Remember my CLEO magazine-Coke Zero interview and photoshoot?

I thought the photo made me look like I was actually really high up on the wall.

But I was only about one metre off the ground. Haha.

We were at SAFRA Yishun, the place where I had my first rock-climbing experience.

I was really excited about getting to climb rocks again, so I was a bit disappointed that they only needed me to climb a few steps.

What happened was that because this wall was a little challenging for me, my belayer (also a rock-climbing instructor), decided to demo the route for me. He went on the wall himself and showed me where to step on.

When he got into the position where you see me in the photo, the CLEO crew said, “That’s it! We want that position.”

So, for the next two hours, they shot me in that position endlessly, only tweaking the lighting and camera angle as well as small shifts in my body, head and expression, every so often.

Of course, I didn’t stay on the wall for two hours. After a series of shots, I got to come down and rest while the crew looked over what they’d shot to determine what they needed to change. So it was up and down, up and down.

Even though I didn’t get to climb higher, it was still fun.

Although very, very hot.

I think I tanned two shades darker after the two hours. And I had sunblock on.

To get the shine on my body, the makeup artist first rubbed some oil on. Then it was sprays of water at every break. He also had to wipe sweat off my face every so often, heh.

Did I mention it was really hot?

But I guess the sunny weather was great for lighting.

During the breaks, I chatted with Nanny Wen (who was acting as my manager and personal photographer) and my belayer (can’t remember his name). He was the one who told us about the Sport Climbing course which Nanny Wen and I eventually took up.

In that course, we learnt how to belay, use the safety equipment and climb more efficiently, so we can go climb rocks together now without having to hire belayers.

Anyway, the shoot was over way before I expected. Disappointing, as I said, cos I wanted to climb somemore. Haha.

Oh well. Here are more photos for your viewing pleasure!

Getting makeup and hair done while being interviewed:

Putting on my climbing shoes:

Gearing up for safety:

Setting up the camera:

Hooking the belay device on. Ready to climb!

Shoot starts!

Crew checking the shots:

Taking a break:

Spraying water:

End of shoot and a rewarding cold drink!

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I happened to mention to the Goonfather that I was going to blog about this 17-year-old cutie who also happens to be a national swimmer.

Amanda Lim has earned MANY medals for Singapore, I told him.

He asked, “Do you know why swimmers in Singapore are getting better with each generation?”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because our forefathers lived in a large continent with no access to big bodies of water.”

I waited for him to explain what that had to do with anything.

“So, the new generations of Singaporeans have lived on this little island, surrounded by water, all our lives, right? That makes us better swimmers naturally, via evolution.”

HUH?

Sometimes, I can’t tell whether he’s joking or not.

Anyway, back to the subject.

Amanda, who currently studies at Auckland University of Technology, has, to date, already won seven gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes in various games such as the SEA Games and Asian Youth Games.

She was also named the Overall Best Performer in the SEA Age-Group Championships in 2008.

Interestingly, Amanda has childhood asthma to thank for her sporting achievements.

“I was diagnosed with asthma when I was young and my family doctor recommended me to take up swimming to aid in faster recovery,” she explains. “That was when I realised I have an interest in swimming.”

Amanda is now training hard for the Youth Olympic Games, which everyone should know by now will be hosted in Singapore next month.

“Training is really tough. Right now, we are in the midst of a high altitude training camp in Kunming, China, training 13 sessions a week, with each session lasting up to two and a half, or even three, hours.”

Because this is the first ever YOG and there are no precedents to indicate the level of competition to be expected, Amanda has set a goal to beat her own personal best times of 25.38, 56.16 and 2.02.81 for 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, respectively.

“Hopefully, I will do Singapore proud,” she says, “I feel really honoured and proud to be selected to represent Singapore in such a prestigious meet. Even more, it will be part of a historical event for Singapore.”

What of her plans after the YOG?

“My ultimate dream and aspiration is to qualify for the finals in the Olympic Games one day.”

Lofty dreams for a young girl. I hope to see her competing in the Olympic Games someday, too! For now, though, I’m sure she’ll do her best for YOG and make us proud! =)

Amanda is just one member of an elite team of athletes, coaches and officials that forms our nation’s pride: Team Singapore.

Team Singapore athletes represent our country in major multi-sport games and identified international sports competitions.

Okay, here’s a little known fact about me. I actually harboured dreams of being a national athlete when I was in secondary school. I loved sports and took part in many competitions in school.

Er… but my dreams were short-lived because I didn’t have the dedication to devote all my time to training. Although I did win a few medals in school, I was never good enough to represent my school in inter-school games.

After secondary school, I stopped doing sports and my dream became a thing of the past.

From that standpoint, I can really appreciate the amount of hard work and perseverance our athletes have demonstrated to get to where they are today. Every one of them deserves to be celebrated and admired!

Well, the good news is that, even if we’re not athletes ourselves, we can help Team Singapore. Follow their successes and cheer for them! Subscribe to free SMS alerts for the latest YOG results and updates on Team Singapore!

You can do this at the Team Singapore website. Pick your personal favourite atheletes to support!

The even better news is that there’s something in it for you, too.

Go to SingaporeSports.Sg to wish your favourite athletes or teams well, and stand a chance to win a pair of air tickets to Greece.

It’s very very very easy to take part, especially since you’re already a registered member of SingaporeSports.Sg.

Yes, you ARE a member!

Remember you signed up to vote for me in the Star Sports Blogger competition??

What, you didn’t?!

TSK. =(

Well, the few of you who did (yay!) you have it easy now. Just log in, type a short message, click Submit and you’re done!

Well, okay, it’s easy even if you didn’t sign up the last time to vote for me (huh!). Just spend half a minute to register and you’re almost there!

Here’s the link again: Wish and win air tickets!

So, what did you think of the Goonfather’s theory?

I think all my friends are going to kill me now because they didn’t win the slinky Samsung netbook thanks to me.

I was invited to the Singapore Sports Council office today to do the drawing for the lucky voter prize for the Star Sports Blogger contest.

I think it’s very nice of them to let me do this!

Of course, now I have to face the wrath of people who didn’t win.

Preparing for the drawing with Daniel, who’s the person in charge of the Star Sports Blogger campaign:

Posing for the drawing:

In the container are all the names of people who voted for me! =)

Virtual kisses for every one of you!

I was quite content to leave my hand in there forever because I didn’t want to draw a winner. Cos, like, one person will be happy but so many others will be disappointed!

I actually jumbled the names around for a long time before finally fishing a piece out. It was quite exciting, though.

Congratulations to Germaine Hoe!!! I don’t know who you are but you rock! THANK YOU FOR VOTING FOR ME!!! You will be contacted by Singapore Sports Council for your prize!

The rest of you please don’t kill me. I am very grateful for your vote and you did a good deed so you earn karma points, therefore don’t waste your karma on something so useless as murder!

I also collected my Favourite Blogger prize today: A slinky MacBook! Always wanted to have one but could never justify the cost of getting one. So, yay!

I think the Goonfather is going to steal it. He’s always stealing the gadgets and peripherals that I win or receive from sponsors.

He says he needs the MacBook for when he goes on a course to learn how to make iPhone games.

-__-

I’m going to tax 50% of all his profits when he starts selling games!!

Here’s what a MacBook looks like when you try taking a photo of it using a lousy camera in a dim room and then try to compensate with Photoshop:

An unrecognisable patch of dazzling white!

Whee!

Now I can go sit in cafes with my MacBook and pretend to be some arty farty designer or some other. Hur hur!

Anyway, thank you again to Singapore Sports Council for the contest, thank you voters, and thank you to the Goonfather in advance for 50% of your profits!

=D

Wow! Just found out that I won the Star Sports Blogger “Favourite Blogger” contest! So happy!!

Click here to see contest page.

I’m quite amazed that I won by two votes, so I must thank every single person who voted for me because it means every one of your votes counted a huge deal!!

I feel very loved! Thank you all for your support!! Love you all back! Mwaks MWAKS!

This makes me feel like I need to do more sports, you know. It’s just a bit tricky because I like so many kinds of sports, I feel quite torn among them all.

But, yeah, doing more sports is good. It makes my skin glow and makes me feel more energetic every day.

And, like, when I need to do emergency chasing of buses and MRTs (I do that a lot), I like to be still alive by the time I finish my maniacal sprint to the door.

Constant exercise helps in that department.

And now to await news of the voter prize drawing. It will be announced next Tuesday. One of you will win a slinky Samsung netbook! WHO WILL IT BE! =D

I can’t wait to hear it! Let us all know if it’s you!!

Once again, thank you all for your effort in voting for me and even asking your friends to help. Your kindness is much appreciated!

Oh, yah, and thanks to all who dropped supportive and encouraging comments at the contest page (and also on my blog). You guys are ace!

THANK YOU x 1 ZILLION!

Life is so exciting!

I got to try out a new sport last week!

I often see people doing it at the gym and have always been curious about it. And here, I’ve discovered an academy in Singapore that specialises in it!

Whee!

Evolve Mixed Martial Arts (top martial arts academy in Asia) is based in Singapore and has outlets in Brazil. I feel a little suaku because there are already two outlets in Singapore and I never knew about it until now.

Anyway, never too late! I attended a complimentary lesson with a Muay Thai world champion, Nuengpichit Sityodtong. He’s one of the 10 world champion instructors at Evolve, out of 35 instructors.

I very quickly learnt what it means to train with a world champion. I was bushed even before training started!

Nueng made me jog around the large training hall many times while doing various motions like kicking up my knees and waving my arms. Then he made me sprint full speed for two rounds, which was not a problem.

The problem started when he said, “Now you jump rope for three minutes,” right after my sprint.

Jumping rope is really not easy. Especially after you’ve done a sprint. Especially when you haven’t run for months. To last the full three minutes, I had to cheat by sometimes skipping like a little girl instead of doing actual training jumps.

Nueng even put on “battle music” and kept urging me to “faster, faster!”

I started regretting being lax in my exercise routines before this session.

Fortunately, only the warm-up was a killer. The actual Muay Thai was fun, if a bit strenuous.

I just googled Muay Thai and found out it means “Art of Eight Limbs”, which is eight points of contact using hands, elbows, knees and feet.

We started doing fist punching first. I didn’t get it right right away. Nueng said I was just punching air. He grabbed my fists and aimed it at his head. “Punch here!” he said.

Except that he actually said “pun here”, instead, in that endearing Thai accent of his. Nueng is really cute BUT DEADLY. He showed me some of his advanced moves which left me slack-jawed. He is so quick and powerful it’s unbelievable!

Next, we did elbows, which is a little hard to get right cos you need to angle it in a very specific way, slashing down at your opponent instead of just throwing your elbow out anyhowly.

Luckily, Nueng didn’t make me yell out each time I threw a punch. I remember when I learnt Ninja-do yonks ago, we had to yell “HAAA!!” every time we punched or kick.

We moved on to the punching bag next. It’s so much easier to punch a real target instead of air.

The opening stance of elbow punching is open hands.

I tried very hard to copy exactly and make myself look like a professional fighter.

But I think I need a lot more practice.

How come it’s so hard to look pro?!!

Kicks are tougher to coordinate because, with every kick, you have to remember how all the other three limbs are to be positioned. It’s a very precise sport!

So, like, this is kinda wrong:

My left hand has to be on the other side of my face, instead.

And this is obviously wrong since I look like I’m doing ballet:

Another attempt:

I have a lot of trouble with my stubborn left hand!

After the punching bag, Nueng got me to chase him around the gym, kicking at his punching pads.

That was really fun. And tough, because I was still trying to get my positionings right, plus nonstop kicking is very exhausting!

We spent quite a bit of time on my kicks until I got it just right. Kicking is fun!

And then it was over and I was utterly winded!

And STILL Nueng made me do sit ups and leg raises to round up the session.

EH.

What a great workout I had, though. I wouldn’t mind doing this regularly, cos it’s fun and allows me to keep fit and healthy and toned and slim at the same time. =D

And I will end up being a lean, mean fighting machine, as opposed to being a lean person who works with machines if I were to train at a normal gym instead. Haha.

The outlet I went to was the one at Far East Square (the other one is at PoMo Mall). It’s very big and impressive! The interior looks very professional and I love the female locker room, which is very cosy!

Besides Muay Thai, there’s also Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, FightShape, Wrestling, Self-Defense and Yoga. I feel like trying the others, too!

I wonder what yoga is like at a mixed martial arts academy.

And maybe self-defense would be a great thing to learn. One could never be safe enough.

There’s even a Little Samurai Children’s Program. So coooool. I want to be a little child samurai! Haha.

There’s going to be an international championship event starting May 14, called Martial Combat, held at Resorts World Sentosa and covered by ESPN Star Sports.

It will feature the world’s most popular and celebrated fighters, including world champions from Evolve.

I want to learn from a world champion instructor who will be fighting at the event. That will be so cool, right, learning from a celebrity fighter!!

Hey, wait. I DID learn from a celebrity fighter! I just googled Nueng and he’s, like, all over the place!

I feel privileged!

Anyone interested in learning, too? Let’s take classes together! =P

I think how it works is you pay a yearly membership and you can attend unlimited classes, seven days a week, as many hours as you like.

Complimentary trial classes are available for booking from the website if you’re interested.

Here’s the website.

And the Facebook page.

Let’s be lean, mean fighting machines together!!

[PS. Submitted this post for the Star Sports Blogger Contest!]