Asanga, my old uni mate from England, a Singhalese Brit, was vacationing in Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck. I was worried for his safety. I emailed him and few others first thing when I got access to the internet.
I got his reply this afternoon. He said he is alright and instead of taking the first flight back to Heathrow, he decided to stay b and help.
‘I have decided to roll up my sleeves and help out. I can’t turn my back and walk away from something like this’
I feel quite moved by his reply. And if you know him, you’d be too. My fellow deviant is also known as ‘PG (pint glass)’ because you never fail to see him not holding one. The only thing he cared about was his sports car and closing time of the pub. He is also one of the most eloquent men I know. He hardly uses words like ‘things’ and ‘something’. I can only imagine the enormity of the disaster over there and the effects it has on my friend. They say you see your true character in your darkest hour.
Bon courage I bid Asanga and every relief volunteer workers out there of whatever nationality and wherever you are. Chapeau!
Bon courage – a cycling rhetoric… greeting a rider attempting a tough ride
Chapeau (hats off) – cycling term used to address a cyclist who achieved something or/and have gained the respect of fellow cyclists.
Apart from a few mishaps, the holiday was great. Mr. Smugmarried raves about the island all the time, I now understand why. Bali is a great place. Its one of those places you can go annually.
My friends are yearly visitors to this wonderful island so they did the usual hanging out by the beach during the day and party in the night. It has been a while since I went to Bali so I did quite a bit of sightseeing mixing with the Chinese & Japanese tourists happily clicking away their cameras.
I like Bali a lot better than the Thai islands I visited same time last year.The latter is sleazy in comparison where you see lots of western tourists with local prostitutes walking around the island. Some of these prostitutes I saw were young boys. You don’t see anything like that in Bali, not even in Kuta where I stayed.
Mental scribble from Bali:
Majority of them are from East Java and migrated there a century ago. The original Balinese can be found around the Kintamani area. Their women are pretty cute.
The Balinese are artisans. They are very good with their hands. They are gentle people as well. Hear them talk among themselves...!!! (everyone put on a face and are nice to tourists).
If you really care about the environment, you shouldn’t buy their furniture and carvings. The wood comes from Kalimantan. Soon there won’t be any jungle left in Kalimantan. Buy Ikea, they replant trees.
The weather at the end of the year is quite humid. Best would be June-August.
But Christmas-New Years holiday period brings Indonesian tourists from their major cities in droves. Very pretty Javanese women. And you don’t feel like you are in Mallorca for a change!!
Bali has better night life than in Phuket or Koh Sa Mui.
Bali is a lot cheaper than in Phuket or Koh Sa Mui.
You have to be a brave man to eat oysters and mussels at this time of the year.
For crystal blue water and white sandy beach, the Malaysian islands on the east coast are still the best. It’s not half as commercialized as Bali, Phuket or Sa Mui but offers the old island getaway of lazing round the beach, snorkeling/diving and having a cookout at sundown by the beach.
Perhaps next year I'd go to Bali for New Year's...
P/s I am few hundred US dollars poorer after buying an acrylic painting on canvas from one of their local art gallery. I am a sucker for good salesmanship.
P/p/s Thanks for to everyone for your concern about my whereabouts and well being :-). Ocean Deep obviously failed his Biology class in high school. You cant get food poisoning drinking something as potent as arak madu. In fact the locals drink these rice liquor to avoid it. (Ocean Deep - something you dont learn when you dont venture out of your Hilton Nusa Dua) Without it I might have been dead.
Doctors suspect he has hepatitis from consuming the local Balinese tipple, the arak madu.
I apologize for the confusion caused by my earlier posting. I got him mixed up with some other friends who went to Phuket. He didn’t help matters with his phone line suspended by the service provider.
Let us all pray to the victims and their families of the super earthquake and not roadie’s self inflicted illness.
It is the time of the year Roadie goes away for some R & R.
I am all set. I have got my swimming shorts, my straw hat, my beach slippers, my sunnies, ipod, and my single malt carrier. All is missing is a good book. I’ll look for one at the airport.
I’ll reflect (when under the influence…) on 2004 and think about the events that has happened for the past year, jot important notes on a piece of paper then pass out on the deck chair. The wind will blow away the scribbled paper and it will probably end up as toilet paper for an Aussie backpacker.
Jenny, a close friend of mine, is going through a breakup. She asked me for advice on how to deal with it and bounce back.
What does roadie know about relationships, scoffed my friends.
Just because you are in one doesn’t make you an expert either. You might have gotten lucky. One thing life has thought me is that you never know what lies round the corner. Today you smugly think your life is all good, tomorrow you might find out that your partner is cheating on you. Life’s funny that way.
My friends see me (and Ocean Deep as well!!) beset with failed relationships. I don’t see it that way. I really don’t see it as failures because relationship is not about success or failure. And one person’s definition of success is different than the other. Some are happy just being in one, some strive for perfection. There is no one definition for something so personal like this.
Jenny reasoned with the others that although I have many ‘failed’ relationships, I successfully recover and bounced back with zest and optimism. Thanks Jenny. I have only one advice.
Surround yourself with positive energy/aura
Bitterness is like hatred. It will consume you. It is very unattractive. People will stay away from you because it is draining. It is an expected feeling when facing a break up but you have to use all your energy to fight it. Do not mop around with friends and talk about what went wrong and what should have been. The world doesn’t owe you anything. It’s water under the bridge. Some might say it’s good to analyze and learn from your mistake. I think you only do it once and on your own. The outcome should have a maximum five bullet points. Anything more is a waste of ink and none of the points blames any party. It is pointless to discuss it more than once. Every relationship is different. And when it does not work out, it is for different reasons. So post mortem analysis is quite pointless really. A good way is to surround your self with positive aura. If you feel sorry for yourself and want to get yourself a nice gift, say a bicycle, a blouse or a handbag, do it. Pamper yourself. Deal with your credit card later. Let your hair down, go to parties, go flirt and have affairs if it makes you feel alive, do things that you deem as fun.
p/s. Ocean Deep blogged about what is considered attractive or a turn-off to the opposite sex/partner and how annoying Bridget Jones is to (in his own words) ‘mankind.......... I find her wallowing in self pity and self deprecation totally asphyxiating.’ Every word that comes out of his mouth has some sexual innuendos. I told him he is a sex addict. His entries will be posted when I am in Bali.
There are two ways our muscle burns fuel (glucose) - aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen). The former has to do with endurance and the latter strength. Both are important in dealing with lactic acid build up in your legs.
Your muscle produces lactic acid and it then goes to your bloodstream. You will feel a hot sensation and pain in your legs, your legs get weaker and then it goes dead. Endurance and strength training would increase your lactic acid threshold or referred to as Anaerobic threshold.
In road racing, you need a fairly even ratio of aerobic and anaerobic. You have to last the pace of over 100km at high tempo (aerobic) but also respond to attacks (burst of speed) by other racers, with your heart rate going past your 90% maximum heart rate andyou feel like stopping on the side of the road and cry.
Beginning of the year, after the off season (and lemang/rending/roast lamb open house abuse), a lot of emphasis are placed on aerobic training, commonly referred to as riding base. You ride long (>100km) but at low intensity. Base provides the first layer of your physical conditioning, which allows you to then build your strength. Strength training mostly consists of interval workouts. Interval work consists of a repeated series of short and high intensity cycling alternating with rest periods. The pros or top amateur riders does weight in the gym as part of their strength training, but I’ll be lucky to walk straight just doing it the bike training.
As part of my super-grandmaster new year’s resolution, I hope to start base training in January, add interval works in February and be in better shape for the Proton Racespeda Series second leg in April. I am targeting June to be in race condition for the Perak leg.
I have to stay away from that slut named Happy Hourina. I have failed in the past, she is good you know. I suspect I was given Irish blood when I had a minor surgery in England many moons ago.
I think it is better to have a new year’s resolution than not having any.
Doc Roadie has come up with a potent home made performance enhancing drug cocktail. I might zoom pass you at 70km/h. No more beating dead horse hombre.
1. x % of Ephedrine (Ma Hwang if u source it out at your local Chinese medicine shop)
2. x % of Caffeine (you need doctors prescription but Doc Leigh give this out like aspirin)
3. x % of Analgesic or popularly known as painkiller (Salicylates & Paracetemol, u can get it in your nearest Watsons)
Imagine combining the attributes of all these 3 drugs. It numbs the pain, it pushes your body like u installed a supercharger and your heart rate zone revs like a *souped up car from JB.
Magical.
*I don’t understand the idea of souping up an 85bhp family sedan. It only contributes to noise pollution. It startles the crap out of me every time one zooms past by when I am on the bike. I mean, if you can’t afford a sports car, get yourself into other hobbies like go-karting, cycling, fishing, PlayStation etc.
Stop it mate. Stop it. Don’t even go there. Don’t even think of getting yourself one. You have not even replaced the car you sold 3 months back.
You do not have a score to settle with Kiara but this is not the way. You have given too much blood, sweat and tears to her all these years. You can’t deny the fact that she is the hardest trail around, and every now and again the old lady will kick the crap out of you.
I know MK Land has spent a lot of moolahs on a purpose built 1.7km single track in Damansara Damai. I know they even have a cafeteria in the middle of the track. If you really want to give it a go, borrow it from your old mountain bike mates. These guys hardly ride and you can borrow one of their rigs. I know you are used to top end bike and parts but you ain’t exactly raking in the riches.
Stop surfing to mountain bike websites, stop buying mountain bike magazines. Think about the times when you got lost in the Hulu Langat forest reserve and wanted to break your mountain bike in a thousand pieces. Think about the mosquitoes which tend to single you out for a feast and not the other guys and how it takes weeks for you to recover from leech bites.
On the road, you get women checking you out as you weave through traffic. In the trails you only get annoyed looking monkeys waiting their turn with the only alpha-male. And remember the time you saw this dark shadowy figure behind a tree and you had goosebumps all over?
Roadie is forever complaining to me about not able to find a steady girlfriend. So I’ll impart some of my knowledge and my two cents worth on this endemic social problem in Kuala Lumpur.
Roadie also known among his circle of friends as The 6 Weeks Man is your typical single man/woman in KL. So this applies to most of you single people reading this. He does not know what he wants. He goes out to town on a wild goose chase. When he does fancy a girl it is because she is not easily attainable. This is widespread but of course to a varying degree, from one person to another. You always want you don’t have or can’t have.
Sometimes lust clouds his mind, and he would associate lust with love. This I think happens as often to women as it is to men. Like most people, you tend to get attracted to a person who feeds your insecurities, either in a positive or negative way. And that my dear roadie, is a recipe for a short term relationship.
Relationship is like an employment. It takes a hell lot of your time. So roadie, the first step is to establish the kind of partner you want to be with. When looking for a job, just knowing you want to be a salesman is simply not good enough. You need to know what industry you want to be in; the market you are playing in; sales out of a box or a solution etcetera.
I want a girl who is kind, gentle and chatty equates to I am clueless. Look back at your pass relationships and analyze what you like about the people you have gone out with. Be very, very detail. You will then have a list. Treat this list as a work-in-progress. You need to tweak this holy list. So after four relationships or 2 years, whatever comes first, you will be in a very good position to find the right one.
A person who does not know what he wants gives a bad vibe to the opposite sex and is quite a turn off. Don’t look at your past relationships as failures. Change of employment usually means career growth, and that is how you should look at your past relationships. Don’t look at it as failures and carry with you emotional baggage when you get to know new people.
The second part of my blog will be on how to meet the opposite sex. Speed dating not included. So don’t change the channel.
Cyclist-in-Pink welcomes a new blogger, Ocean Deep. We hope Ocean Deep churns out more entries than Theroadie.
Theroadie’s work has deteriorated since November. Ocean Deep will add another dimension and fresh perspective to this blogsite as they are two completely different people.
Ocean Deep is a 30 something metrosexual and is in the media industry. He is a friendly man about town and in to football, golf, scuba diving and other outdoor activity. He tried cycling but quit the sport after being repeatedly smoked by Roadie both off-road (mountain biking) and on the road.
I have not updated my blog for a good reason. I had a heavy crash whilst mountain biking in Kiara. I borrowed a mountain bike from my mate for a bit of off-road fun. I had one but sold it off because I was disillusioned with the increasingly disappearing off-road trails and also thinking I was a fast top dog roadie.
I was descending and was approaching a tight switchback when I crashed. I was carrying too much speed. Instead of turning right, I went straight in to the bushes and dropped down a rock face.
The bike got the last laugh after taking verbal abuse from me when climbing the hill. It fell on top of me, all 28lbs of it. For good measure, it left a mark on my back with its crank teeth.
I am now pretty bruised up. Ego included. Thank god for painkillers.
1. Always have RM100 taxi money in your back pocket
You never know when you will have a bad day in the office and need to bail out from the peloton, and there is no broomwagon (support vehicle/sweeper van) available. The missus will not be too happy to have to drive 50km to pick you up.
2. Do not judge the cyclist by his physical appearance.
I attacked an old cyclist in the Teluk Intan-Kuala Kangsar ride. I saw him eating nasi lemak with lots of chili and finished his meal with a Dunhill cigarette 15 minutes before the ride. What chinaman can take that much chili before a long ride and live to tell the tale I thought. Instead he whooped me senseless and I almost puke on my bike.
3. Do not judge the cyclist by his bike
Usually the more expensive the bike, the crappier the cyclist. Do not, I repeat, do not mess around with cyclists who easily pass off as fishermen riding yellow Giant bikes.
4. Most guys don’t look good in spandex (including me)
Unless of course you happen to be 6 feet tall, have 18% or less body fat and have a big dick.
5. Suck the wheel of guys much bigger than you
Let the poor sod take the brunt of the headwind. Drafting behind him is effortless, like indoor stationary cycling. Overtake the guy with half a km to go.
6. Do not draft behind a guy with running nose
Unless you fancy a little green phlegm and mucus all over your face and body.
7. Look in the back pockets of the cyclist next to you
If there is nothing but a spare tube in his/her back pocket, do not attempt to eat your RM10 PowerBar™ energy bar. You will end up having to give half of it to the cheap sod.
8. Pretend to be more tired than you actually are
Make faces, breath heavily and drop your shoulder so that you don’t have to take your turn in front and pull the peloton, conserving energy. Pretend you have a second wind with 2km to go and up the pace to break the peloton apart when the finish line approaches.
9. Red meat = heavy legs.
Treat your inexperience rivals, usually snooty tri-athletes, beef steak, ribs or roast lamb the night before the ride and up the tempo when climbing.
10. No sex night before a race or a long fast ride.
Two rounds of makin’ whoopee and your legs turn to jelly in high intensity situation. Can’t say the same thing for the women cyclists though.
Everywhere I go the deejay spins 80s music. It is really a hit with the youngsters. You realized you are pretty old when things that was hip and happening at the pinnacle of your youth has come full circle and has become trendy again.
I feel the youngsters probably know these songs from MTV Rewind and Best of … albums, are shortchanged. The deejays here looks like they were in diapers to know the songs that moved the crowds in the feel-good Sheila Majid control cute/macho Eighties night clubs.
I was appalled that the Bar Savanh deejay doesn’t even know The Blow Monkeys!! WTF hombre??!! Armed with LimeWire and broadband, I searched for the essential Picadilly-Scandals-Phase2 -Base-11LA hit songs.
1. Breakout – Swing Out Sisters
2. Cest La Vie – Robbie Neville
3. I Want To Be Your Man – Roger
4. Happy - Surface
5. Roses Are Red – MacBand
6. I Saw You Walking In The Rain – Oran Juice Newton
7. Shake You Down – Gregory Abbot
8. Casanova – Gerald Albright
9. Don’t Look Any Further – Dennis Edwards
10. It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way – Blow Monkeys
11. Lovely Day – Bill Withers
12. Lost In Emotion – Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam
13. Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley
14. Joy – Teddy Pendergrass
15. Criticize – Alexander O’Neal
16. In Between The Sheets – Isley Brothers.
Send me a blank CD if u want a copy.
Email me: pinkroadie@hotmail.com Theroadie is a 32 year old single again (and again) from Kuala Lumpur. He does not care anymore if there is no meaningful relationship in the horizon. He just wants to lose his beer gut and regain his old form and dance up the Momma Hor's Categorie that is Genting. The ole devil called Happy Hour proves to be a worthy adversary.
Theroadie is a 32 year old single again (and again) from Kuala Lumpur. He does not care anymore if there is no meaningful relationship in the horizon. He just wants to lose his beer gut and regain his old form and dance up the Momma Hor's Categorie that is Genting. The ole devil called Happy Hour proves to be a worthy adversary.
