I don't know what the organisers at SGM thinks but I personally think it's quite a success.
It's certainly not easy to pull off such a huge nationwide event. I heard there were 54k registered nationwide!
I was at the PJ venue at Dataran PJ Near Amcorp Mall - the picture above taken from the FB page of Run for Peace.
Below are some photos that I took when I was there.
As I wrote in previous post, we had the Men's Health & Shape Run the night before. By the time we got home (after getting lost in traffic, and de-touring to dinner/supper) it was already closed to 1am. I slept around 2am, alarm came on at 4am :s
I was sooooo tempted to ring my friend to call it quits. I would have..if not for this high school buddy whom I kind of promised that I will be part of the event. Unfortunately, we didn't even get to meet up. We were at different corners of the huge field, and I was too lazy to walk over. Wanted to catch up after the run/walk but it was too crowded and I sensed that he had to leave pretty soon.
Oh well..glad I was there. Didn't expect to see such a huge crowd. A different type of crowd, unlike the usual running crowd, this is more family oriented. Nice families coming together at such early hour for such a meaningful event.
I'm particularly quite impressed with the amount of volunteers from SGM and all worked hard, happily and effectively together to make sure everything went smoothly. Well, there some hiccups, but I note quick and prompt actions and reactions to improve matters rather quickly,
The emcees were very good, spoke well in Mandarin and English.
The warm up aerobic session was so much fun. The lead dancer, yes, Dancer, did a mighty good job engaging 15,000 participants to dance along to catchy tunes like YMCA, Party Rock Anthem and a few more. And yes, I danced :D I must say much more well done warm up sessions by all other running events that I've been to. Awesome sound system could be a contributing factor too.
There were other eye opening performance like the above and drum performance, all conducted by SGM own members, if I'm not mistaken. Such rich talents.
The run was only flagged off around 7.30am. Quite late to be honest. The starting point to exit the field to the road was too narrow for 15,000 people, so it was a slow squeeze. Luckily this is not a competitive run and majority are not those regular runners, everyone were patient, happy and well mannered.
This is what PEACE is all about!
Peace is from within us. Start from our own self, our inner self - what we say and what we think.
Ok..here's a happy post. This post was shelved amidst all the elections drama.
It was my birthday some weeks ago.
As with all birthdays..I don't really plan anything special for myself.
It happened to be a Saturday..and on the very day the running community decided to get together for a hike at Bukit Gasing to make a stand for a safer Malaysia following the tragic incident that took the life of Madam Irene Ong who was killed at the foot of the hill on broad daylight.
Two days after the incident the race director of the just concluded Malaysia Women Marathon voiced out :
“I am able to organise a women's event but what good would that be if there are no safer havens for women to come out to exercise.”
Hence, the appeal for runners to come together for this gathering, despite the short notice.
The main objective was to collect as many signatures possible for the memorandum to appeal / ensure the safety of runners (women especially).
Read more about the day HERE
We didn't arrive early enough to catch the speeches but managed to sign the memorandum :) before going up for a nice hike.
Since it was my birthday and some of our initial plans for the day was cancelled, we had the day free & easy.
And, my definition of free & easy is Eat. eat and eat.
After all, what can else can be done when they are only two of us.
If you're wondering..Us means me and Jenny. We classify our relationship as part time 'lovers' as we only get together when we don't have other better things to do.
After all, I think only this friend will do crazy stuff with me.
Mine was pretty hectic by my standard. Ate quite a lot..as usual.
Fell in love with Affogato..
Affogato with Illy Coffee @ Kissaten Coffee & Restaurant
Loving Plan b more and more..good coffee, good food..
Asian Styled Soft Shell Crab Spaghetti
Braved the Friday thunderstorm and traffic jam to get to a far far away Setia Alam for a simple Diwali + Halloween gathering with old friends.
Surprise #1 : I didn't get lost!
Surprise #2 : I was the FIRST to arrive!
It was a long long day. Way past midnight, I was still driving around, showing some visitors from BKK around town. Had supper at 1.30am at China Town,..burp~
Joined my bro and family the next day at the pool of Palace of Golden Horses.
Was drained by evening..not from swimming. But from looking after the kids!
Sunday dinner was with sis n dad...
Salad, Oysters & Sahimi from Vogue Cafe, Renaissance Hotel
It was a buffet dinner. Sis had some member discount. I still had to pay RM55 for my share! Well, some argue that it's good value since there are unlimited sashimi and fresh oysters.... but I don't really need to eat these, you know what I mean? Well, it's for family bonding... I guess.
Oh boy..I'm so tired now. A bit under the weather too~
How can I not write about BERSIH 2.0 when the whole country is talking about it, right?
Honestly, I didn't give a damn initially. I only had a very vague idea about it... it is some initiative from some lady called Ambiga..and somewhat related to the opposition and the government is very against it. That's all I knew...
Sometime in May/ June, I noticed, some friends 'liking' the Bersih page in Facebook, then , many started to have a Bersih logo on their profile pictures, but I didn't dwell further.
Occasionally, I'd glanced through updates from Malaysia Insider via Facebook news feed but didn't really click into them to find out more. Basically, the word Bersih appeared often enough in my news feed..so indirectly I was forced to 'know' about it existence.
Tony Pua, the only politician that I 'follow' in Facebook stated something that somehow got stuck in my wandering mind, it went something like this .."Thanks to the BN goons, Bersih 2.0 is becoming more well known than ever" .
How true!
The final trigger (for me) was when I read Patrick Teoh's simple yet informative blog post - What's it all about? on June 28th, where he listed out the 8 simple points about Bersih 2.0. I read and understood immediately. From then on, I kept track on the developments.
The analysts were right to say that the cyber space played a huge role in making Bersih 2.0 such a phenomenon. Bersih 2.0, July 9th, 2011, should will appear in Malaysia's modern history...I hope to see the children (or grand children) of our children reading about this meaningful day in their history books 20-30 years from now.
A Malaysiakini article on July 10th, (a day after) , described the crowd as such:
"Notably, the crowd was made up of many Malaysians in their 20s who were first-time demonstrators. Ibrahim Suffian, director of independent research house Merdeka Centre, dubbed this group as the Facebook generation."
Even the traffic to my little blog here was affected by all the hype. Just because of an entry about Ambiga (here) posted in 2009. Every other day, at least 10 new visitors landed on the page. Some 14 person clicked the 'like' facebook button hence attracted even more visitors via Facebook. It is now the most read entry in the past 4 weeks at 227 pageviews, that's 40% of total pageviews in the same period!
Below is the visitors overview chart from Google Analytics.
Check out the orange trend line (new visitors) which is now way above the green line (returning visitors i.e. loyal readers supposedly). Total visitors per day increased by at least 50% as of today.
How can I not pay attention to Bersih 2.0 when it keeps popping into my everyday life..even though I'm almost totally un-exposed to the mainstream media.
On the night of July 8th, everyone chose to skip the usual Friday night out because of the road closures.
Many were caught in unnecessary traffic jams because of the closures. Frustrations built up even more. Since there was nothing much to do at home, we turned to the cyber space for entertainment....Facebook in particular. "They can shut down the city but not Facebook, let's paint Facebook YELLOW" - one of my friend initiated. Good idea ..so I changed my pretty profile pic to a plain YELLOW background. By the next day, my sis' profile became a Sunflower while my bro's became a Yellow Elephant (cartoon). Lol.
By Saturday noon, me and my sis were glued to our Iphones (while watching over our nephew in the park) getting latest updates via blogs, Facebook and tweets. I finally had to Like the Bersih page to get the latest updates.
By evening, I was all over Malaysia Insider, Malaysiakini, #Bersihstories on Twitter reading all I can find about the rally. I told my father to quit waiting for the TV news..they won't report the real scenario !. I showed him some of the videos instead.
I'm still so awed by Aunty Bersih. I still wish I will be like her one day. MCA claimed that Aunty Bersih is an actress paid by the Opposition to cheat us. How can it be??
Read so many good stories from those who participated. It was really moving and inspiring.
My friend, Fel did ask me if I am supporting it. Not sure what she meant by 'supporting' but my stand then was quite simple..I said .."well, I have no intention to join the rally, the only way or move I can make is during the real elections, for now there is nothing I can do"
So..I was really really surprise to see so many people, people like me, who are not aligned to any political party, normal citizens like me, working executives like me, retirees, students, some came as far as from other states came to support the rally regardless of race, income class, gender.....despite the inconveniences.
I'm ashamed. But..I still can't give a definite Yes, if I'm asked to join Bersih 3.0.
That's why I truly admire people like Aunty Bersih. My salute you all of you.
I read quite a few entries via Malaysia Insider, they were all very touching. I don't even know which one to highlight now. Here's one..that I chose conveniently cos I recommended in Facebook (yes..Facebook, again):
I went to the rally as a spectator. I returned a believer. And I had ice cream with the FRU.
By Charis Ding
....About twenty minutes later, I was in the middle in front of the Maybank Tower with the throngs of people on my right and the FRU line on the left. The crowd had just gathered, they weren’t even moving forward yet. The FRU shot water cannons. It was unprovoked. Then the gas came. When it hit, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe. And it hurt. I grabbed some water from my bag and washed my face with it. I covered my face with my baju. In the chaos, one, two people offered me salt. "Makan", they told me. It really helped. I crumbled and sat on the corridors for a minute, eyes and nose watering.....
....I ended up in Pudu, watching the marchers and listening to their shouts of "Hidup Rakyat!". When we had to run later, at one point it was tricky to escape and we had to climb a railing at Pudu station. In the huru-hara, the man beside me, instead of just climbing up himself, was yelling to his friend – "Tolong amoi ini dulu!" He seemed more anxious for me than he was for himself, or even I was for myself.
A good friend got married. When it's a good friend, it means our 'work and contribution' will be required but greatly appreciated. From being the honorary 'zhi mui' (sisters to the bride) to photography services to reception services. So..you are right to imagine that the day starts very early in the morning till..late. Yesterday, I left the house around 7.30am and only got home around midnight.
My main task was to develop an audio slide show from the morning tea ceremony session to be shown during the dinner at night. Ideally, I should be taking photos as well but since I do not own a DSLR and there many other DSLR-ers around I can take a back-end role in this area, phew. It sure was a tough job, especially for the main photographer.
Other zhi mui's main roles..include:
..planning the itenary and games to 'entertain' the groom before allowing him to 'take' the bride
..key 'negotiator' with the groom entourage
..assisting the bride with safe keeping of gifts / jewelleries/ tokens received and to be given out
..guest arrival management at dinner reception
..cash (tokens from guests) counting and safe keeping
Oh boy..I think I have the lightest task :P though..I had my fair share of 'stress'...i.e. my task started earlier before the actual day which include testing and exploring the movie making software to ensure I am familiar with the requirements. In fact, I did up one show way before the actual day using earlier pictures from the Registration of Marriage. That was good as it prepares me for the actual day..since there will not be time for trial and error on the actual day.
Despite so, it wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be.
Firstly, my external hard disk crashed . again. FYI, the previous crashed too when I was doing the same task for another wedding in December! This time..the song that I needed for the slide show is in the unaccessible hard disk :s ..so..it was all frenzy ..calling up different parties to try to get another copy of the song
Secondly, the main photographer took longer than expected to convert his raw formats to jpeg. By the time I got the 500+ photos it was already about 3pm. We needed to leave for the restaurant at 5.30pm.
Learning ~ may not be a good idea to use the main photographers pics?
Secondly, I personally find it better to get to choose from different sets of pictures from more than one camera (did so in the previous wedding) although this means more time needed to go through hundreds of pictures from 3 or 4 different cameras !
FYI, one song is only about 3+ mins long..hence, we only need about 70 pics to fit into a song . Imagine..going through 500 pics to choose 70 :D
Once the pictures were shortlisted and arranged in the desired sequence, I could afford to relax a little as the rest of the work will be done by the software. If there is spare time , I can play around to customise the motion and zoom and whatever not. The technical staff at this restaurant requested for DVD copy ..since I was there early I had more than enough time to do that.
Just me and the software and the machine =) while the rest of the gals were stressing over the guests seating and ushering.
Oh..my secondary role was to tag alongside the bride as the temporary photographer using my little LX3, main photographer was caught in traffic ...lol.
..sounds tiring?
It was fun though...all for a good friend. And I'm very sure she appreciates it. Oh..we do get 'paid' in the form of 'ang pow' ...as a small token of appreciation. It's not the money that counts...it's the friendship and togetherness.
No doubt, all of us have our own busy lives at work and home...and we may all eventually move on heading to separate directions and our paths may or may not meet again...but the sweet memories will always be in the heart.
It's the Heart that counts. Deep inside we know these zhi mus are out there ever ready to offer their time, eyes, ears, shoulders...anytime, anywhere.
Attended a simple event on Saturday, organised by my secondary school's alumni association. The turn out was not too bad at all with a good mix of representatives from the 70's right up to the 90s. Cool~
The theme was : Health Walk @ Taman Tasik Titiwangsa, one of the more prominent garden lake in the city.
For me..this is the right location for the occasion..cos I used to hang out here alot when I was young. The flat I was staying in was near by, we used to come here for morning or evening walks. My dad used to bring us here for evening outings too...this is where I cried like a baby when he forced me to jog with him..not allowing me to stop when i wanted to :'(
When we were bigger, my bro and I played truant by lying to our parents about coming here to jog but in actual fact we went to the McD nearby to have beef burgers :P
So..anyway, we were here on a beautiful Saturday morning. Many were late..we were suppose to register ourselves at 7am..I only arrived around 7.30..some at around 8, some even later. Some got lost but eventually arrived. Malaysian time indeed.
We had a great time though. There were quite a handful of us from the same year or a year or two older. It would be more fun if more came.
Imagine a group with some big difference in age but yet we share one commonality..for instance, a lady told me she graduated in 1971, but I wasn't even born then! We share one commonality though - we were from the same school. But whoa..she looks damn good for her age..what an inspiration.
I also chatted with some seniors who are 2-3 years older, don't think I've spoken to some of them before in school..but familiar faces. Just added one in FB cos she is into running as well :)
Most of my closer friends (whom I kept in touch and meet up often in recent years) didn't manage to make it, so I ended up catching up with those that I have not hang out with for many many years.
We stayed back to chit chat over coffee and snacks at a small stall under the tree by the lake. Somethng I have not done for ages...in this Coffee Bean and Starbucks era.
We chatted like old days..
I was the only Chinese..which is so rare to happen in my current life, but, this was very common in school. Zarina was my partner in class during the final two years. Norhayati used to sit behind me ..and we were school mates since primary and we were both prefects in secondary. There is also Rita, also knew here since primary and we were best friends before. Faizah..knew her since primary too....played badminton with her before ..and sat behind me in one of the class.
NYE 2010 ~ while everyone was partying to welcome the NY, I was all bundled up in bed :s shivering cold but burning up. Been a long time since I felt that sick. Thankfully the fever subsided by morning but was still feeling awful with pounding headaches, body aches and nagging tummy upset.
Just got out from the throne after a major 'do' :P
Feeling much better now. Felicia just told me that she's coming over at 4.30 to pick me up before heading out to get some stuff than to Mich's place for a small gathering. I'm supposed to prepare my 'signature' tom yum dish. I was too sick this morning to go out get the ingredients. Actually, I have not decided if I want to go ..well ..er..it's getting kinda boring anyway.
My google chrome crashed.
That was shortly before I lost streamy connection all together. Thank God I still have iPhone connection but maxis network sucked whole of today. Merry Christmas!
Just had time to report the problem to streamy just now after Returning from sis' Christmas do.
Blogging from new app via phone now~blogspace. This one seems better than the previous one cos I can upload pics.
Despite the lil mishaps it was a good good day with family and good food.
Christmas shopping finally done ..I think. Was sure I'm all set until moments ago..remembered that there may be a few more things I need to get . aigh ~
Still can't believe the year is coming to an end ~
Had a good weekend with niece and nephews, presents hunting and got some errands done.
Oh....here's a pressie for my new toy too :P
I'm also happy that for this year in particular I managed to 'cover' quite a few malls ..not to shop but to check out their deco or rather to get a feel of the Christmasty season. Previous years...I regret not getting to see any and before I knew it the year ended, hence, the jolly season went past without much feel.
So this year, I made an effort to visit at least the major malls.
Even managed to get to Pavilion..all the way down town \o\
Theme : Christmas Enchantments @ Pavilion KL
It's been a long time since I last went to Pavilion. Just found out about this fountain.
