Blossoms of the Willow

The pussy willow branches I bought for Chinese New Year has blossom! It is definitely a sign of prosperity.

May the prosperity brings us more good adventure! :)

Prosperity and Progress

We are into the 3rd day of the Water Dragon lunar new year.

May this Dragon year brings you and me many peaceful experiences, prosperous encounters and positive progressive outcomes.

發發發 for everyone! :-)

Twitter

I have just discovered the fun of Twitter. Yes, I have set up a Twitter account. Gosh, I am not sure what I have got myself into, because I am already hooked on to Facebook!

Got to Smile, despite!

Walking with a pair of crutches is by no means an easy task. It gets harder each time when I rest my weight on the hand grips because my armpits are feeling sore! Perhaps the technique is not right. But hell, who wants to be good with using the crutches? not me! :D

My two extra pair of "legs"

Got to smile! =)

Two things I probably cannot do this pre-CNY.

1. To queue for Lin Zhi Yuan bak gua! I love the queuing because it gives me a sense of purpose for the long wait. Crazy? but that was my way of staying happy for CNY!

2. To go shop for goodies for CNY. And that's to say, I will have to miss eating those CNY goodies since I cannot shop for them. Haiz! Now I regret for not buying the goodies earlier.

Oh well, I am so looking forward to a quick recovery. What made me happy today is that I received these images from colleagues in NP. I just cannot stop laughing, if you can guess what went on this images! =)

I was obviously in pain! haha

He is Bond ...

James Bond!

Walking is a challenging affair for now

As a climber/mountaineer and occasionally a runner, I have always been weary about getting injuries. I supposed minor pain here and there is inevitable, but getting it too often and too serious is scary. Recently, especially the period when I was preparing for Island Peak and Ama Dablam, I have noticed a nagging discomfort on my archilles tendon especially the heel bone area. I felt the stiffness when out of bed in the morning. Apart from this, I also noticed some pain on the groin over the years. The groin pain amplified when I was in Nepal after the AD climb.

Kumaran, a Doctor by Profession, tried to guide me
with some stretching exercises to alleviate the pain

Frankly, I have not suffered any major injuries thus I really have little experience on dealing with it especially when it happens to me. The excruciating pain on my groin that I suffered at Lukla was a big scare to me. I cried. Because the pain was sharp, I was not able to stand on my feet.

My greatest mistake was to have ignored all the minor pain all these while. Believing that if I continue to exercise, it will heal over time and that the condition will not get worsen (it will, if I had been diligent with my pre/post-workout warm up and stretches).

So on Tuesday (yesterday), I suffered a sharp acute pain on my heel bone (Calcanus) after a round of badminton. I believe that my warm up and stretching exercises were not effective considering that I have not been working out much after my return from Nepal. So Ouch!

Badminton kakis in action,
I could only watch!

Acute pain at the heel bone

There were no swelling and redness, but the area was painful to touch. I could still walk but with an obvious limp.  I went to the nearby restroom hoping to change to my jeans but the pain was too much for me to want to do anything. I decided to go home.  When I got out of the vehicle, it was already too painful to walk. I literally hopped my way home from the car park. The immediate treatment was to apply the RICE treatment. It would have been better if I had ice it earlier ...

Icing my heel bone at home

It has been more than 24hrs since the pain came on. The pain hasn't gone lesser, and I am still unable to walk with the injured leg. Last evening, a concerned friend (Joe), we share the same birthday and same chinese animal horoscope but 12 yrs a part (ok, nothing to do with anything haha), sent me a set of his used crutches. With the crutches, I can move around in my flat without having to hop and risk injuring the good leg.

I am still pretty much in my high spirit, just hope that this injury won't last too long. My biggest challenge is not about the walk with a limp, but more so to recover fast enough so that my mum won't suffer. She has been extremely sensitive to my needs, and knowing very well that all the little routine things I do everyday become difficult for me. Mum is mum, she is just forever so caring. I am appreciating her more.

New year, new plans

We have marched into a brand new year. New year must have new plans. I am currently planning for a climb in Mt Siguniang, the First sister Peak (5038m), from 17-25 March 2012. It will take about 9 days. I am hoping to recruit 6-8 other people with me.

Siguniang mountain range

On the summit of First Sister Peak (March 2011)

Random Thoughts

I will never trade climbing for anything else. So please stop asking me when will I stop climbing. Instead, ask me when will be my next climb, but ask only if you are genuinely interested to know.

I fully understand the risk involved, the time and money spent to climb. And yes, I know I have families and friends who are worried when I climb, but hey, even crossing a road is dangerous, and you might just get run over by a train in the MRT station. I'd rather die in the mountain (ahem, touch wood!) than to die of some deadly illness or to be in the hands of some reckless drink drivers. Period.

I have so much to catch up. I want to share with you the climbs I did like Aconcagua in Feb and my recent climbs on Island Peak and Ama Dablam. As you can see, my last entry was more than 6 months ago! Haiz. I just need to get my ass down and map out my thoughts. Not forgetting that I am also rushing out my thoughts on our Everest journey. The SWET team is really behind time with our book which we have been telling people about. We had postponed our climb, we cannot postpone the writing. Yes, we will get it out somehow.

Returning to Nepal was a nostalgic experience. Everything that I saw in Kathmandu and in the Khumbu was just so familiar. Climbing Everest with SWET seemed just a recent affair when I traveled on the trails. It was definitely a nice feeling. And guess what, the SWET team Marmot shell was so eye-catching. I had strangers telling my climbing sherpas that they recognised the shell belonging to the women's team from Singapore. I felt like being watched! On the other hand, I feel proud to be part of the SWET.

At the summit of Island Peak with Dorje and donning that "SWET " shell  that many other climbing sherpas were familiar with. 

Jumping for joy on the summit of Ama Dablam

Year 2011 is coming to an end soon. Looking back, I have had a jolly good time climbing, from Argentina to China and back to Nepal, I can't ask for more. I will spend the last month of 2011 writing my climbing journals and hopefully it won't be long for you to read about it.