Sept 11, 2011, I did not make it to round island. After months of training, on this faithful even, I was down with fever. I later found out I had dengue. It must have been one of my training trip where I got the mosquito bite. I did attend the event, only after the rain, which is about 10am. I cycled from Gurney to the finishing line. Went to get my medal, waited till the Lucky Draw and went home empty handed.

7 weeks since I bought my Fixie, I have yet to be ready for the 2011 Campaign for a Lane Round Island ride. The ride is almost 80km long and need to complete it within 5 hours. Half the round island journey is hilly and this is my biggest challenge on a Fixie. I am training my legs to climb climb climb and also to be able to slow down on a downhill. So far, I have not bee able to go beyond 11km in my training and with 41 days to go, its crunch time. Maybe my solution is this Two speed Fixie, yes, the world first two speed fixie from Bedovelo (Swiss).

We saw this place a couple of weeks back and we thought we should try it out. We arrived at about 6.30pm and the restaurant was already full. We manage to get the last empty seat for two and dive down into the menu. The menu is pack with Fish, Chicken, Pork, Lamb and Beef western style entrées. Overwhelm by the choices, I decided on the only item that caught my eye, the Stuffed Fish(RM10) and the Chicken Cordon Bleu(RM10) by my wife. Our orders were entered into the system at 6.38pm and we started to wait. A line started to form at the front of the restaurant. And we wait. Plenty of help and all the staff were busy delivering food or clearing the table up. And we wait. At 7.02pm, my order arrived, 2 minutes later the Chicken Cordon Bleu arrived.

The stuffed fish was actually Fish Cordon Bleu, ham & Cheese wrap with Fish and then covered with bread crumbs and deep fried. There were two pieces, the first was rich in cheese, while the second, I could merely taste any cheese at all. Mid Size Fries, coleslaw with onions, bun, green peas, one slice of cucumber, tomato and lettuce as sides. The Chicken Cordon Bleu has the same sides except for the coleslaw. Both the Stuffed Fish and Chicken were above average. We could not explain the crowd. The drinks were affordably priced, with some on Jumbo size at RM5.50. We spent RM25 for dinner for two, and this may be the reason for the crowd.

The restaurant was decorated to look like a sports bar(almost), with the large LCD TV on sports, an island drinks bar and several seating sections differently decorated. What’s missing are sports memorabilia. They didn’t need it, the restaurant was filled to the brim, even the seating overflow to the carpark. I rate this place 7 out of 10 for the food quality, ambiance speed of food delivery considering the restaurant was full.

Address: 21 Jalan Fetes Park, 11200 Penang, Hours: Tue-Sun 4pm-11.30pm, Facebook.

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The weather was excellent today, after yesterday’s rain, the haze was gone and the sun was blazing all day long. By 5.30pm, I started to pack my stuff and head for my bike.  The guard keep asking, “You Cycle hari ini ka?”, Ya, I said, and he ask again, and Ya I said, and he ask again, and then he finish off by saying “Bagus la, kurang jam, jika semua orang macam kau, memang tak ada jam”. I smiled and head towards the evening.  I started the Runkeeper and my music library fires up.  Started strong, but careful as the traffic right in FIZ were as heavy as it gets.  The sun was still shining, but the breeze from cycling balances it off.  Comfortably leaving the FIZ 1 area, I pick up my speed. A little ambitious and my tie started to hurt. 

I keep on pushing and without realizing, I am more than half way through to my destination.  I decided to take the longer route and soon regrets it as the pain started to take toll. Almost reaching my destination, my phone rang, damm, office number. Nothing tomorrow can’t settle. Reaching my wife’s office, it was 22 minutes after.  To my surprise, runkeeper reports only 3.9km, and I took 22 minutes for this short distance, I could not compute. I thought I pushes hard and cover a lot of ground. Later when I plot the route on Google Map, I found that the actual distance is 8.2km, and at 22 minutes, I have been traveling at 22.4km/hr, highest average speed so far, and this is more like it.  Must have been my colleague call that screws up runkeeper. My iPhone 3GS could not answer call and run GPS app at the same time, this must be the reason.

I receive the GUB Classic helmet that I bought from bicyclehelmet (by Thomas Hon).  Thomas was very responsive on queries and after a quick negotiation, I paid him and he ships me the helmet on Tuesday.  I received it today, 2 days later.  Great service, affordable, satisfied.

At about lunch time the sky starts to pour.  It didn’t stop till at about 7.  I could not cycle home and so I did the alternative.  Which is to grab my umbrella and started to walk.  Step by step, 35 minutes later, I hit 3km and met my wife who have been waiting patiently.  The traffic jam in FIZ today was as horrible as yesterday and the day before.  All this thanks to JKR who are currently renovating a short stretch of road which is a major artery to FIZ.  For days, everyone have been bitching about the jam, and people are starting to accept it and make changes.  Yesterday, 9am the office was empty, everyone was stuck at the Bayan Lepas round rbout Jam.  Today, 9am, the office was almost full, everyone came earlier, taking into considerations on the Jam time.  Evening today, at 545pm, majority was already out the office.  The amount of people still in the office is like 6.45pm on a regular day.  Suddenly everyone becomes efficient and left early. 

I couldn’t sit and wait for my wife to come pick me up, so I told her, why not we meet half way. I started to walk at 6pm, the rain is now slowing down and it does not bother me at all. I was surprise to find a good pathway along the factories fences (below) and it was safe and comfortable and away from water puddles and speeding motorist.  Yes, even the cars are at a standstill, the motorist can still speed on. I keep telling my colleagues, asking them to take their bike to work, this way, they can avoid the jam and the Jam can avoid them, their cars will not be missed. 

Touring on my Fixie with Runkeeper keeps me abreast on the speed that I am on and the distance that I have travelled.  On top of that, I get to map where I’ve been and shares it on Facebook.  Best of all, Runkeeper is free.  I check out some of the other Cycling Apps on IOS and found the best one is free.  Runkeeper provide my basic need, showing the elevation, speed and also my calories burnt.  Its just a fun way to map where I’ve been. 

I check out a new route today and found an alternative road to take when the Bayan Lepas town traffic light is Jam.  This route cut from Caltex all the way to the Airport, right at Brothers Barber intersection.  Its not a good bike route because of the many bumps that mark the road along the way.  I did not even bother to count, just too many. 

I did 7.3km today with a 19m climb, not much of a climb, but since I just started, it was quite taxing for my legs. I was quite beat after the climb.  Tomorrow’s route will be without elevation, so it is going to be about speed, what would be my top speed and what’s the average…

On the bike yesterday and today brings out the joy of cycling. Fixie or fixed bike is very different from my previous bikes. It keep reminding me that I am not on a normal bike, especially coming to corners where I have to slow down. I have to use my led muscle to slow down and it’s something I have got used to. I still haven’t learnt to skid, maybe because of my front brake which I keep putting skiding off.

Riding on my Fixie to work is like living a lifestyle dream. I have yet to make it as a sustainable lifestyle, but I am getting there. I’ve got the hardware and the will, what’s left is just living through it…

When I first play Gowalla, I was also venturing into Foursquare.  I stop after a while as there were no special mayorship incentive in Malaysia and nothing to collect, except badges.  Again, there were not that many players/users in Malaysia then.

Recently, I started to check out foursquare again.  To my surprise, the users/players has mushroom exceeding those playing Gowalla.  Better still, there are special offers for foursquare players right in my City of Penang.  Below are three of that I discover at the time of this post.

We went to check out the LadyBird Keyword series and found out that there are a total of 12 series with 3 books for each series totally to 36 books.  The MRSP for each book was RM9.90 and we work out the total cost needed.  Thanks to a few friends, namely EC, Mok and Dora, we manage to get two sets for the kids and two huge roll of plastic book wrappers and plenty of cellotapes. 

We went over to the home at Dec 18, 2010 and handed over the books.  When we arrived, the kids were all sitting quietly reading.  The Ivory Group also arrived at the same time and they were having an event with the kids.  After leaving the books on the sofa, and briefly talked to Dr. Chandra, we left the home happy finishing one of the task we set to achieve.  We hope the kids at Shan Children’s home benefit from the Ladybird Keywords series and may they reap greater knowledge from reading.