千九百七十六：2 more weeks

These moments are the reason why you have kids (not my kid..) 

Almost Chinese New Year, time really flies. 2 more weeks in Singapore & I'll be going back to Japan. I think I'm going to watch Wicked alone, the ticket is quite expensive to ask anyone else to go with me (no one else around me seems interested anyway).. & go to marina barrage to just see the real thing for myself and relive the peacefulness of lying on the grass (hope it's clean) or maybe fly a kite. Have tickets for the flyer, & will head to the botanic gardens to try to figure out my way around. Now it's so warm, it might not be that great an idea though, but I do want to walk around the place before I run out of energy to do so.

on a totally irrelevant note, I'm kind of trying to get kinder bueno to eat (white version) but everytime I see it I forget to buy it.

I've read 4 books so far, including Steve Jobs (the biography). It's pretty inspiring, in the sense that although he was such a control freak & perfectionist with very bad temper and eccentricities, he succeeded in making everyone around him see things his way & came up with the products we are using daily. And the Kindle choose to break down right when I was reaching the end of the book. (T.T) Luckily for the iPhone. I was able to upload a pdf version into my phone and finish reading it on iBooks. This is when I agreed with Steve saying all other products are crap. To give Amazon some credit, they immediately agreed to send a replacement Kindle (but to Japan?! how am I going to survive the next few weeks on the bus!?) because it seems like it was a common issue. and of course my Kindle was still within warranty. I guess I have to read real books on the bus for the next few weeks..

My appetite is improving, less nausea and less diarrhoea. turns out that i'm now lactose intolerant - which had led to the few weeks of very bloated feeling, tummyaches and nausea. & of course these led to no energy, no appetite as well as fatigue (as anyone would feel after going to the loo for the fifth time in a day)

As much as I'm enjoying being around friends and family, I miss being home in Japan. (not the cold though) I miss watching CSI on my big TV, or just tinkering around my plants, my kitchen and just lazing on my sofa. I miss going jogging, (totally no mood to run here due to the weather) and I just miss the supermarket outings once a week with Ryo. After shopping, he would load everything into the bicycle so that I don't have to carry anything, and then he would cycle like mad trying to catch up with me while i run as fast as I can home. & then we would both reach the lobby of the apartment panting like mad & laughing at each other for being silly. sighz.. after 2 weeks you'll read about me missing Singapore instead..

千九百七十五：2012 Resolutions

Teddy Bears at the ArtScience Museum

As usual, checking if I've fulfilled my resolutions for 2011 in my first post of 2012.
2011 resolutions : http://booboogal.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-resolutions.html

1. Running - 80km monthly, Run a half marathon by June, a Full marathon by end of the year. - Done the last 2, the first one only managed it for  April / May 2011 .. oops.. 
2. Photography - Improve on skills with all lenses. - hmmmmmm.. some commented my photos have improved (could be editing skills improved though) need to take more photos with the Macro lens though
3. French - Take classes and get to finish book 1 of the text book. - damn..... I think I didn't finish the book, had around 3-4 chapters left to go.. maybe I should try to clear this goal this year. 
4. Spend more time at home in JPN. seriously need to improve variety of food i can cook. & to try to wake up earlier... - I did manage to wake up earlier towards the end of the year. Also manage to only visit SG with a gap period of 6 months, but travelled alot everywhere else from June to December. Maybe I should be more  concrete about this as well (>.<) food variety probably not increased at all, have to try harder next year. 
5. Read /write more. & love myself alot more.. - Fulfilled my reading goal of 50 books from July-December2011!  -> check out the widget at the side. Made a conscious effort to blog more as well , tried to do a biweekly thing, if not weekly, instead of once a month update on my blog. Should have separated out the 2nd half of this resolution , because it is totally not linked to the first half. I have made some hard decisions in December, & will be adding them on to my resolutions for 2012 as well. & am seriously tired of all the mental strain from all the toxic relationships. 

2012 Resolutions on the way: 
1. Read more (80 books at least this year) - must try to read 2 books a week!? oops .. this didn't sound like that much when I finished 50 books in 5 months. 
2. Only be nice to people who deserve it. - hence my resolution yesterday of don't bother asking about pple's day if they are not interested in yours. (seriously, isn't it just courtesy to ask how about you? even after you reply a really boring answer because if the person didn't want to know, he or she wouldn't have asked in the first place. Since they have no interest in your day whatsoever, by just putting a stop to the conversation, i guess they don't need my concern in the first place. ) 

3. Detox my life. Cut off toxic/ poisonous people who call themselves my friends/family yet show no concern for me or my well-being or my life whatsoever (these people are usually self-centred, gets angry easily with me yet never reflects on their own behaviour to check if they themselves are guilty of such behaviour & speak without care if they hurt others.)  Holding on to such relationships only serve to put myself under tremendous mental strain & I'm currently under enough as it is. 

4. Appreciate my parents more. Not much time in their lives as they get older.. which means less time for me as well. Despite all the rebellious situations when I was younger, 

5. Again, be in Japan more. 

6. Finish my French elementary lessons (at least!!). 

Spent New Year's Day & the day after at home almost sleeping throughout. Perhaps because I stayed out on New Year's eve and it's been awhile since I had actually slept so late. The horrible situation of not being able to get any cab is really a turnoff for any future festive seasons though. Why can't they leave the SMRT to run for 24 hours on Xmas & New Year's Eve when they can do that for the marathon? But was a first time I actually ushered in the new year at a club/drinking venue, had quite a good time. Xinhuan visited with her family & her kids are already so grown up. 


Xmas was a quiet affair, but enjoyed myself nevertheless. I think. 


Am really hoping this year to be a good year (for everyone around me, not just me). All the best to everyone!

千九百七十四：Festivities

View of the Esplanade from the SkyPark

The festivities are upon us! 2011 is coming to an end and it's been a lazy cheerful mode in the country. With so much excitement in the air, of many things that happened, the major incident being  the SMRT breaking down leading to people being unable to buy their presents - seems abit stupid to me because can't they take buses or cabs? or just that the news programs all happen to interview dumbos?

I haven't had a Christmas in Singapore for 2 years, and it was nice being around for gifts exchanges & Xmas dinners which really added to the atmosphere compared to me being alone at home during the non-public holiday in Japan usually. Visited the Art Science museum, managed to see the Titanic & Cartier exhibition as well, ($24 for Singaporeans - ask for the Singaporean prices at the counter!) and despite the wet weather over the past week, it has been pretty good in terms of events so far. I am feeling better in terms of health, perhaps I can resume light running in a week or so. Met up with secondary school friends as well, & despite the fiasco at the end of the dinner, we had a pretty good time catching up.

A wedding lunch on New Year's eve, parents' wedding anniversary dinner next week or today probably.. Seems like the year will end pretty well :)

千九百七十三：Kinect

everyone wanted a shot of the rainbow

I think I am very forgetful nowadays. I can barely remember what I did last week, or the week before. Last week was the xmas lunch on friday (received chocolates for the gift exchange) and the food was only so-so despite being at the Raffles Hotel Bar & Billiards room. Convinced my parents to buy the Kinect on Sunday after lunch, and it has been quite fun so far. I must warn everyone not to buy the 4GB system because it is a scam! 4GB is barely enough (became 1.2GB after I updated the XBOX OS) it's like buying a 16GB iphone only to realised the OS takes up 10GB! ... quite angry at this, no choice but to buy an external xbox hard disk.

Another exciting moment was when we went to see the A&F models on Wednesday before we went to shoot the xmas lights at Orchard. Thanks to James & his super camera, the shots of the models & me turned out great :D hehehehe, so happy to have managed to catch them just before they left at 7pm. Borrowed the Pen from Julius' brother, it was quite good! lightweight (lighter than I had thought) and good quality pictures generally, but the price is still the obstacle to purchasing it.

Desaru day trip tomorrow, hope I don't feel sick or anything in the car. Work has been slow so far (maybe everyone is in the Christmas mood already) ..

It's almost 2012, the year went by in a flash!

千九百七十二：Singapore Marathon 2011

Runners heading to the finishing line

I am sad (embarrassed) to say that I didn't run my last planned race of the year due to some unforeseen circumstances. However I did go to support my colleagues & friends.

After seeing a few races in Japan go smoothly, I must say the Singapore one seems very disorganised! Long queues at bag deposits; no cut off times, so many barriers to deter supporters, too many people for all events (too many people crowding the finishing area), too many walkers (blocking photos of the marathoners). The only thing better was the pacers which were very visible in SG (& GC) with their  balloons and costumes. I couldn't see the pacers in Japan at all, all they had were the timings stuck on their backs (who can see those from afar?!)

After a morning at the marathon we headed to Tiong Bahru market for lunch & I got to eat my favourite chicken rice. Not something big to be happy about, but I guess nothing beats the real chicken rice in Singapore.

a Jack Russell outside Tiong Bahru Market

It's been non-stop eating (or at least feels so to me) of my favourite foods so far, even though I haven't had much appetite since last week. The volume of food I can take in is reduced though, hopefully this gets better over the next 2 months.

Not much thoughts so far, been feeling tired easily & discovered some hurtful stuff that I shall try to not think about (which the more I try, the more I end up thinking about it & feeling angry and sad). argh!!!

The least I can do is not let myself be hurt by people I care about anymore. But how? Build a wall around me?

千九百七十一：Korea

time waits for no man (or woman..)

I'm back from the Seoul super short trip! The temperatures were freezing (need 2 thick jackets above my heattech top & normal sweater & gloves) which really tired me out; I spent all my energy fighting the call and was dead tired by early evening.

The flight there was quite short, around 2 hours, but the trip to the hotel took around 2 hours as well. I should have taken the airport express bus to Myeongdong, but did not know of it until when going back, which was a pity, because it was cheaper and faster. I'm glad I got a room at Skypark hotel, because it was like 3 minutes from the subway station was was just plonk in the middle of the shopping area. I finally met up with Marini & Qling at around 4pm and we headed for my first proper meal of the day - bibim cold noodles. It was delicious! but very spicy. & I think I ate it wrongly w/o using the cold soup. hmmm.. We walked a little around, saw a demonstration in progress, escaped the confusion and crowds and met the bride for dinner at a crab place. I didn't know that crabs were famous in Korea. & they were pretty good! Unexpected food of this trip. After dinner, they brought us to Dongdaemun for me to look around a little - it's like MBK in Bangkok with all the small wholesale type clothing shops where there are lots of shops u have to bargain with and they all carry similar clothes after walking around for a bit. Maybe we were there too late, but the area isn't as happening as portrayed by the Japanese travel programs. (>.<)

The next day, we had brunch or actually an early lunch - some sort of hot pot. The luncheon meat was surprisingly good :) Then we went on to Red Mango for some dessert. I think I ordered a different item .. I wanted frozen yoghurt but the person didn't seem to understand me & I ended up with Yoghurt icecream. This is the problem with going to countries where they don't understand me! By the time I realised someone else did order frozen yoghurt, it was too late (because I was too full to eat anymore). We headed for the spa after lunch & it was a very very interesting experience. The old aunties who were the "scrubbers" were also in their undies (which was super weird) but practical & I dunno why we paid to torture ourselves in the oven sauna! At least at the end of it, I was scrubbed super clean & probably that "detox" session burnt some fats as well, because I was very hungry after 2-3 hours of spa activities. We had Ginseng Chicken for dinner, which was only so-so because I didn't like the sticky glutinous rice in the chicken. After dinner, we shopped a bit more & went back to the hotel early (too cold & we had to wake up the next day early for the wedding)

On the wedding day - it actually got colder. Cloudy overcast sky. I swear, I'll never go Korea in winter again. We made it to the wedding venue via shuttle bus, the wedding was quite an interesting affair. The usual ceremony was quite similar to a church wedding except we didn't understand what the officiating guy was chattering about - he made a speech for >15 minutes. The table arrangements were weird too, there was no eating no drinks, so why were there tables in there? They should have put in more chairs as >half of the people had to stand at the back of the hall. The traditional ceremony was funny, and I'm glad I was able to witness it. It was almost exactly as the dramas portrayed it, (with whichever few dramas I watched) the husband had to piggyback the wife around the room! I'm very glad I got the chance to see this, but most of all, happy that a friend who has been like a big sister to me has found her own happiness as well.

After the wedding, we went back to change, (dresses & heels are not for the super cold weather) and we headed for some tea at a store called Tea Therapy. It was a very cozy place, with half herbal teas and half herb teas, at a very reasonable price & we tried the very delicious ice kachang too! After that, we headed to dinner, finally we had bbq pork & chige & that was the last of my trip.

Headed back to JP yesterday morning at 6am for a 9am flight, I'm so glad JP is so warm (at 15 degrees it feels so warm!).

Now I'm just looking forward to Singapore to avoid the cold winter here for 2 months! :)

千九百七十：Kobe Marathon

Kobe Marathon Participation T-shirt

My 2nd last run for the year is over & I'm feeling that alot of weight is off my shoulders! I know that I'm not in to win but there is just pressure on myself (from myself) that I need to do better that I did previously. Now I have only the Standard Chartered half marathon in Singapore left to worry about!

The run expo was a rainy affair, and there was only a small hall with with not many exhibitors. It was quite a sad event compared to the Osaka Marathon Expo and I don't know if it was due to poor planning or just plain stinginess on the organisers' part, there was no wet weather plan.

It was lucky that the marathon day itself was sunny but with very strong winds. It was a horrible run mainly because I had the urge to pee which got very very bad towards the 7-8km mark & I was really running for the loo rather than for any other reason in the end. The race course was too crowded - again poor planning, I don't know why they start everyone off at the same time cos in the end the 10km runners are stuck behind the slow full marathon runners who are definitely not going to be running at the same pace as us (or the people who actually need to use the loo) with many sharp curves in the route where runners were slowed to a crawl when running (now i understand the pain of the F1 racers in Singapore).

I managed to finish the run in an hour+, seek immediate relief in the loo of the end point before going on to support the full marathon runners.

Hiroki did really well! I'm actually surprised that I managed to catch all the people that I know was running, & that cheering them on helped to boost their morale (at least that's what they said). It was fun chasing them with the trains to 2 different points in the race - something that is probably not doable in Singapore. (How to go to Orchard then ECP then suntec within a few hours with all the walking & road closures in between?!) But the sunny weather was such a boost to runners' morales & you can really see the difference in the videos. Most people tried to finish with a run here but in the heavy rains during the Osaka Marathon, everyone looked depressed even at the finishing line. At least I experienced the worse one with hopes that if I ever join any marathon again, it should have better weather?!

I'm glad I've done all I wanted to achieve this year (train up, improve my 10km, do a good half marathon & try a full marathon). Heading to Seoul tomorrow for a colleague's wedding, it seems to be super cold in Korea! I hate the cold, it makes me feel all sleepy and want to just hibernate like a bear. I'm so looking forward to escaping 2 months of the cold in SG in a week!!

千九百六十九：Kyoto

The escape artist at the Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto

Last week was quite relaxing in the sense that the projects got signed off finally! & the team went on some event on Friday so it was a very coincidentally good timing that Shuping & Susan came to Kyoto over the same days.

Thursday night was 焼肉、 finally settled my beef cravings. I can't even remember the last time I had bbq beef, was it with Ryo's team?

Friday was sightseeing at Kyoto with the girls, it was a very very gloomy & chilly day with rain & lots of bus rides. We got to chat a lot on the bus rides at least, & I realised that Kyoto is too big a city to cover even in a week!  (maybe because of the jams.. & the fact that we were taking buses.. the subway network is not comprehensive enough, we had to walk alot of places)  I feel sorry for the people who live in Kyoto; there are so many tourists on the public transportation system, & the buses are so tiny with so little seats, are they paying taxes to maintain these systems? Around evening time, the horrible buses are packed to the door, and locals are not able to get on the buses (because the buses are so small) & I  actually feel thankful for the SG buses being so spacious and user friendly in their designs (even for standing people!) We managed to head to the Philosopher's walk (stumbled upon the cat above), then 平安神宮 & 金閣寺. When the sun set, we headed towards Gion, & then the shopping district. Luckily, we were all laidback travellers (not the kind who must cheong 10 places a day) & this suited us very well + our legs were all super tired from the walking around & the standing in the bus for >40 minutes per ride.

Saturday was a trip to 嵐山 Arashiyama (the most scenic place in Kyoto in my opinion). I should have set off earlier, but I was in serious sleep debt after 2 nights of sleeping late & waking up early the next day, and the seats were all taken up by energetic old ladies who were ready to go sightseeing at 9+am. (T.T) I had to stand for the whole of the 1.5 hours train ride there. Although there was only about 20% of the trees having turned yellow for autumn, having not been in Arashiyama for 2 years++ , the view still pretty much took my breath away. Seeing the bridge against the mountainous backdrop with patches of red & yellow, & a river with super clear waters, it was very scenic, if you try to ignore all the human traffic trying to squeeze pass you when you try to stop to take a pic (>.<) Anyway, loads of fun that day with the girls. We headed to the 竹林, managed to see workmen cutting down bamboo trees, old men doing watercolour paintings by the roadside, duck udon for lunch, an orgel museum (only headed into the shop hehe)

Kyoto is famous for it's 漬物　(pickled vegetables?) so we had alot of fun trying out pickles at the stores (of course we bought some!) I think the best part was that we were all sorta on the same frequency, especially with the "take alot of pics of everything" & "take alot of candid pics of the other girls'" mentality since we all had our own quite good cameras. I haven't travelled with friends in a while, it's usually Ryo & he doesn't take pics much (unless he wants to post something on fb) or he will be kinda involved in playing his games on the phone (which is pretty irritating) and be waiting for me while i browse or take pics instead of taking pics himself so this time was 10x more fun.

Dinner on Saturday night was with my cousin who also happened to come to Osaka at the same weekend, (the girls went back to Tokyo..) & his baby is already 1 year old! I haven't met his wife/baby directly before, and I must say the baby is a really really cute & sweet little girl! She was just smiling all the time (almost) & charmed the socks off 3 grown men at the next table which was quite funny cos they actually looked very macho & scary to me, until they started making faces at the baby. wahahaha!

Sunday morning was runclub activities and had to wake up at 7am sobzz (T.T) But was quite happy that I went; I hadn't realised that the last time I went was in July! Everyone seemed genuinely happy to meet up with me, & I feel very guilty that the next one I can only join is in February after I return from Singapore. sighz. I had a good time catching up with everyone during lunch (brought them to eat chicken rice for lunch!) and made  some new friends as well.

I'm very glad to be not going any where this week (for now though) because my legs are so so so tired! There is the quarter marathon this Sunday, & Korea next weekend. Glad to have events to look forward to!

千九百六十八：Happy Birthday!

Mont Blanc Chocolat Birthday Dessert

My hubby turned 40 last Friday. It sounds old! (><) But I tried to make it a good birthday, since almost every year I am not in Japan for his birthday, actually, trying to recall, I don't even think I've celebrated his birthday at all since 2005. Since we were in Tokyo, we went out for his favourite お好み焼 for dinner, & I surprised him  by producing the above when he came back to the room. I went up first because I had to pee (really!) while he went to 7-eleven, & that gave me the chance to prepare the dessert/cake and the candles. I went to buy the cake on the way back to the hotel after working at starbucks in the afternoon, luckily we were staying within walking distance from the department stores. (Odakyu has a very poor choice of confectionery compared to Hankyu, I realised.) Anyway, he was surprised & quite touched (I didn't wish him happy birthday in the morning because I had forgotten haha), so yay! Still sore he didn't do anything for me for my birthday, but too bad for me ...

Back at home since Monday, Ryo has gone to New York for work this morning. I have resolved to clean up the mess at home while he is away so that I can surprise him again when he is back. (& I really should clean up the study room which is overflowing with books.) I've managed to throw away tons of receipts, even from 2009. & have finally called the garbage center to remove the broken suitcase which Ryo was supposed to have done. Cannot depend on him to help with anything!! I have also decided to read a book a day (or a book every 2 days)  which is very hard when you are at home and there is so much other things you want to do. So far so good, I've read 7 (?) books since last week, on the train rides in Tokyo & back home. Ryo being away should give me the chance to read in bed before I sleep anyway.

It was a good trip, as 1day was a public holiday & we had the weekend + Friday dinner together. Usually when i'm in tokyo, I would be having dinner myself almost every day. Met up with some ex colleagues for lunch, leisurely worked in the afternoon (only 1 work day anyway) & met up with 2 NY girls for dinner on Sunday. It was so fun to girl talk while the JP husbands 诉苦 to each other. (^^)v Shopped a little, ate alot, on the whole it was quite a relaxing trip. It was the first time I took an afternoon flight home as well and I managed to catch a glimpse of Osaka Castle & Umeda Sky building from the air. It was amazing!

Feeling very fulfilled after the big cleanup today, shall go read & cook dinner (not at the same time) now. Ciao!

千九百六十七： Air Acrobatics

Blue Impulse - the Japanese air acrobatics pilots in their air display

I'm in Tokyo again, blogging from the Starbucks at 三井ビル in Shinjuku.  Had lunch with Maya & Mikey-san, & am now doing work here at least until the housekeeping is done in the hotel room (& also to give myself some fresh air).

Just got most of my work done, & am looking forward to the SG holiday on Monday (because I can OTOTw/o having to worry about my travelling time from Tokyo - Osaka.

We had quite a good time at 入間 (Iruma) airbase yesterday; they had an open house & there was an air display by the Japanese air acrobatics team Blue Impulse. They were pretty good! Although they weren't flying fighter jets like the Italian team Frecce Tricolori or the Singapore Black Knights, the stunts were similar & as usual, very breathtaking. The last display I had watched live was during the Singapore airshow in 1998, & it was so exciting! The difference this time is I have a DSLR (with only 200mm zoom but good enough for most of my shots) & the pictures are so much better :)

I'm back in the hotel now; the problem with working outdoors is that you always worry that you have not enough battery power to last. If you have to bring all the power cables, it kinda defeats the purpose of mobile work right? & my bag will then be very heavy.

Enjoying tokyo air so far, but wished I had brought jeans now.. is abit cold.. Looking fw to checking out the latest sg restaurant I discovered online tomorrow, & hopefully thai food tomorrow for dinner also! (^^)v

千九百六十六： Osaka Marathon 2011

At the starting line on 30 Oct 2011.

Finally the day that I was dreading is finally over!! Been waiting (dreading) for this day for the past 4 months ever since I got the spot for the race. With lots of grand plans for training myself to avoid the horrible pains of Sundown, I was actually quite looking forward to it at first until I injured my foot during the fireworks at Yodogawa, stopped training for almost the whole of August, travelled to Taipei, then Italy then basically suddenly it was October already & I haven't trained at all. (>.<) & it became a very dreaded event... argh...

At any rate I was hoping to finish within 5 hours, but it was not to be ... & I was filled respect for people who did managed to finish within 6 hours after the race haha.

my timing for Osaka Marathon 2011

Moving time displayed. Total time was actually 6:11:58 if you click in to see , I rested for almost 1 hour. What a waste!


It was a super gloomy day on Sunday, cloudy, drizzling, cold winds.. I was filling so cold at the start line cos of the winds, was wondering if my decision to just wear shorts & tshirt was right after all. (weather forecast had forecast that rain was to come around 3pm) so I had just ziplocked my phone & earphones & some money in a pouch & hoped the weather held up. It felt like everyone around me seemed very well prepared ... & I was just feeling kinda scared.

When it finally started at 9am, my group was around 500m away from the start line, so I walked slowly there (15 min? ) while everyone around me like kinda cheonged towards the start.. I mean, not like they are going to count the time we take to get to the start & 500 m is not a short distance.. i want to conserve my energy! The first 2 km was really almost shoulder to shoulder, had no space in front to even try to overtake people. Which in a way was good, cos I was forced to go quite slowly & 2+km went by w/o even feeling much effort/

Luckily I did.. as usual, the long waiting time for the start of the race made me want to pee. Not urgently but added with the intensity of the race but every toilet I passed had a long queue. I finally decided to take a quick break at 9.9km & just queued for the loo & take a breather.

Ryo was nice enuff to move around every 5/10km to catch me. Actually it was a big help he was around. I had something to look forward to, every 5km or 10km,  knowing he was somewhere along the side & it kinda kept me going. When I neared the points he was supposed to be at, I would be kinda scanning the pavements for him which helped me ignore the pains in my feet or the urge to stop & just sit down. Everytime I saw him, it kinda gave me energy at least for the next 1-2 km to run abit before I had to walk again.

It was a super huge struggle after 25km. I could feel the pains in my leg very clearly now, but thank God it wasn't the horrible horrible pain behind the knee as per Sundown. This was still walkable, I really had to stop & stretch every 2km, but i was kinda not really running much after 30km (depressing in the rain & gave up on having a time limit, just wanted to get this over with)

Rain got heavy, & Ryo would only be at the end point. All I could think about was omg, no more full marathons for me again!! & just tried to walk faster because I was in danger of missing the next cut off time. (38 km at 1514)  I had passed 34km at 1415, which meant I had an hour to clear 4km. A slow walk for a normal person is around 3km an hour. which means I had to walk faster than that. Feeling quite scared, I tried to stretch out abit, spray alot of Salonpas on my leg　& tried to run at least for the next km. Managed to do it in 8 min, realised if I walked w/o thinking about anything except just counting until 100 it might be easier, I did that for the next 4km... & finally managed to get to 38km.

Rain got heavier & heavier. There were drinks & food station  every 2.5km, at that point it was kinda like a stroll at the pasar malam where yay free food & drinks & I was actually starting to feel quite full. no need to eat/drink also just take, something to take my mind off the pain & the last few km. There was an upslope at 39km? & I saw like soooo many people ahead of me, & actually I didn't know then, but there was actually still around 6000 people behind me. It was pouring cats & dogs, when I finally hit the last km marker. at 42km, I  still couldn't see the finishing line. Which was damn weird. & very demoralising. Finally decided to just end the pain (200m is actually still quite a distance, when I could finally see the finishing point, made a final effort to dash towards it. (which led to the commentator commenting, oh, this person still has energy to run more!) *rolls eyes*

The struggle wasn't over. After the finishing point, had to walk at least another 1km (through the expo hall) to get our medals & everything that came with the finisher pack, then another 1km to the next expo hall to get our baggage, then wait in line another 30minutes to exit the place. omg..... & then guess what, the train station was too crowded so we had to walk to the next one in the super heavy rain, probably another 1km away. (T.T) & at the train station had to queue for at least 15 min just to get into the station due to the crowds. I almost died post race if not during the race.

Ryo had to leave for his work trip after reaching home, so I kinda just spent sunday night with lots of the Salonpas patches on my legs. Knees were aching like mad (never ached before),  waist area too, back of thighs & butt as well. All I can say is luckily I work from home! Fell asleep from exhaustion at 10pm, but kept waking up at night when i moved my legs due to the pain. Monday was just shuffling in pain from 1 place to another in the house, but amazingly I can actually descend the stairs w/o pain today anymore. In fact most of my bodyaches are gone! Just the side of my right knee still hurting a little & I got tired super fast when I went out to run some errands.

Work kept me busy for the past 2 days; thank goodness it doesn't hurt to sit down.

Phew! I'm glad I don't have any full marathons upcoming, & am quite looking forward to the quarter marathon on 20th Nov. (Yay!! only Quarter!! 11km should be chicken feed!) & the half marathon in SG in december. I guess my short term goal is just to better the shorter distances' timings. & something else I learnt, that there is no such thing as having fun in the marathons. If you decide on timing, there is no time to stop & take pics. (unless you ran very fast) If you just want to hv fun & take alot of pics, just throw your timing out the window. Half of it was the indecision of what I wanted out of this marathon that got me feeling very tired mentally. At least for the shorter distances, there isn't such a dilemma!

If you actually managed to read until here - you can view the photos from the marathon here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexxis/sets/72157628032055232

Will be in Tokyo for the weekend (from tomorrow's evening actually)!!

千九百六十五：Hurtful Words

at the tennis court

Woke up especially early today because I'm going to collect my race pack at the Osaka Marathon Expo later. The place looks huge, with almost all the major sports brands in Japan setting up booths. I'm so excited!  By the way, if you want to just check out how I'm doing during the marathon on Sunday, you can just go to this page: http://www.osaka-marathon.com/2011/ and search for my tag number L 43374. I'm not exactly sure if there is an exact page that allows for the search or just this page directly, will try to update this page on Saturday night. Having alot of jitters for this, because I didn't train much, & am having abit of a sore throat now. But I am going to finish this by hook or crook (hopefully just able to finish this normally can le.. )

This has been an uneventful week, just work work work. Last minute deadlines almost killed me, had to work until 4am trying to complete some data creation on Monday. But partly my own fault, met up with Yusuke for dinner but it was good hearing about people from the office. At least he lives so near me I don't have to spend much time travelling to meet up with him. I did see something that I sorta feel like buying, a fish eyes lens for the iphone, it's just so cute! but so bulky in the bag, how am I going to stick that case into the bag with the lens sticking out? hmm..

The hubby was so horrible last night. We were going to visit his parents on Saturday morning, because it was his mum's birthday & he said something about visiting his parents means eating free meals so isn't it a good thing? and it just sounded wrong saying it like that even though it might be true. Shouldn't we visit them because we want to see them and not because we go there to eat free meals? & I said that, & he got pissed off saying I always seem so reluctant to visit them blah blah (apparently he missed the point I was trying to make again) and I said huh? since when? I might complain about having to wash the dishes, but who doesn't? I would rather bring the parents out for dinner because I feel bad that they have to take so much trouble to cook so much food (always end up having leftovers which they don't mind but I mind) & after that I have to help clean up (this is a given but I've always done it willingly because they are so old) but when he said that it really made me mad. Did I not volunteer to cook dinner & bring over? Did I not jog all the way to the hospital to visit his dad when he wasn't around? I mean, I always go over when he wants to, help out like a normal if not above average daughter in law & he can just say out such hurtful things w/o even thinking. How about changing his position to him being in Singapore & if I want to go my parents' place & if he always has to make small talk how will he feel? The point is not really cleaning up or what, it's more of the feeling that i have - similar to visiting relatives that I hardly visit in CNY (which is why I don't really like CNY)? You go there, greet people, sit down & eat and then after that just watch TV. You don't really have anything to say to them, except the direct concerns like how are you feeling etc. I don't know how to make small talk. Getting married to the son doesn't make me family any immediately than they adopting me as a child. They might make an effort to be friendly & treat me like family, but I will still be a stranger because they are not my parents and it takes time. I am not the type of person who can just become chummy or warm up to other people in a short time, especially not the elderly or authority figures, but I will at least be civil and do the duties or responsibilities expected of me. Is that so hard to understand?

千九百六十四：ごちそうさまでした！

the 2nd Osaka GoChiSo Marathon on 23-Oct-2011

I joined the Osaka GoChiSo marathon yesterday with 2 friends from the run club! It was quite a fun run, basically along the run, we will pass through 商店街 (streets with shops) & they will offer us food & we can eat / drink & then continue running. The food is usually those representative type of foods from the shops around that area, like sushi, udon, snacks, fruits, bbq squid etc. & also we passed through some niche places of interests in Osaka that I didn't know about, like Diamond point (best view of sunset from Osaka harbour area) & the lowest mountain in Japan (天保山 see the word 山？！） hahaha!　& the best part is actually the ferry ride across from the harbour to Universal Studios Japan's perimeter, I don't think any one has actually ran in a race that involves a boat ride! Good chance for us to take a breather; the weather was so warm yesterday. We went to get registered at 8am, and waited until 11am for the run to start :x then unluckily, they started people off in groups, so there are like around 20+ groups and we are group 19! :( so we only finally flagged off at 11.40am. By then, we were all famished, & the first food stop around 1.6km away was very very welcome with warabi mochi (chilled & super delicious!) and some tea. Although after that it got harder & harder to continue running cos of the food being digested & I just kept feeling the urge to burp.  I used the 4S to take photos, but the camera just sucked all the battery life out of the phone! I think I took only around 50  pictures, switched off wifi, all other apps, but the battery life was down to 50% at around 2pm from 100% in the morning, & around 80% when the race started. :(

Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexxis/sets/72157627963020060/
& the best thing about using iPhone to take pictures is that all the pictures are Geotagged already! (see the little map beside each picture)

I had to abort the race at the halfway point, because I had a househunting meeting with the salesman at 3pm. (took us 2hours for 13km including all the eating) so when we reached a point where I could get to the train station, I made my escape. :X all the good food actually only came in after this point. Which kinda makes sense because near the end le, can eat more, can't possibly be eating udon at the start of the race. Sighz...

Anyway, we kinda made a decision on the apartment at Sannomiya!! yay! See the double standard of guys - he complains I want to get the first place I saw (which actually i think is really nice) but actually he just illogically wanted this place w/o checking much other places because he really likes it. (>.<) humph! I'm not super in love with this place, but I'm ok to live here (because it's new & we can still save up for the payment next year & we can still customize it) and I'm just very relieved we don't have to go around looking anymore. I don't like shopping around much for anything, seriously, if I see it & I like it, then I just get it, instead of giving myself reasons why I should shop around more.

So we are waiting for the housing loan initial review by the bank to go through then we can officially sign the contract for the house. woohoo!

千九百六十三：Too Much Alone Time

ok I'm blogging so much recently because I've had alot of alone time.

I've watched finished all the episodes of CSI & CSI:NY recorded on my TV, 3 movies (recorded too) & all the episodes of Tin Tin & the last episode of the Amazing Race as well. All thanks to Ryo coming back home so late every day for the past week (around 1 am)  & being away in Tokyo today until tomorrow.

I mean I feel irritated when he's around hogging the TV  & I can't watch the shows I've recorded but there is such a thing as too much alone time. I haven't been out of the house in 4 days. (because i'm lazy to dress up & due to PMS, having headaches & tummy aches so didn't feel all that well to want to relieve boredom by going out).

I've been having quite a bit of disturbing dreams lately. They feel so real & I wake up feeling half sad and very tired.

I'm not looking forward to clearing the huge hurdle of the marathon next weekend. I have zero confidence, & zero motivation to train. but I hope that this time will be better than the previous attempt. What in the world was I thinking when I signed up for this?! (><)

& then after that will be Tokyo, and there will be the Seoul trip to look forward to & then to SG for 2 whole months.  yay!!!

千九百六十二： Gold Coast

my first time eating Churros! (spanish donuts) in Brisbane / with condensed milk

anyway, here's the very very late blog post about the Gold Coast trip - was in Gold Coast for the Gold Coast Airport Marathon from 2011-6-26 to 2011-7-5 - although I only joined the half marathon- and here it is :

amazed and happy with my results - only walked 2 water stops around 100 - 200 m each time. Had targetted around 2h30min, but i guess this is definitely much better! Actual results 2hr04min btw :)

Ok for some elaboration of the trip, here is the short & long of it. Long if you have the time to read, here's the short of it.

Sunday Day 1 - Brisbane day trip via Airtrain
Monday Day 2 - Car rental -> Mt Tamborine & Cedar Creek Wineries & Cedar Creek Falls, Mariner's Cove/Mariner's mirage
Tuesday Day 3 - Car rental -> Coolangotta, Point Danger lookout, Little Nerang Dam, Springbrook National Park - Best Ever Lookout, Cav's steakhouse
Wednesday Day 4 - Day of relaxation - Mini run/walk after waking up at Surfer's paradise along the beach, then just shopping at surfer's paradise, went for dinner at Fisherman's wharf
Thursday Day 5 - Movie world
Friday Day 6 - Paradise Country Farmland , then headed to the GC Expo hall to collect our bibs for the marathon, then checked out Broadbeach
Saturday Day 7 - GC Expo to shop for sports stuff, then Harbourtown for some outlet shopping & went back to some self cooked pasta dinner for carbo & slept at 10pm.
Sunday Day 8 - Marathon in the morning (woke up at 3.30am), lunched at Australia Fair, reached back with aching legs, showered & conked out until 8pm, dapao-ed dinner & slept at 10pm again.
Monday Day 9 - Sea World Whale watch it was fantastic to watch the whales dive in and out of the sea. Sea World in the afternoon, went to Marina's Mirage in the evening, Chinese food for dinner at Surfer's Paradise.
Tuesday Day 10 - Checked out at 5am and had to board the flight home at 10am.

Pictures have finally been uploaded to flickr too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexxis/sets/72157627137341024

& now for the long of it..

General thoughts about the trip instead of a day by day rundown - it's too long - both for the person reading it & the person writing it.

Before the marathon, we went sightseeing & some of the highlights were Brisbane, glow worms, Nerang Dam, Springbrook National Park & the Paradise Country Farm. Not saying the other places weren't fun, but these were the places　I liked alot :)

I was having sorethroat/cough/flu throughout so generally kinda slept through alot of the transport and was heavy headed during the walks and was quite a grumpy / listless travelmate i think.

We went to Brisbane for a day trip on Sunday when I reached, that's where i had churros, and since it was a Sunday, it was a very peaceful day in the CBD area. We wandered around taking pictures of the historical buildings, there was the winter festival going on so there were crowds and fun stuff going on. We wandered to Southbank and it was great there, with the park and the ferris wheel and I just did what everyone else did, laid back on the grass and enjoyed the view of the sky. :D

my view from my place lying down on the grass

an artist spraypainted over old records

There are Nando's everywhere in Australia - i guess it's probably like fast food for them. Didn't have a chance to try it anywhere yet, so took the chance to have. was coming down with flu/and sore throat as well, and it was a torture eating western food which was mostly xxx with chips which is French fries.

Food was a problem, because of my sore throat, everything western seemed less than appetizing. We wandered around alot looking for Asian food although we did try eat the local food for the first few days. Their steaks were pretty good, oysters too :)

We saw glow worms at Cedar Creek wineries, it was a man-made cave, but no pictures there because it was too dark and glow worms are just too small anyway. Lunch was pretty good, I had steak with some of Cedar Creek's dessert wine. We also tried steak & oysters at Cav's steakhouse at Frank St (Labrador) which was pretty good, but quite a big slice of steak so it's better to share so that you can try other food as well. Cedar Creek Falls was nearby, but not super majestic, it's just a mini waterfall. There were some quaint little shops at Mt Tamborine, before we reached Cedar Creek, and apparently fudge is their specialty. We got large chunks of fudge to try, but after a few bites they were too sweet for us

We took a drive to Little Nerang Dam (cos we all haven't seen a real dam before) and it was in so deep into the woods that we thought we were lost. When we finally reached it, we saw a campsite and we were like thinking "people would drive all the way here just to have a picnic?!" Most of the parks have a picnic /campsite so it was quite common to see kids/families even in the most difficult places to get to. We did get lost a little here and there as we were driving based on the street directory, not GPS, but that kind of added the fun to the trip because we hit unexpected places, like a lookout spot for a beautiful sunset was also a sorta gravestone for a pet.. :(

Back in GC, the weather was cold and rainy after our 2 days of driving around, and I guess I had underestimated the cold. There was winter sales ongoing though, & managed to get 2 sweaters from the surf brands at very good prices. We spent quite abit of time wandering around surfer's paradise, made a trip to the outlet malls (Harbourtown). The remaining time we tried to make trips to Movie World, Sea World, whale watch & also to the Paradise country farm. The wet weather almost ruined our chance to whale watch. We had planned to whale watch the first few days we were there, but due to stormy seas, the trips in the first week was cancelled and the very next trip was our last day in GC which was quite lucky for us that we didn't get a flight back the day after the marathon. it was just so majestic! to see the whales for real first time in my life in the wild. The whales were moving up north and GC waters happen to be in their route every year. This was probably the best part of the wildlife I experienced in Australia.

a whale making a dive

All too soon, the trip was at an end and we reluctantly parted ways at the airport. It was a fruitful trip, gave me back confidence for 21km, and of course a relaxing vacation does wonders for the mental health (makes me want to have a longer vacation at least haha)

& I guess i can now finally start sorting through photos from Taipei & Italy!

千九百六十一：New Purchases

new iPhone!

I got my new phone last Friday! Even though we pre-ordered it, and were told we could go to the shop from 8am onwards to collect, the Softbank server was down all the way till noon before we were able to get our phone. Japan has a very ineffective & un-environmentally friendly system of using SIM cards - new SIM cards are issued everytime you change a new phone (which is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of for such an efficient country). Luckily they don't charge us for SIM cards! Which caused the whole lag time in the system. Most people actually reached the shop around 8am (I was first in the queue) but it turns out it was a country wide system failure & while I had quite a bit of time to wait in the store, the people behind me were working adults who had to reach the office probably around 9+am. They were quite shocked (& I think very sad) that they couldn't get the phones to bring to the office & that their phone lines will be cut off in the middle of the day once the new phone's SIM card got activated, and all of them left reluctantly. I decided to just sit in the shop until the service resumed, because I had no other ways to be contacted by the shop, and since there were a ton of people who were waiting at the Apple stores, I was quite sure the service had to be fixed shortly.

I'm actually glad that I waited. Around 11.30am, a guy came in to collect his phone & the system registration went through for him smoothly! I was like thinking " oi....... what about mine? I waited for so long already!!" & pointedly looked at the staff who handled that successful registration. The lady who had handled my order came over after that to say , sorry but she doesn't know when system will be resumed & I was like erh..?! The other guy just left with his new iphone! what are you talking about!? & I said, "I think  the system seems to be up, can you try first? since i'm here anyway" & she reluctantly agreed. Luckily she did that, because after that a whole bunch of people came in (it was lunchtime) to try to collect their phones, and if I was the staff, I would definitely be handling those people in the store first instead of the morning cases who already went home. & the system finally activated my SIM card and she allowed me to take the phones home. (-.-!) what a waste of time... 4 hours.

I'm still trying to get used to the phone; it has the tendency to slip through my hand because it's a little too thin. But I guess gamewise it's alot faster than the old phone & of course the camera I have no complaints :)

Another major purchase we were trying to make over the weekend was the house. (apartment I guess?) We went to see a few, some work in progress, some already built, but i guess what we agreed on is that we prefer Kobe to Osaka. So Saturday, we went to see one in Sannomiya (三宮） which is a residence block that will be 54 storeys. Being in the city centre of Kobe, of course there was no amenities issues; it's like living in Orchard Road I suppose. Surprisingly, prices are cheaper for the apartments here than at Sumiyoshi (住吉） , near our current aparment which we are renting. But, cheaper in the relative sense - 85sqm costs around S$10k/sqm in  Sannomiya while in Sumiyoshi, it was S$11k/sqm. ouch ouch ouch. 85sqm is only around a 3-4rm flat in Singapore. How sad :( But of course, the demerits being that there was always all sorts of people hanging around, it's never quiet, and there are like pachinko parlours all over the place.

Yesterday, we went to see an apartment near the Kobe colonial area, near the Meriken Park which was built in March this year. & being around 10minutes away from the station, of course this is cheaper (& depreciating everyday since it was already completed). The salesman was trying to talk us into buying this - http://www.b-kobe.com/plan/type_r/index.html which had only 1 unit left, on the 26th Floor. And the price was even less than both apartments above. S$880k for 101sqm corner apartment!? I was pretty keen on it (just the space and the price alone was amazing, let alone it's super high floor and can sort of see the sea). All cabinets & downlights were inbuilt already, & bathroom toilets & walk-in closets & it actually had a real kitchen!! so far all the places have only those kitchen that's open concept with the living room which is so impractical -  all the oil & smells will reach the living room furniture right?! & already in built kitchen counters & cupboards! (other places have to add prices to have those built -.- )But obviously, no one talks prices on the first meeting & he set up a next meeting for us next week. & I excitedly went home and showed my parents and asked for their opinions and got them all excited. Guess what. The salesman called last night and said that the house had been sold (another couple who had been looking at the house had made their decision to buy last night) WTF!? I was super disappointed... sighz...

I guess this finally convinced Ryo that if you snooze you lose. After dinner,  I was trying to swallow the disappointment by looking at the brochures for the same completed block for other available apartments, but seriously what was remaining was either high floor but small units or low floor but ok spacious units (the view is of the expressway and not the sea if below 15th floor) In the end we decided to stick to the Sannomiya work in progress block. It will be completed in March 2013, so we have another year to save up alot more for the final payment (to reduce the amount of bank loan because this will lead to a hugeass bank charge that is dependent on the amount you loan). At least this is on the 44th floor, and will be all new and we can still request for some customizations like colours & cupboards we need. We haven't confirmed the purchase, but we already asked the salesperson to just flag it as in progress so that no one else takes it (grrrrr...). But I hope by next week we will be 80% confirmed. Househunting is a horribly tiring process!!

the Sannomiya place is at its 20th floor

千九百六十：The End of Summer

the end of my sunflower

Not long ago, I was complaining how crazy hot it is here, & suddenly after I come back from Italy, it's almost cold. I'm still happily wearing shorts out in the daytime but at least it's like long fleece pants for pajamas at night. Although it's not super chilly yet,  because I still actually switch on my fan at night sometimes and freeze the husband to death - he is using 2 blankets (?!) while I'm still using a normal very thin one.

I've just upgraded the OS on my iphone to iOS5 (kinda pointless since i'm probably getting the new phone tomorrow)  but just wanted to have the pleasure of saying I'm upgraded the OS in probably the faster time so far w/o any issues on my first try! all thanks to the fact that I had only 3.6GB of apps in my phone. (Refer to my article on how to get rid of apps a few days ago.) & unchecking all music & podcasts & removing all pics before upgrading helped I guess.

After 3 days of disagreements & bickering, we finally pinpointed the reasons why I was so disagreeable & pissed off.
1. There was no birthday celebration or present for me. (from the husband or anyone else actually, my mum did pass me an angbao through my sis)
2. He didn't seem to have plans at all for our future.
3. Accumulated frustrations that I was just here to be his maid & feeling very under-appreciated (since he didn't even bother to make me feel appreciated on my birthday)

He finally understood how important the house buying was to me because i said the D word if nothing is going to change,  (I came up with this new slogan so that he can remember it - No House = No BB = D!) it might sound funny but it really is quite frustrating to see friends going forward in their lives while i'm still going nowhere. :(

Work is quite slow these few days, but maybe i'm still in the vacation mode, (which is why you see so many blog updates) although I should actually do more constructive stuff like ... tidy the house. which I'm not really feeling up to it cos of all the quarrelling (I keep thinking why should I be the one to do everything??). But I hope things are getting better, he made some plans for us to go see more places this Saturday, so good luck to us!

千九百五十九： The Meaning of Social

the anti-social bug on my clothesline

Social tools being twitter, facebook, instagram & other apps or programs where you share stuff with people.

I believe there are many many many people who don't understand the purpose of using such tools.

Take for example the below situation:
Instagram is a tool you use to share photographs with other people on the Instagram community. A public account shares your photographs with all users in the community, a private account shares your photos with only your followers. I think the keyword is "share". If you are looking for a photo repository, taking photos for yourself, then don't share. Instagram is not a photo repository system. it's like twitter, when you spam posts with crap, you push other people's (maybe) better posts down the line. If you purposely go to other apps to edit the photos before uploading them, that's sharing, that's totally out of line with taking the pictures for yourself. If you don't have the intention to share, edit the pictures & just keep them in your folder, & NOT SHARE them, instead of sharing them & having people comment about the photos and giving the lamest self defense in the world of, i took them for myself,  who cares about the number of likes, etc etc. If you took them for your self, you wouldn't bother re-editing the picts in another app to make them look better before re-going to instagram to share them again. & then also sharing the pictures on Twitter & facebook which means the same friends get spammed with the photo feed in 3 places. You want approval, you want people to take a look at what you did, that's why we share stuff - you don't share stuff because they were for yourself. If I had a cake I bought for myself, I sure wouldn't be sharing the information with my neighbours: "hey i bought a cake!" & leave the neighbours thinking "you want me to eat is it, that's why you tell me?"

I guess what I'm frustrated or irritated by, is such people saying 1 thing and doing totally another. Their actions clearly contradict their words; do they think we are idiots to not notice? This greatly discounts my trust in such people: they don't like to hear advice, they keep defending their own actions as right instead of learning something new when they get feedback etc. Will they ever be successful in life? I doubt so, because in this world they keep living for themselves (in their very flimsy self-defense) instead of really understanding what social means.

All the social tools have a different purpose to start with, that's why they are not the same tool. To start using all in the same way makes no sense & frustrates other people who are in your social circle.

on a happier note, 2 more days to the new phone!! (=^-^=)

千九百五十八： Shitloads of Stupid Conditions

I'm not happy!! Not happy to be in this house that's not mine, that I can't stick anything on the walls, I can't put up shelves, where the kitchen is so dark & dingy & windowless and I have no space on the counter to cut up ingredients except with a tiny 100yen chopping  board. I want a sunny kitchen, I want to have space on the counter & cupboards to keep more pots & pans, & even to put a recipe book! (Now I have to keep going back & forth from the dining table to the kitchen when reading the recipe book. which is damn stupid .... i want to sleep on a bed, I want a house with enough space in the room for a bed!

What does the stupid guy want? Near to a station, near to his parents, but cheap enough, but not on the side of the station nearer to the expressway (because it's noisy & air is polluted), but spacious, but have resale value because he might be reassigned to Tokyo. & how often is he actually at home? An average of 59 hours per week & out of which, 42 hours sleeping. Which means only 10% of a week he is actually awake & enjoying his time at home. Whereas I am at home 85% of the time (144/168 hours). Shouldn't it be me who decides what kind of house we should live in?? 

& he gets unhappy when I return to Singapore for a longer period. Why should I want to be here when I still feel that Singapore is still my home more? Family, food, friends. Everyone & everything is still in Singapore for me. 

千九百五十七：About Cleaning up your Iphone

One of the artists' works outside the Uffizi Museum, Firenze

I was reading this article about clearing apps & "cleaning up the apps" on the iPhones. The blogger said using folders made your Iphone is able to contain 12x more apps & after cleaning up (by moving them into folders & deleting: he only deleted around 120 apps), he still had 12 pages in the menu. How is that clearing the phone? From an IT standpoint, clearing means removing, & opening up more memory/storage in the phone. what's the use of having 16folders of 12 apps in maybe 11 pages? that is 11x16x12 = 2112 apps?  Do any of us use that many apps? If you log your app use for maybe a month, you will find that really all the apps you need and use are probably already in the first 2-4 pages already. While for the pages behind are games that I actually play like at least once a week. If you have 11pages of 16 folders, do you really know what's in where? Do you remember the app name to be able to search for them in the search screen? Even after clearing, he has 12pages left, 5 of which contain folders (5x16x12=960) which comes up to 960 apps still. Really? He uses 960 apps still? I think more cleaning up should be done (on the basis that he was writing a how to clean up article)

I have only 8 half-full folders in 9 pages & 5 pages of the menu are less than half covered (I like having the space for new downloads) - most apps I delete after 1-2 uses if I find that they are uninteresting or un-userfriendly. If I need to use them again, I can always download again- what's downloaded before stays in your Itunes account and you are not charged twice for the same app anyway. Everything is also backed up in your PC too. The only reason you might keep the app is there might have been data in the app, but again, if you haven't used the app in ages, you probably don't need the data anyway. Or copy them out somewhere before deleting.

Having only 16GB in my iPhone, storage space is a luxury. I also listen to podcasts & music & take lots of photographs, so removing unused apps is really dictated by necessity. But I guess if you do have 32GB, you should have the right to have more stuff in your phone, even though it is super messy for yourself. So although I don't really agree with the article's end results, the "clear everything not used in a month" is a good rule.

Anyway, I put in a preorder for the 64GB Iphone 4S.. I hope it comes on 14 Oct! I don't think I'll be increasing the number of apps though, I would be putting in more podcasts & taking lots of photos & videos :) Countdown to the new phone, 5 more days!

On a separate note, this is totally irking me. I wish people would stop linking the Iphone 4S = Iphone for Steve. It's named 4S because it was not changed from 4 in terms of looks (only an improvement functionality wise) as 3G became 3GS. Not because they knew Steve was going to die. Rumours about 4S came up far earlier in the year, not like it happened a day before / after Steve die, eg. - this article in July.  5 would be something that's radically different, as when 3GS became 4. So please stop saying this is for Steve & that is for Steve; Steve probably decided on the name himself - & being the demi-god of cool things, he probably wouldn't people to keep saying this lame line "for Steve" when it's just 4S.