How-to Make a Summer Dress, Threadbanger

Of Making the Connection

My Friday ended at 0130 hours on a Saturday only to begin again when the alarm went off at 0615 hours. Hitting the snooze button, I stole another 3 minutes of shut-eye before JH gave me a wake up call. No more snoozin', time's a-loosin'. I was out the door at 0630 hours, driving towards TPM to meet the rest. Today, we're going to train at the steps of Batu Caves. 10 showed up.

A little background about Batu Caves for the uninitiated. There are 272 steps from rising from the foot of the hill, demarcated by a charming archway decorated with several avatars of the Lord Murugan / Subramaniam, to the mouth of the cave complex that houses the shrines of several Hindu dieties. It's approximately 28.9km away from TPM which took us about 35 minutes to get there (this after discounting the time wasted making a wrong turn).

We arrived without fanfare at 0745 hours and met PT at the base of the stairs. Our training aim today is to complete 4 laps (1 lap = completing 1 set, up and down the stairs) in 90 minutes. We took it slow with the 1st lap. Everyone broke pace and reached the top together. We took photos within the cave and walked around to shake out the kinks in our legs. Thereafter, everyone went their own pace.

I'm glad to say that the team did a good job meeting the training aim (Well done, guys and gals!). No drama, no incident, no sweat! Ok... Maybe not the sweat part. We all sweat buckets :) I, for one, pushed beyond the 4-lap aim and went for 5 laps and in the process, I struck up conversation with this uncle who "coached" and cheered me along. Thank you!

We had chilled Milo to quench our thirst at the carpark, thanks to PT. And decided to go for breakfast before going our separate ways. Me, being a weekend vegan, had a groundnut bao with "teh c special". That was lunch.

After a 30-minute nap, I was on the road again. I've signed up for the Bikram Posture Clinic in Subang. Rich Nichols (head honco for Bikram yoga teachers in this region) conducted the 2-hour clinic.

I've never been to a yoga posture clinic before and was quite surprised to see the studio packed from wall to wall. When usually we have about 4 feet between yoga mats, today there was only a 2 feet gap. The other difference was in the heat. It was not turned on and we had the windows slightly open. In spite of that, the class was sweating profusely 30 minutes into the clinic.

Today's session concentrates on correction and imparting tips on the standing series of the Bikram posture progression. Picked up some very good pointers at the clinic and I'm now seriously considering getting a tatt to commemorate conquering white water rafting at Padas and the peak of Mount Kinabalu :) Shhh..! Don't tell my parents.

Rich challenged the clinic participants to attend the 1600 hours yoga class conducted by Erik. Only 15 took him on. I must admit though, after 2 hours of posture analysis and learning even without the 40 degree heat, I couldn't make it through all 26 postures. Having said that though, I'm not disappointed in myself. As Sean (another Bikram teacher) always says, "it's yoga practice, not yoga perfect".

Since taking up Bikram, I have noted a marked difference in my physique and psyche. The improvement of the later resulted in my being able to stay focused, remember things better and push myself to achieve more because the brain is no longer setting up roadblocks for the body. It's a whole different life when your brain is not trying to sabotage your body's potential. It's the brain making the connection with the body for both to move in sync. My body surprises me everyday :)

Since signing up to join MY's colleagues to climb Mount K, we've been training together by going on hikes and treks. These have improve my cardio immensely. I find myself no longer out of breath / panting after climbing the 3 flights of stairs (a total of 63 steps) to my office everyday and, in fact, have started to take the stairs when going to JH's place on the weekend (he lives on a 4th floor apartment).

Now you are already starting to wonder: what's the point in all this? Well, I'm getting there :)

Many people have said that climbing Mount K is more mental than physical. I figured that in taking up this challenge, I am putting both to the test. In my daily grind, I find myself able to cope that much better both mentally and physically. So much so, somedays I feel almost invincible. And that is an incredible feeling.

If someone had told me 1 year ago that I would be going for 5 laps at Batu Caves (traipsing up and down 2,720 steps) thereafter attending a 120-minute yoga clinic followed by 90 minutes of Bikram hot yoga all in one day, I'd say, "Who me?" but here I sit today, blogging about it and feeling the endorphins coursing through my veins. Best feeling in the world!

Oh.. And did I mention that there was this incredibly hot Korean teacher at the clinic today. Wow! She turned my head a couple of times and I was so definitely gawking at her. She was HAWT! (",)

Bukit Tabur @ Melawati

Our group for this weekend's hike was reduced to 5. The rest had something or rather and so the 5 of us made our way to the venue for our third hike which proves to be the most trying thusfar.

MY said that it is challenging and kidding she was not. In choosing to be ignorant, I was spared the chance to chicken out and trudged on with the rest. Unbeknowst to me, this trek would test my mental strength and challenge my very psyche.

There were warning signs posted at the start of the trail citing the latest 3 accidents to befall careless climbers. Somehow, the person(s) who made the sign only cited the accidents involving women... (-_-)

Making our way up through the cover of trees was not unlike our other hikes. It took us 30 mins to reach the first rest stop.

We were rewarded with a beautiful view of a lake with the morning mist still hovering over the surface of the water. I later found out that this was the Klang Gate Dam. Look closely at the picture below and you can see the ridges that form Bukit Tabur. Looks like a stegosaurus, no?

On the other hand, is civilisation. Twas a misty morning so the twin towers were shrouded in a gossamer shroud of (haze) doom!

Our trail continued uphill from there and just when I was beginning to think that the 'tough' part was all hype, we came to the first challenge, which I would like to call my 'kryptonite'.

There were 2 options to move onto the next ridge (side note: remember stegosaurus? - see picture) either we do the "dare-devil" which involves using a notched rope to scramble down the boulders or the "wussy" which involves walking around the boulders. Being enthusiastic and knowing our K decent will involve ropes, absailing and dare-devil type antics, we chose the former. There are no wussies here.

MY and TW surveying the 'drop'. Note the rope on TW's right. That's our 'insurance'.

TW was the first to take the rope. He made it, no sweat. Next was MY. She, too aced the rope. I was next. Oh-kay... Grab the rope with both hands. Easy enough. "NEVER LET GO," said MY. "Now swing around and plant your left foot on the left boulder". Done. "Lean onto the rope. Trust the rope and let your right foot hang down to look for a foothold." Wha..? Me brain froze at "trust the rope". Haaaaaalp!

There were some tense moments where I couldn't connect my brain to my hands and feet. My right hand kept trying to hang onto the boulder when it should be firmly holding onto the rope to help my left foot support my body while my right foot refused to budge. WTF! I'm so screwed!

MY and TW were tops, they talked me through the whole episode and I managed to scale down the boulder but not without scrapping my knee in the process. HY (pictured right) took to the rope and slope like a duck to water. I felt like chickensh*t after that. JH had long legs so he practically 'walked' down the slope. Double chickensh*t =(

The second challenge was a climbing one where we had to scale an almost verticle, jagged slope. MY said, "you'll have to do the spiderman here". Raaaaiggghtt~! Picked up more 'souvenirs' from here. Bruises to my knees and scrapes on my right hand. I'm such an apparent noob (T_T)

The last challenge of the day was to hop over a 'longkang' (drain). This so-called longkang was actually a chasm separating two ridges and the sharp stones do not exactly make it any easier. Imagine landing on it (ouch~!). Face first (OUCH~!!). Luckily, none of that happened (whew!)

Enough adventure for the day. We started our decent through more 'friendly' terrain. By friendly, I meant more trees (handholds), exposed tree roots (footholds) and damp soil to cushion our trek. I have never been more thankful for trees (,")

Post Valentine Hike

Our second hike of the series and we're going to Apaksan in U-Lik, Cheras. I have no idea what is its official name so "Apaksan" it is. There were 13 of us this time around with 2 newbies, WR (HF's hubby) and JS (the green guy as HF refers to him).

We met in front of TL's house and set off for Apaksan in 3 cars. Upon arrival, AP went in search of breakfast. The rest of us just stood incredulously at the foot of the hill waiting for him which gave HY ample time to get busy with her camera.

A partial-group photo while waiting for AP and JT

The trek posed a bit more of a challenge as compared to Gasing. And the hill-walkers were markedly different.

Whereas in Gasing we were cheerfully greeted by the uncles and aunties who passed our group, the people in Apaksan were a sullen lot. And there was this peculiar grandpa-grandson duo and several aunties who clapped their hands in unison whilst traversing the hill. I call them the 'clappers'. I reckon it serves to 'warn' the hill 'residents' of our intention to 'pass through' their 'territory' but MY figures it to keep the tempo of the walk. Her guess is as good as mine =)

Winded, we reached stop #1 with a good panoramic view of PJ. An uncle (not part of our group!) took out his harmonica, and we were entertained to several catchy Chinese tunes.

These were the last 2 to arrive.








Short rest and on with our trek. At stop #2, we were treated to a beautiful view of KL city vista. The KL and twin towers looked like miniature pin maps. WA mentioned that someone told him of a waterfall at stop #3. We trudged on...

Before long, we reached stop #4: The Guinness Stop. Quite an interesting choice of name. And there was a rudimentary map tacked onto a tree. There were some Chinese words which I made out to represent 'top of the hill'. HY told me that the other words were 'long route' and 'short route'. Dang! I should've paid attention in Chinese class =p

We were certain we did not miss stop #3: Waterfall and surmised that WA was had. So after a short break, we began our decent down the same path we took coming up. Along the way, I learnt how to 'break' into my Vios (courtesy of AP as he once locked his keys in the trunk of his car) with needle nose pliers and that Toyota keeps several of such experts on their payroll to assist car owners who were ever caught in a predicament without their keys... call Toyota Assist.

Hike over, dim sum time! TL took us to his favourite haunt and we had to have an especially big table to accommodate all of us. I likened our breakfast jaunt to a swarm of locusts. No sooner had the food been laid before us when it was cleaned out. This happened 3 times and I lost count of the number of times we had to get our teapot refilled. Admittedly, we are a rowdy bunch and it's great that we can get along together cos, as MY said, "get use to it cos we'll be spending 5 days together" (".)

Getting the hang of it

Plans were made to ease the climbers into hiking and trekking which will gradually prepare us for the Big K in May (hey, that rhymes!).

After the big hoo-ha over Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year, the group was ready for our first hike. BT organised the hike, most of us turned up. Our quarry was Bukit Gasing.

We met bright and early at the 1st meeting point and set out in 2 cars ferrying 8 climbers. When we reached the 2nd meeting point, another 3 cars joined the motorcade bearing another 5 climbers. At the destination, we added another 1 to our ranks.

HY and I wore our new Timberlands to break them in. MY just lost hers the week before CNY (blurdy house thieves!). AP wore slippers (he da man!).

The hike was timed for 2 hours to give everyone ample time to finish the trail. And a hike it was.

It rained the night before so new Timmies were soon muddied. We passed a little stream (Goretex: guaranteed to keep you dry) and the highlight of the hike was the suspension bridge. Now MY is afraid of heights and she was ahead of the rest of us. Needless to say, we just had to shake the bridge when she was at mid-point. Thanks for being a good sport, MY!

When we reached the 'top' of the trail, HY whipped out her camera and recorded more "evidence". We didn't look so much worse for wear, if I do say so myself.

All in all, twas fun and I'm looking forward to the next hike. There will be 12 altogether so that should keep our weekends busy (",)

Running up the tab

It's the year end and there are mega discounts and price slashing galore. Being the bargain hunter that I am, yours truly decided to hit the shops and scout for cheap buys. Armed with my credit cards and a sweater (because of over-zealous Christmas-spirited shopping mall operators - see last entry in blog), I went on a pilgrimage to pay homage to the Queen of all Sales.. The Malaysian YES (Year-End-Sale).

I spent a whole day at one of the 5 imminent malls in the Klang Valley with my childhood buddy in tow. We walked the floors and scoured all our favourite shops, which was approximately 60% of the mall barring the cinema, food places, books and toy shops (never pay regular prices when there are warehouse sales abound!). I came out of it empty handed except for the purchase of a can of green tea, ice cream and dinner. How truly disappointing :(

Keeping my spirits up, I decided to check out 2 book companies' warehouse and moving out sale respectively. That endeavour was more satisfying in that I have suceeded in stocking up a year's worth of reading supplies and some VCDs (original only mind you) for the nieces and nephews. However, my boyfriend did not appreciate spending 3 hours with his head tilted to one side in order to read the titles off the book spines. Needless to say, there was a grumpy face driving us home that evening and a tired but happy bookworm hoarding my 'spoils of war' *hyuk! hyuk!*

Today, I gave my staff the day off and am contemplating to launch an 'assault' on the latest, upmarket mall to hit the town. According to my childhood buddy, the mall we went to was child's play in comparison to that. Ooooo... a challenge if I ever knew one! I've checked the traffic conditions online and put out my shopping shoes so as soon as I can peel myself away from my comfy perch in front of my laptop, I will be off. Wish me luck! And to you, dear reader, have an excellent New Year!

Join an online protest

I joined another online protest today. Go to http://www.streamyxsucks.com/ Got meself a nice little banner as well. Let's see some online activism! It is time that monopolising utility conglomerates realise that the consumer is king and they can't expect to charge us the sky, earth, sun and moon in return for lousy service and get away with it. Come on people. Get of our complacent bums and let our voices be heard. Unite and fight!

A picnic @ Hulu Langat

It was a bright and sunny Sunday. We had a week to plan this trip but the credit should go entirely to Jaclyn and Andrew for pulling it together. Afterall, they were the ones who mooted the idea, gathered the participants and prepared all the food. The rest of us just came along and helped carry the food up the hill.

And boy! was it a hike. It was a steep 20-minute climb. We had to take frequent breaks (and a sandwich each) to help us along! But the hike was well worth the labour albeit there was quite a crowd there already.

We were only too glad to dump our respective loads and Andrew wasted no time in unpacking (and showing off) our food. Lunch was served! A delicious packet of "nasi lemak" (a popular local fare of rice cooked in coconut milk with condiments) with a choice of either chicken or squid "rendang" *yum yum!* Dessert was a choice of bananas (the healthier option) or potato chips (the not-so healthy option). The hike coupled with the crisp forest and waterfall air worked up a good appetite and lunch was polished off in a matter of mere minutes.

After a hearty lunch, it was time to hit the water. The water was icy cold *brrr~!* but we soldiered on nevertheless. We are not going to let our hike go to waste! No sir-ee..! We'll splash around even if our faces turned blue. Fortunately, we live in a tropical climate and it was mid-afternoon thus we quickly got used to the biting cold and ventured to the cascades for a nice "massage" (,")

Aah... so much fun! Time certainly flew. Andrew brought a pail and fishnet and we went fishing and 'prawn'-ing.. eer... what's the correct term for catching prawns? further beyond the waterfall. This entailed another rigorous hike up a steep, dirt slope with only portruding rocks and tree roots as foot and hand holds. Our catch was dismal but the climb took us to several shallow pools of water fed by a serene, flowing stream hedged on either side by splendid old trees. The scenery was breathaking. If only we'd remembered to bring the camera!

Our last water activity for the day was to take turns sliding down the 'waterslide'. The 'slide' was hewn out of solid boulder rock. Not content to merely slide down alone, we tried many interesting 'combinations' of sliding including a 3-person up to 5-person 'train'. The air was soon filled with squeals of delight and excitement. You'd have thought we were behaving like a group of 10 year olds!

All too soon, it was time to pack up and leave, taking with us a cache of fond memories and lugging our tired bones down the steep slope. We are reminded that all too often, life passes us by on the fastlane. It is only when we stop long enough to take in the view is when our daily struggles seem to lighten and melt away. ~Jas (",) 05.11.2006~