It was a tiring but eventful day. Today, it rained non-stop until 5 pm, but on the bright side, the weather was way cooler than yesterday! It was whole day of sight-seeing at several museums that contained a rich history of China. But I’m not gonna bore anyone with the details, since I myself am almost brain-dead with all the information overload.

But, I’m going to show you this interesting picture. It is sort of a pictogram that the Chinese used in the early days. There are four pictures, containing four different chinese characters. Can anyone guess all four correctly?

Click the image for a larger view of the pictogram.

Oh, and in the evening, we watched the Water Film (somewhat similar to the musical fountain in Sentosa, Singapore) in Tang Paradise, also known as 唐城芙蓉园. It was nice, with occasional fireworks to excite the audience.

Silhouette of the audience engrossed in the fountain display

Finally, just in case you’re wondering how the girls have been coping here.. well, they’re all fine and happy!

Greetings from Xi’an!  

This is way cool, relaxing in the hotel room, eating chips and blogging from my laptop! The hotel room is much better than I anticipated, and internet connection from the LAN cable is free. Realised that there’s a fridge here, so maybe I’ll go buy some milk to store tomorrow.

Well, anyway I had a tiring day travelling in the plane for half a day. Because of the new law against carrying any form of liquid on-board, I almost dehydrated. At about 5pm (no time difference here), all of us finally touched down at Xi’an, and we took coach that brought us to the City Wall of Xi’an, the only attraction that we would see today.

A view of the Xi’an airport from the bus

Our tour guide was a nice lady by the name of 小燕. During our 1 hour bus journey to the City Wall, she brought us through, quickly but quite thoroughly, the history of Xi’an. I had an enjoyable time listening to her interesting speech, and I’m sure the rest did as well.

We’ve finally reached the City Wall of Xi’an! This wall was built initially during the old Tang dynasty, but was enlarged during the rule of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming dynasty. The wall stands 12 metres tall, 12-14 metres wide at the top and 15-18 metres thick at the bottom. It has a perimeter of 13.7 km, making me tempted to run a complete round of the wall. Haha! The picture above shows the entrance of the south gates. The performers were on standby, ready to bring our student group in.

The students, all donned in the yellow tees, were waiting excitedly to walk into the Wall.  

This is our group walking past the south gate.

And this was how the performers were positioned as we the guests were escorted in.

After everyone gathered in front of the stage, the performers wasted no time in putting up an impressive display for us. Below are some pictures taken during the performance.  

Taken from the second storey of the walls.

Another shot, showing the elegance of the lady dancer.

And end of the performance! All the performers came together to receive applause from the audience.

Anyway, below are some shots of the City Wall itself.

Our tour bus!

And a last picture, taken from inside the bus as we were heading towards our hotel.

I guess that’s about it for tonight. Gonna sleep soon and get ready for tomorrow’s sight-seeing!

Did the last run yesterday (Mon) before leaving for China, Xi’an. Under the grueling weather, I managed to run from home to macritchie reservoir, and then did a 11 km of trail running before calling it a day. Phew, it was 18.5 km in total, and I took 2 hr 7 min! Guess that’s not too bad, considering I wasn’t in my best form (not enough sleep). Haha.

Had a great buffet dinner at Vienna Restaurant with my friend before heading home to do a last minute packing. 4 more hours of sleep left.. ahh..

Well, won’t be back until 4th of June (next Monday). Till then, cya!!  

It’s been a really productive week. Since last Saturday, the only days that I didn’t exercise were Thurs and Fri. Today, I participated in this Legs and Paddles event that I signed up with one of my Sec 2 students, who calls herself Kingwen, a month ago. Her parents and her reached the registration counter (at One Fullerton) earlier than me, so they helped me to get my goodie bag (which consists of an over-due SHAPE magazine, some expensive saloon’s vouchers, a waterbottle that I quite like, and a dri-fit event tee). Saw some familiar faces from Sgrunners.

Taken before race by Kingwen’s dad 

The category that we signed up for was the Mixed Team. In this category, the female participant has to run 5 km before arriving at the transition area and don on the life vest. Then, both the male and female participants will get into a doubles kayak and paddle 3 km before the male participant finishes off the race with a 5 km run.

So, King started off her run. Told her not to keep up the pace with other runners, just run at her own comfortable pace. She eventually reached the transition area around 40 minutes later. Her parents were there to encourage her.

We then "queued up" for our kayaks (yes, I personally feel that the organisers were not very efficient, as there’s a bottle-neck at the kayak area) at the transition area. This was the hardest part of the race to me, and probably to her as well, since we didn’t have any prior training on kayaking. We frequently engaged in some "sword play" due to the inability to coordinate the paddling well. I believe we ended up being the last pair to get off the kayak for my final leg.

Looks calm? Was struggling to kayak in a straight direction!!

Once we finished our kayaking, I got to the transition area and changed into my shoes and grabbed a water bottle before running off to complete the final leg. Amazingly, the exhaustion from kayaking didn’t affect my run. The only demoralising factor was that I couldn’t see any participants in front of me. Which means I was very far behind from the pack. I just kept running and hydrating myself.. and after quite some time, I finally caught a glimpse of 2 runners in front of me! I steadily increased my pace, but at the same time making sure that I don’t exhaust all my fuel too early. At some water-point at the end of some bridge, I managed to overtake the 2 runners. Haha, cheap thrill. After about 27 minutes, I finally finished my run. Phew! 

Overall, I would say that this event was a good experience, although it could have been a little better organised (e.g. no suitable size for the event tee, queuing up to get into the kayak, water points not strategically placed). Will look forward to join the individual category next year!!

Yesterday was the festival opening for Singapore Arts Festival 2007. The group La Fura Dels Baus from Spain did the opening act by performing its Dreams in Flight. I didn’t catch yesterday’s performance, but managed to watched the same show at Padang this evening.

At 7.45pm (15 minutes before the start of the display), the spectator area was already filled with crowds. I found myself a seat on the ground.

The show started off with this shadow play. There were 2 performers (1 male, 1 female)  in the cube, and they made use of the strong light from behind to produce different perspectives onto the screen for interesting effects. The shadow play was accompanied by music.

After the "appetizer", next up was the "wheel" display. This majestic wheel of red and golden light was suspended in air, and rotated and hovered above all spectators while the people in it performed electrifying stunts. Below are more pictures.

As the wheel spinned, the performers had to climb up and down to maintain their balance (much like a hamster exercising in its wheel). 

From afar. 

At the final moment of this display, the wheel hovered just metres away from me. I managed to capture a clearer shot of the performers. 

Finally descended! The group of entertainers leaped off the wheel and continued to woo the crowd by doing cartwheels and somersaults.

The next segment was the aerial display by more than 30 local volunteers trained by the Spanish group. Magically suspended in space is an amazing aerial net of human bodies moving in synchronicity.

Like the previous display, this group of performers hovered above the engrossed crowd while executing complex movements. At some point of time, they even threw down confetti and red ribbons, much to the delight of the little kids amongst the crowd.

All good shows had to come to an end. To finish off this spectacular display, the night sky was lighted up with brilliant showers of fireworks in a celebration of joyous optimism.

It was a refreshing put-up by La Fura Dels Baus. There is one more show at 8pm tomorrow. Do go down and catch it if you’re free!

Had a walk-about in Little India with the whole Sec 2 cohort today. Weather was sunny and I guess everyone was drained by 11am. Got into the right Indian restaurant after some confusion, and had a fabulous lunch.

Brought along my camera, but disappointingly, only managed to capture a shot of the Tekka market (as we had to move fast from point to point).

Maybe I’ll go back there alone someday to get some nice pictures. Little India is colourful.

It was an event that I was looking forward to, partly because it was to be my first-ever multi-discipline event. I woke up at 530am yesterday, packed my stuff and met up with Roonz and Jodan in AMK before biking to the event venue. So even before the race had started, I had biked 13km! Got to the venue, racked up my bike in the transition area, and waited for my wave to start.

1st Leg (10km Run)

The flag went off at 8am. I started off easy, listening to my iPod and running at a slow but steady pace as faster runners overtook me. It was barely 1 km into the run when I had my first pleasant surprise. I saw my St Nics students participating as volunteers!! The first group of them included Melissa,  Cassandra, Shirley, etc. I guess they were surprised to see me as well, because there was this shocked look on their faces, but they started handing out cups of water to me eagerly and cheered me on for at least 20 m after I ran past them. Thanks a lot! The feeling of seeing familiar faces in races like that helps a lot!

Few seconds later, I saw Yinmin and Alicia under the bridge near Esplanade. Haha, at this point of time, I wondered how many more students would I get to see during the run.

The weather got increasingly hot, and I was beginning to feel its effect. My pace slowed down a little but I was still feeling fine. At the 2nd drinking point, I saw Jodie’s group! Not a surprise to me though, ‘cos she’d told me that some of them would be volunteering for this event. 

Ee Hui helped to take pictures of me as I was running. Maybe Ee Hui felt I looked horrible, so she decided to take the next picture without including my face. Just kidding.. thanks for helping taking the pics 4 me!  

Soon, I finished the 2 rounds of 5km route in slightly under 1hr (oh yah, another group of St Nics volunteers were cheering for me at the transition area.. thanks!), and proceeded to the transition area to get my bike for the next leg.

2nd Leg (40km bike)

By this time, I was truly exhausted. Instead of running into the transition area to minimise time wastage, I took my own sweet time to walk to my bike, and drank some H2O before starting the bike leg. My initial aim was to do a 3hr for this duathlon, but as soon as I started pedalling, I knew that such timing was out of my reach. The run had tired my legs out totally, and for the first few kilometres on bike, I wasn’t able to go beyond 26km/h. (In order for me to do a 1.5 hr on bike, I had to travel at 30km/h.) Thankfully, I soon regained some energy to increase my speed on the bike.

Shot by some photographer at the event. Heh.

I guess the bike leg was the most enjoyable one because of the relatively flat terrain. All participants had to do 4 laps of the 10 km bike course. Weather was scorching hot then, but the constant oncoming wind helped cool me down a lot. At a turn, I saw Vivian waving a red flag to alert cyclists to make a left turn. She couldn’t seem to recognise me in my helmet, so I just waved at her. Haha, poor her, must have felt real bored standing there alone for hours.

The only complaint I had for the bike leg was that the turning point at the end of each lap was so sharp that it was very prone to accidents. In fact, I heard that a number of cyclists fell down at the turn.

3rd Leg (5km run)

I took about 1 hr and 36 min to complete my 2nd leg. The moment I stepped down from my bike, I immediately knew that I was going to have problem doing the last 5km run. My legs felt like jelly! As I resumed my run, I saw Carolyn, who had just completed the Junior Category. I had my first calf cramps within 100m, and I decided to go slow and easy, even resorting to walking at certain points. During this last lap, I thanked my students for spurring me on whenever I passed by them. (Hmm.. was it Shirley or Melissa who poured a cup of water onto me?!.. haha) I must have spent more than 30 minutes doing the last leg, and got to the finishing point at a timing of 3 hr 15 min. I was so dazed then, I couldn’t remember who donned the medal for me (and who took a picture for me). But really, thanks for all the moral support that you gals have given me! Appreciate it to the max!

SGrunners Group photo 

I took a rest while waiting for Roonz to complete her run. Turned out that there were other SGrunners around as well, so took group photo before Petia, Roonz and I went for lunch at Lau Pat Sat. Shared a cab home in the end, with the bikes put in the boot. Simply no strength to ride home.. haha!

Although my timing was way off my target of 3hr, I wasn’t at all disappointed. In fact, I wouldn’t have enjoyed this race so much if not for the cheerings and encouragement by my students. All these gestures sort of gave me an invisible energy to do the race better.

Gotta prepare harder for my next multi-discipline event in July 28th now.. OSIM Triathlon Sprint Distance!!  

Edit: Results are in!!

Rank RaceNr    Name          Run1      Bike       Run2     Finish

91     407  LIN WENWEI  00:59:51 01:37:44 00:37:33 03:15:08

Really poor run2. haha! 

When I was small, I was often intrigued by the wonders of nature. When I saw rainbows, I imagined a care-bear (Cheer-Bear) standing at one end flashing the rainbow from its belly. When I heard thunders, I looked up into the sky to see if there was a monster creeping out of the clouds. I also remembered asking my mum why the moon was following us when we walked home at night. Little did I know that most of these questions that I had have a lot to do with science.

We’ve always taken for granted the way nature works around us, without making an effort to find out how and why certain things happen in certain ways. Well, we could argue that there’s no point knowing, because we can’t change the phenomenons with such knowledge  (most of the time) anyway. But nevertheless, it’s always interesting to understand the explanations or theories behind them.

One of the more commonly asked questions include "What causes low and high tides?", but not all people can give a satisfactory answer without doing any research first. So, what do you think causes tidal effects on the oceans?

If your answer is the moon, then you’re right. First, we have to understand that all planets have gravity. The larger a planet, the more gravity it possesses. This explains why the smaller-sized moon’s gravity is only one-sixth that of Earth’s.

Although the moon’s gravity is significantly less than Earth’s, it does have some effect on the ocean on Earth’s surface. At the point where the ocean’s surface is closest to the moon (point A on diagram), the moon’s gravitational attractive force is able to pull the ocean towards itself. This gives rise to a high tide at the part of the Earth closest to the moon.

However, we all know that there are two high/low tides per day. This means that at any point of time, there are two high tides and two low tides happening at two different parts of Earth. Since there’s only one moon, where does this other high tide come from? Actually, the other high tide that is happening at the same time would be at the opposite side of Earth (point B), where the moon’s attractive force is weakest.

An illustration on how the ocean reacts to the moon as the moon orbits around Earth. Click on the illustration to view a larger image. 

As Earth rotates from west to east, the two bulges (high tides) tend to stay on the Earth-moon line. Further researching revealed that there are different types of tides (which have specific names and characteristics respectively). These tides happen according to how the sun and moon are aligned.

Images are taken from http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/. Do read further if you’re interested!

Drawing Paper - $0.50

Cake - $30

Surprise Birthday Celebration from 2 Grace  - Priceless

*I know that this entry is a bit late, but I couldn’t find time to take a picture of the card. 

First of all, I really want to express my thanks to 2 Grace! Really didn’t expect you gals to come up with such a plot. Last Thursday, 3 monitors baited me out of the classroom, and the fourth one locked the door from inside. 3 monitors started to tell me how uncooperative the class is, how dirty the classroom is, while who knows what was happening inside the classroom.

After acknowledging the monitors’ "concerns" and agreeing to do something about it, we got back into the classroom. Had to bang the door a few times before it was unlocked. Stepped in, room was all dark with lights turned off. Class was completely quiet (!). Then, I saw a cake with candles on the teachers’ table, and the whole class started singing Birthday Song for me!! Ahhh.. touched.

I truly appreciated and enjoyed the moment. Thanks for the thoughts, and the big nice card as well! 

Also, thanks to those who walked past the classrooms or staff room to wish me happy birthday, and those who gave me card and choco as well. Words can’t describe how thankful I felt.

It’s exactly a week away from the much anticipated City Duathlon which is taking place in Marina Bay. In this event, one has to run 10 km, cycle 40 km, and then end the race with another 5 km run (not to be mixed up with biathlon, which consists of a 1.5 km swim and 10 km run).

Today in the afternoon, I’ve finally put aside some time to do my duathlon training. I started my 10 km run first, taking the usual AMK/Bishan route. Weather was good today with slight drizzle, and I averaged a pace of 5:52 min/km and took 59 minutes to complete.

Next up was the cycling section. I wanted to do a 40 km, but didn’t really had in mind what route to take. Ended up passing by places like Upper Pierce, Chong Pang, Sembawang, then back to Yishun, Lentor and up to Bishan and Toa Payoh before finishing at my block. Woah, exactly 40 km!

Riding alone was boring, and I had to try lotsa stunts to keep myself entertained. Whenever I passed by pedestrians that were looking my way, I did a silly grin (like how Shinny and company always did to me during Thurs assemblies). When I saw little kids waiting to cross the road at the traffic light junctions, I stuck out my tongue a la Elysia’s Style, and they usually turned away to their parents whom backs were facing me. Haha.. felt good and care-free that I could do stuff that I can’t usually do when I had to maintain a teacher’s image. Oh well..

Anyway, I’ve achieved an average speed of 27.1 km/hr and completed my ride in 1 hr 28 min. That made the total time taken for my training today to be a little less than 2 hr 30 min (I didn’t run the final 5 km). Well, if things turn well, I might be able to achieve a sub-3hr timing during the actual next week. (That is if I can find some kind soul to help transport my bike to the starting point, so energy would not be wasted on travelliing.) Nevertheless, I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for a sub-3hr!