Because It's Hard

I’ve never been a very sporty person, but since last year I started going to the gym and I run regularly now. Not hard-core running, but at least I don’t wheeze on the treadmill anymore. When Yuming told me this morning that he signed up for the Standard Chartered Bank Marathon and encouraged me to do the same, albeit for the more palatable half Marathon, I was tempted.

Why run a marathon? I took the day today to consider my motivations carefully. The reason I finally arrived at was: I want to do it because it’s hard.

In the early 1960s President Kennedy set a national goal of landing a man on the Moon. He said that we choose to do this not because it is easy but because it is hard. One of Edmond Hillary's comments about finally scaling Everest was: "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. We all need challenges and the sense of euphoria that comes from achieving a difficult personal goal.

Well, I for one don’t expect myself to ever stand on the Moon or the summit of Everest. But a marathon – now that’s something I can do. It’s not going to be easy but it’s ACHIEVABLE. I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, complete the distance, no need to come in first or anything. I just need to prove to myself that I CAN DO IT.

The secondary reason of course is that training for the half-marathon will give me the focus I need, and hopefully distract me from unhappy thoughts. Send me a minor victory to cheer me up please!

So 4^th December will see me taking on 21.1km. I hear the views on the route are going to be great. There’re early bird offers and discounts for SCB card/ Passion card holders so go check out http://www.marathonsingapore.com/ if you are keen!

Ice-cream Making at Tom's Palette

It was tough waking up early the morning after Beerfest, but boy am I glad I made it for the ice cream making class at Tom's Palette.

Located at Shaw Leisure Gallery, Tom’s Palette is a non descript shop space hiding a delightful Willy Wonka’s factory within. I knew they had been around for a while (since 2005) and won many accolades, but it was my first time there.

There were 8 of us in the ice cream making class. The class started with the instructor giving us a demonstration on making green tea ice cream, followed by our own hands-on effort to make chocolate ice cream. I was quite surprised by how easy it was – mix up the egg yolk, milk, cream and sugar to create the custard, infuse the custard with the flavoring you want, chuck it in the freezer for a bit, churn it by hand and return it to freezer for a bit more and voila – your very own traditional homemade ice cream!

While waiting for our custards to freeze, we were treated to an ice cream buffet. It was surreal – so many flavours to try, so limited stomach space! There were some incredible flavors at Tom’s – I especially loved the chocolate stout, salted egg yolk and onion, popping candy (melt ‘n’ sizzle) and salty yuzu flavors. I was stuffed but I couldn’t resist asking for one last scoop of Granny’s Favourite, packed with cookie dough goodness. Perfect hangover food haha.

TADA! The picture on the left shows our finished product. Very yummy chocolate ice cream. We were immensely proud of ourselves :)

The private class lasted from 11am till 1.30pm, when they opened the doors to the public. Wow, I never knew that there are so many people craving ice cream so early in the afternoon. Brisk business indeed.

I highly recommend the ice cream making class at Tom’s Palette!

Pink Dot 2011

Looking for something meaningful/interesting to do this Saturday June 18th? Go down to Hong Lim Park to form a human pink dot!


Yes, it’s PINK as in gay, lesbian, transsexual/ transgender/ bisexual/ intersexual/ queer. This will be its 3rd year running and like previous years, Pink Dot aims to nurture an all-inclusive, non-discriminatory society which appreciates diversity and understands the basic human need to love and be loved. Everyone deserves the freedom to love!

Kudos to Google for supporting the event and making the concert possible. The event this year promises to be BIG, with a whole slew of celebrities performing, including the Dim Sum Dollies and the Broadway Beng.

Tips
1. Go at 4pm or earlier to chope a nice picnic spot right in front of the stage. Concert starts at 5pm sharp and the whole event is expected to end by 6:45pm.

2. There’ll also be a lot of other activities going on around the park so feel free to bring the whole family along. Going by last year's experience, I think it will all be very subtle and tasteful.

Go Watch NDP With Me

I feel a bit ashamed to say that I’ve never attended a single NDP my entire 33 years. Sis was just asking how she could get tickets for her kids so I decided to check it work today. Guess what, my timing is perfect, applications for the ballot start TODAY!

Singapore citizens and PRs can apply, and there’s a choice for either the preview (30th July) and actual day tickets (8th August). Ballot closes on 29th May so hurry. Ticketing application can be done via 4 channels:

1. Online at www.ndp.org.sg or any AXS and SAM stations.
2. NDP 2011 Mobile Application, free download
3. Ticketing hotline 1900-112-4551 to ballot for preview tickets, or 1900-112-4559 to ballot for actual day tickets.
4. SMS: Key in “NDP” and send it to 9395-2855 to start the application process. An SMS reply will be sent to the applicant shortly. Follow the instructions as prompted.

Good Luck!

Royal Wedding

With the Singapore election fever raging, it's no surprise anyone is hardly talking about the Royal Wedding. Personally, other than an interest in how the wedding dress looks like, I'm not too psyched about the union of Prince William and Kate Middleton either.

But I suppose there are some amongst us who are keen to watch the proceedings. BBC is showing its coverage through Starhub to viewers here in Singapore. If you want more buzz by watching it public, you can check out the following places:

1. The British Club : These guys are celebrating the event in a big way - ten days of happenings up to the event. Tomorrow they do a live screening, followed by dinner. You can choose to splurge on a 4 course dinner in the ballroom (wedding style, no less, $198+ for members, $218+ for non-members, with wine, beer and a special souvenir) OR for poorer peasants, a buffet dinner at the cafe ($68 for members, $78 for non-members). K is going for option 1 on company account, lucky him.


2. Cricket Club: From 5pm to 9pm, feast on drinks and food while watching the live broadcast. $70 for members, $100 for non-members.

To be honest, I'm sure there will be other places screening the event live without charging a fixed fee. I'm really not too fussed about where to go. It's likely I'll just watch the re-run on Saturday. So much easier when there's the option to fast forward!

Wine Club

I want to start a wine club. Anyone keen?

This is how it will work:

1. Finding the right people – For a start, I plan to keep the group intimate. A group of 10 members will be ideal since the average bottle of wine pours that number of “tasting” servings. Given that I myself am a novice, I expect most of the members to share a similar level of wine know-how. Experts are welcome of course, but you must be prepared to be patient with us.

2. How a club meeting should work – We aim to meet once a month. Each of the members takes turns hosting the monthly meetings, planning the meal and choosing the wines, and then shares with the group information about the origins, food pairings, and flavors of the wine chosen for the month’s gathering. Tasting note sheets will be given out so that people stay focused. It can be difficult to remember what we drink after too many glasses. Meetings can be done either at someone’s house, or we can use the opportunity to check out new restaurants.

3. Costs – We won’t be targeting the Chateau Margauxs but we should explore beyond the supermarket brands. We aim to keep the per-bottle cost from $40 to $80 a bottle. The host will purchase the bottles first, then total costs will be split together with the cost of the food.

Please let me know if you are keen to join the wine club and learn more about wines. Some commitment is required, because members will need to research and plan for meetings. No sleeping members please. Suggestions on what to name the club?

On a separate basis I will also be organizing more casual wine dinners for people to BYOB and gather. Watch this space!