Recession Proof

I got a strange rash swimming in a bay in South Africa (I was bitten by something in the water, probably a jellyfish or something). Ended up seeing a dermatologist to check out what was going on. The fees that they charge are phenomenal!
I checked out the invoice and found the following:
$180 - 10 min consultation (there was one visit where I swear the doctor spoke for 30 seconds and then left)
$250 - removing a wart, probably 2 min work.
Total bill: $430

Lucky for me the medical insurance I have covers the costs, so I end up paying $30.

Still, I can understand why people would want to do medicine so much. If you can charge like that, and people are always willing to pay for their health, it's all good!

Kevvy, I hope you hit this kind of earnings! :)

Fixing Up The Archives

I was following the "Getting Things Done" method of archiving everything into one folder, and attempting to do that with my pictures proved slightly difficult, having about 6,000 photos. It was actually stuffing up my ability to backup that folder!

So now it's all fixed up, with specific years and actual dates to each event.
Tip of the day #1: I split the photos into years first.
Tip of the day #2: I write "05 - NYC" for all the pictures that I take that aren't part of a specific event for the month of May, "06 - NYC" for June etc. For events, I would write "06 26 to 06 29 - San Francisco", hence the folders will all show up in chronological order.

Going through old photos is always a very entertaining process. When did this idiotic thing with the ties at weddings start?

Bring It

So I'm hitting this P90X training regime as part of my new goals for 2009. It's rough, I'm feeling it all over the place!

As to the reasons why I'm doing it? One is for the challenge of seeing if I can maintain this exercise discipline over 90 days. Two is that I had done some personal training before and got told by the personal trainer that it actually is quite good. And looking good isn't too bad a side benefit!

So how have I been going on it? Out of 3 weeks, I've missed probably 2 or 3 sessions. I'm replacing the plyometrics with my normal volleyball game (although I would probably say that volleyball is a lot easier than that plyometrics session!). It's a good mix of weights + using the body as the weight + stretching and ab work. I had one awesome week where I was waking up early to do this stuff, but that kind of ran out of steam pretty quickly :)

I'm quite enjoying doing yoga for the first time in my life, some of those moves are super difficult! I'm sure balancing on one leg whilst twisting and, as Bec puts it "turning into a pretzel" will do something for me flexibility.

Let's see how it goes for another few weeks. Next week is rest week, than goodness!

South Africa

So I'm back from South Africa, straight to the chills of New York. It was a magnificent trip. South Africa top ten:

1. As the picture above shows (you can click through to the Flickr photos), there were a ton of animals to see. For those that care, I saw four of the big five, missed out on the leopard (apparently they are quite rare in the area I was staying at).
2. Things only in the wild, including baby hyenas and dead elephants.
   
3. The lodge was fantastic, and there were days when I was the only guest at the lodge. Plenty of time to relax and think things through on what I want for next year and beyond.
4. Catching up with Chester and Ka in Cape Town, who were wonderful hosts. Thanks to Chester for lending me a pair of pants (that actually fit me better than him :)) and t-shirts when my luggage got misplaced for two days.
5. Realising I had 30 min to spend US$200 of "delayed luggage allowance" before the luggage arrived! Only got time to buy one t-shirt. Unfortunately Ka was not able to find some sandals.
   
6. Table Mountain and Camps Bay are pretty spectacular, and Cape Town in general. Check out the pics here.
7. The lack of Crackberry access in the safari lodge made it very difficult to think about work, which was a blessing.
8. Interesting converstations about how the country is trying to address the inequality of the past by pushing for "positive" discrimination in all areas (business and government). However, the lack of education of those lower classes makes it quite difficult for blacks to fill certain technical roles, even though they have to allocate it to them. Hopefully continued education will address this issue.
9. Strangely enough, Asians get to benefit from this "black empowerment" policy (as we are considered a minority), so if I needed a job, I should go to South Africa!
10. Yes, I did see lions having sex.
    

Safari Ready!

In two weeks I will be heading off to South Africa for the first time, to do a safari (Kruger National Park) and to visit two of my friends doing their bible college and mission work in Cape Town.
I have to admin that my preparations for this trip were haphazard at best. I had booked my flight to SA early (check) but the whole safari thing was relatively last minute.

Going to stay in one of the lodges inside the park, named Kambaku, for a few nights. I was planning on doing the safari tour, with the sleeping in the tents experience, but the thought of not being able to go to the toilet in the middle of the night was too traumatic to think about. The other option (lodges outside of the park) meant that even if the tracking of the animals was good, we would still have to leave the park at a certain hour.

Getting my vaccination shots was even more last minute. Got my Hep B, yellow fever, typhoid, tetanus/diptheria/something starting with "p" shots last week. I ashamed to admit that I had absolutely no idea what shots I have had, and having doctors in the family means that my medical record is so not up to date, as nothing gets written down. I have a feeling that the polio shot last week was probably redundant.
A word of advice for anyone doing this kind of trip, make sure you add to your budget the medical expense, those shots aren't cheap.

I think everything is all good now. Just have to pick up the malaria tablets this week, and get my photography stuff all sorted (just bought a new 70-300mm lens, woo hoo!) and I should be ready to go. It's going to lots of fun!

Sydney Visit Oct

People at work were saying to me, "didn't we just see you?"
However, being on different work projects meant the people I interacted with were quite different. I believe it is always worthwhile to have the face-to-face meetings, things just done so much faster. The economy ticket I got was super cheap too!

What was also great was to catch up with everyone who had come back for Stu's wedding, as well as my family. Wonderful to see the kids still as cute as ever, and so touching to see that my friends still are as goosey as ever (both at the bucks and at the wedding). There is something to be said for 12 guys going to Karaoke and belting out Bon Jovi.

Having stayed at Yvonne and Jase's place, I am now totally familiar with the Wiggles, and can quite competently sing a few of their choice hits. Has anyone else (who has nieces/nephews that are fans of the Wiggles) noticed the drastic change in Anthony?? He's become super lean and mean!

Sydney doesn't disappoint with the scenery, as I visited Balmoral with family and Collaroy for the wedding. Ah, miss them beaches.

Congrats Stu and Yve, it was a fantastic wedding, enjoy the Maldives!
Photos for the trip can be found here.

As a intro, my fave kiddie shot from the trip (my nehpew Jono).

Back to Back...to Back

It's always fun to have friends visit, and we welcomed Boges with open arms. There were also other visitors from HK (Joe) who came along at the right time, as well as some new transferees from Sydney (Steve).

I have to admit that there has been a perfect storm of events to lead us to last weekend's mammoth efforts. Bec and I meeting some party-goers recently, the rekindling of my dance party days, and the above mentioned visitors, hungry for some NYC outings.

So we stayed out till 2am on Friday morning, 6am on Saturday morning, and 5am the Sunday morning, and made it out to our local haunt on Sunday night for a nightcap. I don't recall having had this big a weekend in a long time. And it was wonderfully enjoyable. There was even some pre-game drinks at our place before we hit the clubs on Friday and Saturday nights! Good to have friends around who fire up and go hard.

So as one friend (Joe) leaves, another (Mary-Ann) comes to visit. I think I definitely need some more sleep in the next two days!

Success and Failure

Success and Failure

I had my first trapeze class today. Two things about trapeze classes stuck out
1. The fact that they give you a 10 min information session and then staright away you are using the trapeze and doing tricks
2. The climb up to the launch platform is on one of the most unstable ladders I have come across! It makes the first attempt even more of a scare than it already is.

I have to admit that my heart was racing when I got up to the launch platform the first time. But there wasn't too much hesitation before I jumped off and started swinging, annd doing what they taught us. And it is exhilarating, as I'm upside down, doing a "catch" where I move from one swing to another (just like in the acrobatics shows! Of course, on a very VERY simple level), and generally having fun.

It was a success in my eyes, to have conquered that initial fear.

Contrast that with my failure the night before to play a proper wingman for a single friend of mine when we went out to a club. So there's a group of 4 girls who are dancing near us, and I'm with my friend (who's single) and another guy (who's not). I'm told to step up and approach those girls. Of course, having watched this series you would have thought I would have some kind of ablity here. Unfortunately, after 12 years of going out to these clubs, I still have nothing...no approach, not even a "hello". It was an utter failure to launch.

This surely begs the question, why am I quite willing to risk life and limb, but have stage fright to talk to random women, in which the outcome of that talk I really couldn't care less about?

To paraphrase the instructor for the trapeze, "it's just time on the trapeze, that will be what will make it easier for you. Of course the first time you do this, you'll freeze up and have panic/fear/trepidation, just keep doing it until it doesn't".
I think the ease of cold talking to new people is something that comes with practise. And I'm not just talking about talking to random girls at a club. It's more about being able to go into a room and starting engaging with people, and make it interesting.

Vow to myself: just do it! And to my single friend last night, I vouch that I'll be a better wingman next time!

Cayman Photos Up

Stingrays feel like velvet!

Personal Trainer

There was a special on for personal trainer hours at the gym in my building. It's my first time with a personal trainer, and the guy is brutal. He was especially brutal the other day, after a big night out.

Exercise regime that just occurred:
30 x jumping jacks
25 x squat and press with weighted bar
20 x side jumps across bar [2 sets with above exercise]
8 x long jumps
10 x push ups [2 sets with above]
3 x lunges
3 x side squats
8 x dips [2 sets with above 2 exercises]
12 x curl + reverse press with weighted bar
20 x cross over hops on weight bench [3 sets with above]
5 x side lifts (10 lb each arm)
5 x side drops (arm starts at shoulder height and drops half way) [3 sets with above]
8 x front lifts, swing out to side, and back down (10lb each) [3 sets]
20sec plank
20 x plank with leg extension out to side + 5sec plank (now that 5 sec was rough)
10 x plank with knee up (each leg)
20sec plank
20 x swiss ball crunches
12 x back lifts face down [2 sets]
30 x jumping jacks

Total exercise time: 50min
No wonder people get such better results with trainers :)