3088

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Go-Karting

With only four days to the Marathon, I took the risk to go-karting.

A colleague quipped, "You're not going to kill yourself before you do the run this Sunday, are you?!" If anything, the comment has made me more conscious of my own safety.

However, this didn't deter me from joining 35 others for the driving competition. It was a social event organised by one of our Project suppliers.

The drivers

My experience of go-karting came from two places - Genting Highlands and Disneyland. If you've done any of them, you'd agree that they are both rubbish because they are for kids!

Today's go-karting was real. The cars provided were powerful machines! The event came with a full health and safety briefing and an attire check prior to the race. The go-karts could go up to 70kph. They could kill but they probably can't in this place.

Electric go-karts

Being silly

The go-karts were electric go-karts. So they were little Prius-es and were extremely quiet!

Imagine go-kart without the revs. My go-kart was a good performer. Maybe my weight played a part. The car took corners really well except an occasion when another car clipped me and both of us spun like an action movie scene!

The inertia nearly ripped me out of my seat and my heart felt like it was swinging out of my chest! If only I could learn Physics this way when I was 18, it would have been so much more interesting!

Other than that, go-karting is far safer than I thought. It's almost like doing the one in Genting or Disneyland, except that this is much faster and more serious. Every lap is timed and scored.

We had seven teams - four members in each. Of the seven, we came in third in the race! Yes, it was a podium finishing! Yay!

Podium finishing

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Trip to Florence

From Pisa I took a train to Florence. The weather was really good. So I managed to travel light as well.

Florence is a much bigger city than Pisa. It's also prettier in my opinion. I had very high expectations of Florence since everyone I came across recommended it.

When I arrived into Florence, I walked around the city. Everywhere in Florence is within walking distance. It's easy to get sucked into the scenic beauty of the city as I realised I have walked for more than 10km without feeling exhausted!

River Arno cutting across Florence

Narrow roads of Florence

Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (The Duomo)

I have to come back to Florence a second time because I didn't get into the Uffizi Gallery and the Galeria dell'Academia where most of the important art pieces of Florence are located. Queuing to get in would have taken half a day!

Queue to the Uffizi Gallery

Florence is crowded with tourists

Florence was once Italy's capital in the mid-19th century. It was also the "playground" of the minds of Donatello and Michelangelo. Perhaps the most famous attribute of Florence is Michelangelo's sculpture, David. It's so famous they have a duplicate in the city!

Florence gave me a very strange feeling. The impression it gave me, especially from Piazza della Signoria was that the place was once where nudism thrived.

Neptune

Michelangelo's David

Perseus has to behead Medusa in nude?

A peek-a-boo loincloth at Palazzo Vecchio

A silhouette of the sculpture "Rape of the Sabine Woman"

The beauty of the naked body and erotic sculptures must have been worshipped in this place. I was also intrigued by the audacity of sculptors like Michelangelo to present their art to the public.

I stood in front of the sculptures and put myself at the time of Michelangelo. I imagined him unveiling to the crowd his latest creation as he pulls away the canvas. What must have been the reaction from the crowd? What if it was in Malaysia? How would the crowd react then? I could imagine the crowd exclaiming "Choi!"

I stood there laughing to myself as I tried to let my imagination run wild and appreciate the art at the same time.

At Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza, I could spot some people having mixed reactions when they spotted the naked sculptures. Some didn't look comfortable looking at the genitals of David for too long. They blushed. Some giggled away while whispering comments to their partners. Some didn't seem bothered. I was one of them.

But one sculpture kept me wondering after I left Florence. I kept wondering what was in the mind of the sculptor, Baccio Bandinelli, when he sculpted a naked Hercules in such great detail with his genitals annoyingly close to the face of Cacus!

Hercules and Cacus

Friday, April 17, 2009

Spring in London

Birdcage Walk and Buckingham Palace

When I ran passed Buckingham Palace two days ago, I spotted a vast array of flowers blooming at St James' Park and along the Birdcage Walk. The tulips immediately reminded me of the time I was in Japan.

Spring has arrived.

Gone are the dull and grey days of winter. There is colour in London now. Yay!

(Photos taken with my phone camera during a run. Apologies for the low quality images)

Trip to Pisa

I was in Pisa on Easter Sunday. Pisa is not a very big place. Tourists like me go there just for the world's famous Leaning Tower.

Emerging out from Pisa Central train station, I followed the crowd whom I believed were there for the same reason - to see the tower. The tower was not immediately sighted until about 2km away from the train station.

As soon as I turned at a junction, the tower was immediately recognisable. It was really strange to see such a beautiful tower on the verge of collapse. The angle was much worse than I expected.

The Leaning Tower from a distance

Compare the angle of leaning with the Cathedral next to it

The Leaning Tower is an architectural splendour but also one of the most shameful engineering feat in history. I stood in front of the tower trying to soak in the architecture and structure of the building. I couldn't stop laughing thinking it's such a joke!

Other than the Leaning Tower, there is nothing much to explore in Pisa.

Really if not because of the Leaning Tower, I find it hard to find the next attraction here. In fact, the tower is the only thing that's keeping this place alive!

Inside the Cathedral - located behind the tower

Isn't this observation a true reflection of life? That adversities are not necessarily bad all the time. Sometimes adversities can present to us life's greatest opportunities!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Trip to Cinque Terre

I went to Italy over Easter break and explored Genoa, La Spezia, Pisa and Florence - northern Italy.

This is the first time I did not celebrate the Easter Triduum that I usually would in a Church. I wish you who are celebrating this day a Happy Easter!

I flew into Genoa and took a train to La Spezia. There are two highlights in La Spezia - Porto Venere and Cinque Terre. They are located on the other northern end of the Mediterranean sea.

Porto Venere in La Spezia

Porto Venere and Cinque Terre are both UNESCO World Heritage sites. I found out about Porto Venere when I arrived into La Spezia by studying the local map.

However, the main reason I went to La Spezia was to set base to Cinque Terre, which was the highlight of the trip.

Since it was a long holiday weekend in Europe, Cinque Terre was crowded. The platform from La Spezia was almost at a gridlock!

The temperature was beautiful though, around 20ish by mid-day and sunny all day!

La Spezia station - passengers to Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre in Italian means "five villages". Yes, there are five villages to explore. I took the 15-km hiking route to the villages. I started from the south point at Riomaggiore to Monterosso.

Unlike running, I finished Cinque Terre in more than 6 hours! I could have ran more than a marathon with 6 hours!

Cinque Terre is different from the other holiday destinations I've been to so far. Buildings along the steep coastline gave me the impression that people in Cinque Terre are living on a harbinger of a disaster. But these are the very breathtaking sights that captivate people and the camera!

Photos of Cinque Terre...