Choy Sun Thow

God of Prosperity (Cai Shen Yeh)

Well today is the 1st day of the Chinese Lunar Year ie Year of the Dog. I make my sales target for Quarter 2 and I am enjoying myself. Let me take this opportunity here to wish everyone "Gong Xi Fa Cai" and happy holidays.

Cheers..........................

Numbers, Numbers and more Numbers

This Friday will be my company Q2FY2006 quarter end. As usual this will be madness especially when we need our partners to get the order in and at the same time people are leaving the city, on their way back to the hometown to celebrate CNY. So before starting the new year mood and start ushering and welcoming the Year of the Doggie, I have to make sure I make my numbers for the Quarter. No two ways, brother. Otherwise cannot KOH LEAN. US$250k to go and I have until Friday to do it. Man, I need all the luck otherwise chia-lat, no mood for the new year. Choy Sun, where are you !!!!

NOTE: LIFEMOU, are you contributing to our Quarter end closing.

Cheers........

Kong Hei Fatt Choy

Choy Sun Thow (The Prosperity God had arrived !!!!)

To all Chinese friends, Happi Dog Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai. For those travelling, drive safely and slowly and abide by the rules. For once, this is not a marathon race where the fastest wins.

To all Muslim friends, Selamat Awal Muharam 1427 H. (The Islamic New Year - start of the Muslim calander) and that is on 31 Jan 2006.

I will be heading north to my home town to Ipoh (Ipoh mali, talah sombong punya !!!) and on the 3rd day of CNY will be heading south to Melaka and back to my wife and in-laws place.

Cheers.......

Sun Tzu Art of War

Over the weekend after the GE-Pacesetters race, I picked up this book from my cabinet and read it again. It was time to refresh for the new year. The last time I read it was about 6 months ago. This is a strategist book that can basically apply not only in the business world but can be translated to handle events and people that you dealt with in your day-day activities. For now, I would like to share the things that I learnt from reading the book especially pertaining to running a race.















The ART OF WAR is the most referred to military warfare in history. It was written 2500 years ago some time between 300 and 500 BC by a Chinese military strategist cum scholar Sun Zi, now commonly known as Sun Tzu. His was a barbaric classroom when contrasted with the antiseptic lecture halls of today's WarStudies departments. Some people have erroneously judges the book by its cover so much so that they have deprived themselves of its learning opportunities. What they have failed to realise is that in Sun Tzu's era, China was splintered into many states that were often at war with one another.

Hence, Sun Tzu's ART OF WAR need not be a negative book. It could be POSITIVE as well. To use it positively, a person needs to have an open mind and be clever enuf to substitute some of the seemingly negative words used in the original context. An example is the word "ENEMY". Should you come across this word, dont think of an "enemy" as someone to watch out lest he /she brings you harm. Instead, substitute the word with "the person or the event you are dealing with." In this way, he could be your boss, your colleagues, employees, customers, spouse, children, a marathon race, etc.

To wit, this quotation from Sun Tzu:

If you know yourself and your enemy, in a hundred battles, you will never fear the result......

maybe rewritten as (if you are running a marathon):

If you know yourself and had train well, in a hundred races, you will never fear the result......

I Survived

(L-R) Christine, Ben and myself
Photo taken by KC Penguin-1


I survived the 20km GE Life-Pacesetters run today, finishing in just under 2 hrs. Although the timing is nothing to shout about but I knew there is an improvement. Still feels good after the run although towards the last 2km, both my legs were feeling tired. Struggle a bit towards the uphill before entering the Lake Gardens. Just needed to put more mileage and strengthen my legs. Next target KLIM 2006 - going for the 21km only.

Australian Open 2006 - Melbourne

Watching this year Australian Open - Ladies, is like watching a sports fashion parade by all the tennis stars. Besides displaying their tennis skills almost all the ladies star are parading with new attires by their sponsors.




















From wearing a sports bra and cover with a low cut dress by ADIDAS




















to a pastel blue color nite dress and tank-top with a low waistline shorts by NIKE.




















This is making ladies tennis extremely exciting not just from the spectatators perspectives, but also for TV commercials and attires sponsors. This will definite attract more viewers to the game.




















My alltime favorite is the comeback kid ie MARTINA HINGGIS.

The Long and Winding Road

The title has lots of meaning to me at least for this coming Sunday where I will be going for my 2nd long distance race (eventhough is 20km - for others is SAP SAP SUI - the triple S effect) eversince my comeback to running after 15 years. My sense is the run will take me at least between 2 to 2-1/2 hours to complete. It will definitely be a long and winding road for me, that leads me to your door, and will never dissappear. Wish me luck this Sunday.

The other event that reflected well on the title is my quest to seek donations and sponsorships for my Mt Kinabalu Climb For Charity 4-7 may 2006. All proceeds will goes to MAKNA (although the Ellie guy had spoilt the market for me, in Cantonese "Cho Why See Cheong"). I will still continue to go for it no matter what people says about MAKNA. And also on the way up to the mountain summit - its another long and winding road - the wild and windy night. Eventhough this is the 5th time I am going there, its a new challenge for me. Wish me luck again for the very first charity campaign that I put together with my climbing/running buddy ie LIFEMOU

The title will also reminds me of the The Long and Winding Road a pop ballad written by Paul McCartney that originally appeared on the Beatles' album Let It Be. It became The Beatles' last Number 1 song in the United States on June 13, 1970.

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I’ve seen that road before
It always leads me her
Lead me to you door

The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here
Let me know the way

Many times I’ve been alone
And many times I’ve cried
Any way you’ll never know
The many ways I’ve tried

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don’t leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don’t leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Mt Kinabalu Charity Climb 4-7 May 2006

The tentative final list for the team to support this charity campaign is 25 climbers. We may have some additions but if possible I would like to keep it at 25. Hopefully there are no dropouts along the way.

Now the challenging part; raising the funds and donations for MAKNA. This is definitely harder than reaching the summit. I will try hard to secure the funds and so is my running and campaign buddy LIFEMOU.

We already have RM400 to start of with. An individual friend of ours had pledged to support us in the campaign. Wish us luck....................$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Charity Climb

Money, Money, Money - must be funny, its a rich man's world

My quest to get out and seek sponsorship for my Mt Kinabalu Charity Climb 4-7 May 2006 had begun. Had spoken to a few corporates, and waiting for an answer. It sounded easy but when you start to approach individuals and corporations, and tell them about your quest.......thats where the challenge starts. Now I know it is not a simple task to raise a charity campaign. Take lots of hard work, patience and you must know the people who can help you. For this campaign, at least it was started early. MAKNA (Majlis Kanser Nasional) at least have accepted our offer to be the recipient of all donation proceeds. I have spread the tasks to a few felllow climbers who are willing to help out in the campaign. Hopefully we can secure some charitable corporate sponsors. LIFEMOU, how is your progress at your end.

WHERE ARE ALL THE KIND PEOPLE !!!!!!

Cheers.......

Raining

It has been raining almost every evening for the past week. Most of my run had to be in the morning. Was also comtemplating to join the AMBank Circuit Run Session 2 at Lake Gardens after KC had sent an email out informing everyone in his mail list. Friday evening 6 Jan 2006 was destined to rain heavily, and after my seminar at KTAR, decided to go back and work from home. Sure enuf it rained, and heavily and then tapered of till midnite. I told myself that tomorrow will definite be a cooling day to run at the circuit. The next morning when I woke up at 5.45am, it was still raining pretty heavily and since I am still enjoying my sleep, I called it off and decide not to go for the circuit. Continue to sleep.....zzzzzzzz. Eventually did a 14km run in the evening also under a drizzle throughout the run. Timing was nothing to shout about, just wanted to ensure that I can run comfortably under such distance and build up my N-durance. I reckon my legs are still not strong enuf right now. Lots of mileage to be clock.........

Training for a marathon

I found this website under the name Serpentine Running Club which provide lots of information about training, marathon running, running to lose weight and all the way to running and your sex life. I know around, there are lots of seasoned runners who have a very good training program yet there are newbies out there which may need a reference like this.

Introduction

If you are new to running, you should think twice before attempting a marathon. You should train for a year, or ideally two, before you put your body through the stress of running 26 miles 385 yards. You should certainly NOT attempt a marathon with less than 9 months running under your belt. This means, for example, that if you are thinking of running the London Marathon in April, you should start training by August the previous year. It is possible to run a marathon with less preparation, but you have a significantly increased risk of injury, and you are unlikely to enjoy the experience.

If you are not already running regularly, then you should ideally begin by walking for three weeks, to give your body time to adapt. See our guide to starting out.

The specific training to build up to a marathon begins about 3 or 4 months before the race. Before that, your running should be aimed at building up your fitness, stamina, strength and speed, to lay down a sound base for your marathon preparations.

Specific training programmes for the marathon are widely available. Serpentine Club Coach Derek Turner has written a programme for beginners, available on our training pages. There are also links from our training pages to other marathon training programmes. The rest of this page explains the principles and components of marathon training, to enable you to "roll your own" training programme, or to understand the rationale behind training programmes written by others.

Remember that everyone is different.

Click here for more information

Liverpool fine run halted at Bolton

Bolton 2 Liverpool 2

Liverpool's superb 10-match winning run in the Barclays Premiership came to an end in a 2-2 draw at Bolton, thanks in no small measure to former Anfield misfit El-Hadji Diouf. But Gerrard and Garcia save it for the Reds in the end.

The Perfect 10

Liverpool 1-0 West Brom

Liverpool made it a `perfect 10' with a performance which was anything but that as they beat West Brom 1-0 at Anfield.

The Reds have now won 10 league games on the trot for the first time since 1982 after Peter Crouch's towering header extended their impressive run of results.