lekowala!

The fact that we even embarked on today’s ride was a feat in itself as the last ride was just 3 days ago. What’s important in a zendog ride are the kakis…becos that means there’s gonna be good conversation and some good makan. Most importantly, the kakis are motivation to wake up at 5.45 am to get ready.

Otterman’s speedometer showed a total distance of 84.19km, in 4hrs 48 mins and 11s.

Most of the Zendogs couldn’t make it but we are on leave. The park connectors were ours in a sense as there were few people about. The highlight of the day for Siva was when we met up with another cyclist who was testing out the park connectors at Loyang to Changi and we started talking. He said he was doing some cardio and Siva said,”Oh, we are just going for breakfast at Changi…” The guy must have been baffled when he found out I was coming from Sengkang and Siva from Holland Village, just to go to rustic Changi Village for breakfast… ha. Which was a kosong and egg prata.

This is the view of the Serangoon PCN which I use to get to Tampines Road. Its scenic and with quite a few users, young kids, people jogging and some fishing or doing taichi.

That’s Siva on the Changi Coast PCN in the forest of rhus (Casuarina equisetifolia). It was surreal looking at the scene; it felt like I was in some pine forest in a colder clime.

That’s Siva not on a PCN and being a dawg… and trying out a new route, which in reality was not a route but some grassy space near a longkang, with lots of fallen branches.

A helmet light courtesy of Siva. Which came in handy as my backlight konked off on the way back. More accessories for the bike!

I also bought a backpouch for the bike. I left my chain for locking the bike back home today - and boy did that make a difference. I now have to remove the basket (to reduce wind resistance), oil the wheels and chains. The long distance ride’s pretty different from the short one (an hour) I take to work, so every thing counts. I also badly need a cycling shirt because today I realised I got abrasions. Well as Siva puts it, I am on the slippery road to getting a full kit… Now I know what I want for Christmas…

This is the Bedok Reservoir PCN.
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I had a PCN map handy from Sungei Buloh Nature Reserves and I used that to navigate. It was extremely useful and using the PCN was pretty easy. But I got lost at the Bedok Reservoir area and I think those people at the bus stop must have been thinking I was doing laps as I rode up and down the same road over 3 times looking for the park connector but luckily a taxi driver and an aunty on a bike going to the market helped me to Bedok Reservoir where the PCN was.

Although the map is good, there are some deficiencies, minor ones - the Bedok Reservoir Road area is a bit misleading as it doesn’t show the cross-roads.

Well, it was a nice ride and especially with things so quiet. The steady rain pelting on us along the Changi Coastal Road PCN was a nice feeling. At the end of the ride, at least my knees didn’t complain like the ride on Saturday. But I am sure if i try to take a big step up the stairs, my legs will give.

Its been a while since I joined the Zendogs for a ride. The Zendogs was conceived circa 2000. So this time it was the park connectors (PCNs) we were checking out. From Sengkang, I took the Serangoon river PCN to reach Tampines Road and that was a beautiful road to ride on at 7am in the morning. Somehow, it felt like old Singapore kampung and the sense of history could be felt.

The view from Old Tampines Road in the morning as the sun rose

Met the rest of the Zendogs at Loyang and headed to Changi Village and had thosai there.

The second leg of the cycling trip was the Changi Coastal road PCN and that was nice and we could ride 3 abreast and have a nice conversation and easy cycle. The nasi ayam, gado-gado, soto ayam beckoned so we had another meal (plus some length conversations - hence the name Zendogs cos we tend to forget we still have 40 km to go and start to relak-jack). Most guilt-free eating cos of the mileage covered.

One of the most pleasant cycling trips I have had so far.

These are the dogs - damn happy ones from the looks of it. Check them out sitting in pits they dug out for themselves in the sand… they ARE the true Zendogs.

And these are some Zendogs (2 on the left and one uncle on the right… he’s enjoying the PCN too)

This is a Zendog contemplating the ocean on a Park Connector

More about the ride here at Otterman’s post on the ride

“genetic mix…”

finally got a new electric guitar about a month ago, its a modest one with one a single double-humbucker.   But its an ibanez with a nice feel.  The fret board is pretty smooth and nice to the touch.  Action is pretty low so that means the fingers don’t feel raw after playing for long stretches.

Its suppose to be composed for some science open house for my colleague to present slides with.  But because I was in such a relax mode to compose it since it wasn’t suppose to be in the album, I think there were some creative juices that flowed into the song.  I decided to work on it abit more after I felt I had used too many GB loops in the song.  So I changed the second part so that there was a chord change!  The first version didn’t have one cos it was suppose to be like some short jingle for powerpoint slides.

Spent the better part of 1am to 3am to add in some stuttering guitar leads but overall I am quite happy with this.  Its quite a feat to play the guitar half-asleep.  I remember going into the room and getting ready for bed at 1.30 and then waking up to add more guitar parts…. until 3 am.  then Josh wakes up 5 am tearful and says he can’t fall asleep so we moved to the couch outside and camped out….  eventually he got some sleep but woke up bug-eyed..

So this song is dedicated to teeming life in the sea and the world, the Burmese and also to the poor japanese man who died in Burma.

Thanks to Ivan for tips on layering the guitar leads and most of the fancy stuff I know on Garageband.   Also thanks to Siva for reacquainting us… viva la Ang Mo Kio Sec.  Several more songs to go before the album is complete.  As expected Ivan’s been prolific and providing a good balance to the album as it shapes up.

Ivan’s the Rambling Librarian.. he is also my secondary school classmate… I had lost all contact with him until Siva inadvertently reunited us, since Siva knows a LOT of people. I remember he score lots of points with the ART teacher Chikgu Rahim because he could do some real nice water colour paintings while we were trying our best to use stencils to draw “No Smoking” and trying not to paint outside the lines… we were art morons in his presence.

I knew he was doing stuff on Garageband, so when I got hold of a neat Macbook recently, I dabbled with GB a little and got hooked. Saving up to buy my new axe… cos someone borrowed my Ibanez and never returned it and I can’t remember who. 24 frets some more… sheessh. Well, I guess that’s that…Anyway, the neck was warped beyond tune and the action was way to high so fretting was a bit painful on the fingers. It was also getting old and giving me random electric shocks..

So I did a few things with Garageband and jammed out an acoustic melody with some strumming here and there with the good old ovation one sunday morning and decided to send it to Ivan. I was quite impressed by how he added the lead… I don’t know what effects he has but the harmonics at the later part of the solo just agreed with me. The mashup was clearly a 1+1=3 kind of situation.

He gave it a neat title too… read more on his part here

Here’s the podcast

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Originally uploaded by lekowala.

A farewell dinner for Ryan Ramjan at Zam Zam followed by tea at some Turkish cafe. He’s taken to drinking pondan tea (floral type without milk…unheard of!) Ah well, people mellow… ha ha

Well Ryan isn’t mellow. He is fiery, all heart and passionate about snake research, loves kids and volunteers for social work. Last year he took up social work and went around HDB estates to get youth who were loitering around to engage in meaninnful activities.

He got a job as a warden at Round Island, near his home.
All the best Ryan. It was a great dinner and also most of us spoke about our time at the labs in NUS and spoke also of the future. It seemed like there was a nice closure to that period of our lives. Most of us had more or less gone on our own paths and it seemed like a good time to regroup. It was nice to share and it became apparent that in many ways, we had depended on each other for support and meaning during our research years. Its surprising the effect you have on someone else. COSY, HL and FY (former hons students) were there too cos we sort of went through that period of our lives together. HL and FY were really great students to have and when I got them as students, I thought they were special and true enuff the journey with them was probably at the most interesting/trying in my life.  They made me also realise what my real interests were.   COSY as usual was her happy self and is looking at a very interesting job that really suits her very well. I am still convinced its a camping man or some mountain climbing person you’ll meet.

Its been a great blessing knowing you guys.  All the best in this next leg.

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Originally uploaded by lekowala.

This morning’s walk with Ladybug and Otterman from Macritchie to Bukit Timah summit was really very pleasant. The air was cool from last night’s rain and this flowers were in bloom and released a jasmine-like fragrance. I remarked about the nice scent permeating the forest at Sime Road but alas to the zoologist like Otterman, he commented that it was like Macaque urine. It belongs to a vine and was flowering in synchrony along the forest patches we walked through. Figs and the Bat lily seem to be flowering as well. Another masting event, albeit a low-key one?

Here’s Kai. I wrote about him in this post. I bought 2 of his albums and there was a song there that marked a beautiful memory for me. A few days ago he commented on the post . It was a pleasant one, long, thoughtful, like a nice glass of wine or a sit down by the lake.. That prompted me to take out the harddisk from my old toshiba satellite-pro and whacked the 1 Gig disk into my harddisk casing Otterman provided… soon it was whirring and i firewired it into my mac…. Its strange how I never thought of doing that.. i almost threw the old laptop away.. now I have saved so many photos from my postdoc in Kew. Gosh, Thanks Kai. Here’s a picture of yu that was in my old laptop as well.
Then the next day I had a dream… it was my my dear old friend who’s dissappeared/ run away from my life and many others… So he was there just by the aisle of the cinema and holding on to a baby, he smiles at me and its the same smile when we first met in kindergarten, just at the old hawker centre whilst his grandma was buying soya bean. He sits next to me and before he could say anything… the damn alarm rings… I wake up and cycle to work in the quiet and desolate cold morning.

1215 hrs. I am at Novena and after mass, I buy a pot of Narcissus bulbs for his mum and bring along the Rudraksha rosary beads that I bought for him in Tamil Nadu… I go to his house thinking he or his mum will be there but a maid comes out and says that the house owner is a totally different name…

Kai was right, people change, things change…

It was time to actualise this recipe that I had read in Rick Stein’s, “Fruits of the Sea”. So I experimented on a few poor souls who apparently said it was pretty ok. Couldn’t find risoto rice so had to settle for risoni (rice-shaped pasta) which actually soaks up the stock nicely and has a nice texture. Especially tasty are the clumps that are slightly burnt…

My “sous chef” did pretty darn well with the manga salsa from a book called “the beach house cookbook” by Barbara Scott-Goodman.

Of course this was in celebration of “Sea”-otter’s voyage on the Indiaman - The Swedish Ship Götheberg.

Here’s one ugly elasmobranch at Ocean Park in Hong Kong. Its teeth… yikes were all sticking out. “Sharks may have 3000 teeth at any one time”. And of course these teeth are just a simple modification of their placoid scales. Well I guess sharkey with its fierce dentition caught our eyes.

Another highlight was the Peak. Here’s the macs at the Peak… weather was nice about 15°C. And all the time were the raptors circling the vents.

Siva’s on a 3 week trip on board this ship called the Gotheborg. It sails from Hong Kong tonight at 11pm and heads towards Singapore. He’ll reach Singapore’s port on new year’s eve. What’s he going to do there? Well he’ll trim the sails, mop the boards, climb the masts etc etc. Apparently, there is some training session on tonight in Hong Kong before they set sail.

First, off to Hong Kong and he didn’t even start packing till after midnight.

Shortly after this, the immigration officer double checks the passport just to make sure the passport is in order and makes an unflattering remark… He txts us to complain about this after Ladybug, for the 1oth time tells him to buy batteries for the waterproof torchlight, which, incidentally, as Ladybug adds, can float on water (I can just imagine the Gotheborg stop as Siva tries to use a 100ft pole to retrieve a floating torchlight from the undulating sea.) tee hee.

Bon voyage to our matey at sea, aye aye Captain! awwrrghh.. More about the Gotheborg at this weblog http://gotheborg.wordpress.com/