Pedestrian in KL

Thats me, the speck in the middle, taken from our previous condo in Northpoint, Mid Valley several month ago, walking home from Bangsar.

Walking in KL is an unusual and dangerous pasttime and elicits stares from passing motorists. This was only the second time that I have walked this route. See my previous post for why this has been an infrequent event.

More Home Made Food

This is duqqa, made at home. Delicious with bread dipped in olive oil and then into this stuff. Great for a party appetiser. It is very easy to make using hazel nuts, almonds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and tumeric.

The Asian Food Channel........

Over the past year or so our family has been making the effort to reduce intake of processed food.

Why...because food in plastic or a can is evil! OK I’m joking, well half joking, I haven’t become a complete , brown rice eating, roman sandal wearing, only organic eating, whale loving, new age greenie.....yet!

My eating philosophy is simple: FAT IS NOT BAD. SALT IS NOT BAD. SUGAR IS NOT BAD. The real enemy is processed food with its additives and mountains of processed, refined sugars and sodium that we only know about if we dare to read the fine print.

So what has the family done about it? We are now eating more home cooked produce e.g. home made pizza, home made cookies, home made juices (don’t kid yourself – carton juices are evil! Do yourself a favour and have a coke.) And pictured below is the latest addition to our repertoire; homemade pasta. Yes it takes time, but the improvement in taste over packaged pasta makes it worth, aside from any health benefits.

Its a Tough Life in the Tropics

More on Phuket

We knew it was hot and here is a quote form the event website describing the conditions.


"What a scorcher it turned out to be! It was definitely no walk in the park for participants this year, as we experienced the toughest conditions to date. Temperatures on race day were in the predicted range of 26-32C, but for most it was the humidity that proved to be the challenge. Humidity was 100% overnight and only began to drop at 8.30am, when the sun got higher. The heat index tells us that at 10.30am though the temperature was 'only' 32C it felt like 39C because of the high humidity."

Long Weekend at Phuket - Laguna Half Marathon

It’s the middle of the week and I am still feeling the effects of an eventful long weekend away.

The Laguna half marathon in Phuket was the latest race destination for our intrepid crew of recreational expatriate runners from South East Asia. As with previous trips of this kind, Lina and I flew solo, leaving Isaac at home where he attended a friend’s birthday party on the Sunday. Lina decided to make the weekend a little more leisurely and skipped the running part. I don’t blame her; our accommodation, Indigo Pearl was a very comfortable choice. It is a vast resort but still has the attention to detail that one would expect from a boutique hotel. The theme is based on the tin mine that was at this location many years previous and the design of the room is largely industrial artistic. There were 3 pools to choose from, including a pool bar, infinity pool and one for the kids as well. Young Keisha was loving the latter pool however I suspect her father was longing for some more quality time in the pool bar with a few Singha beers for company!

Things were not all smooth sailing however as we arrived via Air Asia missing our luggage. Luckily, my bag including running gear arrived later the same day. Lina, however had to wait till late on Sunday for the arrival of her luggage, missing our IPod – bloody thieves! Furthermore, I lost my voice the day before the race, a symptom of a dreaded lurgy that has been lurking in me the past week. On the eve of the race I was not feeling up to 21 km so I decided to make the call on whether I would run at 4.30am on race day. The throat was still croaky but good enough.

The gun went off for the half marathoners at 6.00am and I was very happy with my 5 km split times up to the 15km mark. I was starting to tire at about 13 km and the last 4-5 km was a real slog. Given the circumstances I was happy with running under 2 hours for the first time. Many thanks must go to my running mate and fellow manmum, Damien who has pushed me on our weekend runs and as a result my running has significantly improved. Stefan was the winner in our group with a well run 1.40 half. It was very hot and sunny with a low sun for the first 10km and unfortunately there was scant local support for the competitors, unlike at the Ankor Wat event. As usual, plans for a big night following the race ended with a chorus of yawns and droopy eyes as we all struggled to last till midnight.

The next event for the gang is undecided, some may be moving on from these parts shortly which will be sad to see. I am keen to repeat the Ankor Wat event in December as the conditions make for a good opportunity for a PB.

The Classic All Blacks in KL

Mehrts running through the game plan

Yes I know what you're thinking and yes its fair to say Jonah has continued his lifelong aversion of the Beep test!

This guy sneaked in....his face is familiar....

Jonah lining up a place kick. A handy kicker as well.

The biggest Rugby occasion in Malaysia for sometime has hit town this week with the arrival of

the Classic All Blacks for an exhibition game against a World XV on Saturday.

I was lucky enough to assist with Physio duties for training yesterday afternoon and it was a veritable whos who of recent All Black Rugby. The star of the show is Jonah Lomu of course and he was swamped by autograph hunters. The boys were doing it very tough in 42 degrees and 90%+ humidity and it was awesome to rub shoulders with a few sports heroes.............and Ruben Thorne!

http://www.spiritofrugbychallenge.com/CAB.aspx

I will be in Phuket for the Laguna half marathon this weekend so will miss out on running the touchline for the game itself.

Article in Expatriate Lifestyle - Meet the Manmums

http://www.expatriatelifestyle.com/latest-articles.html

Book Review - From Third World to First: The Singapore Story:1965-2000, Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew

Having lived in South East Asia for the past 2 years, I had been meaning to read the memoirs of a giant political figure in the region, Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister of Singapore. Under his stewardship, Singapore moved from a colonial backwater to a thriving first world economy. It is clear throughout the book that Lee harbours no regrets for being the architect of draconian policies in Singapore that have garnered widespread criticism amongst liberal outsiders. The results apparently speak for themselves as far as economic data is concerned. Singapore is top of the class, having started as a hopeless cause when they were expelled from Malaysia in 1965.

Of course along the path of Singapore’s transformation, there has been collateral damage; reduced free speech and personal freedoms, and for this Lee feels no need to apologise. It was all part of the greater good and those critical of the regime are always painted as troublemakers. Lee clearly has no time for the checks and balances system of governance in Western democracies.

Lee’s single minded strength of will resounds in his writing style, and love or hate his policies, one can only admire the way he has turned his vision into a reality. To do this in the context of a 4 million strong nation is undeniably impressive. Singapore is criticised for being sterile, and lacking in creativity and innovation as a result of the ‘nanny state’ mentality, but in fairness to the regime, within which Lee is still very influential despite stepping down as Prime Minister in 1990, they have introduced policies to make the Singaporeans more free thinking, something considered essential in today’s ‘knowledge’ economy. Furthermore, Lee never sought the cult of personality leadership style that has poisoned other such ‘fatherly’ leaders worldwide, whose egos far surpass their ability to deliver a better lot for the people they purportedly represent. His vision was entirely centred on the betterment of Singaporeans, not personal gain.