Beginner's Luck.

This week marks the first time I'm on 24-hr standby duty for my new support team. So naturally I received a call tonight informing me that an almost-never-occuring rare disaster just occured. Brilliant.

I have a 2 hour window right now because I have to wait until the back-up jobs are done. I guess I'll go take a nap because it looks like I'll be up all night fixing this mess.

If only winning the Mark 6 were this easy...

Jump

Whoohoo! Both me and my wake-buddy pulled off our first wake jumps today!

It doesn't look like much, but to a rookie like me, this is big thing. Huge! My board was actually out of the water. Wah!!!

Here's the clip of this momentous occasion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WicRhpoiMvw


I probably would've gotten more height if my knees weren't bent like that (they absorbed most of the energy) but it's so hard to fight your natural instincts to cushion the blow.

Another photo, this time with even more air beneath my board:

...and here's what happened right afterwards. Check out the 180 wipeout:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoZGIznhC4Y

The following clip was taken during my final run for the day. My limbs were pretty tired from all the pulling and jumping (you see trying to loosen up my arms at the beginning). Right at the end, my legs gave way to the strain resulting in a spectacular face plant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y_yLD4ocwQ

Funny thing about wakeboarding is that if you don't crash and burn, you actually go down pretty slowly. In the clip below, I had let go of the rope to regain balance. Because I didn't wipe out, the result looks like I was slowly swallowed by the sea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdJ5ZcsKTHo

Being the insane exercise freak that I am, I went swimming in the afternoon. Did about 10 laps less than usual and right now I can barely lift my arms higher than shoulder height.

I wonder if I'll be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning. Ah screw it; don't like my job anyways...

An Acquired Taste

I remember when I first came back to HK and visited Pizza Hut, how weird some of the toppings seemed. Like Thousand Island sauce with corn and Japanese crabsticks, or mango and chicken.

I guess being here for 10 years has changed some my view of things 'coz I find myself liking these weird choices more and more. I went to Pizza Hut last night to try their 2 newest offerings: Teriyaki Beef Mizza and Tender Shrimp Medley.

The Teriyaki Beef Mizza is a pizza made of rice. Sort of like the ricebugers made by Mos Burger. Pretty tasty.





And here's the main dish: shrimp, pineapple, almonds and mayonaise. A couple years back I would have been "That's so not going in my mouth." But today, I have to admit that it's a pretty good combination. Naturally, not as good as the pizzas at California Pizza Kitchen, but not bad nonetheless.

Meow

Went to a cat themed cafe today. There were several cats prowling around, but the one at our table was dead asleep. I love cats...it doesn't matter what position they're in or where they are; once they fall asleep they stay that way.


So why did he finally wake up?

Mmmmm....Cookies and Cream Cheese Cake.

WB 2007

Figures, summer's coming to an end and I finally get around to playing my first wakeboard session of the year.

Between studying, bad weather and shark scares, haven't had time to go wakeboarding until today. It's been nearly a year since my last session and I'd pretty much forgotten all about form and technique, but the concept of Trusting the Rope kicked in so I did OK.

As promised, I opened a YouTube account to store WB videos. Here's one that was taken at the end of the day. It was shot with a DC rather than a DV, so the image quality ain't pretty. Plus, it's pretty bumpy because the water had some chop to it, so you might want to skip this if you get seasick easily. Don't expect much 'coz I'm still in the pre-jump phase. In fact, right at the end you'll see what happens when I try to get a little air under my board:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtAsheqBNw

You're selling what?

2 random pics I took recently. Funny what things are sold these days...

From the mall. That's definitely one way to get your attention.


At a street market. Sorry for the bad quality; had to take it surreptitiously with my crappy phone camera. Can you blame me? These are people who sell Grade Triple-A Piss. Not the type who joke around...


Triple-A Piss, when only the best will do.