Ching Ming Tomb Cleaning Day

All my 3 brothers and myself woke up early today before sunrise and drive to the grave yard at Bukit Cheeding to clean up our father's tomb. It is Ching Ming, a Chinese traditional day for tomb cleaning.

Have done this before for my grandpa and grandma. But this is the first time I am doing this for my Dad's. I thought it has been about three year since my dad passed away, but just realized that it is already eight years (since 2001) !!

Look how long the grass has grew over a year. Whole place (above the soil area) looks messy. But the cement and granite area looks great. The gold color labelings over the granite area did not show any sign of fading. The method and technology used seems very robust.

Pulling out and digging up all the grass. Saw a lot of ants, insects and some funny looking insects running all over the place.

Cleaning up the tomb area.

Tomb number marked.

For our dialet group the decease's wife and daughters are not allow to go.

Early in the morning, sun just rising.

Putting a new layer of good fertilized soil.

Putting a new layer of good quality cow-grass over the tomb.

Cleaning up and washing the tomb area.

Scattering of colored papers over the tomb (do not know the significant of this... will find out).

My 2nd brother offering prayers.

Me with the OK Lah t-shirt. Prayer for good health, happiness and success for the whole family.

Packing off to leave.

Day 2 into retirement

Will try to blog the first 10 days on Life into Retirement.

Day 2. Wife dropped me off at Yio Chu Kang MRT by 9am. Took the subway train and arrive Changi airport within about an hour. Along the way have to change train at City Hall to go east and then at Tanah Merah to go to Changi airport. Train arrived at Changi airport Terminal 2. Took the free shuttle bus from T2 to the Low Cost Carriers Terminal (LCCT). Arrived LCCT at 10:15am.

Booked the Tiger Airway one-way air-ticket few days ago for KL, cost only S$25 all-in and another $5 for insurance which I later felt unneccesary. Really cheap. Flight was at 12:15pm. The airline adviced to be at airport 2 hours before flight time. Found that it is a total waste of time. One hour before flight time will be more than enough. Fortunately I brought along one of my wife books ("Jungle" by Yossi) to read.

Found a very meaningful quote from the book and SMS to some friends.

"When work is a labor of true love laced with a sense of calling, we cease to work and become purposeful." by Yossi.

I found this to reflect very closely to what I am looking for at this critical juncture of my life. Must get and read the book "Half Time" recommended by my ex-colleague SuiLeng.

My 4th brother-in-law picked me up from the airport and I reached my mom's home around 2pm. Was glad to meet my mom again, she looked much older and weak as compared to the last time I met her. Spent the remaining of the day interacting and catching up with my mom and relatives.

Spent quite a far bit of time trying to fix and setup the wireless internet access in my younger brother's house.

Quote

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." - Plutarch

Day 1 into retirement

Last day at work was on 31-Mar-09.

Today is Day 1 into my early retirement. Will take a good 3 to 6-month break and think through on what's important in the 2nd half of my life and to do next.

Waked up early as usual. Dressed up and send wife to work. I dropped by the office for a short while about 20 minutes to clear up a few remaining things.

Spent the remaining of the morning at home reading newspaper and surfing the internet a little while. Very relaxing and peaceful. Can hear the insects chirping away by the park beside my home, felt like in the wilderness. Enjoyed the serenity.

In the afternoon went to attend an "Entrepreneur" workshop organized by Right Management. Key takeaway is that an entrepreneur need to think out-of-the-box and need to have drive and have people of different attributes to work together with you to be successful.

Late afternoon, went to pick kid back from school. Evening went to pick wife from office.

Overall Day 1 passed pretty fast and enjoyed the peaceful morning Best.

Plan to spend the next 10 days in Malaysia to catch-up with my mom and some relatives.

Farewell Run for HC Gan @ Upper Pierce Reservoir

Today we arranged a Farewell Run for HC Gan, one of our founding members of the AMK Hot-Runners group. Today is his last day at work.

21 people showed up. A bit short of the 30 that we have hope to see as most of the materials team members were still busy at the office for this week quarter closing.

Thanks to ALL of who joined us today especially the ex-colleagues who came all the way to join the farewell run today... Cecilia, YS Yip, Kim Anderson (our super runner) and BengHwee.

Also thanks for the kind note through SMS, emails, etc for those who were not able to join us today.

HC brought along 4 bottles of 100-Plus and 1 bottle of plain water together with a containter with ice. He will still join the regular weekly run with the group.
We welcome two new members today :- Francis Ong and Pak Lah.


SNAP SHORTS OF TODAY'S RUN

You huh terrible you know. Run so so so fast and did not wait for me...






Why is our super runner crying... torn between 2 lovers ? (we are kidding here of course, do not get too serious over this).










Photos before the run








Photos after the run

First time doing a late night run

Wanted to run today at 5pm but it was raining. At about 7pm, wife and kid went for a brisk walk and I did not join them as I plan to do a longer distance run.

Went to run around Neram Crescent playground garden in Seletar Hills Estate at about 10:05pm.
Forgot to start the watch timer for the first "lap"... each lap around my running route there is about 2.5km. Started timer only after the first lap. Clocked in 29 minutes for the final 5km run (the final 2 laps). So total distance covered is 7.5km and time approximately less than 45 minutes.

It was quite a leisure run and felt I can go another 2.5km easily but decided to stop as it is getting close to 11pm. My heart rate was mostly in Zone-3... a comfortable level .

During cool down, the heart rate reduced from 155bpm to 120bpm within 2:50 minutes. Not too bad. Goal is to reduce heart rate to 120bpm within 2 minutes or less... a faster recovery rate.

Overall quite an easy run tonight. Took a shower before going to bed. Slept very well after the run.