"Now, who on earth would want to do that? What did we do to deserve this honour? Do we have to come in first?" *yikes*
Swee Haw just smiled and reassured us that "Ian" does not expect us to do anything other than to carry his sponsored Hydrapak bags during the race and to call ourselves "Team Hydrapak"! Hmmm..... sounds like a fair deal to me!
On that fateful day, we headed down to the skills test, signing ourselves up as "Team Hydrapak". A few moments later, the Swee Haw incident happened, and before we knew it, we were sitting at a table at Swee Haw's wake! Definitely not a pleasant experience or something I'd like to remember.
It was however at Swee Haw's wake that I first met Ian, our sponsor. I didn't expect him to be so young, nor 4-legged; he was in crutches, after having fallen some distance due to a rock-climbing accident...and amazingly survived, and cheerfully lived to tell us the tale! Eh, dun look like he's in much pain le? Maybe his pain threshold's pretty high?
Anyway, we later learnt that he had driven all the way up to Malaysia to assist Swee Haw's family members with funeral arrangements and to bring his body back. I thought to myself, "that is something you would not expect of one's sponsor, and probably goes beyond the call of duty. Either this fella knows Swee Haw very well or he's got a big heart."
From that day onwards, Ian was almost synonymous with the major local and Malaysian adventure racing scene : both as a sponsor and an ardent supporter of our local teams. He also embraced the SACA bike races and supported the national cycling team with his products. He had his finger in everything that breathed "adventure".
The Innov8 Flyroc adventure racing shoes which I purchased out of the voucher we won for our second Ace Adventure Challenge (generously sponsored yet again by Ian) has become my favourite all-time racing shoe. And I absolutely love the super lightweight thong of a harness the Camp USA XLH 95 Climbing Harness which Ian introduced to the Singapore market. He was always someone whom you could count on for the latest gadgets in all things outdoor! What resourcefulness! But then sometimes, he may succumb to "rubbertime" when organising transport for overseas racers!
Apart from his unprecedented entrepreneurial skills, he had a way with wriggling out of tight situations! Which reminds me of the hot soup Ian could have gotten himself into when he parked his van outside my apartment! Ian was kind enough to drive my teammates, Ken and Ming to my place, but upon reaching my apartment, his tire blew a flat. He left the van parked outside on the main road (within legal parking limits), but I forgot to sound the security guard out. Meanwhile, we'd hired a van to bring us to Senai Airport for a weekend of torture in this year's Sabah Adventure Challenge. Ian was supporting some of the SART adventure racing teams (as expected).
One weekend later, I returned to a frantic security guard who told me the police had come and raided his van. They pried it open, conducted a full search (you know, the terrorism scare and all) and found nothing (well, almost nothing - there was something which could have gotten him into a lot of trouble, but don't worry, it wasn't anything you should be concerned about, just stuff that a curious garang guni might find in an open "fire" trail)!
Ok, at least I know these security guards ain't spending their time spacing out in lalaland!
A couple of phonecalls later to find out if Ian had taking the first plane out of the country, Ian confessed that he got out of this one easily coz he knew the inspector in charge of this matter. He'd helped that mata recover a stolen bike at Action Asia. So he's not in jail after all! His lucky stars must be shining down on him real bright that day!
See, nothing ever dampens his enthusiasm, no matter how many bullets come flying in this direction!
We were just teasing Ian about the bigass cooler of freshfood that he was lugging all the way to Sabah, so that he could have his BBQ in the post-race evenings! But I will always remember Ian's generosity during that last Sabah race when Ming, Ken and I had just returned from a long and hard day's race.
We were all prepared to bear with the less than appetizing dinner, when Ian invited us to a BBQ party he's spent considerable time preparing for his teams. Damn paiseh, but heck, who could resist such kind hospitality...and the excellent gourmet style spread! Yums! Our hungry tummies nodded in agreement. Burp!
And that was the last offer that I'd accepted from Ian, amongst the many offers he's so tirelessly dished out one after another, including joining his races, trying to tie me up with some other xiong adventure racers when my other teammates were slacking away, and even asking us to pose for some magazine. You never know what you're gonna get with Ian Ng.
Looks like we have come full circle, having met Ian at Swee Haw's wake, and now bidding him farewell at his wake.
Above, a photo I took of Ian sleeping next to Kenny at the Senai Airport whilst waiting for the much-delayed flight to Sabah!
Ian, rest well, for even in your deepest slumber, I know you will be searching for one great adventure after another, whereever you may be.
Yours truly,
Mrs Major (yes, I still remember the nickname you gave to me)
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