Last week in Singapore

We packed up our gear today because in less than a week, we’re heading to Perth for the next phase of our training leading up to the Asian Games. Today concludes the third week of intensive training in Singapore. We’ve been really lucky to have the opportunity to work with Mark Plummer this past month; he is an excellent coach! Thanks, Mark!

And have I mentioned yet that Mark is probably one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met. My favourite comment from him has to be when he suggested that humans should lay eggs.

‘I mean, it’s okay for me, but for the girls, having to carry the baby around for nine months? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could just pop out an egg and put it in the oven, and there’s the baby!’

I’m going to miss that, hee hee.

Plus, he takes videos. And so for the first time, we can actually show you guys what we really do out there. For those of you who haven’t actually seen sailing in action … enjoy! (This is about as good as it gets in Singapore.)

hello down under!

We’ve just arrived in Sydney for a week-long training stint. Forecast looks like we should get some good wind – keep your fingers crossed for us! 10-20 degree weather is gonna be COLD, though.

It’s good timing; Singapore’s waters have just closed thanks to an oil spill off East Coast.

Brett’s wife, Liz, picked us up from the airport and we had her fisherman’s pie for dinner. Yummy! Even more so after a day of plane food.

Tomorrow we’ll be out on my favourite place in the world to sail (so far, anyway) – Sydney Harbour!

gearing up for thailand

I finally remembered to bring the camera out on water today to have some pictures to brighten things up around here.

This weekend we’ve been spending long hours on water, with keelboat training in the morning and regular training in the afternoon.

Although I’m helming, Siobhan has to take the tiller for me when I fiddle about with the engine getting out of the harbour. (Though, obviously, I was fiddling more with the camera at this particular moment.)

Helming on a keelboat rocks. You get to sit and steer and watch everyone else work, like when they take down the sail. Haha.

We leave on Wednesday. Hope the protests in Bangkok die down some!

SMU Sailing rocks my old TK socks.

Today Dawn and I sailed with our Platu team for Top of the Gulf Regatta this late April-May. My first time crewing in a Platu and it wasn’t too bad. I went up to TOGR in 2008 with an all girls team as their helm. This time we have 2 guys and 4 girls. We’re excited..

Dawn: Helm
Bun: Mainsheet/Spin
Lips: Jib/Spin
Karene: Pit/(Saikang)
Junjia: Mast
Winfrid: Bow

We have to admit that we haven’t contributed as much as we would like to, to the SMU Sailing Team since joining SMU because we’re so busy with training and school… but the team is always so supportive and enthusiastic and I love working with them. So this year, we’ve finally made time to sail TOGR with the team. Oh that reminds me of the surprise-welcome-us-home appearance at the airport when we came back from ASC! THANKS GUYS!

We had a “secret adventure” out at sea off Raffles Marina today that I’m proud to say, we conquered with a bit of brain and breeze. It’s so fun to sail KEELboat.

The national Hobie16 guys will also be at TOGR for their Asian Games Selections, so we can keep up with their races live while we’re there.

Link to the TOG website: http://www.topofthegulfregatta.com/

Next Platu training, after exams.
Next 470 training, after OSIM triathlon (NSC closed).

from 20knots to 2

We’ve been out sailing three days now. First was registration, measurement, and our first on-water session – long day, with 20kts of breeze in the afternoon. Yesterday we had the practice race, in what seemed like only 2kts at times!

While we were getting our boats set up, Brett Beyer, wildlife photographer, was hard at work taking shots of the ‘animals’ in the boat park.

Including this one, which he says makes our 4.7m dinghy look like a 40-footer.

We had to launch the powerboats sans tractors, too.

The sea of red isn’t just Singapore sailors, though. There are tons of Chinese volunteers. The launching ramp is really steep, and when we first saw it, I thought damn, it’s not going to be fun pulling the boat up that.

Well, the sheer number of volunteers makes recovering up that ramp a piece of cake!

Racing started today and we’ve kicked off with a third. Only one race got finished today because the fog got too thick – honestly, the second race was a visibility nightmare. There was some confusion with whether we actually managed to finish (and first!) before they abandoned the race. Result: we spent the rest of the evening in the protest room awaiting a redress that didn’t come out in our favour. Oh well, that’s sailing.

Last training session before China

Leaving in 3 days.

(Pink font matches Siobhan’s new sunglasses.)

This week the Singapore Youth Championship is going on. Lots of Optimist out on water racing. (Many other classes, too, but the Optimist are the most numerous.)

(The first bunch of kids coming back to shore. We overtook most of them coming in, fortunately, because it’s not fun fighting for beach space with a whole bunch of other boats.)

On our way in, I think some kids were fascinated by the ‘big boat’. One of them called out to us, ‘Nice boat!’

One little boy came to ask for the hose when we were washing up. It was actually a nice change to see a kid that polite. Good job, boy’s parents!

After training we had to pack up our gear. Siobhan found a smart way to carry her things around. Behold her new backpack!

The Zhik harness is evidently multi-purposeful!

police, me, and ice cream’s yummy

Yesterday morning, while cycling to school, I was stopped by a policeman and a policewoman along the Nicoll Highway pavement. I had my particulars taken down, and got a “warning” not to cycle on the pavement because it was dangerous. I looked at the jammed and slow moving roads and thought to myself.. “hmm…. i think that’s more dangerous”. I could see that the people on board a double decker bus 14 were all staring at me and a few other Blangadeshi workers, who were also stopped by the police. Poor dudes, they looked so scared when the police stopped them and asked for their work permits.

The problem here is Singapore drivers are mostly very unfriendly normally, and are very mean to cyclists. They like to go close to cyclists to scare them. I’ve seen so many drivers going extremely close to foreign workers on bicycles on purpose, even when there’s enough road space for them to stay well away. Which is why I don’t like to cycle on the road. If only we had bicycle lanes.

Since I am on the topic of cycling, I cannot cannot cannot understand why people like to walk/stroll on bicycle lane along East Coast Park even on a crowded Saturday afternoon, or cycle in the wrong lane. I think they should put up more signs to remind people of basic park etiquette.

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Ok, let’s talk about something happier. ICE CREAM. I saw the nutritionist yesterday and we were reviewing my diet again. Since I’m kind of honest, when she asked me what I usually eat after dinner and before I sleep, I said… “Ice cream… ?”, conveniently taking out “a tub of”. Without hesitation she replied, “Oh good, you need as many calories as you can.” Phew. Ice cream’s ok for me. Good.

There are perks to being on a weight gain program; I can just eat (right foods of course). I’ve seen some sailors on weight loss and it looks mentally and physically draining. But then again, I haven’t actually gained much weight since I started taking more supplements. So the action plan on top of the normal diet from now, till the next review is:

1) Take a bottle of Boost and a chewy bar between breakfast and lunch.
2) Either soy milk or juice during lunch, instead of water.
3) During sailing, a packet of Weider jelly and a bar.
4) After gym/sailing, a bottle of Boost and a bar.
5) Later dinner so I can eat more because of Boost and bar after sailing.
6) Keep up the snack after dinner: fruit (or ice cream :] i approve)

This is the Boost protein drink. I heard that strawberry flavour’s not nice. The chocolate one is so thick I have to keep adding water for it to not taste so sweet. Got to go. Ciao.

The Case for Cycling

My experience today is testament to one of the things Siobhan and I do regularly: use cycling as our normal mode of transportation.

I took the bus home from school today, and it was torturous. Case in point: a massive traffic jam along Bukit Timah Road. The bus stopped at the traffic light for 5 cycles of the light. The total time it took travelling by bus: 1h 30min.

When you consider that biking home takes me 30-35min, 40 in a real bad jam … well, think of the time saved!

And if you need more convincing that cycling is a great way to go … here are some more points.

+ It costs nothing once you’ve made that initial investment on the bike. Think how else you could spend that $3 a day (assuming ~$1.50 one way) … $15 a week!
+ You go on your own time, unfettered by bus schedules and delays
+ It’s exercise! Even if you aren’t in training, it’s still a good way to get fit and fab.

yummy pasta after training!

True fact: food always tastes better after training! Today is night class day, so we dropped by PastaMania on our way to school. We both finished the biggest combo meals (soup and garlic bread included). 120kg combined weight, here we come!

The interesting thing about sailing is that every time we go out, the conditions are different, even when we’re at the same place. This is the sport that is never boring!

It is large tides season now. Today we launched at 2.30pm in high tide: the sea’s edge came all the way up to the top of the launching slipway. 3 hours later, we came back to shore and the slipway was completely visible, down to the edge where it ends!

(On Sunday, it was even worse – by the time we got back to shore, the tide was out all the way to the end of the breakwater. We jumped out of the boat and realised that the water was only coming to our ankles!)

When the tide is that low, it gets pretty muddy. Craig lost his slippers coming ashore. According to him: ‘My slippers got stuck in the mud so I left them there!’

my coach looks like harry potter

No matter what other people say, Craig will always look like Harry Potter to me when he has his specs on. (Harry Potter fans, please don’t kill me.)

Anyway, Craig’s here in Singapore for a week, so we’re going to squeeze out more time to be out on water. The wind’s been pretty good too! 12-15 knots, constant, waves. NICE.

Last weekend, we made some important milestones on our upwind sailing. Understanding some important concepts that never actually occured to us. The best thing about sport is there will always be something to improve on. Speed, technique, tactics. Fun.

This is random, but I’ve always liked this photo of Dawn’s younger brother and partner, Stine and Sherm. Well, getting late now. Oh right, I’ve got a test tomorrow morning. Goodnight!