This past week I have found myself in the curious position of having to explain the rivalry between England and Germany. When I talk about the grudge match that will be played this evening, I get looks from folks hereabouts that range from puzzlement to complete disinterest. Apparently the significance of England facing Germany is lost upon them¹.

Of course, I’m being mightily Anglo-centric on this and it really shouldn’t be a small wonder that people haven’t heard of the much loved battle-cry of the Brits – “Two World Wars and one World Cup².”

Here is an amusing article that attempts to explain some of the rivalry between England and Germany – World Cup 2010: why England v Germany is more than just a game of football.

C’mon England!

1. With the exception of my rather bizarre Scottish friend who thinks his homeland teamed up at some point with the Germans rather than the sneaky French
2. A loving reference to the last time that England significantly beat Germany in 1966

Unfortunately, not in a good way.

For some inexplicable reason that only the Apple marketing team can probably explain to me, I was in a rush to install the new OS4 that promises to be the first step in making my phone obsolete. Don’t even get me started on the fact that it is just barely a year old. To be fair, iTunes happily tells me that it will take about an hour or so to download and update, so I leave it to do its thing overnight.

Again, the Apple marketing boys and girls have some explaining to do as I happily I bounce out of bed like its bloody Christmas. I can’t wait to get my eager hands on the goods only to be told that…. iTunes was unable to restore my iPhone.

Errr, okay (nervous sweat beginning to appear). Breathe, I’ll just do a restore… Apple wouldn’t let me down… I’ll just restore to a last restore point. Crap, no.. it’s an error telling me that the actual restore doesn’t work. (nervous sweat begins to turn cold as I realise that all my stuff on the iPhone has just disappeared into the ether).

To be truthful, it didn’t worry me as much as that since most of my stuff is in the much vaunted cloud. At worst, it meant that I would lose a few hours restoring my old apps and setting up my phone to be just right. Of course, I would have lost most of my SMS which I hate.

But needless to say I was pissed. I tried to restore again and again, each time failing as surely as the previous times I tried to restore. Interesting, Apple had now but me in an endless loop of recovery, denial, recovery, denial.

My solution, and this is what made me irked to the point of posting, is that the solution wasn’t found in a number of complicated fixes that explore the fun side of manual resets and by-passes, but it lies in the Apple Universal Dock. Error 2001 refers to third party USB peripherals mucking about on your Mac, so Apple recommends disconnecting them all. I had none except for my iPhone and its nifty new Universal Dock. So I tried disconnecting the USB cable from the dock and plugging it directly into the iPhone and voila¹, the iPhone resumes its recovery process.

You would think that Apple products play nicer together since the company is run by a bunch of control freaks. Evidently not. Did OS4 change everything? I can’t tell you since I’m still sat here waiting for it to complete the restoration. But maybe I’m being harsh, it did change plenty – my perception of Apple shifts a little further to the big evil empire feeling and as of writing, I have a very beautiful brick of a tech piece on my desk.

1. a nod to my embarrassed French friends at the recent World Cup knock out

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a political post but I felt inspired after I watched Matt Damon’s Green Zone. The film tackles the issue of the questionable intelligence surrounding the weapons of mass destruction that drove the US and the UK to invade Iraq.

It’s an action flick and a fictionalizing of the search for WMD. It takes a left turn about a quarter of the way in with the main protagonist, Chief Warrant Officer Miller, essentially goes rogue and operates outside the US Army structure to help the CIA, that veritable institution of truth, to bring stability to Iraq.

It’s a fanciful tale and even with a stretch of the imagination, highly unlikely. Most audiences will know better than to take it as gospel which means our dear American friends probably will.

After all, didn’t most people take the notions of an Iraq being armed with weapons of mass destruction seriously? The film alludes to the mainstream media’s culpability in driving home that notion. Ironically, the film’s main protoganist is called Miller and the journalist considered instrumental in forming the popular opinion was New York Times’ Judith Miller¹.

Of course it would have been nice to have other people brought out into the limelight for their complicity in fabricating the most costly hoax of all time – Hans Blix, Colin Powell, and probably the Rupert Murdoch’s entire publishing arm.

Is it a small thing? No, we went to war over it and oddly enough, people are still dying in Iraq for it.

But I recall a conversation I had with a friend of mine way back in 2003, on the question of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. His point, and these days I tend to agree with it, is that regardless of whether or not they find these WMD in Iraq or that we were misled on the road to war, the fact is that the US and the world is embroiled in that country and will be. The solution wasn’t going to be the withdrawal of the US from occupying Iraq as we had long moved past that point, making the WMD issue a moot point.

Would I love to see Blair and Bush on trial for fraud? I sure would but like the trials of so many war criminals in this day and age – Radovan Karadzic, Sloban Milosovic, Augusto Pinochet and Saddam Hussein – who really cares by and large?

1. In the film, the journalist is called Lawrie Dayne and the publication she works for is the Wall Street Journal, reference incorrectly to URLs on Google that us twsj.com.

Wow! We did it.

Through the Swim for a cause fundraising drive and my own Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore swim, we managed to raise a total of S$3,083.88!

In under a month, we exceeded our target amount of S$2,000 by 54%, which is pretty impressive. Here is the breakdown of where the proceeds will be going:

• UN High Commission for Refugees: $2,312.91
• Asian Women’s Welfare Association: $770.97

To all those who donated, you can give yourself a pat on the back. Here’s a special mention for you:

• Marios Kallis
• Joeri Gianotten
• Fiveyuan Sun
• Jenny Ang
• Valerie Goh
• Andrew Mason
• Stef Sng
• Joanna Ash
• Anouk van der Ros
• Alynn Teo
• Kerstin Strolz
• Chen Feng Yue
• Greg Chu
• Jaclyn Aw
• Reyhan Suryaditama
• Daren Goh
• Lee Huey Tan
• Lin Koh
• Chris Leo
• Debra Devied-Clayton
• Yvonne Yeo
• My parents
• My parents neighbours in Holland…
• … and a couple of you who wanted to remain anonymous!

Thank you to all of you and whether your donation was big or small, it has made a difference to people who need it.

Just a quick blog post to let everyone know that today is the last day that I’ll be accepting donations for the Swim for a cause fund drive. If you haven’t yet donated and were intending to, your donations are still very much welcome even though we’ve managed to exceed the target of $2,000 by 53%!

Keep it coming boys and girls.

I’ll be doing a thank you post after the fund raising has officially closed. Keep it coming because you are making a difference!

Swim for a cause

Wow, another Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore behind me and it seems to have flown by me in record time. Every time I watch it, I am in awe of the triathletes that are the true Ironmen and women who swim 1.9km, cycle 90.1 km and still have energy to do a 21.1 km half-marathon run. The weather was especially grueling this year as the heatwave didn’t seem to let up in spite of two days of rain before the event¹. My respect goes to all the athletes that took part yesterday whether it was as part of a team or an individual attempt.

So how did my swim go? I have mixed feelings about my result this year. I made my cardinal mistake that betrays my sprint tendencies and enthusiastic over-confidence took me in the lead pack at the start². This was not where I wanted to be as a breaststroke swimmer. In my training, I had been keeping a wide berth from crawl swimmers since I had no wish to injure them but this courtesy meant that I hadn’t actually trained to be in the centre of the pack. So I started to panic as I needed to be at the side of the pack and when I couldn’t get there, my OCD tendencies began to come out – my swim cap wasn’t on properly, my goggles began to fog up, the Aviva-branded top became too constricting.

All these things culminated in my nearly bailing out after the first leg of the race. I lost my rhythm and I could feel myself involuntarily hyperventilating. I managed to pull to one side and surface swim with my head above water for a few meters. I saw a lifeguard move towards another competitor that was close to me, who was doing backstroke. Was he bailing? My mind started to also rationalise that same decision, even though I had not made it yet. There’s no shame in knowing your limits. Even the best athletes call in no-joy every now and then. I’m a mere mortal, what can I hope to achieve? I was going to tap out and enjoy a nice ride to the safety of the beach.

I realised that a great deal of the panic came from the pressure I was under too. My colleagues had been training hard and there was a strong air of competitiveness about the proceedings. My girlfriend was stood on the beach watching. There were people watching her watch me. My whole team was watching, both race team mates and work team mates – two folks from another department that I had egged on to turn up to watch the swim. My entire social circle was watching as I’ve not been shy about sharing the details of my training or this swim. And whats more, people had actually committed donations to my cause because of their faith in me. Not a good day to be letting anyone down.

For some reason, panic turned to action. I wouldn’t take the option that was all too easy to take and quit. I was determined to make it through and started to find my rhythm again that reduced my breathing from short staccato breaths to long drawn out ones, increasing the oxygen to my brain. I could think again outside of the blind haze of panic. I was embarrassed and shamed by the episode but I stripped out all those things and focused what I needed to do and swim the distance in the best possible time I could do. That’s not to say the all the support (and pressure) wasn’t there to drive me – I think it helped as a catalyst to bring me out of the state of inaction that I was in. But so many people were relying on me to deliver what I said I would do.

It was tough though. The panic attack had cost me energy, determination and more importantly, time. I went at a pace that I felt would last me the distance. The markers were so far away it made me hesitant to burn out my energy stocks too soon. But I was struggling as I started to feel a stitch on the second long straight on the first lap of two. I blamed my own lack of fitness and sufficient training for that stitch and the doubts almost came again. Instead, I powered on ahead despite trailing back from the pack.

People asked me later whether this year was tougher than last year as I looked knackered as I came out of the water each time. My panic incident hadn’t gone unnoticed and my fellow colleagues swimmers were way ahead of me. What I found out later, to my delight, was that it was tougher this year as I was going out like the clappers – when I exited the water I clocked a time of 46′ 12″, and my officially logged race time was 47’03″. Either way, I was chuffed as I had beaten my personal best from last year’s Ironman 70.3 and also in my lap pool training of 48′. Unfortunately, I had placed amongst the lowest for the Aviva teams taking part – one colleague was behind me and another had pulled out after the first lap.

Thankfully, my team mates who did the cycle and the run helped to make up the time. We won first place in the Corporate Challenge Mixed category and won glory for Aviva. Of course, it helps if you are competing in a small category made up of your own company but nonetheless it is a small victory.

What the swim, and even the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore teaches me, is that you’ll keep pushing yourself to be better and rise to the challenge. Was I satisfied with my result? Satisfied, yes but not content. I think that with these things you’ll keep pushing yourself to stay out of being just content with your performance and satisfied is the best you are ever going to get. I look forward to next year’s attempt.

Lastly, for you pledgers or those who want to get a last minute donation in, please visit my swim for a cause. Donations are being accepted until the 26 March. If you are having any problems with the payment on the donating platform, please contact me.

1. Apparently the organisers follow local superstition and have a virgin plant chilli padis on the race course to ensure good weather. I think they either put too much chilli padi or they used extra virgin oil!
2. my Nike 10k run suffered the same error

For some reason, the night before a race is always exciting. I suppose it is the anticipation of delivering everything that you’ve been training for into that one event that actually counts for something. I have swam these distances before and its not new to me. Despite what they say, the swim portion is as much about the other person as it is about yourself, as anyone who has had the privilege of being at any open-sea swim start.

Today I’ve taken it easy and I have been feeling a little under the weather with the sudden changes in climate. Plenty of rest, water and fruits to help me load up, in my opinion, on complex sugars that will build up my energy reserves. Of course, this is probably preparation for doing marathons and actual triathlons but I figured I would take any help that I can get.

I’m a little stressed as Mrs. Eshin can attest to. I spent a good thirty minutes running around the apartment trying to figure out where I put my jar of Vaseline. It was where it was supposed to be but I just missed it each time I looked which was about 15 times. That, or we have ghost in our residences. Aside from ethereal friends hiding my gear, more of a worry is the interesting statistic my PR agency told me about the Ironman – out of 15 triathlon deaths, 13 have been in the swim portion. Something to think about before taking on the challenge of an open-sea swim. Having said that I am confident and competent enough, so I doubt anything will happen. One hopes that the jellyfish will stay away that early in the morning.

Thankfully, the flag-off session for teams is the last heat at 7.40am. This means I won’t have to deal with the individual competitors that are trying to overtake me with freestyle. I’m quite confident about my breast stroke and hopefully I can keep up with the rest of my colleagues who have been training fanatically over the last months.

A little disappointed that I haven’t managed to reach my swim for a cause target of S$2,000. I’m about 20% shy of the target amount and so I am hoping that this is going to be made up on pledges. The charity drive for the UNHCR and AWWA ends on March 26, 2010 to allow for pledge donations. I’ll be posting up my times once I have them up via twitter no doubt. If you want to get a last minute donation in regardless, please visit Swim for a cause. Ironically, I’ll be swimming in UN blue cap as this is the colour coding for the Team category.

Right, off to bed to rest. Wish me luck everyone!

This week is race week and my team and I are scrambling to get the Aviva Ironman 70.3 event together (well, more my team than I really). First of all a big thank you to everyone who has donated so far whether it is a big or small amount, it really is encouraging to see even the smallest of donations.

I will get around to thanking all of you who I know personally for your help. For those anonymous donations, I’m not able to see who you are but I respect your reasons for being a private benefactor. Thank you anyway!

Last weekend I took part in an open water sea preparation clinic organised by Yellowfish training and sponsored by my company, Aviva. Unfortunately, someone died in swim portion of the Osim triathlon last year. What was surprising was that he was super fit but it served as a reminder that we need to respect open sea swimming, and the inherent dangers with water.

Apparently on the 2km simulation, I beat my time of 48mins by coming in at 42mins. I have my doubts as I don’t think that I would have had such an improvement on my time just because of current and bouyancy. Regardless, I enjoyed the experience as it gave me a feeling of race conditions – the hussle, the competitiveness and the camaraderie.

It’s all a matter of psychology as well. The distances are sometimes hard to chew (yet, I seem to do plenty of swallowing of sea water!). It sounds corny, but it was a real help with having all of your support behind me. Last year, I was doing this to prove to myself that I could do this. This year, the danger was me turning complacent as I had already proved that to myself. When you think you are crazy for being out there, it did help me tremendously that there were people out there expecting me to do my best through their donations and what it represented.

I have to keep going the distance. It’s the final hurdle after months of preparation. I’m keeping the pace up for D-day. All I ask is that you keep the donations coming!

Donate now for Swim for a cause.

I’m really pleased with the fund raising efforts of my friends and family, and everyone who has donated so far to my Swim for a Cause. And so is the UNHCR it would seem¹.

Naturally, like any activity that is competing for scarce resoures like funds and attention, charities have their fair share of competition. Since my company is allowing us to choose our charities that we want to support, there is some friendly competition going on at our offices as my colleagues vie for share of wallet.

There are some interesting comments being made. For example, one view is that donating to charities that support things that are more likely to touch people’s lives are easier to raise money for. Take cancer – it’s easy to imagine that you might be touched by it at some point in your life. The plight of refugees can seem a world away and irrelevant to your life.

I agree. It’s easier to raise money for these charities. Does that mean we shouldn’t raise money for organisations like the UNHCR because the plight doesn’t touch us as directly or as forseably?

No, I think it is even more important for us to proactively raise awareness for these other charities that don’t have an “easy” pull for people. There is humanitarian crisis that is going on today in the world, and at some point, it will impact us all at some level.

Yesterday, we celebrated International Women’s Day.

A 48-year-old Somali woman, Hadja, told the gathering that she had been abducted and held by a militia group for four years in her homeland before managing to escape. “I was subjected to a lot of physical and mental violence and the numerous scars on various part of my body are a reminder of the pain and hurt I had to endure,” said Hadja, who has been living in Islamabad for the past three years.

Her husband, a former UN driver, was killed by militiamen in Somalia along with her father and eldest son. She said that she had been warned that she would be killed if she returned to Somalia because Hadja had refused to marry her brother-in-law. She lives in Pakistan with one of her daughters, but her three other children remain in Africa.

Hadja survives largely on an allowance of 4,500 Pakistani rupees (US$52) a month from SACH. She has a refugee card from UNHCR, but no right to work or permanent residence. Despite this, Hadja’s strength has made her a leader among the Somali women in Islamabad.

I can’t imagine a world where someone is abducted for four years, suffering brutalisation by her captors. Nor can I imagine a world where death, flight or marrying someone you don’t love are the only options available to you. And I certainly can’t imagine living in a world sustained by a meagre $52 a month.

Perhaps because I can’t imagine it, along with so many other people, it more important for me to bring attention to it than other “popular” causes.

Swim for a Cause

1. “We at the UNHCR in the UK wish to thank you for your support! It’s great to see people committing their bodies and minds to raise money for good causes and we feel honoured that you chose us. With an estimated budget of $3.2 billion US dollars for 2010, and with over 95% of our funding coming from donations, your cause is a great asset in our bid to help the 34.5 million people around the world who rely on our services and support.

   Thanks!”

Wow, I must say that it really does add an extra dimension to training for a race when you are doing it for charity. See Swimming for a cause.

With less than 2 weeks to go to my swim at the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore 2010, all of you have helped raise over 50% of the target amount of S$2,000 for the UN High Commission for Refugees and the Asian Women’s Welfare Association. I certainly feel a sense of accomplishment already without even having heard a starting horn!

But the race is not yet finished, and we still have 48.5% of the target amount to go! Any amount that you can donate is appreciated, even if it is a small one. Remember, small drops can eventually fill a bucket.

So get on over to Swim for a cause and donate today.

Last year, I had never competed in any race, in any shape or form. After I survived the 1.9km swim as part of the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore Corporate Challenge, it gave me a great sense of accomplishment. So this year, I wanted to do something extra – race for a cause.

This year, I am back at the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore 2010, competing as part of a relay team and taking to the water as the swimmer. I’m looking to raise money for two charities – the UN High Commission for Refugees¹ and the Asian Women’s Welfare Assocation²

You can support these worthwhile causes by donating directly to them yourself or visiting my page on Ammado – Swim for a cause – where you can help me raise a combined total of S$2,000 for both charities.

You can either:

1. Just donate outright (and be mighty generous)
2. Wait until I have completed the distance (to make you feel I’ve earned it)
3. Only donate when I’ve beaten my time last year of 58 mins (to make me really feel I’ve earned it!).

This is the first time I’ve done something like this and raced for charity so bear with me if I haven’t quite got it right yet.

A couple of things to note:

• Yes, my company sponsors the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore so I do have an interest in this, BUT
• No, I don’t see a cent of what you donate and nor does my company. The money goes directly to the charity.

C’mon and do something good today and support my swim for a cause! That link again, in case you missed it: Swim for a cause.

If donating money isn’t your thing, then I’d happily welcome a couple of virtual cheers over at the Aviva Ironman Virtual Crowd just to let me know that I’m not swimming alone. Just look for my name on the drop down list and leave a message of support. (Warning: This is a shameless link to my company’s corporate site and an attempt to solicit support for myself!).

1. The UNHCR
   The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, was established in 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly to provide protection and assistance to refugees worldwide.

   Today, UNHCR is one of the world’s principal humanitarian agencies, its staff of 6,540 personnel helping more than 30 million people in 116 countries, providing the world’s most vulnerable people with safety and coordinating access to food, shelter, clean water, medical care and basic education.

   When possible, UNHCR helps refugees and other displaced people return to their homes voluntarily, safely and with dignity. When return is not possible, the agency assists with local integration or resettlement to a third country.

2. The Asian Women’s Welfare Association
   Our Mission is “To empower the disadvantaged, from infancy to old age, to maximize their potential to lead a dignified and independent life”.

I recently had a discussion with Mrs. Eshin and her uncle regarding microwave ovens. She’s convinced the damned things are harmful when they’re busy superheating water molecules in our food. Her uncle, a wise gentlemen of electrical technical engineering experience, confirmed this but said that he wasn’t sure about the microwave ovens as he didn’t know how well the protection plate at the front of the oven insulated against harmful rays.

Of course, I scoffed at this notion. Given the millions upon millions of microwaves sold in the world, surely they would be made safe. The US government, no less, would have had a field day with the FDA infractions if it was an unsafe technology.

Mrs. Eshin’s uncle did remind of something one of my old teachers mentioned – you should remember who is telling you something to evaluate its trustworthiness.

Here’s a little known fact – Percy Spencer, who invented the microwave oven, worked for Raytheon at the time. Raytheon is a major American defense contractor that works tightly with the government.

You be the judge.

I’ve been scammed twice in 24 hours with a new trick to earn restaurants a few bucks more – taking down the incorrect order and charging a higher price for it.

The first time it happened was at The Villa Bali last night. Apparently some genius decided that it would be clever to call the alcoholic and non-alcoholic version of a drink, Strawberry Freeze and Strawberry Freezy respectively. Mrs. Eshin had ordered a Strawberry Freezy quite clearly but they naturally heard Strawberry Freeze to the tune of $6 more.

The second time was just now over lunch at Manna Korean restaurant. Apparently, they mistook the order of a $17 beef rib soup for an order of $24 beef rib set. The unfortunate thing, which might be mine own stupidity, is that it sort of looked like a beef rib soup abeit a poor one so I didn’t send it back.

So now being $13 out of pocket, I’m not a happy camper. Not a large amount but it’s the principle that matters. That being said, the food at both places was still good.

Happy new year to one and all. Of course, as I write this, it is still not New Year yet where I am but for most of the folks that I know in Asia, it will have just passed.

So, as another year closes and a new one opens up in front of me, I am in the mood for both reflection and goal-setting, something that surrounding yourself with cold weather and the drearily sunless skies of winter Europe lend themselves well to.

What were the highlights of 2009 for me? Broadly speaking, it was a good year on all fronts. Professionally, I survived a tumulteous year at a company inevitably adapting itself to the prevailing financial climate. Naturally, when my appraisals come around as the first points of order next week, I will not only have survived but excelled at surviving. I do, of course, work in marketing.

On the financial front, I have happily met the financial goals that I set for myself at the start of 2009. I have finally learnt the importance of financial discipline and the comfort that it breeds in leading a secure lifestyle. It hasn’t been an easy road and support has been there from friends and family, and not just in the financial sense. If I had to name this year on purely financial grounds, I would have to say that this was the year of the ham sandwich, the every present symbol of my new found financial discipline. My suffering colleagues can serve as testament to this.

Family has been a mixed bag this year. While there were no new additions and thankfully no losses, my father’s health is beginning to become a concern. As an expat over 5,000 miles away, I can insulate myself from it to some degree but I do get to see the more pronounced effects of ageing at longer but regular snapshots. These snapshots never used to change but now it seems there is a new picture every 3 to 6 months. I suppose it is just about getting used to it and dealing with it and I forget sometimes that my father is pushing 80. If I looked and functioned that well at 80, I would be a happy bunny. The last kick in the teeth that 2009 had to offer was a stroke that hospitalised my grandmother. Thankfully, I’ve had the chance to visit her in hospital during this visit.

Most of my family continues to progress well. I was shocked to find neice’s newborn had developed nicely into a 2 year-old personality in my absence. I dread to think what my other niece and nephew have grown into after not having seen them for too long. One regret for 2009 was that I didn’t take more time to visit them while I was in the UK earlier. Some highlights for next year will be my father’s 80th birthday and its subsequent family reunion. My own plans for family will also progress somewhat further and my uncle is making a landmark visit back to the homeland after not having left Australia for more than 25 or so years.

Personally, I’ve made some new friends and reforged some old friendships that should never have lost their lustre. I am happily attended my friend Bobble’s wedding as an usher in September. I am sure there was no real position of usher in the Jewish context but I was grateful that there was a small part for me to play in his marriage. Board Boy welcomed a baby boy to his family and his own pride. Bible Boy and his wife gave birth to their first born and regretfully had a fretful first two months as the poor girl had to undertake major surgery.

I’ve had the chance to learn one new skill this year – first aid. This training came courtesy of my company and it is something that I’ve always thought was important. I’ve even suggested that my mother learn the same course so she know’s important things about CPR in case something happens to my father.
Health-wise, I’m sure that Mrs. Eshin will undoubtedly dispute my prognosis of it being a good year, so far be it for me to be as brave as to contradict this. Right now, as I type, I have a belly happily pushing itself to the limits of its natural boundaries that would agree with her. I’ve only fallen seriously sick once this year – with the dreaded H1N1 flu. My t-shirt does say, “I survived H1N1, but the tamiflu nearly killed me.”

Being sick, and having a survival workload meant that my training has remained sporadic but not without its own gustos of enthusiasm. It was quite an accomplishment for me to have taken part in this year’s Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore 2009¹. I took part in the Corporate Challenge component which saw me doing only the swimming. That in itself, at least for me, was an accomplishment – 1.9km in the open sea is no small feat for a coach potato. I suppose now is as good a time as any to set the record straight as some newspaper report erroneously that I am a triathlete. I am no such thing and it would be unfair for me to claim such a title. What taking part in the Ironman has done for me in some small way,is that it has galvanised my fitness routine and I have taken up running and swimming as a regular activity. By March, I hope to improve on my swim time at the 2010 Aviva Ironman and by May, I want also to have run a half marathon in a respectable time.

So what else does 2010 hold in store for me and what do I want to accomplish? Well, apart from the goals that I’ve already discussed, I’m looking for a charity that I can actively support and contribute to. I’m still trying to find a worthwhile cause that resonates with me but hope to have something soon. I’d like to continue learning something, even if it is one thing. Vague goals to be sure but then again, I always feel it best to keep the important ones personal and needless to say, I have set those already. It’s also less embarrassing when once I read this post next year at the same time, with the potential for disappointment at not having done what I set out to do. This way I can be pleasantly surprised.

Happy 2010 and stay safe wherever you may be.

1. Those astutue enough will know that I’m shamelessly plugging my own company’s event.

A pretty dilemma presented itself today when I got back to my bike. A guy was on his bike having a heated argument with his girlfriend (or wife) who was standing off to the side. They both seemed quite riled up with each other so I hung about for a bit to see if it escalated. A noble but in retrospect stupid idea, as I wasn’t really sure whether I wanted to get involved.

As it did. The guy stopped his engine, nearly dropping his bike as he stormed towards the woman. He started grappling with the woman’s helmet while she was shrieking at him in tears. What had me a little nervous was that he wanted to take the helmet off because he wanted to take a swing at her. He eventually got it off but all he ended up doing was gripping her wrists while she raised shrieking hell at him. This continued for a few minutes.

I started my engine in any case and put my helmet on. Would I step in at some point? If I did, I wanted my helmet on. It didn’t provide body protection but I was hoping that in the heat of an argument, an inexperienced and hot-headed aggressor would go for the head rather than body shots. I also took the liberty of checking my utility knife but put it away as it very literally would have been overkill and it could always be used against you.

I kept checking the couple as they were arguing. The woman kept looking at me to intervene.

I really, really didn’t want to get involved truth be told. I wasn’t that brave to stick my kneck out like that. So I didn’t. I felt a little cowardly for not jumping to her defence and I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body, prepping me for an evitable fight or flee response. By not jumping in, it was the right choice I realise with hindset¹.

Why was it the right decision? Well, the guy was obviously agitated. I believe on some primal level that men do know it is wrong to do violence against women. Myself stepping in would have provided him with a legitimate target to vent his anger on. A man in argument with his spouse invariably does not like the intervention of another man on what he views as his territory. Of course, then all hell would have broken loose and I would have tried to hurt him back. Lover’s tiffs can go either way – the woman could decide to loose it with the guy or with me equally.

He did look back a few times to see what I was doing. He even asked, “Can I help you?”. I just looked at him neutrally². I just sat on my bike and waited.

I hung around longer than I would have on my bike while it idled. I checked whether VivoCity had a website with a telephone number for security. Of course, wanting to provide the most rich and rewarding experience to shoppers, it didn’t have a normal HTML site for browsing on my iPhone. Not even the contact us page had a useful non-flash version to get a telephone number. Thanks Vivo!

Anyway, after waiting about ten minutes, I checked again and the couple seemed to have calmed down. It had blown itself out with the woman free and the guy smoking a cigarette which I took as a good sign since smoking is a habit to calm nerves. The woman could, if she wanted to, have walked away from him. I decided to leave them to their own devices as they were near a very busy main entrance to VivoCity in any case.

Was I a coward to not have stormed in there and been noble by sticking my neck into someone else’s business? I admit, I do feel a certain shame by not having done anything and leaving the situation, essentially declaring it someone else’s problem. But I do think that my presence and proximity to the situation, and refusing to leave at the argument’s height and even in the face of his challenge to me, reminded the guy that there were consequences to every action. Violence was not a viable option for him.

And I’m reasonably sure that all three of us are now safely at home without incident. Perhaps not happily but at least safely.

You be the judge.

1. Of course, everything is better off with hindset as I try to post rationalise my own sense of manhood back with some dignity.
2. Also, affectionately known as the Singapore Stare.

We decided to be adventurous and took a trip to Kranji. It’s a small place in the northwest of Singapore and is home to mainly farmlands. We’re staying in what they call a resort farm. Anyway, despite the absence of bug repellant, we had a nice meal at the only restaurant on the resort (I use the term loosely).

It was fun partly because of the joy that Mrs. Eshin gets from good food and especially so when it reminds her of her childhood. So after a healthy dose of steamed “Sauna” prawns, water spinach with thousand year egg, and expat fried rice, she asks me, “So, what dishes do you remember from childhood?”

I’ll be honest and say that it took me some time to answer, which isn’t really fair to my mother. And I’m still thinking of the answer as I write this post. But here are some candidates that came to mind then and now.

Putt i Panna. This was something that my mother picked up from Sweden when my parents were based there. It literally means “tidbits in a pan” and can be made with any leftovers readily available. My mother’s putt i panna was made invariably with bacon, diced potatoes, caramelized onions and braised steak so tender it crumbled into the dish more often than not. The braising took a couple of hours but the smell just permeated the whole household, announcing that the family was in for a treat that evening.

Yeung Chow Fried Rice. Another of my favourite dishes that had a unique smell to it was my mother’s fried rice. Our time in Singapore over thirty years ago exposed her to a lifelong passion for Asian food. As a result she came back with a recipe for fried rice that was evidently a take on yeung chow fried rice or expat fried rice. Hers was made from a fragrant basmati rice, the freshest spring onions, peas, and diced chicken. I think it had prawns as well that were often taken out by me. The point was that the basmati rice heralded this great dish before anything else had even been prepared.

Pancakes. To be accurate, my mother didn’t really cook this dish so much as she used it as a fun way to engage her son in cooking. It sort of worked as I still remember it as being a fond childhood memory. She was more responsible for the preparation of the batter that makes a good Dutch pannekoek. A pannekoek is a halfway house between a French crépe and an American pancake, and tastes a damned side better. A versatile creature, it could be eaten with bacon, or raisins, or chocolate spread. Yummy.

Of course there is a whole load more memories of home cooking that I could recall if I had a cookbook to write. My mother makes handsdown the best steaks in the world but then that answer would have deprived my girlfriend of a far more interesting answer.

At 3.30 pay attention, this made me and the missus piss ourselves with amusement. You’ll see why.

Also worth looking at from this guy – Meat Loaf’s I would do anything (Literal Video Version) and The Monkees’ Daydream Believer (Literal Video Version).

Making the rounds in Singapore is a video of a boyfriend being scolded by his girlfriend as they have an argument outside their car. The woman is unleashing all fury at the guy and eventually attacks the guy’s groin. Here is the video showing the woman attacking her man.

Now, I’m one to find amusement in just about anything given that I just spent 120 mins looking at Sacha Baron Cohen running around, posing as homo provocateur, Bruno. Like that film, I’m smelling something not quite right with its authenticity and I can’t help but think that it is fake. Here are five reasons to think that:

1. Firstly, we have netizen “James” to thank for this 41 second clip. Oh the joys of anonymous citizen reporting via mobile phones. It saves actually having to check the facts or get the full story or check the credibility of the source. This trustworthy source, of course, was so civic minded he whipped out his camera and filmed an assault taking place¹. Okay, fine, he might be recording it to take to the police but obviously youtube and Stomp were probably the best place to go first.
2. I don’t care how under-the-thumb of a Singaporean male you might be or femi-Nazi she might be, there is no way that taking a shoe to someone’s groin is going to illicit such a docile response in the guy. And sign up for more when she tells him to stop protecting his private parts? Please…
3. The number plate seems a bit bogus. I’m no expert on Singapore number plates, but SCU 148L is a personalised piece of work. Hmm… beginnings of Scum perhaps? Inside joke maybe? The mind boggles.
4. Cameras are notorious for not really picking up body movements that well. The exaggerated movements of the woman are surprisingly well picked up, don’t you think?
5. It’s all surprisingly well shot – cropped in quite nicely with no other real detail being shown, nice vantage position, the proponents clearly visible. I get crap on my camera phones usually.

So perhaps it might be a truthful video but me gut feel tells me that something more is at play and two folks have just got their five minutes of fame on an unsuspecting public.

1. I believe Singapore is still one of the countries in the world where the threat of violence itself is a crime – it is enough for someone to feel threatened to make it a legal issue.

Neo: I know Kung Fu!

Morpheus: Then hit me… if you can.

MSNBC has compiled the best of 10 years of The Week in Pictures.

Over dinner tonight I spotted a father who had an ingenious way to keep his baby daughter amused while he ate quietly – he sat her down in front of his iPod and played cartoons on it. It seemed to work quite well as the kid seemed to have that same plugged in look that I have had since I got my iPhone. The one where I am caught wandering around, iPhone in hand twitching for the latest shot of information. I was remarking to the better half that I wasn’t sure if plugging in a kid at that early age was a good thing or not.

On the one hand, I think the child needs time to just sit and explore the world, be restless, push the boundaries and well, cry and laugh as he or she tries, fails and succeeds to engage with things around it. It sort of feels like a much too simple way of child rearing to be entirely wholesome. Of course, not having kids myself, I might feel otherwise when I’m trying to grab a few minutes of quiet without a kid trying my patience. Still…