Biking 29Mar'09 - Mathews Beach/Magnuson Park

Yes, this is slightly dated, I know. Apologies, maybe you don't believe it, but I have been real busy. Ok ok, I confess, I did play some games lar... But wait ! I am also busy with other stuffs, like reading up on newbies' guide to biking. There's really alot to learn, like what gears to use when going uphill/downhill (boy, we have 21 of them!), basic gear and apparels to get, etc. Boy I never know all these back home when we don't have to worry about getting cold after perspiring, with flat terrains and no gears at all, just grab a bike and go !

Its cold riding out here in Spring which can be as harsh as < 10 deg Celcius!. We got ourselves basic layer of clothing, which can wick moisture away to keep our body dry and warm. Failing to do this may cause hypothermia (No kidding!) with clothes that absorb all the sweat and gets wet. We also got a pair of gloves to protect our hands from cold and fall (touch wood!), and buffs for our heads as well. So we are ready to roll !

Being first-timers, we are not familiar with the roads and safety rules, so we decided to try out the Burke-Gilman trail near our place, which is mostly flat roads (Phew!) We could also experiment with the gears, to see which suit us most. Abit technical here: front wheel has 3 gears, back wheel has 7, so permutate to 21 different combinations. Going uphill requires lowest gear at the front so there's lot of peddling without exerting too much strength on the pedals. Depending on how steep the terrain is, I usually vary the gear (from 1-7) at the back wheel. We do dismount from the bike when its too challenging for us.

Ok, off we go, the weather was very good, sunshine throughout. Good, we won't feel cold. We went all the way to Mathews Beach Park where many kayakees gathered, after which we turned back and dropped by Magnuson Park's off-leash dog park. (Could you count how many dogs are there in the picture?)





Saw some cherry blossom trees on our way back:

Getting Bikes (Part 2)

Time flies, the week has passed, its time to collect our bikes ! Happily we hopped onto our rented CRV to pick them up.

The weather was not good at all. Based on the forecast, it would be a whole-day-drizzle weather. But that did not dampen our spirits one bit. There was no time for worry as we we had errands to run. After returning our cableTV box (yes, we ended our subscription), and buying 1 more flower pot (again!), we arrived at the bike store slightly before noon.

As usual Kent was in the store, this time, his colleague was not around, but there was another elderly man with him. CH's bike was ready, and again, we went for a test drive. Happy, we headed back to the store. We asked for racks to be fitted as well (My bike already had a rack, but I changed from black to aluminium), that will take an hour for both bikes to be ready. So we told them to take their time while we went for lunch.

Went to nearby eatery Geraldine's for lunch. What a great meal we had ! A short wait, and we got these:



The bike store with our CRV parked in front:


We headed back to the store, and had a chance to chat with the elderly man who turns out to be the president of this organization! We initially thought he was some volunteer coming to work at the store. He said the concept behind setting up this store is to take in all the bikes that people no longer want.

"When kids got a car, they think its no longer cool to have a bike." says the President.

So where do those bikes go ? They collect them, tune them up, and give it to other kids who needs a bike, on the condition the kids spend 10hours at their workshop to learn how to maintain their bikes. We think this is a cool concept, save wastage on Mother Earth, and money saving for the kids. I guess the store is serving good community service hur ?

Getting Bikes (Part 1)

With the arrival of Spring, we reckoned its time to get bikes for ourselves. So off we went to check out a nearby bike store (Recycled Cycles) which had a small collection of used bikes. We were standing in the store for over 20 minutes and no one came to our assistance, let alone say hi. We were quite pissed, started to make our way out, when the store assistant approached us (finally!). Too bad there weren't any bikes for us in the price range we wanted. He told us to check back every now and then for new stocks.

We also visited 2 other stores. Boy, the services we got from both were way better than the first. No luck with the second store (2020), so we proceed to the next - Bikeworks.

Upon entering, we were cheerfully greeted by the store assistant Kent. After listening to our requirements and taking note of our "dimensions" (I mean height and build), he briskly hauled 1 bike from the ceiling for me. Its a girl's bike with a couple of accessories like suspended seat, reflectors, and mirror already attached to it.

Kent adjusted the seat, got me a helmet, and out we go for "test drive". Whoa ! What an experience ! We had some fun changing the gears (21 of them), trying out on some gravel and paved roads. The new bike was perfect ! We returned the store, and got a rack and other accessories to go with it.

Now it was CH's turn to choose his bike. Unfortunately there were no suitable ones around. So we were asked to check out their warehouse a couple of blocks away.

"Look for 16" or 17" size", says the assistant opening the door to the warehouse.

There were several bikes hoisted mid-air with pedals removed and hanging by the side. Many looked old with plenty of dust on it. We were able to pick out 2 bikes - 1 with fender (cover above the wheel) and 1 without but with a cushiony seat.

We decided to get the latter, and headed back to the store. The store assistant would need a week's time to fix and tune up this bike. So we decided to come back to collect both bikes even though mine was ready-to-go.

We went home, happy and excited to begin our bike adventures.

Our first ...

Shio Bak or roast pork ! Don't cringe at the charred parts, got to get to this stage so other parts of the skin is crackling and fully cooked. Just scrape away the black parts before eating.

Wanted to make some char siew for our wanton noodles but bought pork belly instead. So decided to use sio bak instead. Boy, was it sinful and tasty, especially the crunchy skin. The last I had was in a Chinese dimsum restaurant in NZ, where we had the leftovers as an appetizer with roast duck porridge? Equally yummy !

CH who is usually the more health-conscious one finished his portion without a trace - skin, fats and all.

"Thought you would spit out the fats" I said.

"Fats? Was there?"

Its Spring !

Spring came at 4:44am this morning.. Yes the much awaited season is finally here, which means we survived Winter !!! Yippee Hurray !

Its time to do what the locals do - start gardening. Well we can't do a large-scale one without a garden. So we got some flowers over the weekend to brighten things up a bit.

Its name is "Kalanchoe", easily recognized for its inflorescence with beautiful flowers collected in small bouquets colored in red, orange, yellow and violet and its fleshy and succulent leaves. Easy to grow, needing minimum care (which is good for busy people like us!) It needs plenty of sunshine and watering ONCE a week during the flowering period, and it will continue to flower for 6-8 months per year. Being sensitive to cold, its more suited for in-house. Wonder if anyone actually seen this in SG ?

Saw some daffodils growing along the road. Just couldn't resist taking some pictures of them.

Hooked ... on Facebook

I have been visiting Facebook (www.facebook.com) alot recently. I used to access maybe once a month back then. Not anymore, after I added my cousins to my contacts and got invited by one of them to play some games. Hooked, though I hate to admit.

1.Pet Society
So what got me hooked ? I got invited to this game Pet Society, where you create a pet that you like, with various combinations of fur color, eyes, eyebrows, nose, forehead, and mouth. Its hard to find your pet similar to someone else's. Then you are given a house with just a sofa and tv. Your neighborhood consists of a food store, furniture, stadium, clothes, and houses of other pets raised by your friends (in my contacts).

So everyday (yes, every real day) I (I mean, my pet) visit the stadium for 10 hurdle races (this is my favorite). For each race won, some coins and points will be rewarded. Coins are used to get stuffs like clothes, food and furniture (for the pet's house). And points are accumulated to get to the next level.

Then I visited every pet to either dance, kiss, fight, tell a joke, watch tv, or hug them. They may be hungry, unhappy or dirty as shown individually on their RGB bars. In this case, I will either feed them, play with them, or bath them. And I get coins and points in return. I could also change the clothes and accessories of my pet too.

At first it was pretty interesting, you get to visit your friends' pets house and see how they done up their virtual house. After a while, it gets boring. My cousin who started out earlier than me is quitting the game. And he gave me alot of furniture including my favorite bathtub (its red!). How I wish they were real. This game gives me the freedom to experiment with different furnitures/wallpapers in the house, trying out bold ideas. And I kind of feel I am closer to my cousins who are in the same game. Its funny that we only meet each other once a year (during CNY), don't really talk much, but we "see" each other every day here.

2.Mafia Wars
Another game I am playing (yes, still in Facebook) is Mafia Wars, where I started out as a small thief, and work my way up. I am given a number of jobs to complete, upon which rewards like cash and experience points to upgrade to the next level, will be given. Use cash to buy weapons, armors, and properties.

The fun part about this is you need a big mafia team, so you start to invite your friends to join you. Having a big team means you can attack and win fights easily, and fend off attacks from other players too. My team size is only 9, which is still too small. I was told I could invite other gamers (perfect strangers to me) to strengthen my team. But I am still not too comfortable to do this though.

Well, sadly I am starting to feel I may not be suitable for this game, cos I get pissed (forgive me for the language) when I got attacked and robbed, and I can't do anything. Fighting back causes more damage to myself than the opponent, who usually has a larger group size than me. This drives me crazy to the extent that I almost invited ALL my contacts to join my team. Nearly. Lucky I got the better of myself, "Its just a game". So now I am contributing more as a team member than an individual. Yap, I am slowly letting go.

And I am glad I did. I will use Facebook probably for a couple of quizzes, and get updates of my fellow friends and families in SG.

Alright, back to my not-even-half-done-resume. Haiz...

Click here for link to Pet Society
Click here for link to Mafia Wars

Food Spree in SG

Finally am able to share some of the photos we took during our food spree in SG early this year. A pity it was such a short visit, I couldn't get to eat my other favourites like Laksa (Curry noodle), Nasi Padang, blah blah blah. Yes, I have many favourites !

Oh well, will save for our next home trip then.
Enjoy!



ps. Boy, these photos really make me drool 8b...

Farewell ...

If you notice, there were fewer posts in February, cos we were busy with moving house. I have alot of catching up to do - like sharing some photos taken during our food spree in SG and a visit to the local aquarium. Will need more time for this as there are quite a number of photos to handle.

Yes, we have moved to a new apt, further north, which has more groceries and eateries, well, more happenings. After moving we still have to clean up the old apt before handover. Boy it was no easy job, we cleaned practically everything in the house, except the ceiling. In return, I got a few cuts on my hand (for cleaning the venetian blinds !@#$@#) and sick, physically. Sadly the local medicine didn't help much, so I was coughing like mad for the past one week. We hope we could get our deposit back in full, which is pretty rare.

So now we are, settled nice and cozy in the new apt. Compared to the old place, the new abode is quieter, since its further from the main road. No longer does the building shakes when vehicles pass by. And there's plenty of sunshine, which makes us feel very positive, we don't turn on the heater now, saves electricity too. The only glitch is our noisy neighbor upstairs, who would turn on his music so loud we could hear the beats thumping the ceiling, and his heavy footsteps that acts as a gps for his whereabouts. Otherwise we are very happy with the new place.

What ? Photos you say ? Ok ok, we will take some pictures of our lovely place after we get some homely stuff to cozify our place up, hopefully within a couple weeks' time.

Farewell to our first US home ! *sniff sniff*