Friday 5 October 2007

The sounds of silence?

Well, it's been a few weeks since I last posted anything. It has been a period of great activity punctuated by a short period of being ill.

Mei and I had a seafood dinner with Gan and his brother a couple of weeks ago and two days later all four of us were ill with stomach flu. The rest of me has just about recovered, but my stomach continues to make its discomfort with oily or substantive meals known.

I've never dealt with viruses well, and stomach flu has always been particularly vicious. This time around, I was back at work within two days, a little woozy and unfocussed, but otherwise fit enough. Not quite fit enough to get back on the bike, mind, so the last two weeks have been spent fiddling and shopping.

I've fiddled with various little things on the bike, and shopped for more various little things - I just love gadgets. I bought some reflective tape and decorated the bike in the name of safety. I also finally found the rain covers for the panniers, as well as a LowePro camera bag which I am adapting for use as a handlebar bag. I still need to rig up a rear mud-guard which I intend to fashion from the sheets of polycarbonate we have in the office.



Well, add some more reflective tape on my helmet and the bags, and the lights and I should be pretty visible in the dark or rain, no?

It finally dawned on me a few nights ago that, short of the mudguard and the camera tripod mount Johann bought for me from HongKong, the bike is as ready as it will ever be!

I've also spent a bit more time on the map and the route. Check out the map below - I've made a few changes although a few more are still to come.

The places I intend to visit are now marked in red and will be updated when I do get there. I've added the expected dates and some minor details about each location.

I've added lines marking out the general routes I will take, and have included my expected dates of travel. If anyone wants to join me on each leg, please do contact me. Email is best, at least while I ponder the merits or otherwise of posting my Malaysian phone number.

I'd like once again to thank Kelvin of Gee Hin Chan and Najib of Rodalink who've been very helpful and also Mei's good friend, Sharon Tan of M1 who loaned me a Nokia 6110 which I've been hoping to buy but has been out of stock all over Singapore. That will give me the GPS system which will help me plot my position more accurately on maps.



Gee Hin Chan, with Kelvin and Mei

OK that's it for now. Oh... except the start date which is now fixed for October 15th! Just a little after Hari Raya so the perfect time to start off on a celebratory trip!
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2 comments:

John Cheong said...

Aha! One more reason to have a Banan Leaf Rice meal! Well, as if I ever needed any reasons, except that it usually just tastes darn good!

The Stomach flu bug leaves the digestive system a little sensitive for a week or so and that's the state I'm just climbing out of. The yoghurt sounds like a good thing to try although it has never really worked for my mild irritable bowel syndrome. Still, banana leaf rice here I come!

Thnaks!

John Cheong said...

How to avoid 'Semua Taruh' when eating BLR? It's like having sex and... oh nevermind. You get the idea... ;-)

They called me John ‘Two-Hits-With-One-Stone’ Cheong

An old memory came to me today when Mei and I went cycling in Balik Pulau. After 2 months of being cooped up in our flat, it was great...