The Star Online: Metro: Central
The Star Online: Metro: Central |
| Posted: 26 Sep 2011 04:57 AM PDT Hooking up with the Hashers proves to be a good move. IN THE less tropical part of the world known as England, the climate and terrain are more than obliging when it comes to outdoor activities, provided the rain, hail or even snow (omit which is not applicable) do not come along to dampen your fun. That might sound like an over exaggeration but it seems at times that it never stops raining, but that doesn't stop us getting out for adventure. I was always an outdoor person — loving caving, walking, horse riding, cycling, swimming, running. Heck, I even relished playing fetch in the park with the dog! The weather in winter is cold and gloomy in England, so certain activities are out — cycling is quite painful at speed, especially if a hail storm starts. In case you've never had the pleasure, hail is frozen balls of water, like miniature ice cubes, which when driven by a persistent wind, will cause quite a bit of pain when they hit your ears and face. Despite the rigours of Nature, a group of us would find ourselves regularly walking in the Lake District or the Peak District, or chest deep in icy water in a cave somewhere on weekends, with precious little to come back to except a flask of hot coffee and some chocolate biscuits, but all was good and we would be planning the next excursion on the drive home. We once dropped our old, brown Vauxhall Cavalier in the village of Loughhrig, several miles from a peak known as Pavey Arc, walked there, jogged over it and walked back to the car in freezing weather. As we drove back home, we were already planning to do the same with Skafell Pike, England's highest peak. So you're wondering what does any of this have to do with being an expat, well, comparatively a lot really. After arriving here and settling in to my new place and job, the hours were long and didn't leave much time or energy for doing anything outdoors. Added to the fact that Malaysia's Mr Sunshine comes out at 7.30am and goes to sleep at 7.30pm, there's not much daylight left to do anything outdoors. So, having few friends and not much time at hand, I slipped from outdoor man to indoor house plant. The unending cycle of work, dinner and drinks and a lack of exercise started to add a few pounds here and there until an extra 10kgs had bought a plot of land and built a bungalow on what used to be my sixpack. This was OK in Asia, I believe it is referred to as prosperity, although many Malaysians would be less delicate with comments like "Wah, fat already" and "How many months?". I started jogging around my condo, it was 750m with a reasonable uphill climb and I would do about five or six rounds and feel half dead. In my previous life I had trained to get fit to apply for a job with the fire service. There were 30 jobs on offer and 3,000 applicants with the job interview in several stages. From the application form, to written test, to the (very) physical test and then the interviews. At that time, I could run 10miles (around 16km) with 10kgs of water bottles in my rucksack, dressed in two pairs of pants and a couple of sweaters (to simulate the fire test day). Now, I was getting killed by 3kms. It was difficult to avoid all the amazing food that was out there and with four years of a sedentary life, I was going to the dogs. What helped me out of this dire situation was pool, not the swimming kind, but the kind with cues, balls and pockets, because it was around the pool table that I met a large bald Australian fellow with the name Topless on account of his lack of canopy, who invited me to try Hashing. The original Hash House Harriers started in 1938 in Malaysia. I was skeptical about how good this would be and not knowing anything about the forest I was slightly apprehensive too, thinking about snakes, bees, tigers, sharks… huh? This particular group is all-male and runs on Thursday nights under the name Hash House Hazards. The runs are at different sites all over the Klang Valley in places such as Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Sungai Long, Ulu Langat , Ulu Yam, Bukit Subang and for my first run, Bukit Gasing. You might have been in Taman Tun Dr Ismail and seen bunches of crazy, sweaty looking fellows running around shouting "On, On", that's probably us or one of the many, many other groups. The run is a kind of game, running on a paper trail in the forest which is broken at some points, after which the next trail starts again around 200m away somewhere in the forest, which can really take some effort to find. There will be up to five of these breaks called checks, with false trails added to confuse the faster runners. It requires a good knowledge of the forest and a keen sense of how to set a fun, interesting and challenging trail, to be able to give a good run to a bunch of between 40 and 80 grown men. After the run is over, there are beers and food and the group joins together for what is called "The Circle" a cross between a sing song and stand-up comedy. My first run was the most physically demanding thing I had done in five years, but I was surrounded by 40-, 50- and 60-year-old men also happily meandering their way through the forest, the last hill at Gasing heading up inside the forest towards the Sivan temple set my lungs on fire and turned my legs to jelly. I couldn't believe I had never heard about this before, I was actually in a forest in the city. At the end of the run, I was in love with Hashing. But to add to this wonderful running experience, the Circle was hilarious and the guys were so warm and welcoming, I felt like I had just become a brother in a family of 80. After sitting down and cooling off, all I could think about was the next weeks run. Although now, a bucket of ice would be needed instead of my old flask of coffee. Hashing is a piece of Malaysian history, if you find yourself interested in exercise, friendship and absolute stress relief, you can go online and look up Hash House Harriers, there are runs every day of the week all over the world. Many groups are open to all ages, genders and races. You don't need to be an athlete, just willing to have a good time. Through Hashing I found the best friends I could wish for, health, fitness and a way to escape the city whilst still being in it. On On… This article is dedicated to our dear Grand Buzzard Chia Keng Huat known in Hash circles as Rokok, a true Hashman and dear brother, whom we lost to cancer recently. A weaver by trade and general manager by profession, Rob has been residing in Malaysia the past 10 years after moving here from England in search of adventure and professional experience. He's a proud Hasher, a serious music lover and absent diver. |
| Students impress with The Star SPM workshop techniques Posted: 26 Sep 2011 04:47 AM PDT DEFINITIONS, formulations and solutions were the catch phrases of The Star SPM workshop held at KDU University College, Damansara Jaya. The workshop kicked off with a seminar on answering techniques for the English Language SPM examination paper by K. B. Rajan. It was followed by veteran Bahasa Malaysia instructor, Mohd Noh Marzuki's seminar on how to tackle the Bahasa Malaysia paper. "Always start by defining the concepts and ideas given in the essay's topic," explained Mohd Noh, stressing the importance of clear-cut definitions in an essay. He went further by giving the workshop participants, mostly students from around the Klang Valley, insights into making their essays more fluid. "Some students like to start their essays by expounding on the topic given. Starting this way quickly depletes your ideas. It is better to open up the topic through definitions and expound on it after that. This way you have more avenues to walk down," said the teacher with over 30 years of experience. Mohd Noh said his knowledge on the subject was gained through his experience giving lectures and conducting workshops since the 1990's. "I have also written over 100 reference and exercise books for the Info Didik series," said Mohd Noh, who invents his own techniques for answering Bahasa Malaysia examination questions. Despite a majority of the participants hailing from schools around the Klang Valley, five of them came from as far as Perak and Malacca to attend the workshop. Sashweana N. Rajendran from Sek Men Keb Infant Jesus Convent Malacca said she came to the workshop not knowing what to expect. "My parents sent me to the workshop after finding out about it in the newspaper. I really didn't know what to expect, since this is my first Star SPM workshop. "After sitting for the seminars though, I am very impressed with the trainers. I learned so many techniques and strategies to answer SPM questions," she said. Jonathan Lang Thien Xiang from Sek Men Keb Tinggi Port Dickson says he signed up for the workshop in order to improve his understanding of History and Bahasa Malaysia subjects. "I came to improve on all subjects but during the SPM trial examination it was History and Bahasa Malaysia that gave me problems," he explained. KDU University College was the venue sponsor for the event and Sasbadi Sdn Bhd provided a set of SPM revision books. A similar workshop will be held in KDU College Penang on Oct 1 and 2. For further enquiries contact 04-647 3811 or 04-647 3789 from 10am - 5pm, Monday to Friday. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Metro: Central To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan