Gudbye 2008. Hello 2009 !~

hoohaaaaa !~ 2008 has been a gud year for me. learnt a lot. made some life changing decisions. ventured onto new paths. tried new things. made new frens and foes. another year went past. am i still the same old me i wonder. here are some events that are worth mentioning that i can remember tho might not be choronologically correct.

began the year like i always do - with a haircut. hehe. feeling refreshed and determined to do well in the year which i think i didnt do too bad at all. got engaged somewhere in february to my lovely gal. one big step for us both. she's from batu pahat. the preparation for this engagement was kinda big as everyone from my family wants to chip in a bit. no complaints here. he he.

then in march, macam biasa la, F1 !! woohooo !!.. i lurve going to SIC to watch the F1. its hot. its humid. but its all worth it. the noise. the crowd. the atmosphere. i always enjoyed my F1 trip to SIC. went with my brother again this year and with a cousin of mine. pity that i cudnt get tix for him so he had to wait outside. ferrari shirt; check. ferrari flag; check. ferrari cap; check. sunblock; check. ear plugs; no ear plugs. cotton wool will do just fine. another grandstand tix this year but this time, its at the last corner. the triangle section of the stand where the two long straight conjoines. i get to run around that area and enjoy the race at both sides of the long straights. its also the loudest area where the cars braked down booming with each downshifts as they enter the turn, and accelerate at full throttle upon exit. dayuumm! tied the flag ends at my arms and i looked like superman. ha ha. the three of us really enjoyed ourselves. oh, and on that day too, another cousin of mine got engaged. congrats again to him too.

then april came. its my birthday month. like my previous birthdays, i celebrate my birthday alone. tho everytime i remind everyone early, i'd still somehow wud find myself all alone on my birthday. happy birthday to me. but i'd still get lots of wishes from families and frens. at least ppl do still wish me. he he. i think i went on an estate run in april too with the classic fiat and MSVCR members at sedenak. the whole family went and it was a gud outing. sliding the car out on the gravel in each turn. fooohhhh.. gaya~

come may, i sent my trusty ol breadvan for a fresh new coat of paint. gave it a new color. Bianco Perla is the new exterior theme. it went from fiery red to spermy white. from the devil, to the silent angel. dangerous silent killer. its white, its cool as cucumber, it looks innocent, it looks weak. but everytime it slipstreams behind some puny ass or gave the run from other losers, its down right menacing. i didnt say this, somebody else did. ha ha. how wud i know how the bella wud look coz i'm in it driving. there were also negative remarks about the new car color saying it doesnt look right in white, or its too girlish. then again, its my car. at the end of the day, the white grows on them who diss it in the first place. boo yaa!

since the end of 2007, i've been working hard on getting my weight down and working out on the muscle and fitness level. amazingly, i managed to reach beyond my intended target weight and my fitness level is aint half bad either. entered a charity run sometime in june to test out my running and check out wat kind of fruits does my hard labour bear. ha ha. all those running on the 'mill, all those working out, all those swimming, all those resisting temptation of gud food, all those staying off cold drinks, it showed its significance in the run. managed to complete the 12km run in 1hr 50 mins. not bad i shud say. received a certificate upon crossing the finish line. ha ha. then there's also a fun treasure hunt event which some colleagues from work and i joined which we survived. ha ha.

all those running and swimming gets boring after a while so i tinkered with the idea of cycling. talked to some frens, and after some scouting around i got myself a bicycle. not those cheapo steel bike but a roadie. a decent entry level alloy one for training and fitness. cycled on my own for a while until i was intro'd to this group of cyclist who cycle every week at impian emas and do long rides on weekends. i was hooked. got myself some new gears and trained hard to keep up with the big boys with my puny bike. learnt a lot from the guys there. made new frens. learnt new stuff. went for excursions and long rides with them. had loads of fun. cycled everywhere. improved a lot on my stamina and fitness. for months i cud eat anything and still maintain my rather 'slim' cut. ha ha. unfotunately, the perut is still there. dem!~ but, i cud run further, faster, and swim harder. its all gud. but somehow along the way, i kinda overtrained and i'm nursing an injury as i type this.

other aspects in life have been and still is progressing well. i guess. apart from the new hobby, i've actually been spending a lot less. am saving up for the big day which is in about 6 months, and of course, preparing for the so called 'worse economic downturn'. am not on the market as much as i used to. being very anal about my spendings altho, it kinda look like i'm channeling it to my cycling at one point. ha ha. oh well. work has been good. nothing to shout about, really. i'm considering other options at the moment but by the looks of how things are shaping up, i'm not putting my hopes too high. lemme just take it slow for the moment and complete my pending studies. another 3 more papers to go and i'm done.

i've already started shopping and scouting for stuffs for my wedding. it might seem that there's still time, but believe me, time is one thing i dun really have. 6 months aint that far ahead.

i'd also like to say my thank you and appreciations to the friends and families who have put up with me and my anal behaviour. i know i could be difficult sometimes or all the time. i know that i could be such a pain in the ass with my idiosyncrasies or my dullness. i know i cud be such a pain in the ass, so, thank you. i'll always try to be there for you guys the way you've always been around for me.

for all the wrong things i did,.. naahhh. i dun need to apologize. wtf for? wats done is done. cant be undone. so no point apologizing. boo yaa!

then again, looking back, i realised that i've not been such an ass as i should be. altho i know i'm difficult to deal with. dang! i've soften up a bit and thats not good by my standards. i think i'm too preoccupied with stuffs and also most things went my way so i dun really care. gotta improve on this and be a bigger ass in 2009. this will be my new year's resolution, along with some other resolutions. goodbye 2008,..

...hello 2009. i'm gonna be such a pain to all of you. oh i'll be nice to you of course. as long as you know i treat you rite, then u're safe. if i dun like you, i'll let you know in your face. i'm also gonna keep on working out, running, cycling and getting fit. i'm still way off from my targeted weight - 65kg. living healthily is important. to me. i will be making one majordomo big step in my life next year which is getting hitched and i'll be crossing over to the land where the wimmen rules and the men pretends they have control.

there'll be some straightening of major strings that i have to work on - financially, personally, mentally, and of course religiously. insya allah. so here's to a great 2009 ahead, for me and you guys better run ! coz i'm coming after ya!

... and then comes the pain

It finally hit me... something that i've been dreading and carefully trying so hard to avoid. Injury. I'm currently down with knee injury. so i've been working out hard. really hard. up to a point beyond my threshold. beyond what my body can take anymore. barely just went past the line of over training to abuse, and i'm paying the price. It started with a little discomfort on the right knee. Well, its just a little discomfort and no sign of pain so i ignored it. for few days, it came and went. then one day, as i was cycling, my knee kinda 'pops' at every cycling motion. the knee doesnt actually pops out, its just a tingling popping sensation like the joints werent inline correctly. its like when u have one tight chain and it feels rough as it hits the crank or cogs. if i put my hand on my thighs above my knee as i cycle, i can feel the bone or muscle move and pops at every cycling motion. it doesnt hurt tho. its a bit worrying so i stopped cyclign for a while but i still continue running. same thing with running, it doesnt hurt. then one day, it just went. discomfort turns into pain, and the knee felt 'loose'. it pops as i walk, sit down, run, and even as i move my leg slowly to test out the joints alignment. convinced that i've overstressed the knee, i implied RICE on the knee and read up on knee injury and treatments. i've hurt the knee before, but its been a long time since the last injury. consulted a couple of friends and from the symptoms i told them, it got down to two possibilities. osteoarthritis and torn ligament or as my doctor fren put it, over the phone, - ACL tear, MCL tear, and meniscus tear. i cud have just save all the trouble and worry and just go visit a doctor but at this point, i dunno why i still refuse. ha ha. its been 3 days now and i've been wearing my knee support all the time and putting ice on it every few hours, and elevate it when i go to bed. i think its working well and the pain subsides a little at a time and its popping lesser now. i'm giving it another 3 days and if it doesnt go away, i'll go see a doctor. been doing a lot of upper body workout in these few days and some walking. just this morning, i jog a little and it felt fine. but the pain came after a couple of hours later. not good. degil la ni. wanted to swim but its been raining at the wrong time of day. enuff with the knee, i dun want to get all sick and weak with fever pulak.
ok, who am i kidding. its not that i dun wanna go see a doctor. i really do. its just that when i told my dad i hurt my knee, he blames the bike and the running. it pisses me off. to prove that i'm no pansy and its not becoz of the workign out and running and cycling - although it is, i held myself back, bask in the pain and treated myself like i always did since i was a kid. it worked well then and made me strong, it'll still do me good this time. for now, i'm treating the knee with extra care to strengthen and get it working again. cant wait to get back on the bicycle and running. rest is bad. all those hard work will be in vain. i have to start back all over to up my level. hopefully i dun get fat resting or blow up big muscles working out. think i'll work on the fat tummy and excess fat around the waist. the day i got back on the bike and run again, will be the day i go one up and get back at my dad. its nothing personal, really. its just his way of pushing and i'm used to it and kinda enjoyed having the last laugh -altho not all the time. here's to a speedy recovery. 3 days more and if it hurts, i'll go see a doctor. if the pain goes away, i'll give myself another month to strengthen the knee before i do some heavy cycling and running.
as it stands now, its 3kgs more to go till i reach my weight target. this is gonna be a very very hard 3kg to shed and its all in the waist.

Overtraining

yeah, so i've been obsessed lately to get my weight down. well, i'm kinda free nowadays and i like feeling fresh the next day after working out the previous day. so its back on the training ground for me. new target weight, 65kg. i've not been working out as much as i used to as i'm pretty tied up in stuffs. i've got cycling now in my exercise routines. been doing alot of cardio exercises last week. lots of cyclign, jogging, running, cycling and swimming. i dunno wat it is but its like a drug. the adrenalin rush. the lactic acid build up. the hard panting. muscle sores. body aches. its all gud. maybe its the vented anger. maybe its all the bottled up frustrations. maybe its the rush that has kept me going and doing at it a little harder each time. but its all gud.
started off with a 5 mile run on monday. went swimming for an hour's worth of laps, did my usual wednesday nite cycling, rest on thursday, played futsal on friday, and cycled again on saturday for almost a century clicks. and now, i'm dead beat. i got exams on monday. 2 papers. now that i've got all my musles on overdrive, my bloodflow is flowing gud, i need more oxygen to the brain to pump those brain up for that err.. last minute studying. ha ha. will stick to this new gameplan with a little bit more of fine tuning and i bet i'll get to 65 in no time. hardest part is still the makan, and working out on the perut. dang !
tomoro's sunday. rest day. dear people, pls let me sleep in peace and let me have the day all to myself. more to write. but i'm kinda lazy rite now. so i'm gonna log off and sleep.
oh, note to self. paper thosai is bad for recovery. will not survive 50 clicks on this.

Full face helmet

funny thing. i was driving down this small short cut lorong one day, sleepy and tired. there's this kapcai heading slow form the opposite direction ridden by this big size uncle and something caught my attention. from far, i was wondering why la this pakcik driving kapcai, and wearing a full face helmet in some kampung lorong. then as i got nearer, i realized that its not a full face helmet. its his beard and 'stache. helmet hitam. jambang, janggut, misai pun hitam. at a glance, it looked like he was wearing a full face helmet. laughed to myself and continued driving. i wonder how many else felt the same. huhu.