Baumie Ristretto Downtube

Baumie Ristretto Downtube
Guess the brand?

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Crits, Cobbles and a whole lot of talking...

Jumped out of bed when the ala-raam rang, peered out the window... mmm... raining... kinda creeped a smile onto my face...
plodded to the kitchen, switched on the Nespresso machine

plodded back to the room, pulled on the bibs, the jersey, hunted around for the gloves (MAN! how long has it been since i last wore gloves??? December maybe??? =) you know you mean business when you pull on the gloves...)

I was going racing! Heart started pumping, smile got bigger as I piled into the trust Passi:one: Mobile and raced towards Longhouse to meet the boys. Rain didn't get any lighter, good song on the radio (i'm one who gets INFECTED with a good catchy tune and it RINGS in my head for days after! the one right now whilst i'm typing: 'If I had Yoooouuuu, You, you you you you you, If I had yoooouuuuu....), fingers drumming the wheel, whistling to the song, racing is to me what gives me life. I love the feeling of pushing your body to its limits, both physically, mentally and when you're past the line, I'll have all the excuses in the world why I didn't win and why the winner wasn't actually better then me...

Needless to say, I had a blast at the Yew Tee Criterium, kindly organized on an annual basis the past 3 years by Patrick from Yew Tee CC, PROPS! and the OCBC boys had a decent result even if I must say they were robbed of the win... ha! They need to have a killer instinct from here on out though, nobody gifts wins...

Had a great time watching Ronde van Vlaanderen (man, you think you know how it sounds in your head, then you try pronounce it out loud.... go ahead, DO it! hahaha, I bet you looked around first to check no-one was listening... sounds like I'm trying to spit out something rude...) with Juls, and some of the boys who came over, DEVASTATED that Boonen didn't win, but hey *shrug* Cancellera was head and shoulders above the rest, especially over Boonen. Couldn't help but wonder how big an impact his 303's were:


Especially when Boonen was RIPPING his insides out to chase ze BEAR of !BERN! down, the time gap kept growing, man alive... what a ride...

Oh well! The past 2 days have been a blur of activity, an interesting dialogue session with SSC and the other NSA's of Singapore, the food was as good as i've had at a buffet catering though! Aglio Olio was al dente, Grilled Chicken had side condiments of Fresh Chopped Salsa??!, Rice was steamed with Raisins and Butter... mmmm... yummy.... Packing for the 2010 Asian Cycling Championships in Sharjah, UAE (yes DINAH SAUR! you call me alot!) and getting ready for the 2 boys leaving for France...

I don't know how much of this fantastic journey I'm destined to ride through for in my life.

I've got a fabulous life partner who has been the reason I've gotten my act together the past year,
I've got a great mentor who's considering giving up something he's saved so hard the last few years of his life to give me a second wind in my business,
I've got a great bunch of young, motivated and talented cyclists in Singapore who are counting on me at the moment to make things happen...

There are many times I don't ever wish to get out of bed because the burden of thinking so much, and fighting so many battles, daily, gets to me.

I then have an image of one of those jewels in my life right now, and I jump out of bed, brush those damn teeth (yeah, key things in life, BRUSH THOSE TEETH!), spray that can of dry goodness to me under-arms, hit back my daily dose of Indriya Espresso, and try take on the world another day.

I'm gonna keep doing what I can in what I love till I can do no more, and hopefully, maybe, my little contributions and shared time with customers, friends, team-mates, will invoke a change that will inspire greater people to do greater things which I know I am not destined to do or do not have the stomache for...

Yeah you, thats right! Whatcha waiting for? =)

Friday, April 2, 2010

Planning...

Hmmm...

Planning, thinking, contemplating, provoking, stressing... =)

Its always in the details....

YAY! Took keys for the new place yesterday
Just had to share it with the boys! Master CrAzyyyyy Mechanic and A-Soh with Hot Bods Aldrich took off in the Passi:one: Mobile to 422 Telok Blangah Road and had a ball of a time trying to plan for the new place.

Its funny how we've come so long a journey in such a short time, its our 3rd home in 3 years, and frankly speaking, I'm toasting to this being our next home for a long time to come. As research puts it and a good French friend of mine says:

'Hor hor! Yew know Danieeeel, Ze three MOST stressful things in ze life arrrrrre: 1) A Divorce, 2) A Child's Birth and 3) Moving'

No wonder i'm freaking stressing! =) Its all good though... Your chance to see how this place:




Becomes this...
...
...

Hang on! We haven't even cleaned the grime off the tiles yet! Give us a couple weeks *ahem* once our interior designer, loreal hair guy and make-up artists are done with the place, VOILA! We'll have a place where we'll keep on rocking out our own brand of cycling experiences.

On another note!
Was super fun to see other people suffer in the lab on Thursday morning instead of myself:



ooooooooohhhhh.... the Ergometer, MR. LODE, $35,000 of exquisite, stainless steel pleasure... UP THE WATTS BABY!

ciao for now, Tour of Flanders this weekend! Eurosport Channel 113: 7pm-10pm

My money's on Boonen...