December has started and it hasn’t really been so great, although it has been eventful. Don’t remember what I did on the first and second, but on Saturday the third of December, a crappy overcast cool day, I went with Zen downtown to Suntec City where Standard Chartered Bank was having a sports expo for their marathon event, of which I was signed up for the half marathon. Took the bus down, snapped nice pics of Zen in an oval statue of sorts, waited until 11 for Adidas to open so that I could get in on their 20 percent rebate for runners, but the staff didn’t know what they were doing, so that wasn’t a great experience. Went up to the exhibition area, hung out a bit and watched the goofy people going to booths, climbing walls, etc. Some guy in water tank too, took a pic of that with Zen!
Went home, chilled out for the rest of the day, took Zen to see the Malaysia train, went to sleep early. Sunday was the big day – woke up at 4:30, ate two bananas and drank something, took a cab at 5:30, got there at 6:00, which was a good time – had a dump in the port-o-let, and then queued up in the big bunch. 6:30 start, we all ran as a bunch over the line, less than five minutes in I saw my first walker. Sun getting ready to come up, it’s going to be a hot one, although I do see flashes of morning lightning off in the distance. Very quickly, see the lead marathon runners going past us going the other way and all let out big cheers – these guys are going to run 42 kilometers as fast as I will do 21 kilometers, i.e. they are twice as fast as I am. Get going doing to Marina Bay, I feel pressure on my bladder (why didn’t I do this in the port-o-let?) so I ran off into the bushes, had a pee, and kept on running. Passed a one-legged runner, and after 50 minutes saw the first half-marathon dud running past in the oncoming lane. Notice a lot of people are going into the oncoming lane so that they can pass people. So kiasu!! When I hit the u-turn and am runnning back towards the starting point, I run close to the dividing line and begin intimidating and body-checking the median-jumpers from the slow pack behing us (and the 10 kilometer runners), which is kind of foolish, but fun. It also kicks in the pissed-off adrenaline, perhaps a bit early to get this energy boost. Saw people at a bus shelter, yelled out “the bus will be latte today, you’re going to have to wait a long time.” No smiles, but some guy running next to me though it was funny. Ran, ran, ran, thought about giving up, thought about walking, thought about turning around, ran on and on, thought a lot about Zen and Naoko waiting there for me, on and on I ran, then I passed the Oriental Hotel, the Esplanade, then to the Padang and I turned up the juice, passed a girl I thought was Naoko (didn’t this happen to me two year ago too?), then over the line. Not sure what happened next, but I was suddenly having weird dreams – I was downtown with no money, and the police were going to punish me by making me walk home, I made a mistake and was left with an impossible math problem to solve, then I woke up – and realized that I had passed out, I was on a chair in the shade, drenched in sweat, and I couldn’t move. Millions and millions of thoughts went through my head, including the absurd thought that Naoko and Zen had abandoned me, or that my desire to run 21 kilomters was going to be my undoing. I figured I had heat stroke, so I asked the person next to me if he could help me. He looked at me funny, and suggested I get something to drink but wasn’t willing to do more for me than make a suggestion. Some people, so willing to make suggestions and promote their ideas and advice, but will not lift a finger to help. So he walked away from me. I asked other people to help me, but they also walked away. Other people passing by wouldn’t help either, nor would a little kid (don’t teachers drill this sort of thing into their students?), so I stafted knocking chairs away and yelling for help, finally somebody with the event came over and took me to the first aid tent. Got there and people asked me if I knew my name – I was fairly lucid, oddly enough, but I could barely move. They loaded me up with ice cubes, and gave me water and isotonic drinks, then water, always reminding me to drink more and more, because it was too easy to space out. I was confused about what time it was – I saw 9:30 on my watch, but I thought that it was broken, had stopped, since I figured it was late afternoon, it was so hot and sunny. But actually it really WAS 9:30!! Got a chair, they asked me if I could move, but I wanted to stay there. Tried to stand up, but was too dizzy and weak. After about an hour I took a few steps and I was OK, but it was just like I was a little little baby. Jeez… Tried to call Naoko on her cell phone, but I couldn’t remember the whole number – yeesh!!! Rested some more, then on to the Padang to look for Naoko and Zen, but of course there were people everywhere and I just couldn’t find them. Had to stop once to throw up into a trash bin. Got my trophy, got my bag, shuffled off to the MRT station, got to Redhill, had to get out of the train to throw up again. Then to Clementi, then by bus home, Naoko and Zen weren’t there, called them and found out that they were on their way. I lay down and slept 4 hours, then got up, shuffled around, took Zen to see the Malaysia train, then back home to sleep. I think that, including the hour I was passed out, I had slept 16 hours since my 21 kilometer dash. Wow.
Lovely day at the Standard Chartered marathon!
Monday was a pretty regular day, I wasn’t even very sore. I went off for a 3:00 meeting, which was good, then off to do some more work, then then then preparing for the trip to Shanghai, then home, then hanging out at home, goodnight to Zen, then packing and sleeping. Tuesday I woke up early, got ready, went by taxi to drop off Zen, pick up Benny, then drop off Naoko, then go to the airport. The flight was OK, got there, got our bags, took the Maglev into town. This was probably the highlight of the trip. I’d heard all about the train, which is the fastest in the world, from my dad and my boss – it does the considerable distance from the airport to the city in under eight minutes, it just hits its top speed of 430 km/hr when it already needs to reduce speed. It’s not a convenient train, since the end station is nowhere near town centre, and you still need to take a cab to wherever you’re going after that, but since it ends in Pudong, and our hotel is in Pudong, I thought it would be a great opportunity. The station is not far from the airport, trains are every 15 minutes, it’s not crowded, it’s cheap, there’s a discount for people with flight tickets of that day, and it’s clean and comfortable. In other words, it travels four times as fast as a cab, but is 10 times better! Nice, the train travelled near the highway, and the cars that were travelling 100 km/hr looked like they were standing still the way we were whizzing by them. Nice day, good weather, crispy cold, we got to the train station, got a cab, went to the hotel, met colleagues for dinner at 6:30, actually went to eat at 8:00, then I can’t remember what was next but we got to sleep well after midnight. Tuesday and Wednesday were the conference itself, and were characterized by yer typical business – no time to eat, grabbing people for interviews wherever I can, trying to be as helpful as possible, and in all of the sessions absolutely always taking notes, helping out, watching for problems, and anything possible. Lots of people, lots of ideas, lots of language, lots of work. At 6:15, thirty minutes late, we took a bus to Three On The Bund (the Bund is the riverside part of Shanghai that is a row of old colonial bank buildings), only 500 meters away on the other side of the river from us, but it took nearly an hour to get in the underpass under the river to the Bund. Nice drinks, good friends, good conversation, great food, then back to the hotel to work work work until 2:00 on my e-newletter wrapping up the event for the next day. The second day was the same as the first, except that I didn’t go to a lovely dinner, instead I ate dumplings and noodles by myself, then took five hours to write 700 words. Naturally, that was too long, but I was pretty burned out. Yuck – up at three in the morning no fun. Friday, woke up at 9:00, went off to eat breakfast at Starbucks with the snooty staff which served me collapsed quiche on a dirty plate. Went to the Super Brands mall, built by Thai investors but apparently a flop, and found a nice train souvenir for Zen. Back to the hotel to chill out, checked out, waited for my colleague who was to meet me at 1:00 so that we could go out to the airport and be on time to check in to our 3:40 flight, but she was nowhere to be seen. I experienced deja-vu – how many times has this happened to me? Spotted her hurrying by, at 1:30, and she had things to do still, so I ended up going out to the airport on my own anyway. Got to the Maglev station by taxi, no time to see the free Maglev museum – I had also wanted some Maglev souvenir for Zen – and then to the airport. Nice, check-in OK, delay delay delay, four queues to go through, then more waiting outside the aircraft, more waiting inside the aircraft, then when we finally lifted off I was too engrossed in my Economist to notice. One crappy meal in flight (rice with ketchup sauce and pieces of ham, with a few pieces of brocolli – yuck!), two round of drinks, no in-flight entertainment. Got to the airport, there were Zen and Naoko waiting for me. Zen should have been happy to be at the airport, but he was very quiet – he had a bit of a fever, so he was quiet in the airport and in the taxi and we went home. I should have gone to sleep right away, since I was bored and tired and frustrated and my body ached, but I spent three hours unpacking and getting my computer updated, reading emails, all sorts of jazz like that. Crazy.
Lovely Shanghai business trip
While I was in Shanghai, apparently Zen was very well-behaved. Naoko and Zen went downtown one night with our new neighbours, the Gotos, with mama Goto and little Akane.
Zen and Akane have become good friends
Saturday woke up at 8:00, Naoko and Zen getting going, Naoko off to work, I let Zen watch TV as I proceed to do all of the housework – folding clothes, doing laundry, cleaning the toilets, sweeping the floor, wiping the floor, the dishes, buying some much-needed groceries, taking Zen to see the Malaysia train, taking him to the doctor when he complained of a tummy ache, as well as trying to keep myself in good mental health – really all the cleaning up you need to do on your first day back from a long business trip. Not just Zen is sick, Naoko is also suffering from aches and pains and a cold. Staying up late to fix the blog, gets pics up, and return – finally – to a normal human state.
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