The Journey

Its been awhile. A long time in waiting. After weeks and months of administration work, finally there is light at the end of the tunnel! This journey has been tough, not tumultous though, but I thank the Lord and the friends and mentor he placed around me to get me through this period!

After the round 1 of acceptance, I have been confirmed a place at University of Alberta.

I am the only student from NIE going for it. Wanted to see if there were any friends from NIE going then I could arrange something. Oh well, at least there are 2 others from NTU going to Alberta with me in Semester 2.

It has been a journey which i learnt alot, somewhat similar to the race i organised last year. It was very testing and kept pushing me to my emotional and mental limits. It also questioned me how much I really wanted it. Jam said that it was "Survival of the fittest" and that phrase cant be more apt I say! After going through so many obstacles, I asked God, if it was in his will to go coz I dont want to go if it wasnt. Thankfully, I still had peace in my heart and tried my best. I think it was a test of faith and perserverance. Boy am I glad that I hung on.

Special mention goes out to the mentor, who believed in me all this while and telling me to "Just do it la" Haha.. Thanks Sir. Also to JVR, Jam and ET, thanks for letting me air my grouses as well..

Hope to touch the snow =)

Are you going to finish strong?

Today, I fought another battle with INSTEP course matching.

Felt slightly defeated though. But thanks be to God, Dr Teo came to the rescue.

She set me down,talked to me and even went through the possible alternatives with me.

Before I left the room, she said: "Alex, before you leave watch this video first!"

And I watched a video about Nick Vujicic entitled " Are you going to finish strong? "

He has no limbs and was speaking to students about picking himself up after he falls down. He

asked them : Are you going to finish strong?

He said: What do you do when you fall down? you pick yourself up. You can't just stay there..

And then he uses his head and every ounce of muscle he has to stand up. Much to the roaring

applause of the students.

I teared a little. Inspired and motivated now. I went to the tutor and Praise God! He approved of

the course and I went back to give Dr Teo a high- five!

I started this INSTEP journey and now I want to FINISH it strong.

Thank God for his grace and also for an amazing tutor and human being in Dr Teo.

Here's the link for the Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqantZJ6WwM

The 2 minutes of this video will change the way you see things again.

Carnivore @ Vivocity

Today's educational tour on food has opened a new chapter in my gastronomic books.

Visited the carnivore at vivocity with the mentor and it was a new insight gained on Brazilian food I must say.

It has an interesting concept of serving meats on skewers right up to your plate by the wait staff.
It is free-flow buffet and they do have an array of greens to offset the protein paradise that you are in upon stepping into the premises.

The notable mentions are the sausages which were full of herbs, ribeye steak, lamb and fish.
The black bean prok stew is typically Brazilian and its roots trace back to the societal demographics. They were poor and this dish was the best that they could come up with..

Got to apologise that the pics were really bad.. I used my camera-phone as always.

Anyways, I just want to update that im still undergoing the process of my INSTEP application.

Course-matching has been tough but I WILL DO IT.

Pardon me if i may seem sulky/moody/depressed and what-have-you for the past weeks.

INSTEP is an emotional roller-coaster. If you dont believe, can just try applying it.

But the final word is : I AM GONNA PERSERVERE.

For The Lord is my Helper (Heb 13:6) and I shall trust in him.

Pending...

There's a word that came to my mind as I was driving around Bukit Panjang last year in preparation for the race. So I came up with this joke: Which estate in Bukit Panjang has flats that takes the longest time to build?

The answer: Pending !

Get it?! Because it is always waiting for approval.. that's why it takes the longest to build..
Well for the uninitiated, Pending is one of the LRT stops at Bukit Panjang area..Playing a pun on the word.

Pending is a process whereby you are waiting for something to happen. Or rather waiting for something to be approved. We wait everyday don't we? Waiting for that train, the traffic light to turn green, queuing up for food or any other thing..

We can wait expectantly or dread the entire process, better still, some can be oblivious to waiting!
Waiting is a time lag from your current stage/phase to the desired stage/phase of life that you want to be in. Well we don't have the say on this matter. Rather waiting is simply imposed on us..

I have been having things with the label "pending" on it.
My instep, for one, is still pending. I want to thank God that NTU has offered me a place to go for exchange at University of Alberta.
I made through the interviews and got accepted, and now have to do the course matching stuff..

My second metacarpel bone is also still "pending". The cast has been removed. Thank God.
I still have to put a splint for another 2 weeks and then go back for review. Thats a month out from volleyball. Thank God that the tutor is understanding.

Waiting trains character. it gives one patience. so that when you do reach your desired stage from your current stage. It will be much sweeter. Now you never know when that's gonna come or if it will even come. But that's where you trust. If it's in his will the door will be open for you.

I need to. For his timing will be the best timing. Nothing else would. Man are such forgetful creatures and I need reminders of his faithfulness too.

In all, waiting can be a good thing. Though its painful, it sobers you up.

Perak Iron Bound Taiping Race 2009

This has been a long overdue post ! By two weeks to be exact.. Haha This post is typed by the port side of me.. have been forced to be a lefty for two weeks.. So this post explains why you see me around with a cast for the past 2 weeks..

I was approached by Samuel to partner him for this race and after some deliberation, I decided to go and this was to be my first OVERSEAS race. Coolness. This race is organised by the snr adventure and its part of the action series. By far, its my toughest race in terms of terrain but also the organisation was massive as they have helicopters for evacuations, doctors doing medical for each racer and television coverage. S'porean Racers were sponsored for the trip and race fees were waived. This was really the main draw.

This race also intoduced me to the hardcore AR fraternity. It was great to have travelled with wilson, chris, sam and fanny(Chief Financial Officer). The SART guys were great and they truly live and breathe AR.. Fanny was a great help taking pics for us and doubling up as support crew..

Breakdown of the trip:

My Race Bib..

At the Taiping Golf Resort : Official hotel for the race

Race Banner

Hotel Swimming Pool

My room!

The helicopter ready for evacuation missions!
Our breakfast placeEquipment checkingSkills check on abseilChris and wilson..Undergoing my medicalWe went for a warm-up slow jog...The tour guide brought us to TESCO for shopping and dinner.Race Day!

All the S'porean racers..hardcore in their own right..SART and SART juniors..The men's open team from S'poreBeginning of the race!A 2.4km run to Taiping LakeNext segment: Bamboo RaftingThe Rafts couldnt float all.. we ended up dragging it and it should be renamed as bamboo dragging.. not rafting..Out of the Rafting.. Running to the river scrambling..Now this is called river scrambling..

Its like white water rafting without the raft.. We had to run through the river and I fell like nobody's business.. my Salomon failed me thoroughly and it was here i hurt my hand. So after an hour plus, my hand was gone..

Then we "holland-ed" coz we couldnt find the black and yellow tape.. it was so inconspicuous.. should use bright red or orange.. then i lost sam for half an hour.. got stung by a wasp.. haiz.. Thank God found him later with karen and lydia..This was how dense the forest was.. gradient was 50%.. every 2m travelled horizontal is 1m vertically up. Crazy.There were vertical climbs where I had to climb using the tree roots..reminiscent of Korbuthe organisers in their 4WDThe 20m abseil off a cliff.. for the 1st time in my life, I abseiled with my left hand!Canoe section in the lake AGAINCrossing on stiltsShagged/Bruised/Battered but loved it!End of Race! Beginning of wound healing..Bandaged my hand..Dinner time! Had extra large orange juice!The whole group! A great bunch of people who love AR.

And so I became Zhao Cai Mao..aka Prosperity Cat..With Jam to celebrate his bday.

This trip has been a great experience! But I paid the price of having a hairline fracture. I guess I just got to suck it up since I chose to do it.. but ask me if i would do it again and the answer would be a resounding YES!

Thank God for the race..

Next up is my INSTEP application.. cleared the 1st round of interview..so see where the Lord leads.. Im sure if its in his will, then he will open the door..

Removing my cast on wed ! Yay!