Yihui’s Blog

Come join us at the Outdoor Education Conference @ RJC from 3-5 June!

It’s yet another brand new start tomorrow - it  be will be my first day at my new job! Although i really feel sad to leave my dear colleagues at the Y, i’m also looking forward to this new challenge. New challenges present new growth and also new perspectives of learning and looking at things.  I must say the decision to leave my previous job wasn’t an easy one to make, due to the conducive working environment and great colleagues. And perhaps you tend to better appreciate what’s good after you decide to leave.  I think decisions like these are always difficult to make, because it’s easy for people to imagine how they are already worse off (having to leave a conducive workplace, wonderful colleagues, facing the ‘unknown’), but it’s difficult to imagine how things can possibly get better with a change like this. Sometimes all you need is to take the plunge, and trust in God that it is in His mighty plan.

Thks j for the note!
Jeremiah 29:12&13 (”The Message” version)
“When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”

The team was invited to attend a public forum organised by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, which is one of our sponsors. Personally, it was good “health education” to listen to an expert in the field of anti-oxidant research, Chronic Disease Prevention and Aging to expound on Health and Nutrition. I was also a little surprised by the turn out - the whole auditorium was filled with about 500 people, all happy to spend their Sunday afternoon listening to what the speakers had to share about Healthy Living. A good sign indeed for Singapore!  
Dr Jeffrey Blumberg , an expert in dietary antioxidants, chronic diseases prevention and ageing from Tufts University shared several research findings on the role of antioxidant nutrients and vitamins in promoting good health and the prevention of chronic diseases. In general, Dr Blumberg recommends taking a multvitamin everyday - to fill the nutritional gap (as it is very difficult to ensure that we eat well, every meal in modern living) and help prevent and in some cases, defer (postpone) the onset of chronic diseases.   
Dr V P Nair, senior consultant cardiologist from Mount Elizabeth Hospital spoke about the importance of heart health and the various measures we can take to prevent heart attacks. The heart is pumping 72 beats a minute, 105,120 for an average person and 2.6 billions beats in about 66 years). It is so easy to forget that it is there - working hard, silently.   
Both Nutrition and Heart Health are topics really close to my heart (pun unintended) - being a healthy, active person, I sometimes tend to take good health for granted, not realizing that illnesses can strike anyone at anytime.   
After the session, we also took the opportunity to take photographs with both Dr Blumberg and Dr V P Nair. 
It was an afternoon well spent indeed! 
Now, I must remember to take my Centrum.  


Team Photo taken with Dr Jeffery Blumberg (centre) and Mr Lam Pin Kee (extreme left)
Team Photo taken with Dr V P Nair (centre) and Mr Lam Pin Kee (extreme left)


Photo of me with Dr Blumberg

I’m currently reading this book titled “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” by John Wood. It’s about how Wood left his high ranking job in Microsoft as the director of business development to pursue his passion and a cause that needed to be addressed - providing books  and education for children in impoverished countries like Nepal and Vietnam. And it took just a trip to the Himalayas to convince him to give up his career and girlfriend to pursue this desire that was more lasting and significant. Although I do not have such ambitions like him to provide books and education to students in countries like Nepal (at least not now), there is something in me that tells me my priorities should change and it may not be wise to remain status quo and remain in my comfort zone. Will this be the right thing to do? I don’t know, but I guess it’s also time to stand up to what I’ve always wanted to believe - to face the challenge when it comes and more importantly, to embrace change.

I received a totally pleasant surprise during our company’s Chinese New Year staff lunch yesterday.
It was the usual Loh-hei, makan, singing of songs and playing games….then i suppose it was coming to the end of the programme and time to head back to our desks to work. Suddenly my manager, jacq went on stage and announced that I was going away to climb Everest and asked me to go up and receive something. I was like ?!?!!?!?!? * totally shocked*
My first reaction was to try and hide under the table as this took me completely by surprise. However I realised the space under the table wasn’t really big and I couldnt stay down there forever anyway.  But I really felt quite embarrassed as I haven’t even done anything great at all, definitely not worthy to go on stage!

My “prize” was a hard cover National Geographic book on Everest and what was extremely special was that it contained, in the first 3 pages of the book, well wishes penned by my dear colleagues at the Y.

I mean, what can I say??? I was so touched I wanted to cry on the spot…… It is certainly one of the most meaningful gifts I have received I actually found out that it was my manager’s idea to pass around the book and let everybody pen their well wishes and present the book to me before I depart for Everest so that I can read and draw inspiration from it.  I must say that I am extremely blessed to have such a nice and supportive boss

You can be part of our Everest journey too!

It was 4 sets summit path, 4 sets rangas path & 9 sets jungle fall for bukit timah training today.
And it’s never wise to do bukit timah circuit the very next day after staircase training @ Toa Payoh. 
Only into the 1st set of summit path, I could feel my quads burning and legs generally sore. My legs did not feel fresh at all and it seemed as though I was doing my 4th set during my 1st set! Glad that Esther, Maomao, Chu and later on Lihui were training together as well and somehow we completed all the sets in about 3 hours.
i simply love the feeling after a great training session.
We had a session last Wed with Roland Krueger, Managing Director of BMW Asia and also the first German who skiied to the South Pole unsupported. Very inspiring and humble person who was ever ready to share his expedition experiences. He told all of us that we should put on more weight. During his South Pole expedition, his team drank oil and ate mayonnaise. Cool. Hmmm judging from our rather intensive training schedule, I think it is quite difficult for us to put on that much weight, Although I must say I’ve been eating more than 3 meals a day! (albeit unconsciously) As Esther says, maybe we should consider eating weight gainers…… it’s time to bulk up!

Sir Edmund Hillary passed away today of a heart attack, at age 88.
He was the first man to stand atop the world’s highest mountain, together with his Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
It has been 55 years since the first ascent of Mount Everest.
I wonder how he felt when he finally stood on top of Everest after so many failed expeditions before his.
He was also so humble to the point that he only revealed that it was him who first set foot on Everest only years after Tenzing’s death. There have been previous controversies about who was the first man to reach the summit.
I guess to him, it wasn’t about the fame and glory, but rather it was about the brotherhood.
He also did alot for the people in Nepal, he helped funded and built schools, hospitals, health clinics and airfields. Nepal was a place that held such a special meaning in his heart.
Although he is no longer present, I believe his heroic and selfless deeds and his legacy of adventure and exploration will continue to live on.

When we embark on our Everest climb in mid March, which is also the 55th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest in 1953, I believe it will also be a climb to remember Sir Edmund Hillary, together with Tenzing Norgay, for they were the ones who showed the world that it was humanly possible to reach the top of the world’s highest mountain.

“The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find. ” - Sir Edmund Hillary

Ice Climbing in Sichuan, China from 20 - 28 Jan 2008

This is a photo taken by maomao, who went to Sichuan for ice climbing in late Dec together with 2 other MIR guys.
According to her, Kim Boon, our instructor who is currently in China has ‘grand plans’ for us to ice climb up super duper long (and seemingly never ending) ice walls as training for the Lhotse face on Everest. Gulp. Imagine climbing continuously for hours on the vertical ice wall where it is nearly impossible to rest properly. I can suddenly feel my heartrate increase 5 times, as well as the burning sensation in my calves . 
But yay, can’t wait to be off climbing again!