Hi people!

Ha! This is the first time I'm sending my stories to the net! As promised to a friend, I will come up with my homepage. As you can see, my homepage is very much under construction (no fancy stuff yet) especially since I've yet to scan all the photos which I have sorted out. But since I've already delayed the publishing of my homepage by one year, I think it's rather impolite and I really don't want it to be another "hangat-hangat tahi ayam" case. Also, nanti kena kutuk lagi!

So, here's to my first humble story on the net.....

The day before my friends "Judgement Day" (they're the ones going for the 21km), Gui, Abdullah and me went to Shah Alam's public swimming pool to test out the place ("sun si hang" - new toilet). Hey for me, what can I say - swimming is heaven, so naturally I enjoyed it. However, the pool was of constant depth (above waist, below shoulders) - not as exciting.

Later in the evening/night, we met up with Meng Heng and Chin Tiong for a pizza treat by Gui (no cakes - well, I know that we girls aren't into cakes, sorry) at Section 14 (aiya... should have tried to contact Eu Cheng). I can see the effect of economy crisis on the pizza - little cheese like eating bread only.

Our major yakking topic was Lion King's creative email. We truly think that was a masterpiece - someone should frame it up. I thought Shaw Feng forwarded me a joke before I realized the writer was the sender himself. Can I commision you (Lion King) to write my weekend stories? Sometimes they get kinda boring and I most certainly welcome your creative skills.

Had quite a difficult time getting sleep. Even woke up at around 2.30am and realized Gui was having the same problems. Felt restless. Managed to doze off a little before being awakened by the alarm clock at 4.45am. I actually was dreaming and I need to tell this dream of mine 'coz it had something to do with our chat that night. See, we're talking about trips and somehow or other, I was "triggered" to take charge of December Christmas holiday as my birthday was around the corner at that time too. So, these people might come to Seremban should I be able to arrange something somewhere.

That night, I dreamt that I've got a bunch of friends visiting me - my ex-housemates and my own hometown friends on the same day. After being invited in, my parents became the host before I went into my bedroom for a short nap as I felt pretty tired. I've yet to really talk to my friends and fell asleep. When I woke up, I saw they were getting into their cars and leaving! Then, I felt so sad of course! That was when I woke up - luckily it was all a dream/nightmare! You see, buat saya tension! Kah, kah, kah....

PJ Half Marathon
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The 21km participants started their run at 6.30am while the not so "keng chow" ones like me started 10 minutes later. I ran or should I say, I "jogged" constantly only stopping for the 100 plus drink somewhere in the middle. It was a particularly nice relaxing run because our route was most of the time very flat and running on the highway in the early morning was refreshing. Unfortunately, near the end, I couldn't keep up my speed and had to slow down as I was getting out of breath. So, satu dua tiga, and so on pun potong saya lah.... Which was bad cause I finished 128 - if within 100, qualified for a certificate. Finished in 1 hour 5 minutes? (something like that).

My friends who took part in the 21 km were great! I'm so very proud of them! Our Datuk Lim finished in about two hours, followed by Teck How - still within 2 hours 15 minutes. Congrats! Unfortunately, Abdullah was about 20 seconds late to qualify for the certificate but respect habis because this fella rarely went for training (but jangan puji banyak because dia sudah beria-ia nak join marathon lain pulak!). Gui, wow... what can I say, I'm full of admiration for you! FYI, she finished 2 minutes late. She ran non-stop all the way. Tiong's roomate also finished the race (his girlfriend was among the 100 women participants qualified in the 10km category). I also had the wonderful opportunity to meet with a writing friend, Bernard (Abdullah's junior). I think I immediately recognized you sitting somewhere near the registration area the minute I saw you but I wanted to "settle" my registration first. It's been a pleasure meeting you.

We still lepak around the Kelana Jaya stadium after the race because of the lucky draw. The entertainment wasn't much - I guess there was some contest going on. A lot of people already went home and the task of seeking the lucky draw winners was surprisingly very difficult and a long process. We weren't as lucky as Saturday (whereby it didn't rain - so we could go for swimming, and we immediately got a parking space when we reached Section 14).

Tried the Putra LRT from Taman Bahagia stop till Central Market. The weather was simply wonderful - the scenery while from the LRT train was clear and amazingly beautiful. No kidding - the best view was from Taman Bahagia till Asia Jaya (left side). Tiong "loaned" me his unlimited ride LRT card - so thankslah. Your card is in the mail - hopefully tak hilang.

I waited nearly an hour for my bus back to Seremban at Pudu. Luckily I always have a book in hand for situations like this. Was "pancing ikan" in the bus. So tired. Then rested a while at home before preceding to my next activity - visiting my colleague in Tampin.

Tampin
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"Secretly" drove down to Tampin town without my folks knowledge. Haiya, even if we argued to the point of letting me go, they'll still worry like hell. Fetched Kasturi on the way and it was an hour later when we reached Subra (my colleague) housing area. Another colleague, Ravi, reached half an hour later. They're all my Indian colleagues as well as my lunch partners. As my other colleagues say, I'm almost "diIndiankan" because I usually visit the Indian counter and try to take only vegetables on Friday! Kasturi is my ex-coursemate as well as my colleague and joining them for lunch is great as our topic of discussion is not so much about work but touch on a wide area from politics to Indian culture to movies. But I didn't quite pick up Tamil well.

The drive to Tampin is like I mentioned before when I wrote about my Bina Negara course in Alor Gajah - simply a beautiful countryside/kampung side scenery.

Had dinner at Subra's house before parting at 8pm. When I reached home at 9pm, I was about to drop down on the floor and go to sleep!

What a hectic weekend indeed!

Regards,
Li Li