Lessons in Life

I screwed up big time today. After a light run in the evening to warm up the legs and packing everything for my sprint biathlon the next day, I worked a short while more on my essay before hitting the sack. Alas the one thing I did not do, which was to set the alarm, would change everything as I'd known in just the blink of an eye.

I woke up at 7.10 and upon realizing the horror of what had just happened... rushed to grab my trunks, goggles and car keys before rushing to school. I got there in time to explain myself to the organizing committee and getting myself slotted into the 4th wave.

After a somewhat dismal swim, I headed out on the run course totally unprepared... I didn't manage to warm up and the hustle and bustle from the morning had really screwed up whatever I had left for the race. I had wanted to make up for my really bad performance during this race but I guess I let the race got the better of me and failed to redeem myself in anyway whatsoever.

I don't believe in excuses and I don't believe in not taking responsibilities for ones' actions. I screwed up/ have been screwing up for the longest time ever and it seems as if I am on a one way path down to "god knows where". I am loosing interest in almost everything I do and all I seem to be good at these days is wiping up after spilt milk in record time. I learnt a lot today. It was a humbling experience in every sense of the word. Those disappointed eyes gazing upon me as I arrived back at the pool... the way most just looked and walked pass without uttering a word... it really really hurt... I knew I screwed up big time... and I didn't know what else to say.

We live in a realist world and unless you have something to give back to the society you belong to... you're nothing. I hope things don't get any worse than it is cause... I don't think there's much left in here for me to tear down anymore.

Never... Never be the same again...

I think... I need to take my life a bit more seriously. At the end of the day, when I am dead or dying... I want to be able to say that... "those were my finest moments and I didn't waste a single bit of it." Its scary how when you suddenly sit down and run through that 3 year old to do list and that "supposed" list of achievements... you come to realize that there's still much left to do and nothing really to your name... disappointment... and buckets full of regret's what I am experiencing now... it was expected I guess but sucky nonetheless... I wish I could just disappear for a while...

Service

Another pet peeve of mine is bad service. Terrible, sub-standard service. I purchased my latest bike from a bike shop in the west... let's call that bike shop P1. Now don't get me wrong, the only reason why I actually bought a bike from P1 was because I did warm up to the owner and believed that P1 was the most convenient and best place to purchase the bike. And that I did, despite the saga and politicking which went on behind the scene at my expense between P1, the distributor of the frame of the bike I was looking at and another bike shop, let's call that shop "Galaxy" which was owned by a cunning, rather ambitious man. That however is another story for another blog post.

Anyway, the bike was purchased and I rode the bike for my Zurich race, the last Singapore 70.3 and the 70.3 race in Clearwater. All this time, the bike performed up to expectation, mine anyway. However, the rear derailleur was making weird clicking noises and the gear shifting simply wasn't as smooth as I had hoped it would be. I brought the bike back to P1 and all I was told was that thats how carbon bikes were, all I needed to do was to tweak the gears a bit as I rode to ensure a smooth transition between a higher to lower gear and vice versa. I took their word for it and continued riding.

After returning from my US trip and the end of year examinations, I decided to bring my bike to the shop I used to frequent before I moved to hall, SW, for servicing. There I told them about the problems I encountered whilst cycling and engaging in gear changing and all. They serviced the bike within a day and called to inform me about the cause of the weird noises. Apparently, brake cables, which is different from the other type of sheathing, was used to protect ALL my cables and that resulted in the irregular noises and poor gear engagement.

Aside from the brake cable incident, there were many other instances that left me ticked off too. The ridiculous amount of time they take to service a bike, the technician's dismissive attitude at times and most pissing of them all... the poor servicing. The last servicing I sent my bike to... let's just say I wouldn't exactly consider it a servicing at all. The gears weren't cleaned, the bike wasn't done up to expectation too. Well... Let's just say that'll be the last servicing I ever do at P1.

Plan B

Now that its been confirmed that I won't be flying off anytime soon next next semester... where does that leave me... I guess there's always plan B :)