Blogging in Asian Languages

中文摘要: 從今日開始，我會簡單地用中文寫，讓朋友們了解我主要的意思。我今天游了五千兩百公尺，都很順利。當我奇腳踏車回家之時，在金獅湖遇到我的內人，我們一起往菜市場去買各種水果。我今天稍微忙了一些。

Just when I thought I had my blog running smoothly just like my swim training at present, I need to rise to a new challenge as far as writing is concerned. Some friends have asked if I can include more Chinese on the blog for the sake of those not used to reading English, and so I have decided to include at least short summaries of what I write about in English for the benefit of these Chinese readers. Since I am also interested in Japanese, you may also see some Japanese emerging on the site. I am trying to be inclusive so that none of my readers feel left out.

With 404 days left to the Hapuna Roughwater Swim yesterday, I made the most of today and went down the pool as usual, having done rotator-cuff stretchers while eating a piece of home-made bread in the kitchen at home. Hence, when I started to swim at about 6:09 am, I got of to a fairly fast start and found that I was swimming slightly faster than last week. I was helped by Dara Torres' video yesterday with its emphasis on ankle flexibility, and I also watched some slow motion footage of Alexander Popov swimming freestyle, noting the extension of one hand as it entered the water, while he followed through properly with the other, while all the time getting good body roll. I think I knocked off one stroke per length just by watching and trying to copy that.

So, today may have been a typical workout: 5,000 meters in 1 hr 40 mins or so, chatting and joking with friends for a couple of minutes, then racing two of them over 100m. I only just missed winning today, and I went close to 1m 30s. Then, a 100m warm down to finish on 5,200 meters, and out of the water by 8:00 am, ready to start a new day.

As I went through the Golden Lion Lake on the way home, I saw my wife who was biking there to get some exercise, so we biked around there together, where she bought some lychees, and we also stopped at the market on the way home, where I bought potatoes, onions, bananas and a large pineapple. So it was a good start to the day, one that was fairly busy. While I wanted to sleep during the afternoon, I could only nap a little as I had a lot of work to get done.

Photos (Top to Bottom): (1) My wife haggling over lychees; (2) Stairway for running (what else would Bree do on that?); (3) Cherries at the market (yummy!); (3) A very amateur footage of the dancing that goes on every morning. No sound, sorry!