Life, In My Own Backyard

Due to the overwhelming response to the loyalty registration period for the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2019 (SCKLM2019), there is a reduced number of slots available for public registrations as compared with the year before. There are a total of over 10,000 slots available across all categories and in order to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity of getting a race slot, public registrations for the SCKLM 2019 will be in the form of a ballot.

Runners will be able to cast their ballots from 10.00am, 13 February 2019 to 11.59pm 19 February 2019. Ballot selection will be completely random and computerised, and will be activated by YB Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Minister of Youth and Sports on 22 February 2019. Successful applicants will then be notified by email and will have until 5 March to complete registration by making payment. Each person is only allowed one ballot entry.

“We’ve taken some learnings from our 10th Anniversary edition last year and to prevent situatio…

A friend commented in Facebook, "once boost always boost" - Obert Ariff
We stumbled upon the Sports Direct.com Sports fair last Friday at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre. We had dinner at Mid Valley and Hubby mentioned he wanted to visit Why Pay More outlet to look for a new pair of shoes. As luck would have it, Sports Direct.com had their sports fairs (today is the last day) and we decided to check it out.
I wasn't really interested in anything until I noticed the very familiar and striking adidas Boost shoes boxes stacked up at the shoes section. This is an Aug 2017 model of Energy Boost! At a mere RM215.20.
adidas shoes doesn't come cheap so whenever I see a bargain, it's hard for me to pass up the chance to get a new pair.
My last purchase was two Energy Boost (of the same colour) in March last year so I do need a new pair pretty soon.
So despite no plans yet to get a new pair of running shoes, I didn't hesitate to buy it. Because it is indeed a bargain! An…

I managed to get some very cheap durians with the help of my sister and we dropped by to another sister's house to collect them during the CNY holiday. Part of our stash. For 3 of us.  Yummy.
And  most importantly, it didn't break the bank. I just paid an equivalent of a pasta meal at Plan B for these stash. Cheap, right? Hehehe The next day, I had these which was thoughtfully packed by my sister for brunch.
It was durian that my Dad had gotten from Orang Asli in Raub. Delicious!
I need to finish them fast as Hubby is complaining about the durian smell that kinda escaped from the packing and filled up the fridge. It's not even that strong but he said everything will taste like durian later. Hahaha

On the eve of Chinese New Year, I was still working but Hubby's company declared a day off and Son is on a school holiday. Lucky buggers. Hahaha
Anyway, while I was working, they went for a bit of exercise at Lake Garden and later went to Mid Valley.
It's been ages since we last went to Tony Roma's (and my last visit was with a bunch of running kakis, more than a year ago; if I'm not mistaken and then to celebrate Son's PT3 results) so we decided to have lunch there.
The outlet at Gardens Mall wasn't really full yet when got there, but service was rather slow. It took a while for our table or the table across us to get our orders taken.
Anyhoo, we decided to order from the lunch set.
Everyone ordered something with ribs! The soup of the day was pretty decent and had a lot of "isi" inside. I ordered the bountiful beef ribs.
Maybe because it was such a long time since my last visit here, but Tony Roma's doesn't provide those lovely assortment o…

One of the fun things to do while vacationing in Japan is to look out for different cities' manhole covers. Most cities have a unique design for their manhole covers and feature things that the cities are famous for.
It's been something that we enjoyed doing for the past 17 years and we have a photo collection of them.
So, when we visited Hokkaido last September, it's only natural to look out for them. They aren't really hard to spot but it's still fun to do.
We had a lot of selection from Hakodate. Hakodate's famous squid. Here's the colour manhole from the city. And an uncoloured version. Seagull and the Orthodox Church featured here. In colour version. And the non-colour version.
I've taken a few more during our visit in 2007 and it's stashed in my other blog, Urutora no Hihi. Sapporo's Clock Tower (Tokeidai) and Salmon fish swimming around it. Alas, when we were there, the real Clock Tower in question was closed for renovation until end of …

I did my first full marathon at Malaysia Women Marathon (MWM) in 2013. To celebrate running in this inaugural unique marathon, a number of us who joined MWM wore costumes for the run. At that time, I wore my "rabbit ear and tail", a friend wore a Minnie Mouse headband and a flower-patterned skirt while we run in the full marathon category.

The bunny tail was courtesy of a running friend, Yvonne Teo who kindly handmade it for me.
A late friend of ours joined the half marathon category wearing a flower headband and a hula skirt.
Here she was, with Kathrine Switzer. Yup, THE Kathrine Switzer,

It was a great memory, we ran hard and we "partied" hard too at the run.

Later that year, Hubby and I joined Putrajaya Night Marathon and we decided to go as "Cik Arnab and Encik Kura-Kura". I wore my "bunny" outfit and he wore a DIY tortoise shell that he made using a basket. Hahaha
There are of course many others who run wearing other costumes and at most r…