Milo Breakfast Day Run 2014

I think this is my first time joining a marathon. I got persuaded by my sister to join her for a family run on Milo Breakfast Day Run 2014 at Putrajaya this morning on 20th April. And for that, I have to get myself up from the bed on 5.30am. That’s a very hard and a suffering task. I have never been waking up this early for a long time already. The sun hasn’t even rises yet. Luckily we managed to reach there right on time by 7am (the time when the run is supposed to commence) after having difficulty of finding parking. And the run only began after 7.30am.

There were a lot of people, and all (almost everyone) were in green, wearing the Milo-brand shirt given before the run after each participants registered. There were two categories in the run. The first one is 7km long. My brother-in-law joined that and he won a medal since he finished off the run in less than 1 hour and 30 minutes which is the requirement for a medal. My cousin also won that since she is quite experienced in running for marathon too. It shouldn’t be hard for me too but I didn’t take part in this category as I have to accompany my sister and her two sons for the family run category which only covers 3km.

From this marathon, I got to see how the big-scale run looks like. I got to see people of all walks of life gathering together for a run or simply a walk. Group of friends, family with children or even babies, couples, elders, etc. Before the run began and when everyone is going to the start point, I was amazed by when everyone stopped while the national song is played. I’m glad I still see sign of unity, respect and love to the country. It’s an overwhelming scene eventhough nobody is actually singing it. I won’t too. At the start point, people basically couldn’t run as there were really too many people.

This run also gave me opportunity to enjoy looking at the architecture of many government buildings there since it took place at the main road in Putrajaya (the one that started from Prime Minister’s Office to Putrajaya International Convention Centre but our run actually starts at Perbadanan Putrajaya Building opposite the Palace of Justice). First time I passed by the few new highrises built there and I find that those highrises didn’t fit the setting there well despite carrying a bit of modern Islamic design characteristics. And most importantly, I can sweat out and gets a bit healthy from this run. I didn’t actually run. Just walk for the whole 3km since I have to look after my sister’s son along the route.

But that is still quite tiring. The run ended by receiving a goodie bag and we have to wait a very long queue just to get a cup of Milo to drink. Milo trucks were everywhere but all with long queues too. There were a lot of tents set up around there for activities and sale of food and drinks. But since we were all tired, we left early. It’s quite a wonderful experience as this is my first time joining a marathon. Next time, I think I’m going for a real marathon (maybe maximum 10 km long as I know my limit) but the only worry is that I don’t want to wake up so early. Haha…okay, now I need to have an afternoon nap. Bye…

Sir Run Run Shaw (1907-2014)

Hong Kong entertainment mogul, Sir Run Run Shaw (邵逸夫) passed away today at the age of 106. He is popularly known as ‘六叔’ (Uncle Six) in Chinese-populated regions in Asia Pacific. Still didn’t know who he is? Well, he was the founder of Shaw Brothers Studio, a very famous production company in Hong Kong and also one of the largest in the world. He also founded Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), the dominating television company in Hong Kong from its start to the present days for almost five decades. Not as a mean of disrespect, but I have been curious all the time as I find his name in English is a bit weird (called Run Run Shaw). Anybody could answer me that? Anyway, that’s not important. His success story is more important.

Without him, there wouldn’t be Shaw Brothers, the company behind many past successful Hong Kong trademark films. Without him, there wouldn’t be TVB too, that offers us countless of Cantonese television programmes and dramas since almost half a century ago. Under his leadership in the past, both Shaw Brothers and TVB had also been acting as strong platforms to produce many Asian superstars till these days like Maggie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, Stephen Chow, Tony Leung, etc. As the ‘father’ of TVB and a pioneer of Hong Kong’s entertainment industry, his contribution was beyond boundary.

He was born in year 1907, at the time when emperor still rules the country. He initially started his business venture at Singapore to market films to Chinese community in South East Asia. That was in late 1920s. Then his business expanded to Malaya (now Malaysia, my country) with opening of over a hundred cinemas by 1940. He and his brother had also established Malay Film Productions in Singapore. That was his early years of success. By 1957, he went to Hong Kong which was the centre of the Chinese film industry at the time and established the Shaw Brothers a year later. From there on, he settled in Hong Kong. In 1960s, Shaw Brothers was noted as Asia’s biggest movie producer. In 1967, he co-founded TVB, the first free-to-air TV station in Hong Kong, and growing it into a multi-billion dollar TV empire. He had also established Shaw Prize, annual international awards  for scientists in three areas of research, namely astronomy, mathematics, and life and medical science. The prize, known as the ‘Nobel Prize of the East’ first started in 2004.

He only retired in 2011 at the age of 104. To recognize and honour his contribution, he had been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1974 and received knighthood in 1977 from Queen Elizabeth II and the Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM) from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government in 1998. He had also been awarded several honorary degree from various universities. In 2007, in conjunction with his 100th birthday, he was honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award at Hong Kong Film Awards. Just on December last year, he received the prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Special Award for his outstanding contribution to cinema.

I used to see him appearing on several TVB shows few years back, usually in awards ceremony and for the station’s anniversary gala celebration. He would be sitting on the front row (definitely) and was accompanied with former Miss Hong Kong pageant. In recent years, he was no longer attending these shows due to his old age. Well, he is certainly blessed to have live such a long and fruitful life. It’s so hard to live over 100 years old. That’s over a century. He must have witnessed a lot of things in his life. His death today must have been a heartbreaking news to countless Hong Kong artists whom individually found success under him. Nevertheless, his legacy as the ‘Godfather of the Chinese Silver Screen’ will be forever remembered. May he rest in peace.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)