Rock Climbing @ Summit Climbing Gym

A friend got free voucher for a Beginners (2 person) session at Nomad Adventure in Summit Climbing Gym. At 1st I planned to go there directly since there’re buses to Summit USJ from KL Sentral but he offered, “Where do I pick you up? KTM?”

“Oh, since you offer ride, ok.” :D

I didn’t know what to wear. And oh, I had donated all of the loose t-shirts already! Thank goodness I kept a long pants – those sports type.

Got an idea. Rummaged through brother’s closet and found a navy t-shirt. Very wrinkled from being folded and under tons of other stuff. Opened a new pair of socks too.

Subang Parade had gone through renovation – especially Parkson and there are more booths for flea markets. It’s brighter, cleaner. I didn’t check out the toilet. Last I went, I came out ASAP and grimaced at the sink suspiciously.

This friend laughed when he saw me, “Can you wear something else?! Eee.. your bag is so ugly! Your shirt, what brand is it?!”

That bag was like those school bags with shoulder handles (good for back) and hard material. It wasn’t exactly gorgeous but it was functional and quite new I’ve only used it once or twice. You know, those luggage bags that have zippable compartments? Ingenious. You can attach more bags into the luggage and detach when you just want a smaller bag as you shop.

I looked at him wearing tight top and cropped khaki pants. “Got people wear khakis to exercise? You wear like this to gym?”

“Yeah!”

“Ha. Go to gym to be seen ha?”

He snorted, “Of course.” He pouted.

It’s 1 thing to wear tight clothes when 1 has a toned body with muscles. It’s another view to witness fat bulging when you bend. LOL. OK, sorry, I was just trying to spite him because he chided on my school girl sports look. Hey, it’s not my fault that I look young :p and someone commented that he looked like someone in his 30’s hahhahahahah! :p

I had no idea what people wear to rock climbing either. Sports shoes and t-shirts, loose pants? The only time I had done rock climbing was when I hung out with Nat to her gym and I could only step on 3 small stones on the rock wall! Damn! That alone took out a lot of energy!

Because I didn’t know how to rock climb!

While working in the fashion retail, our store room had racks made from steel (or such stuff). We had to climb up and down on those thin racks about 3″ width only – we stood on tip toes – to get, put back, arrange stock. There was a ladder but it was tough to carry it in the store room to the rack that you want because the store room was very narrow in the first place. Once you open the ladder in the middle of the store room, nobody could move over. So we learnt to climb like Spiderman. ;) It was faster and more convenient.

It was fun for me.

Got to see tight butts. Not that most of the butts there were heterosexual. Sigh..

Rock climbing was a bit like that. As in climbing racks to get stock. Not checking out butts ok?!

Check the route that you want to take. Stick your body closest to the wall. Hold the nearest stepping stone. Step on tip toe. Imagine you are as light as feather.

Falling is even more scary. Your life depends on your partner (the belayer).

On the way, he suggested, “We go there see the atmosphere first. If we don’t like it, we just leave.”

“Ha? Wouldn’t that waste the ticket and chance?”

“I’d rather go shopping.”

Unh.

Once there, we looked for the place and it wasn’t empty. Uh huh. He got straight in, repeating, “Ohh cool. Cool. Cool.”

There were several people rock climbing already.

We registered ourselves for the next session because the current session had already started. Had 15 minutes so we went to McD’s to eat. That we had miscommunication over Banana Pie was wasted breath.

Got our shoe sizes and tried it out. Tight. Toes curled in. We asked the petite but muscular (got biceps eh!) behind the counter and she replied, “It’s supposed to be tight, different from normal shoes.”

The trainer was the petite gal!

Nomad Adventure Rock Climbing @ Summit Climbing Gym

We started with briefing on general terms and equipments like harness, belay device, karabiners. How to wear the belt harness.

Warning! If you wear tight pants, your crotch area would be like wearing diapers especially if you are wearing light tight pants haha!
Then we were taught how to make a figure-8 knot. Practiced, practiced.
After that, we were taught on the communication between belayer (the one standing at the ground) and the climber, belaying technique and dropping heheh lowering the climber.

The trainer was very good and she didn’t lose it totally even though some of us made mistakes. She was stern but corrected us whenever we made the wrong move.

Since my partner was heavier than me, I was dragged forward when he went down. Trainer shouted, “Put your feet on the wall! HOLD!!!”

When it was my turn to climb, I warned him beforehand that I was going to feign falling.

When I was at the top, it didn’t feel like.. enough. Coz I couldn’t climb over and sit down at the top to view sunrise or sunset.

After our training was finished, she told us, “Ok you can do rock climbing anywhere here now.”

Unfortunately, partner wanted to rush to another place :( and we had to leave! So SAYANG!!! Free ticket to use it to the max and he had to go shopping! Unh.

You can wear your own shoes during Beginners training but you’ll need to rent the climbing shoes if you are not under training. Everyone must go through training before they allow you to climb.

For a Beginners course, you get:

• a handbook about the terms & ways to climb in door & outdoor
• basic training on the gears and ways to climb on the rock in door
• free usage of the gym for that day

Gym rate

Ladies nite @ Galaxy karaoke

Chai’s birthday was held at Galaxy karaoke, near uh.. IOI Mall, Puchong. They had been there before but this was my 1st time to this Galaxy karaoke. Heard it was Ladies Night.

Sam told me, “Last time we paid RM15 only!”

Chai, on the other hand, told me that they paid higher, “Around RM20 – RM25.”

This time, we had 6 gals and 3 guys.

Chai came to my place to pick me up (sorry late scanning pics) and then we went over to Puchong. On the way, she talked about Indian food and we both got hungry imagining roti canai, cheese naan (me), teh tarik oooo..

Once we reached Puchong, Chai suggested, “We eat rojak lah!”

Quite full from rojak and so we walked IOI Mall.

We were the 1st to reach there. 7pm. She exclaimed, “Ha! Birthday gal reach 1st!”

The place was quite desserted. The ground floor was empty and space unrented/under going renovation.

The staff told us that it would be cheaper to take normal $ because if we wanted to order more drinks, we had to pay higher. So we decided to take her advice – bad advice :p Once inside the room, we recounted what she said and went out to ask her again.

Ladies Night (Thurs) 

“Ladies get free entrance and 1 free cocktail drink. But if you want buffet, pay RM12. Then if you want more drink pay RM28 (or RM25?).”

Ooh.. It would still be cheaper than single person entrance (normal). Chai asked if we could change and the staff agreed to change. We helped ourselves to the food and set songs. :)

Most of the food were quite ok :) Got peppermint choc ice cream! :D I hadn’t tasted peppermint for soooooo long! My favourite food was the fish + creamy sauce, the spicy chicken was ok too. The cakes – can skip unless you love butter.

If you go there, don’t take a lot from 1 dish because the staffs add / change dishes after the earlier batch of dishes are finished. ;)

I hate the English songs with cheesy couples prancing around slowly. Yuck. Guess it’s too expensive or there’s copyright issues to get the real MTV/Karaoke?

There were some glitches – the screen blacked out and then continued. According to the staff, “There are some songs like that.”

Sam said, “Not some. A lot.”

The staff giggled, “A lot ar?”

Sam bought a chocolate cake earlier. A staff brought the cake in and there was a Happy Birthday song on the screen suddenly. Not sure if the song was put by the Galaxy staffs or so coincidently someone selected that song?

In the end, we paid RM30 each (except Chai lo!) to hear our friends scream and pretend to be popular singers. *gag* Actually, I went there for Chai’s birthday and food.

You reap what you sow

This is another email forward. I like this business man and Jim.

A successful Christian business man was growing old and knew it was
time
to choose a successor to take over the business.

Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to
do something different. He called all the young executives in his
company
together.

He said, “It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I
have decided to choose one of you. “The young executives were shocked,
but the boss continued. “I am going to give each one of you a SEED
today
- one very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and
come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the
seed

I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and
the
one I choose will be the next CEO”.

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others,
received
a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She
helped
him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.

Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After
about
three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their
seeds

and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his
seed,
but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by,
still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim
didn’t have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by–still nothing in Jim’s pot. He just knew he had
killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had
nothing. Jim didn’t say anything to his colleagues, however. He just
kept watering and fertilizing the soil – He so wanted the seed to
grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company
brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that
he
wasn’t going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest
about
what happened. Jim felt sick at his stomach, it was going to be the
most
embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He
took
his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at
the
variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were
beautiful–in
all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of
his
colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young
executives. Jim just tried to hide in the back. “My, what great
plants,
trees, and flowers you have grown,” said the CEO. “Today one of you
will
be appointed the next CEO!” All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at
the
back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the financial
director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought,
“The CEO knows I’m a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!”

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his
seed – Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and
then announced to the young executives, “Behold your next Chief
Executive!
His name is Jim!” Jim couldn’t believe it. Jim couldn’t even grow his
seed. How could he be the new CEO the others said?

Then the CEO said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a
seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it
back
to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead – it was
not
possible for them to grow. All of you, except Jim, have brought me
trees
and plants and flowers.

When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another
seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and
honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one
who will be the new Chief Executive!”

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness
If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective
If you plant hard work, you will reap success
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation
If you plant faith in Christ, you will reap a harvest
So be careful what you plant for it will determine what you will reap
later.

It’s very hard to find such people in the corporate world, no? Ah, I shouldn’t think negative. Switch! There are lots of Jims and fair business owners.

In 1 of my previous company, the manager was someone who preferred to hear the things that he wanted to hear. Not the truth or constructive feedback. Those who obey him gets promoted. Those who don’t, well..

If you were the manager, I think most of us would want the support of our staffs. Just not blind support because if anything goes wrong, you can blame your staff all you want. But you are their manager, so who is the bigger ass?

Those who are lead by the ego would not go as far as those who are honest and really do try their best.