I was mentioned in Ironhorse's aka Kevin's bike-log regarding the ride on Sunday:
The rider (his initials and bike both start with K) in ordinary togs and shoes rides faster than another rider with fancy bike and clipless pedals. In fact, I could barely keep up, though I now have slick tyres
The rider "with fancy bike and clipless pedals" happened to be Cannoncal (in his extremely slack mode of course), haha! Guess Ironhorse has yet to see Cannoncal at light-speed mode. I had told Ironhorse about the FENR on Friday nights; hope he can make his FENR debut soon.

Went for another epic FENR on Friday, 90++ km covered. Took the usual route from Tiong Hin through the 2 dams (Yishun and Kranji) but we went into NTU after Lim Chu Kang Rd which was a first. Then out of NTU into Jurong West, past Jln Buroh, and had nasi lemak at Fong Seng (which is actually known as Chong Pang nasi lemak; now then I know). Poor Phrost cycled into the drain just after Kranji Dam; somehow, he managed to protect his bike well but ended up with cuts on face, forearm and knee... his main grouse after: "My face is disfigured.". After makan, we went to ECP where we were trapped outside 7-11 due to heavy rain... no choice but to wait and I reached home at about 5am I think.




Decided to join a ride to Punggol led by Ironhorse this morning (I enjoy reading his bike-log). Met Amrun and Pamela at 7.30am and we cycled to Ubi Driving Centre to hook up with Siok Heng; Johnson was supposed to go, but guess he couldn't wake up). Then we had to cycle to the start-point at Ang Mo Kio MRT, which kind of served as a warm-up session.
From there, we proceeded to the Punggol area, which ended at the jetty... and were joined by Cannoncal, Chan and Cannasia Daniel. After making a short round over a large area of sandy undeveloped land (yes, I know it's not really considered 'off-road', but any road that makes bikes and drivetrains dirty is 'off-road' to me, hehe; of course the roadies didn't join), all of us proceeded to Riverside Mall in Sengkang for Burger King lunch.
After some deliberation, we (me, Pamela, Siok Heng, Ironhorse and Daniel) finally decided to cycle to Pasir Ris to hook up with Ian, and continued to Changi Village for drinks (non-alchoholic). Then Ironhorse and I went home from there while Pam, Siok Heng and Ian took the Coastal route to ECP where they hooked up with Johnson; Daniel took a cab to Cannasia where apparently, Cannoncal was hanging around the area waiting for him to open the shop.
Fantastic weather in a long time... clear sky but blazing sun.

A new girl-biker has just posted a sporty pic of herself in Togoparts Showrooms, and when I saw that the number of comments posted was ONLY 4, I thought something was amiss. Usually, photos of the fairer sex will attract comments like bees to honey. It was only when I mentioned this to Mavic that he told me moderator Skylink had dutifully removed 5 comments that were deemed inappropriate by his so-called standards, haha! And one of those comments came from none other than Phrost (Sec 2 kid) who asked if she's attached, haha! Isn't the age gap a bit too wide between them?
Ian, what are you waiting for? Quick post a photo of Megan with her bike!

I actually saw Nizz at Seng Chu Hin last Thursday; he was there to adjust his new Hope Mini (pretty rotors!) on his Airborne Lancaster. There was another guy there with a Da Bomb free-riding bike, turns out that he's Eno78.
Well, Grace invited her friend Joyce (who came with her bf Enoch in tow) to church today, and yes, you've guessed it: Enoch = Eno78 !

Saw PJ on ICQ last night; she's watching 17 films from the Film Fest, that's $8.80 X 17 = ? . Yup, it seems expensive to be a film buff, but still ok compared to the price of pop-star concert tickets nowadays.
Will be catching Moon Overflowing R(A) tomorrow (2nd screening at 2pm); tickets sold out so fast that they decided to have one additional screening.

Johnny English (caught on Wednesday) was hilarious; although the gags are slapstick and predictable, they're pretty effective.
Couldn't wait any longer, so caught the sneak preview of Anger Management on Friday. Jack Nicholson is reason enough to catch this refreshing comedy. Better than your average redneck Adam Sandler movie.

Have yet to get used to my Specialized Body Geometry Comp saddle

The above photos are surely a sign of the times, when the SARS virus could be lurking anywhere and Singaporeans are at their kiasee and kiasu best. They were taken last Sunday at Parco Bugis Junction where the Gourmet Food Fest (part of the S'pore Food Festival) was held and whoa, the organizers were kind enough to provide water dispensers NOT for drinking, but for washing your hands before you shove food into your mouth. Hey, I played my kiasee part by washing my hands before shoving potato wedges into my mouth at Terra Cafe.
After lunch, we were supposed to proceed to Brenda's place for swimming at the club and dog-walking therapy with her 2 huge German Sheperds, miniature pinscher and chihuahua, but it had to pour unfortunately, bollocks! So didn't get to do that, and I was looking forward to taking photos with the dogs! Bah!

Playing telephone operator to my form class of 35 kids didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought; managed to complete the job within 40 mins, and only 2 were still uncontacted-- Tabitha and Junrong.

Well, back to school this week. No flag-raising in the carpark for the entire week, and pupils who happen to be SARSpect-cases have to report to a team of teachers at the canteen to take their temperature. Winnie Tan happened to be one of the teachers 'arrowed' to take temperature for the kids, and I must say she still manages to look fetching even with her mask on, hehe.

Collected my '03 Kona Kula from Tiong Hin last Saturday; went to Seng Chu Hin on Monday to change saddle to Specialized Body Geometry Comp, change grips to Lizardskins and to add ScottUSA bar ends and Lizardskins chain-guard. Saw Pam and Siok Heng there too. I also saw a guy's MTB (chatted with him but didn't get his name) with an all-titanium straight handlebar and stem that's welded together, isn't that cool. And his XTR cranks are '92, vintage!

Above FENR pic was taken by Zaskarboy who risked life and limb by standing in the middle of the road to take this pic. You can see me on the right in my GAP tee.

Last night's FENR was appropriately named Tour de Pek Xua, cos of several lung-busting upslopes during the course of the ride. Twas my first time tackling the slopes of Telok Blangah Hill (after going up and down Mt Faber), and was apprehensive on seeing the gradient of the slopes cos I didn't know how far they go... well, it turns out that they ain't that bad after all; intimidating at first, but before you know it, you would have reached the end already. Now I can bring people there to torture them, haha.
It was a new FENR route: TH -> Upper Serangoon -> Jln Besar -> Fort Canning -> Kampong Bahru -> Mt Faber killer slope -> Telok Blangah (2nd round of torture) -> Redhill hawker centre (makan point) -> River Valley? -> Orchard -> Serangoon Rd -> then broke off with Johnson, Ah Lai, Amrun, Krulenwar, Diseasekelly and Flanker to head for home via MacPherson Rd (Flanker suffered a puncture along Ubi).

Turns out I'll have to play telephone operator over the weekend since all form teachers have to call every pupil in their class to ask them whether they have signed their SARS declaration form or whether they are ill or have travelled to any SARS-affected country.

Am typing this in school, waiting for the staff meeting to start at 2.30pm. It's pouring now, but I trust the rain will stop for tonight's FENR. Of course, Galbiker will be a noshow.
Tagline for Johnny English is so hilarious: HE KNOWS NO FEAR; HE KNOWS NO DANGER; HE KNOWS NOTHING.

On another note, Nick Hornby (author of High Fidelity, remember?) has released a book titled '31 Songs', in which he writes about the tunes (yes, 31 of 'em) which he loves and are significant to him. I browsed through the book at Citylink MPH quite a while ago, and hey, a few songs in my CD collection are mentioned in the book:
1) Your Love Is The Place Where I Come From - Teenage Fanclub
2) Frontier Psychiatrist - The Avalanches
3) Ain't That Enough - Teenage Fanclub
4) Royksopp's Night Out - Royksopp (I had it on MP3 before my hard disk crashed, bah!)

Festival Fringe screenings caught during last night at Goethe Institute:
1) Tampon Manual R(A) 2) A World Cup Of Their Own
Both were Korean films; the first one is a quirky short piece on how to erm, use a tampon (as well as introduce other interesting uses of a tampon); the second one features the happenings in Korea which the world might not have been able to witness during the recent World Cup campaign (e.g. protests by the disabled on not being able to gain access to stadiums, protests by workers about minimum wage, the use of child labour to manufacture soccer balls which were used in the matches, political games by leaders to gain political mileage, etc.).

Galbiker from Togoparts seems to have morphed into a second Cannonalvin; horrifying. From this episode, I also learnt what FYMCB stands for.

Just remembered something that the trainer, Prof J Foley said while handing out the certificates for the Developing Reading and Writing Skills course: "These certificates are a record of your physical attendance, although I must add, not necessarily your mental attendance..." Darn, so paiseh, I always had trouble keeping awake after lunch. What to do... the sessions always started at 2.30pm!

Today (Monday) was the last session of the Developing Reading and Writing Skills course, and during the session, I received an sms from Pam informing me about the Coastal Rd ride tonight organised by Caspar. Just what I needed to work off the BK double bacon-cheeseburger meal and KFC XXL Zinger meal that I had this afternoon (my mum will kill me if she reads this).
Quite a good turnout for a Monday night ride, with the usual suspects turning up - Ian, Siok Heng, Moon, Johnson, Amrun and even Cannoncal and Ruzhyo plus a few other guys like Archer, Kona (Ah-Boy), Ah Yong. To state the obvious: DON'T ever believe it when it says average speed of '15-20 km/h' in the forum post.
Met at Expo, rode by Coastal Rd to Changi Village where we had makan (I ordered mee goreng after seeing Cannoncal's one). Memorable sights: 1) a stranger who looked obviously befuddled by the sight of Sebastian's Lefty Fork (how to cycle with only one side??); 2) large-sized bapok in flaming red dress on a Monday night.
And since everyone was in a genial mood and still full of energy, we decided to cycle through Coastal Rd again. After Coastal, rather than head for ECP with the group, I decided to go back to Tampines with Ian, Amrun and Pam. But instead of heading straight home, Ian, Pam and I made a stop at the A&W (near Tampines East? Community Club). This place closes at 2am, and bless 'em, they still sell curly fries. My large root beer float was shiok (lesson learnt: do NOT push in straw or spoon all the way into the bottom of the mug cos that will surely cause the foam to trickle over).

This week marks the start of the Film Festival Fringe too. This SARS-break makes it an opportune time for me to catch the films that are worth watching. And best of all, they're FREE. To those who are scratching their heads over where to take their dates, think no more; click on the link for film synopses and schedules.

Turns out that the powers-that-be at MOE has decided that Secondary schools shall remain closed till 13 April. Thank you, MOE, for letting schools end on 6 June still.

Films of the Singapore International Film Festival which I've bought tickets for : Asakusa Kid; Moon Overflowing. As usual, both are Japanese.

Route of FENR last night was the same as last week's... met Pam and Siok Heng for the first time, both strong riders. My mood was kind of dampened when Ian crashed into my back wheel... luckily, he was unscathed. There was another frightening moment when Johnson toppled over onto the road in front of me as he was pedalling off; it was impossible for me to brake in time and my bike passed by his head by a few inches.
Turnout for this ride was quite big. Have yet to see a Norco bike.

Hmmm, it just occurred to me that school is REALLY opening on 6 April, and the meeting is to spell out to the staff what precautions they are to take, etc... kiasu, you see. No one knows for sure yet. One thing for sure, wearing face-masks to school is NOT practical at all; how am I supposed to teach and scold with my voice muffled?? And I can already imagine what antics those monkeys will be up to with them face-masks *shudder*
Watched The Hours at Lido. Do catch this show. Man, found the depression in the movie rather contagious. Julianne Moore and Ed Harris acted really well; Julianne Moore's beauty is so classic, and Ed Harris still looks as charismatic as ever even as an AIDS sufferer. Still remember the first movie I saw him in was The Abyss; he looked every bit the gallant hero. Memorable Ed Harris line from The Abyss: "Keep your pantyhose on." (when telling the female lead not to feel anxious for him).
Saw a few people in Orchard with face-masks.

School office called my handphone to tell me there's a Staff meeting tomorrow at 2.30pm. Now that's strange. Last Friday we just had one; what's the rationale for holding another one so urgently? Could it be that the closure of schools has been extended? If school is still opening on 7 April, then this meeting would be really unnecessary, grrrr.

I'm willing to bet that schools WILL reopen on 7 April, although one concerned parent's letter in Forum today appealed to MOE to extend the closure by one more week. On the other hand, one sorry-a** of a JC student has written in to appeal for schools to be reopened next week, in lieu of the upcoming PSLE, O and A levels, for fears that 'students cannot finish the syllabus on time'. I say: You pathetic sod, dunno how to read your textbooks by yourself is it, everytime must depend on teachers to spoonfeed you.
Brought my bike to Ubin today, together with Francis and Steven. My experience with trails is really minimal. There were one or two frightening uneven downslopes, had visions of flying spectacularly off my bike and sustaining some horrible injury; luckily, my cheapo Shimano V-brakes could still make it (1 finger-pulling while holding on to my Lizardskins grips for dear life) and I emerged unscathed.
Sehsuan has done a dramatic turn and "given up photography and cycling"; Pamela seems to have done the same too, with her declaration of losing all motivation to cycle. Hope all these are just temporary phases...
Setting e**m papers is sooooo boring.

*clasps hands* MOE, please do not take away the second week of the June holidays by extending the period for closure of schools.
If I go for TGP Mass Ride 2 to Pengerang, it'll be 3 trips back to back: Pengerang on 7,8 June; Perth educational trip from 9 - 14 June; Japan tour from 14 (flight at night, luckily) - 21 June. This calls for some efficient packing... luckily there's such a thing as disposable underwear.