AsiaOne Adventure Race & TNP SUVival Challenge!

Wooot! Just when I thought I’d be encountering a retirement period before I disappear Down Under… and just stay home to pray tight that Jonie and I get picked for The Amazing Race Asia… Along comes 2 races!

AsiaOne Adventure Race - Everyone’s gotta have a driving licence and 1 person’s gotta have Singtel Postpaid (Singtel sponsored mah)… I think I’d love this. Get to drive a MINI!!! OMG. But… As usual, I went to recruit the best drivers I can find. Oops… I doubt its really about the driver or even about how you can outsmart systems. But heck! The race prizes are good!

TNP SUVival Challenge - My weekend dinner buddy Uncle Ra (yes, that same famous one who supposedly gives out free frisbee discs to kids.. I use the word supposedly, cos its just a misinterpretation from some dumb-dumb magazine!) asked me to go take part with him last year since I am the Singapore urban race queen. But due to miscomm, we missed out! Heck, this year… Singapore’s BEST SUV driver Uncle Ra and Singapore’s Urban Race Queen Ah Mel will make it thru the SUVival!!! And take home the dang prize. Mel needs the money and keep her pride… While Uncle Ra… just needs to win it for once (with a smart partner).

Farting my way through Aviva Ironman70.3 2010 in Singapore. Hope not to be 2nd last this time! I’m suffering from food poisoning! yoikes!

OSIM International Triathlon happening on 11 April for me next!

And… Jonie and I are putting up a bid for the Amazing Race Asia! Join as a fan to support us at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Mel-Jonie-for-Amazing-Race-Asia/106182546072289?ref=ts

Race Review: Coke Avatar SG

1st things first… We didn’t win this. Some might say we failed in our mission. But I put it down to the fact that we underestimated the race. We brought our brains along, legs as well, but in short… We didn’t know our grounds nor did we have alliances.

The race was held in Orchard Road, where a huge amount of changes had taken place. Lots of new malls, lots of new underground routes and top of ground changes as well. The 3 of us on the race are not familiar with Orchard at all. We hardly spent time there shopping (which is one…) and didn’t do enough brain warm-up on cracking the usual puzzles.

If anything, I would think that the organisers did a great job for the race. You know how there are loopholes in certain races when it comes to the clue release? These guys didn’t take any chances. The clues were sealed ins black envelopes. Nobody would get to read it any earlier.

I think the chain of command developed by the organisers were fantastic. All the station masters (less 1) were pretty coherent and knew what they were doing and stood firm to their rules.

The clues were very good. “Run Run, Lola, Run,Run” Guess a place in Singapore…

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Shaw House! Guess why? Its first owner’s name is Run Run Shaw!

Try this… “Wheels of a bus went round and round.. Round and round… “

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The bus parked at Youth Park! Wow! Seriously. This are good clues and the organisers did put in a lot of effort to roll this out.

If anyone wants to do a race, please hire BluGrapes. (Ooops, turns out they actually do marketing consulting!)

Special Forces

Recently landed with a pretty handy e-book called Key Perspectives on Special Forces by MINDEF. Its  a decent read given how when we “play” in urban race setting, things unfold pretty much like a war of sorts.

I particularly liked this part…

“1) SF operators thrive on their exceptional qualities and advanced skill sets to meet strategic objectives of the host nation

2) SF are highly adaptive and independent individuals, who can operate interdependently with other security agencies

3) SF cannot be mass-produced and must be managed carefully.”

I guess this is the same as what I do to build a pool of talent for Team MJ Paws.

That’s not all, but my eyes are shutting down at 2am already. More ideas to glean off the book!

Goal Setting (again)

To some, goal setting is just as good as setting the expectations right. But to me, goal setting and expectations are quite different. Sometimes, the goal comes first and sometimes the expectations. The ONE thing that irks me is when… someone walks into something without some kind of game plan or desired outcome.

Some stuff happened around me recently. And there’s nothing worse than cruising along cluelessly. Look, life is short and time just runs out suddenly. I do like to waste my time watching useless Taiwanese dramas at times, but heck… I don’t like to send people into a frenzy for nothing, just because I’m clueless and I certainly don’t have a game outcome that I want. Please don’t waste my time… You can waste yours for all I care. I won’t want to waste your time either.

So back to goal setting. Have a game plan before walking in. Sometimes boh bian, cos situation calls for us to play by the ear. Then just outline that you have Plan A and B. Or if you aren’t confident, its ok to share also. But please… Walk in with a game plan. Don’t let others suffer just because you are clueless.

As captain, its a tough job. You gotta organise the group, do the stuff nobody wants to do (like admin), say the stuff nobody wants to say (like banging table at people when you don’t like to), watch out for dirty laundry and protect your team-mates at all costs, sometimes be a bit anti-competition, and yet still be the nice person, help to reconciliate differences, talent spot and etc. Nobody said it will be an easy job (easier when there is due reward… ARE YOU GUYS READING THIS?), because just like my marder says… SO EASY? Everybody do lah… You? Forget it.

So watch for the goal. Have a game plan.

Angels & Demons (Our Italian Prize!)

Arrrh… Roma. After months of coordination and working out of dates between Fion and I, we have come very close finally to enjoying our prize!!!

So exciting! Here’s what we’d be eating on our first night in Rome… euro70 dinner. OMG. When will I ever be able to afford this on my own??? (And we are back to instant noodles and pizzas the moment our nice Westin stay is over over over!!!)

We’re leaving on 19 night! Folks who want to buy handbags and bicycle parts, please contact me fast fast yeah?

The Angels&Demons Menu

The discovery of Rome goes on with the tour of Angels & Demons. The Executive Chef James Foglieni presents a menu fully dedicated to the four elements for a gastronomic path of “Illumination”.

- Earth -

Cecina de Leon ham with artichoke salad and fresh orange infused ricotta cheese
Cecina de Leon con crudo di carciofi e ricotta all’arancia

- Fire -

Home made fresh burrata cheese and chili ravioli with chicory hearts salad
Ravioli di burrata e peperoncino con fresco di puntarelle

- Water -

Langoustines and prawns with eduli flower salad and mojito sorbet
Crudo di scampi e gamberi rossi con insalata di fiori eduli e granita al mojito

- Air -

Malaga parfait and bitter chocolate fondue with a coconut foam
Lingotto al Malaga e fonduta al ciocco nero con nuvola di cocco

Price: 70.00 euro. Price per person, VAT and service included. Beverages not included.

Upcoming Races

Like I said… Lots of companies realise that they still have budget at year end and organise races… Which is good news for us at Team Mahjong Paws… HUAT AH!

Caleb is exceedingly motivated at our next race… Coke Zero Avatar Race!!! Cos there is a XBox360 at stake! Oh come on… Who won’t want one? Hahaa… Ok ok, I am really just interested in the Gold Class tickets to bring my friends out to. I wonder which charity would Boonie donate his winnings to next… Hmm…

Following Saturday (before I fly off to Italy and enjoy my Angels & Demons prize winnings over Christmas!), there’s 1 last race as well… Its the Garmin-Asus Smart Phone Race. We are using the chance to co-opt 1 more potential member… STACY! (I spello correcto now ) I really want to win this one, since there is a new phone at stake… I need it loh… sob sobs…

More about Stacy… She’s a smart and athletic girl whom I met from one of my cycling trips up to Malaysia. Well, we are lunch buddies since our offices are so near each other. She’s definitely a lot fitter than all the guys in my team. Garmin will be our first race together and I hope we’d all huat happily ever after.

With the inclusion of our new members – Kelvin and Stacy, hopefully there are new synergies that will emerge while I… Little Miss Captain/Boss(y)/Tactician am away… That will keep the “business” to within the family of MJ Paws.

PAWS!

Race Review: PeRUNakan

It was with little rules and little fuss if you ask me. The organisers were probably just a group of youth, but hey… I’m gonna give credit to what a good job these folks did (it was tempting to type kids though).

The race questions required thinking and definitely tactical usage.

Unfortunately for Team Mahjong Paws… We came so close but yet so far, cos of me Sigh.

We were already in running lead first, thanks to our strategy of using bicycles over other modes of transport.  I had brought my bicycle along, cos I knew it was easier to zip thru traffic.

Only that I lost the all important clue sheet… Gah. Not once, but twice. Really not meant to be.

Anyways, learning point… KEEP YOUR CLUESHEET SAFE!!!

Garmin-Asus Smart Phone

OH MY GOD… I really want to lay my hands on one of the Garmin-Asus smart phones NOW. LIKE PRONTO…

Team Mahjong Paws is THE best urban racing team in Singapore. Part of the reason why we are so good is because we are backed by a good offsite internet crew member. Of recent months, she has been in a state of retirement and I guess that’s it for her as well. Much as we would like to find a new member, I think the best that we can get in replacement would be one of these Garmin-Asus phones.

Initially I was thinking to myself… Another smart phone? How good can it be? Would it be as good as my trusty/faithful ole Nokia Navigator 6110? I did get myself that phone because it has GPS function. But well, its 2 years old and the battery life is getting from bad to worse. What’s really terrible is that if I leave the GPS function on for too long, it really drains the battery. It doesn’t have wifi since its an older phone model, so we can’t use it for internet searches while we are on the go for races.

Most races would involve questions that are so hard that even Walking Wikipedia (aka Caleb) can’t solve it. So when that happens, our best source of information would be online. With a Garmin-Asus, we can easily up the game against our other urban racing semi-pros aka Team Drama Mama or even Team “Uncle Bernie” (Oh wait, he’s definitely not in our league.)

I can already visualise how the traffic information we receive via the phone, help us as we are “cheonging” through our races. We can anticipate delays on the road as we have first hand information on where are the traffic jams through the phone – making better decisions, hence saving more time!

My favourite function is really the flight status. I travel a lot (A LOT) for work… Well ok, at least once a month? So getting updated flight status details is important so that I can plan my way around things. And that’s not all! If I actually get selected for Amazing Race Asia (if ever ever…), this phone would really come in handy! Man, I can already picture a perfect ending with me endorsing Garmin-Asus after winning ARA.

Well, even if I don’t actually win the blogging contest… Garmin-Asus… Watch out for Mahjong Paws. We are going to strike again and take home one of these for our team’s usage! Gonna go all out to lay our paws on it! (Yes, I would safely say that our chances at Livenavigation Challenge goes up by 20% with one of their phones!)

NS Mobihunt

Organised by NS Portal (backed by NCS), this has to be one of the worst possible races ever organised. And I’m saying it though Team Mahjong Paws took home the cake yet again. (This means I’m not sore. Really.)

Why?

1. Its organised by programmers. Obviously they aren’t the most fun people nor creative in the world
2. They didn’t organise it for fun. They organised it for them to do programme testing.
3. The planning sucks. Which organiser plans to fail? Them apparently. If you just put in a bit more effort, you would have foreseen that since your software is still undergoing testing. Why not put in backup phone systems? Our team’s phone had a problem midway. We called what was the helpline… Which ended up telling us to go to the marshalls who can help us, who disappointed us by creating a 16 minute time lag.
4. When you are having problems, don’t you just need resolution? Yet nobody got around to solving the problem till 16 minutes later. The marshall ic was hapless. I sure hope he doesn’t work as a external client project manager. I dislike it when people just don’t think thru things carefully.
5. In its 3rd year running, this programme obviously still has issues. I can’t believe how long they take to develop something.

Less these issues, we took home the cake. Its great cos the team has proven to be able to function under my leadership again… Which brings up another issue. Will save it under another blog.