Wednesday evening: RT
Thursday: "tking KTM for the sake of tking KTM"
Friday: "tking KTM for the sake of tking KTM"
Saturday afternoon: RT
Sunday: Bukit Brown Cemetery + Bukit Timah Railway Station + Mobilisation
Monday evening: RT
Details to come when I get some energy back.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
KL trip by rail - prologue
Tomorrow at this hour I will be sitting, or rather sleeping, in a KTM train that brings me and five of my friends out of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and towards Kuala Lumpur.
Like many others, we have never taken the train before, or even entered the station, because we have always take for granted that the service will be there. Now that the station, together with the Singapore portion of the train service, is going to close, we scramble to take photos, take last looks, and even take train rides, at the place before it is gone.
Unlike many others who simply seek a joy ride out from the railway station to JB, since this is the only portion that is going to close, our joy ride will take us all the way to Kuala Lumpur, and then back. The trip there will take us 8 hours, and the trip back, 6 hours. Total time spent in KL itself? Slightly less than 8 hours, assuming the train follows the schedule to the dot.
Some will laugh at the plan we came up with.
Our initial idea was much simpler actually: just go to the station and take photos. The train ride was actually my own idea. But soon it got more complicated; the train experience was becoming an entire sightseeing trip in KL, complete with ideas about booking hotel rooms and coming home via flights from budget airlines.
Then I realised that the main focus of the trip was still the soon-to-close station, not the capital of Malaysia that will still be there for at least a while [haha talk about taking things for granted]. The final decision was two train trips that take us to KL and back in less than 24 hours.
In the end, we still missed our focus a little, because both to-and-fro trips will have us travelling the Singapore portion of the route at night, which means we can't really see anything.
I have been involved in the bulk of the event, from suggestion of dates to suggestion of seats to buying of tickets to planning where to go and what to do in KL. I have read and heard alot about how uncomfortable and noisy the trains will be; how there is nothing to do in KL; how there is nothing to see and do during the train rides. If I am the only one going, I won't be worried at all, for I am used to [and kind of like] long journeys, as long as I'm constantly fed with things to look at. But because I have five friends with me, I cannot assume they share the same views as me, so I worry whether they will feel bored, or feel uncomfortable, or feel unhappy, or feel regretful, etc.
Well the trip is set to go ahead; let's hope things turn out fine.
Like many others, we have never taken the train before, or even entered the station, because we have always take for granted that the service will be there. Now that the station, together with the Singapore portion of the train service, is going to close, we scramble to take photos, take last looks, and even take train rides, at the place before it is gone.
Unlike many others who simply seek a joy ride out from the railway station to JB, since this is the only portion that is going to close, our joy ride will take us all the way to Kuala Lumpur, and then back. The trip there will take us 8 hours, and the trip back, 6 hours. Total time spent in KL itself? Slightly less than 8 hours, assuming the train follows the schedule to the dot.
Some will laugh at the plan we came up with.
Our initial idea was much simpler actually: just go to the station and take photos. The train ride was actually my own idea. But soon it got more complicated; the train experience was becoming an entire sightseeing trip in KL, complete with ideas about booking hotel rooms and coming home via flights from budget airlines.
Then I realised that the main focus of the trip was still the soon-to-close station, not the capital of Malaysia that will still be there for at least a while [haha talk about taking things for granted]. The final decision was two train trips that take us to KL and back in less than 24 hours.
In the end, we still missed our focus a little, because both to-and-fro trips will have us travelling the Singapore portion of the route at night, which means we can't really see anything.
I have been involved in the bulk of the event, from suggestion of dates to suggestion of seats to buying of tickets to planning where to go and what to do in KL. I have read and heard alot about how uncomfortable and noisy the trains will be; how there is nothing to do in KL; how there is nothing to see and do during the train rides. If I am the only one going, I won't be worried at all, for I am used to [and kind of like] long journeys, as long as I'm constantly fed with things to look at. But because I have five friends with me, I cannot assume they share the same views as me, so I worry whether they will feel bored, or feel uncomfortable, or feel unhappy, or feel regretful, etc.
Well the trip is set to go ahead; let's hope things turn out fine.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
frustration
In my last IPPT window, lack of preparation for the test caused me to fail my 2.4km run by a miserable 8 seconds, and so in this window, I have to attend RT, or remedial training.
Thanks to a rule that I have to complete 20 sessions of RT within 2 months, and the fact that I have a high key ICT upcoming in July, I have to squeeze 20 sessions into 6 1/2 weeks, which works out to 3 sessions a week. Within the 20 sessions there are three 'exit points': the 8th, 14th and 20th sessions are IPPT sessions. If I pass, I can exit the RT program.
Today was my 8th session, and after 2 1/2 weeks of training I was a little hopeful that I could pass today and exit the program. But no, instead I got even worse results compared to my test back in March.
I am a little frustrated, because I did put in effort during my past 7 training sessions. Maybe not 110% effort, but at least I didn't walk during any of my runs, or did less leg raises than asked to do.
I guess the entire RT environment isn't conducive for passing IPPT; its like studying for exams in a LAN shop. Surrounded by many others who are there because 1) they don't think they will pass no matter how hard they try, 2) they are older than me so passing standards are lower, they just 'go through motion'. Which was why my plan was to pass today and exit the program, then continue training on my own aiming for a silver during my ICT IPPT.
Well when I seemed to be doing better than them, I thought I was improving. Turns out maybe that's all an delusion.
For now, I will console myself by thinking that muscle fatigue was the cause of my worse than expected results [I only managed to do 37 sit-ups and 5 chin-ups], and hope things will get better from here.
Maybe I should increase my training frequency and intensity.
Thanks to a rule that I have to complete 20 sessions of RT within 2 months, and the fact that I have a high key ICT upcoming in July, I have to squeeze 20 sessions into 6 1/2 weeks, which works out to 3 sessions a week. Within the 20 sessions there are three 'exit points': the 8th, 14th and 20th sessions are IPPT sessions. If I pass, I can exit the RT program.
Today was my 8th session, and after 2 1/2 weeks of training I was a little hopeful that I could pass today and exit the program. But no, instead I got even worse results compared to my test back in March.
I am a little frustrated, because I did put in effort during my past 7 training sessions. Maybe not 110% effort, but at least I didn't walk during any of my runs, or did less leg raises than asked to do.
I guess the entire RT environment isn't conducive for passing IPPT; its like studying for exams in a LAN shop. Surrounded by many others who are there because 1) they don't think they will pass no matter how hard they try, 2) they are older than me so passing standards are lower, they just 'go through motion'. Which was why my plan was to pass today and exit the program, then continue training on my own aiming for a silver during my ICT IPPT.
Well when I seemed to be doing better than them, I thought I was improving. Turns out maybe that's all an delusion.
For now, I will console myself by thinking that muscle fatigue was the cause of my worse than expected results [I only managed to do 37 sit-ups and 5 chin-ups], and hope things will get better from here.
Maybe I should increase my training frequency and intensity.
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