During the struggle they will pull us down. But please, please let's use this chance to turn things around. And tonight we can truly say together we're invincible I just got back from the hospital where my Dad is there struggling with his illness. He is in much pain and discomfort but he is fighting on, refusing to be pulled down, making me so proud of him as a son. Martina and I sat down to read some lyrics of Muse while listen to their songs, I found this particular song's lyrics very beautiful and inspiring in times like this.
"Invincible - by Muse"
Follow through
Make your dreams come true
Don't give up the fight
You will be alright
'Cause there's no one like you in the universe
Don't be afraid
What your mind conceives
You should make a stand
Stand up for what you believe
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
During the struggle
They will pull us down
But please, please
Let's use this chance
To turn things around
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
Do it on your own
It makes no difference to me
What you leave behind
What you choose to be
And whatever they say
Your souls unbreakable
During the struggle
They will pull us down
But please, please
Let's use this chance
To turn things around
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
Together we're invincible
Friday, March 16, 2007
Invincible - Muse
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Hard Training
I just got back from the second training session with the triathlon club, the training is usually an hour of running and an hour of swimming. On Monday in the first session the swimming was so hard for me that my shoulder was stiff for a day and a half, just relaxed up in time for tonight's session. Then tonight when I was pushing hard for the head above water drill, I kicked so hard that I had cramps in the calf muscle on both leg. A long way to go before I can keep up with these guys but I like those pain and ache in my muscle afterward, a sensation that has been long missed.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Muse X Youssou N'Dour
Martina and I attended not one but two great concerts in a weekend, on Saturday it was one of my favourite Brit Pop band "Muse" in Asia World Expo. Then 24 hours later we went to the world's most loved Senegelese singer "Youssou N'Dour". Both were captivating performance, Muse's live act had so much energy, within a track, their music may swing from soulful piano rythum to a high octane explosive electric guitar display. Youssou N'Dour on the other hand played Afrian Music with a variety of styles. His songs imbedded political messages of social justice. In his most memorable song of the night, he said, "This song is about Africa. People often think of only 3 things in Africa, Povery, Aids and War. But there is more to it, there is also happiness." Then he went on to sang the sorrowful song that rings in my head since.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Year of Triathlon
Sorry guys, it has been a lifetime since I have updated this blog. As some of you might know, my Dad is suffering some bad illness and hence I just tried to stay with my family as much as I can. Which mean I don't get home till quite late in the evening. I have only spend about 10 mins in front of this computer every night.
Setting the sorrow aside my recovery from adventure sports are more or less completed. As a consolation from lunch time bouldering in Kwun Tong, I have joined a fantastic gym 5 mins away from the office in Central. Its 20m swimming pool has served a monumental role in getting my left arm muscle back in swing. My default lunch time pass time has been running on the treadmill, cycling on the gym bike or crawling through the water with a vengence.
While on the gym bike I like listening to this podcast from TriTalk, it is a brilliant bi-weekly program on training tips for triathletes and I hope I discover this before Alex does! Coupled with much improved working hours, the condition is now perfect for me to embark on some proper triathlon training. And my first target is a the first ever Half Ironman in Asia, the SinaporeIronman703. I hope to get into the rythum of proper training soon, gonna tried out the Sonic Sports Club next week, which my mate Larry (Kin's partner in crime in Actiona Asia Macau) said it is a nice gang to be with.
Inevitably, I don't forsee climbing much this year but something had to give. I have finished reading "The Villian - The Life of Don Whillan". I recommend it in the same passion that I recommended "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World". Don is a genius in climbing and mountaineering, though unfortunately a tragic character that never realised his potential. He partnered with some of the best climbers in his generation first with Joe Brown and then Chris Bonnington. Though cause of his psychological flaw, he felt out with them and brought the most successful partnership in 1950's British rock climbing (with Brown) and a budding partnership in Alpine Climbing (with Bonnington) to a fruitless end. He went on a decade without major successful ascent until 1970, Bonnington saw the fire in him and took him to Annapurna to conquer the South Face of the mountain. He summited the face with Dougal Haston and the feat was a great national achievement at the time. Though even at Don's height he was on his way down, he was portraited as a calculating person who avoid load carrying on the mountain to preserve his fitness in order to get picked for the summit bid. Eventually such bad reputation drove him out of the top league of mountaineering and was never able to met his goal of conquering the North Face of Eiger and the South West Face of Everest. Go and read it, a sad tale of a nonetheless hero of his time.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Faith in Friction
I started reading "The Villain - The Life of Don Whillans" by Jim Perin recently. Right now I am at the infant stage of Don's climbing career in Peak District. I used to lived an hour's away from the climbing outcrops of the "Peaks". Reading those few chapters which he gradually evolved from a hiker to a climber brings me back all those fond memories of my first year in climbing, it was also in the "Gritstone" crags in the Peaks which I got into the sport. It is a very special rock, big bulging round rocks that is highly fritional and abrasive. It is either loved or loathed by British climbers, though I don't know whether it was the history of Gritstones climbing or my personal happy times there, it occupies a special place for me. The following is an extract in the book on Gritstone:
Its holds for the most parts are sloping and indefinite, its bulging crack lacerate your hands. It demands a style based on confidence and agility, on both sophistication of technique and aggression in approach, on ingenuity and faith in friction."Faith in friction" what a nice saying, I love it, and I just checked that faithinfricition.com has not been registered yet, I can't believe no one has done it.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Freeyasoul 2006 Review
This is the last day of 2006, just want to do my Freeyasoul Adventure Review of 2006. It has been the only year that I didn't manage to organise a freeyasoul adventure holiday with my friends but then when I review this blog which I really started writing from the beginning of the year, I can't really complain, it has been an amazingly colourful year. And to end the year with a little appreciation is something that we should all do. Read on to see my top moments in 2006.
#10 Fracturing My Left Arm - In just one split second, I felt off my mountain bike during a leisure day out in Tai Lam Reservoir, it shattered many other could be top moments contenders, like hiking in Japan, Trailwalker and Action Asia Hong Kong. Though may be it was time for a break and reflect, maybe I was having too much fun.
At the same time we learned about my father's illness, the injury was timed perfectly to focus my priority. Family and career may have been neglected in these times. Though 2 weeks after the injury I took up a new job which I have enjoyed so far, being happy 5 days a week at where you are was more important than finding a moment of euphoria on races during the weekend. What have I learned this year? Nothing that can be distilled into wisdom, but I felt striking a balance is important, I think the way I live my life is correct, exercising my body all the time and pushing it beyond limit. But I have to learn to let go sometime, to be able to say that, it is not important, there are more important things in life then maintaining an arbitary level of fitness and endurance. In 2007 I will continue to fill this blog with mini adventures but I hope to bring you equal dose of progress in my other projects in live, like career, family, goals and dreams.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Why are you getting more and more intellectual
In respond to Kin's comment, well as you can see I didn't find much that is adventurous to contribute to "Freeyasoul Adventure" due to my immobility and disability. So how have I been spending my time that I used to spend on rambling in the hills and picking up scars? I've been waiting to see the rise of Vietnam for ages, much just like supporting an underdog football team like Sheffield United. Sadly I have just been sitting at home reading. And my reading has never deviate so much from my course in life (which vaguely consist of solving world poverty issue, fighting capitalism, climbing mountains, yeah I know I never do any of them really) I actually started reading stuff about the Stock Market!!! Well it all began with a lunch with my friend Julius and his cousin, they were telling me that there is window of opportuniy to invest in Vietnam. It kind of strikes the bell, I love Vietnam, my 3 weeks backpacking trip there in 1999 was an amazing time. People I barely just met would invite me to go mountain biking with him in Dalat, then another stranger would take me on his scooter to join a post football match scooter parade in Ho Chi Min City. (For a more recent travelogue to Vietnam, read Kin's.) I've been waiting to see the rise of Vietnam for ages, much just like supporting an underdog football team like Sheffield United. Anyway that conversation inspired me to do some research of my own on the investment condition in Vietnam, and when you are new to a job, you just have the time to sneaky do that at your desk, one thing leads to another, I am now reading about ways to evaluate stocks and macro conditions, like equity analysts do. You know look at the PE ratio, assess the yoy sales growth, analyse the profit margin and operating margin bla bla bla. Well I hope to get this done with and build up my own H-Share portfolio before I can start doing sports again.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Building Awareness for Dakshinayan
I hope those of you who has a blog can write a little post to divert your readers to those posts that I am about to write..... Let's see if we can create a snowball effect. Those who know me would probably know that on my big India trip in 2002, I volunteered for a Development NGO called Dakshinayan. I stayed in a village called Cheo among the tribal communities in Jarkhand and taught the kids some English with 5 other volunteers. It was a lifetime experience for me, I look at everything very differently since I was there. The organisation has been doing great work there, they aim to educate a generation of youngsters to take care of their tribes when they grow up. I have always been hoping to be able to help them somehow. A big contribution to their income has been the "fee" paid by the volunteers like me, though I know the number of volunteers has never been steady and recently they are struggling a bit. For the last month, I have been placing adwords on google on behalf of them. If you type "Volunteer India" on google you might be able to see my ads (if my daily budget has not ran out). I manage to direct 1-2 people to their website daily but it has not been translating into enquiries. The organisor has told me not to waste the money. Though I am not going to give up, I think building awareness takes time, apart from increasing my daily budget on google adwords, I am going to start an awareness campaign for them on this blog.
Once I found time, I will write a few posts about the organisation and the volunteering experience. I hope those of you who has a blog can write a little post to divert your readers to those posts that I am about to write. Please also invite your regular readers who also blogs to write a little divergence post. Let's see if we can create a snowball effect.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Leaving My Old Job to Meet John Wood
and if even I did return with books to set up 9 libraries the next season, would this lead me to quit my job in the hope to make change to the world?I started on my new job this week, finally after 4 years back in Hong Kong, I now work in Central. Kind of childish to be pleased with take, I know most people at my age should have grown cynical about Central, but I found no better opportunity to expand my horizon after the groomy days of Kwun Tong. For example today, I went for a book talk at lunchtime with Martina, and the speaker was the inspiring John Wood of "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World". You may recall from my previous post how much I respect this guy.
Then he recounted his begining of this post-Microsoft life. "How many of you have been trekking in Nepal?" We stood our hands up proudly. Though if a Nepalese headmaster said "Perhaps one day sir, you will return with some books." I wondered if I would responded the way John did, and even if I did return with books to set up 9 libraries the next season, would this lead me to quit my job in the hope to make change to the world? That is what makes him so incredible. Room to Read now opens more library then the post-IPO Starbuck is opening coffee chains around the world at the same age.
there will be many people in this world to tell you not to take the risk, but they are not necessary the people that is worth listening to
Then he recounted some of his favourite stories in his books and finally left us with a picture that was taken last week, it was the once bookless libary that he first visted in Nepal, it is now a brightly decorated modern reading room, with books, magazines, maps and globes. One that is impossible for me to imagine the himalayan paddy rice fields were just beyond those windows.
Finally at the Q&A session he repeated those words in his books "If you have a passion, just get out and follow it.....there will be many people in this world to tell you not to take the risk, but they are not necessary the people that is worth listening to."
So once again, go and read this book, if you don't want to buy one, borrow one of the two copies that we now own.
P.S. If you want to get involved with Room to Read, read here.
