2XU Compression Run 2015

2XU Compression run was supposed to be held on the last weekend of March but however due to the state funeral of Mr LKY, the run was postponed.

I've very much wanted to run this race because it's my very first 2XU run. I'm glad that we were able to make it for the postpone run as it doesn't clash with our schedule.

The racepack collection was held wayback in mid of March at Velocity @ Novena. The queue for the racepack collection was really long and especially so for the half marathons runner. The 10km racepack collection queue was much shorter hence I managed to collect my racepack within 15 minutes.

And as expected from big races, there's nothing special inside the racepack except for the nice looking race singlet and good quality shoebag. 

The race was rescheduled to 2nd of August(1 week after my Shape Run). The starting point was changed due to the ongoing national day rehearsals. The starting point was located opposite Marina Barrage and they advised us to walk from Marina Barrage to the starting point. 

It was quite a long walk but the beautiful sunrise that morning made one forget about the distance but rather, everyone is enjoying the sunrise. I spot many people taking selfie or welfie with the nice background. 

The beautiful sunrise 

We were slightly late for the race because there was a massive human jam on the way to the starting point. 

Reason being, the half marathon runners who have completed the race were walking back to Marina Barrage whereas 10km runners were making their way to the starting point. And on another lane, it's for the 21km runners who were running back. The narrow lane was divided up into 3 lanes. 

Despite the race being postponed, what surprises me most were the large turnout for the race even though runners were allow to collect their medal if they do not wish to run the race anymore. Oh well, I believe runners will prefer to run to earn the hard earned medal rather than doing nothing and collect the medal.

Late for the race but still want to take a photo before the race start haha.

The beautiful sky that greeted us before we reached the starting point. 

The race route was nothing new to us except for the 4KM inside ECP. Having run so many races, this is actually the first race which I joined that cut through ECP (I know many local races have route which passes through ECP but I've no fate with them).

The view was really scenic despite the sorching sun. The downside of having a race which starts after 7:30am will be to endure the heat.

Passing through ECP

The return route was pretty unbearable for me because of the heat from the sun. I was't out to aim for a personal best this race because I treat this as a recovery run and some quality pak tor time with Derp :) Afterall, we hardly run together these days and it's usually me out pounding the pavements alone on normal days.

The timing that we gotten was kind of expected because I usually achieve this kind of timing under normal hot weather haha. #nopbnevermind

We were given a wet towel to wipe ourselves after we crossed the finishing line. There's a place for you to return to and it got us wondering do they recycle the towels? haha! And that's after we use it so it's kind of late to do anything.

It's the first time I was given a wet towel instead of a normal towel after the race. We collected our medals and water quite swiftly and took some photos before heading to take the free shuttle bus to City Hall MRT. 

His first race after 5 months. 

Yay to completing another race. 

A #welfie and we barely can open our eyes. 

Another #welfie 

Thanks to the passerby for helping us to take the photo 

We walked back to Marina Barrage to queue for the shuttle bus to City Hall. Yay to free shuttle service to save our trouble.

One more medal added to our collection 

The offical timing. 

I started the race 10 minutes after flag off. Many runners were caught up with the massive human jam so there was not a need for multiple flag offs. I heard that there were 4 to 5 flag off for the half marathon runners. We were quite lucky in the sense but to start a race at such a late timing only create disadvantage to the runners. 

Pictures that I've gotten from Running Shots

Thank you for the nicely taken photos :) 

p/s: My thigh muscles look kind of scary in the last photo.

Overall the 2XU Compression Run was a successful event despite the postpone of date and etc. There were still a large turn out and everything went on as usual. Kudos to them for pressing on to make the race happen. I won't mind joining 2XU compression run again if their race singlet continues to look as good :)

We are taking a short hiatus (or should I say I am since Derp don't have race for the rest of the year) from races this few months due to the wedding prep.

Till the next race then!

BKK Day 2 Part 2 - Silom Thai Cooking School Part 2

Back to blog about my experience attending leson at Silom Thai Cooking School. I stopped at heading to the cooking school (after the market tour) the previous time. So I shall continue from where I stop :) 

You may read the Part 1 of Silom Thai Cooking School here. 

We sat on the tuk tuk and the journey was around 5-10 minutes from the market to the cooking school. It was quite a thrilling ride since it's our first time sitting in a tuk tuk. 

Upon entering the cooking school, it got us really excited with all the beautiful decorations around.

Everyone started walking around to snap pictures before the lesson starts. I can tell how much effort they did put in to make the whole experience a great one. 

I love this slogan the most. 

Vintage decorations can be seen around the classroom. 

We locked our belongings up in the locker provided by them. The key of the locker is actually attached to this funny looking doll. 

More vintage displays.

Traditional cooking tools used in cooking Thai Cuisine. 

This is where we will be cooking our dishes. It's located at the backyard. Basically, we will bring the ingredients that we prepared at another area over to this place to do the cooking. 

The place for us to enjoy our food right after we cook! 

We put on our aprons to get ready for the lesson to start. Not forgetting to take a #ootd with the chio apron haha! 

The guy behind me is from Holland! He's here with another 2 friends :)

Picture taken by our dear classmate :) 

Before we start the lesson, our teacher requested for a group pic together! All of us passed our phones to the helper, so we basically pose for at least 7-8 times lol.

Through this cooking lessom, we made friends from Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan and Holland. Seems like tourists from all around the world know about this cooking school. Anyway, when we told them we were from Singapore, for those who have visited Singapore before their reaction will be like "it's a really hot country!" hahaha! I can't help but to agree to that sentence. 

The first thing we were taught to prepare were the coconut milk. Coconut is one of the main essential ingredients in Thai cuisines.

Basically we have to retrieved the coconut milk from the coconut shavings. The coconut shavings were already done by them so what we have to do is to add water to the coconut shavings and then keep squeezing it to retrieve the milk.

The teacher showing us the traditional way of shaving the coconut. In the good old days, they have to sit on this traditional bench-looking kind of wooden chair to do it. 

Derp's doing the job.

Anyway, this process were repeated for a few times. After we were done with preparing the coconut milk, we proceed to another classroom where we prep the rest of the ingredients(those that need some chopping).

The teacher showing us the various Thai spices used in Thai dishes.

The different kinds of Thai veggies were displayed nicely on the table. 

The spices they used. 

Our first dish was Tom Yum Goong. We had some hands on experience on chopping the ingredients.

That's us prepping the ingredients! 

The ingredients for the tom yum goong. 

Surprisingly, it's so simple and only require this few ingredients only! 

No idea when Derp took this photo of me. We were on the way to the backyard with our nicely chopped ingredients. 

The wok was already filled with water when we reached there. All done up by the assistant. So all we did were simply pouring all the ingredients into the wok and turn on the stove. 

Love this shot taken by our teacher :) 

Hereby presenting to you the tom yum goong that I cook.

Very yummy and thick tom yum soup. 

Btw, we cut the chilli padi according to our preference. Depending on how spicy we want it to be, so fret not that the tom yum soup will be too spicy/not spicy.

The next dish we prepared is Stir Fried Pad Thai.  

The ingredients for the dish. 

We only need to chop the spring onion and toufu. Btw, the way the egg is presented is kind of cute! 

That's me placing the ingredients down carefully. 

Another shot taken by Derp of me looking domestic. lol.

I was cooking the ingredients at this point of time before the teacher came to add the noodles in our wok. And again, it was pouring all the ingredients into the wok and also the sauce given by them.

The complete product! 

We took some photos with our completed piece. Definitely feeling proud of it :)

The Pad Thai may not look spicy but it's actually quite spicy. We did add Thai chilli paste into it and stir fry everything together.

Next dish we prepared is the Phanaeng Curry with Chicken

The ingredients for this dish.

When we walked to our wok, it was filled with the chilli paste, oil and chicken meat. So as usual, all we had to do is to dump everything in. 

Hereby presenting to you Phanaeng Curry with Chicken

It's actually a spicy soup with chicken and some veggies inside. Best goes with rice actually lol. 

Okay this is some behind the scenes shot taken by Derp, with me looking serious trying to get the best photo. And again, I didn't know when he took this photo though.

The second last dish was the Green Curry with Chicken. 

The different kind of ingredients used to make the green curry. 

We had to actually pound different kind of spice with the traditional kind of motar.

Here's the teacher demonstrating it to us before we had hands on experience with the motar.

Btw, she was telling us during the good old days, a good wife is one who pound it quick and also loud at the same time. And that's how the potential husband and mother-in-law assess the women before accepting her into the family. 

Mind you, the motar is very heavy!  Everyone in the class took turns to have experience pounding with the motar.

Can totally tell there's lots of chilli in it. 

That's me trying very hard because it's really heavy and not easy to pound it quickly yet at the same time creating the loud effect.  

Derp's turn. He has the strength to pound it quickly and also very loudly. The teacher jokingly commented "this one must be a good wife" lol. 

Alright, time to cook the green curry! 

All this were chopped by us(except the carrot and chicken) and some of the students were appointed to distribute it to every wok in the class. 

So as usual, it was putting everything in the wok and turn on the stove. The teacher went around to distribute the coconut milk (we made at the start of the class) into our wok for us to cook it all together.

Green Curry with Chicken 

Really yummy and I finished most of it even though I was really quite full by then.

The last dish was the dessert! So looking forward to it because I love this dish alot and always crave for it when I'm in Singapore..

Mango with Sticky Rice

Zero effort from us for this dish as the rice was prepared by the teacher at the start of the lesson. She showed us how it was made and passed it to her assistant to cook it throughout the lesson.

The lesson ended around 5pm. We pay the lesson fees only after the lesson to the teacher and she gave us a recipe book to bring back :) She walked us out and taught us how to walk back to the BTS station. So kind of her because all of us were kind of lost after the market tour and then the tuk tuk ride. Totally forget how to navigate back even though we know the BTS station is kind of near.

All in all, we had a great experience at Silom Thai Cooking School! We gained new knowledge and insights on Thai cuisine. It's our greatest takeaway from this Bangkok trip.

For more information on Silom Thai Cooking School, you may visit their website http://www.bangkokthaicooking.com/ They reply their email very promptly and I did all the reservation and liaising with them through email. :)
You may read other post of my BKK2015 trip here:

http://firstlove88.blogspot.sg/2015/08/bangkok-2015-day-1-part-1-singapore-bkk.html
http://firstlove88.blogspot.sg/2015/08/bkk-day-1-part-2-after-you-dessert-cafe.html
http://firstlove88.blogspot.sg/2015/08/bkk-day-2-part-1-coffman-by-friends.html
http://firstlove88.blogspot.sg/2015/09/bkk-day-2-part-3-ookii-ookii-village.html
http://firstlove88.blogspot.sg/2015/10/bkk-day-3-part-1-big-c-supermarket.html
http://firstlove88.blogspot.sg/2015/11/bkk-day-3-part-2-som-tam-nua-siam.html
http://firstlove88.blogspot.sg/2016/01/bkk-day-4-back-to-singapore.html

Last Quarter of 2015!

Here we go again, entering the last quarter of the year. Time flies when you get older and older. #sadtruth 

Last quarter of 2015 will be the most exciting months in 2015 because the wedding is getting nearer and nearer :S We are pretty much on the track (I hope) and taking things slowly and easy. Did I mention we have settled our honeymoon? :) The air tickets is confirmed hehe! Looking forward to the trip more than anything else!  

Because the big day is getting nearer, the #eatclean project has started somehow. Time to reduce the overall fat percentage in my body and that will means no junk/fast food. *cross fingers* And definitely no cutting of the time spend on working out but instead I should increase it. 

I've also placed the blender (housewarming gift from the girls) in my kitchen and have been using it diligently. Up till date, I've only explore fruits like grapes, blueberries and strawberries. Because all these fruits are easier to prepare compare to apples and oranges. 

Hereby presenting to you the first smoothie I've made :) 

Having my grape, blueberry and strawberry smoothie while watching my favourite korean tv drama (2nd time) on TV. 

Another clearer shot of it of my smoothie on another day. Feels really refreshing to drink this when weather is kind of humid these days.

I've only blogged half way about the recent BKK trip. Will be back to update really soon again :) And perhaps some wedding updates if I've the time for it. Time is running out and it's gonna be busy months ahead. 

Anyway, it's the last lap of 2015 so make the full use of it if you have not done so!