Historical Landmark of My Life

On the way home this Saturday afternoon, I passed by the Bedok Stadium and I decided to walk in to talk a look. The very moment I walked through those tall green gates and my eyes fixed on the green field within the 400m running track… memories just began to flood back to my mind.

As I gazed at the running track surrounding the huge field of grass, I felt the quiet closeness within. An unseen bonding with this place… I recognized this as my second home… during my secondary school days. A smile broke across my face and warmness glowed in my heart. For this place held special significance to me.

I was an active athletics runner back in my secondary school days. At that time, I vividly remembered how unfit I was, until I joined the Seladang Scout Troop. This was where my athletic journey began.

Growing up through my younger years, it wasn’t difficult to realize that I am not very good at ball sports. Rather, I seem to be able to thrive quite reasonably at individual sporting events; specifically in running.

I wasn’t the best in school or even in my class, but I learnt this at a young age – that one’s talent isn’t about what one can do better than everyone else. But rather, it is what one can do best in view of all else that one can do.

For me, running was the best sport that I could perform in… and I loved the thrill of training and competition. The wind against my face, the sweat on my arms, the burning sensation in my legs, the beating of my heart, the challenge against the clock and the final sprint (and yell) towards the finishing line. That made me the runner that I was in my secondary school days.

Bedok Stadium is the place that I had most of my track and field competitions (of coz, on top of my other participation in the yearly Road Run). This is the place where I trained hard. I recall walking from my block at Bedok North, all the way to the Bedok Stadium, as a warm-up before my training run. And thereafter, walking back home as part of my cooling-down after the run.

This is the place where I train intensely – at one time, 6 times a week, 3.2 Km each time; to prepare for my yearly NAPFA 2.4 Km run. According to the NAPFA fitness chart, this 2.4 Km event was titled ‘2.4 Km Walk / Jog’… but it has never been a walk or jog to me. I would always laugh to myself whenever I see that wording. It was a true joke... a pure insult to a competitive runner like me.

This is also the place where I took part in relay events with my classmates and scouts. Be it the ‘4 x 100m’ or ‘4 x 400m’ relay… or maybe I should say that I have participated in all short and middle distance track and field events, all except the 200m race. I competed in the 200m race during my JC days, as the 10 x 200m relay, which we won gold in both consecutive years. Thus, I can say that I have taken part in all short and middle distance races in my life.

They are - 100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m, 10,000m, 4 x 100m, 4 x 400m, 10 x 200m, Road Run, Cross Country. I also took part in half-marathon and the RSN-50 ‘25 x 2 Km’ relay race during my NS days against the best units in the SAF and Navy. And just last year, I participated in the New Balance 10 Km Real Run at Sentosa, comprising of 3 different types of terrain – road, sand and trail. Thus, even though I didn’t win a lot of medals, my experience in competitive running is still indeed something fruitful and meaningful to look back upon… and smile.

PS: This is also the place where I once ran in all yellow attire! 1 light yellow t-shirt and 1 bright yellow shorts! My secondary school friend said I looked like a chicken running around the track! Hahahaha… =)

My First Discovered Medicinal Allergy!

What better way to discover an allergy than to find out on the second last day of the year. But then again, this could also be viewed as a unique discovery that makes this year end special.

This morning, I rushed to Mid-point Orchard for my yearly dental appointment. Adrian, my assigned dentist, had this particular tone of voice which made me wonder why he seems so indifferent about me. Or maybe he’s just like that to any other patient. Or he is just bored of saying the same things to all his patients.

In that short 20 minutes check-up session with him, I sensed his self-assured, frank and detailed personality… but I just don’t understand why he has to say things to put himself down. For example, when I was surprised to see so much blood when I rinsed my mouth, he said that perhaps he cleaned too hard until I felt pain and I may want to look for another dentist in future. And he also said that even though he has taught me to floss, I would probably just ignore his words after I walk out of this dental clinic and forget all about it till the next check-up. I mean, why would a dentist say such things about himself? Aiyoh… Strange chap.

Just before the end of my check-up, he told me to bite down on this fluoride filled plastic mouth fitting (like those mouth guard that boxers wear before boxing) for 60 seconds. I suppose it was to let the fluoride absorb into my teeth and gums. Perhaps some sort of nourishment to it.

After the 60 seconds was up (I thought it lasted more than 60 seconds), he removed the mouth guard and handed me a cup to spit out the remaining fluoride. Eeeks! It tasted terrible! It looked and tasted like disgusting thick margarine and strawberry jam! Why strawberry jam? Coz those were the streaks of blood that came from the rough cleaning and polishing of my teeth and gums!

When I spat out as much as I could, but a lot was still stuck inside my mouth. This Adrian fella told me casually that I can swallow it, its okay (even now as I am typing this Blog entry, my stomach is squirming!). So I forced myself to swallow the creamy disgusting yellow stuff that was inside my mouth. Oh boy, it tasted so bad that I felt like I was in the middle of ‘Fear Factor’.

That was my first shock. My second shock came when I was called to make payment at the counter. Wah! $79! And $20.95 came from that sickening fluoride murky stuff! And this $20.95 was before GST! Huh? For 60 seconds?! That was like spending $21 in 1 minute! But not that I wanted to bite on it any longer...

Third shock. I began to feel queasy after about 5 – 10 minutes while waiting for Rebecca to come out from seeing that same dentist. He is indeed the strangest dentist that I have ever seen before. And he even wears that binoculars-type of eyewear which jewelers put on to look closely at jewels, diamonds and stuff! I wonder if this equipment had some sort of ‘10x zoom’ function or something that he uses to peer into our mouth.

This queasiness lasted for the next hour or so, making me feel like vomiting. I felt terrible because of the overdose of fluoride (more than the usual that we use to brush our teeth).

Later on, Rebecca told me that she also experience stomach queasiness. So she checked out the Internet and found out that, “most people can take fluoride as medication with minimal or no side effects. But for those who are affected, stomach upset, rash or headache may occur.” So both of us were ‘poisoned’ by the fluoride! Even hurrying to buy a $3.60 egg and ham croissant from Burger King and swallowing it down didn’t help. Oh dear!

Now we know – both of us are allergic (or maybe a less intense word would be ‘sensitive’) to fluoride! Never swallow toothpaste no matter what! To add onto my list of allergies / sensitivities, I am also sensitive towards raw food, e.g. raw salmon. It makes my stomach upset.
And oh yes… the dentist reminded us to floss daily to prevent further gum receding / disease. Don’t brush too hard! For sensitive spots, squeeze a bit of toothpaste onto our finger and softly rub into our gums. Thank you, Adrian!

Un-Blogged

It has been almost two months since I last uploaded a new Blog entry. Not that my life has been smooth sailing without much happenings… but I guess, on the contrary, my life has been most exciting for the past two months that I just couldn’t find the time, energy and/or right mood to Blog.

Indeed, as my colleague Steven would say, “I see my life just flashing before my eyes.” Yup, I think that is so true of me too. Suddenly with a blinker (or maybe two blinkers) of an eye, it’s already the second last day of the year.

Oh well, as the saying goes, “Time waits for no man.” Alas, how true this is (somehow I find more truth in English sayings than Chinese ones; or maybe I don’t know many Chinese sayings to begin with). But what else should I say? Life is short… we better make it count while it lasts…

Honestly, there were a few times that the thought came to my mind, that perhaps it is really time that I stop Blogging coz there just isn’t time to do so (especially since my Blogs can be rather lengthy at times). But then again, there are times when I feel that I just need to let my thoughts and make it memorable by writing them down. So, I guess I’ll continue my Blog, but at a comfortable pace.