Zi Rong's Personal Blog

Monday, March 16, 2009

NTU Bike Rally 2009

It was my first time participating in a long-distance cycling event. It was a 128km route, I joined it together with my brother and 2 cousins. Here's the route of the event:


We reached East Coast Park at about 6am. The sky was still dark, there were already many people there. Most of them had their personal bikes. As we were not avid cyclists, we rented the bikes from them. The total fee including bike rental was $40, which was worth it considering the food provided, and large number of manpower needed.

The event flagged off at 7am, the seasoned cyclists raced off on their speedbikes into the distance. My cousins and I remained in the middle of the pack. We reached the first checkpoint Labrador Park at about 810am, replenished on food and rested for about 15mins.

Next checkpoint was at NTU. Soyjoy energy bars, H2O drinks and bananas were provided. By then, my thighs started to ache a little, I continued after some stretching. My thighs were so numb I had some difficulties walking down the stairs, haha. After a 20min rest, we continued to our next checkpoint at Kranji Reservoir.

The toughest part of this leg was the seemly never-ending Lim Chu Kang stretch of road. We past by 3 cemetries and a chicken farm. By then, there were people resting on the grass patch along the road. There was a guy receiving medical attention, it looked like he fell from the bicycle and injured his arm. By this time, the sun was up and I began to feel the heat. I pedaled on and finally reached checkpoint 3!

On to checkpoint 4 at Yishun Stadium. I found this leg the toughest as there were many hills to climb along Mandai road. The temperature of the air was also beginning to rise. This was where the gears of the mountain bike came in very useful and allowed me to conquer the mild and steep slopes. Even the safety cyclist commented that the hills were killing him. Onwards to checkpoint 5 at Serangoon Stadium!

In this leg, we cycled through the upcoming Seletar Airhub. We passed by the Singapore Youth Flying Club and Seletar airport. Next was Jln Kayu were it's famous for the roti prata. The traffic here was heavy, and the narrow roads made it worse. I had to slow down to avoid getting hit by cars. Lorries were reversing from parking lots, and taxis trying to overtake dangerously. We cycled through Yio Chu Kang road, and finally reached Serangoon Stadium. The sky was turning cloudy, and rain was imminent. We took a 15min rest here, had a toilet break and ate some food. By now, the Soyjoy energy bar tasted bad as it was very dry. It tasted similar to the army's combat ration fruit bar. NSmen should know the taste.

Finally there was only 1 checkpoint remaining till the end of the bike rally! We cycled through Hougang and onto Tampines Road. Mid way through, the rain started to pour! We seeked shelther at a bus stop along the way, and was deciding whether to continue. My brother and cousin was keen to go on, thus we continued pedaling despite the heavy rain. We went past Ikea, Pasir Road and finally reached Loyang Point. From here it was still quite a long way to the Changi Beach checkpoint. We cycled past Changi Air Base, Changi Village and the SIA Training College. This stretch was challenging as well cause of the slopes. The poor visibility caused by the heavy rain made things worse. Till then, we had cycled for 9 hours!

We rested at Changi Beach for about 5 min, and continued on to the finish line at ECP. From then on, we travelled along the Park Connector Network (PCN). The cycling track beside the Changi Airport runway was great. It was a completely straight 4-5km road, we cycled and saw planes taking off. There was only a slight drizzle of rain then, and the air was cool. We finished the entire course at about 5.15pm, taking approximately 10h including the breaks taken at the checkpoints.

Many people had already left, and the stage area was empty. I'm sure more would've stayed if not for the rain which drenched all the participants. The event ground was also flooded. We decided to give the lucky draw a miss and went home after changing into dry clothes, where a soothing hot bath awaits us.

I think the entire event was well-organised with the routes clearly marked out, and many road marshallers along the way. However the checkpoints were lacking of energy drinks, probably because cyclists who reached earlier finished them. The only checkpoint which had H2O was at NTU, while the rest of the checkpoints had ice water and diluted Gatorade drinks. Food like buns and energy bars were aplenty though. Other than that, the entire event was very fun and challenging. I'm also very thankful we didn't encounter any accidents along the way. This is the most physically challenging activity I've taken part thus far. My next goal is to complete a half-marathon under 2h this year end.


NTU Bike Rally 2009 Finisher's Tee (left) and Event Tee


Back of the Event Tee

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

A free man!

I've finally completed my 2 years of army conscription service to Singapore. The feeling that I had on the day of ORD was overwhelming and priceless. It's the day when I finally gained back control of my life and no longer have to do things I don't like, and having to keep a very short haircut.

Blogging has recently become unpopular. My friends have stopped updating their blogs regularly, some even gave up on it completely. Blogging started out as a popular way to communicate with friends and sharing your thoughts with both friends and strangers who visit it. But like Friendster, it's popularity is fading away.

I really look forward to starting my studies in University. The thought of becoming a student again, making new friends and learning new things is just so exciting. I can't wait to embark on my career in the aerospace industry.

I've about 5 months before the semester starts. Recently I've been looking for part-time jobs. I've gotten one as a part-time tutor at the tuition centre, and another 4-day job as a helper at the furniture fair.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Ironic (or iconic) picture of Singapore society



I found this picture from HardwareZone. I think it really depicts the state of Singapore society. The government is always advocating to help the poor cope with rising costs, but there're still so many people living in a bad state. Just take a walk around Boon Keng estate and you can see the poor living conditions many people have.
Lets see what the Jan 22 Budget have to offer to help the middle and lower-income citizens.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Happy 2009!

Yeap, it's finally 2009. It's about 6 weeks till I finally get out of army. My camp is getting more regimental, early life runs and compulsory 1st & last parades. Regimentation really spoils the relaxed environment that we used to have and enjoy. But well, just hang on for another 6 weeks and it'll be all over. Several of my friends have already ORD'd and I long to have the freedom they enjoy.

What I did and achieved in Year 2008
1. I spent many months (March till Sept) doing NDP08 together with my battalion. It was super fun though, best experience I could ever get in NS. Hope to get involved in NDP09 somehow.

2. Attained driving license in May. It was my 2nd test attempt, and I spent almost $2k to get it. I know it's not possible for me to own a car yet, so I'll just drive my Dad's car.

3. That's probably about it, cause NDP took up so much of my time. I must achieve more in 2009!!

I've also set my 2009 resolutions and targets:
1. Join Nike Human Race and Standard Chartered Marathon this year. I missed out on the 2008 Nike run as I didn't know about it, I'll not miss it in 2009.

2. Get a job from March till August when I start my course in NTU. Also to earn enough money to pay off at 1 year of tuition fees.

3. Meet up with friends more oftenly.

4. Get my first IPPT Gold as a NSmen. I'll probably have to take the test after April.

I found this video online, a guy proposing to his girlfriend during a NBA game.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Holiday in Australia

I went for a holiday with my family to Australia from 6 to 16 Dec. We travelled on Qantas to Brisbane. My Dad drove all the way down from Brisbane to Sydney. The route was:
Brisbane 2 nights - nothing really much in Brisbane actually. It was very quiet after 5pm, should have spent 1 night here instead.

Gold Coast 2 nights - great beaches, visited Dreamworld, Whitewater World and Movie World within the 3 days there

Coffs Habour 1 night - had to spend a night here to break the 700km journey from Gold Coast to Sydney

Blue Mountains, Katoomba 2 nights - A world heritage site, famous for the Three Sisters Rock (see my photo album). Scenery was amazing, but rainy weather clouded the great views.

Sydney 3 nights - A very bustling city. Driving in Sydney is very expensive, parking costs over $8/hour. It's a great shopping haven as well. The main shopping area, George St, is much better than Singapore's Orchard Rd. Market City have factory outlets which have great deals. We bought a New Balance sneakers for $40, Diesel sneakers for $70, RL Polo tee for $59. I had a great time here. The casino, StarCity, was cool.

Visit the photo album for my trip here.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

RSAF Open House

I went with my Dad to the open house. We took a shuttle bus from Hougang Interchange at about 845am, and reached PLAB at around 9am. As it was early, the queues were still short.

Here are the pictures

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There were 7 lanes for the security check, we queued up at lane 7

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I think both are F-16s

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I queued for almost 1hr, and manage to get a feel of the Apache cockpit

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The apache pilot was kind enough to explain the helicopter aerodynamics to me in simple terms

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Inside the Fokker aircraft

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The Chinook. The weather was really hot!

By around 1030am, the sun was scorching. The air display was alright, almost the same as the previous air force open house. I hope to see the F-15SG during the next RSAF open house.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Life, NDP, Fireworks Festival

NDP
For the past few months since June, I had been busy with NDP. Everywhere in camp I hear my peers and superiors talking/breathing/laughing/joking about NDP. From Combined Rehearsal 1 to 6, plus Preview, there were 7 full-dress practices before the actual Aug 9 event. It came and gone, and it's all back to the usual life in camp.


Here's the group of people who set up the entire communications network for NDP. It's amazing how a small group accomplished a mega-scale task.
Upcoming is an overseas exercise to Aussie, another project that requires lots of preparation. That just means more OT...
I can't wait to ORD next Feb!

SG Fireworks Festival

The above are some pictures taken during the fireworks display, taken with a Casio Exilim camera.
The tickets were distributed among NDP participants, and I was lucky to get a pair of tickets during a ballot cause there were insufficient tickets to go around. Other than the spectacular 15min fireworks display, the other show performances were sub-standard. I heard people paid $30-$70 for a pair of tickets in online auctions, it's definitely not worth the money.

20,000
Anyway, I'm very surprised my blog has 20,000 hits. Thanks to everyone who visits it, I promise to update as regularly as I can from now on!