Singapore Stories

Friday

The story so far...

For a Saturday a.m., the LRT station was packed. That combined with 3 empty trains passing, and 2 trains being totally packed, led me to be too late to check-in at KL Sentral. I also forgot my wash bag. So I missed my 0925 flight. Lucky I got on the 1020 SIA flight.

I arrived, left my stuff at Penny's (sis-in-law) place and headed in to town to register. Did that ok. Saw Stephen Bayliss. Registered then sat in Starbucks thumbing throught the race gear. Off to T2 for a look around. I then realised that there was no free bike service the following day and I was counting on that to fix my skipping gears.

So I rushed back to Changi in a taxi, built my bike, changed and cycled back into town. Gears ok now. Phew. Attended the race briefing. Met Simon, a Singaporean who knew me from reading my blog!

Cycled back to Changi and stopped in Bernie's for a nice bit of pepper chicken, then cycled to the apt. Nobody at home so I cycled round 'n round practising a fast dismount (take feet from shoes before stopping, then swing right leg over top tube so both legs on one side). Another 3 milliseconds saved tomorrow! Still time to kill - so cycled to our old place in Tampines Street 81 - still look the same.

Organised stuff a bit then off to beddie-bies about 11.50pm.

Saturday

Cycled to meet Gunter at The Bayshore. We cycled to T1 and swam in the disgusting sea for about 30mins. Plenty of oily floating stuff and black wood in the sea - horrible! Then we cycled around East Coast Park for about an hour. I checked my bike in at T1 and Gunter went home.

Taxi back to the apt, chilled-out for a while then back into town by bus/MRT to check-in my run bag at T2. Found out that our bikes will be taken by volunteers at the dismount line, and they have benches in T2 for socks/shoes - excellent!

Lunch in O'Briens for 2nd day running. Wandered around a very busy Singapore for a couple of hours. Contemplated the cinema but timing not convenient. Bought pressies for Lucas. Bought a spanner and screwdriver as I'm worried my bottle cages will fall off tomorrow! Eventually headed back to Changi where I have sneaked into a cyber cafe to check my email, check the footy fixtures and write this. Footy is too late to watch, so home to bed in a minute.

If you're interested you can follow my progress on www.ironmanlive.com tomorrow a.m.

So far it's been a weekend of surprising faces....

Melody and Adele of Powerman fame were at the registration booth
I saw Danny Feng nearby too
Then Wendy Wong turned up at the bike service
In the evening I saw an old Ho Lee Construction colleague driving a van in Tampines
This morning I saw an old Aussie aquaintance and fellow Wombat (S'pore Aussie Rules Footy Team) exiting the condo as I waited for Gunter.
Then I see Tay at the swim session.
Finally Randy & Ivie pop-up and say hello while I'm sitting down having a coffee in a Mall.
I then see them again 2 hours later in amongst a million other shoppers.

Its a small World. Weird huh?!?