Chester

Liverpool FC announced today that they have opened a merchandise store in Chester, an hour's drive from Liverpool. It brings back memories of my trip to Liverpool in Nov 2003. As part of the trip, we went to Chester to watch a reserve game and toured Chester before the game. I attach some lovely pictures here for your pleasure viewing.

The lovely ladies in the picture are my wife, Regina and my mum.

Fit the Bill

As a fitness professional, I was looking forward to see the program when I found out about this Channel U Fitness Reality Program - Fit the Bill 人健人爱 hosted by Mr Vincent Ng 翁清海, our national wushu champion and Ms Belinda Lee, 李心钰.

After watching the program, I was sort of disappointed and decided to write to the Straits Times forum on the following areas about the fitness tests at the end of the program that could be better addressed:

(1) Fitness Tests do not reflect the gains in the training - During the 2 weeks of training which the participants undertook, they were put through strength training in gym, aerobics classes, etc. However, the tests which eliminate a participant include more performance-related fitness components such as balance (walking on a balance beam), speed and anaerobic fitness (such as jumping over a series of hurdles). I do not see in the program such training were provided.

Moreover, the ladies in the program seemed to me that they are more concerned about weight management. Thus their training would have been centred on cardiovascular training to burn more calories and strength training to build lean body mass. Test on balance, speed, jumping ability and anaerobic fitness are more appropriate for athletes and not general public like the participants. Thus, gains in strength and cardiovascular fitness from training may not be appropriately reflected in the tests.

(2) Fitness Tests centred on lower body strength and ability - the 5 tests (walking on balance beam, step ups, leg lifts, leg raise and jumping over hurdles) all worked on the leg and abdominal strength. Participants would fatigue quickly and this may not reflect their true ability. A better rounded approach would be to include upper body exercises such as push-up or shoulder presses which can be done in the park.

(3) Safety - Since all the tests centred on the lower extremities, participants would fatigue easily and thus the risk of injury would increase. My concerns came true when the last participant, Catherine, fell over the hurdles. Hurdle jumping is a form of plyometric training and is normally done by athletes. The participants should not be put through this test and serious injury may occur if they fall.

I hoped that my 2 cents worth would help to provide improvements for future programs. If they don't publish my letter, you can read it here.

Just another note, one of the fitness trainers commented that he eats less carbohydrates at night. So what does he eat? Fats? proteins? fruits? vegetables? Do you know that fruits and vegetables contain a high proportion of carbohydrates?

Pizza Fergie

Saw this picture on the net as a build up to this weekend's match. Thought it was damn funny!

Ashley Cole (according to Straits Times) insinuated that it was Fabregas who threw the pizza as he said the person wasn't French nor English. I thought there were also Dutch, German, Ivory Coast and Swedish on the team.

Anyway, who cares who threw the pizza!

Ha ha ha!

Walk! Instead of Taking Public Transport

Bus fares, MRT fares are going to increase; taxi fares have already gone up. What do you do? Take it in your chin and swallow the bitter pill? "Swallow"? that's a word made sexy by a superstar in Singapore......

Okay, jokes aside. If you are pissed with the increase in fares, why don't you boycott public transport and start walking? Walking is free, it is a form of exercise, it helps you to burn calories (and thus weight loss??), and most importantly, it keeps your money in your pocket instead of those money suckers in the transport companies.

There are many ways to walk and many routes in Singapore for you to walk. For example, if your house is one or 2 bus stops away from the MRT, walk home instead of taking the bus. This would save you 39 cents x 2 (to and fro).

If you used to take bus/mrt from Tanjong Pagar to Raffles Place, why don't you walk? It is not too far, just about 10-15 minutes walk. To and fr0 would make it a 20 minute exercise, your daily requirement..... see, it is not difficult to chalk up your quota for exercise.

I shall not touch too much on the benefits of walking. I think almost everyone knows the benefits of exercising but not many people make the effort. In fact, if you want to exercise or walk, you do not need to make too much effort.

There are many parks in Singapore for you to walk - Botanic Gardens, Bishan Park, Labrador Park, etc. If you thinks these places are too far away, there may be a park connector near your door step.

Do you know that the park connector starting from Bishan Park connects you all the way to Kallang River Park and Marina? Do you know that it is possible to walk from Tampines MRT station to Pasir Ris Beach using the connector? or walk all the way from Boat Quay to Great World City? You may also get nice riverside sceneries along the way, while doing your walks.

Oh, Singapore is too hot for walking! Yeah, I agree with you. You may either walk in the evening or if you don't like to sweat, there are a lot of shopping centres for you to walk. One favourite walk which I like is the Citylink Mall. From City Hall, you can walk a minimum of 10 minutes to Marina or you may extend your walk to Suntec City or Millenia Walk for 30 minutes or more while doing your window shopping. You may also walk from Raffles Place to One Raffles Quay, a new office building for about 10 minutes. All these are within the comfort of the aircon.

So what are you waiting for? Come On!

NKF Walk in Sentosa

I went to Sentosa to help out in a Sunday morning (27 Aug) 2km walk for 700 NKF patients and staff. The initial target for the walk was 500 people but the actual turnout was 700 people due to overwhelming response. Luckily, Sentosa agreed to accommodate the increase of 200 people.

NKF held regular Sunday morning walks for its patients for about 2 years in parks around Singapore such as Labrador Park and Bedok Reservoir. This is the first time NKF is visiting Sentosa and the turnout is one of the largest in 2 years.

I think the turnout speaks volume for Sentosa of its progress over the last 5 years, which was the number of years I had been its account manager in DBS until 3 months ago.

5 years ago, the reputation of Sentosa was one of boring, expensive and out-of-date attractions. I think this reputation is so deep-rooted in the minds of Singaporeans and many foreign visitors even until now. Some of my friends still think lowly of Sentosa.

I would agree with my friends that Sentosa “was” what they thought of. However, the new management of Sentosa has made many conscious efforts and initiatives to not only bring new attractions but also to project its image positively.

Sentosa has recovered from its failed attractions of Fantasy Island, Volcano Land and created new fun rides such as the Luge and Sky Tower. I remember that the old hawker centre was expensive and both the quality and quantity, yes, quantity, were bad. It now has many new food outlets ranging from Delifrance, Subway, Coffee Bean, Sakae Sushi to Nogawa in the Sentosa Golf Club. My favourite is the American/Mexican Food at the Steword's Riverboat where you can get really fresh caesar salads

Sentosa is also now a hip place for beach goers and you can see a lot of bikini babes (wolf whistle please) there. I remember my ex-boss’s boss always visit Sentosa with his family. Sometimes, I joked, which family?

The island now offers a lot more than its past and the future is going to be more exciting with Sentosa Cove and the Casino (I hate the word IR). Go find out for yourself.

NKF is now like the old Sentosa, which was a PR disaster. I have many friends who have negative thoughts about NKF. People were pissed off by its over-aggressive campaign such as the TV shows, donation letters, and donation cards for school students. I was one of the angry donors who cancelled my monthly donation. In fact I cancelled the GIRO one year before the scandal! I have foresight!

I started the exercise classes for about 15 NKF patients after the saga and began to learn a lot about the organization and the disease. Firstly, kidney failure is a serious chronic disease and patients need to go for dialysis 3 times a week for about 4 hours each (with some patients up to 5 hours). I visited some of my patients during their dialysis and I can’t imagine myself sitting on the chair for 4 hours receiving dialysis. This is not to mention complications such as leg cramps and unstable blood pressure after each dialysis. I think I am blessed to be healthy.

I am also lucky to meet those patients training under me. These patients are positive and energetic despite their sickness. I have seen other patients in the dialysis centre who have almost given up and I think this is very sad. It is not easy to stay positive after you have been diagnosed with kidney failure.

These patients training under me are actually part of an advocate group setup by the “old” NKF. Despite the misgivings of the management of the “old” NKF, I think this is a very good scheme. These advocates serve as mentors to other patients and help solve their individual problems. Patients who are suffering would often rebut that caretakers do not understand their pain, but they would be speechless against the advocates who are fellow patients.

The “old” NKF also setup a Centre for Exercise Medicine and Nutrition for its patients. It encourages its patients to exercise regularly as exercise is beneficial for them, physically and more importantly, the mental aspects. It is not easy to run such an exercise centre with 3 staff (in the old NKF) to service 23 dialysis centres around Singapore.

One of the Centre’s initiatives was the Sunday morning walks in parks including this walk in Sentosa. I hope the new NKF can continue this good work and beef up the staff strength. 3 staff is definitely not enough manpower to handle 2 thousand patients and run around 23 centres.

I also hope the new NKF management would be able to follow the current Sentosa management in turning around its image. While it is now taking in more and more patients, it should also not forget about the hardwork of its staff and take care of the mental well-being of the patients.

My patients have been telling me that the nurses are so busy taking care of the increase load in patients now that the patients’ rapport with the nurses was not as good as before. This is sad but I think this may be typical of the Singapore healthcare system, which takes care of quantity and not quality. I am a firm believer that patients must be treated not only with the physical aspects but more importantly, be able to improve their mental well-being. You can be treated with the best doctor or medicines but if you have given up on life, what is there to fight on?

Sorry for my readers that this has been a long blog but it is something that I have thought about seriously. I am in no way related to NKF / Sentosa nor receive any ‘goodies’ from them. While it is in our human nature to criticize (as in the case of the "old" Sentosa and "old" NKF), we must also always remember to give credit when it’s due.