About Raymond Yew
Bringing Life to Life
When I first broached the idea of starting a web site with my friends , a lot of them asked me if it was something to do with the proverbial mid-life crisis syndrome. And it started me thinking if it really is.
Looking back at my life, I realised that there was this constant strive to climb the corporate ladder, make more money, buy another property, buy the next dream car and the list went on. But then when is it actually enough.
I have in my younger days often said that if I am able to earn $5000 a month, I would be living like a king. And when I did earn $5000 a month, I started living a lifestyle of a $6000 earner which then made me set a new goal of earning $6000 a month….and the cycle goes on.
I am not advocating that earning money is not important as it is required for our basic needs. But I keep asking myself – how do I want to be remembered as a person, a husband, a wife, a parent and even a friend or colleague?
If you were to write your own eulogy, what would you want people to remember you by. I am very sure it is not the person that drives the latest Ferrari or the person that has the latest Rolex or handbag as these are all transient in the limited life time that we have.
Everyone will retire someday. Everyone will age and may not be able to drive that dream car or carry that latest Prada handbag. Material yearning would be replaced with the need for family, relationships, health and happiness.
This website is about celebrating what money cannot buy – Life. It does not matter how long you have in your life, it is how you live it.
Celebrating life and all that it brings is what I would like to be remembered for and what I would like to share with my readers.
If this mid-life crisis syndrome that made me realise the importance of this fact, then I say, bring it on.
THE LOGO
My wife and I designed and had this Nautical Star tattooed on us (location is secret) on our 7th anniversary.
The Nautical Star refers to Polaris – the North Star. Its fixed and constant location to the North allowed ships and sailors to keep track of their direction. The Nautical Star became an indispensable navigational aid and a culturally significant object to anyone whose safety relied upon navigation.
And as both my wife and I navigate our way through the many adventures of marriage life, work life, interest and hobbies, we are constantly guided back to one solitary unity – Us.
This unity is represented by the letters in the Nautical Star. An coincidental acronym made up of the first letters of – Swee Tin And Raymond Yew
IT’S HOW YOU LIVE
“It matters not how long you live, but how you live it” – Martin Luther King
With every blog I write, it serves as a constant reminder to myself of how lucky we are to be able to do what we can do. How all materialism are transient compared to the joys one can bring to another human being. How all problems can be solved with just a positive mind. And how important it is to recognise that we have an innate ability just by our words and actions to bring a person from being sad to being happy, being pessimistic to being driven and motivated.
A life without regrets, without pessimism and without fear.
This is my personal mantra that I will strive to live by.
PAY IT FORWARD
My charity drive started when my wife and I adopted a home – Gift of Love. They are a half way house run by nuns for elderly homeless people. Apart from this, the nuns will visit many less fortunate households in Singapore and provide help and support.
Seeing the happiness in the children and the relief in the eyes of the parents makes life and our purpose here so much clearer for me.
We tend to always forget that what we do for ourselves, dies with us. What we do for others remains and is immortal.
TRIATHLON & ME
My journey in triathlon started four years ago with Swee Tin and her constant encouragement for me to keep fit while I was recovering from a neck and shoulder injury from golf.
During these four years, I have had the chance to swim in the shark infested waters of Western Australia and South Africa, rode through cities with some of the world’s biggest sand dunes having the Indian ocean as a backdrop and running in three different continents.
However, nothing compares to the privilege of meeting many new friends and keeping many good ones.
For many, triathlon is an individual sport of three disciplines – a swim, bike and run. For me, however, it is and will always be a team sport comprising not just three disciplines but the support of my loved ones, the encouragement and push from the friends whom we trained and raced with, and finally the coach who helps build up both our physical and mental strength.
This is the team that has and will continue to bring me across the finish line in every single race.
ABOUT THE WEBSITE
CELEBRATING LIFE
Training Thoughts – Articles related to the part of triathlon we spend most time on – training and the somewhat sadistic journey of putting our bodies through the suffering and enjoying it
Penny for your Thoughts – random reflections and inspiration about life, love and religion. Somewhat philosophical but mostly an anecdotal perspective to life and how we choose to live it.
Just the Two of Us – Swee Tin (aka BAE – Before Anyone Else), me and our adventures together.
CELEBRATING CHALLENGES
Sports has always been part of my life since even before I was even born. My mum used to tell the story of how I am always kicking and ready to run out of her womb.
After successfully running out of her womb, I jumped into basketball, rugby, track and field, and tennis in my teenage days to fill the loss of 9 months of sports.
Triathlon would be the natural move to appease those restless legs and and arms of mine. No one is happier than Swee Tin as it gave her the opportunity to visit and experience many different countries and cultures. She has definitely been my greatest supporter since.
Celebrating Challenges provides a race and destination review of all races I have and will be doing. It is true as of the review but may not reflect any new changes to the race course unless I have returned to race the new course. Comments are always welcome to update on any changes to course details.
CELEBRATING CHEAT DAYS
Swee Tin and I have always been foodies. I think that has always been one of the reason for us to keep training. This is a mini food review of all the places we go on our cheat days.
The food reviews ranges anything from healthy to junk food. Actually, it is skewed more towards the spectrum of junk food. Although we do try our very best and find justifications on some parts of the food that has got nutritional properties that can help in recovery…
What we realise about food reviews in many blogs is that they are sponsored write-ups. Which means it would be more subtle in giving bad reviews. All our reviews are done independent of any invitation or sponsors from the restaurant unless otherwise stated. So be ready for very truthful and in-you-face reviews.
CELEBRATING HEROES
Swee Tin and I have always been searching for ways to pay it forward. But through our different charity drives, volunteering with the special olympics, we have seen a side of the human spirit that has inspired us to give more.
The heroes we are celebrating are the many individuals that have triumphed over adversities from poverty to living with autism and ID. With more people being aware of the diversity we live in, hopefully there will be more acceptance and support from the community to volunteer not just financially, but more the time and companionship.
CELEBRATING INNOVATIONS
Ever since taking up triathlon, I have been inducted into the n+1 club. This is an automatic membership that not many can turn down. The guiding credo of the n+1 club is that there would never be enough bikes, shoes, goggles or anything related to the activity we are doing.
I have probably been a VVIP member for the last four years without even knowing it.
What better way to use this VVIP membership than to provide a non-bias review of all products and services I have used relating to Swimming, Biking and Running.
After a while though, I realize I am able to find a reason to relate everything to Swimming, Biking and Running.