Quote

"Education is the basic element in the survival and prosperity of the state. The promotion of education should be the responsibility of every citizen. It is man's best inheritance." - Lee Kong Chian

Came back from Malaysia

Went to visit mom in Malaysia on Tue 28-Jul and return today Fri 31-Jul.

She still refuse to do physiotherapy due to pain on the right arm. Her right hand also badly swollen. Her right leg has improved and can push her right leg straight when bent while laying down. Her voice is strong but still not articulate into proper words.

28-Jul TK454 12:15 to 13:10
31--Jul TK455 13:40 to 14:35
TigerAirways cost S$70 for a return trip.

Did a 10km run while in Malaysia (Jenjarom)

Trying to continue to maintain running capacity. Went to run 10km today around the neighbourhood in Malaysia. Clocked in less than 1:05hr. Heart rate mainly in Zone 2 & 3. In the final 200m, did a dash with average speed of 14km/hr. Heart rate hit Zone 4 at that time.

The Garmin monitor watch showed 11.23km, assumed a calibration error (still did not calibrate my watch yet) of 10%, the distance covered is slight more 10.11km.

With mom in Jenjarom home

With mom in Jenjarom home.

Quote => Focus

FOCUS
Most people fail in life because they major in minor things...
what are the "major" most important things that need & deserve your focus today?

Did a 21km run this morning with 2:15 hr

Run for Health, Run for Fun, Run for Life.

Woke up at 5am this morning and did a 21km run in preparation for the 16-Aug Marina Bay half marathon event. Completed about 21.39km in 2:15hr (my Garmin shows 23.77km, with 10% error actual should be 21.39km). No cramps, no pains and NO walking. Best of all no blisters nor any injuries !! Was back home on time (before 8am) to drive my wife to office.

Took a glass of coffee, 2 bananas and 3 pieces of biscuit before the run.

Carried with me a 750ml soft bottle with 330ml 100-Plus isotonic drink mixed with ice + water. So no need to hunt for water points.

Number of stops :-
1. A few stops at Traffic light junctions.
2. At 14km point, stopped for about 2 minutes to take the Energy Gel plus water.

Last night I have signed up for the 6-Dec-09 Standard Chartered 42km Full Marathon. My friend Dr. K also signed up for 42km after some persuasion last night.
Will definitely train and be prepared for it.

Courageous, Perseverance, Exhilarating, Energized, Triumphant.
Discipline, Stamina, Endurance, Challenges, Joy.

Run for Health, Run for Fun, Run for Life.

MM Lee on Ageing

MM Lee on Ageing
Wed at 1:48pm

'Stay interested in the world, take on a challenge': MM Lee

This is Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's advice on ageing the best way one can. Yesterday, he shared some personal insights into how he himself deals with ageing. Here is the transcript of his remarks.

MY CONCERN today is, what is it I can tell you which can add to your knowledge about ageing and what ageing societies can do.

You know more about this subject than I do. A lot of it is out in the media, Internet and books. So I thought the best way would be to take a personal standpoint and tell you how I approach this question of ageing.

If I cast my mind back, I can see turning points in my physical and mental health. You know, when you're young, I didn't bother, I assumed good health was God-given and would always be there. When I was about - '57 that was - I was about 34, we were competing in elections, and I was really fond of drinking beer and smoking.

And after the election campaign, in Victoria Memorial Hall - we had won the election, the City Council election - I couldn't thank the voters because I had lost my voice. I'd been smoking furiously.

I'd take a packet of 10 to deceive myself, but I'd run through the packet just sitting on the stage, watching the crowd, getting the feeling, the mood before I speak. In other words, there were three speeches a night. Three speeches a night, 30 cigarettes, a lot of beer after that, and the voice was gone.

I remember I had a case in Kuching, Sarawak. So I took the flight and I felt awful. I had to make up my mind whether I was going to be an effective campaigner and a lawyer, in which case I cannot destroy my voice, and I can't go on. So I stopped smoking. It was a tremendous deprivation because I was addicted to it. And I used to wake up dreaming...the nightmare was I resumed smoking.

But I made a choice and said, if I continue this, I will not be able to do my job. I didn't know anything about cancer of the throat or oesophagus or the lungs, etc. But it turned out it had many other deleterious effects.

Strangely enough after that, I became very allergic, hyper-allergic to smoking, so much so that I would plead with my Cabinet ministers not to smoke in the Cabinet room. You want to smoke, please go out, because I am allergic.

Then one day I was at the home of my colleague, Mr Rajaratnam, meeting foreign correspondents including some from the London Times and they took a picture of me and I had a big belly like that (puts his hands in front of his belly), a beer belly. I felt no, no, this will not do.

So I started playing more golf, hit hundreds of balls on the practice tee. But this didn't go down. There was only one way it could go down: consume less, burn up more.

Another turning point came when -this was 1976, after the general election - I was feeling tired. I was breathing deeply at the Istana, on the lawns. My daughter, who at that time just graduating as a doctor, said: 'What are you trying to do?' I said: 'I feel an effort to breathe in more oxygen.' She said: 'Don't play golf. Run. Aerobics.'

So she gave me a book, quite a famous book and, then, very current in America on how you score aerobic points swimming, running, whatever it is, cycling. I looked at it sceptically. I wasn't very keen on running. I was keen on golf. So I said, 'Let's try'.

So in-between golf shots while playing on my own, sometimes nine holes at the Istana, I would try and walk fast between shots. Then I began to run between shots. And I felt better. After a while, I said: 'Okay, after my golf, I run.' And after a few years, I said: 'Golf takes so long. The running takes 15 minutes. Let's cut out the golf and let's run.'

I think the most important thing in ageing is you got to understand yourself. And the knowledge now is all there. When I was growing up, the knowledge wasn't there. I had to get the knowledge from friends, from doctors.

But perhaps the most important bit of knowledge that the doctor gave me was one day, when I said: 'Look, I'm feeling slower and sluggish.' So he gave me a medical encyclopaedia and he turned the pages to ageing. I read it up and it was illuminating. A lot of it was difficult jargon but I just skimmed through to get the gist of it.

As you grow, you reach 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and then, thereafter, you are on a gradual slope down physically. Mentally, you carry on and on and on until I don't know what age, but mathematicians will tell you that they know their best output is when they're in their 20s and 30s when your mental energy is powerful and you haven't lost many neurons. That's what they tell me.

So, as you acquire more knowledge, you then craft a programme for yourself to maximise what you have. It's just common sense. I never planned to live till 85 or 84. I just didn't think about it. I said: 'Well, my mother died when she was 74, she had a stroke. My father died when he was 94.'

But I saw him, and he lived a long life, well, maybe it was his DNA. But more than that, he swam every day and he kept himself busy. He was working for the Shell company. He was in charge, he was a superintendent of an oil depot. When he retired, he started becoming a salesman. So people used to tell me: 'Your father is selling watches at BP de Silva.'

My father was then living with me. But it kept him busy. He had that routine: He meets people, he sells watches, he buys and sells all kinds of semi-precious stones, he circulates coins. And he keeps going.

But at 87, 88, he fell, going down the steps from his room to the dining room, broke his arm, three months incapacitated. Thereafter, he couldn't go back to swimming.

Then he became wheelchair-bound. Then it became a problem because my house was constructed that way. So my brother - who's a doctor and had a flat (one-level) house - took him in. And he lived on till 94. But towards the end, he had gradual loss of mental powers.

So my calculations, I'm somewhere between 74 and 94. And I've reached the halfway point now. But have I?

Well, 1996 when I was 73, I was cycling and I felt tightening on the neck. Oh, I must retire today. So I stopped. Next day, I returned to the bicycle. After five minutes it became worse.

So I said, no, no, this is something serious, it's got to do with the blood vessels. Rung up my doctor, who said, 'Come tomorrow'. Went tomorrow, he checked me, and said: 'Come back tomorrow for an angiogram.' I said: 'What's that?' He said: 'We'll pump something in and we'll see whether the coronary arteries are cleared or blocked.'

I was going to go home. But an MP who was a cardiologist happened to be around, so he came in and said: 'What are you doing here?' I said: 'I've got this.' He said: 'Don't go home. You stay here tonight. I've sent patients home and they never came back. Just stay here. They'll put you on the monitor. They'll watch your heart. And if anything, an emergency arises, they will take you straight to the theatre. You go home. You've got no such monitor. You may never come back.'

So I stayed there. Pumped in the dye, yes it was blocked, the left circumflex, not the critical, lead one. So that's lucky for me.

Two weeks later, I was walking around,I felt it's coming back. Yes it has come back, it had occluded. So this time they said: 'We'll put in a stent.'

I'm one of the first few in Singapore to have the stent, so it was a brand new operation. Fortunately, the man who invented the stent was out here selling his stent.

He was from San Jose, La Jolla something or the other. So my doctor got hold of him and he supervised the operation. He said put the stent in. My doctor did the operation, he just watched it all and then that's that. That was before all this problem about lining the stent to make sure that it doesn't occlude and create a disturbance.

So at each stage, I learnt something more about myself and I stored that. I said: 'Oh, this is now a danger point.'

So all right, cut out fats, change diet, went to see a specialist in Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital. He said: 'Take statins.' I said: 'What's that?' He said: '(They) help to reduce your cholesterol.'

My doctors were concerned. They said: 'You don't need it. Your cholesterol levels are okay.' Two years later, more medical evidence came out. So the doctors said: 'Take statins.'

Had there been no angioplasty, had I not known that something was up and I cycled on, I might have gone at 74 like my mother. So I missed that deadline.

So next deadline: my father's fall at 87.

I'm very careful now because sometimes when I turn around too fast, I feel as if I'm going to get off balance. So my daughter, a neurologist, she took me to the NNI, there's this nerve conduction test, put electrodes here and there.

The transmission of the messages between the feet and the brain has slowed down.

So all the exercise, everything, effort put in, I'm fit, I swim, I cycle. But I can't prevent this losing of conductivity of the nerves and this transmission. So just go slow.

So when I climb up the steps, I have no problem. When I go down the steps, I need to be sure that I've got something I can hang on to, just in case. So it's a constant process of adjustment.

But I think the most important single lesson I learnt in life was that if you isolate yourself, you're done for. The human being is a social animal - he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world.

I don't much like travel but I travel very frequently despite the jet lag, because I get to meet people of great interest to me, who will help me in my work as chairman of our GIC. So I know, I'm on several boards of banks, international advisory boards of banks, of oil companies and so on.

And I meet them and I get to understand what's happening in the world, what has changed since I was here one month ago, one year ago. I go to India, I go to China.

And that stimuli brings me to the world of today. I'm not living in the world, when I was active, more active 20, 30 years ago. So I tell my wife. She woke up late today. I said: 'Never mind, you come along by 12 o'clock. I go first.'

If you sit back - because part of the ending part of the encyclopaedia which I read was very depressing - as you get old, you withdraw from everything and then all you will have is your bedroom and the photographs and the furniture that you know, and that's your world. So if you've got to go to hospital, the doctor advises you to bring some photographs so that you'll know you're not lost in a different world, that this is like your bedroom.

I'm determined that I will not, as long as I can, to be reduced, to have my horizons closed on me like that. It is the stimuli, it is the constant interaction with people across the world that keeps me aware and alive to what's going on and what we can do to adjust to this different world.

In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you're retiring, you're going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you're done for. So statistically they will show you that all the people who retire and lead sedentary lives, the pensioners die off very quickly.

So we now have a social problem with medical sciences, new procedures, new drugs, many more people are going to live long lives. If the mindset is that when I reach retirement age 62, I'm old, I can't work anymore, I don't have to work, I just sit back, now is the time I'll enjoy life, I think you're making the biggest mistake of your life.

After one month, or after two months, even if you go travelling with nothing to do, with no purpose in life, you will just degrade, you'll go to seed.

The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.

If you're not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that's real torture.

So when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: 'Oh, 62 I'm retiring.' I say to them: 'You really want to die quickly?' If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going.'

http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=726409704&share_id=112231956366&ref=nf#/note.php?note_id=116733929544&id=538665899&ref=share

Track-24 6km run plus another 9km

Went to run along 6km Track 24 with HT and Edmund.

After the run we took some water sponspoered by HT and chatted for a while.

Then met Yun YS who drove into the open carpark area to meet us.

Suggested to him that he should try to join us at least once a week. He has stopped joining us since his new job knock off time is 6pm. So he suggested that for the once in a month run with ex-Moto people, lets try to start slight later... e.g. at 6pm instead to allow those ex-Moto to drive and meet up. Good idea.

I continue to run from the carpark back to home and around the neighbourhood for another 9km. So total I clocked in 15km today as planned.

Will try to do a single 20km run sometime next week in preparation for the 16-Aug half marathon run at Marina Bay.

9km run at UPR

Did a 9km run with 15 other people (hot-runners group) at UPR. Quite a relax run...

First time we saw so many "yellow" running t-shirts. Finally the sponsored t-shirts were released to the active runners.

Felt very good and most of them felt a good sense of belonging to this running group.

Overall good turn-out and all have a great run together today.

10km run at SCC Gym

No runs for the past 5 days since last Tuesday. Went to run in the gym today.

Did 10km in 59:30minutes on the trademill.
I started the Garmin timer after a short period of warm up on the trademill, so that numbers my Garmin heart-rate, speed and distance monitoring watch will not match. My watch shows 10.88km in 58:25 minutes. Also did not calibrate my watch which may have a calibration error of about 10%.

Fisrt 5km was easy as heart rate is mainly in Zone 3. Beyond 5km, was running at a faster speed of 11km/hr. At 7km, walk for 1.5 minutes while drinking some water on the trademill. At the last 300m, ran at 12 to 12.5km/hr to catch up time wanting to close 10km below 60 minutes and did it. Felt great after the run.

16-Aug is the SAFRA Marina Bay Half Marathon event. Need to start preparing for it. Will cross a 16km run this week. And will cross a 21km run middle of next week. Then taper down and prepare for the 16-Aug event. Should be able to complete full 21km run without walking this time round. During last Dec Standard Chartered 21km run, I have lower back and leg cramps at around 17km. But with better preparation this time round, I should be able to complete the 21km run non-stop.

沒有永遠對的價值觀

沒有永遠對的價值觀

朋友手拿一份報紙

說讓我做一個小小的測驗，我欣然同意了。

問題一：


如果你知道有一個女人懷孕了，她已經生了八個小孩，


其中有三個耳朵聾、兩個眼睛瞎、一個智能不足，


而這女人自己又有梅毒，請問，你會建議她墮胎嗎？



我剛要回答，朋友制止了我，又問我第二個問題。


問題二：


現在要選舉一名領袖，而你這一票很關鍵。
下面是關於這三位候選人的一些事實：


候選人A：

跟一些不誠實的政客有往來，而且會咨詢占星學家。


他有婚外情，是一個老煙槍，每天喝8─10杯的馬丁尼。


候選人B：

他過去有兩次被解雇的記錄，睡覺睡到中午才起來，


大學時吸過鴉片，而且每天傍晚會喝一夸特的威士忌。


候選人C：

他是一位受勛的戰爭英雄，素食主義者，不抽煙，


只偶爾喝一點啤酒。從沒有發生過婚外情。
請問你會在這些候選人中選哪一個？



朋友讓我把答案寫在紙上，然後告訴我說:


候選人A是：富蘭克林‧羅斯福，
候選人B是：溫斯頓‧邱吉爾，
候選人C是：亞道夫‧希特勒。
我聽了答案驚訝地張大了嘴巴。
朋友表情凝重地問我：
你是不是為世界人民選擇了希特勒？

那你會建議這位婦女墮胎嗎？

我說：這個問題不用考慮，我們受計劃生育優生優育教育多年了，


都生那麼多歪瓜劣棗了，就別再添亂了。當然墮胎啊。


朋友說：你殺了貝多芬，她是貝多芬的母親。

我又一次吃驚地張大了嘴巴。

朋友說：嚇一跳吧？本來你認為很好很人道主義的答案，

結果卻扼殺了貝多芬、創造了希特勒？

最後朋友總結道：

所以不要用既定的價值觀來思考事物。


我抓過朋友手中的報紙，原來真是一個測驗題，題目是《

你的決定滅了誰》。

重要的是，不是我們在哪，

而是我們要往哪走......


如果你知道往哪走，世界會為你開出一條路
帶著你的靈魂追尋美好事物與時光
所以凡事別太主觀
沒試你怎知道不行

................要加油喔

Did a 9Km+ run at UPR with Hot-Runners group

16 people turned up today to run together at the Upper Pierce Reservoir. I did a 9km+ distance. Did not monitor the speed, distance and heart rate for this run as I still have not went to replace flat-out battery of my Garmin watch.

I have always enjoy the run with the Hot-Runners. It motivates me to continue to improve and to keep running.

Ran 6km today in the neighbourhood

Ran only once last week while in US. Need to catch up with more runs.

Did a 6km run around the neighbourhood. Did not wear the heart rate and speed monitoring watch as the watch battery is flat.

Preparing for 2 running events..... 21km Half Marathon SAFRA Marina Bay run in August and Standard Chartered 42km Full Marathon in December.

Trying to clock in between 30km to 40km per week. Trying plan is to run slow at 9km/hr and maintain that average speed while keeping heart rate between 150 to 160 bpm.

Glad to be home

Caught a cold (not flu) when leaving hotel for the airport.... making the flight back from US to Singapore was quite tiring and with a bit of running nose.

Took a flu vaccination 1 week before I left Singapore for US. So if I do get a flu, it will has to be the new H1N1. But I was certain that I just having a cold with light running nose.

Glad to see the Limo driver there waiting to pick me upon arrival. Reached home in less than 20 minutes at 1:45am Sunday morning.

QUOTE

" It's only with the heart that one can see clearly. What's essential, is invisible to the eye." The little prince

Travelling to US today + ran 10km in Hotel Gym

Took a morning 9:40am SQ flight to US with transit thru Tokyo Narita airport.

While in Narita airport, bought a Phiten necklace (titanium materials embedded) for more than S$50. It is label as X50... suppose to mean the titanium mateials concentration is suppose to be 50x its normal product. Heard from friends who have bought similar Phiten products before and said to be very good. It suppose to help improve blood circulation and improve health.
Tried it for a few days, do not feel any difference..... sigh.

Bought a "neck" comfort pillow as well. Quite useful and prevent neck pain while taking long flight especially in economy class over-night flights.

Arrived US hotel at 5:30pm on the same day.

Ran 10km in the hotel gym early evening for about an hour. Ordered food delivery and had a late dinner. This 10km run will help me sleep well tonight and hopefully prevent jetlag. Felt good.

Time to get a new pair of running shoe

Have clocked in more than 400km on my current pair of shoes bought in July 2008, almost a year old.

Went to Expo for special Adidas sales promotion of up to 70%. The good shoes were all sold out. No Adizero shoes and only one pair of running shoes (about S$62) look fairly decent. Totally disappointed.

Bought 2 pairs of Adidas running socks (Gymtrain Sock3) for $10, if buy one only it will cost $6. Bought an Adidas black color plastic drinking bottle (700ml) also.

Then drove to Link Building at Chang Charn Road (off Leng Kee Rd) which is having sales of up to 80% off for Adidas, Nike and Puma.

Found 3 type of Adizero shoes of which one is blue color (Adizeo Breeze), another is yellow with small amount of black (Adizero Ace) and last one is black wtih small amount of yellow (Adizero Ace). The blue color one is an older model.

Bought the Black color (with a bit of yellow color pair for $106. Original price before discount was $152. Looks like a very good pair of light running shoe. Was a bit worry about the front sole which look a little fragile.

Have been an Adidas fan. All my running gears are pretty much all Adidas... socks, shoes, shorts, t-shirts, etc.

Finished Reading "Outliers" book

Completed reading the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. Very interesting book and provide some new insights into "Intelligence", "IQ", etc vs "Long Hour of Practise", etc.

Interesting new ideas and findings. Highly recommended.

TR463 from KL to Singapore 22:25 to 23:25

Took TigerAirway TR463 from KL back to Singapore 22:25 to 23:25. Bought a pair of Adidas running socks (CREW) at the KL LCCT. Cost me RM$15.90.

Arrived airport earlier by 15 minutes. Limo was already there early to pick me and reached home before midnight.

16km run in Jenjarom Malaysia

In Jenjarom Malaysia this week visiting my mom.

Did a 16km run today. Trying to increase weekly runs total distance by about 10% to 20% for each week in preparation for Dec-2009 full marathon event. Trying to do more Long Slow Distance (LSD) runs.

Ran in the village for 12km around the neighborhood.

Ran another 4.5km around the running track in the park in front of my younger brother's house.

Quote

"Those who give have all things. Those who withhold have nothing." - Hindu Proverb