The Penang Big Gulp

Hi! I just got back from Penang yesterday night after running the bridge run on Sunday. It was quite an experience. Lots of stuff to blog about. I have tonnes of photo and videos clip to sort out. This is just a teaser before the real report come up. Do comeback in a few days time for update. :)

An Ode To Nike Lunar Trainer+

I would like to introduce to you these wonderful shoes,

Lunar Trainer+ has just hit the market, they are so new,

I have worn them for few races, and this is the review,

Not only I ran, but in them, I flew.....

Appearance-wise, Lunar Trainer+ is such a delight,

The breathable mesh upper is striking white,

And the yellow Lunarlite foam base are glowing bright,

Adorned with "Swoosh" logos, they are simply a sight!

The midsole construction was from aerospace industry,

The Lunarlite technology that has 30 years of history,

Bouncy and responsive with excellent absorption of energy,

Yet retaining the feather weight with enhanced stability.

If you have a Nike+ sensor, you're in luck,

'Coz in these shoes you can have your sensor tucked,

Paired your iPod, you can get your feedback plugged,

Don't you think this provides a bigger bang on your buck?

When it come to pamper your tired feet,

Nike Lunar wearers are in for a treat,

'Coz they are so comfortable on the street,

No hard impact, no surrender and no defeat.

Lunarlite paradigm shifting technology is something to shout about,

The superior cushioning is something that I can't do without,

Super soft landing like astronaut bouncing, beyond any doubt,

I'm hooked on my Lunar Trainer+, day in day out.

No matter your speed is fast or slow,

Running in them are like running on pillow,

Some said it's like running on marshmallow,

But whatever it is make sure you give them a go,

I hope you like my shoe review in this unconventional way,

But don't just believe everything I say,

You must try it on your own, come what may,

So why wait, go and get yourself a pair, TODAY!

Malaysia Jogathon and Annual Charity Jog/ Wheel-A-Thon

What? Malaysia Jogathon and Annual Charity Jog/ Wheel-A-Thon

Where? Dataran Merdeka

When? Nov 9, 2008 (Sunday)

It was a wonderful event. Apart from the usual road race (about 4km), there were other "races" as well - 1km wheel chair race, dog show and antique car parade. The usual runners turned out was rather low. I think it was because of another event - IOI Community Run at Puchong. I opted for this one instead in the name of charity. :)

The charity event was organised by the Spastic Children’s Association of Selangor and Federal Territory (SCAS&FT), Selangor Social Welfare Council, Federal Territory Amateur Athletic Association and more than 40 welfare non-governmental organisations.

The DBKL band.

Wow...Hard to believe all the "akak-akak and abang-abang" at DBKL can really blow.

My fellow runner, Amelia ready to push the wheelchair for a short parade near the Dataran Merdeka.

off they went...

The dogs also took the spotlights. Seen here is a handsome French Mastiff and a Rottweiler. There were plenty of cute dogs as well...Read on...

The cats were all kept in the cages at the tent near the flag pole. I wonder why can't we bring cats for parade. :)

The race proper...after the short parade. Bang! Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Noriah Kasnon flagged off the race.

The 4km race has begun....

This poor girl took a tumble at the start. I send this pic to The Star. Hopefully it will get published. :)

Next catergory - the disabled.

The wheelchair race...There were a couple of speed devils here. The moment the gun went off, they sped off like a true KL Mat Rempits. LOL! Too bad I didn't managed to get it on video.

Racers in action.

Some really enjoy the outings to the max. :)

At the SAS (Save a Stray) booth.

A rescued stray dog. It has only three legs. (Sob!)

Hungry after the race? No problem! Malaysian favourite, Nasi Lemak was served for breakfast.

While having our nasi lemak, we were treated to some performances like Line Dancing by the Happy Senior Citizen. Go aunties, go!

Some songs....

Some fashion shows. No lanky models for these but they were as cute. LOL!

Sexy b*tches???...;)

More dances and performances from the OKUs.

Sweet couple on stage. :)

Amelia won the first prize in her category. CONGRATS!

The beautiful medal. Only top 5 in each category got the medal. For the record, it is not mine. Borrowed from Amelia for photo shoot.

It was a wonderful outing I had. I didn't run the 4km race even though I regsitered for it. Took the time to photograph the events. By blogging this, I hope to create more awareness about helping the disabled. It just take a little bit of your time to support this type of event. It feels good to do good. I will definitely be back next year.

I would like to leave you with this heart warming performance from the children with special needs. You can see they give their 100% performance. Sorry about the jerky camera movements. My eyes got teary watching them through the viewfinder. Don't know why. I felt so humbled and incredibly lucky of what God has given to me.....

Click HERE for more info about the Spastic Children's Association of Selangor & Federal Territory.

Samsung Innov8 Run

What? Samsung Innov8 Run

When? 1 Nov 2008 (Saturday)

Where? Around Klang Valley

How long? 9:00am to 9:00pm! Wa lau eh!

What do you get if you put 3 people with different backgrounds, 1 technical savvy marshall, 2 state of the art INNOV8 Phone and RM50 in a car? Lots of laughter and fun driving around KL....No bickering, we are very nice people...:)

As mentioned in the previous post, I was selected to participate in Innov8 Run, an "Amazing Race meet Treasure Hunt" kinda event in conjunction with the launch of Samsung Innov8 phone in Malaysia recently.

The race started at Samsung Service Centre where we were briefed about the event and flagged off. 15 cars - the sequence of flag off was determined by the score in the Asphalt 4 game. Guess who went the last? LOL!

I admit, I sucked at computer games. Each team had to send 2 reps for the games. The team with the highest score get to flag off first. We got the lowest score. (Insert Huwaaaa.....here!)

Briefing session in progress. Simple instructions on how to use the INNOV8 phone were made known to all participants. Looked simple enough...How did INNOV8 do when put to all the test during the race? Read on.....

Our passport - we supposed to get it stamped at various check points. We missed out a few. Signs of senile decay? Hmmm.....

Group Photo before the flag off. I stole this picture from blogmob website. There is no way I could have get this shot because......

...the photographer actually went up the pedestrian bridge to shoot this. :) Nice job!

Stickering our car.....Lucky No. 13! :)

Here we go.....Thank God no police here. Could have been arrested for driving while taking photo!

Good to go....

First mission. We received a SMS clue to dechiper and to look for Wisma KKAUM using our GPS. So off we went driving and following instruction from the INNOV8 phone. We followed exactly what the "voice" told us. Turn left. Turn right. Drive straight but we ended up at a unfinished factory lot in PJ.

Hmmmm....not a good sign. And that voice from the phone kept repeating, "You have arrived at the destination". LOL! No Wisma KKAUM was in sight. So we drove and drove asking helpful motorists and petrol station.

Lucikly, Yee Leng managed to get the location from her father. The clue was quite hard to crack and it supposed to be simple substitution. My head was spinning already.

We arrived at the Wisma KKAUM but where were the Time Out people? We scurried around like headless chicken at the paintball field. No sign of them. We almost gave up but then we received a "mystery" call from someone. We were told to go to the other side of the field. Off we go....running...Have mercy!

Our task: To complete 2 challenges.

First challenge - 2 people. One team mate blinded folded, had to fetch plastic shapes and put them into the container with corresponding holes. The other team mate had to give instruction to the "blind" team mate. We got "two" shapes in.

Next: Solve a cryptic question and sms the answer to a certain number. This one was quite easy.

So, we were out of Astaka in no time....Next task – The Treasure Hunt.

We headed to Section 14 where 4 treasure hunt questions awaited us. The raod was busy and we had to get down from out car to look for the answers.

I managed to crack the treasure and qucikly asked Yee Leng to grab it from Jaya 33 Supermarket.

First Treasure:

I don't quite remember how the actual clue but it is something like this...

Bring me a can of this healthy drink

To break this clue it is easy I think

Take our event answer if in no run is out.

The solution is quite simple actually.

INNOV8 RUN, minus off IN NO and RUN would get you V8 – a healthy vegetable drink.

Treasure Hunt Questions:

1)Abnormal local saltiness or a boiledMalaysian sweet claiming to enhance female charm.

Answer: Perhiasan Diri SINMA (anagram answer)

2) You have 8 of it in hand today. What and where?

Answer Tulip at one of the stationery shop. (observation answer) LOL! Damn! We didn't get this one.

3)Sounds like what you call your personal meal after lunch.

Answer: Restoran Mydina (sounds like My Dinner!)

4)I and English Rose match here Answer: Medifit (substitution & general knowledge andwer) I= Me, English Rose – Lady Diana, or DI and Match = Fit.

As for the other two questions, I forgot to jot them down. We completely rushed through the sector at Jalan 13/4 because we did not have much time left. We were supposed to go to Wisma Sime Darby and take a picture of all 3 with a Samsung Billboard. We were very very L8....LOL!

So, all of us braved the KL crawling traffic to arrive at Wisma Sime Darby.....Get down and took a picture with the Omnia Billboard, with all smiling faces even though we were all dizzy from traveling in the car. No picture to show here because all were captured in the INNOV8 phone which was surrendered to SAMSUNG after the race. :( Innov8 has excellent 8 MP camera. Beautiful picture just like a point and shoot camera. Love it! We received another clue via SMS....KL Tower! Here we go.....

OK Kids...don't try this at home. LOL! Three of us had to be strapped and harnessed for the flying fox challenge at KL Tower. And we had to video the whole journey down too. :) Of course INNOV8 captured the moment beautifully. See above is my team mate, Kong flying down from KL Tower! :)

After the flying fox we had to run up to KL Tower for another challenge! Given a puzzle to put together in 90 seconds. Tough...very tough. LOL! We were still gushing with euphoria after the flying fox.

Lunch was served. We decided to take a breather and enjoy the rest of the run for the fun of it. No point of pushing as we were running quite L8...No thanks to the heavy traffics.

We received a pdf file via INNOV8 for our next treasure.

Treasure 2.

From a club in Klang Valley

Comes a drink that's new to many

Perhaps at first wise saying indicate real eagerness to tell

For angels hold the clue that you know well.

Answer: Tropicana Twister Orange Drink.

More task to do. We had to co to Samsung Fun Club website and fill in the blanks in our answer sheet. Yee Leng did an excellent job quietly at the back of the car! LOL!

Next clue? More picture taking....Of course. They didn't loan you an 8MP Camera phone for nothing. So we drove to Sg Wang area looking for another Omnia billboard. (How come no Innov8 Billboard?) That place was crawling with cars. We managed to buy the next treasure while stuck in the jam. I got down te car at Jalan Sultan Ismail to go to the 7-11 store opposite Planet Hollywood. When I returned, the car just moved a few inches. (Insert faint here!)

Phew – Mission accomplished and next...Chinatown or Petaling Street.

Petaling Street check point. 3 tasks awaited us....

1) Shopping on a shoe String – We supposed to buy 5 items , the first alphabet of the item should match the last alphabet of the previous item. The middle item as give – Mandarin Orange.

We solved this after running around Petaling Street from fruit stall to fruit stall.

TURNIP – PLUM – MANDARIN ORANGE – EGG – GRAPE

2)Mata Kucing Challenge - Supposed to gulp down icy cold Mata Kucing drink in 15 second. (Insert brain freeze here. LOL!)

3)Treasure Hunt...We got 9 out of 10 answers here. (Will post the questions in the future....Come back for update!)

Next destination Batu Caves. Traffic. Traffic all the way! I think the CoC are trying to punish us with traffic. We know that the oil price has dropped a little but come on....LOL!

Whoa!...Thank God they didn't ask us to climb up the 272 steps up Batu Caves. LOL!

The hunt was terminated there due to time constraints.

We zoomed to restaurant Sakura Kristal at Taman Melawati for dinner, results and prize giving ceremony.

We were all tired. Downloaded the pictures from our INNOV8 phone and returned them to Samsung......with a heavy heart...It is a damn good 8MP camera phone! Not to mention all the entertainment features. (Insert sniffle here...)

Even though we were the last car to start the race but we didn't end up arriving last. Yay!

Answers were revealed......

Lucky draws and prize presentation.

The Winners of INNOV8 phone. Congratulations!

Although we didn't win the phone, I felt that we did the best under the circumstances. Team work really showed. Each of with our own strength and managed to complete all tasks. Yee Leng handled sms and web browsing wonderfully, me - solved the teasure hunt puzzles and Kong just be a good driver. LOL! And our marshall, Natasha...…you rocks! LOL! We joked around like we know each others for a long time. So, all the traffic jam a "bearable". We really had fun!

Acknowledgment – to my team mates, Kong & Yee Leng. You guys made my day. Nice knowing you...Hope we can meet up other time for mamak or stuff. Samsung – for organizing such exciting event, various sponsors for the goodies, Natasha – our marshall. Thanks for grabbing the nicest looking T-shirts for us and help us with road directions.

This post is not complete yet. I still have many things to put which I will update this soon when I have the time. So, do come back for updates. Do let me know if I have missed out anything. Until then, error under your care. :)

Read more other experiences here and here.

If that's not enough, check out my other Samsung Fun Club bloggers here...

SaiMatKong

Yee Leng

Munster

Kelvin

Raj

LynxLee

Azri

Joo Hui