Mixed Crumbs

So Ms. Rose has spoken and a few before her too… my uncle and some silent readers.
Updates ya… I seem to talk about my climbs and not much about others lately. I have materials that I want to post about reusable shopping bags that I would like to purchase probably this month.

For now, it would still be climbing related. 4-5 posts related to climbing… is it irking any of you yet? It sure does make me smile if a frown appears between your brow and you bellowing, Oh no not again… not another crappy climb story that I don’t understand! Any of you? Please grace me with your frustration towards my posts. No? None… then here comes another.

Got confirmation that the Summit Roxx will be held on Sunday August 10th… an annual indoor rock climbing competition that I would participate… with a few things in mind. To gauge whether I have improved my climbing, get to climb with a big group of friends or would be friends and also making a fool of myself under the needle stares of the public. I could still feel the flutters of butterflies in my stomach when I first joined the competition. I roped along ML… who recently got married, congratulations again… and we called our team SlowMo, it was a MSN nick I used a few years back. Short of slow motion and I am proud to say that we live up to our name. ML has vowed to never again participate. Though, I do think that she did pretty well… gritting her teeth and trying as hard as she could to complete her routes. It was a mixed team event. Nice…

On the other hand, I shall disclose one little tiny weeny detail. Because that we had to be in the complex very early to register and for briefing of the competition, the toilets were not open. And I have this condition/disease/infection that happens everytime without fail. After the butterflies mighty flapping has died down, my bowels seems to get extra hardworking. The nervousness that had built up in my throat and stomach has now decided to head down south. I feel like taking a bloody dump… either a dump or let the trouser snake spits its venom. I frantically searched high and low for an available washroom. And the horror that strikes me… none was available. All was padlocked. The event was about to start. I ushered ML along and assured her I will join her in a moment. Among the chaos, I managed to slip away… into the much abandoned staircase area. Went up a floor and found those large green dumping containers and I let it rip. Stopped once to check for footsteps. This is where I stained my pants a little. Lucky the material dries up fast. That is my first time and hopefully my last. Hey, I was desperate all right… and I forgot whose hand I shook right after my business.

The coming competition would be my third one and hope that I would do better than the year before. But most of all, is that I have loads of fun. One more month to go and it’s time to do some training. I have been doing so in the park opposite of my house when I felt like it. And also doing some harder climbs in the gym or outdoor. My haste has caused me considerable pain since Monday night… I did not do a proper warm up on my neck and shoulder area… and I think I have hurt the nerves connecting to my head… it hurts like a bitch headache if I tried doing chin ups. The agony. I feel it even if I don’t do chin ups. It comes and goes when least expected. Have to lay off for a while.

I am planning to redpoint a 6B climb on Nanyang wall in Batu Caves. The route is called Indecision. That’s my current project. Will look for a few more 6B routes to try. That’s my current standard. And crap… thinking about the route has got my palms all sweaty again. It’s the little dose of adrenalin that shots through my arteries when images of climbing flashes on by. Have you got your shots of adrenalin today?

Aaa… I can hear the echoes of ale ale in the distant. Sweet.

Just a post to remind me of my first big fall. My first fall means falling far down when climbing. Lead climbing. Fell 4 bolts. About 8 meters while 20 meters above solid ground. No I was not scared. I felt nothing. No fear. Nah, this does not mean that I am a daredevil or crazy it’s just might be the fact that I had no time for fear to sink in and tie a knot in my gut. I was going to share a shall foothold while caressing the limestone for a hold when all of the sudden,… zip… F… A… L… L…………. no one was expecting it to happen, they were all chatting below and my belayer was not aware too and gave quite an amount of slack. That was because I just clipped the second last bolt and trying to feel for a nice hold… a side pull and a sloper while changing feet… searching for a good foothold. It was a clean fall… and I remembered kicking the wall once before landing nicely with balls intact. I was actually happy for that fall and no shivers or trembles at all. I smiled waved and showed a good sign to the people below before having my daisy chain hooked on for safety. Everyone laughed. Belayer said sorry. I said don’t sweat it and don’t worry. It was a good fall and I feel liberated. I was no longer the boy who had never fell. Haha… shit. That sound’s wrong to my own ears now.

Location : White Wall, Batu Caves
Route : Kick A Cloud
Belayer : Nas
Witness : Ah Hon, Sherry, Adrian, Thomas and Sunny.

And I celebrated it with having a good time. The first was down the drain. My stupid look says it for me and I admitted that I had no idea. Took a deeper one next. Finish it with another short catch of breath. Keep it in. 1…2…3…4…5… Exhale. Aaa… c’est bonne La

Early dinner… think I am going to have packet of instant noodles. Am tired and hungry.

Bonne nuit. Pop gun my kap.

This is definitely a very different concept of playground to have around our neighborhood. Which I deem impossible, with all the numbers of vandals present. Everything would be gone.

Anyway that aside, am here to show you the Mobius® Climber, one of the product conceived by Landscape Structures. As the name implies, it has a lot do with climbing, yet again. Hyper kids would enjoy themselves on these. Before anyone says “So dangerous”, I beg to differ. Don’t be overprotective, for this case. I don’t think falling and knocking and getting scrapes and burns will leave a huge physical or psychological scar on them, kids. It’s part of growing up. Younger years spending running around, wading in thigh deep deserted lake, going into rubber estates and oil palm estates, abandoned fields or climbing and jumping off waterfalls and slides have proven to be a fun experience for me. Sad that I can’t climb trees, jump into rivers or any other things with my friends like my dad and his friends did. But I do think I am still doing better than kids who spend hours in front of video games and computers refusing to budge and get some evening sun. Am wishing that I could get my daily dose of evening sun… for when we get off work it would be 630pm.

Ain’t it cool.

12-Panel and a 7-Panel

6-Panel and 3-Panel

Here’s what Landscape Structures have to say for themselves.

A wonderfully wavy way to set your playground apart

There’s nothing else quite like our wonderfully wavy Mobius® climbers. Kids love climbing up, down, over and under as they test their strength and agility, and invent limitness new games. And our artful, anodized aluminum panels bring a unique asthestic to any play area. Easy to install and virtually maintenance free, there’s squiggly configuration options to fit every site and age group.

Mobius handholds are easy to grip at all angles for added safety

The Mobius climber is so much fun, we couldn’t design just one. We offer four models to fit your budget and site: three-panel, six-panel (shown left), seven-panel and an eye-popping twelve-panel that will amaze adults and kids alike. These climbers provide a wide variety for everyone!

This exciting new climber celebrates the art of play. It helps kids:
• Build gross motor skills
• Build upper-body strength
• Increase hand-eye coordination
• Improve balance
• Develop thinking skills
• Give their imagination a workout

Sweet.

Check out their website and you will find many other playground system and ideas.
Visit Landscape Structures

On one of my trips back home, the playground I spent many hours when I was a kid looks like a war field to me. It was the invasion of (illegal) immigrants. Huge groups. Playing the world’s famous game. Marbles. Haha… hell no… football la… what else. No blood was spilt. Just sweat and saliva. I don’t go there anymore.

This has got to be the single post with the most shots of me in it.
The poser. It’s great to be able to put my photoshop knowledge to good use.

Tonsai Beach.
Eat when you are hungry.
Sleep when you are tired.
Climb when you want to.
No one wears a watch here except one of our friend in our group. Duh.


Dead pufferfish. Did not dare go up close. Afraid that it will pop.
Grigri on me.

Grigri on table.




On our way for breakfast.

Watching JH climb. The one with the Le Petit Prince tattoo.

Top rope on Lion King

This should be Luke doing bouldering on the beach.
Silhouette of Grigri.

Third pitch. Waiting to going over to rappelling station.

View from third pitch.

Rappelling down… think it was about 60-70 meters
SC… familiar pose?

Mingling at Freedom Bar, Tonsai Beach.
Favorite pastime. Lie down and watch.



Taro is nice.

Home made ice cream. It has barley and some other nuts buried underneath.
Local breakfast. Very nice.

Doubt any of you, or most, noticed that I have been gone for a week. A full week off work. Oh… it feels so so nice. Went off to Thailand on a Sunday morning and got back on Friday afternoon. Though it’s only an hour and a half journey away but aaa… I feel so at home. Well, it was actually after 2 days before I felt right at home.

I was in Krabi. On an island where Railay and Tonsai beach are. Surrounded by magnificent formation of limestone with trees stretching out to the clouds. Gentle sea breeze with warm sunshine. Great local food paired with delicious fresh fruit juices for the day and cold smooth refreshing Singha at night. The feeling of waking up to the friendly Sa-wa-dee-kaap of locals and Hi-Hello’s of the foreigners are simply wonderful. Since it is low season now… the crowd is much smaller and recognizing faces are so much easier. After a day in Tonsai beach, we kind of know the people there. Which is the best place to eat, which stalls serves the best pancakes, where to see fireshow, where to get our daily fix of tuna melt and muesli with fresh fruits and yoghurt and even where to huddle together for some tv time while sharing drinks and a joint.

We wasted 2 nights on Railay beach… pardon me but I am a climber so Railay is a definite no no for me. It’s more of a tourist place. Where people go to have a sun tan, walk around on the beach ogling at female and male bodies alike, waiting for sunrise/sunset, wondering what to do after 2 days on the beach… hitting the bars with high hopes of meeting some other intellectual being… yeah I know. It’s their way of unwinding. But for us, climbers, our way of enjoying the views there are being at least 30-40 meters high up while clinging on to some stalactite. Climbing hard and celebrating it with cold beers and great music when the day is over. I am really amazed that they play a whale load of nice music. Really nice ones.

I missed it before I even left my footprints on the island. I missed Tonsai. Will continue when I find time. I got one week of work to catch up. Hoo hoo. Loads of photos to choose to post up. Expect some shameless semi nude ones.

Pop-gan-mai-kaap

Am back from the holidays and it’s nice to be away from computers for a while. Back at work and it’s best if I get some finish up some stuff first before I blog away. So here are some pictures I took two weeks ago. It’s a climbing competition in Shah Alam Extreme Park held on the 15th December 2007. I left early after watching the Men Open Category (Expert). A lot of time was wasted on waiting though. My friends were not too pleased with it. They waited since 8+ in the morning but was able to compete around 3 in the afternoon. By the time everything was done and over with, it was already late evening. Duh…


Count the pebbles. Hide from the scorching sun. Look at me. Look at you. Tick tock tick tock.



The little rascal got a lot of attention from the girls and boys. But he hated the hot weather. Kept searching for cool shady areas. Even dug up some stones to lay down.

Was on mc yesterday due to diarrhea. Had to wake up a few times in the middle of the night to ride the porcelain pony. Was practically riding with my eyes wide shut. Am not sure what caused it though. Perhaps the curry laksa I ate? Mmm. Anyway a visit to the doctor and taking the med as prescribed settled it. Did some laundry and I was out to Summit to climb.

Luckily I did not shat on my belayer, which happens to be Eddie. Had a good climb yesterday for I managed to finish two 7a routes. My first 7as. So happy… but honestly I think the route was over-rated. It could be a 6C/6C+ at best. Anyway it was fun. Balance and some technical moves but not too much strength. Gave a 7B route a shot but alas… the dyno move part was not that easy. Gave up after several tries.

Oh yeah, a talent scout approached the few of us when we were resting. He said he was looking for some talent for a commercial shot. I shall not reveal who/where/when/why as it might be trade secret for now. As for how, his requirements was simple (according to him) : get it on like the guys in Yamakasi. I drew a blank at the mention of that. Actually I was amused by the suggestion, as it was directed at us. How to do wor… so hard. Yamakasi le… not child play sand wor.
Erm… did I lose you back there on the Yamakasi thing? Well check the video out so you know what I am talking about.

In one sentence Yamakasi means a practitioner of art of displacement (parkour), free running, street stunts and other types of acrobatics. Wikipedia

Yamakasi I cannot. Kamikaze I should have no problem. So any of your friends can do it? I would be waiting to see the outcome of this ad. Interesting to have some talents like this in Malaysia.

Check out the movie if you have never seen or heard it before. It’s a French movie though.

21st October 2007.
Found out that Eddie, Roland and ML was going to climb outdoors and decided to tag along. The first obstacle as always was waking up early on weekends. Drove over to Roland’s place and carpooled. Picked ML on the way and off we went. Had 2 half boiled eggs and a roti bom while we waited for Eddie. At 9am we headed over to Nyamuk to climb. Unfortunately for us, the heavy downpour for the past few days had struck down a huge tree and it had blocked our hike upwards. Further scouting by Ed revealed that the road ahead was also blocked. The presence of the mosquitoes was even worse than the previous trip too. Lugging heavy bags and gears we turned back. Let’s go to Comic!
Again it’s my first time going over. Again we have to hike up to get over to climb site.








Me having trouble doing a 6a climb. I suck badly. Took me around 20 minutes to finish it. Was sweating like a pig and forearms were pumped like hell. Damn. I need to do this again.



Eddie waiting for his project.

Roland the belay slave.

ML’s virgin lead climb. She even setup the system woo.

I only did two climbs that day but it left me exhausted like hell. Had a much needed lunch… Ho Yee Kee Prawn Mee (Kepong) and a young coconut. Yum.

Been a while since I climbed outdoors. That was because I was “playing truant” and not joining my buddies for climbing sessions. So I contacted E and he said they will be going to Batu Caves to climb and this time it’s at a spot called Nyamuk. Nyamuk means mosquito. So my initial plan of having my gf tagging along has to be cancelled much to her dismay. But hey, it would be a hell of a time when you sat for few hours and getting stung by a swarm of blood sucking insects. And they are aggressive and big. ML could testify for that as she got a lot of them. Miraculously upon application of the mosquito repellent cream none were in sight. Poof! Wow… well I did not had any bites this time as I was wrapped from neck to toe. Did not feel hot because that place was shady and windy.

The “kampung” road leading to the mountains.


Forgot who said can do bouldering here. Erm… any takers?

We need to hike up to the climbing spot. The path was well trodden upon but there are still hedges and overgrowth that gets in your way every now and then.

Part of the wall that we would be climbing.

Unidentified worm. It’s got a head like a hammerhead shark.



Do you recognize the both of them? They are the 50/50 duo from Digi’s commercial. Hehe…

Click to download commercial here. (Download size 5Mb)

It was a nice Sunday climb and dear gf was still smiles although I went missing for nearly 8 hours.
No climbing this coming weekend it seems, because most of them will be back to hometown for Raya and the gym will be closed.

Today I went climbing again. This time in Summit. Saw a few familiar faces and some asked me where I was for so long… *wink wink* Xes and evil@lai said I should do it more since I ponteng so many times and am out of form. Manage to grab a quick dinner with my sis Qiqichan since she said she was camping out in her office. She is stressed with work from the looks of it. All the best. Take care ooo. And enjoy your well deserved break this weekend ya. Come back with a tan!

Will be climbing again tomorrow. It feels good to have aching muscles. Argh…

Oh and I just joined the GeCKo-Malaysia - a Malaysian climbing community. A lot of climbers I know are there. But have not fully checked it out just yet.

Crappy night shots.


Tired. Need sleep.