Ran 20km and I’m feeling half dead
As you’ve probably read in my earlier post, I’m currently training for the Singapore City Race. There are various categories in there – 8 km, 15 km, 25 km and 40 km.
I signed up for the 25 km one but I was training as if I was going for the 40 km one. After all, I’ve already completed a marathon, I should be able to ace it for this one too right?
Of course, the first few weeks it went smooth … but one month into my training, I’m just not feeling it. Maybe previously I haven’t been jogging for a while? Or maybe I’ve been over-training? Nevertheless, after my long run, my whole body aches all over and instead of being in a euphoric state, I’m in a bad mood and don’t feel motivated. At all.
So I guess it’s much better for me to take a step back, take a break and let my body recover. In the meanwhile, I guess I’ll have to re-plan a new training schedule. In any case, the worse is over, I’ve already done 20 km in my long run. I should be fine for the actual event 😛
Half dead after this particular run -_-
By the way, my New Balance Minimus is so worn out now. To the point that the sole is smoothed out. I’ve been forced to run in my old runners and I hated the feeling. It feels so heavy and clunky. But what to do? I don’t have anything else.
I’ve been trying to find new ones to replace them. But it seems that in Italy, New Balance doesn’t stock them any more. I wasn’t too surprised though, as Minimalist shoes aren’t that popular in Italy.
I could check out if there are some for sale left in Singapore. I guess in the meanwhile, I’d have to continue running in my old clunkers.
Urgh.
Netflix arrives in Italy
While Netflix has been providing video streaming since 2008, the service has finally arrived in Italy with lots of fanfare.
Netflix is basically a video streaming service where you could watch unlimited videos legally, on various platforms. While there are already other video streaming services in Italy, Netflix’s pricing is competitive, has a wide variety of shows and has subscriptions for multiple users in a single household at the same time.
So far, Cart and I are quite enamoured with it and we have been spending quite a fair bit of time (and social life) exploring the various shows that it provided. We mainly watch them from our phones and our laptops.
What’s great about Netflix is that even when we are out of Italy, we could still watch the shows in other countries as long as we had an internet connection. My theory is that the shows we watch will be different depending on our location, but I’m not completely sure of that. We’ll find out more when we reach Singapore in mid December.
I used to plug my laptop to the TV via HDMI which can be a hassle. Recently though, I got for us a Chromecast set which we plug to the television.
This device sort of makes our smartphone be an interactive TV Control and allows us to broadcast certain apps from our phones straight to the television. It’s so convenient. Even if you don’t use Netflix, if you haven’t one yet, I think you should get one. And at 38 euro, it isn’t that expensive.
We used to have a HDMI dongle that converts our TV into a sort of a tablet. But I find Chromecast superior as it loads much faster and doesn’t bog down the internet connection too much. Plus, it’s much cheaper compared to the dongle which costs about 65 euro.
Anyway some of the shows which I’ve watched and enjoyed :
A lot more interesting compared to the movie with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Gardner.
I didn’t get sucked into the hype but when I started watching it, I just couldn’t stop. I don’t think that I’d be able to watch season two though because of the finale. I don’t see how it can continue to be “Comedy”
This documentary was insightful on how intensive animal farming plays a huge part in pollution.
This is a show about fast fashion – and watching this, makes me feel compelled to get more clothes from independent seamstresses or second hand shops.
One of the features I like is that the app keeps track of the shows that you’ve watched.
There are a lot more shows to explore – Narcos which has been recommended a lot, Under the Dome which should be interesting since it was written by Stephen King and Cart has been obsessed with Battlestar Galactica. He finds the series smart and very well written. I can’t bear to watch it though, after seeing the first episode, I find the entire storyline is so depressing. I prefer watching comedies and light hearted shows.
Suffice to say, I’m loving the Netflix experience so far. I’m not sure how it works though, after a month does the videos rotate? Does new videos come in next month and older videos are taken down from streaming?
Also, you can change the audio and subtitles to and from English to Italian as well as other languages where available.
It didn’t seem that long ago when I went down to the DVD shop near my parent’s house and browsed through the jewel cases. It was like 10 dollars to rent 5 DVDs for a week. And then walk to the supermarket to get some junk food. Each weekend, we’d get together and watch a video. Things are so high-tech now.
P.s. If you’re using Telegram, there’s a bot which updates you on the videos that are available on Netflix according to your region. Just search for ‘netflixnewsbot’.
Please Mr Panda
Is this wrong?
I thought that I’d share something that I’ve recently read on Facebook – This was an answer to a Primary 1 student’s English composition :
At first glance, I thought that the student didn’t do anything wrong. And then I went through the comments, many of them very harsh – saying about how the teacher needs to go back and study English, and how she should be fired.
But then I managed to read the question :
“If you are celebrating a family member’s birthday, how do you plan to celebrate it?”
Granted that the use of the conditional “if” is a bit awkward, I realised that the teacher wasn’t in the wrong at all. For every question, you’d have to answer accordingly.
When you are asked, “If you ARE to plan her birthday, how DO you plan to do it?” And so you have to answer in the matching tense, that is, “If I AM to plan he birthday, I WILL …”
And when you are asked, “If you WERE to plan her birthday, how WOULD you plan to do it?” then you could answer it with, “If I WERE to plan her birthday, I WOULD …”.
The trouble with the conditional IF when used in past tense, is for situations that is hypothetical, or something impossible for you to do, like, “If I were able to fly”, “If I was a man”, “If I was rich”.
But planning a birthday party is something do-able. Which is why I understand why the question was phrased that way.
This reminds me of another question that I read some while back. I can’t find the exact one, but it’s quite similar to this one :
The student’s answer was along the lines of : “Both of them can walk”.
When the answer was posted online, there were many comments of how, “This is killing children’s creativity” and whatnots. But this is a science question, and when you see the words, study or observe the picture, you’ll need to answer on what is based on what you see. Which is :
- They both have four feet (or)
- They both have two ears (or)
- They both have a tail
And so on and so forth.
I wouldn’t say that I’m perfect academically, but it’s logical that if someone asks for “A”, one should answer back in “A”. It’s nothing to do with stifling a child’s imagination or creativity – It’s just not answering the question.
But on the other hand, we have to be careful not to lead children only use rote memorizations without understanding its meaning like in the video below :
The clip comes from the movie, “Three Idiots” and if you haven’t watched it yet, watch it! It’s the funniest movie that I’ve watched in a while 🙂
How do I look?
You don’t have to worry for at least 6 months
The first day of Aquagym
Natural Makeup Look with Kiko
I’ve always liked the natural make-up look, and I just couldn’t resist.
Natural make up might sound like a misnomer, but I like how we are able to look a better version of ourselves without having to look too artificial and overly made up.
After watching the video above, I was pining over getting a few more drawing toys for myself and so I went to kiko. I initially planned to get only a lipstick and an eye-shadow palette but in the end I got these :
If you’ve never heard of Kiko Cosmetics before, they’re considered the Italian version of Mac Cosmetics but at a high street price. Last Monday, I spent about 37 euro in total, which was more than my initial budget, but oh well. I’m definitely going to use them regularly.
The first thing that I got is the Rebel Romantic Eye-shadow Palette in Fiery Rose (12.90 euro).
It’s a matte eye-shadow with a slightly pink hue which is great for a neutral eye look, but with the bottom shades, has an option for a smoky look if you wanted to.
I don’t find them extremely pigmented as my infinity eye-shadows but they can be applied wet which gives it a deeper colour, which I haven’t tried yet.
These are the Rebel Romantic Contouring Pencil Set. (9.90 euro) It’s been said that pencils are good for those who are just starting out on contouring which gives you more defined features and a glowing look.
I’m not entirely convinced about these, and might give them away in time, but I’m giving them a try for now. I apply them more or less like in this video here.
This Soft Touch Blush in Rosa Antico Scuro 111 (7.50 euro), I absolutely adore! It reminds me a lot of Nars Orgasm in the sense that there is a hint of shimmer, only a darker shade of peach. Which is great for duskier skin like mine as it gives me a natural looking flush . It wasn’t in my list, but I just couldn’t help but to put it in my basket in the end.
For an actual dupe for the Nars Orgasm, Pesca Dorato 103 seems a very close match to me.
Oh how much I love this lipstick! I’m not too fond of shiny lipsticks so the Velvet Mat Lipstick in Rosa Fragola 612 (6.90 euro) is just lovely.
As I wanted a Nude lip, I was torn between this and Rosa Naturale 602. In then I chose the one that the clerk recommended on me and hoped for the best.
I put it on as soon as I bought it. Ahaha! It’s a bit more pink that I would have liked but it looks so soft and pretty! It’s definitely my new favourite lipstick 🙂
I got the Rebel Romantic Colour Definition Eyeliner (5.90 euro) as gift for spending more than 25 euro.
There were different colours to choose from, but in the end, I chose the shade in butter as it’s something that I didn’t have. I think that it’s a better colour for lining the under eye rather than stark white which makes it look so unnatural.
I love how creamy it goes on. Maybe I should have gotten it in black instead?
And here is how I look a few minutes after playing with my new colouring toys. I love this look so much! I feel so pretty. 😀
Trying out Spotify Running
Spotify came out with the Running segment recently.
While Spotify has always had a workout playlist segment, what’s interesting about this segment is that it could detect your pace and changes the songs accordingly.
This feature is also available for free subscribers (although the playlist is limited and you can’t skip songs), so I gave it a try last week.
Songs can be very motivational to a runner and the right type of songs can even help a runner to carry on and even move faster.
I tried “Blissed out” and the songs were quite organic in the sense that they were essentially the same songs, but the higher (or lower) the bpm are, the faster or slower the songs go.
All in alI, I found the experience interesting. While listening to the songs, some felt uplifting and some were epic which made my run a pleasure. But as much as I enjoyed them, I though they were limited and definitely not enough to carry me through a 5 km run.
—
I signed up for the Singapore city Run recently, and last weekend, I’ve completed my first week of training . While it went fine so far, I haven’t been running for a while and I’m feeling apprehensive this time round. I keep wondering if I could actually do this.
Even though I’ve completed a marathon last year, I don’t feel the same bravado I did in the beginning and I’m so scared of injuring myself. Urgh! What am I doing?
