06 | March | 2008 | Otterman speaks...

The NTU Bike Rally is here again! This year it will be held on 1st June 2008 and my cycling kakis are already signing up.

This event by NTU Sports Club is easily the best round island cycling event in Singapore. It’s non-competitive, providing multiple rest points and a backdrop of safety measures to cope with event-cyclists who do not regularly cycle. This year they have decided to have two start points, one that will cover a shorter distance as the many weak cyclists will fade in the heat of the day.

Taking a break from the heat (2007)

In the process participants overcome mental obstacles about long distance cycling, they “discover” Singapore and get to meet some new friends!

If you are planning to go for your first long ride, check out my “Recipe for long rides”. The most important thing to do is to take one or two shorter rides (e.g. try the eastern park connector) before the event so your rear gets used to the saddle. Else its agonising!

See some of my blog posts and photos from previous years:

A seasoned Ladybug was singing Bohemian Rhapsody
by Sengkang-Punggol and surprisingly, was in tune! (2004)

It’s that time of the year again to teach animal behaviour to non-biology students. So the module blog gets revived as well. Right now I am posting links to content I mention during the lecture. Since it is a cross-faculty module, they must not be drowned in jargon-filled literature; they are not biologists so it’d be tiring.

But a mild glimpse at least is needed, so enjoyable and less jargon-ful papers are selected. Articles by science journalists are really helpful and videos, of course, are everyone’s friend. I too watched (*almost*) agape this afternoon as we watched Attenborough get a little to close to a roaring 3-ton bull elephant seal.

I can post from within MarsEdit after Kenneth found me the settings. Oddly enough I can’t get it to work on the G4 desktop in campus so I’ll check against this image when I am back there tomorrow.