Trove, my Progress & Thoughts

For those of you who are unaware, Trove is a 3D Voxel RPG. Essentially, it's kinda like minecraft with RPG elements with a focus on killing monsters and getting loot.

Understand that some of you may believe that the game looks gay and kiddy. I really don't blame you, I initially thought so too as well. I was looking for time to kill and thought this was something that would be a 'casual past-time'. Was I casual in the end? Nope of course not rofl.

Gonna dedicate a post to the game and share my experiences.

My Time in the Game:

Literally

I started off as a Candy Barbarian and got him to level 20. The leveling experience was generally quite enjoyable as the different worlds that you're exploring looks crisp and generally quite well made for the genre.

On top of that, gearing up and unlocking stuff was also quite pleasant. The concept may seem like those typical run-of-the mill RPGS at first, but I could feel that the emphasis  of the game was actually more on character progression and how you played it, instead of pure levels and gear power alone.

and then...

I essentially got all 12 classes up to the lvl cap, 20 (lol). It did take awhile, but it was nice to check out the different skills of each class and how they are able to contribute to groups/dungeon parties differently.

Then the grind started... The game had a mechanic called 'Mastery levels' which had a cap of 200. Every time you level up your mastery, you were able to gain passive bonuses or unlock specific stuff such as wings/mounts/costumes and the likes. Leveling up mastery was the longest and most tiring journey of me playing the game. I was only able to get to rank 176 before calling it quits.

 Shadow Towers

My most recent and notable experiences from the game usually included boss battles in the Shadow Towers (recently released). Hard mode bosses are generally challenging and would require a competent group to clear. DOTM hard mode was like a 30-45min fight non-stop.

Spike Walker - Hard Mode

Daughter of the Moon

The shadow towers are definitely one of the more fun and challenging aspects of the game as far as end-game content goes.

Fun fact: Before Shadow Towers were released, all the community had to work with were Shadow Arenas which were pretty easy to clear with a geared group.

Cornerstone

A cornerstone is essentially an instance hub that you can spawn at specific locations in a map. In your cornerstone, you can access whatever tools that you have built in it, or simply ogle at how aesthetic some people built theirs.

Here's mine:

Day Time

Night Time

Level 1 (Interior) - General Stuff

Level 2 (Interior) - Portals

Level 3 (Interior) - 'My Room'

Level 4 (Interior) - Bar/Kitchen

Level 5 (Interior) - Trophy Room

The whole cornerstone took me a good lot of hours but I'd say it's a satisfying experience when it was finally up.

I did not come up with the original exterior design on my own though as I'm lacking that kind of artistic flair. I saw it somewhere on the official trove forums and decided to replicate it. The interiors were all done up by me.

Club World

Club Worlds are simply speaking, the 'guilds' in the game. 

It is an open space area of the 'guild' where members all build the whole place on their own. This shit can take a hell lot of time if you were making something major.

I've been apart of a few clubs that have huge castles and cool looking underground dungeons, however I've managed to make a simple one on my own that has all the necessities that I'll need for the game. It's something at least.

My Club World's main area

My Club World's Fishing Area + Fishing Trophies

I know that it may look unimpressive at first, but what I actually had to do was to flatten the whole area which took a freaking long time as you had to remove and add the blocks in 1 by 1. 

After which, you had to procure the mats to build all the necessary stuff you wanted. I'm happy with what I've got but then again, for those people with super fanciful and HUGE club worlds, I really question how bored they must've been.

Unlocks/Masteries/Gears

List of my Unlocks

Remember me talking about mastery levels? Everything you unlock (mounts/wings/styles/costumes/flasks...) gives you points which contributes to your overall mastery level. 

The list above shows my progress thus far.

Mastery Level

Candy Barbarian Gear

I've managed to farm full radiants (highest tier gear), fully pearled and fully upgraded on my candy barb. 

On my other toons , I usually have them all fully equipped with shadow lvl 2-5 items. 

All in all, my experience with the game was good and I've had lots of fun in an other-wise unique looking game.

Jayexa - 'See ya!'

If you'd like to check out Trove or find out more about the game, you can visit their official website:

http://www.trionworlds.com/trove/

Alternatively, you can just download and jump right into the game on steam. It's free anyway, what's there to lose?

PADI Open Water Diver Course

It's been on my mind for quite awhile now and I've recently decided to take the plunge to get my PADI Open Water Diver, Scuba-diving license!

Just in case you were wondering:
PADI - Professional Association of Diving Instructors

I've decided to do this with Gill Divers as they seemed to be a reliable and safe 5-star PADI Dive Centre.

Gill Divers Banner

Headed down to the dive centre to make fill in forms (so many indemnity/not my tai ji if something happen to you/health clauses - of course haha) and make payment. Staff there then were pretty young and energetic. They seem to be part-timers though (those at the counter).

Got mailed a digital version of the PADI Open Water Diver Manual (Wtf, it's 242 pgs long - thought that it will be simple as the whole course is so commercialised), Recreational Dive Planner tables and Knowledge Reviews that I apparently need to prepare for my upcoming theory lessons/test.

Theory

Went through the PADI manual on my own initially. Apparently there are so many risks that you run (some potentially fatal even) if you don’t do everything properly, especially with regards to managing pressures (the Pascal one) all around your body. I've also realised that diving is quite a technical activity to do.

The class preparation itself on-site at the Gill-Divers centre lasted over 2 days. It involved video-viewing and subsequent question reviews.

After all the reviews had been covered, we took a test and you had to pass it to proceed (all MCQ).

Met many people of many different ages from all walks of life as well, so it was a pretty diverse environment in the 'classroom' area.


Pool Practical

The pool practical was conducted at Outram Secondary School (Quite amazing that a sec. school has their own swimming pool).

Anyway, we were split into groups and each group was allocated to 1 instructor. I got the same instructor that taught me theory which was pretty interesting. Each of us were then assigned to 1 dedicated buddy for the day, as diving has to be done in pairs.

The whole point of the pool practical was to conduct all the skills required for the open water dive in a controlled environment, before you actually went on the actual dive out in the sea (for safety reasons of course).

They taught you everything from gearing up, to doing checks and eventually all the skills required and expected of you underwater in your scuba gear.

I must say that the first few breathes I took underwater was simply an unforgettable experience! There's like this 'exhalish steam punk-ish kind of sound' - (best description I can think of) every time you took breathes.

Had some troubles with the mask removal and clearing underwater initially as when my mask was off, I sorta 'panic-ed' a little, which caused me to breathe through my nose and took in a lot of water. Choked on it and gotta surface, quite pai seh. I managed to get it sorted out at the end though, thankfully.

I've also realised the importance of keeping calm and staying in control throughout the whole dive, regardless of what happens. Otherwise, it becomes very easy to screw up and it can be quite serious.

Other than that, I was pretty confident of the other skills required of me. Thinking about it, you better be, as the reality is that there's some kind of risk involved in something like that.

Overall, the feeling of being underwater and swimming around is so quiet and peaceful. (I know it's only a swimming pool, but still.) Any communication done is done through hand signals, which is a pretty new and interesting way of communicating.

Looking forward to the actual dive trip to Bintan.


Dive Trip - Bintan

Day 1

Arrived at Tanah Merah ferry terminal about 30mins earlier prior to the meeting time. Bought some breakfast ($3+ Egg Mayo Sandwhich...) at a nearby coffee store and chilled in the vicinity for awhile before gathering with the diving staff.

Departure Hall

Boarded the ferry after and the boat took around 45minutes to reach Bintan. The ferry kinda resembled the one you took to Tekong during army lol.

Bintan - Welcome Sign

Arrived at Bintan and we met up with all our group mates, diving instructors and dive masters. Took the bus which was another 1 hour journey to Bintan Agro Beach Resort, which was our accommodation for the next 2 days.

Went ahead to have our lunch which was a little miserable, it was just a small bowl's worth of rice and 1 egg with another miserable cucumber slice and tomato. Was not filling at all and we had to go diving on semi-empty stomaches lol.

The crew proceeded to load up all the scuba gears onto a total of 2 boats. The people were then split into a total of 4 groups: Groups 1,2,3 & the leisure group; 2 groups to 1 boat.

The first boat housed group 1 & 2, while the 2nd held group 3 and the leisure group. I was in group 3 and was paired up with the same buddy I had during the pool practical!

Our Dive Boats

After changing and doing all of our necessary prep work, we boarded the boat and headed out to sea!

The whole build-up was pretty thrilling as there was a whole stack of oxygen tanks, BCDS, fins, masks, weight belts, etc(other gears) stacked all around the ship and it gave you the feeling that you were going to do something bad-ass haha.

It was also going to be my first time willingly jumping into the middle of the sea. Only remembered 1 other occasion when it happened non-intentionally and that was when I fell off a banana boat when I was quite young (remembered my mom freaking out then).

Our Dive Instructor (DI), Jia Jun & Dive Master (DM), Scott introduced themselves to us. Our DI was a funny guy and our DM was a cool, chilled and skilled dude. The role of the DI was to literally be the one conducting the course, whereas the DM was the person who would follow us to facilitate the group (safety, etc) and to assist the DI whenever necessary.

Both of them were from China apparently - you could tell when they started talking. They spoke to us directly in mandarin. When I requested if they could give the instructions in english as it was pretty new to hear all the diving terms in chinese, it was quite fail. Told them that it was alright to do chinese all the way in the end.

My dive group apparently had 4 mainland chinese people (3girls, 1 guy), 1 Malaysian (My buddy) and me, making a total of 6 people, excluding the diving staff.

After the briefing from our DI, we geared up and proceeded on to work on our skills in our 1st and 2nd dives.

1st Dive

In the 1st dive, we exited the boat via the 'Back-roll entry' method. When I hit the water, I quickly broke the surface and signalled to the DI that I was ok. It was then I realised that I was actually in the fucking sea - it was truly an adrenaline pumping moment!

Instructions were to swim to a white colour float and wait for the whole group to gather before we proceeded on to submerge to do our skills underwater.

Visibility was pretty poor (1-3m) and we all had to stick super close to each other, otherwise if someone gets lost, gg.

Had to equalize a lot more often as well, as this time you were really breaking a lot deeper depths as compared to the pathetic pool depth during the pool practical session.

Proceeded on to do skills such as regulator clearing, mask removal & replacement, alternate air-source sharing, hovering & maintaining neutral bouyancy.

All forms of communications underwater was done through hand signals.

I was slightly worried for the mask clearing and removal as I had some problems with it during the pool session, as once your mask goes off, sometimes it's just instinctive for some reason that you take a slight breath through your nose which really fucks me up and made me surface during the pool session before (I've already sorted it out though). However this time, you just can't afford to fuck up. Your deep underwater and you can't surface too easily. Thankfully, I managed to clear it rather smoothly.

I was the first one that was told to surface after clearing all the skills in the 1st dive as I had the lowest oxygen left lol (50 bar), apparently I was taking larger breathes or something. Maybe it was due to my adrenaline making me breathe faster? I didn't exactly notice myself taking rapid breathes though, in fact I was breathing pretty normally imo. Oh well...

After surfacing from the first dive, inflated my BCD and back-paddled back to the boat where me and the group replaced our oxygen tanks, in preparation for the 2nd dive.


2nd Dive

After replacing our oxygen tanks, we chilled on the boat for around 1 hour to rid ourselves of the accumulated nitrogen  in our bodies so that we can safely make the 2nd dive.

In the 2nd dive, we covered skills such as CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent), Cramp Removal Exercises, Equipment R&R & Tired-Diver towing. Things went pretty smoothly here.

After we've finished our skills for the 2nd dive, we packed our gear neatly and kept them on the boat before heading back to have a nice (more like o-k actually), zhi cha dinner.

Hanged around with some of the people from my group and others as well, chit chatting and walking around the resort. It was a really nice feeling to experience a change of pace once in a while.

Turned in for the night pretty early as we had to get up early the next morning for our 3rd and 4th dives.

Oh yeah, managed to get a group photo on the boat as well:

PADI OW Diver - Group 3 (Boat Photo)

Day 2

Woke up at about 6+ am on day 2. Washed up and had an international breakfast buffet at 7am. I tremendously regret eating too much here (oily food to boot) - I'll get to why later.

Before we departed for our 3rd & 4th dives, we had some time to kill. I ended up talking quite a lot with my room-mates. 1 of them was actually a guy from England who is in Singapore for work and is clocking dives towards his Dive Master course. (He is already a 'Rescue Diver' and is part of the leisure group). The other guy, was the china guy from my group. Though he was quite soft spoken at first, he's actually pretty cool. Apparently, he came to Sg alone for holiday and this was just something he just decided to do lol.

When the time was up, we headed onto the same boats and headed out again for our 3rd and 4th dives.


Dive 3

The main focus of this dive was underwater navigation, we had to be able to swim away from the group, make a 180° turn and return back to the group. Doesn't sound too hard right? Oh no lol, the visibility was as shit as yesterday (1-3m). This simply made it hard to even spot your group after you've swam away and you just gotta pray that you didn't make any kind of parallax error on your compass watch on the way back.

This was also the dive where we descended to the deepest depth (for us, the students at least), here I could really see the effects of the pressure difference on my oxygen consumption (a lot higher). The mask and ear squeezes were more prominent as well.

The navigation exercise was done around the depth of 10-18m.

Remember me mentioning something about me regretting eating too much crap for breakfast? Yeah, here's what happened after we surfaced from dive 3:

I got on the boat, un-geared up and sat down. At this point, I started feeling seasick as fuck as the boat was now rocking a lot due to the big currents. I just thought that I'd put up with it till the end, oh I was wrong. The whole bunch of shit I ate in the morning decided to come-up suddenly (with very little warning) out of my mouth and onto the boat just like the nice damn Singapore Merlion! My whole group was shocked, especially my buddy lol. I feel so sad and guilty. :( If I was gonna merlion, I should have just done it overboard into the sea. I cleaned myself and the gears up by jumping back into the sea/ pouring water all over the boat and apologised to everyone.

Everyone was like 'it's ok, it's ok' and were really nice, but I seriously felt like a small pussy ass fucktard. It was sad then :(

Lesson learned really, eat a light and healthy breakfast next time. 


Dive 4

Apparently, after all that shenanigans we have completed all the skills required of us during the OW dive.

Dive 4 ended up being a leisure dive.

I handed my camera over to our DI, after which he and the DM brought us around, trying to show us some good sights even in the crappy visibility we had then.

The camera is an Olympus TG-860, it's pretty affordable (~300-400SGD) for an underwater camera (up to 15m). I've considered getting camera housing for a DSLR / Waterproof phone bag initially but it was too expensive / risky.

Our DM helped to take a shot on the surface:

PADI OW - Group 3 (Surface Shot) - HUAT AH!

As I did not had my mind focused on doing skills now, I managed to see corals, fishes and sea urchins. My DI also managed to take a picture of a nudibranch (think sea-snail, without the shell).

Nudibranch

He also took shots of the group in dive gear underwater. (It was my request actually and he was very happy to do so - what a damn nice guy)

SCUBA Gear Underwater

The last leisure dive was the most fun as the focus was not on doing skills, but rather - sight seeing. Although visibility was pretty bad then, I still managed to see some rather good sights after going near enough.

Surfaced after and prepared to head back to the resort where we had to pack our things and get ready to head home in the evening.

Reached back at Tenah Merah ferry terminal at approximately 10pm SG time and shared a cab home with some1 from group 1 (very nice guy btw). Home sweet home at around 11pm. :)

All in all, I had a fun time, it was also my very first time travelling out of Singapore alone. (yea yea, I know it's just to Bintan)

Made a lot of new friends and have finally become a PADI Open Water Diver! :D

Would like to thank all my group mates in group 3 and everyone that has interacted with me then for being such amazing company!

Pentaprism Group - Ejun Low Portraits (My Experience)

Ejun Low Portraits

Ejun Low Photography is a subsidiary of Pentaprism group (correct me if I'm wrong) which specialises in portrait photography for both commercial and personal uses.

I’ve actually stumbled upon Ejun from his website, http://www.ejunlow.com/ and I must say that I really like and appreciate the work that he’s done.

I’ve gotten in touch with them and did my booking with Ejun via Rhys, a photographer there as well and also the one in charge of the bookings. He was really friendly and helpful with regards to any questions that I had. Kudos to him for that!

According to them, Ejun was fully booked for the month of July (they claim to only host 2 people per week). Arranged for the photo shoot to be done in August instead (better time for me still anyway).

Never exactly been in a studio solo before, hopefully I’ll be cool on the actual day itself. :S

Day at the Studio (12/8/15)

Arrived at the place 15mins earlier and was greeted by Ejun shortly after. He was a super warm, kind and friendly guy. I initially thought that it may be a little intimidating as he was the principal photographer of the whole damn place, but in reality, it was the total opposite!

He showed me in and offered me a drink. We had a nice talk for awhile before he asked to see my suit and told me to change into it.

After which, he proceeded on to give me a very informative session on the intricacies of lighting and shadows for portrait photography. It was quite insightful and I really do appreciate him educating me, instead of simply taking my photo and being done with me. Super good service!

I really appreciate his sense of style as he directed me through various poses and even some 'model' -ish looking shots. This guy had no problems making literally anyone look splendid! (Or their very best at least)

An example is as such:
He sits you down in a certain angle, gets you to tilt your head in certain ways and look at a certain direction, making sure that the direction that your looking at is in line with where your nose is facing, so that everything is in 'sync'.

Took about a total of 150-200 shots across a few different backgrounds. The first 40 were what he called 'warm up' shots. I really like the idea of this as people tend to be stiff and nervous maybe(?) for the first few pictures (this may not be too available somewhere else). He just kept taking pictures of you, altering your poses simply to make you feel comfortable initially. After which, when you start to look more natural, the gold starts surfacing!

I've gotta choose 2 pictures out of the whole lot that he got for me and according to him, the total number of photos taken isn't even a lot, it was good that there were quite a number of photos that he was happy with. In the end, I decided on the following 2:

Photos after editing (Click on Images for Hi-Res):

Black Background

White & Grey Background

Overall, I'm satisfied with how he constantly strives to produce high quality photo products and at the same time creating a warm and cozy ambience around.

If you ever do need a portrait photo taken, this is definitely the guy you should check out.

2XU Compresssion Run 2015

I must say, the marketing done by this company is splendid. It has gone through my skepticism of paying for over-priced shit but I did it anyway because I really liked it.

Damage for the run was about 60 bucks, I also opted to get the 'Elite MCS' compression short tights which cost me another 100+. I was actually advised to go for the full legging tights as it was my calf that's usually the one that cramps in these endurance runs, but it's just so damn ugly :( so nope lol.

Race Pack Collection

Headed down to Velocity @ Novena at around lunch time on Friday (13/3/15) and I tell you, the place was packed like fuck! I did not expect so many people at a non-peak hour time but surprise surprise, the queue actually lasted all the way out of the mall and to the next building and it was still going.

 The Long Queue

Checked the website on my phone and apparently this race was fully SOLD OUT. I'm probably attributing this to the nicer design of the singlet + the 2XU shoe bag's that they were giving out as a part of the race pack.

The race pack itself included the running singlet, your number tag, pins, and some brochures packed in the shoe bag. Tbh, I really like the design of the shoe bag and would probably be using in the future.

2XU Race Apparels

Race Day - 21.1km

The original race day itself was supposed to be held on 29/3/15. However, due to the passing of our founding father LKY, it was postponed to 2/8/15.

Trained only about 3 weeks prior to the actual race day itself.

Arrived 1 hour prior to the flag-off time. The race-site looked quite make-shift with a couple of tent-ages being set up across a wide grass field. Sat around and waited for them to start directing people into the start pen. As usual, it was quite a clusterfuck.

They were pretty punctual with the gun time. The race started at almost 4:30am. A lot of people were chionging at the start again, as usual (The poser ones usually die out pretty quickly). I just kept my own comfortable pace.

I was pretty happy with myself throughout the whole run as I did not really stop to walk at all. The only times I did were at water points to usually sip the 2 cups of water that I oftenly took as I would kind of choke on it if I tried to drink while running.

The groups that I was with throughout seemed to be those that managed to run all the way as well, which made me feel like I've made some progress and I'm actually getting better at running longer distances.

Crossed the finish line at 2:43, according to my watch at least.

 Official Result

Post-run photo

The finisher-tee was quite nice. Quite liked the black design with the golden coloured strips on it.

Took the shuttle bus to the floating platform and walked to city-hall to get some food. Had Nasi Lemak to replenish those carbs that I've lost.

Took the mrt, then bus home from there. I thought of taking a cab, but I'm a broke little phaggot right now and couldn't afford it.

Overall, I was satisfied with my performance this time. I managed to clock a timing of <3hours (which was my initial goal to begin with) and I did not really walk at all throughout the whole thing.

Will I be running long distance runs again? Probably not anytime soon. This shit's a sadistic sport if your gunning for better timings. We'll see though, cheers.

Jumbo Seafood at East Coast Park

It's been awhile since I've last visited Jumbo Seafood (Maybe in Pri/Sec schl?). I was reminded about it when I ran past it during the 2015 Sundown Marathon lol.

There are a couple of branches all over Singapore. I insisted on going to the East Coast Park one though as it had not just a nice sea-view opposite, but was the original branch as well.

Jumbo Seafood @ East Coast Park

When we arrived, there was actually a really long queue to the place. There was even a queue for those (including us) who made reservations. No matter, we were shown to our seats quite promptly still.

Here's what we had:

Salted Egg Golden Prawn

This was the first dish that was served and it was delicious! I understand that they are coating the prawns in flour & egg yolk, but what I don't get is how did they make it so fukin crisp and tasteful.

Scalloped wrapped in Yam Ring

This was served with sweet sauce. Individually, the scallop was soft and the yam ring was flaky and was a pleasure to chew on. However, it was quite hard to bite both at once as the scallop kept falling out lol.

Mee Goreng

Apparently, Jumbo's Mee Goreng is famous. It's a little spicy and the seafood toppings were not as much as I'd hoped for. Still, it was filling, seeing that the previous dishes were all just to 吃爽 and not to 吃饱 - this one served that purpose.

Donut with Seafood Paste

Initially I did not really thought that this dish was anything special as it looked rather plain. In reality, it was really different from what I was expecting - the insides sure as hell wasn't plain. I grabbed quite a few more of these as it was such a yummy treat!

Jumbo Seafood's famous Chilli Crab

Very well known throughout Singapore that Jumbo Seafood's award-winning Chilli Crab is a definite must try for anyone that goes there. The sauce was thick, sweet and not too spicy (despite the name) and the crab itself was fresh and delightful to eat (troublesome though, and messy - cause I noob at eating crab lol). We had the crab with some mantous which we dipped into the Chilli Crab sauce and ate.

Overall, it was quite a nostalgic and nice experience eating at Jumbo again as this place has been around since I was like 10.

Price wise, it can be a little pricey (or at least for low-class me), but still if you are coming once in a while, it's definitely worth the occasional treat!

Sundown Marathon 2015

 Started training for this about 2 months prior to the actual event itself, progressively increasing the duration and mileage of my runs.

Stopped lifting entirely during this period as well as it would be counterproductive, trying to build mass and yet go through so much endurance training at the same time was simply a 1 way ticket to achieving results nowhere.

Did lose some size and muscle as a result, but no matter as such is the process of marathon training.

Not really gonna race anyone or rush for some kind of 'timing', my only aim is to complete it without getting DQ-ed (<8hours I believe). It's more for personal satisfaction. Experience at the previous SCM was pretty painful, hopefully this time I will fare a lot better as I've been training substantially more for this run.

There was also an element of 'unfinished business' as I did not run the full marathon back during the SCMS 2014. Hence, completing this marathon would prove to be a significant milestone for me.

Race Pack Collection (26/6/15)

Entrance

The collection was done at Suntec Convention Hall, it was the usual walk-in, register, collect race-tag and running singlet with bag + miscellaneous.

 Registration & Race Pack Collection Area

Surprisingly, there wasn't really a crowd when I was there, good for me I guess. 

You had to do a mandatory walk through a whole bunch of mobile shops/booths after. They were selling all kinds of stuff such as compression tights, shoes, socks, gels, energy bars etc. 

The prices for some of the stuff kinda felt like a rip-off. Regardless, I went ahead to buy 2 gels ($2.50 each) and 2 packets of jelly blocks ($5/pack) and a new running belt ($28) as the previous one that I was using didn't seem big enough to accommodate all the stuff that I was gonna bring.

Loot

Above are the main things that I got for the day. I'd probably bring along the stuff that I've displayed above to the actual run itself (minus the bag of course). Hopefully I did not under-stock on the 'carbs'.

Only thing to do now is to get into the mood for the actual day itself and make sure to get the right amount of rest, diet and sleep the few days before the big day.

Full Marathon Day (4/7/15)

Pre-run:

Arrived at the race site an hour earlier, this was about 12am (Actual flag off was around 1am)

Scouted the area a little before heading to the cluster-fucked start line to get my things ready and warmup. During the huge gathering, I somehow ended up in front and around the 5:30 pacers. I didn't think too much of it then as I simply wanted to be closer to the front.

After the flag off, people were apparently all chionging at the start (not surprised). Not sure if they're really fit, but I'd think that they are just over-hyped and are forgetting that it's a 42+km run. Those 'action' ones die off at ~5km lol.

0-15km: 

Didn't think that it'd affect me, but I was really pulled along by the 5:30 pack around the pacers, making me speed up my frequency a little, which kinda worried me but I simply did not want to slow-down too much that early as I did not want to be swallowed up by the pack behind.

Respect to those that can keep up with these people all the way though, I fell off from them at around the 15km mark.

15-21km:

The reason I dropped off at the 15km mark from the 5:30 pack was cause my calf was tightening. I could keep pushing, but from experience it is not a road that I'd like to go down as if I did so, I would not even be able to walk for the remaining parts of the run, which is still quite a distance.

No choice, had to start walking. I was walking fast though, deliberately making sure that I kept my strides wide and the frequency of my steps high as well. This eased up the tension on my calves by a lot.

I'd also like to add that this 'fast walking' was a really good thing that I've discovered. I was able to keep up with those people who are jogging at tortoise pace and overtook a lot of the people who have already started walking during this segment.

21-30km:

At 21km, I remember that my timing was exactly 3hours. I was still doing my 'fast walk' for this leg of the race.

I tell you, the long stretches of roads at east coast park where you can't see the end is really mind-fuckingly sian (You even do a U-turn and walk the same way back on these roads/paths).

I was pretty happy with my speed for this section as everything seemed to be going as planned. The timings for my intervals per km here was really on track at 10min/km. This really set me up for a 6hour+ timing finish which I could definitely live with, if I kept this pace up. Not to mention, I was walking still and I had the potential to be quicker if I ran after.

I also started to ration my 2 Gels and 8 Jelly blocks after around the 1:30 point, consuming 1 every 45 minutes till the end of the race to keep the carbs in my body up so that I don't actually 'hit the wall'. The amount I had was just nice for my whole run.

 30-38km:

This is really where you've got to start digging deep.

Luckily my calves were rested enough and I could start running again.

30km onwards, it's really a zombie march. 80% of the people around me were quietly walking. To be honest, I don't really have too much recollection of this interval as I tried to block out the pain by just keeping my mind blank and going full zombie mode lol.

38-42.195km:

This is the supreme hell hole for most of the runners. Your close to the finish line, but you'd most likely be out of gas at this point. Any attempts people made to run only lasted for a couple of minutes, before they started to walk again.

For some reason though, I was able to run this part and the pain wasn't so bad here. Maybe this is what they call 'second wind'? Idk. It was still taking a lot of effort to take mini running steps though and I looked rather retarded doing it but at this point, you really wouldn't care.

When the finish line was in sight, I was so happy I remembered smiling to myself. :) Crossing it felt very good, gave a 'nice' victory cheer too lol!

 Dat constipated face

Post Run:

After crossing the finish line, I collected my medal, finisher tee, some food and drinks.

 Finisher-Tee

Did a couple of warm-down stretches afterwards, but not like it was really going to be of much help anyway as my whole body was already so heavy and hurting.

Here's some of the damage done to me:

• Blisters under both of my feet
• Abrasions on my butt & armpit area
• Very sore calves
• Heavy thighs

Still proud of myself that I did not stop at all for the whole race, as I had this feeling that if I did, I would not be able to move at all already.

Clocked a timing of 6:33 according to my watch. This was a timing that I could definitely accept.

The official race timing put me at 6:32 anyway

Really though, whoever who runs marathons for 'fun' must be some kind of masochist imo. Especially those clocking <5 or <6 hour times. (Jk)

This run was organised a lot better than the 2014 Stan Chart one (which provided no food at all). They had hydration points with water, 100plus, bananas and some of them even gave out Gels & Coke!

Also, I'd really want to give a huge shout-out to all the volunteers. You guys are simply amazing, in terms of giving the runners encouragement and nourishment. Lots of appreciation goes out to all of you.

Despite the pain, it was a good personal experience and achievement. Definitely an event that would mark itself as one of the mile-stones in my life. :)

Making my very first Bespoke Suit

It has always been on my mind to get myself a suit. I've contemplated getting those from G2k or anywhere off the rack from shopping center shops as it'd be a lot cheaper and a lot more convenient. In the end, I thought that if your gonna be spending the money anyway, you might as well get it tailored.

I've asked and looked around and there were many different types of tailoring places offering bespoke suit services across a wide range of prices. In the end, I came across this shop that people were highly recommending online.

Dickson's Menswear

The whole tailoring process would involve a few meetings. The first getting the material, style, type of suit and general measurements down before making any necessary alterations in the subsequent meetings when your suit is made.

The First Meet (20/5/15)

This was actually a very humble shop located on the first floor in Bras Basah complex. 

First impressions were that making suits in this area could never compare to those fancy swanky shops in down town areas with those bald semi-gay acting pinoy 'designers' measuring you up.

However, this was really untrue after getting to meet the owner, Mr Wong who was the only person manning the small shop.

Mr Wong in his humble shop

This shop works by an appointment only basis. Meaning you have to make an appointment with him before he will attend to you as the business here is apparently quite good.

When I arrived, Mr Wong, whom I felt was a really friendly old uncle greeted me kindly and talked to me about my expectations in the suit I wanted.

You could tell that this uncle was really experienced and very educational as well. We chatted up and he actually introduced me into the history of his time making suits for people and how the trends have changed from the past till now. He even had some kind of old tradition looking 'association of master tailors' certificate in a old frame he chucked on top of a pile of suits lol.

He showed me the many different kinds of materials available and their respective prices. He also made certain recommendations for me based on how often I would be wearing it, where I would be wearing it, the color's versatility and it's general lifespan.

He then took my measurements. He actually complemented that my body structure was pretty solid LOL. THIS MADE ME SO DAMN HAPPY YOU HAVE NO IDEA HAHAHAHA. 

Then I asked him how much curvature and shape can I squeeze out of the suit so that it looks nicer and his response was quite funny lol. He says 'a lot of young one like you ah, like everything tight tight, but when you do this, you ruin the integrity of the suit and it looks damn punkish. When you wear a suit, you have to look professional'

He also explained to me the aspects of a suit from the pockets, the right lengths, to the back tails and how you should wear them on different occasions. Apparently, in a super formal occation, you have to pull your suit pockets out instead of tucking them in; a mistake a lot of Singaporeans make he says who just simply follow trends.

The whole process of  the introduction was really good. No wonder he got so many good review from loads of satisfied customers online.

Price wise, I feel that it is reasonable. I got a package deal from him which was a total of $550 for the following:

(All Tailored)

1x Suit Jacket

1x Pants

1x White Shirt

1x Vest

For the suit jacket, vest and pants, I opted for the wool cashmere blend material which costs $450. His package allowed me to include a Vest (u.p. $150 for the material I chose) and a shirt for just an extra $100. Reason I chose to opt for the exra vest and tailored shirt was so that the whole set would become a lot more versatile and I can wear loads of different combinations. (No suit + vest + shirt, no vest + suit + shirt, suit + vest + shirt, etc)

Yeah yeah, I know you can get them for cheaper at some other place, but it's the whole experience and service that sold it for me.

2nd Meet - Fitting (4/6/15)

Met Mr Wong again to try on my readied suit, shirt and pants. There were still a couple of minor adjustments needed to be made regarding the length of my pants & the allowance on my left wrist area as my watch was pretty bulky.

Took measurements for my vest today from some prototypes. The actual one + all the minor adjustment to the other pieces should be ready for me next week.

Still, the experience after changing into my pants and shirt was simply shiok as hell. I looked really good imo. On top of that, when he told me to relax my arms out backwards and placed the suit on me, I felt so boss-like.

After, he explained to me that every time when one puts on a suit, you need to tug the lapels before you button the 1st button. When I was doing this motion, I felt so fuckin' alpha, I couldn't help it but chuckled a little to myself and he did too. :P

He also mentioned to me that if you want to unbutton your suit button, don't throw the suit flaps out after, which is what I did initially (and apparently a lot of people are guilty of as well); just leave it as it is after unbuttoning and continue doing whatever you were. Interesting that there are actually so many small things to note about donning a suit.

He then continued to enlighten me on how I should never take my suit out and hang them on chairs at formal events, never knew that tbh and it's something that I'd totally see myself doing actually. =/

Thus far, I am really quite satisfied. I felt that my requests were all addressed, be it in explanations on why some things cannot be done without spoiling the image, or to make minor adjustments to areas based on his recommendations and my liking. More importantly, I learned so much about how to behave in a a suit from this guy.


3rd Meet - Final Fitting (17/6/15)

The final fitting was pretty quick. When I arrived, there were a couple of people there and I simply waited for my turn.

After trying on everything, it all seemed ok. Settled the payment promptly with him and we both wished each other well before I left.

The final pieces felt really high quality despite my initial impressions of the humble looking shop and I am overall very satisfied with the service he provided and the products that I've gotten!


For those who are interested, here is his name card:

I'm finally an owner of my very own bespoke suit. Feels great!