Thursday, January 11, 2007
Shifting Out
I have transferred my blog to another site. Pls goto http://uvmusings.wordpress.com/ TQ.
Ole Sayang
The next morning, I had to go down to Johor for a meeting. Luckily, my colleague was driving otherwise I would have to follow my boss who went down much earlier. We set out around 10am but were caught in a slow traffic crawl for an hour due to some lorry accident along the Sg. Besi highway!! Afterwards, the road was smooth all the way without hiccups until we reached Seremban which had some road works upgrading….as usual. It started drizzling and I felt drowsy but I had to keep awake to accompany the driver by talking to him. My other colleague was happily snoozing at the back. Just wondered why is it that I’m always the unlucky one to be the front passenger all the time. We took a quick lunch at one of the stops as the Ayer Keroh highway bridge was closed temporarily otherwise we would have grabbed our fast food grub there.
We reached Johor at slightly past half past 2 but still had to wait for the others to come back for lunch before we could start the meeting. Fortunately, the meeting was kept brief and we left around 5pm. Dropped by a colleague’s house to see him as he just met with a minor accident. Felt really ‘pai seh’ as we went with ‘2 combs of banana’ and his mum gave us some soup to drink too! We left after half an hour to continue our journey back. Since we didn’t have a good lunch, we decided to stop by Malacca to have our dinner. As my colleague could barely remember the place, we ended up rounding Malacca town before we managed to find the place. It was called Restaurant Ole Sayang, a nyonya restaurant and it was located in Malacca Raya. Co-incidentally, we parked right in front of the Deputy Minister’s car and his bodyguard/driver was looking at us parked the car in case we gostan into his car. *Chuckle*
As we entered the restaurant, the other patrons were leaving so we ended being the only patrons. This is somewhat different from the PJ/KL eateries where it’s usually filled up even on weekdays! Anyways, as we were famished, we ordered a Chicken Kapitan (day special). Assam Fish, Sambal Petai Prawn and Nyonya Chap Chai (mixed vege). I fully recommend the Chicken Kapitan as it was really delicious and very aromatic. The Assam Fish is just alrite and plain minus the usual garnishing like brinjal and okra, Sambal Petai Prawn tasted rather bland and the petai has got no kick. Chap Chai is similar to ‘loh hon chai’ to me as it’s braised instead of sautéed.
We reached Johor at slightly past half past 2 but still had to wait for the others to come back for lunch before we could start the meeting. Fortunately, the meeting was kept brief and we left around 5pm. Dropped by a colleague’s house to see him as he just met with a minor accident. Felt really ‘pai seh’ as we went with ‘2 combs of banana’ and his mum gave us some soup to drink too! We left after half an hour to continue our journey back. Since we didn’t have a good lunch, we decided to stop by Malacca to have our dinner. As my colleague could barely remember the place, we ended up rounding Malacca town before we managed to find the place. It was called Restaurant Ole Sayang, a nyonya restaurant and it was located in Malacca Raya. Co-incidentally, we parked right in front of the Deputy Minister’s car and his bodyguard/driver was looking at us parked the car in case we gostan into his car. *Chuckle*
As we entered the restaurant, the other patrons were leaving so we ended being the only patrons. This is somewhat different from the PJ/KL eateries where it’s usually filled up even on weekdays! Anyways, as we were famished, we ordered a Chicken Kapitan (day special). Assam Fish, Sambal Petai Prawn and Nyonya Chap Chai (mixed vege). I fully recommend the Chicken Kapitan as it was really delicious and very aromatic. The Assam Fish is just alrite and plain minus the usual garnishing like brinjal and okra, Sambal Petai Prawn tasted rather bland and the petai has got no kick. Chap Chai is similar to ‘loh hon chai’ to me as it’s braised instead of sautéed.
Celebrations
Since I had to stay away from gym for at least a good week or until I could stuff my foot into my trainers without yelping, I called for a celebration of some friends’ birthdays on the whim. It’s tiring setting a date as everybody’s busy with something somehow or rather so I reckon sometimes it’s best to be spontaneous. Initially, I planned to go to Food Foundry but after trying the food there the second time with my colleagues, I didn’t find it that delicious. Changed it to Momo Restaurant in Centrepoint where parking is a breeze. The Japanese fare there is so-so only in comparison to Benkay in Nikko Hotel or Sugimoto. The sets were value for money though, not sure about the buffet as they are only available during weekends. CC has eaten the buffet there and apparently the place needs to be reserved! On the other hand, Shogun is pretty packed on weekends too but I don’t find the food that good. Perhaps I mainly go for the sashimi so even though they have a variety of cooked stuff, it doesn’t attract me much.
We adjourned to Secret Recipe for our desserts as the waiters were waiting for us to leave in Momo. Workaholic and Shopaholic chose the carrot walnut and mango cakes. After tasting the superb carrot walnut cake from Suanson (Bangsar), the Secret Recipe ones seemed to have lost their appeal and their mango cake was a total letdown!! This franchise thingy is getting too commercialized and their cakes quality seemed to have drop. I text 30 laps to inform her that we had gone ahead with the birthday celebrations without accommodating her since she was the only one who couldn’t make it.
We adjourned to Secret Recipe for our desserts as the waiters were waiting for us to leave in Momo. Workaholic and Shopaholic chose the carrot walnut and mango cakes. After tasting the superb carrot walnut cake from Suanson (Bangsar), the Secret Recipe ones seemed to have lost their appeal and their mango cake was a total letdown!! This franchise thingy is getting too commercialized and their cakes quality seemed to have drop. I text 30 laps to inform her that we had gone ahead with the birthday celebrations without accommodating her since she was the only one who couldn’t make it.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Rub-a-Dub-Dub
I got up real early as I was dragged by the parents to go down to Bentong on sun to see a great tit tah specialist who was from Pekan. He knew which of your vertebrae in your spine was dislocated just by tapping on ur fingertips!!! I showed him my big toe which was still bruised and he aligned it back with me yelping in pain! Kraaaaackkkk…Ouch! Apparently my neck had also gone out of alignment…! Geees…are all my limbs giving up on me oredi?? It was mind-numbing and torturing waiting to see the doc….think I must have waited for like 2 hours before I finally saw him and he just spent like what? Less than 10 min on me?? Anyway, my mum told me that even the Pahang royalty went to see him after he fell down while riding a horse so I reckon he must be damn good. Went to town to have lunch afterwards and ate the famous ice-kacang. Unfortunately, there was no durian ice-cream so I had to settle for peanut ice-cream instead….still thinks Melaka durian ice-kacang/cendol is the best!! Yumm…
VQG2 called me several times (they were miscalls…which was lucky) so I just text him a TQ for yesterday’s lunch. He called me immediately on receipt of my text so I had no choice but to pick it up. We chatted albeit briefly cos I told him that I had a dinner appointment and that I needed time to get ready otherwise we would be listening to each other breathing over the phone for god knows how long as I’ve decided to let him have a taste of his own medicine by staying quiet too!
I was surprised to bump into Mr. IBM during dinner when he called me out aloud as I passed by him. It was fortunate that I did not do anything ‘untowards’ him previously. Anyways, we chatted and caught up with each other’s life. Things were going along fine till we discussed on the latest movie that we’ve seen and it happened to be Curse of the Golden Flower. I said the dumb film was basically a showcase for the bosomy ladies and it was a marketing gimmick to lure the attendance of the guys to watch the film. There’s no way those maidens were dressed like that during that period. At this juncture, he made snide remarks that I should probably follow suit and wear those corset-type tops too like Gong Li. I glared at him….like what’s that supposed to mean? No doubt he was poking fun at the conservative long-sleeved covered-up top that I was wearing at that time but what’s that got to do with him anyway? After that, the conversation somehow flowed to my Singapore trip since he’s an avid traveler. He, also being a fanatic sports person started to advise me on the type of trainers to buy and blah, blah, blah when I told him I bought a pair of new trainers while I was down south. See, he could be an interesting person to talk to if it weren’t for the fact that he’s so ‘inch’ sometimes. I mean, I don’t mind people who are sarcastic cos it just proves that they have a very quick mind but there are times that one has to be tactful too.
Suddenly, he decided to size me up to see whether I’ve lost weight or otherwise and I find it totally disconcerting especially when he made another comment to say that I should make it a point to wear 2 piece gym apparels while gym-ing instead of covered-up tops. Okie, he’s now dangerously close to crossing that thin veneer of my increasing anger. It’s somewhat baffling cos he usually doesn’t talk like this when we were going out previously. Anyway, we went to answer our respective nature’s call and when I came back, I moved away and talked to somebody else.
VQG2 called me several times (they were miscalls…which was lucky) so I just text him a TQ for yesterday’s lunch. He called me immediately on receipt of my text so I had no choice but to pick it up. We chatted albeit briefly cos I told him that I had a dinner appointment and that I needed time to get ready otherwise we would be listening to each other breathing over the phone for god knows how long as I’ve decided to let him have a taste of his own medicine by staying quiet too!
I was surprised to bump into Mr. IBM during dinner when he called me out aloud as I passed by him. It was fortunate that I did not do anything ‘untowards’ him previously. Anyways, we chatted and caught up with each other’s life. Things were going along fine till we discussed on the latest movie that we’ve seen and it happened to be Curse of the Golden Flower. I said the dumb film was basically a showcase for the bosomy ladies and it was a marketing gimmick to lure the attendance of the guys to watch the film. There’s no way those maidens were dressed like that during that period. At this juncture, he made snide remarks that I should probably follow suit and wear those corset-type tops too like Gong Li. I glared at him….like what’s that supposed to mean? No doubt he was poking fun at the conservative long-sleeved covered-up top that I was wearing at that time but what’s that got to do with him anyway? After that, the conversation somehow flowed to my Singapore trip since he’s an avid traveler. He, also being a fanatic sports person started to advise me on the type of trainers to buy and blah, blah, blah when I told him I bought a pair of new trainers while I was down south. See, he could be an interesting person to talk to if it weren’t for the fact that he’s so ‘inch’ sometimes. I mean, I don’t mind people who are sarcastic cos it just proves that they have a very quick mind but there are times that one has to be tactful too.
Suddenly, he decided to size me up to see whether I’ve lost weight or otherwise and I find it totally disconcerting especially when he made another comment to say that I should make it a point to wear 2 piece gym apparels while gym-ing instead of covered-up tops. Okie, he’s now dangerously close to crossing that thin veneer of my increasing anger. It’s somewhat baffling cos he usually doesn’t talk like this when we were going out previously. Anyway, we went to answer our respective nature’s call and when I came back, I moved away and talked to somebody else.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Back to Yoga
I had a restless sleep with my toe in pain...and i woke up feeling very grouchy. I text SGP to scold him for making me so miserable now as i can neither walk properly nor wear any shoes except for open-toed sandals/slippers. Luckily, i could still drive as my left foot big toe was affected! I rushed to the gym for New Age Yogi (NAY) class after an absence of almost 1 to 2 months as he took a short sabbatical to go holidaying or having a break.
I couldn't do some of the poses as my toe hurts esp the one leaning on the toes.
Uggghhh...plain torturing!!! Today he played a mixture of Thai and Korean songs which was a refreshing change from the other gurus, who mostly play instrumentals as background music. His yoga style, which was as uplifting as his music, is very motivating and i found myself sweating buckets before long. Practically panting but enjoying the whole process nevertheless!! This has somehow renewed my interest in yoga and i vowed to continue my classes, which is probably the only choice i have since i can't wear my trainers or do strenuous classes like BC, BA or BS with an injured toe....We did a couple of sun salutations and some variations as warm-up, then the warrior 1 & 3 poses, the side planks and the bow. He seemed to incorporate some pilates movements too as evident in the roll-up and hundreds albeit in a slightly different way. We finished off with the Wheel pose whereby we were supposed to walk with our arms and legs towards our partner and wished them Happy New Year!!! This has the whole class bursting into laughter as it was practically quite impossible (tho' NAY managed to do it) to walk on the arms and legs when your whole body is upside down!!!!
My initial plan of going for BP was swapped for a lunch appointment instead since Very Quiet Guy 2 (VQG2) has been calling repeatedly and the thought of trying to stuff my foot into the shoe had me grimacing in pain already! We tried the newly opened restaurant named Nan Xiang Mantou, which serves Shanghainese dishes and was supposedly famous for their Shanghai Siew Loong Pau or that's what the waitress told me. We ordered a special fried rice, a fried mushroom noodle (waitress recommendation) and a basket of their siew loong pau with crab meat. I thought Dragon-I food is much better in comparison and furthermore, their menu is more extensive. The noodle is not too bad but my only grouse is that there's not enough of meat and mushroom while the rice is a tad too bland for my taste. The pau is kinda salty too though in texture, it resembled the ones served in Dragon-I. Even not all Dragon-I outlets food are good. So far, the outlet in 1U is good but not the ones in Mid Valley or Centrepoint. I have yet to try the newly-opened one at The Curve though.
After lunch, browsed through the flea market which seemed to be inudated with more stalls selling women's clothing, hair accessories, earrings then anything else! Wandered off to Borders subsequently as i searched for my dictionary for my treasure hunt. VQG2 acted as my bodyguard and wherever i go, he followed, which made me feeling slightly uneasy. Somehow, this is worse than going out with VQG1, who at least browsed the sections by himself and
left me alone. I had exhausted most of the topics that we had something in common to talk about, which was mostly initiated by me so it was rather somewhat tiring. I popped over to New Zealand's ice-cream and decided to make some small talk as the silence was getting to me. I recommended the Rum n Raisin flavour, which was their best-seller to him and i took the butterscotch walnut. After the ice-cream, i begged to go home on the pretext that i had a pre-arranged dinner gathering with my family. I thought my 3 hours of companionship more than made up for the free lunch that i got.
I went home and slept after talking like an idiot for so many hours and empathise with the GROs. I woke up to find VQG2 sending me a TQ text and hopeful message of meeting another time. Uh-oh....hmmm, will think again before attempting.
I couldn't do some of the poses as my toe hurts esp the one leaning on the toes.
Uggghhh...plain torturing!!! Today he played a mixture of Thai and Korean songs which was a refreshing change from the other gurus, who mostly play instrumentals as background music. His yoga style, which was as uplifting as his music, is very motivating and i found myself sweating buckets before long. Practically panting but enjoying the whole process nevertheless!! This has somehow renewed my interest in yoga and i vowed to continue my classes, which is probably the only choice i have since i can't wear my trainers or do strenuous classes like BC, BA or BS with an injured toe....We did a couple of sun salutations and some variations as warm-up, then the warrior 1 & 3 poses, the side planks and the bow. He seemed to incorporate some pilates movements too as evident in the roll-up and hundreds albeit in a slightly different way. We finished off with the Wheel pose whereby we were supposed to walk with our arms and legs towards our partner and wished them Happy New Year!!! This has the whole class bursting into laughter as it was practically quite impossible (tho' NAY managed to do it) to walk on the arms and legs when your whole body is upside down!!!!My initial plan of going for BP was swapped for a lunch appointment instead since Very Quiet Guy 2 (VQG2) has been calling repeatedly and the thought of trying to stuff my foot into the shoe had me grimacing in pain already! We tried the newly opened restaurant named Nan Xiang Mantou, which serves Shanghainese dishes and was supposedly famous for their Shanghai Siew Loong Pau or that's what the waitress told me. We ordered a special fried rice, a fried mushroom noodle (waitress recommendation) and a basket of their siew loong pau with crab meat. I thought Dragon-I food is much better in comparison and furthermore, their menu is more extensive. The noodle is not too bad but my only grouse is that there's not enough of meat and mushroom while the rice is a tad too bland for my taste. The pau is kinda salty too though in texture, it resembled the ones served in Dragon-I. Even not all Dragon-I outlets food are good. So far, the outlet in 1U is good but not the ones in Mid Valley or Centrepoint. I have yet to try the newly-opened one at The Curve though.
After lunch, browsed through the flea market which seemed to be inudated with more stalls selling women's clothing, hair accessories, earrings then anything else! Wandered off to Borders subsequently as i searched for my dictionary for my treasure hunt. VQG2 acted as my bodyguard and wherever i go, he followed, which made me feeling slightly uneasy. Somehow, this is worse than going out with VQG1, who at least browsed the sections by himself and
left me alone. I had exhausted most of the topics that we had something in common to talk about, which was mostly initiated by me so it was rather somewhat tiring. I popped over to New Zealand's ice-cream and decided to make some small talk as the silence was getting to me. I recommended the Rum n Raisin flavour, which was their best-seller to him and i took the butterscotch walnut. After the ice-cream, i begged to go home on the pretext that i had a pre-arranged dinner gathering with my family. I thought my 3 hours of companionship more than made up for the free lunch that i got.I went home and slept after talking like an idiot for so many hours and empathise with the GROs. I woke up to find VQG2 sending me a TQ text and hopeful message of meeting another time. Uh-oh....hmmm, will think again before attempting.
Bonny's Kitchen
Went to work feeling lethargic from all the medication that i took and post New Year blues so wasn't really in a productive mood. Fortunately, was only working for 3 days in the week. Ahhhh...skipped gym for 3 days to let my flu recover and reverted to becoming a couch potato.
On the Friday, went out for lunch with colleagues and my boss at a nice little Hongkie restaurant in Plaza Damas by the name of Bonny's Kitchen. http://where-to-go.net/CatService.aspx?CatID=697&INV_PROD_CATEGORYDir=Asc&CATEGORY=485&NewGrid1Dir=Asc We ordered a fish which we thought was called patin but the owner corrected us that the fish is called "Pak Tim" (literally translated as white spot) which he pointed out in the aquarium. I looked at the fish and noticed that the fish indeed has a white spot right in the middle of it's body! There was a special dish which looked like scrambled egg-whites mixed with vinegar and a raw egg yolk. Ummm....Delicious. The steamed fish was really tasty and we could tell that the fish was really fresh and the soya sauce used is of a good grade. The kampung chicken came in 2 styles, one was steamed and the other fried. As it was kampung chicken, the meat was leaner and springier than the normal chickens that we eat. The steamed pork with salted fish was tasty as well and goes well with the rice. The tofu cooked with salted egg was a tad salty according to my colleague. The vegetables, bean sprouts with "kau-choy" (9 vege), kai lan, 4 types vege were all nicely cooked and not overdone.
Dessert was thin-layered jelly folded into strips like chee cheong fun and sprinkled with sesame on top and accompanied by peanut sauce. Very original and tasted like the agar-agar with more bite and sesame flavoured of course. The owners were originally from Hong Kong and this place reminds me somewhat of another Hongkie restaurant over in Uptown, Restaurant Tasty Tasty, which was also ran by Hongkies. I remembered eating the scrambled egg-white dish over there previously.
By the time we reached back the office, it was almost a couple of hours towards closing time. The 2 poor candidates were waiting since 2 pm for their interview and greeted us upon our arrival at the office entrance. Hehehehe....
I went for BC since i had promised my gym buddies to meet up for yum cha after the class. It was fun with almost everyone of the gang turning up in full force since our last gathering. We were still doing the new release and i'm almost familiar with the chory now since doing
for at least 3 times already. During track 4, i didn't realise SGP was standing behind me and he gave me a push when we were doing the jump-kick forwards. It took me by surprise and i sprained my toe in an attempt to regain my balance! My foot was pushed against my shoe as i lunged forward and now my toe has became blue black!! I didn't realise the extent of the injury then but felt a prick of pain. Nevertheless, i followed through the class, albeit in more subdued moves and turned back to glare at him.
After the class, we went to the the nearby shop and had the hokkien mee and cantonese fried yin-yong. It was supposedly the best in damansara but i reckon the stall near my house was better. Anyways, i didn't eat much of it as the phobia of my food poisoning the last time i had hokkien mee still lingered. Thereafter, we adjourned to Mosin mamak to have a drink and a chat. Saw the table next to me who ordered a pizza-like naan, which i was told was called the Naan Mumtaj, apparently the place speciality. Hmmm, shall try that the next time.
On the Friday, went out for lunch with colleagues and my boss at a nice little Hongkie restaurant in Plaza Damas by the name of Bonny's Kitchen. http://where-to-go.net/CatService.aspx?CatID=697&INV_PROD_CATEGORYDir=Asc&CATEGORY=485&NewGrid1Dir=Asc We ordered a fish which we thought was called patin but the owner corrected us that the fish is called "Pak Tim" (literally translated as white spot) which he pointed out in the aquarium. I looked at the fish and noticed that the fish indeed has a white spot right in the middle of it's body! There was a special dish which looked like scrambled egg-whites mixed with vinegar and a raw egg yolk. Ummm....Delicious. The steamed fish was really tasty and we could tell that the fish was really fresh and the soya sauce used is of a good grade. The kampung chicken came in 2 styles, one was steamed and the other fried. As it was kampung chicken, the meat was leaner and springier than the normal chickens that we eat. The steamed pork with salted fish was tasty as well and goes well with the rice. The tofu cooked with salted egg was a tad salty according to my colleague. The vegetables, bean sprouts with "kau-choy" (9 vege), kai lan, 4 types vege were all nicely cooked and not overdone.
Dessert was thin-layered jelly folded into strips like chee cheong fun and sprinkled with sesame on top and accompanied by peanut sauce. Very original and tasted like the agar-agar with more bite and sesame flavoured of course. The owners were originally from Hong Kong and this place reminds me somewhat of another Hongkie restaurant over in Uptown, Restaurant Tasty Tasty, which was also ran by Hongkies. I remembered eating the scrambled egg-white dish over there previously.
By the time we reached back the office, it was almost a couple of hours towards closing time. The 2 poor candidates were waiting since 2 pm for their interview and greeted us upon our arrival at the office entrance. Hehehehe....
I went for BC since i had promised my gym buddies to meet up for yum cha after the class. It was fun with almost everyone of the gang turning up in full force since our last gathering. We were still doing the new release and i'm almost familiar with the chory now since doing
for at least 3 times already. During track 4, i didn't realise SGP was standing behind me and he gave me a push when we were doing the jump-kick forwards. It took me by surprise and i sprained my toe in an attempt to regain my balance! My foot was pushed against my shoe as i lunged forward and now my toe has became blue black!! I didn't realise the extent of the injury then but felt a prick of pain. Nevertheless, i followed through the class, albeit in more subdued moves and turned back to glare at him.After the class, we went to the the nearby shop and had the hokkien mee and cantonese fried yin-yong. It was supposedly the best in damansara but i reckon the stall near my house was better. Anyways, i didn't eat much of it as the phobia of my food poisoning the last time i had hokkien mee still lingered. Thereafter, we adjourned to Mosin mamak to have a drink and a chat. Saw the table next to me who ordered a pizza-like naan, which i was told was called the Naan Mumtaj, apparently the place speciality. Hmmm, shall try that the next time.
Post New Year Blues
I started the 1st day of my New Year with a flu instead of with a Bang! By the time i reached home, it was around 2.30am. As i had promised, i went to the gym for SGP BC. Back to the same place after leaving it for less than 12 hours! The class was not too packed but i was too strained to do it properly. Went home after shower but forgot to bring my house keys so had to loiter at the cyber cafe for awhile to wait for my family to get back. By the time i left, the pasar malam had already started so i went jalan-jalan at the pasar malam before going back. Used to go when it's almost closing so it was good to go at an earlier time. However, the famous 'tong sui' as usual have already finished so i just browsed the cds and dvds.
Got "Confessions of Pain" and "Happy Feet". Confessions of Pain is really good. I
had no idea it was about a murder and even though we were shown the murderer early on the show, it was absorbing as the story unfolds to tell us why the murderer did it and how the investigator finally managed to solve who killed the victim. Tony Leung, being the consummate actor was in his element as a very cool police cop who commited a murder. Takeshi Kaneshiro as usual, is rather wooden in his acting but i still liked to watch him as he's good-looking. Yeah, i know so shallow of me...hehehehe
I drifted off to sleep by the time i watched my 2nd dvd of "Happy Feet". Not really a fantastic start to the New Year eh....
I woke up the next day having a sore throat and a running nose despite taking a flu med before i went to bed. After moping about for half a day and busy updating my blog, i finally dragged myself to the doc and get some proper medication as i had ran out of supplies. Took the med and slept really early as i had to go to work the following day.
Got "Confessions of Pain" and "Happy Feet". Confessions of Pain is really good. I
had no idea it was about a murder and even though we were shown the murderer early on the show, it was absorbing as the story unfolds to tell us why the murderer did it and how the investigator finally managed to solve who killed the victim. Tony Leung, being the consummate actor was in his element as a very cool police cop who commited a murder. Takeshi Kaneshiro as usual, is rather wooden in his acting but i still liked to watch him as he's good-looking. Yeah, i know so shallow of me...heheheheI drifted off to sleep by the time i watched my 2nd dvd of "Happy Feet". Not really a fantastic start to the New Year eh....
I woke up the next day having a sore throat and a running nose despite taking a flu med before i went to bed. After moping about for half a day and busy updating my blog, i finally dragged myself to the doc and get some proper medication as i had ran out of supplies. Took the med and slept really early as i had to go to work the following day.
New Year's Eve Celebrations
On New Year's Eve, i woke up really early to park my car in The Curve carpark, nearest to the exit so that i could vacate the place immediately after the countdown! Yeah, talked about being super-kiasu! Anyway, i got my friend to drive there with me and dropped me off for my Basic Steps class afterwards. It's been quite awhile since i last went for Basic Steps so i was a bit lost initially. LM and sis made a surprise appearance but as they were late, they had to stand at the corner. I was standing towards the far end too so i couldn't really see what BCow was doing and had to rely on the aunty-pro in front of me.
After awhile, kinda got the hang of it, though minus a lot of steps in between...hehehe...but still managed to keep the rhythm and kept moving. Caught a glance of MIL who stood near the front. Hmmm, what's she doing here? I thought she usually goes to Subang on sundays. Anyway, i did my own thang and got really SS.....Whoppeee!!! Sweat was practically dripping off me and it felt good!!! After the class, changed to a dry top and sat down for a rest before my BC class. Bcow and fans came out and sat at the table behind us. MIL came up to LM's sis and chatted with her and offered some fruitcakes to us. She told us the fruitcake was made by BCow and his partner!!! Not only that, apparently, BCow and partner has a part-time business baking cakes and his cheesecakes were said to be good! Wow, i was amazed! I mean, fruitcakes generally are hard to bake and his was not too bad and there were a lot of raisins, just as i like it. It's not too moist or too dry either, which some fruitcakes turned out to be. My fave is Big Sister fruitcakes but since only me and my dad loves it, i seldom buy them nowadays.
Went for Hooligan's BC afterwards cos SGP told me that he was planning to ffk the sun class. Not sure what happened, either he couldn't find a replacement or something, in the end, he apprently went for the class. Anyways, it's been awhile since i went for Hooligan's BC class too since after steps and BP, my strength is usually zapped and i can probably managed the most of 2 BC tracks. Hooligan's chory was flawless that day and i really enjoyed the class! I must say that among all the instructors, i have always preferred to go for her launch classes as she always execute the most complete chory and detailed explanation...
After the classes, went for lunch at Food Foundry http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2006/09/food-foundry-section-17-petaling-jaya.html, a little cafe in Happy Mansion which the wookie brought us. I had the marinara seafood pasta as i was famished! Apparently, their speciality is their dessert, mille crepe but i was too stuffed to taste it. Maybe next time lar....the nasi lemak that the other are having looks good too. Mmmm....cannot be too greedy as i'll be having my dinner in a few hours.
I was dropped off home by the wookie and took a short nap before CC picked me up to goto another friend's place to hitch a ride to The Curve. We arrived nice and early at TGIF before 6.15pm and as promised by one of the managers, was given a table without the need to queue. There was a fixed New Year's Eve set served on that day and as there were 4 of us, we picked one of each to share, well almost anyway...2 grilled salmons, 1 Jack Daniel's chicken and 1 Friday's Shrimp. Oh, we had starters as well, 2 mushrooms, 1 buffalo wings and pizza-like something. The food was only so-so on that day and the portions had somehow shrunk from the normal days....hmmm....perhaps they are rationing to make sure all the customers get to eat, huh? Dessert was either the mudcake or the New York cheesecake so we got 2 slices of each. The mud cake doesn't taste good with me tasting more of cocoa flakes and ice-cream rather than the actual moist brownie-like cakes as usual...Uggghhhh....the price we pay for such food....goes to show that we are usually ripped-off on special days....
After that, we went to Ikea as one of our friends wanted to get some stuff before we went for our movie. Initially, i wanted to watch "Confessions of Pain" as i heard that it was really good but the Cineplex doesn't show it so we had to settle for "The Curse of the Golden Flower". The whole movie was OTT, with the opulent deco coming across as gaudy as the strong colours of yellow and red dominate the palace surroundings. The highlight was obviously the female actresses costumes, which seemed to go lower down the bosom as the show progressed. The 2nd lead actress practically had three-quarters of her bosom hanging out in the entire show, ready to pop literally and it made me wondered whether there was any 'wardrobe mal-function' during the filming? The show finished earlier than expected and we were left stranded outside the cineplex for almost an hour waiting for the fireworks and countdown to start. There was a big crowd gathering by now and some of the teenagers were spraying those party poopers like snow and strings at each other. Those stuff stink and we didn't relish the thought of those getting stuck in our hair for the night so we kept moving around to avoid the sprayers!
It was comical spotting a family who were dressed in pajamas waiting for the fireworks as well. Finally, the fireworks started but we stood at the wrong place as they were behind the Cineplex so we moved to the back where we could see the fireworks which were being let out in 1U as well as the Cineplex. It was fantastic!!! Lasted about 6 to 10 minutes then it was a rush to get out of the place!! By the time we reached the carpark, there was a long queue to the autopay. Then, we were stucked from the carpark to the exit for an hour and a half before we managed to get out to Ikea!!! The cars were practically stucked there!! Really pity those who parked further in....That's it, next year, no more celebrating in Curve or 1U....
After awhile, kinda got the hang of it, though minus a lot of steps in between...hehehe...but still managed to keep the rhythm and kept moving. Caught a glance of MIL who stood near the front. Hmmm, what's she doing here? I thought she usually goes to Subang on sundays. Anyway, i did my own thang and got really SS.....Whoppeee!!! Sweat was practically dripping off me and it felt good!!! After the class, changed to a dry top and sat down for a rest before my BC class. Bcow and fans came out and sat at the table behind us. MIL came up to LM's sis and chatted with her and offered some fruitcakes to us. She told us the fruitcake was made by BCow and his partner!!! Not only that, apparently, BCow and partner has a part-time business baking cakes and his cheesecakes were said to be good! Wow, i was amazed! I mean, fruitcakes generally are hard to bake and his was not too bad and there were a lot of raisins, just as i like it. It's not too moist or too dry either, which some fruitcakes turned out to be. My fave is Big Sister fruitcakes but since only me and my dad loves it, i seldom buy them nowadays.
Went for Hooligan's BC afterwards cos SGP told me that he was planning to ffk the sun class. Not sure what happened, either he couldn't find a replacement or something, in the end, he apprently went for the class. Anyways, it's been awhile since i went for Hooligan's BC class too since after steps and BP, my strength is usually zapped and i can probably managed the most of 2 BC tracks. Hooligan's chory was flawless that day and i really enjoyed the class! I must say that among all the instructors, i have always preferred to go for her launch classes as she always execute the most complete chory and detailed explanation...
After the classes, went for lunch at Food Foundry http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2006/09/food-foundry-section-17-petaling-jaya.html, a little cafe in Happy Mansion which the wookie brought us. I had the marinara seafood pasta as i was famished! Apparently, their speciality is their dessert, mille crepe but i was too stuffed to taste it. Maybe next time lar....the nasi lemak that the other are having looks good too. Mmmm....cannot be too greedy as i'll be having my dinner in a few hours.
I was dropped off home by the wookie and took a short nap before CC picked me up to goto another friend's place to hitch a ride to The Curve. We arrived nice and early at TGIF before 6.15pm and as promised by one of the managers, was given a table without the need to queue. There was a fixed New Year's Eve set served on that day and as there were 4 of us, we picked one of each to share, well almost anyway...2 grilled salmons, 1 Jack Daniel's chicken and 1 Friday's Shrimp. Oh, we had starters as well, 2 mushrooms, 1 buffalo wings and pizza-like something. The food was only so-so on that day and the portions had somehow shrunk from the normal days....hmmm....perhaps they are rationing to make sure all the customers get to eat, huh? Dessert was either the mudcake or the New York cheesecake so we got 2 slices of each. The mud cake doesn't taste good with me tasting more of cocoa flakes and ice-cream rather than the actual moist brownie-like cakes as usual...Uggghhhh....the price we pay for such food....goes to show that we are usually ripped-off on special days....
After that, we went to Ikea as one of our friends wanted to get some stuff before we went for our movie. Initially, i wanted to watch "Confessions of Pain" as i heard that it was really good but the Cineplex doesn't show it so we had to settle for "The Curse of the Golden Flower". The whole movie was OTT, with the opulent deco coming across as gaudy as the strong colours of yellow and red dominate the palace surroundings. The highlight was obviously the female actresses costumes, which seemed to go lower down the bosom as the show progressed. The 2nd lead actress practically had three-quarters of her bosom hanging out in the entire show, ready to pop literally and it made me wondered whether there was any 'wardrobe mal-function' during the filming? The show finished earlier than expected and we were left stranded outside the cineplex for almost an hour waiting for the fireworks and countdown to start. There was a big crowd gathering by now and some of the teenagers were spraying those party poopers like snow and strings at each other. Those stuff stink and we didn't relish the thought of those getting stuck in our hair for the night so we kept moving around to avoid the sprayers!
It was comical spotting a family who were dressed in pajamas waiting for the fireworks as well. Finally, the fireworks started but we stood at the wrong place as they were behind the Cineplex so we moved to the back where we could see the fireworks which were being let out in 1U as well as the Cineplex. It was fantastic!!! Lasted about 6 to 10 minutes then it was a rush to get out of the place!! By the time we reached the carpark, there was a long queue to the autopay. Then, we were stucked from the carpark to the exit for an hour and a half before we managed to get out to Ikea!!! The cars were practically stucked there!! Really pity those who parked further in....That's it, next year, no more celebrating in Curve or 1U....
Makan Sutra
I went to IU early on sat morning to watch "Night At the Museum" with a couple of friends. I reached there before 11am and it was a breeze getting a parking spot. I literally have my pick so i parked closest to the cinema. Heehehehe...talked about being a lazy pig. I went to the cinema and was surprised that there was a crowd lining up for the movies...already? Hmmm, obviously everyone was trying to avoid the later crowds. I got some really great seats as it was just the time that the tix were released!
Night At the Museum is basically a comedy about a night security guard (Ben Stiller) who has to keep watch over a museum which comes alive every night! Had a good laugh esp when he and a monkey were trying to outslap each other and Attila the Hun tried to ripped him off....yeah, definitely a recommended watch. After the show, we adjourned to Jack's Place to have our lunch. Jack's Place http://www.jacksplace.com.sg/abt_us/abt_us.html serves set lunches everyday, including weekends and they have executives lunches as well. They originate from Singapore and specialised in western meals. My set lunch started with a minestrone soup, which was creamy thick as i like it, followed by the grilled fish with chips, which i thought was a tad bland compared to the grilled chicken that i had previously when i went. This was washed down by a dessert of strawberry ice-cream and coffee.
After the heavy lunch, we went window-shopping a bit to walk off the calories consumed. After that, popped over to The Curve to get the movie tix for tomorrow night show and to make my dinner reservations at TGIF. I then rushed home to get ready for my friend's wedding dinner at The Museum chinese restaurant in the Legend Hotel.
I must say that among the many hotels around town, The Museum has great chinese food (halal) though the carpark is kinda dodgy and i had to turn many levels to go up to Level 8 before i get to park at the hotel carpark! Dinner started around 8.30pm with the 4 prosperity dish (not sure whether that's the correct name). Anyway, one of it is the Japanese octopus with jelly fish that i love. Other dishes includes a steamed fish (really huge), braised broccoli with mushrooms, prawns, shark's fin etc etc (due to short term memory loss, can't remember the rest liao...:P) The portions were generous and as our table was not full, some of the dishes were not finished....which was a waste really. Ahhhh, but better that than we over-stuffing ourselves. Had a great time catching up with ex-uni-mates too.
Night At the Museum is basically a comedy about a night security guard (Ben Stiller) who has to keep watch over a museum which comes alive every night! Had a good laugh esp when he and a monkey were trying to outslap each other and Attila the Hun tried to ripped him off....yeah, definitely a recommended watch. After the show, we adjourned to Jack's Place to have our lunch. Jack's Place http://www.jacksplace.com.sg/abt_us/abt_us.html serves set lunches everyday, including weekends and they have executives lunches as well. They originate from Singapore and specialised in western meals. My set lunch started with a minestrone soup, which was creamy thick as i like it, followed by the grilled fish with chips, which i thought was a tad bland compared to the grilled chicken that i had previously when i went. This was washed down by a dessert of strawberry ice-cream and coffee.
After the heavy lunch, we went window-shopping a bit to walk off the calories consumed. After that, popped over to The Curve to get the movie tix for tomorrow night show and to make my dinner reservations at TGIF. I then rushed home to get ready for my friend's wedding dinner at The Museum chinese restaurant in the Legend Hotel.
I must say that among the many hotels around town, The Museum has great chinese food (halal) though the carpark is kinda dodgy and i had to turn many levels to go up to Level 8 before i get to park at the hotel carpark! Dinner started around 8.30pm with the 4 prosperity dish (not sure whether that's the correct name). Anyway, one of it is the Japanese octopus with jelly fish that i love. Other dishes includes a steamed fish (really huge), braised broccoli with mushrooms, prawns, shark's fin etc etc (due to short term memory loss, can't remember the rest liao...:P) The portions were generous and as our table was not full, some of the dishes were not finished....which was a waste really. Ahhhh, but better that than we over-stuffing ourselves. Had a great time catching up with ex-uni-mates too.
Shhh, I'm not here
Nowadays i have resorted to putting my mobile on silent mode due to some unwarranted calls. Remember the petrol station guy, PSG...well, initially i thought he was trying to sell me some stuff or trying to get me to patronise his auto services when he gave me his namecard.
Unfortunately, he's been hounding me with calls every few nights and it's been
freaking me out. I made the mistake of giving him my hp no. as he didn't looked like he was letting me go off the petrol station when he was holding my car door open until i do. I told him i already have his namecard so i said i will call him but he didn't buy that story. He tells me repeatedly that he had already recognised me previously when i used to pump my petrol there frequently, which is rather creepy so I contemplated giving him a false no. but he knew where i stay and could tell me the no. of cars that's in my house. Apparently, he just stayed down the road and i made the error of answering one of his calls initially when he called me at work (since i didn't record his no. on my hp)
Fortunately, i had the cow sense not to give him my namecard otherwise who knows, he may stalked me at my office too. He told me that he had called several times before that but since my handwriting was not legible, he kept dialling the wrong no. and apparently, there was no such no. too. So, finally, he changed and tried dialling another no. and said that he didn't believe that i would have given him the wrong no. By now, my hairs were standing liao. Anyway, i told him that i was busy working and we just chatted for a brief moment when he wanted to know where i lunched. Co-incidentally, i lunched near the petrol station and he exclaimed in surprise why i didn't call him for lunch too. I'm totally flabbergasted and rendered speechless! (and more hairs standing!!!) Urmmm, since when did we became lunch partners i was wondering?
After that, i became freaked and went home to tell my parents about it before i left for Singapore. Nowadays, i pumped petrol at other petrol stations and used alternative roads of going back to my house instead of the front way which faced the petrol station where he worked. I'm just wondering why is it that i'm acting like some celebrity who's trying to get away from the crazy fan or something....I have even placed a special ringtone on his no. to trigger me not to answer the call.
Ring Ring Ring...He just called me again....*shudder* *shudder*...God help me! When will he stop calling?
Unfortunately, he's been hounding me with calls every few nights and it's been
freaking me out. I made the mistake of giving him my hp no. as he didn't looked like he was letting me go off the petrol station when he was holding my car door open until i do. I told him i already have his namecard so i said i will call him but he didn't buy that story. He tells me repeatedly that he had already recognised me previously when i used to pump my petrol there frequently, which is rather creepy so I contemplated giving him a false no. but he knew where i stay and could tell me the no. of cars that's in my house. Apparently, he just stayed down the road and i made the error of answering one of his calls initially when he called me at work (since i didn't record his no. on my hp) Fortunately, i had the cow sense not to give him my namecard otherwise who knows, he may stalked me at my office too. He told me that he had called several times before that but since my handwriting was not legible, he kept dialling the wrong no. and apparently, there was no such no. too. So, finally, he changed and tried dialling another no. and said that he didn't believe that i would have given him the wrong no. By now, my hairs were standing liao. Anyway, i told him that i was busy working and we just chatted for a brief moment when he wanted to know where i lunched. Co-incidentally, i lunched near the petrol station and he exclaimed in surprise why i didn't call him for lunch too. I'm totally flabbergasted and rendered speechless! (and more hairs standing!!!) Urmmm, since when did we became lunch partners i was wondering?
After that, i became freaked and went home to tell my parents about it before i left for Singapore. Nowadays, i pumped petrol at other petrol stations and used alternative roads of going back to my house instead of the front way which faced the petrol station where he worked. I'm just wondering why is it that i'm acting like some celebrity who's trying to get away from the crazy fan or something....I have even placed a special ringtone on his no. to trigger me not to answer the call.
Ring Ring Ring...He just called me again....*shudder* *shudder*...God help me! When will he stop calling?
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Ginga & Evasive Side Kick
Fri morning couldn't wake up to go for my pilates so i ffk LM. Headed straight for the pool around 10 plus, which is a good time to swim with the morning sun in the warm water. Still haven't managed to overcome my phobia of drowning since that incident so basically stuck to the area where i can touch the ground. I jumped into the training pool as it was more quiet and nobody was doing any coaching. But i did caught some gardener peeping so it kinda gave me the creeps....Went home to shower since my bro told me that there were peeping Toms around.
The rest of the afternoon was spent running errands for my dad and going down to KL to close my bank a/c which i previously opened as i was working in KL. I was aghast as the bank has shifted and failed to inform me and i stared at another bank in what-used to be its spot. I asked the security guard who told me the bank had relocated down the road, where it was even harder to get a parking spot. Bother, bother, bother....in a desperate attempt, i parked illegally at the side of the road and left my dad to jaga for me. I approached the customer service officer but was told that i had to close my a/c at the bank tellers!!! I went upstairs to the banking hall and was livid as the queue was extremely long and it had already reached the stairs!!!! Moreover, the ticketing system was down. Just goes to show my decision to close my bank a/c was right after all! It took me almost an hour before it was my turn and there were 7 counters working!! See, that's the problem with the local banks....they are so inefficient.
I was so tired by the time i reached home that i took a nap in the later part of the evening before going for SGP BC class. Got a ride from Shadow. As i just woke up not too long ago, i was very blur and also not familiar with the new release yet since i had only done it once during the launch which was a week ago before i went down to Singapore. I was basically doing the whole thing with 2 left feet and turned left when people were doing it on their right so kena bombarded with sarcastic remarks like "U forgotten how to do BC oredi?" from SGP...Ummm, yeah, sorta cos still mc2 from sleep....hehehehehe.....he asked me again whether it was my 1st time doing the new release after class....errr, which i said no lar....
Still find it hard to execute the evasive sick kick properly esp when jumping....though the incorporation of the new capoeira moves (ginga) is definitely a refreshing change in Track 4, "Rock Me Amadeus".....my faves in this new release includes Track 3 (very intense, reminds me somewhat of Set U Free with the continuous uppercuts), Track 4, Track 1 warm-up (2nd parter, "Somebody told me" which was the song by The Killers, which i'm listening to at the mo'), beginning to like Track 2 as well (would be better without the shuffling bits), Track 6 is okie....still prefer "Vogue" for stylo mylo. Dun really fancy the Muay Thai even though the song is "We will Rock U" , one of Queen's classics, albeit in remixed version. I still prefer the version of We Will Rock U in BC 5 conditioning track....it's got a more rock and edgier sound to it compared to this techno version....The killer in this release is the moving forwards and backwards plank in the conditioning track!! Ugghhh, as though that's not enough, it was followed by continuous abs work.....they trying to kill us or something? This release is really intense. By track 3, everyone is basically strained....esp if done non-stop....the intensity is getting to BA level, a factor prob contributed by the fact that one of the choreographers, Rachel is also the choreographer for BA....Anyway, every new release of BC still have enough surprises to sustain the interests of the hardcore BC fans, me included....:D
After class, went for supper at the next door foodcourt. Wow, really missed the Black Pepper Chicken Chop. Initially wanted to eat chee cheong fun but since it was too late to eat so much carbo, go with protein instead. Shared the chicken chop with my friend and later we adjourned to Starbucks for a chat. I love their Xmas Toffee Nut Frapp, though i had to ask them to give me a lighter version as i find it a tad too sweet.
The rest of the afternoon was spent running errands for my dad and going down to KL to close my bank a/c which i previously opened as i was working in KL. I was aghast as the bank has shifted and failed to inform me and i stared at another bank in what-used to be its spot. I asked the security guard who told me the bank had relocated down the road, where it was even harder to get a parking spot. Bother, bother, bother....in a desperate attempt, i parked illegally at the side of the road and left my dad to jaga for me. I approached the customer service officer but was told that i had to close my a/c at the bank tellers!!! I went upstairs to the banking hall and was livid as the queue was extremely long and it had already reached the stairs!!!! Moreover, the ticketing system was down. Just goes to show my decision to close my bank a/c was right after all! It took me almost an hour before it was my turn and there were 7 counters working!! See, that's the problem with the local banks....they are so inefficient.
I was so tired by the time i reached home that i took a nap in the later part of the evening before going for SGP BC class. Got a ride from Shadow. As i just woke up not too long ago, i was very blur and also not familiar with the new release yet since i had only done it once during the launch which was a week ago before i went down to Singapore. I was basically doing the whole thing with 2 left feet and turned left when people were doing it on their right so kena bombarded with sarcastic remarks like "U forgotten how to do BC oredi?" from SGP...Ummm, yeah, sorta cos still mc2 from sleep....hehehehehe.....he asked me again whether it was my 1st time doing the new release after class....errr, which i said no lar....
Still find it hard to execute the evasive sick kick properly esp when jumping....though the incorporation of the new capoeira moves (ginga) is definitely a refreshing change in Track 4, "Rock Me Amadeus".....my faves in this new release includes Track 3 (very intense, reminds me somewhat of Set U Free with the continuous uppercuts), Track 4, Track 1 warm-up (2nd parter, "Somebody told me" which was the song by The Killers, which i'm listening to at the mo'), beginning to like Track 2 as well (would be better without the shuffling bits), Track 6 is okie....still prefer "Vogue" for stylo mylo. Dun really fancy the Muay Thai even though the song is "We will Rock U" , one of Queen's classics, albeit in remixed version. I still prefer the version of We Will Rock U in BC 5 conditioning track....it's got a more rock and edgier sound to it compared to this techno version....The killer in this release is the moving forwards and backwards plank in the conditioning track!! Ugghhh, as though that's not enough, it was followed by continuous abs work.....they trying to kill us or something? This release is really intense. By track 3, everyone is basically strained....esp if done non-stop....the intensity is getting to BA level, a factor prob contributed by the fact that one of the choreographers, Rachel is also the choreographer for BA....Anyway, every new release of BC still have enough surprises to sustain the interests of the hardcore BC fans, me included....:D
After class, went for supper at the next door foodcourt. Wow, really missed the Black Pepper Chicken Chop. Initially wanted to eat chee cheong fun but since it was too late to eat so much carbo, go with protein instead. Shared the chicken chop with my friend and later we adjourned to Starbucks for a chat. I love their Xmas Toffee Nut Frapp, though i had to ask them to give me a lighter version as i find it a tad too sweet.
Scan the pool
Initially, i wanted to go for Intersteps in the morning but as usual slept in and woke up at a time where there wasn't really any good classes to go to. I went to get my medical report and finshed the rest of my check-up with the doctor. I did a lung test, which was really funny as i had to blow as hard as i could into a tube, similar to the ones asthma patients use. Then, my foot was measured as part of the bone density test.
Thereafter, the doctor did a ultrasound scan of my organs and even printed out pictures of them, like the ones pregnant ladies get of their foetes. He explained how the organs should look like and how to spot a problem area. At one point, i was rather worried and i pointed out what seemed like a hole in my kidney. He pacified me by explaining that it's actually my gall bladder and not a hole!! Duhhhh....how clueless! He told me to do a stress test in future to get more exhaustive readings instead of the resting ECG test which i did. I was relieved to find that my results were all within normal range and i'm positively certified as healthy. I took my Hepatitis A + B jab as advised by the doc too.
Met up with workaholic who was working nearby and had Japanese food, my fave. I reckon since i was gonna get the hepatitis jab, might as well eat some sashimi. The restaurant had this unagi roll which was arranged like a rainbow on a plate and it was simply scrumptious. Since i didn't have my breakfast with the exception of a glass of soya bean, i was famished. The nurse had told me to go on an empty stomach otherwise it's pointless doing the scan. I took a slow walk back to the car and went in to FF to digest my food before going for a swim.
I'm developing a tan from the past few days of swimming and it has left an ugly mark on my back but since i seldom wear backless tops, it didn't really matter. The other good thing about being tanned is that it tend to hide your imperfections like acne spots on the face cos the fairer one is, the more visible pimples and freckles are on the face though i must be careful to not become so tanned till i had to change my foundation colour....*evil cackle*
By the time i reach the pool, it was getting cloudy and there were quite a number of kids around, who were busy splashing about. Hmmm, that's the problem with going to a public pool. It's hard to do a proper swim. I used to swim at the Shah Alam indoor pool which was Olympic size and was around 8 to 10 feet deep. Only the serious swimmers swim there and the pool was lined in laps which made it easier to swim. The outdoors pool is a tad shallow and most of the kids swim there. Tried the aquatic pool in Bukit Jalil as well but those who went were usually more interested to hover at the side of the pool and ducked down to see everytime a girl begins to swim. That is just so yucky! Of cos once, the pool was so dirty that there were a lot of dead insects floating on the pool!! Ugggghhhh....
Thereafter, the doctor did a ultrasound scan of my organs and even printed out pictures of them, like the ones pregnant ladies get of their foetes. He explained how the organs should look like and how to spot a problem area. At one point, i was rather worried and i pointed out what seemed like a hole in my kidney. He pacified me by explaining that it's actually my gall bladder and not a hole!! Duhhhh....how clueless! He told me to do a stress test in future to get more exhaustive readings instead of the resting ECG test which i did. I was relieved to find that my results were all within normal range and i'm positively certified as healthy. I took my Hepatitis A + B jab as advised by the doc too.
Met up with workaholic who was working nearby and had Japanese food, my fave. I reckon since i was gonna get the hepatitis jab, might as well eat some sashimi. The restaurant had this unagi roll which was arranged like a rainbow on a plate and it was simply scrumptious. Since i didn't have my breakfast with the exception of a glass of soya bean, i was famished. The nurse had told me to go on an empty stomach otherwise it's pointless doing the scan. I took a slow walk back to the car and went in to FF to digest my food before going for a swim.
I'm developing a tan from the past few days of swimming and it has left an ugly mark on my back but since i seldom wear backless tops, it didn't really matter. The other good thing about being tanned is that it tend to hide your imperfections like acne spots on the face cos the fairer one is, the more visible pimples and freckles are on the face though i must be careful to not become so tanned till i had to change my foundation colour....*evil cackle*
By the time i reach the pool, it was getting cloudy and there were quite a number of kids around, who were busy splashing about. Hmmm, that's the problem with going to a public pool. It's hard to do a proper swim. I used to swim at the Shah Alam indoor pool which was Olympic size and was around 8 to 10 feet deep. Only the serious swimmers swim there and the pool was lined in laps which made it easier to swim. The outdoors pool is a tad shallow and most of the kids swim there. Tried the aquatic pool in Bukit Jalil as well but those who went were usually more interested to hover at the side of the pool and ducked down to see everytime a girl begins to swim. That is just so yucky! Of cos once, the pool was so dirty that there were a lot of dead insects floating on the pool!! Ugggghhhh....
Hoorah for the new BP
After coming back from the trip, i slept almost the whole day the next day due to exhaustion. Luckily, i was still on leave. Hehehehe...had wanted to extend my trip but the bus company wanted to charge an extra SGD14 for service charge? Chuh, doesn't seemed to serve much purpose thus abandoned plans. Reached KL almost midnite. I spent the better half of the next day walking around like zombie before going to swim in the later part of the evening. There wasn't much sun so i didn't really get tanned. In fact, it was starting to rain so i did a quick one and rushed home.
Feeling guilty of not gym-ing for the past week, i went for BA and BP. The new BA release is torturing though there were not as many lunges as the previous release. I love the part where we do leg curls to each 4 corners, pretty much similar to round the world! This time, we didn't run in circles, but rather ran in a straight line, yeah kinda like playing the mother hen guarding the chicks...hehehehe
By midway, i was gasping for air already. It's either i had lost my stamina or the new release is rather taxing. I stayed on for BP as i heard the new release is fantastic. I was not disappointed. I simply love Track 5, which is the tricep track, not for the dips but simply for the great song Who Knew by Pink. The chest track, Have a Nice Day by Bon Jovi was good too. Found Track 4, Africa and shoulder track, One Nite In Bangkok enjoyable. Another of my fave song is Hips don't Lie and it's a bit weird making it the conditioning track but i love it although the intro of side planks is an absolute torture. The cooldown song, So Far Away about New Zealand sounds very much like an Enya song....My only grouse is the lunge track, which is not really my fave all this while. This time we had to do it with one leg stepping on the bench which made the lunges deeper and even more painful!!! All in all a great release. The best among all the Les Mills program i must say...
Feeling guilty of not gym-ing for the past week, i went for BA and BP. The new BA release is torturing though there were not as many lunges as the previous release. I love the part where we do leg curls to each 4 corners, pretty much similar to round the world! This time, we didn't run in circles, but rather ran in a straight line, yeah kinda like playing the mother hen guarding the chicks...hehehehe
By midway, i was gasping for air already. It's either i had lost my stamina or the new release is rather taxing. I stayed on for BP as i heard the new release is fantastic. I was not disappointed. I simply love Track 5, which is the tricep track, not for the dips but simply for the great song Who Knew by Pink. The chest track, Have a Nice Day by Bon Jovi was good too. Found Track 4, Africa and shoulder track, One Nite In Bangkok enjoyable. Another of my fave song is Hips don't Lie and it's a bit weird making it the conditioning track but i love it although the intro of side planks is an absolute torture. The cooldown song, So Far Away about New Zealand sounds very much like an Enya song....My only grouse is the lunge track, which is not really my fave all this while. This time we had to do it with one leg stepping on the bench which made the lunges deeper and even more painful!!! All in all a great release. The best among all the Les Mills program i must say...
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Singapore Saga (Part 3)
On the 3rd day, we got out earlier than usual and made our way to Sentosa Island. Apparently everyone had the same thinking and there was already a long queue to the shuttle bus. Just goes to show that peak period is never a good time to go sight-seeing or vacation. First stop was The Merlion. This was a really huge Merlion statue overlooking Sentosa Island and Shadow took endless photos of it. Next we adjourned to the Carlsberg Skytower ride. 
r4stars2005 http://www.skytower.com.sg/st/index.htm This was fantastic as it lets one to see the entire view of Sentosa Island and its surroundings and it revolves, albeit in an air-conditioned glass cabin! There was the usual snapping of photo just before we board the ride which we didn’t buy. Nowadays, I’m more selective after learning my lesson in Korea, where I purchased around RM100 plus worth of photos that was snapped by the tour photographer! The thing is he didn’t make us posed or anything. He just stood at the side of whoever who was taking the photos and took the same snapshot! And, being the more experienced one, obviously his photos turned out nicer than the ones that we took.
We then went on for our luge ride (http://www.sentosa.com.sg/explore_sentosa/attractions/sentosa_luge.html). Our package included 2 luge rides
and skyrides. The luge is like a mix between a toboggan and a go-kart with the handle acting as the brake and the accelerator. It was really fun whizzing down the slope without a care in the world. Even kids and elderly folk had a go at it. On the 2nd ride, we were driving like pro-s and whizzed down even faster!! 
The skyride is not unlike the ski lifts and the 1st time we were on it, I was somewhat apprehensive as I had height phobia. So, I enjoyed the 2nd ride better. Thereafter it was off to see the 4D Sentosa Magix, http://www.sentosa4dmagix.com.sg/technology.htm which I gather is somewhat like the IMAX. After waiting for more than half an hour in the queue, we were escorted into a theatre and given those 3D glasses. The show was called the Pirates and it was fun as we had wind blowing to our ears and crab-like fingers brushing at our legs. Even had water squirting on our faces!!!! Muahahahahaha….it was such a thrill! Had a good laugh and went to get lunch while waiting to board the bus to Dolphin Lagoon.
It started drizzling again and the rain got heavier as we board the bus.
mabrantes As the Dolphin Lagoon and the Underwater World tix was a 2-1 thingy, reckon there wasn’t much point in going to see the Underwater World and not being able to see the Dolphins. I mean it was not really a big deal for me as I had seen dolphins show and visited the Underwater World both in Perth and Sydney previously but I gather LM was a tad disappointed. Anyway, I told her that next time she can go visit the Night Safari and the Underwater World during the off-peak period and avoid the crowd. We spent more than 4 hours just queuing and visiting 3 places! Gosh, what a waste of time! Wanted to go to the Jewel Box in Mount Faber but guess it’ll be just as packed so we changed venue and headed to Suntec City instead for more shopping. The Hippo ride was fully booked till after Boxing Day so that was scrapped too. What a bummer!
We got to see the laser show at the Fountain of Wealth in Suntec City and it was amazing cos the laser beams were all projected onto the water which spurts out of the fountain.
shas79
r4stars2005 http://www.skytower.com.sg/st/index.htm This was fantastic as it lets one to see the entire view of Sentosa Island and its surroundings and it revolves, albeit in an air-conditioned glass cabin! There was the usual snapping of photo just before we board the ride which we didn’t buy. Nowadays, I’m more selective after learning my lesson in Korea, where I purchased around RM100 plus worth of photos that was snapped by the tour photographer! The thing is he didn’t make us posed or anything. He just stood at the side of whoever who was taking the photos and took the same snapshot! And, being the more experienced one, obviously his photos turned out nicer than the ones that we took.
We then went on for our luge ride (http://www.sentosa.com.sg/explore_sentosa/attractions/sentosa_luge.html). Our package included 2 luge rides
and skyrides. The luge is like a mix between a toboggan and a go-kart with the handle acting as the brake and the accelerator. It was really fun whizzing down the slope without a care in the world. Even kids and elderly folk had a go at it. On the 2nd ride, we were driving like pro-s and whizzed down even faster!! 
The skyride is not unlike the ski lifts and the 1st time we were on it, I was somewhat apprehensive as I had height phobia. So, I enjoyed the 2nd ride better. Thereafter it was off to see the 4D Sentosa Magix, http://www.sentosa4dmagix.com.sg/technology.htm which I gather is somewhat like the IMAX. After waiting for more than half an hour in the queue, we were escorted into a theatre and given those 3D glasses. The show was called the Pirates and it was fun as we had wind blowing to our ears and crab-like fingers brushing at our legs. Even had water squirting on our faces!!!! Muahahahahaha….it was such a thrill! Had a good laugh and went to get lunch while waiting to board the bus to Dolphin Lagoon.It started drizzling again and the rain got heavier as we board the bus.
mabrantes As the Dolphin Lagoon and the Underwater World tix was a 2-1 thingy, reckon there wasn’t much point in going to see the Underwater World and not being able to see the Dolphins. I mean it was not really a big deal for me as I had seen dolphins show and visited the Underwater World both in Perth and Sydney previously but I gather LM was a tad disappointed. Anyway, I told her that next time she can go visit the Night Safari and the Underwater World during the off-peak period and avoid the crowd. We spent more than 4 hours just queuing and visiting 3 places! Gosh, what a waste of time! Wanted to go to the Jewel Box in Mount Faber but guess it’ll be just as packed so we changed venue and headed to Suntec City instead for more shopping. The Hippo ride was fully booked till after Boxing Day so that was scrapped too. What a bummer!
We got to see the laser show at the Fountain of Wealth in Suntec City and it was amazing cos the laser beams were all projected onto the water which spurts out of the fountain.
shas79
Finally, our last day! By now, I was feeling really worn out and looking forward to going home. We went back to Orchard Road to do our last shopping spree. Dropped off the bags at FF in Paragon and went to Metro. The day started gloomily with rain started pouring since early morning. The rain didn’t show signs of stopping even when we were leaving for our bus. I
huluyue went to Tangs for my last stop and got my dress after hesitating since the 1st day I tried it in Takashimaya (plus other people were trying it on and I reckon there’s only 1 piece of it of each size so decided to be kiasu and grab it)
We nearly couldn’t make it to the bus on time as there was a long queue for the cab ride and I had to queue to make payment as well. Luckily the salesgirls were nice enough to lead me through to the counters which had less people and I was really grateful. Of cos, I had to pick out some cologne for my fussy friend who called to check out the prices as well, which added to the time factor as well….
I asked Shadow to call the bus company to tell them to wait for us as we were on our way and the roads were clearly congested from the rain and heavy traffic at peak hours. Fortunately, we told the can driver and he took alternative route to our destination. We took a different bus from the one that we came in due to the time slot. I highly recommend Transnational Executive Coach to whoever intending to travel to Singapore for its excellent service and seats. It was a double-decker bus and we were given blankets and a small pillow. The seats are leather if I’m not mistaken. And we were served Ayamas and canned drinks as opposed to fried meehoon and mineral water in Nice. (tix are same price) The seats are comfy that I was lulled to sleep, something that I usually find hard to do on a traveling bus. And it stops in MTEC (opp Renaisance Hotel) and Jalan Duta bus station, which is not as congested as Pudu bus station.
Singapore Saga (Part 2)
The next morning, we headed to Queenstown, where sportswear and shoes are apparently cheaper than the shops in town. Both I and LM got our new shoes almost half of the price that it’s selling here (after conversion) plus there are definitely nicer varieties. Shopping for apparels is a bummer though as there’s no fitting room provided. However, they are definitely cheaper than elsewhere, not sure whether they are the latest though. Bought some tops for an extremely fussy person, which made me regret after I passed them to him as he nit-picked all the way. Duhhh...shall be more discreet about my trips in future...
Next stop was Sentosa Island. When we arrived, it was drizzling. After we got to the Dolphin Lagoon, it was practically pouring and the place was so crowded!!! We decided that it was best that we postponed the trip to the next morning since the dolphin show will be cancelled in the event of rain anyway. We spent more than 2 hours stranded and queuing in Sentosa Island as no cabs were available and the queue for the shuttle bus to the MRT station was as long as the snake coiled round and round. And it was still raining. I was basically drenched as I didn’t bring an umbrella. Finally, we hopped to Vivo City http://www.vivocity.com.sg/aboutvivo.html, the latest and largest shopping mall located at the fringe of the Singapore harbour before accessing to Sentosa Island. The mall is really massive!! Below is a pic of Tangs in Xmas deco.
huluyue Gosh, the Singaporeans are really shopaholics with the amount of shopping malls that they have. We only managed to visit a corner of the shopping mall as it was simply too huge and tiring walking from 1 end to the other end. The anchor tenant I reckon was Tangs Studio, which closed early in conjunction with Xmas eve celebrations so we didn’t get to discover it.
After resting our tired limbs at Coffee Bean, we went to Esplanade to see the lights and hopefully a Xmas countdown. The initial plan of counting down in Sentosa was scrapped due to the huge crowd and continuous rain. After sitting ourselves comfortably waiting for the Xmas countdown, where a large crowd had congregated, we were disappointed that no fireworks or countdown materialized. Everyone looked towards the open sea and
valsoh all I could see was the miniature Merlion started spouting water from its mouth in front of the Fullerton Hotel. Gees, is that it? That’s what everyone was shouting about?? Some of them played with some firecrackers (the ones children play) and some found it hilarious to spray shaken beer on their friends which had us quickly scooting off. It’s definitely a very low-key affair. Reckon the whole big bang is only happening during New Year celebrations! Sigh! Wrong place, wrong timing again. Felt really bad for leading my friends to something that amounted to nothing…
Next stop was Sentosa Island. When we arrived, it was drizzling. After we got to the Dolphin Lagoon, it was practically pouring and the place was so crowded!!! We decided that it was best that we postponed the trip to the next morning since the dolphin show will be cancelled in the event of rain anyway. We spent more than 2 hours stranded and queuing in Sentosa Island as no cabs were available and the queue for the shuttle bus to the MRT station was as long as the snake coiled round and round. And it was still raining. I was basically drenched as I didn’t bring an umbrella. Finally, we hopped to Vivo City http://www.vivocity.com.sg/aboutvivo.html, the latest and largest shopping mall located at the fringe of the Singapore harbour before accessing to Sentosa Island. The mall is really massive!! Below is a pic of Tangs in Xmas deco.
huluyue Gosh, the Singaporeans are really shopaholics with the amount of shopping malls that they have. We only managed to visit a corner of the shopping mall as it was simply too huge and tiring walking from 1 end to the other end. The anchor tenant I reckon was Tangs Studio, which closed early in conjunction with Xmas eve celebrations so we didn’t get to discover it.
After resting our tired limbs at Coffee Bean, we went to Esplanade to see the lights and hopefully a Xmas countdown. The initial plan of counting down in Sentosa was scrapped due to the huge crowd and continuous rain. After sitting ourselves comfortably waiting for the Xmas countdown, where a large crowd had congregated, we were disappointed that no fireworks or countdown materialized. Everyone looked towards the open sea and
valsoh all I could see was the miniature Merlion started spouting water from its mouth in front of the Fullerton Hotel. Gees, is that it? That’s what everyone was shouting about?? Some of them played with some firecrackers (the ones children play) and some found it hilarious to spray shaken beer on their friends which had us quickly scooting off. It’s definitely a very low-key affair. Reckon the whole big bang is only happening during New Year celebrations! Sigh! Wrong place, wrong timing again. Felt really bad for leading my friends to something that amounted to nothing…
Singapore Saga (Part 1)
I went down to Singapore for the Xmas. Managed to get a midnight bus 
huluyue (well, it was 11pm) on the Friday night and back by Boxing Day. I was still working on the Friday night till the eleventh hour before I left to take my bus. Luckily, I had packed my bag on the night before. I met LM and Shadow at the KL Sentral LRT station before proceeding to take a cab to the Pudu bus station. I have never liked taking a bus from this station as it’s usually really packed and suffocating. However, since Nice didn’t have a later bus slot, we didn’t really have a choice. Anyhow, we waited for almost an hour before the bus turned up (so I was right after all, we took a midnight bus literally!) It was aggravating waiting for the bus and no replies from the people who sold the tix to us despite numerous inquiries. So, there we were, stuck in the bus station, inhaling all the carbon monoxide and carrying luggage which seemed to be getting heavier by the minute…
Finally, we got in the bus and as we bought the tix last minute, the 3 of us had to sit in different spots. The driver drove extremely fast and we reached Singapore in around 4 hours!!! The ride throughout was really bumpy with the air-cond turned on full blast and was so cold that I was shivering and curled up like a shrimp trying to get comfortable. We stopped in Yong Peng’s big and boisterous bus stopover…which I loathe actually. We reached Woodlands checkpoint around 5 am and there was such a huge traffic. (I was obviously duped as I was told that we were going in through the 2nd link) The driver dropped us off and told us to walk in as the place was congested. Queue inside was even longer!! Think we spent like 45 minutes just queuing and filling up the forms. After that, we took a cab straight to my friend’s house as it was nearly 6am. Reckon she would have gotten up kwa. Actually, felt so ‘pai seh’ cos we had to impose on my friend and her family as we couldn’t book any hotels due to the long holiday season.
After having a short nap, quickly got up, showered and had breakfast with my friend and family. Wow, the kids sure have grown!!! Just reminds me how much older I’ve gotten too! Sigh!! The newborn is really adorable plus she doesn’t scream when I carry her! I told my friend that she looked like a mini Michelin cos she’s so cuddly…We bought them Xmas presents and played with them for awhile before we started our shopping spree. First stop is Orchard Road (of cos). Practically broke our limbs just walking and walking on the endless
shopping street!!! The place is packed with tourists and Singaporeans as usual, and even more with the festive season around the corner. The shops extended their shopping hours till midnight for past few weekends and it was totally crazy. We had to wait for more than half an hour just to get a table to eat our lunch...Of cos we went shopping next door while waiting… Some of the stuff were cheap even after conversion but since I’ve been going down quite frequently, I’m more selective over the things that I buy nowadays and not buy impulsively just cos it’s cheap. LM who is making her virgin trip practically went berserk but I told her to just look around before starting her shopping spree.
The Xmas decorations this year is quite normal and not as spectacular as previously. Not sure whether I’ve become too jaded or what. Anyway, I still managed to eat my durian ice-cream at the roadside stalls and Sakae Sushi. I didn’t manage to go to Sizzler or Marche as LM just finished her pox and couldn’t eat a lot of stuff so mostly we went to foodcourts as there are more food choices there. (and also filled with a lot of bland food, I must add)
We were supposed to do a combo of sight-seeing and shopping when we were down there. Even tried slotting a gym session but ultimately, in the end it all became a shopping
spree!!! We scraped the Night Safari excursion as the place was too far from Orchard Road and everybody was getting listless from the endless walking. So we sat down, had a good dinner (after a long wait again!) then went to HMV for a browse. Of cos the ‘browse’ turned into a few hours culminating in us buying loads of cds and the place has to close shop for the night. I love going to HMV and each time I’m down in Singapore I’ll visit the music store. Reckon the selections are more varied than Towers and they are a great bargain. I got U2 latest singles collections (just love the group), The Killers latest album, “Sam’s Town” and Pussy Cat Dolls album (their songs just seemed to stick in my head with the catchy tunes!!).
We got back just after midnight and the MRT were packed. I mean really packed like sardines!!! I’m like speechless cos it’s the last train and it was nearing midnight oredi. The commuters includes the young and restless to tourists (like us) and families with their young kids in tow. Oh well, since the public transport is so efficient and the place is relatively safe (according to my friend) then I reckon it’s safe to travel during night times.
huluyue (well, it was 11pm) on the Friday night and back by Boxing Day. I was still working on the Friday night till the eleventh hour before I left to take my bus. Luckily, I had packed my bag on the night before. I met LM and Shadow at the KL Sentral LRT station before proceeding to take a cab to the Pudu bus station. I have never liked taking a bus from this station as it’s usually really packed and suffocating. However, since Nice didn’t have a later bus slot, we didn’t really have a choice. Anyhow, we waited for almost an hour before the bus turned up (so I was right after all, we took a midnight bus literally!) It was aggravating waiting for the bus and no replies from the people who sold the tix to us despite numerous inquiries. So, there we were, stuck in the bus station, inhaling all the carbon monoxide and carrying luggage which seemed to be getting heavier by the minute…
Finally, we got in the bus and as we bought the tix last minute, the 3 of us had to sit in different spots. The driver drove extremely fast and we reached Singapore in around 4 hours!!! The ride throughout was really bumpy with the air-cond turned on full blast and was so cold that I was shivering and curled up like a shrimp trying to get comfortable. We stopped in Yong Peng’s big and boisterous bus stopover…which I loathe actually. We reached Woodlands checkpoint around 5 am and there was such a huge traffic. (I was obviously duped as I was told that we were going in through the 2nd link) The driver dropped us off and told us to walk in as the place was congested. Queue inside was even longer!! Think we spent like 45 minutes just queuing and filling up the forms. After that, we took a cab straight to my friend’s house as it was nearly 6am. Reckon she would have gotten up kwa. Actually, felt so ‘pai seh’ cos we had to impose on my friend and her family as we couldn’t book any hotels due to the long holiday season.
After having a short nap, quickly got up, showered and had breakfast with my friend and family. Wow, the kids sure have grown!!! Just reminds me how much older I’ve gotten too! Sigh!! The newborn is really adorable plus she doesn’t scream when I carry her! I told my friend that she looked like a mini Michelin cos she’s so cuddly…We bought them Xmas presents and played with them for awhile before we started our shopping spree. First stop is Orchard Road (of cos). Practically broke our limbs just walking and walking on the endless
shopping street!!! The place is packed with tourists and Singaporeans as usual, and even more with the festive season around the corner. The shops extended their shopping hours till midnight for past few weekends and it was totally crazy. We had to wait for more than half an hour just to get a table to eat our lunch...Of cos we went shopping next door while waiting… Some of the stuff were cheap even after conversion but since I’ve been going down quite frequently, I’m more selective over the things that I buy nowadays and not buy impulsively just cos it’s cheap. LM who is making her virgin trip practically went berserk but I told her to just look around before starting her shopping spree.The Xmas decorations this year is quite normal and not as spectacular as previously. Not sure whether I’ve become too jaded or what. Anyway, I still managed to eat my durian ice-cream at the roadside stalls and Sakae Sushi. I didn’t manage to go to Sizzler or Marche as LM just finished her pox and couldn’t eat a lot of stuff so mostly we went to foodcourts as there are more food choices there. (and also filled with a lot of bland food, I must add)
We were supposed to do a combo of sight-seeing and shopping when we were down there. Even tried slotting a gym session but ultimately, in the end it all became a shopping
spree!!! We scraped the Night Safari excursion as the place was too far from Orchard Road and everybody was getting listless from the endless walking. So we sat down, had a good dinner (after a long wait again!) then went to HMV for a browse. Of cos the ‘browse’ turned into a few hours culminating in us buying loads of cds and the place has to close shop for the night. I love going to HMV and each time I’m down in Singapore I’ll visit the music store. Reckon the selections are more varied than Towers and they are a great bargain. I got U2 latest singles collections (just love the group), The Killers latest album, “Sam’s Town” and Pussy Cat Dolls album (their songs just seemed to stick in my head with the catchy tunes!!).We got back just after midnight and the MRT were packed. I mean really packed like sardines!!! I’m like speechless cos it’s the last train and it was nearing midnight oredi. The commuters includes the young and restless to tourists (like us) and families with their young kids in tow. Oh well, since the public transport is so efficient and the place is relatively safe (according to my friend) then I reckon it’s safe to travel during night times.
Monday, January 01, 2007
A Brand New Year, A Brand New U!
Well, that's the tagline of the slimming company which organised a so-called 'health talk' on Sunday. Before i go on further, i must say that had i known that it was not a proper 'health talk' as described by my friend or that i had known the whole thingy was organised by a slimming company, i would never have agreed to go. This is becos in my mind, all the slimming companies are interested in is trying to grab hold of some naive and innocent people and try to convince (or dupe) them into signing up thousands of dollars of slimming packages and wat-nots...and mind you, they don't let you go that easily or settle for an answer like "Hey, I'm not interested or I'm not fat so i don't need slimming packages!!!"
Previously, i went for a free trial session which i won with a friend from a local magazine. So, we called up the company and booked an appointment. After we arrived, we were separated into 2 rooms where a consultant (in each room) started her sales pitch and try to coax us into signing up! Which lasted for more than half an hour. Anyways, i told them that i needed to try the thingy before i decide. I mean if you don't let me try the product or undergo the session, how the heck do i know whether the whole thing works rite? So, reluctantly, they let me go through the trial. I did the machine thingy, which was supposed to burn my fats with all the rubbery nodes stuck to various parts of my body and limbs and given slight electric currents, then go for a body scrub to exfoliate and move the fats and finally, put in a sauna cubicle to sweat out all the toxins in the body...Well, since it happened a couple of years back, that's what i can remember lar....
Anyway, after the whole session, i was put into the 'interrogation room' again. I was quizzed on the whole treatment and was measured as well. I did lose 'inches' but if i'm not wrong, those
were a result of the loss of water and not becos the machines performed some 'miracle'...they are not pulling a fast one on me that easily!! So when they finished their whatsoever pitch, i told them firmly that i'm not signing up! The sales consultant kept asking for the reason and i just said that exercising is a much better way to lose weight or maintainance in the long run as compared to slimming. We talked for like ages with me not budging and finally, she went out to get her manager. Then, both of then tried to convince me (again) to sign-up without signs of letting me go. By then, i was already pissed off and nearly shouted at them for such totally 'unprofessional' behaviour. I told them countlessly that i had gone for the session becos i had won it and not becos i was interested in signing-up for a slimming package! Unfortunately, they still persist and the manager had the guts to tell me that she needs to write a report on why i'm not signing-up!! I mean, does that sound logical or she thinks i'm a dolt??
Finally, my friend who managed to squirm from her sales consultant came to 'rescue' me. After the horrible incident, we went back and wrote a complaint letter to the local magazine. This has left a bad taste in my mouth on most slimming companies and that is also my first reaction when i found out that we were not going for a health talk per say but some dunno-what dupe show organised by some newbie slimming company which was based in Klang!!
Back to the wannabe 'health talk'. After me and my friends registered, we were given a redemption card where we could go around the various counters set up by the sponsors and get free sampling. First up, went for the free hand treatment. Oh, before that we were measured (height and weight bla bla bla) and filled up a form before we could do the hand treatment thingy. Basically, that's where they 'zoomed-in' to their potential targets and start the slimming sales pitch again!!! (which is really tiresome) The hand treatment is nothing extraordinary, just splatting on some hand creams, massaging it before dipping the hands into some wax stuff. So, u kinda get a wax handprint or something. The queue got quite long and nobody heeded us for awhile, which was irritating cos there was nothing that we could do with both hands covered with wax....
Afterwards, they started the talk, which was basically to promote the company and what they specialised in. The GM gave a talk and it tickled me that she has a somewhat gruffy horsey voice...muhaahhaha. Next up was the Marketing Manager. She spoke in English, interspersed with Mandarin or Canto in between. I don't want to sound mean but i had problems listening to some of her diction and pronounciation. We heard words like Nowsaday?? that's mean?? hmmm....
Anyways, they managed to get a gullible dummy to go on stage to do a facial and bust enhancement presentation. Interesting huh? And they were doing it like on half of the girl's face and bust to show the audience the 'difference'.
Urm, like i said earlier, i had my reservations about this kind of supposedly 'miracles' so i was bored to death. On top of that, i was having gastric as i didn't eat much before i went for my steps class in the morning. My friend told me there was a high-tea and i was consoled on the fact that at least there's a high-tea included with the RM50 tix! Waited till like 4pm and high-tea still did not materialise. We were treated to some amateurish dancing by amateur dancers, who didn't have co-ordinated dance steps in between. Made me wonder whether they were also staff of the company chosen to entertain us poor souls. Very cheapskate....
The sampling by the sponsors were also nothing to shout about. There were supposedly 2 stamps on our redemption card for the chicken essence but the guy told us that we could only sample 1 type, which he chose for us. And it's only a miserable quarter of the cup that i used to gargle my Listerine with...Hmmmpphhhh. Next up,. went to the bridal and photo counter where we were supposed to get 3 free photos taken. The lady told us that make-up, hair and outfit is not included in the free thingy. The hair and make-up is free if we signed-up for the slimming package or if we pay additional RM150!!! Next stop is to get our goodie bag. Apparently, we had to see the sales consultant and listen to some more sales pitch to get the goodie bag!! Since, nobody was free to entertain us, we just grabbed the goodie bag ourselves and left waiting outside the hall for our 'high-tea'! Guess what was served? Just sandwiches, fried popiah and some meehoon. Ahem, i think this is called refreshments and not 'high-tea'. Anyway, as i was really hungry, i ate the food and we left immeadiately. The goodie bag was just as cheapskate as the whole thing.
They gave us some bust ampoules, face tonic (all in trial sizes of course) and some vouchers, which can only be utilised at selected outlets (read as in Klang!!) The only thing which i found useful was the Aussino hand towel, which is really not that expensive. Oh well, lesson learnt. No more going for something without knowing the full info in future....
Quickly went home to bathe and get dressed to attend a wedding dinner. Both the bride and groom were my-colleagues and so, i met a lot of my ex-colleagues at the wedding dinner. For a 5-star hotel, the food is not that great. Anyway, it was fun catching up with some old friends...
Previously, i went for a free trial session which i won with a friend from a local magazine. So, we called up the company and booked an appointment. After we arrived, we were separated into 2 rooms where a consultant (in each room) started her sales pitch and try to coax us into signing up! Which lasted for more than half an hour. Anyways, i told them that i needed to try the thingy before i decide. I mean if you don't let me try the product or undergo the session, how the heck do i know whether the whole thing works rite? So, reluctantly, they let me go through the trial. I did the machine thingy, which was supposed to burn my fats with all the rubbery nodes stuck to various parts of my body and limbs and given slight electric currents, then go for a body scrub to exfoliate and move the fats and finally, put in a sauna cubicle to sweat out all the toxins in the body...Well, since it happened a couple of years back, that's what i can remember lar....
Anyway, after the whole session, i was put into the 'interrogation room' again. I was quizzed on the whole treatment and was measured as well. I did lose 'inches' but if i'm not wrong, those
were a result of the loss of water and not becos the machines performed some 'miracle'...they are not pulling a fast one on me that easily!! So when they finished their whatsoever pitch, i told them firmly that i'm not signing up! The sales consultant kept asking for the reason and i just said that exercising is a much better way to lose weight or maintainance in the long run as compared to slimming. We talked for like ages with me not budging and finally, she went out to get her manager. Then, both of then tried to convince me (again) to sign-up without signs of letting me go. By then, i was already pissed off and nearly shouted at them for such totally 'unprofessional' behaviour. I told them countlessly that i had gone for the session becos i had won it and not becos i was interested in signing-up for a slimming package! Unfortunately, they still persist and the manager had the guts to tell me that she needs to write a report on why i'm not signing-up!! I mean, does that sound logical or she thinks i'm a dolt??Finally, my friend who managed to squirm from her sales consultant came to 'rescue' me. After the horrible incident, we went back and wrote a complaint letter to the local magazine. This has left a bad taste in my mouth on most slimming companies and that is also my first reaction when i found out that we were not going for a health talk per say but some dunno-what dupe show organised by some newbie slimming company which was based in Klang!!
Back to the wannabe 'health talk'. After me and my friends registered, we were given a redemption card where we could go around the various counters set up by the sponsors and get free sampling. First up, went for the free hand treatment. Oh, before that we were measured (height and weight bla bla bla) and filled up a form before we could do the hand treatment thingy. Basically, that's where they 'zoomed-in' to their potential targets and start the slimming sales pitch again!!! (which is really tiresome) The hand treatment is nothing extraordinary, just splatting on some hand creams, massaging it before dipping the hands into some wax stuff. So, u kinda get a wax handprint or something. The queue got quite long and nobody heeded us for awhile, which was irritating cos there was nothing that we could do with both hands covered with wax....
Afterwards, they started the talk, which was basically to promote the company and what they specialised in. The GM gave a talk and it tickled me that she has a somewhat gruffy horsey voice...muhaahhaha. Next up was the Marketing Manager. She spoke in English, interspersed with Mandarin or Canto in between. I don't want to sound mean but i had problems listening to some of her diction and pronounciation. We heard words like Nowsaday?? that's mean?? hmmm....
Anyways, they managed to get a gullible dummy to go on stage to do a facial and bust enhancement presentation. Interesting huh? And they were doing it like on half of the girl's face and bust to show the audience the 'difference'.
Urm, like i said earlier, i had my reservations about this kind of supposedly 'miracles' so i was bored to death. On top of that, i was having gastric as i didn't eat much before i went for my steps class in the morning. My friend told me there was a high-tea and i was consoled on the fact that at least there's a high-tea included with the RM50 tix! Waited till like 4pm and high-tea still did not materialise. We were treated to some amateurish dancing by amateur dancers, who didn't have co-ordinated dance steps in between. Made me wonder whether they were also staff of the company chosen to entertain us poor souls. Very cheapskate....The sampling by the sponsors were also nothing to shout about. There were supposedly 2 stamps on our redemption card for the chicken essence but the guy told us that we could only sample 1 type, which he chose for us. And it's only a miserable quarter of the cup that i used to gargle my Listerine with...Hmmmpphhhh. Next up,. went to the bridal and photo counter where we were supposed to get 3 free photos taken. The lady told us that make-up, hair and outfit is not included in the free thingy. The hair and make-up is free if we signed-up for the slimming package or if we pay additional RM150!!! Next stop is to get our goodie bag. Apparently, we had to see the sales consultant and listen to some more sales pitch to get the goodie bag!! Since, nobody was free to entertain us, we just grabbed the goodie bag ourselves and left waiting outside the hall for our 'high-tea'! Guess what was served? Just sandwiches, fried popiah and some meehoon. Ahem, i think this is called refreshments and not 'high-tea'. Anyway, as i was really hungry, i ate the food and we left immeadiately. The goodie bag was just as cheapskate as the whole thing.
They gave us some bust ampoules, face tonic (all in trial sizes of course) and some vouchers, which can only be utilised at selected outlets (read as in Klang!!) The only thing which i found useful was the Aussino hand towel, which is really not that expensive. Oh well, lesson learnt. No more going for something without knowing the full info in future....
Quickly went home to bathe and get dressed to attend a wedding dinner. Both the bride and groom were my-colleagues and so, i met a lot of my ex-colleagues at the wedding dinner. For a 5-star hotel, the food is not that great. Anyway, it was fun catching up with some old friends...
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