The Route to Be A Triathlete (again)

It time for the third Wesley Award 2008. Ever someone ask me is there any reward for those winners in this award and my reply?

 

"An acknowledgement is worth a thousand rewards" That is also the motto of my award to thank and acknowledge the good things and friends around me.

 

 This year had been very challenging for me and many things did happen. My beloved mum had departed me to rest for eternal. She is actually the biggest winner in my award. Life goes on and I take this chance to also appreciate and thank those friends whom in any way console and make me feel better to stand up again at those difficult time when my mum left me.  Here the list goes:

 

I love you Mum

You know this in heart

 

As I wrote this delication to you,

I am filled with tears.

I never had spent enough time with you

and even sometimes find you nagging

 

As I was with you in the wake,

all I can think of one word to describle you

was SELFLESS

 

You are a selfless person, and as a Mum

You always think of others before yourself

You helped the old lady downstairs who was ignored by her own son

You chat  with lonely old lady you find nearby our neighbourhood to make them feel happy even though you don know them

 

As I am clearing your clothes from the washing machine, I cried and when I told sis, she cried too

You never had much decent wear, not even a nice gown

 I did not ever think of bring you out to buy some nice clothes for you

Now we will never had a chance to make up for you.

 

To tell you something, Sis and I had plan for you in the coming Mother day and I even had thought

to buy you a gold neckacle. It too late.

 

Mum, I AM WRONG!

 

Nothing I say can bring you back now

 

I will promise you to take good care of Dad

and always help sis whenever she need help

so Mum, go in peace

 

We will carry on your selfless character to help people who are less fortunate.

 

And next time, I will tell my children about you and the things you have done for sis and me.

I will never forget you, Mum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually my injury during OSIM affect my sports life a lot. I got to rest competely for about 2 months and now my stamina is back to average. I am going to buy my dream bike soon and hopefully I start to pick back roadie to get back my form, swimming and running in Dubai to do my first complete Triathlon event in July 08. 

 

The award is back again for the 2nd time! I have changed the award name as well. This year I been spending 30% of my time overseas and haven been much time catching up things that happen around Singapore. Anyway here the award winners!

 

As one who studied history probably knew that 23 Aug 1833 is an important day for abolition of slavery in Britain. For most of us living in the eon of this modern world may not have known that slavery is a common thing during eighteen century.

 

How about today? This morning I just read some news about how workers in Dubai are being expoilted by the recruit agency and even their employers. Some were given very low wages (can you imagine suriving 600 AED a month which is equalvalent to S$300/mth) in a country that have a cost of living much higher than us. The poor living condition is well related to a "pig farm" filled with odour and congested unproper living space for them. Under the UAE Labor Law, employers must pay certain fees to the government for each foreign worker they recruit into the country and explicitly forbids UAE recruiters from collecting any fees from prospective migrant workers. However UAE recruitment agents appear to openly flout this law, charging workers these fees instead of requiring the prospective employer to bear the cost.

 

From then on, the workers had to be under the beck of call of their employer; suffer in silence for salary paid in serious arrears, poor living condition, all these just because they had owe a huge loan to the recruitment agency to pay something they actually need not pay for. and thus becoming salvery to the construction industry.

 

Why do they have to pay a sum of money to get a job? Have you all ever think is justifed? Is it just because these workers are very poor and uneducated that allows those villian from recruitment agencies to make use of their poverty to lure them over. Poor, rich, uneducated, educated are all humans. Why should they be treated as if they are like salvery to the country they worked in. Think about their contribution. Tallest building in the world and The icon "sail like" building of a country that everyone marvel. But who build? Proffesional like us? we only know how to talk and play politics. NO it them who do those dirty works under the sun.

 

 

Wow I did it. I finally finish my first Triathlon (offically as individual) at the time of.... wait wait wait. That is the dream that I been having since my fall. How I wish I could really declare myself to be a triathlete and completed my virgin race in such honour. However whatever can be the worst happen to me that day. I fell and dislocate my right shoulder during the bike leg with an excruciating pain that disable me to continue my  race. 

 

If for the past 6 months, friends have dated me out either for dinner or for badminton sessions, I had rejected but all for the training of this coming event. You got to check your fitness and make sure at least you get to do some sport activities at least for every 3 days to maintain at a certain fitness level.  Tri is a muti discipline of sport thus you do not focus on a single muscle group but rather your anerobic fitness as a key factor. Finally towards the eve of the event,  I find myself reaching a top form ever for the past two years.

 

So the morning come and I am meeting Bing at her block downstair waiting for our rented Mercedes van to pick us up and later Zhao Yi to the ECP. Once we are there, we settled down at the transistion area. The atmosphere there seems to create a very strong sports arena. Eveywhere you can see V shape Triathlete or some six pack babes. You can even hear the blast of the MC even far away. Maybe that the reason how some Triathelete go deaf... haha.

 

I was at the last wave of the Men Open. 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. At that moment, I just felt very different from all the previous races I taken part. I was confident and not feeling very anxious to complete the race. I knew the "form" I been training for had been there. If you are an althelete, you will know what "form" I am refering to.

 

Finally It my wave and I met Denish, Kangs and even Jerry (my ex captain for T&F in 97/98). 3,2,1 beep! everyone dash to the sea to gain a advantageous start. I was however at the back cause I believe with my strong and fast beaststroke I can stay steadily in the middle. This time my swim was so different from the Biathlon NUS I took part 5 months ago. I just feel quite relaxed and strong. Towards the last Osim "ballon" I start to kick my leg harder to let the blood flow more to the leg for the transition to bike. Hands finally on sand and I sprang up to run to the bike transition area which was about 400m away. Time check was around 18mmin when I reach there! I was faster than what I targetted. At that time, I conservately estimate my finish time to be 1hr 27min due to my faster swim.

 

Now the bike leg. I started with a speed of 35km/hr as cycling flat was one of my favourite. If I am going to achieve good timing, the bike leg is all I got to show. But only for the first 3km, I encountered a S curve. The first curve I reduce speed to 30km/hr and as I approached the second curve, I felt that I can start accerlating and I  give it a try to raise back to my target average speed of 35km/hr. However before the moment I knew it, my bike tilted and gave way and I fell to the ground with my shoulder down and rolled to the side of the road. When I next knew what happen, I was in great pain on my righte shoulder. At that moment, the first thing that came to my mind was I can never finish this race anymore. 

 

I was sent to CGH. I hardly can move my righ arm and I went through a tremendous pain to fix it back after three injection of some relaxation related stuff into my body. However the part where I felt the most pain was not my shoulder but my heart. A very disappointing heart. When I am able  to leave the X-ray room, I saw Bing, Leeli and Dex waiting outside for me. I was so happy to see them. Bing, Dex and Leeli were so anxious to help me settle the registration. I was so touched by their "comdrades spirit" for me. Bing helped me to call Vivien (the cute gal from OSIM) to help retrieve my bike. Later I was discharged with a sling and we all went down to Jurong East for lunch and back. Leeli even bought durian for me to console me. Thanks Dex, Leeli and Bing, my regular training buddy!

 

Never I am going to find my  placing on the result list this year except under the DNF list but I promise everyone including Spassion, even those triathlete competitior out there, look out for me next year and I surely be back again to attempt with better target finish time!

 

PS: Next stay tunned for my Dubai Trip photos....

Recently I have many friends bothering with changing job issues so I may want to share my personal belief through my experiences with everyone:

 

From my understanding, most have two negative feeling in their jobs:

 a. Firstly is the salary you are getting is always insufficient and that you feel you should get more.

b. secondly is about your new superior whom is a fresh grad not having any experience but sitting on top of you.

 Of course you might be frustrated over work issues from time to time but I think as long you are working, there bound to be frustration and problems over works no matter where you are so I will not discuss them or classify them in one of the negative feelings. It is something we must learn to cope and learnt from it in order to be more experienced in future if we are working for someone.

 A SALARY

Do you know when is the annual company review on salary? is it on a fixed period every year (i.e. july) There is always a possibility that the mgmt is reviewing your salary but not made known to you only until the official review date OR you have passed the date and no review is made and you feel it is not justified as you have done well in your last appraised year. if this is the case, it time to plan for a new job offer. It just shows that the company is not rewarding good staff so no point staying. Of course we sometimes got to also look at the company earnings. However if you want to give your boss a "chance" to retain you, get a job offer then negotiate with your boss on a payrise. Be straight about it since you got nothing to lose. (like what I done in TAC) Ask him/her out for lunch then start asking.

The fact is that BOSS always feign ignorance about payrise and will only consider when the STAFF ask and on the other hand, STAFF always take for granted that there will be payrise. (exception in goverment agency) So if you don ask, there likely no action being done and you will continue to feel sad about it and not getting the pay you deserved or leave the company empty handed.

Sadly this is the fact I known. However, in fact I believe once you done that, your boss will feel that you are a strong individual who dare to speak for your own right instead of black marking you (provided he is generally a fair person). Just ask for a reasonable payrise and I m sure your boss will seriously consider for you irregardless of the outcome if you are in that situation.

 So of course if the review date had not passed, there nothing you can do about your salary unless you decide to leave for higher salary and then at this point, if they want to retain you, they will then counter-offer to improve your pay. That can be another indirect way too.

  

B. UNQUALIFIED BOSS

 

 This is more of a complex question. Look, your boss get in a fresh grad to lead you. What should you do?

 

 If I were you, I would not go to my boss desk to complain why it not me as I believe before they had decide to promote staff or get in a new one, they might already have round of discussions towards the decision so there no point to argue about this. Next you will have then to consider EITHER you bite your teeth and just move on OR move to a better job prospect or job offer? It all depends on you. In this case, I think I will move to another job if I think my capabilities can go far from what I am doing now but this might not be necessary for you.

 If you decide to stay on, then stay on a positive attitude. You are advised to continue to work hard and assist your inexperience superior and a more skillful method is to make him/her reliance to you. Further if you think you can perform better than her, go ahead and outshine her (I mean however no sabotage here) given a chance exposed to the mgmt. It is easy to talk about this than done. However the main key of this is not to spend too much time on politics but rather spend time thinking always how to improve your work and work smart and I believe soon enough, your boss would be able to see you as an strong individual with possession to go far and will eventually get you in a higher position when there a vacancy. Life is just like that. There is nothing fair when it comes to human and especially I believe most of the government agencies (correct me if I am wrong) looks at qualifications more than experiences but still the reality is that if you are more capable than your superior, your time will soon come one day so just be patient if you have the time.

  Finally I don really agree with people resign without getting a job when they are unhappy with work. (unless you think you are still able to sustain the income level without a job.) Take some time out to think what you actually want in your new job, the type of level or position you think you are confident with and then start sending out resume to those companies that match you. If through newspaper you are not getting any response, find job agency. They are quite effective nowadays in matching suitable company to you... try to review your resume and change when necessary to improve your chances to interview.

  Whatever it is, don't let the negative feeling bring you down. Life is really not just about working. You still have family, friends, ECA, holidays etc and you work for a lifestyle, not exchange your lifestyle to work. Afterall most of my friends and I are only at the beinging of our career so give ourselves some time to grow and I am sure we are able to find our opportunity and direction soon one day!

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE! If you have any friends who took part in the recent Ironman race in Malaysia, you will see them hanging this motto at their mouth. Yes that right! It the offical ironman motto. Anyone also heard of the bumblebee story? It shared the same belief. How many times did we actually gave up something which we think is impossible but finally full of regret and reprimand ourself that why didnt we tried?

 

Few months back, the thought of swimming haunt me as I never liked to involve in any sports in water. However, being constantly bombarded and persuaded by my team spassionates to join the NUS Biathlon 07, I finally decided to throw a box of thumbnail on the floor and roll over them naked!. (Haha ok that was extraggerated) I always encounter dizziness after swim and that  probably one main reason for me to dislike swimming. After a month or two, I managed to swim 30laps at pool comfortably although using breaststroke. Yesterday I jus finished my first sprint biathlon.

 

All right here I declare myself as an offical sprint distance Biathlete. So the next upcoming task for me is to take up a triathlon event and as the logo goes : Anything is possible and I am going to try :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People say you get lesser new friends as you grow older. However, I think I already have a few buddies (keith, Mic etc) for more than 20 yrs and 10yrs respectively will be good enough. Anyway my social circle will grow together with Spassion.