Clearwater, FL
Friday, November 26, 2010
9:52:00 pm
SO, this trip's come and gone!
I was the happiest girl alive on Nov 4 when I left the office at 7pm. Hadn't felt such pure utter alive-ness and happiness in a looonnnnnggggg time! That's because I won't have to step into the office for another 17 days or so.
The next few days were dream-like. Filled with training, being back at school, just slacking around. It was so awesome to be back in school. Still meeting a million and one friends just from a short trip here and there, everywhere you go! And yu pian tang! TKGS days were fun, TJ was even better, but uni has gotta be the best years of my life.
At last Tuesday rolled around and it was a stay-over at Jiwen's house. Up early the next morning at 3+am, with the travelling ending only about 28 hours later.
Quality Hotel was nice. Thank God for miracles. The others booked the wrong hotel and hence had to re-find a new place which turned out to be at the place just beside us!!
SO the next morning we jumped into the freezing waters screaming away! Well, me at least. Jon ma was laughing sadistically....... Registered myself and got the goody bag and was tagged the next few days. Went for a very cold and windy ride with Jiwen riding the rented bike imagine! We tried to walk to the next beach for the welcome dinner because it seemed so close on the map. THank goodness for these nice Italians who went by and gave us a lift over! The sunset was awesome, the food wasn't too good, I didn't get to take a picture of the cute Ironman cookies (or eat them either), wind was freezing cold, sand soft but all over the place, hmmm what else....... Oh the Italians were so nice to give us a lift back again and dropped us right at the doorstep!
THe next day I went for a run in the hot afternoon sun and spent the rest of the day resting.
And then it was raceday. Walking along the beach to the start line was horrible, because it was SOOOOoooo cold! To think of having to race in that weather! It was just pure cold.
My age group's start time was about an hour after the first wave which was the pros. It's true that the water gets much MUCH warmer the further you go. That cold try-hard-to-breathe-and-not-die feeling which I remember all too well from Spain. It was an all way out and back 1.9km loop. The water was SOOOOO CHOPPY when we were really far out, especially when turning around. THank goodness for the extra buoyancy of the wet suit. But my swim was really weak. Not surprising given that I swam like only 5-6 times a month or something!!! You notice the difference in water temperature when you near the coast again. It got sooo cold!
The transition was pretty cool, everybody there to help you with everything! Pulling off your wet suit (4 people to 1 of me!) and passing you your stuff. Decided against the arm warmers but the shoes and socks and tights took some time to put on! Hence the transition time of 6mins.
I was alone for most of the ride. Battling against the wind. Cursing everything. Talking to myself mostly. Waiting for the cut off of the bike. Travelling at 23kph. Drank only about 200ml of sports drink and 450ml of water for the entire 90km bike ride. Enjoyed the scenary and looked at buildings and houses along the way. It wasn't as cold as the other day. But whenver you enter a shady spot, immediately you feel the chill! I was really not gonna do the run when Norms caught me. Thank goodness for him who convinced me otherwise.
SO we were suppose to do the run together but lost each other through transition. (Different tents for males and females see) THe run turned out to be the best part of the entire race. It was fun on the first loop cuz there were still many people out there! Supporters, people to overtake, fast people to pace the run for. THe route was really fast. It certainly didnt seem like 21km AT ALL. Really lovely scenary. And the bridge wasn't even half as hard as I thought it would be. The sponges were REALLY chilly but I feel sooooo much better after each sponge. BUt the second loop was really quiet. With everybody having completed the race. It was really something though, to see all the old people still going on! They marked our arms with our number but on our calf they wrote our ages. ANd so you see 70+ people running (after riding and swimming mind you) and it's all respect and hats off to them!
THe run all done, with a horrible timing overall (but who cares I knew I really wasn't fit or prepared, physically or mentally either), my butt just ached the entire day or two. It was the butt and only the butt. And boy, was it bad! We hitched rides too and from the Awards dinner again.
The next day, everything seemed so bright! The weather so cooling and nice! (Now that you don't have to race in that weather) We had our much wanted ihop breakfast. And then played mini golf just opposite our hotel. My very first hole and it was a hole in one! HAHA! Oh I have to say that I won Jiwen hehe. It was most fun though!
We then headed to rent the scooter for the day. Which turned out to be loads of fun! You don't have to wear helmets, the requirement being, shades! Imagine! Thank goodness for all the practice rides on Mr Beep. Sitting on that scooter was real fun and no fear at all! Even has a little flag! Our first visit on the scooter was the Marine Aquarium which was closed still for filming. And so we headed down the same path I rode just the day before, in search of Target, which we found not long after. The wind is so cooling and nice out there!
We had lunch at Smokey Bones! Smoked ribs and wings OOOOooooo. Really good stuff. Giant portions as usual. We share everything! 1 for 2, 2 for 1! And then we spent the rest of the day walking around. In Borders, looking at Peanuts and literally looking for Wally! Pet shop there too. Why no bunnies! :(
We headed back in the evening just in time to return the scooter and walked along the beach. Sunset at Pier 60! It was really lovely. With mad encounter with sea gull feeding man. A baptism. Entertainers along the beach doing stunts. All the little shops selling trinkets. 2 wild dolphins coming so close, up to 200m of the beach belive it or not! In the midst of the sunset. I loved it so much.
We then had pizza for dinner!
It was a most awesome day.
We woke early next day to take a cab to the Greyhound bus terminal where we took to Greyhound for about 3 hours to reach Orlando Greyhound bus "terminal". It's not even a terminal. Just a random building in the middle of nowhere! ANd I was thinking nobody smokes much in the US here. But I realised how wrong I was. Back in Clearwater beach, everybody you see there is there for the race! Hence you'll always see people swimming, cyclists riding by in all their aero gear, people running everywhere. Of course, hardly any smokers there!
We reached Holiday Inn resort at about noon time. The place is so awesome! Like our own little apartment with high table top and table place to eat like restaurant, kitchen with all sorts of cute utensils, pans, stove, big fridge, table mats etc. Living room, toilet, bedroom, balcony, washing machine, dryer. EVERYTHING! Most awesome!
And below our place is the entire pool, inclusive of water slide and lazy river with floats! :)
It was supermarket again and to slack around :)
The next day we went to Hollywood studios, and Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios in the next 3 days. Magic Kingdom's fireworks was sooooooo good! Because of Jiwen's ingenious idea, we gave our dying feet some rest by sitting at the side watching the entire fireworks. I love the one single burst that goes ACROSS Cinderella's castle, like how at the start of Disney movies! It was so good. Universal Studios was so empty, we managed to sit each ride at least twice, thrice and some four times! :)
So, what I've discovered in the USA is that,
1) Everybody's super friendly! They love to talk. To anybody and everybody. In the lifts. Or even when I was just yawning at Target, this old man went "tired?" And people just stop me and say "Where did you get your shoes from? They're SO CUTE!" (They're the grey nikes bytheway) Or the cashier. And service is really taken to another level. I think Singapore should do away with the service charge of 10% and start the tipping culture!
2) USA is THE land of the oversized! Oversized pEOPLE, oversized food portions, oversized cutlery even, oversized everything in the supermarkets, oversized supermarkets even!
3) Pretzels (the ones sold at DisneyWorld) are not meant for eating! I don't understand how everyone else can walk around eating it!
4) You can get used to being on the right side of the road after some time.
MOST OF ALL, it was really good to have non-stop Jiwen-ing for so many days! I need such things more often.
I enjoyed the trip much, and it was none other than because of Jiwen.
I LOVE WENNIE <3
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So Lost
Sunday, November 21, 2010
11:49:00 pm
So very very very lost
I Must Be
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
6:11:00 am
Excited!
Because I woke up at 4+am and couldnt get back to sleep. Rainy quiet mornings are perfect! Except that I drank a container of bacteria (in the form of Yakult) and now feel like I wanna go............ to the toilet to........................
EVERYBODY PLEASE CHECK OUT TODAY'S PEANUTS COMIC STRIP!
(yay we're going Disney and UNIVERSAL - peanuts!)
I will now go scout out the peanuts web after visiting the toilet.
SO the national jambion paid me some compliments the other day! The first was "YOU'RE SO LIGHT!" after a piggy back-ing experience! I haven't been piggy backed for a bazillion years. Oh I went to do a medical checkup the other day and the weighing machine's pretty cool I like haha. My BMI's about 17.9 hmmmm!
And so, last thurs at about 7.20pm, I became the happiest I've ever been in a long long long long time. Reason being, I'll be outta the office till 21 NOV! The feeling of liberation and happiness, I'm still living it right now. Makes you not wanna waste time sleeping no? Just enjoy being ALIVE! So happy, so happy, so happyyyyyyyyyy.
WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Hope I survive Saturday's once-in-a-lifetime race!
All the best to me and my non-existent muscles.