For a few seconds more

for those born in the 50,60's and the early 70's, you should be familiar with this song by smokies "for a few dollars more" of course Smokies greatest hit was "Living next door to Alice" but that is another story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDAJYh2qZT0

For a few dollars more - Smokies

Rich girl she buys her dreams.It's a rich world behind the scenes.

Green eyes they tell it all.The more she takes the harder they fall.

She ain't easy and she ain't tough.She's had it good, but then she's had it rough.

And I guess it don't come to much.Cos with everything she's got she's never got enough.

Chorus:

So she'll cry just a little for a few dollars more.

She'll lie just a little like she's done it before.

She'll take it, she'll fake it for a few dollars more.

She'll show you her heart, then show you the door.

You know she'll die just a little for a few dollars more.

Even fly just a little like she's done it before.

She'll take it, she'll fake it for a few dollars more.

She'll show you her heart, then show you the door.

Strange things can happen to you.

When you've got so much and you've got nothing to do.

Oh oh oh what do you know.How do you get there when there's nowhere to go.

And so you wonder just what she'll do.

She's never known love but then she's never known you.

And it's too bad those sad green eyes.

Are so full of questions and so full of lies.

Chorus, repeat

One of botak favourite sad sweet love song back then, and now folks here is botak lagi more saddererer version - it is call "for a few second more"

For a Few Seconds More (a tribute to runners that misses sub 5 at SCSM 2008)

Botak, he had a dream, a sub 5 cert hanging on the beam

Blooded eyes they tell them all, the more he trains the harder he fall

Now it aint easy and it's #*&^%$ tough, he try to be good but the running path was rough

And i guess it not asking too much, a sub 5 result! botak says : "enough."

chorus :

So he ran much harder for a few seconds more

and he cry just a little like he never before

he sweat it, he bite it to save a few seconds more

he show her his heart , sub 5 show him the door

you know we'll die just a little for a few seconds more

we will fly if we can save a few seconds before

we sweat it, we bite it , beg a few seconds more

we show her our heart, but sub 5 closed the door. Bang!!!!!

the music change to "my way"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEbgB6X6S5c

Yes I bite it out and spit it out, i run the race and i stood tall and did it my way.

My Way - Frank Sinatra

And now, the end is near;And so I face the final curtain.

My friend, Ill say it clear,Ill state my case, of which I m certain.

Ive lived a life thats full.Ive traveled each and every highway;

And more, much more than this,I did it my way.

Regrets, Ive had a few;But then again, too few to mention.

I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption.

I planned each charted course;Each careful step along the byway,

But more, much more than this,I did it my way.

Chorus:

Yes, there were times, I m sure you knew

When I bit off more than I could chew.

But through it all, when there was doubt,

I ate it up and spit it out.I faced it all and I stood tall;

And did it my way.

Ive loved, Ive laughed and cried.

Ive had my fill; my share of losing.

And now, as tears subside,I find it all so amusing.

To think I did all that;And may I say - not in a shy way,

No, oh no not me,I did it my way.

For what is a man, what has he got?

If not himself, then he has naught.

To say the things he truly feels;And not the words of one who kneels.

The record shows I took the blows -And did it my way!

May you have a peaceful weekend

botak will be at ECP fort tmr morning at 5am to do another one bite the dust.....42195 42195 42195

SCSM 2008, yes we completed the race, and thanks for the good weather too :-))

Believe The I.m.possible

Now how should I starts this chapter.....

Em..... OK Ladies and Gentlemen I have good news and bad news.

First let me tell you the bad news (To be frank not really that bad lah :))
Yes botak didn't managed to finish sub 5 , he did it in 5hr 3min.
http://www.runpix.info/sin08/42/finord.php?LastName=24762&lan=&aset

There were some mistakes make but I won't used them as excuses. I am still very happy that I did it my way. I know sub 5 is within my reach, now aiming for sub......

Now the good news!! All full marathon runners from team run to eat managed to complete the full 42.195km race safely, thats coooooool！ runners, give yourself a big hands. Oh so did we had good weather? no! it was FANTASTIC weather we got! Thank you almighty, thank you very much for granting my wishes. Yeah lah but you also a little bit stingy one , 3 minutes also don't want to give me. Maybe I never pray hard enough or is this another 5050. . Never mind next time i will pray harder and run even harderer. 42195m sub 5 42195 sub 5, 我来也。
To be continue...........

7 Dec 2008, 4.35 am, still sleepy huh? botak!

Aiyoh! who is this stylo guy? dark sunglasses at 4.45am 冻你没调

Our affectionate William & Jennifer

7 Dec 2008, 4.55 am, start your engine

There's is no finishing line. 没有终点线！

The night before SCSM 08.

The gears that i will be wearing on race day.

My head band - 没有终点线！

Light off tonight at 9 pm. All prepare .

A botak prayer : "With humble gratitude and heartfelt thanks, oh almighty please grant us courage at the starting line, strength at the mid point and finish the race safely thank you. er... add one more wish can or not? - a good weather:-) kum-seah very much. "

good night botak 42195.42195.42195....ZZzzzzzzz...................

5050 dream

SCSM 2008 Race Pack

Finally got the race pack for our runners. Surprised, the runner's vest is exactly the same as last year, only changes is to the silkscreen printing of year 2008.

Dear runner's, please try your best to turn up for our final 8 km easy run cum Race Pack collection/Briefing this Thursday.

Thursday, 4 Dec 2008
8km Easy Run cum Mara Briefing/Race Pack Collection
ECP Mac
Briefing 8.30 pm
Run 9 pm.

Our marathon runner's

Our Half Marathoners

Our 10km runners

Our's goodies bag

Our... yours humbly botak

5 days to Marathon.
So you have make all the necessary preparations to ensure top physical form for the marathon but as all marathon's runners know, the mental state is equally crucial to run a good race, especially when you "hit the wall" in your run. Your mind has to be in the best of forms, focus and determined to push forward and complete the race at all cost.

Mental Preparation before the run

• Make sure you are truly motivated to run. Do the mara for yourself, not because others are.


• Acknowledge your fears and nervousness. This is part of the challenge. After you accept them, release them.


• Trained well. Positive mental focus is a good addition to training, never a substitute for it.


• Train with a group of friend for inspiration and support.


• Read up on the subject. A lot of inspiration and advices comes from experienced or champion marathoners and their coached.

Mental Focus in the BIG DAY

Going the full distance in a marathon....You'll need your mind as much as your body to get through. Stay mentally focused during your run.

Use your mind - Even though your body does the work of running, a focused mind can improve your running performance.

Stay relaxed - Do this by self-talk and mental tricks, such as breaking up the distance into smaller segments. eg tell yourself "take it 10km at a time" Focus on each segment separately.

Coach yourself with comments like "relax and flow", "keep it steady"

Use imagination. Visualize yourself running fluently crossing the finishing line and successfully completing the race.

Concentrate - It's OK to let your mind wander at times, but practice bringing it back into here and now. Focus on your pace, your breathing, or the weather. Tell yourself Pain is only temporary, Quitting is forever.

If all else fail, yes you can try singing Frank Sinatra "My Way", And now, the end is near;And so I face the final curtain.My friend, I'll say it clear,I'll state my case, of which I'm certain.I've lived a life that's full.I've traveled each and ev'ry highway;And more, much more than this,I did it my way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_(song)

but last year at SCSM07 botak way was to ate it out and spit it out " I wanna that F*$#@&$* Finisher's T even if I have to crawl to the finish line. oh yes, oh yes that's me! i did it my.... way!"
I assure you, it works!!!!!! Guarantee!

May strength and peace be with you on the big day.

Pain is temporary, Quitting is forever

Those were the days

To all those who were born in the 50s, 60s and 70s

First we survived with mothers who had no maids

They cooked and cleaned while taking care of us at the same time

We took aspirin, candy floss, fizzy drinks, shaved ice with syrup

And diabetes was rare

Salt added to Pepsi or coke was remedy for fever

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets

As children, we would ride with our parents on bicycle motorcycles

Richer ones in cars w/o the seatbelts or airbags

Riding in the back of a private taxi a special treat

We drank water from the tap and not from the bottle

We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight, flying our kites

Without worrying about UV rays which never seem to affect us

We go into the jungle to catch spiders without worries of aedes mosquitoes

With mere 5 pebbles (stones) would be an endless game

With a ball, we boys would run like crazy for hours

We caught guppies in drains or canals and when it rained we swam there

We share one soft drink with 4 friends from one bottle and no one actually worried about being unhygienic

We ate salty, very sweet and oily food, candies bread and real butter and drank very sweet coffee or tea, ice kachang, but we weren’t over weight because….

We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles and wooden scooters out of scraps and then ride down the hill,

Only to find out that we forgot the brakes, after running into the bushes a few times we learn to solve the problem.

WE did not have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, multiple channels on Cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sounds, no phones, no PC, no internet

BUT we had friends

And we went out and found them

WE fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.

We never had birthday parties until we were 21

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Yet this generation had produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.

The past 40 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned how to deal with it all and You are one of them

CONGRATULATIONS

You may want to share this with others who have the luck to grow up as kids, before the government regulated our lives for our own good

And while you are at it

Forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were

(contributed by Bala & Vincent , class of 1970 BPES)

http://bpes.blogspot.com/

Bukit Panjang English School Class of 1970
This blog was created in 2008 to celebrate the 50th birthyear of classmates from BPES, a public elementary school in Singapore. "Bukit Panjang" means Long Hill in Malay, and was a thriving village in the 60s to 70s located at the intersection of 3 main trunk roads, Upper Bukit Timah Road, Chua Chu Kang Road, and Woodlands Road that connects to Malaysia via the causeway. We started our primary schooling at age 7 and graduated at 12. Welcome and share your memories.

Before Computers....

Hey dude,

You don't need a computer if you have all the below.......

Memory was something you lost with age
An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity

A keyboard was a piano
A web was a spider's home
A virus was the flu
A CD was a bank account

A hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived

And if you had a 3 inch floppy . ..

. . . you just hoped nobody ever found out!

Beijing Marathon

haven't been writing for a while, so many things to do, so little time:-)

Beijing Marathon

Run the first part of your race with your head, the middle part with your legs, and the last part with your heart "chiong ah........"

Arrived Beijing on the early morning of 18 Oct. After lunch, we took the sardine pack subway to collect our race kit . Collection centre was a small shop unit in a shopping centre, a little messy but after about 15 mintues we got ours. A handy back pack, race bibs and runner's T.

Dinner was suppose to be carbo-loading, but botak suggested 皇城老妈 for spicy sichuan hot pot and to my surprise nobody objected. The heart wins over the head or in our case legs, we run to eat!! After dinner went hunting high and low for bananas along of all places,wangfu jin tourist belt. By the time we get back hotel it was nearly 11pm. Our stomach started turning and churning.... Anyway alarm clock set at 5 am. First oversea run so never really sleep well and it was wakeup time. After our morning routine took another 2 bananas for breakfast.

6 am at lobby of hotel

6.30 am en-route to Macdonald for pre-run coffee

7.45 am, Entrance to Tian An Men Sq,

Fine weather, a cool 12c, blue sky,yes it was blue that sunday!! The male elite marathoners gun off at 8 am. elite female, male/female marathon, half marathon, 10km and 4km all 25K of us have the same 8.15 am start - Crazy chinese! At 8.15am sharp, the gun sounded, wave after wave of thunderous roar filled Tian An Men Square as 25 thousand runners shouted BEIJING, 我能赢！

Contrary to what I was told, the run was very well organised, ample water and sponge stations. Hundred if not thousand of policemen standing in full attention lining the route gave an impression that we were VVIP runners.

Route marshals were plentiful, always ready with their smiles and encouraging words. You will be touched by the huge crowd turn out, at every street they were there shouting "jia you jai you" . you are letting them down if you don't do your best.

Their race pacers, wow !! was another stunner, the 5 hr lead pacer was a strong 60+ yrs old while the 4 hr pacer was a stronger young chap, couldn't smell the 3 hr pacers, they were too far ahead of me. The lead pacer always run chest up, with one hand stretching forward holding a huge flag flying in the blue beijing sky, followed by about 20 pacers running in double file, very well synchronize, every km they shouted in unison urging everybody on. How can you not be inspire? That morning we ran with our heads, legs and hearts.

Andrew, came in with a personal best of 01:41

300m more

3 happy amigos at finish line

Beijing, we will be back next year - full marathon.

Our half mara result (everyone finished in their personal best time). How do i look in my new stylo malo "是白的" man suit? Don't pray pray hor, was told this was the same technology used in the speedo swim suit - high compression performance wear. It helps me to achieve my personal best, but the main reasons i think were the cool weather, electrifying run atmosphere and fantastic crowds.

andrew 01:41
william 01:49
freddy 02:03
billy 02:30
daniel 01:20 (10km)

we will do a 31km run on this sunday 26 oct before we taper down our training for SCSM

6.30am Sunday, 26 Oct 2008
31km
ECP Mac - NSRCC- Changi Beach Park - ECP Mac
Warm up 6.00am
Run start : 6.30 am
water station at Changi Beach Park.
For those who want to do a 15km, you can u-turn at NSRCC back to Mac.