Walking to Taihiti, or Swahili, or Hawaii

The vacation is over, and it's back to work again.

It was a good vacation, even if it was a lot of nature (for me, but not for H).

Key highlights :

Volcano National Park. Hiking through an old volcano caldera, and knowing that the rock only solidified 12 years ago, seeing steam come out from vents because the rocks below were so hot that they would boil any rainwater that seeped down to them. Driving all the way down to see where lava had entered the ocean and formed new land. Seeing old Hawaiian petroglyphs (ancient carvings).

Staying in one of the coolest Bed and Breakfasts ever. Huge tall windows in an octogonal cottage, with a forest surrounding you. Felt like camping, but with all the comforts of home.

Snorkeling for the first time ever in Hamauna Bay, where i got to see fish and coral and sea urchins up close. On a side note, snorkeling is tough, especially when you have to breathe through what is essentially a big straw.

Attending my first luau. It was a fun experience, but as H said at the end of it, the luau reminded us why we didn't like group tours. Lowest common denominator and all that.

Well, at least i convinced H that i can actually tolerate some nature - especially if it's not too wet or muddy, or both :)

Now, where to next?

Ajantis is back to his daily grind, or tea, or walk, or whatever you wanna call it...

Blogging to eternity

4 hours before i fly off to Beijing for the company's annual convention, and a couple of days till i see H. Then it's off to St. Louis and Hawaii

Haven't blogged lately, cos of work getting busier and WoW eating up all my spare time. But here are a couple of big things that have happened lately

1) Got promoted to Senior Director! Was very good, pleasant news. Did well when presenting to higher ups in regional meetings, so this promotion helps round out the good vibes that come with doing a good job :) A nice raise helps too.

2) Told my boss about H. He was completely fine with it. A major milestone, but one that feels like a natural progression. It's nice to no longer be closeted at work, even if i don't want to hang a big neon sign over my head talking about it.

3) Stopped going to Lindy hop on thursdays. I could feel this coming, as the number of good dancers at swing fling kept decreasing. In fact, the divine Miss T was one of the reasons i still kept going. Oh well, life must move on i guess. I'll still keep dancing, but not as regularly any more. And if i get rusty at it, then oh well....

4) Bonded with Miss T much this past trip. We are very different soulmates, her and I. She the academic, me the corporate executive, but i guess we both have expansive enough views of the world that we find common spaces in which to intertwine. See you soon, Miss T!

Ok, that's enough for now. Back to packing and packing and getting ready for travel through many countries :)

Knees hurt, speed spurt

Wow it's been a while since the long blog. Just a quick update on what's happened in August

1) Ran the Army Half Marathon in 1 hour 59 min and 36 seconds! Met my objective of 2 hours... and finished feeling energised. Now looking forward to the Standard Chartered ....

2) Unfortunately, been having knee problems over the past week since the Army Half Marathon. Been resting for a bit, so hoping to try a 4km run tonight without my knee acting up

3) Started World of Warcraft again, which is also part of the reason why i haven't blogged for a while :) Forgotten how addictive it can be. The good news though is that i no longer end up sleeping only 4 hours a night as a result of playing WoW all night.

4) Work has really picked up. Am now covering someone's job as part of my training, on top of my own training and meetings. Fun, tiring, but also exciting :)

5) Got a little curveball thrown at me yesterday. Taking on my full portfolio in November, but got asked whether i wanted to take on another department.... which means i will be heading up 5 portfolios.... It's intimidating, but exciting, and also comes with a new title and pay rise...

Been spending some time with the fabulous Miss T. Glad to have a lindy gal pal who i can hang out with again, even if i get blogged about. She asked me the other day whether i hang out with any other friends outside of Lindy. And my honest answer was ... not really. Maybe it's because i find it easier to hang out when it's a regular activity like Lindy.

But part of it is the return of Miss T to our wonderful shores. Somehow, we just connect. Perhaps it's because we have both been overseas, and feel somewhat disjointed from where we live. But either way, I'm glad she's back, even if just for a short while.

Ajantis is dancing...

Going on to the rainbow

Been in Sydney this past week for meetings. Reminded again what a nice city it is, with great skyscapes, a view of the harbour and amazing weather. Spent half a day just sailing around on a yacht in the sunny Australian winter. Completely awesome. Also managed to make my way down to lindy hop night in Newtown. While there were more people there this time, the level of dancing wasn't amazingly high. Still, it's always good to go dancing in other scenes. About the only thing i don't like is the high price of food here -.-

Another regret : not getting to run in the Sydney Botanical Gardens (especially since it's right opposite my hotel). Will definitely have to bring H back here so we can explore more.

Ran into an old secondary school classmate online. Reminds you how small Singapore is. Also brought back some not so good memories of me bullying this classmate, but then again, who likes to be reminded of his own bad behaviors in the past?

Interesting phenomenon : Wizard rock!

These next 3 months are going to be very busy. Army Half marathon coming up Aug 26, along with a very tight training schedule and being accountable for the first time this year in September for business results. Both exciting and intimidating. All good!

Ajantis is all excellent....

The Mckellan of Physics

So i went to watch Asian Boys vol 3 with a friend this past Sunday. Couple of reflections

1) Somewhat didactic, with 2 characters onstage debating different points of view that didn't break much new ground. Felt like watching Alfian's plays in school again.

2) The part of the play that covered relationships was a lot more poignant. At the end, the main character says... "this is the only way i know how to be happy". The point that the character was making was that we don't choose to be gay, especially given how much more difficult it is to be gay than straight. That's true, for me, at least. If i had a choice, i would probably choose to be straight. But i can't. I can't imagine being as happy with one of my gal pals as i am with H.

3) On a lighter note, the first half of the play was set in RJC. Given that Alfian is from the same year as me, and that the novel is set a couple of years before i was there, a lot of the references felt eerily familiar :P

Exciting thing that happened during the play : Ian McKellan showed up! So cool! And he does sound as magnificient and stately as Gandalf in real life :)

Bought Harry Potter book 7 on Saturday and finished reading it on Sunday. Brought the book to a nice close for me, with all loose ends tied up. But no, i won't reveal who died....

Got my final set of credit card bills. My god, i did max out the credit limit on my American Express as a result of the 5 week office trip. That's kinda scary. I don't want to get used to spending that kind of money -.- Hopefully, things will be better with this upcoming trip (going to Sydney for business).

And i'm taking another mega-windy journey in November. Singapore-Beijing-Detroit-St. Louis-Hawaii-Beijing-Singapore. Again, hoping i won't spend too much money then.

We'll see....

Ajantis must be frugal!

The price is right

All about money and schtuff this post.

Feeling somewhat broke now. Just paid my whole income tax for 2006 at one ago, followed by two really expensive dinners. Funnily enough, these were my first two fine dining experiences ever in Singapore, and they happened within a week of each other. Total damage for the 1st dinner, over $1k, split among 3 people (cos we were treating the groom for his bachelor party), while the 2nd one was $360 for 2 persons.

Worth the experience and the food, but not something i would repeat again.

Good thing the stock market went up, along with all my stocks :P

Speaking of money, i'm really tempted to buy the Wii..... turns out the modified version (that allows you to play pirated games) is available in Singapore AND you can download games through bittorrent!!!! Wii sports, here i come! What a great excuse to get exercise while playing video games!

Other ravings :

Need to lose weight ; gained 2-3 kg on this last overseas trip, and feeling it in the pants, and in the comments by office colleagues. Was doing well until the fine dining dinners (yet another reason to take a break from those for a while)

Going to Sydney again end of this month for work. That should be fun.

Sore from my first 13km run in a while. A backrub sure would be nice right now. Need to start ramping up for the Army Half Marathon.

Ajantis is sleepy and will now conk out...