even went through the hassle of creating a paypal account so I could buy it! (Thanks Isabelle!)

I am expecting it soon. Can't wait!

2007 The last days

2007-12-28T13:40:00.000+08:00

Well, these are the last days of the year, which are pretty lazy everywhere. Although I have been a lazy blogger all year. So I guess I'm just trying to make it up for the last couple of months of being a slacker.

Well..the photos for Vietnam are posted.

I still have some friends that haven't seen any of my pictures. I guess not all the people are as nerdy to stick around a computer and read my blog or browse through my picasa. I will probably have to pick a few photos and print them for my mom or something soon.

I have to go through some more photos.

First, we went to Phuket for Brandon and Megu's wedding. It was really cool although the last day was really bad for me. Seafood poisoning has never been good. Apart from that the wedding itself and the stay in Phuket were really nice. I didn't take that many photos since everyone brought their fancy cameras. So my friends Fung and Rob took some photos that you take a look at my happy face before eating that bad oyster.

Then we made the last trip of the year. We went back to Thailand. Phi Phi island for the second time. We really enjoyed it the first time so with everything else booked and skyrocketing prices we decided to go back there. I did snap some pics, not many though which I'll hope to post before the year ends. Damn! Got three days to go.

So this blog entry sucks (apart for the cool photo links) but I will post something more interesting in the next few days. Else, I can always just cheat and delete this post.

Vietnam

2007-10-29T21:05:00.000+08:00

I will try to go through my photos not too slow this time. Meanwhile this is just a little video so you get some sort of a taste for Hanoi in lovely Vietnam.

Do you have a reservation?

2007-09-21T11:21:00.000+08:00

Today, once again I get to blog something about Singapore. I mean I live here right? Besides it will be a month until I can go away to some other place to hopefully snap some cool photos to showcase in my gallery. And well, the truth is that there are very unique - sometimes exotic - things that you can find in this land of shopping centers.

The culinary experience is quite wide so I will rip it apart and focus on the daily lunch time and I will go even more specific.

Where I come from, when you walk into a food court or self service restaurant you basically get your food first then look for a table. Of course, if you are with someone else usually one finds a seat and the other one gets the food. Teamwork!

Well, Singapore is different. Here your buddy can be a 'tissue'. Yes, a tissue or more common a little pack of tissues. This has become the booking system for excellence in Singapore's food courts.

Some foreigners will figure this after, which sometimes results with a local mumbling a few Chinese words that I'm sure are not very friendly. Good thing is that violence is very rare around here.

And well, I mean the first times I even thought those were the napkins or the wet tissues they give in some sushi restaurants. I could not be more mistaken.

But what if you have no tissues? Well, there are alternatives. You can use your newspaper. Singapore is supposed to be pretty safe and low crime but no one leaves valuables sitting there to show the table is taken; even if the counter is 5 steps away.

I don't get used to this system yet but maybe that because I have sticked to the 'send your buddy to find a table' policy which by the way results 'foreigner' proof.

Bon Appetite!

The guy in the picture is not my buddy but he hangs around the local food court (hawker) every now and then. Though he is a good representation of some of the people that I work with.

Aplausos!

2007-09-19T13:11:00.000+08:00

So this is one of the many great translated signs in Singapore. This is at Chinatown night market (pic was taken with my cellphone, that the reason to be crap, but hopefully it reads).

These little cages have nice plastic birds inside and when you clap they sign! Awesome! That is if you can clap with on hand of course.

Hello?

2007-09-18T14:17:00.000+08:00

So my friend Rob got this call just some minutes ago. I think it's worth a post.

---
Rob: Hello?

- Ni how ma?

Rob: You got the wrong number.

- Can you please speak chinese?

Rob: I dont speak chinese, you've got the wrong number

---

A time for celebration

2007-09-10T14:38:00.000+08:00

This is smoky Singapore during this season. Lots of people will just burn some special crafted paper. They will use some containers to do this and some, well, just anything will do. I have to do my homework and get the whole story right about this offerings and traditions, but I have to say it is not my favorite season. The smoky smell brings me bad firing memories. Apparently the government has been able to reduce a big amount of this activities around the city. I still think this is terrible for the environment and the people nearby. They must also spend a good amount of money. But well traditions are traditions so I just try to go around when I can. The good thing about this season is that lot of Chinese people also believe that is not good to swim since the bad spirits might get into your body. So, I'm enjoying that quiteness at my pool while it lasts.

And it rains, rains...

2007-09-03T13:25:00.001+08:00

I am guessing that Monsoon is here and when it rains, an umbrella won't stop you from getting wet. This is why this bum...err.. John I mean decided to eat a still dry lunch before adventuring with his tiny umbrella to cross the street. Rob decided to join him since he was looking very lonely.

That pie looked really good John!

–preposition with; combined with;

2007-08-28T16:10:00.000+08:00

Wow! A very specific request. Don't picture it ok?

Ajúa!

2007-08-15T14:55:00.001+08:00

I found this sing in a parking lot somewhere near work. Wonder how many drunk drivers park here :P

Pics from Cambodia

2007-07-23T10:15:00.000+08:00

Some pics from the trip to Cambodia. Check the the Phnom Penh album too. Enjoy!