New Blog

Hi

This blog has moved here:

Arms and a Man


Come and take a look when you have a moment!

Cheers
Anthony

English Help in Taiwan

Do you need help with editing of university assignments? Or college application essays? Are you in Taiwan?

There's help here:

愛寫英文 Blog

Triathlon Gear in Taiwan

Well, I've struggled along here - trying to get triathlon stuff that fits me. Not just to get any stuff that fits me but also a variety of stuff that fits me. Finally, I ordered from the USA.

I ordered from TriSports and they were great. A good selection of everything you need, good prices and efficient and friendly service.

Then.... I had to get a triathlon wetsuit. The only way to swim in Taitung in the winter! (It took me a while to convince my wife.)

After much looking around I decided on a  Synergy wetsuit. And the company was magnificent. They offered me discount immediately - it was part of a clearance deal - and got my suit safely to me in six days through the USPS.

I CAN'T wait to get into the water.......

 

2010 123K Taitung Triathlon

 
Race Day found me stressed out at 5am. I had slept little but the adrenalin was pumping. I ate half a bagel, drank some green tea/isotonic drink and started checking and re-checking my stuff. I walked into the transition area at 0600. Everything was very well organized. I found my spot, parked the bicycle and started unpacking my kit.

Then to the lake and an agonizing wait before the start.

Once I was going it was great. Swim went well and I held my pace. Finished in 58 minutes. A great relief. The morning was beautiful. A light drizzle for a bit and the amazing scenery made the bike ride an absolute pleasure.

My 21 K started at noon. It was hot and windy. 

But all worth it in the end.

Finish time: 7 hours 25 minutes. A towel, two shirts and a medal. Beautiful!

Thank-you so much to the Taiwan Super Triathlon Team for organizing such a great race.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with a question.

See you there next year!

2010 Taitung 123K Triathlon

 
In August 2010 I spent three glorious weeks in Taitung. Braaivleis, sunny skies and Chevrolet - I think that's how the advert went. And I bought a bicycle. It's just impossible to be in Taitung without a bicycle. Roads are wide. Air is clean and the scenery is breathtaking. So I purchased a GT Mountain bike. Cost me 5000nt. A lucky deal that my wife identified on PC Home - the Taiwan shopping website.

This photo was taken in Taitung. Just another beautiful day...

I was riding up and down and finally rode the 50km north to Chenggong and the 50km back. I had run two marathons in Taipei in 2006 and 2007 and suddenly I started to wonder if there was something similar I could do on the bike with a run thrown in. ( I preferred not to think about a swim...)

An internet search led me to Craig John's Taiwan Racing blog. There I found a link to the Taiwan Super Triathlon website Taitung Triathlon here.

The Taitung Triathlon is held in April and October. The swim is here.

Taitung Flowing Lake. 1,1km to the other side. You'll swim there and back for the 123K. The first time I swam it, I did breaststroke and it took me almost 2 hours. I was so slow. Small woodland creatures crawling along the banks outpaced me.

When I got back to Tainan I went straight to the pool and started swimming. I cut back on the beer and dropped a few kilograms. Then I bought a road bike. A Fuji Roubaix 3.0. It's an entry level road bike - but it really made the difference. I cut an hour from the mountain bike time. I love the GT- but the Fuji ... there are no words...

I focused mainly on the swimming and I swam five nights a week. For an hour a time. I was on youtube constantly watching swimming and triathlon videos. And in the pool I tried to push myself. I started freestyle swimming and it was hard. Sometimes I only made 25m before stopping. But I kept at it - always seeing how much further I could swim before I sank. And finally I swam 2000m one night without a break. This was about 5 weeks after I started in the pool.

I ran maybe three times a week. At first 9 km a time.

And the bike never more than 60km and only on the weekends. The traffic was driving me crazy and in the end I found a huge block in the Science Park that was approximately 4 k in circumference and I did laps to train at a good pace. It was boring but it paid off.

The week before the race I went down to Taitung and rode the bicycle route and swam the lake. It was reassuring to have the opportunity to recon the course but I started struggling with an ear infection that kept me out of the water until the day of the race.

In the next post I'll talk about the race.

Back...

 
Well, it's been a while. More than five months to be more precise. Suffice to say that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

There's a good reason I want to post now. I had a mind-altering experience when I completed the 2010 Taitung 123K Triathlon over the weekend.

There's precious little available in English about this kind of stuff for people (foreigners) stuck living in Taiwan. So I wanted to post a couple of pictures etc.

Check the following post.

What's the point?

 
I thought this was amusing. The leader of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, was shown this PowerPoint slide as a way to lay out the current situation in Afghanistan.

His dry response: " When we understand that slide, we will have won the war."

More on this from the New York Times here.

The Old and the New

 
The 2010 Soccer World Cup is soon to be reality. (I remember when it was announced that SA had been awarded the cup. Quite a few guys contacted me with a "see you here in 2010". Now they've all left... And I might be going back - for a visit at least.)

I'm filled with some kind of nostalgia, I have to admit. I remember vividly the final of the '95 Rugby World Cup. Driving through the streets and having to stop for all the people cheering, dancing and laughing. I don't expect the same thing this time. It's not supposed to be the same, I know.

So, if you'd like, take a moment and reflect on these two videos. One - the new soccer world cup anthem - and the other - a clip from the 1995 world cup with P.J. Powers. I'm guessing if you're over 30 years of age, South African, and you know the smell of dubbin on a leather rugby ball - then the second video will give you goosebumps.
 

 

The Beach Boys?

 
Well, everyone has to make a buck. And in these economically challenging times, a few are forced to turn to the "oldest profession". Unfortunately, the authorities do not always take kindly to this kind of thing and so we have the following article from Bali in the Taipei Times:

 Beach boys’ rounded up in Bali after gigolo film

Indonesia has detained 28 “beach boys” accused of selling sex to female tourists on Bali after a documentary on the resort’s “gigolos” hit the Internet, an official said yesterday.

The "Kuta Cowboys" have always been part of the Bali scene. They were already around in '98 when the wife and I were there.So this overreaction is as a result of a documentary.

They’re young, fit-looking and tanned, mostly surfer beach boys,” said I Gusti Ngurah Tresna, the chief of security on Bali’s main Kuta beach.

Next challenge - who are they? Apparently anybody with a gym membership and a tanning lamp could be on the list.

“They will approach foreign female tourists, especially Japanese, on the beach, befriend them and the women will pay for their company and food during their stay here. Sex may be involved,” he said.

Okay, that explains why I wasn't approached. I'm not Japanese.

“All this while we’ve been selling our beautiful waves, sunsets, turtles, culture and nature conservation, and suddenly now we’re seen to be selling gigolos? Such films are really harmful to our image,” he (the security chief) said.

The irony is that this is the same place where the 2002 and 2005 bombings occurred. Surely there are more pressing concerns for the security chief? You've got to know - somewhere behind this there is a confused politician.

Of course, in South Africa we have no gigolos...

 

 

Scotland from home

 
To follow on from my whiskey post yesterday. Here's Bruce Campbell - mad as a hatter and making trouble at the Singleton Distillery as well as Knockando where they produce J&B.





This is a link to the website.

April 23, 1915

 
On April 23, 1915 one of the most famous poets of World War I died of blood poisoning en route to the Dardenelles Campaign.

He is forever remembered for the lines:

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.
There shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home

It is not often realised that he was not a soldier but a Sub-Lieutenant serving with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve ashore. Brooke was originally buried by his fellow officers. His body was carried to the olive grove during the night and a simple stone cairn was constructed. A wooden cross bearing the above inscription was erected

Here lies the servant of God, sub-lieutenant in the English Navy
who died for the deliverance of Constantinople from the Turks

At the end of the First World War, at the instigation of his mother, this grave was replaced by the current tomb.

From Free Market Fairy Tales