Saturday, packed

Today was pretty exhausting; I got up and started running before 7 o'clock, and since Tuesday I've done more than 50km, which, after doing between 5 and 10 in recent weeks while I was tapering down, has been a pretty hefty step up. So far, the experience I've had of higher volumes in 2012 has been standing me in good stead. That, and a diet of smoothies every morning, so I've been filled with a mix of fruit, spinach and hemp powder every morning. If I'd done it on bread and water, I believe I'd be a broken man by now.

Big Noises in Little China

Around Chinese New Year, Singapore's Chinatown begins to take on a hallucinatory aspect. It could be the extra crowds milling around, buying bakkwa like their lives depended on it. It could be the Chinese New Year decorations. It could be the way that, just like Christmas, Chinese New Year starts earlier and earlier. There's another two weeks to go, and there's already been almost two weeks filled with noise. After a while, you begin to imagine that it will never stop, that it will be Chinese New Year for 365 days, that they'll never stop with the lion dances and the banging of drums and the high pitched opera.

Rehearsal

After yesterday's exciting day at (somebody else's) office, I wasn't sure how I could ever climb to those dizzying heights again. Was there any way I could bring back the adrenaline?

Insomniac, Hong Kong

People are kept up at night by different things.  Some people spend time in bed tossing and turning, unable to cope with the sheer horror of man's inhumanity to man.  Some people are driven to greatness by a creative drive that forces them to stay awake, writing wonderful music or discovering amazing mathematical theorums (which are usually not quite short enough to write in the margins of books) or figuring out the secrets of life, the universe and everything.