New toy !

It's called a 2006 Lemond Chambery

It's no Cervelo, but it sure is a whole lot more affordable than a new car and the fact it shares its name with one of my childhood sporting heroes is a touching little coincidence.

Ok, I just had to post this pic....

It's for everyone who didn't think I was crazy for choosing a car that everyone else was sure wouldn't survive our local weather or no resale value.... :D

Contrasts, Sights and Shots....

Had a most enjoyable bike outing last Saturday, helped significantly by the company and weather and snapped some shots that I should I'd share with everyone. First was the purportedly haunted Matilda House.



Not too sure of its para-normal status but it sure stood out in contrast to the surrounding. Of course the lovely, clear-blue skies helped, too - imagine, if the skies looked this good in a pic taken from a camera phone. Wished it had stayed that way for the rest of the day, tho'....and just across the road was what I feel would make a great spaceship launch pad location were we ever to make a locally-produced sci-fi movie (heavens, no....)



Talk about contrast, eh?

Think I'm getting back into the biking thing finally - this pic was taken at the end of Punggol Road (mine's the one on the left, next to partner-in-crime's Voodoo...) and I actually wasn't out of breath... :D

I like this guy...

...most of all his opening page

Check IT out

The rest of the stuff's pretty nifty, too

Bikes and Me - A Brief History...part 1

As far as I can recall, I've been interested in cycling that one fateful evening out on an open field when dad, after reassuring me he wouldn't let go of my first ever bicycle, did. I still remember that day clearly - it was some German-made kid's sized two-wheeler and I'll have to post some pics of it once I dig it out. And I'll also need to find out its make.

To distract me from worrying I'd fall, he kept me talking away. Without me knowing it, he'd let go of the bike and I had continued cycling, and talking, for at least five minutes (yes, it was a large field and I was going quite slowly). Then I asked him something like, "dad, you're pretty quiet back there - is everything ok?". After asking a few times I looked back and dad was like half a mile behind me. That was when, in terror, I jumped off the bike. A little bit like that 12-second hop which the Wright Brothers took on Kitty Hawk (tho' far less glamourous) in 1903, that's how the cycling part of me was awakened.

Till my pre-U days, cycling was taken first as utility. Any thing social or personal that came along the way was a bonus. During that stage in life, Raleigh-branded BMX-type bike (which eventually got stolen - another story in itself) and some unknown Chinese-made hard-chromed hard steel frame road bike with budget components (which still lies dormant with my first bike somewhere in my parents' home) afforded mobility previously unimagined. Until very much later when my driver's license came along, the bicycle was my key to accessing anything beyond the gates of my home. And, boy, access almost anything I did.

During this time, in an age lacking internet access, BBC World or the budget to finance "proper" reading material, my impressions of the rarefied professional cycling world was centered around the occasional news reports of the Tour de France which filtered through the local news (which were, incidentally, far and few). However, one name which did leave an impression, along with the "bullhorn" type handles of his racers was the legendary Greg LeMond. And watching 30-second clips of him crossing the finish line of a Tour stage was just awe-inspiring to a then highly-impressionable teen.

Then came the next chapter.

The Separation of Work and Faith

A recent conversation with a colleague raised an interesting thought - can one be a salesperson and still maintain one's standing as a firm believer of his faith beliefs, or in the actual words of my colleague, retain one's status as a God-freaing person? While it would be unfair to assume that every salesperson stretches the truth for the sake of his profession, we do tend to expect this more often than not.

And if that is so, would it be possible to truthfully live up to one's professional expectations while adhering to the tennets of one's faith, whatever they may be?

From personal experience, I've come to use the word "compartmentalisation" as a way of describing how some individuals I've met separate areas of their lives that pontially conflict with one another. And at times, rather successfully, too.

In the broader sense, don't we all to a certain extent to this?