NTU Bike Rally Photos

As promised here are some shots all courtesy of kwek junhong, the gay duck.

Me in a weird position ( why does he take all the guai lan stuff )

The cyclists before the ordeal and before everyone nearly died

Gab, me and the raisin bread :D, took 14 of those throughout the course of the entire day

Kwek and Me

Refueling

Superstar( dunno what )

Rainbow =)

Amos, Kwek, Weihan and Me ( hair still looks ok here )

At the NTU checkpoint

That is malaysia you see

The 1st group who made it to the 3rd checkpoint ( notice i am not inside )

Checkpoint 4

Weihan, dunno did how many pushups in a compeition to win a timex watch worth 100++ bucks

NTU Bike Rally 2008, 128km!

Going to be a lengthy post, be warned. Pictures will come later if i get them haha. Had bike rally yesterday, sunday 1st of june 2008. I'll go by chronological order.

Woke up at 4am, managed to get my dad to wake up too and send me to east coast park by 5am. Ok i was 10-15 minutes late :P. Sorry ahha. At 5+am we were the only few people there. 1st group to register, gh got the number 001. I got 007 aka cristiano ronaldo aka james bond, not bad haha. Got our bikes, before moving to east coast macs to buy breakfast. It is a sort of warm up i guess, but in no way did it prepare us for what laid ahead. Reported back to the starting point near the food centre for the start of the rally.

1st leg was from east coast to labrador park. cycled through the city area, past the singapore flyer, esplanade, fullerton, one raffles quay, vivocity before hitting the park. The 1st stage was quite a breeze, considering that the terrain was flat, the sun wasnt out and we had our energy still.

2nd leg was from labrador to NTU, this route mainly followed west coast road all the way up, got to seen some part of singapore which i never been to before, mostly the area after west coast park and the pandan reservior area. The slopes there were agonizing. Took most of the juice out of my legs, and it is there that i fell behind the pack lol. Notable landmarks include west coast park, pandan reservior, city harvest church and NTU.

3rd leg was the worst in my opinion. Stretching from NTU to kranji reservior. There is a whole long stretch of flat road that looked like it never end. Its actually a emergency runway used by the RSAF that feeds into tengah airbase. The sun was blazing down and you can see mirages on the road, those shimmering images. The slopes there was mad too, had to get off my bike to push for one of them, no way my legs could have taken it. Passed through lots of farms and cemetries and jungle on both sides.

4th leg, from kranji to yishun was the best of the worst. NTU put up signs on the lamppost labeling each peak in front of us, i think there were a total of 4. Pushed my bike up one of them as well. The rest mainly used the momentum from going downhill before the crests to get me up the next hill. Forced myself not to touch the brakes haha. Reached yishun stadium, and civilisation in the early afternoon, at least for most parts the sky was overcast. Cycled past mandai zoo, tons of forest and factories and thats about it.

5th lg started at yishun stadium and ended at serangoon secondary school. The path was mainly scenic country side, ( as compared to wild country side at the kranji area ). The area around seletar counrty club was nice, if only we werent so tired. Took a break just before cutting back into the fernvale estates and just dropped dead at the bus stop with hh, gab and jh whom which i was cyclign with. The later part of this leg consist of cycling through the sengkang area. Thank god for traffic lights. everytime the lights turned red = water break time, and we hit 4 to 5 consecutive red lights lol. My thighs really start to cramp during this point. Really on the brink already. Luckily hit serangoon sec in one piece. Places of interest: Seletar country club, seletar airport, MRT/LRT underground at sengkang.

6th and 2nd last leg, ended at changi beach. Took old tampines road up till pasir ris, then from then onwards it is all home stretch for me, having cycled the route before. Rested twice, just after IKEA and just before downtown east. Also the changi beach checkpoint is situated much further down than the usual expected place. Passed by paya lebar airbase, giant, IKEA, downtown east, changi village and changi beach.

Last leg! ( 7th ) cycled from changi beach all the way down to the east coast food centre that area. Took the newly completed park connector, ahh relief. Followed the length of the airport runway before cutting into east coast. Saw 4 planes taking off along the way, 747s and 777, 2 silkairs, 1 JAL, 1 SIA. Cycled like a mad chiongster because there was no gradient, and my leg found its strength. Finally arrived at the end point around 6.15. Landmarks: Changi airport, east coast park.

Finally, clocked 128km. My butt hurts like mad after completing the rally. Actually it started hurting after the NTU leg haha, and it still hurts now. My arms hurt from grabbing the handlebars, and i look slightly oven toasted, although yang said i looked no different lol. Glad its done. Super tiring but looking back, it wasnt a bad experience. The lucky draw prizes isnt bad too, with crumplers and bikes. Too bad i did not win any. I ate 14 gardenia rasin buns throughout the whole trip and drank 5 litres of water. Consumed 2 buns at every checkpoint, think i'll die without them. Btw, in case you all didnt notice, we cycled past all of singapore's airbases ( tengah, sembawang, paya lebar, changi ) and airports ( seletar, changi ) along the way. Hope to be back next year, with proper training. Three cheers for the guys of 0713 ( gh, jh, amos, wh, gab, hh ) who gave their very best and 'ren' until the end. Oh and i hope to take part in the sundown marathon next year, it was held the day before, i was not old enough this year to take part ( like there is any difference between 17 and 18 ).

Ok nights, got econs tomorrow at 830 for 3 HOURS wth. Save the pictures and the blasting of singapore for their 7-3 lost some other time, too tired.

What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen. - Henry David Thoreau

Its tricky

Woke up at 8 o'clock on a SATURDAY ( i can sleep to 2pm if i had nothing on and i slept the the previous night, just go ask my mom ) to go to NTU at boon lay, BOON LAY for the 112 km thing i am going for next weekend, with a few of my male classmates, namely gab, jc, hh, jh, gh and wh. Took 52 form bishan to jurong east interchange, 1 hour. trip from jurong to boonlay, 20 minutes, bus from boonlay to NTU 15 minutes, got lost and walked to our destination, 20 mins. Guess what, wasted all this time to attend a 15 MINUTES briefing. Crazy man. Thats not even counting the return trip. They did not even distribute the event singlet like they said they were going to because of some problems with the printer of the singlets. Screwed up. Ok, its going to be a round island cycling trip, taking bout 10 to 12 hours, starting at 6am in the morning ( not sure ). Checkpoints are at East Coast, West Coast, NTU, Kranji, Yishun, Serangoon, Changi, and back to East Coast. Did i miss out any? You readers can infer the route lol. Going to be hell lots of fun. After that the people who went, me, wh, gab and hh went to jurong point, ate lots of macs due to me bringing coupons that gave them free items if they bought the extra value meal. gab and wh took macflurry, me and hh took nuggets. Full brunch ( i skipped breakfast as usual ), then chionged arcade. Blew 7 bucks each, between me and hh on a new dinosaur shooter game. Damn fun, and gab was controling our movements in the game lol. So all 3 of us kind of played at the same time. Rushed home after that.

Uncle came to pick me up at around 4 for a trip to the new bridges at south east of singapore. Parked at telok blangah, walked all the way to hortpark with my cousin and their parents. Quite tiring but fun haha. The view from henderson bridge is magnificent. Hope can find the time to go back there again and walk the entire distance to west coast park. Along the way, some idiot decided to put a mentos into my water bottle. It dissolved and now my nike water bottle insides are coated with a layer of sticky mentos essence after i empted the water. nice job.

I swear i'll get my physics SPA done by tomorrow, no more time to lose.

The moon have been looking great these few days haha, If you have the chance, do glance upwards once in awhile and admire its beauty.

GP on friday, hiaz. When people have expectations, u have to try your best to live up to them lol. Yet, on hindsight, i felt i chose the wrong question, because its darn tricky. "Never think that war, no matter how necessary nor justified, is not a crime'. Do you agree? I mean, if it is justified, then it cannot be considered a crime right? Dunno lah, may luck befall me. AQ was crappy as usual, hate the short time they give us to write an argument, and why the hell do all AQs have to be relevant to your society, ie. Singapore. Speaking of which, yay, we got pedra branca haha.

I think i am in need of a break, but then i havent really been studying. Nope not very much at all. Its paradoxical, i am hoping for a break this holidays yet i am wishing that i dont get any, for taking a rest means less time to catch up on work way behind. confused. GSS is on, hope to get my music/video player and some wadrobe refreshments during this period, if i can spare the time. Oh and i need a pencil case before the mid years damnit.

Long post haha, take your time sorry to make you read all these, if you actually bothered lol

I am not going to make the same mistake twice.

In this uncertain space between birth and death … we need hope as surely as we need food and water, love and friendship. The trick, however, is to remember that hope is a perilous thing, that it's not a steel and concrete bridge across the void between this moment and a brighter future. Hope is no stronger than tremulous beads of dew strung on a filament of spider web, and it alone can't long support the terrible weight of an anguished mind and a tortured heart - T.G.S.R. ( no idea who the hell or what the hell is T.G.S.R. )