27 Things I Did When I Was 27.
1. Celebrated by birthday for the first time with my team of staff.
At 27, I became an owner of start-up business (in the traditional sense) for the first time. With that, I started hiring people to take care of my business.
It’s a lotta weight on my shoulders when people put their trust and career on my hands. But we’re like family at work. My birthday last year was particularly special because I spent it with a team I can proudly call my own.
2. Had LASIK surgery to permanently correct my eyesight. Best decision I’ve ever made.
3. Celebrated New Year’s Eve with the lovely Miss Singapore Universe Rachel Kum.
1 January 2010 was certainly a very memorable night for me. Heh.
4. Fulfilled my 6-year-old promise to Eddie.
Eddie is the guy who encouraged me to pick up marathon-running. 5 years ago I promised him I will one day travel to the USA to do the Los Angeles Marathon with him. I finally fulfilled that promise March this year.
It was easily the best marathon race I have ever done. Los Angeles is a beautiful city and people are very supportive of the race. I would go on and on about my trip to LA, but I’ll save that for a different blog post.
5. Drove a BMW convertible.
Love it. Too bad it ain’t mine. My friend Alex Wong was kind enough to lend me his house and car in LA while he embarked on his own ride of a lifetime – riding the distance from the tip of South America to North America, on a motorbike.
6. Met the king of late night talk shows, Jay Leno at the NBC studios. This was fresh after his rivalry with Conan O’Brien. His guest at the time was actually "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson, a wrestler I grew up watching.
7. Watched a live Lakers game at the famed Staples Centre. They kicked the Minnesota Timberwolves asses. In attendance was Jack Nicholson, Chris Brown and Tom Cruise.
8. Watched WWE Wrestlemania live in Pheonix, Arizona. Shawn Micheals! The Undertaker! Bret Hart! Triple H! It was my childhood dream come true.
9. After Wrestlemania, I drove 3 hours from Phoenix, Arizona to see one of the 7 Greatest Nature Wonder of the World – The Grand Canyon.
10. From The Grand Canyon, I need to drive to the airport 3 hours away.
I was short on time and I drove so fast that I earned myself my first international traffic violation – speeding. Cops in America cannot be bribed, so I copped a fine that costs USD232 (or RM720)!
11. Spent more time inside my fitness centre than at home. I ain’t complaining. Being a new business, a lot of times I have to be there physically to take care of the details and make on-the-spot decisions.
12. Went on self-driven road trips to Bali, Indonesia; Los Angeles, California; Austin, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona and Queenstown, New Zealand.
I went to Austin, Texas to visit my sister’s family after not seeing them for almost a year. I felt incredibly proud as an uncle to my three wonderful nephew and nieces, who remember me despite me spending so much time away from them.
13. Climbed the
Sydney Harbour Bridge! Wah!
14. Did adventure caving for the first time ever at Jenolan Caves, near Sydney. I won’t say it’s the most fun thing I did, but crawling through rocks and squeezing through holes is definitely interesting, in a challenging sorta way.
15. Lost a few friends, gained new ones.
An incident happened between 2 of my very close friends, inadvertently pulling me into the cross fires. Suddenly I find myself questioning if the friendship around me are genuine, or if I am being taken advantage of.
Thankfully, the incident is over now. I even gained a few new friends in the process.
16. Visited more gyms and fitness centres around the world than I ever had in my life. I enjoy seeing how fitness centres from other parts of the world operate and how mine stacks up against them.
It makes me envious that other gyms are more successful because people in bigger cities generally are more health-conscious.
17. Appeared on the front cover of a magazine for the first time!
18. Got my backpack stolen from inside my unlocked car. Inside my backpack are my laptop, camera, iPhone, foreign currencies and my all-important passport. Gone, all gone. It’s a painful lesson I’d rather not happen.
19. Got a nose job. Well, not really. It’s more like a nostril job, to stop me from snoring, but he also managed to make me breathe better.
20. Laid plans to expand Level Up Fitness by a further 5,000 square feet.
21. Dived at Lombok, Indonesia. Gili Trawangan is easily my favourite place for an island holiday after Bali.
22. Did the highest, scariest bungee jump in the world off Macau Tower. The jump was 143 metres high. That’s nearly 80 storey above the air!
23. Followed up with another bungee, falling backwards off The Ledge in Queenstown, New Zealand.
24. Earned my instructor license to teach RPM cycling classes. The training we were put through was brutal. I cycled so much that by the end of my training, I felt as if I had given birth to an exercise bike.
25. Drove, kayaked and trekked through Milford Sound, New Zealand. That place has the most jaw-dropping spectacular sceneries I have seen.
26. Scripted and recorded my first radio ad for Level Up Fitness. Writing an effective radio ad was difficult. Recording it was easy. Well, the guys at hitz.fm made it easy.
27. Spent the eve of my 28th birthday cold, alone and sleeping on the airport floor. My flight back from New Zealand back home was marred with one disaster after another.
First, my flight took off 15 hours later than usual due to Auckland airport’s runway problem. (Much thanks to Steph Chai who was in Auckland at the time to come out to meet me.) Then, my flight into Kuching cannot land due to bad weather. When I finally arrived Kuching, my airline lost my luggage! In the end, I missed out completely on my own birthday brunch and dinner. 🙁
That was 27 things I di
d when I was 27.
I am now 28 years old.
