Went for dinner with my mum and little sis to this Chinese restaurant, Let's Clap, at the Rail Mall in Bukit Timah. It looks like a simple seafood restaurant, with clean refreshing light colours, bright interior, and a relaxing atmosphere. Just read about it the day before in this free WineTalk magazine, although I forgot clean about it until we reached there. We ordered pretty simple sounding dishes; 3-egg spinach, black pepper venison, fried cod with Thai sauce and a claypot tofu. Man, even these simple dishes brought us some delightful surprises! The sauces for the dishes especially, I found very tasty yet never overpowering. And the cod, so crispy on the outside, even until it got cold, while so fluffy and sweet inside, and retaining the natural juices of the cod. My mum even ate the skin of the cod, something she never does normally. Even the tofu, which led to me and my mum discussing what type of tofu it was. Tasted like egg tofu, but with a level of silkiness we had never tasted before. I loved the spinach too, which was cooked just right to retain the refreshing crunch of the vegetable, while still soaking up the tasty sauces. We loved the tea too, light enough to clear the palette, and fragrant enough to be savoured. Delightful. We'll be back. =)

Went to Sungei Buloh NR this morning. Had wanted to go for a long time, what a craving haha!

Don't really know what Mr Squirrel was doing in this picture... =p

Cute cute Mr Squirrel! Someone was walking behind me and startled him... He was my buddy for the afternoon, really let me get so close to him, a really sweet squirrel.

Mr Mud Lobster's roomie, Mr Crabby suntanning on his penthouse rooftop... He's the only one who didn't owe Huimin any money, because all the other crabs would scatter into their holes as soon as she got anywhere near!!

A Sea Hibiscus.

Dried Sea Hibiscus, still so pretty.

The place is writhing with water monitors huge and small! This is my buddy for the morning, Mr KhaKha, because he left his tail on an ant nest while I was taking photos of him, and he was trying not to move in my presence, while shaking his tail to get rid of the ants! So funny!

Hiking is not for everyone. Some talk and sing so loudly all the birds and cicadas go silent. Some tread so heavily that all crabs and animals within a kilometer scramble into their earthquake shelters. And not everyone are accustomed to the heat and walking. For example this pair of feet. =p

Had my first swim in years today. Went in about noon time, slightly overcast so it was pretty comfy, and there's only 5 people in the pool with me, so it was really nice and relaxing. I stayed for 2 hours, and with the doctor's instructions in mind, I just did lap after lap after lap, alternating between breast stroke and freestyle, until the kids' swimming classes started to come in, and those China guys who swim as though they were like drowning and still proud of it started to flood into the pool. Should go earlier next time. Plus bring along some snacks. I'm starving.

Have been seeing this black, medium-sized moth at my lift lobby a few times in the past week. I hate moths. Is it a bad omen? I really really hope not.

There are 2 types of old men: One who grows old. The other who becomes old.

Visited the orthopaedic specialist this morning. Confirmed that I have a fracture of my L5. Gave me only 2 options: MRI + Surgery, or swimming. I choose swimming. And got a letter to excuse me from IPPT and a downgrade to Pes C something. Swimming won't help in recovery, only helps to build back muscles to lessen the load on the fractured bone. But surgery is so expensive, especially the MRI. Plus I'm only weeks into my job, not a time to leave my post for a long hospital break. Plus I'm scared. But I've lived with this for years already. Should be able to live with it for years to come, right?

Just 2 medicinal carbon pills from Guardian pharmacy and my week-old diarrhoea was quenched. Totally regretting it. Regretting that I haven't thought of buying the pills much much earlier!! Just like not remembering that Panadol could possibly alleviate some of my Hellish pains last Sunday when my back asked for an off day... My brain hasn't been working properly for a long while since...

Feeling much better again. Can walk pretty briskly now, although I still tend to sit and stand up rather gingerly, in case I trigger any sprain again. I also try not to bend my back in any case, which was what unleashed hell on Sunday in the first place! My quadriceps are now aching, from all the squats I've been doing these couple days, along with my arms, which I've been using to support myself. Turns out my little spinal crack is from my childhood, although my doctors still want to follow up on it. My Sunday Hell was probably due to a ligament / muscle sprain according to my doctors. Hopefully my back doesn't end up like the aluminium oxide tile in the picture, which was taken after an bullet impact simulation test for my FYP!

Went to Fish's concert at KL. Never regreted being there. Despite the crazy journey from the KL budget airport to the hotel, and from the hotel to the indoor stadium. I'll never ever complain about the layout and infrastructure of our public transport system again!

The brilliance of having an excellant audience! The spectacular sight of so so many lightsticks and blinking lights really draws the heart, mind and soul into the essense of purely enjoying the concert.


The "Fish" carnival atmosphere outside the stadium is something of an eye-bursting experience for me...

Emo Wei~~ Cheer up bro!

Suffered this almost catastrophic failure of my hip/spinal cord on the morning after the concert. I was already carrying a back strain beforehand, and I already knew something wasn't quite right when I couldn't do even 1 situp while trying to train for IPPT last Thursday. But I didn't expect my back to give way, especially in KL, when I didn't do anything strenous at all, apart from all the walking. The trip back from KL was total hell. Especially going up and down the stairs. And the several bumps on my back by other people. Really felt like my spine's hammering straight into my hip, bone against bone. Luckily, all's much much much much better today after some good rest and sleeping.

Learnt so much more about myself from this trip to hell and back. I now know I have an old spinal injury when I was really young, and this had caused one of my bones around the L5 spinal region to be slightly displaced. This explains why I had always felt spinal pain when I do situps on hard surfaces, when I stand for long periods during army parades, and sometimes when I wake up in the mornings. This also made me susceptible to slipped discs and other back issues. But nobody has ever pointed this out, even during my NS checkup! Somemore the army sent me into Artillery! The x-ray has shown up a suspected stress fracture of a small bone around my L5 region! Just did some research on spondylolysis with my sister, who is studying occupational physiotherapy. Went through my x-rays too. Really seemed to have this little broken part. Will go down to company to get a specialist referral, I don't want it to get any worse! I still have many years of cycling to go!

*Thanks to all the guys who had shown their care and concern to me! Special thanks to Thomas and Huimin who went beyond the extra miles to help and care for me. Love you all!*

I was doing some labelling for some stuff that we were shipping over to Germany for a test. Then, when I was given a brand new roll of blank labels, and an empty meeting room, I went bonkers with the label printer hahaha!!


My name on my GT bike!


My name on my Giant!


Even my helmet is not spared! Blured's protective shell for an empty shell...

Oh dear, the longer my Cold Spray machine is down, the more "loansharks" will come knocking, calling, emailing, and they will not be happy... And I'm still only warming up my ass on my seat, one month into my job... How to get out so many products so quickly? Hell even the machine's giving us unprecedented issues that we're still puzzled over! Mampos mampos~~

Had a nice long afternoon of trail biking on Saturday. I haven't had the feeling of not wanting to go home for a long time until then. If not for the sun setting and the forest getting dark, I would had continued on. By then I had done 2 laps of Bukit Timah, and 5 laps of the shorter Scorpion Trail at Bukit Panjang! I really loved the stretch of trail in Scorpion which really resembles a bombsled course; a snakey left-right-left-right downhill between the trees with beautiful berms on the outside of each curve, totally fun! This is Downtown West's rollercoaster fun! I was so totally tired on my ride home, and I was having this totally bad headache when I reached home. Almost like a hangover from all the adrenaline rush. Until the next biking weekend then.