UV-Musings

Shifting Out

2007-01-11T11:31:00.000+08:00

I have transferred my blog to another site. Pls goto http://uvmusings.wordpress.com/ TQ.

Ole Sayang

2007-01-11T11:30:00.000+08:00

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.

Celebrations

2007-01-11T11:29:00.000+08:00

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.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

2007-01-10T16:59:00.000+08:00

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.

Back to Yoga

2007-01-06T23:53:00.000+08:00

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.

Bonny's Kitchen

2007-01-06T22:24:00.000+08:00

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.

Post New Year Blues

2007-01-06T22:03:00.000+08:00

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.

New Year's Eve Celebrations

2007-01-06T21:11:00.000+08:00

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....

Makan Sutra

2007-01-06T20:27:00.000+08:00

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.

Shhh, I'm not here

2007-01-06T00:49:00.000+08:00

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?

Ginga & Evasive Side Kick

2007-01-04T01:07:00.000+08:00

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.

Scan the pool

2007-01-04T00:39:00.000+08:00

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....

Hoorah for the new BP

2007-01-04T00:13:00.000+08:00

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...

Singapore Saga (Part 3)

2007-01-02T15:48:00.000+08:00

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

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)

2007-01-02T15:47:00.000+08:00

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…

Singapore Saga (Part 1)

2007-01-02T12:43:00.000+08:00

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.

A Brand New Year, A Brand New U!

2007-01-01T18:18:00.000+08:00

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...

Stop Poking!

2006-12-21T21:01:00.000+08:00

The next day I was on leave. Just feels heavenly not having to wake up early in the morning to get ready to work. I pried myself from the bed and went for MW pilates class. As there were just a handful of us, we use the ball instead of the usual mat. Fortunately, my limbs were not as suong compared to going to G’s class but they were not exactly supple either. Price one has to pay for being lazy I guess. Afterwards, I went to do my annual medical check-up as I was getting paranoid that I may be hosting some deadly disease inside my body systems since I usually do my check-ups either early of the year or towards mid year.

I had a horrible experience the last time I did my check-up. The DOCTOR, I repeat the DOCTOR took my blood samples and poked both of my arms till it became blue black!!! Gees, I mean, it would have been forgivable if it had been the nurse, but it was the doctor for heavens sake who performed the task!!! She blamed it on my running veins and I had to stick big patches of bandages to cover the blue black for a week before it looked normal again! Oh, not to mention wear long-sleeves too! Of cos, I get weird looks from my gym buddies who thought I was abused! I tried wearing long-sleeves but it was just too unbearably hot plus the idiot SGP informed the entire class that I was wearing long sleeves! Duhhh….funny not.

This time, the person who poked me was very professional. There were no blue blacks and she didn’t poke to the left or to the right to search for my vein. One poke and the blood gushed out to fill the tube. Simple, really. For this alone, the place has earned some brownie points and I decided to go back to them for my next check-up in the following year.

After everything is done, I went swimming. I just love to swim. It’s just so unfortunate that FF doesn’t have a pool. That’s why I’m considering switching my membership to the new True Fitness outlet which apparently comes equipped with an Olympic size pool. I’m in two minds really as somehow I don’t like the discoey concept in True Fitness. And the amount of pillars in their studios is just horrendous. Well, I’ll see the place once it is ready. For me, swimming is still the best exercise. All you need is a swimsuit, a pair of goggles, swimming cap and sunscreen. No need to bother with buying different pairs of trainers for different exercises or gym apparels etc etc etc. Moreover, a good swimsuit lasts for many years so that’s definitely cost-saving. And I sustained fewer injuries too. When I started gym-ing, I was alternating between the tit tah lou and the gym week after week. That is why I reckon it’s so important to do everything correctly to minimize unnecessary injuries.

At night I was debating whether to go for SGP BC or cikgu’s BP. I told cikgu that I may possibly end up going to the pasar malam instead too….hahahaha. But in the end, I went for cikgu’s BP lor since usually it’s such a rush for me. I was amazed that the traffic was so smooth! So, I had made the right choice. I just love the shoulder track Something Going On (Crack It), which I just did on the sat. We did Phantom (again!) which is really ‘loh maeng’ and definitely not one of my faves. I much prefer Summer Rain. At least, the song is more catchy!!!

Toys, Toys, Toys

2006-12-20T14:18:00.000+08:00

After gym, I went home to take a rest before accompanying my mum and some aunts to a Xmas gathering. I agreed to go partly cos I had nothing else better to do and reckon I should stopped being a mall rat after hitting the malls for 2 consecutive days liao. It was more of a charity Xmas thingy with some Xmas sing-alongs and poem reading. My table, filled with all the aunties was a boisterous lot and was hushed by the organizer a couple of times! I kinda felt bored as I hardly knew some of the aunties (who were frens of my mum’s frens) so I kept myself busy texting to whoever who was in my phone book.

The thing about hanging out with ur mum’s frens is like they are always filled with lots of Q & A and they still treat u like a small kid. Well, of cos I don’t look like a small kid already but u get the drift. They catch up with each other on the gossips and then proceeded to show off their jewelries, clothings or dunno what else lar. I nearly drifted off to sleep in boredom and looked forward to eating. Alas, there’s not much food choices (again I must reiterate it’s a charity thingy so expectation has to be somewhat lower than usual) and I hardly felt satiated. As soon as the lucky draw, gifts exchange and makan session was over, everyone scuttled off quickly. My mum decided to hit Mid Valley (again?) since it was the nearest mall even though I tried discouraging her with feeble attempts.

Oh well, I had intended to do some Xmas shopping anyway. I went straight to the toy store to get some stuff for a fren’s kids. Gosh, it made me feel like a kid all over again. I was enthralled by a Pooh bear which can walk and run like a toddler once u pressed a button and it speaks a
geertsonck a few phrases too. I absolutely adore Pooh bear and once owned a huge bear which was about half my height. I bought it on a whim when I was in Singapore and had to lug it all the way back to KL!!! When McD’s had the Pooh and frens promo, I religiously ate McD’s for donkey weeks just to buy the whole collection!!! Between dolls and soft toys, I have more of a soft spot for soft toys like bears compared to dolls. I don’t remember owning many dolls but I do have countless bears!!! Hahahahaa…..

Urm, what was I talking bout already? Oh yeah, the toy store. I am not really sure on what gifts to buy for the kids as my niece and nephew are overseas so I hardly shop for any kiddy stuff, discounting the mandatory baby stuff which I share with frens when a frens’ newborn arrives. Anyway, I spent the afternoon browsing through the toys and observing what the kids in the store like to pick up to get a feel. I was tempted to buy the walking Pooh but the salesgirl told me it was meant for toddlers so I decided to get a doll instead for the little girl.

I reckon the parents would have bought tons of Barney stuff for their
morrisonmcdf little girl as she’s a hardcore fan of the purple dinosaur. I had no idea who or what Barney was till I played with my fren’s daughter, who made me sang Barney’s songs as well with her!!! Which I didn’t know of cos but some songs seemed suspiciously similar to some of the nursery rhymes and sing-alongs which I used to sing when I was younger. Anyway, I just played along to keep her happy. Boy, it’s tiring looking after a kid!

In the first half of the day, I chose to baby-sit her little brother who was a toddler at that time since he looked like a really easy baby to take care. Yeah, well, I was half right. Turned out carrying him everywhere on my arms is like carrying a 5kg of rice on your shoulders the whole day! My arms went numb! That’s when I switched to looking after the girl who would at least walked by herself cos I told her I can only carry her for like 5 min the most!!! She was also easier to please cos I just give her some sweets or chocs then she’ll stick to me! Hahahaha….tho’ I have to answer thousands and one questions and sing songs and play and watched TV with her before she lets me go to bed!!! Ahhhh, sooooo very very very tiring! I got her younger brother a remote control car, which I knew even adults guys like to play (for e.g. my brother). Actually I was hesitating between the car and a train set cos I knew my nephew loves cars and trains especially Thomas the Engine and Bob the Builder. (Had no idea what they were till my sis showed me) but I reckon carrying a train set up and down a bus is urm, too much of a hassle!

leenalopez3

After buying the toys, I was dead tired and headed back home!

BP + InterSteps

2006-12-19T17:18:00.000+08:00

On sat morning, I woke up early intending to go for Pilates but my dad wanted me to go check my brakes so by the time I’m done, I was already late! Thus, decided to go for DC’s BP instead since I haven’t gone for quite a long time ever since I had to work on Saturdays! Boo-hoo-hoo….I like DC’s tracks selections as he likes to play older releases and that day, the selections were good! He did Surrender, Voodoo Child, Push It, Gonna Make U Sweat, Lola’s Theme, Something Going On, Don’t Cha, the rest cannot remember liao.

After that, I stayed on for cikgu’s Inter Steps. Aiyoh, that fellow did diamond shape wor. I have only been doing 1 board all this while for Basic Steps suddenly ask me to do 4 boards some more sharing with 3 other people, how lar? I kept grumbling to myself and to LM, who made a surprise appearance!! Within 15 minutes into the class, there were already 3 intricate combos!! Wah sehhh, since everybody was standing so closely, I couldn’t even differentiate which ones are cikgu’s legs so me become so kelam-kabut and not only stepped onto other people’s feet but banged into them also! At one point, felt totally lost and me and LM just looked at each other and shook our heads in confusion!! After that, I gave up liao and went out of the class with LM, who was even more blur than me!! LOL….I think back so hilarious lar

After the class finished, cikgu came out and scolded us for leaving so fast. I retorted that the class has leanings more towards advanced steps than intersteps with the speed that they were going!! All I see were just many pairs of legs twirling and going up and down the step board, which is exactly what I told N when we were outside. And I was just at what, Basic? Duhhh…can’t blame me for going off. I didn’t relish standing in the class looking like a dungu! Anyway, cikgu promised that he’ll let me know in future if the class is gonna be simpler so that I can participate. Hmmphhh, dunno whether to trust him or not.

Bargain Hunter's Paradise

2006-12-19T17:17:00.000+08:00

After my swim, I went down to Queen’s Park, where I heard there were some factory outlets including Espirit and Guess. Initially, I was supposed to meet a friend up for lunch since she was working nearby but it didn’t fell through in the end. I was stuck on the highway for at least half an hour where traffic was at a crawl!! It was rather unnerving and I was heading to the utmost jam area of KL furthermore! Sigh! Bad timing! Anyway, I got lost since I was not familiar with that area. I could see Carrefour from afar but had no idea how to reach it and so I was turning in circles! Finally, I managed to call a friend to give me some directions before I completely lost my mind.

Queen’s Park housed some factory outlets like Espirit, F.J Benjamin (which distributes Guess, Nike Timing etc), Lovely Lace, F.O.S, Club 21 (distributes CK, Armani Exchange etc), Travelers’ something (selling luggages and winter wear) etc etc and is located just opposite Carrefour in Jln Peel. Most of the stuff are out of season and are sold at a fraction of their retail prices. It’s a good bargain-hunters place I reckon if you can find what you want. Ampang Point is another bargain-hunters paradise when it used to house Royel (which sold British India out of season stuff) and Padini group (Seed, PDI, Padini, Vincci). Also, there’s a huge Payless Book store located there which is a bookworm’s dream. After walking around and trying on seemingly endless clothes, I went to Sushi King as I was ravenous! It’s been ages since I had Jap food and as it’s a rather ‘healthy’ option, I decided to indulge myself.

I wanted to go for BS and BP but since Shadow ffk me, I was rather 15 16 of going. Also, my mum text me and told me that they were trying out a new restaurant and whether I would be joining for dinner. Being the glutton, I decided to skip gym for the night and went to makan instead! Luckily, I didn’t promise cikgu that I was going for his class that night otherwise kena scolding nanti. Hehehehe…

Swim, Swam, Swum

2006-12-19T17:15:00.000+08:00

On Fri morning I had intended to go for Pilates but was so tired that I decided to continue sleeping instead. Out of guilt, went swimming after that. Also, was trying to shock my body system into losing some excess weight gained over my ‘stressful’ period recently. See, some people actually lose weight when they are under stress. Me, i gained weight instead, can't figure out why....plus i get a lot of acne spouting out. So, stress is really, really bad for me. Anyways, I missed a turning and went a merry-go-round before I reached the pool. Ahhhh, it’s great to swim in the morning!! The water is clean (think they just cleaned it) cos I can taste the chlorine. I have misplaced my goggles and I couldn’t find my spare ones that I had lent my brother so I just went without it. Bad mistake!! I nearly drowned! Cos I was happily swimming without opening my eyes in the water and I felt really tired so I decided to stop midway. Arrggghh, suddenly I couldn’t touch the floor and it made me panicked!!

See, I hadn’t realized that I had swum to the middle of the pool where it was deeper. I fumbled in the water for awhile, gasping for air and trying to think. Somewhere out there I could hear someone shouting, “Are you ok?” Immediately, on a brainwave, I struck out my arms and backstroke to the side of the pool!!! I took a breather and calmed myself down and shouted back to the swimming coach that I was ok. Phew!! This brings back memories of another almost drowning incident few years back in Redang.

See, me and some friends went holidaying in Redang. The package included snorkeling trips to the open sea. One of the days, the sea was very choppy due to the strong current. We were too engrossed looking at the beautiful coral reefs that we didn’t realize that we had drifted far away from the boat. At one point when we looked up, most of the people around us had gone aboard the boat already! So, we quickly swam towards the boat. Unfortunately, we were swimming against the current which was really tough unless one is a really strong swimmer.

Among the 4 of us, only 2 of us knew how to swim. I was one of them but then, I was just a casual swimmer and not really a strong one. We had on the life jackets which made it harder to swim actually. So the 2 non-swimmers hitched onto the 2 swimmers and tried swimming back. It was so tiring and self-defeating that thoughts of drowning in the sea actually entered my mind! Finally, as a last attempt, we shouted for help and luckily the guides heard us. They threw the float to us and hauled us in. It was such a relief when we got aboard the boat! I think we were green from fright and didn’t utter a word thereafter due to the shock!

Feeble attempt at Intersteps

2006-12-17T02:44:00.000+08:00

Hooray, I’m finally on leave!!! I went for KWS (Karaoke Wannabe Singer) intersteps class in the early morning. There were just a handful of members and most of them looked like the tai-tais who don’t need to work but just go out and socialize and fetch their kids to tuition and curricular activities whatnots . KWS creates her chory there and then and it makes me so confused. Cos I’ll memorize the ‘combo’ which I thought was the one and she’ll keep on fine-tuning it till she’s satisfied before settling on another combo. This is somewhat different from cikgu’s style which he had pre-chory earlier in his head! Same goes for BCow. Hmmm, I shall boy-cott her freestyle steps classes in future! I stuck to it for as long as I could before scuttling out as the other members were going way too fast for me to follow through. I smiled feebly at KWS who gave me a questioning look when I left.

I went on the stepper to do a proper workout since I was mostly standing and watching the others do. I didn’t stop till I was pouring sweat. Since I had time to kill before my lunch appointment, I went and do some machines exercises. I chose the leg press and a PT approached me to teach me the correct way of doing the exercise, while trying to sell me the idea of getting a PT. I pretended to not know what he was getting at and just nodded at the necessary juncture. Thereafter he left me alone and I quickly went to bathe.

I arrived in Mid Valley (again) during lunch hour and spent more than 20 min trying to get a parking space. In the end, I resorted to stalking shoppers when they stepped into the car park.

Bumpity bump

2006-12-17T01:52:00.000+08:00

I had to attend an early meeting on Wednesday morning and was supposed to meet my boss in the office before going there together. Imagine my surprise when she suddenly announced that I was designated as the driver! Cos all along, she had been the driver and I’ll was the navigator. Anyway, I drove as safely as possible and avoided the temptation to speed though it was marred by the pot-holed road that we took so there were some bumpy rides along the way!! Of which I had ceremoniously warned her at the beginning of the trip. Well, she told me that it was for the best since she was afraid that her 'monstrous' car was unable to park that easily in the limited carpark. Most of the people who knows me seemed to prefer me to drive as i know the roads quite well, including the small road diversions so they can just lean back and snooze or just do nothing in particular. I guess it's good for me too since i don't need to navigate and have pointless arguments on where to turn or which way is the shortest route to take.

The meeting room was tremendously warm and there we were, all decked up in our coats and jackets and drips of sweat were rolling down our foreheads!! Duhhh…it wasn’t a pretty sight! Anyway, it was a relief that the meeting was a relatively short one and I was glad to get back to the office where the temperature is definitely more appealing, though sometimes it can be freezing cold when it rains and i had to bundle myself like an Eskimo! My boss had some on-going training and I was pretty much left to my devices thereafter. I started calling the hotels down south where I had planned to spend my Christmas this year since I took the whole week off. I didn’t relish the thought of having to spend my hols sitting at home and rot.

Initially, I had planned on going to HK but since LM had the pox, the trip was postponed till next year. Unfortunately, since it was so last minute, most of the hotels were fully booked and bus tickets were minimal too. As a last resort, I text my friend and asked whether it was ok for me to crash into her place for a couple of days! I desperately needed a break and if she had said no, I would have looked for an alternative elsewhere! Fortunately, she said yes and immediately I went down the bus station to grab my bus tix that night itself right after my yoga class.

It’s been ages since I last did yoga so I felt my body wasn’t as flexible as previously. I had problems twisting and doing some of the poses. Gees, this is bad! Does this mean that I have to stick to being a gym member for life, huh? My friend, CL, who is the yoga instructor replied me yes in jest. Duhhhh….I didn't sweat much in the class so i reckon the class wasn't that difficult compared to when i go for V's classes where I practically sweat buckets. CL commented that he was being lenient to us and mainly stuck to poses that we had done previously. Of cos me having stood right in front of him couldn't slack off and like an obedient child, tried to follow his every movement. Talking about V, hmmm, i wonder whether he's back from his sabbatical? When he's off, i also take off...hehehehe

Going Bananas!

2006-12-17T01:38:00.000+08:00

It was back to work on Tuesday and Wednesday again before I went on leave on Thursday. I consoled myself that I just needed to bear with it for 2 more days before I will be free as a bird! I had Monday blues on Tuesday and I was kinda brain dead too so i was probably not really that productive. In between I was chatting with cikgu so that could be another reason too I guess. Hehehehe…I quickly finished some stuff for the meeting in the following day and left early to go for cikgu’s class. I managed to string along Shadow to the class but she left midway due to stomach cramps.

Cikgu made a bundle of errors during class and punished himself with some push-ups….muahahahaha. His entourage stood at the back of the class including BG (surprise, surprise?) and all of them wore yellow!!! Yeah, including him too! Hmmm, I asked him whether it was cos he suddenly went ‘bananas’ or the bunch of bananas at the back of the class distracted him, leading to the errors the following day, which he readily admits…wakakaka. Surprisingly, BM didn’t wear a yellow top that night or ever since I pointed it out to cikgu. I felt terrible! Well, maybe just a little…:P Oh yeah and he said the yellow thingy was some colour coding wat-nots! Duhhhh....cheap thrill! LOL....

Tracks played sounded suspiciously similar to the ones played 2 weeks ago though some are my all-time faves like One Nite in Bangkok, I’ll Find A Way, Heatwave, Faster, Harder, Scooter etc so he's forgiven. Oh well, better not complain too much otherwise he’ll stop taking my requests in future. It felt great having sweat buckets after such a long time of not exercising. I guess it's the endorphins that made me delirious! Hehehe...

Hooray! It's a Holiday

2006-12-17T01:18:00.000+08:00

Monday was a public hol and I was feeling on top of the world not having to goto work. I had promised CC to go shopping with her and both of us arrived in Mid Valley at the dot of 10am. Imagine our surprise when the parking seemed to be rather full already and there were throngs of people who had gathered in the Centre Court taking pix!!! Hmmm, everyone is so kiasu nowadays but I guess can’t really blame them as the place tend to get really packed later in the day!

We walked almost the entire day, shopping for new year clothes and my legs felt so sore at the end of the day, I nearly had no strength to drive back home! Not to mention the heavy traffic that I had to trudge through while getting out of the mall. Uggghhhh! Fortunately, we managed to get some stuff that we wanted and it’s not a ‘wasted’ trip. It’s been ages since I stepped into the mall ever since I left my ex-firm, which was located there. How I missed the mall! Hehehehe…So many of the shops have been renovated and some have even moved to another location so I suddenly felt that I had lost my bearings when in previous times, I knew the mall’s layout plan at the back of my hand!

When I reached home, I slumped on the couch all worn out and dozed off. When I woke up, I had my dinner and proceeded to glue my eyes to my ‘marathon’ HK serials.

Diamonds are Forever

2006-12-17T00:31:00.000+08:00

Gees, I must make it a point to update my blog more frequently in future. Now, I have to rack my brains on what I did in the past 2 weeks. This back-tracking thingy is a no brainer. Ok, let me refer to the calendar first. I went for the PD hunt on the 2nd Dec, had food poisoning on the 3rd, and took an MC on the 4th. Right, then I worked late on Tues and Wed, which meant no gym-ing as I had to rush some stuff for a meeting on the Thursday. Since I didn’t manage to take my leave on the previous Friday, I intended to postpone it to the coming Friday and Saturday to prep for the Mensa hunt on Sunday, 10th Dec. However, again I had to cancel my leave as work was not finished and I was left feeling ‘burnt-out’ and brain dead for the hunt.

On the sat after work, I went to Atria to look for my dictionary cum thesaurus as advised by a pro-hunter. However, after trundling through all the floors, I still couldn’t locate Payless Books but instead chanced upon Big Bookshop clearance sale. They didn’t have the dictionary that I had ear-marked so I didn’t get to buy it but another book titled “The Lazy Girls’ Guide to Losing Weight and Getting Fit” caught my eye instead. Since it was a steal at RM10, I got it as my bedtime reading material. Ahwell, in moments of desperation, any glimmer of hope is pounced upon. Hehehehe…One of my ex-uni mate buzzed me and wanted to pass me a wedding invite so I loitered around for a little longer than necessary while waiting for him to come.

The next day I got up earlier than my norm working days and proceeded to head towards the Mensa hunt flag-off point, which was in Sri-KDU smart school, a private school for the filthy rich or the ‘ambitious parents’. CC replaced LM who was down with chicken pox and not food poisoning as initially diagnosed. I and CC reached early and sat waiting for Workaholic and hubby to arrive to round off our team. As expected, the questions, which were set by the Mensa past chairman were mentally challenging and we cracked our brains trying to solve the questions. I supposed he had to make the questions tougher as the best of the hunting fraternity all joined in the fun, including some CoCs (Clerk of Course, who sets the questions for the hunts)

The theme this year was “Diamonds Diversion” and most of the questions revolved around this theme one way or another. I never knew the word diamonds can bring about so many meanings until I googled it through Wikipedia. Luckily, my colleague had hinted to me of the central theme otherwise I wouldn’t have done so much preparation work. Oh boy, this felt like sitting for my year-end exams during my school days with me doing a last-minute ‘mugging’.

The questions were ‘intelligently-set’ and I marveled at his expertise and learned ways of constructing the questions with seemingly innocuous signboards, with some of the questions testing on current affairs. On top of that, he managed to throw in some red herrings along the way and we, being inexperienced newbies fell hook, line and sinker to most of them. The highlight of the hunt was the laundry ball which was given as a treasure to us this time as opposed to the usual way of breaking a puzzle and figuring out what the treasure is. When we looked at the treasure, we were totally stumped and fortunately, CC managed to ask the right person in a shop selling household wares who knew of its usage. I reckon we didn’t do too badly as we were just a few points shy of the team in the 20th slot, which happened to be my colleague’s team.

This is as my colleague puts it, our 'baptism of fire' in the hunting game as it represents one of the tougher hunts around....and like its namesake in the song, Diamonds are Forever, this hunt is very memorable and proved to be an invaluable experience.

Hunter or hunted?

2006-12-12T14:48:00.000+08:00

Hmmm, it’s been ages since I last update my blog…have been super duper busy slogging at work and going for my treasure hunts on the weekends. Last week I just stepped into the gym twice and that’s for BC. I went treasure hunting to PD the day before I had food poisoning. As mentioned earlier, I had intended to take leave on the fri to prep myself for the hunt as I was driving. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my leave last minute and went back to work. I got off early though as I was too brain dead and went for SGP’s BC. He however ffk the class and Pickles replaced him. Well, thanks to Pickles, my heartbeat went Boom, Boom, Boom again and I rediscovered my passion for BC….hehehehe

Got up real early on the sat morning and went to pick up my team members to go for the hunt. Felt somewhat excited as this outing was very spontaneous and agreed upon in less than a week. A bit ‘chung tung’ but that’s the thrill I guess….We also thought it would be a great prep exercise for everyone before the ‘mentally challenging’ Mensa hunt. Anyway, I having been so stressed at work lately, plus PMS plus lack of sleep was making me super grouchy and cursed at everyone who obstructed my way and shouted at my poor navigator, which by the way was her first-time at that role. Now, I realized that I am not a good driver and should just contend at being either the navigator or passenger.

I don’t have a ‘fixed hunting team’ as yet so it’s kinda a mish-mash group mostly, some with more experience than others but I reckon the most important thing is teamwork. Everyone contributes in one way or another regardless of the role that they play and it’s the camaraderie between the team members that makes it so much more worthwhile. Of course, mostly I have the final say on the answers. I’m not sure why even though I am also considered a newbie at this. Probably I’m more street-smart gwa….muahahahaha…size of head swollen to 2 sizes bigger due to ego ballooning…

The hunt was tricky to say the least and as we were not experienced enough, we fell for most of the red herrings dangled to us. I felt that the questions were not 'tight' enough and some were just too vague leading to us just 'hentam-ing' the answers. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the hunt, thrashing out whatever answers that popped into our heads, with some ridiculous far-fetched ones in-between too!!! We even trailed a pro-team and asked the shop-keeper what they bought as we couldn't cracked the treasures questions. Trust me, this is one of the 'survival skills' when in desperation. Muahahahaha....I heard from my colleague that a Master hunter joined her team once and there's no such gila antics abound. The whole car is really quiet and the Master takes answering the questions very seriously!! Sei lor, i think i will not be able to withstand that kind of pressure man.....

I'm glad that i have a bunch of hunting enthusiasts to call upon whenever i want to go hunting. The only problem is there's lack of a voluntary driver all the time. Somehow, nobody wants to be the driver, which i reckon is the easiest role to be in. Everyone wants to be either the navigator or the passenger. But when i volunteer to be the driver, i was told that i'm more suited to fit into the passenger role. What happens then? Regardless of whether i'm the driver or the navigator, i'm still engaged to help solve the questions. No doubt everyone should be invoved in solving the questions but i think the onus should mostly be on the 2 back passengers when there are 4 persons in the car so that the driver and navigator can concentrate on the roads and make sure everyone is in safe hands and the team doesn't get lost. We have not reached the status of the Masters who can make do with just 2 team members who can multi-tasked and still do well. Sigh...am not feeling too happy about this as everyone seemed to be too dependent on me sometimes....

Hunting though is not everyone's cup of tea except for those who relish in participating in some cerebral activities and mentally challenging exercises during the mostly weekend held events. As for me, i reckon it not only helps to improve my vocab but also builds on my general knowledge. And if they are outstation hunts, i get to indulge in my adventurous spirit of travelling and discovering new places too...how i wish i had discover this hobby earlier...but i guess it's never too late...:D

Down in the Doldrums

2006-12-06T14:12:00.000+08:00

My song of the moment is “Promiscuous” by Nelly Furtado feat Timbaland…really love the catchy beat otherwise life is in the doldrums. I am still stuck under heaps of work which hopefully will all be over by tomorrow…keeping fingers crossed. Meanwhile, my face is plagued by adult acne due to the tremendous stress faced at work and the onset of my PMS. Uggghhhh…I could practically joined the ugly pimple dots on my face right now, it’s so depressing. I have already downed 2 cups of coffee since this morning and that’s before lunch. I think I need another one to pull me through till evening. This is really terrible.

I just had food poisoning over the last weekend where I had slept through day and night scrunched up like a prawn, with a woozy head and a queasy tummy. That, after throwing up in the early hours of the morning!!! I finally visited the doc in the late evening after having been unable to withstand the torture any longer. The pain did not subside as I had fervently wished for despite sleeping for what seemed like donkey hours to me. The doc diagnosed me as having food poisoning and suffering from food indigestion due to oily food consumed. Right, that means eating bland food for the next few days. I took the Mon off as my stomach was still troubling me and when I looked at food, I felt nauseous. Very well for taking a few pounds off albeit the hard way, this was how a friend consoled me. LM was in the same boat as me, suffering from high fever and throwing up occasionally. So, there we were, 2 miserable souls wallowing in self-pity sms-ing each other to keep abreast of our ‘recovery’. If it wasn’t so painful, it would have been hilarious. Anyway, I got some vcds to keep me company, alternating between watching the serials and drifting off to la-la land.

I managed to summon enough energy to go gym for my BC in the late evening and as usual, I arrived on the dot. I am sure I looked really wan and dreadful and my gym buddies looked surprise to see me as I had been MIA for BC for quite awhile now especially Mon class. I became tired very easily and resorted to stopping after every track to catch my breath and sipped some water to keep me going. Fortunately, SGP was tired as well since he took a break at every track. I left immediately upon finishing the class to go bathe for fear of the long queues.

Soliloquy

2006-11-30T18:18:00.000+08:00

*Groan* I am soooo tired! It’s as though no matter how much zzzz I get, it’s never enough. I guess I’m having a burnout with the long working hours I’ve been putting at work for the past couple of weeks! Yesterday night, I fell asleep while watching a dvd and it was only 10 plus! Hmmm, and I couldn’t even wake up this morning.

I went for a massage on Mon night after work as I was having neck and shoulder pain, prob due to the position that I was sitting facing the pc. Anyways, I ended up getting a foot massage as well since I was feeling paranoid about having some unknown disease or wat-nots lurking inside my body system with the amount of junk and caffeine that I’m pumping into my body due to stress. Also, I have been procrastinating on my annual medical check-up so…The masseuse spoke to me in Mandarin as she’s from China and I reply (minimally) in my halting Mandarin. I had the neck and shoulder massage lying face down on the bed. My gawd, it felt like I was a pillow being pummeled to the ground, which obviously mean I had a lot of stress and tension on my shoulders!!

I reckon writing in a way is rather therapeutic to me as it allows me to ‘purge’ all my thoughts and ill-feelings onto something since I’m too tired to call anybody to pour my sorrows….i’m feeling kinda depressed today as I was supposed to be on leave tomorrow to prep myself for the hunt this Saturday but since ‘something’ popped up in work, looks like I need to cancel my leave….boo-hoo-hoo…and I was so looking forward to a little R & R…

Woe is with me
Mired in self-pity and sorrows
How can this be?
When it’s such a bitter pill to swallow

I write this poem to weep my grief
And hope that it’ll wipe away my misery
Wish it’s just a phase passing in brief
Cos this is getting really dreary!

A walk, step, pump to combat

2006-11-26T23:40:00.000+08:00

I had to get up real early this morning to go for a walkathon and it was a torture cos last night i stayed up pretty late to update my blog (and YM-ing on the side...hehehehe) while sipping on my X-mas special Toffee Nut Frapp (which is a tad sweet even though i've asked for the light one...hmmm...the usual one would have increased chances of me getting diabetes, i reckon!!) Anyway, apparently there's an on-going promo which the barista kindly 'highlighted' to me that upon purchase of 18 (yeah, you read that right) Starbucks beverages, i am entitled to get the Limited Edition Starbucks Coffee 2007 Planner and the promo is from Nov 13 till Jan 2nd! Well, i suppose, if i'm a diehard Starbucks fan, i reckon that's no sweat but for people like me who visit the place like once in a blue moon to take advantage of its wi-fi facility, hmmm, that's fat chance of me getting the planner, i must say!! The waiters were very nice and helpful and even gave me complimentary biscuits and muffins to try...hmmm, perhaps i should change my coffee fix to Starbucks instead of Coffee Bean after all....kakakakaka

I reached the Centrepoint Starbucks at 8am this morning to register myself for the walkathon. The newly-opened Starbucks outlet is a sponsor for the walk and we get free-flow of the freshly brewed coffee and tea. Oh yeah, we also got goodie bags from Starbucks, which included their apple cinnamon muffin (yummy), fruit cake, mug and cap! Not too bad, eh? *chuckle* And all in the name of raising funds for charity too!! The walk was organised by the BU community committee and was to raise funds for the Hope Shelter. I told my friends that since the walkathon is only around 2 plus km, it'll be a walk in the park and we just need to stroll along as though we were talking a walk to the local neighbourhood pasar malam. Muahahaha....Anyways, after all the ding-dong of registration, chit-chatting, drinking our fill of Starbucks beverages, we were flagged off around 9.15am. There were around 200 odd people and consists of senior citizens, families, yuppies and children. We started strolling but was amazed that the 'tai chi' group of senior citizens powered their way to the front line...Wow, it sorta crushed our ego somewhat with the lack of oommmphh the way we were walking compared to them....and we were supposed to be the *ahem* younger and fitter counterparts...hehehehe

A lady committtee member who passed us told us to just enjoy the scenery and not to hurry ourselves in pursuit of the faster walkers. CC commented that it's actually very hard for us to be disqualified as we lacked the energy to even run or jog our way through, much less talked about power-walking!!! wakakakaka....Anyways, cos of the 'stiff competition', we ended up walking just for for over 10 to 15 minutes round the neighbourhood block. Which is pretty fast!!! Since, we didn't win any prizes, i took off to go for my gym session.

I got to my freestyle steps class just in time or rather was just 5 minutes late. I was lucky there was still a spot at the corner of the room. It wasn't the best spot as i could hardly see BCow even though he was wearing a striking yellow top! hehehe...He did the sashay thingy (again!!! am beginning to think it's gonna be permanent chory) and i just sorta skip my way through that part...today, he did a dunno-what very fast motion side tap thingy (hmmm...must check with LM what's it called) and at a certain juncture, the whole class got confused again!! And i think this time round, BCow also got mixed-up...hahahaha....LM told me that the next level of freestyle steps consists of more combos and is faster paced! Ho-hum....i reckon then it'll definitely be awhile before i can advance to the next level lor....

Next, i joined in BP class as it's been ages since i last did BP...reckon it must be 2 weeks past. Tracks were mainly from older releases so i'm not really sure of the songs. Familiar ones were only Phantom of the Opera (torturing chest track) and Left Outside Alone, which is DC's fave. After BP, i summoned my last ounce of strength to go for BC! After the 2nd track, i gave up as my legs were screaming in pain!!! I signalled to LM and we both got out to take a breather!!! *Groan* that's all the punishment the body can take for a day, man!!

Village Park

2006-11-26T22:47:00.000+08:00

Got back from work yesterday and took an afternoon nap. This is seriously not good...i never used to take afternoon naps cos when i do, i usually end up not being able to sleep later in the night. Anyways, i had intended to wait for a friend's call and ended up dozing instead!! hmmmphhh...

After my afternoon siesta, I brought my parents to eat nasi lemak at Village Park in Damansara Uptown for dinner. Unfortunately, it was a wrong decision as most of the condiments were mainly leftovers. The famous deep fried chicken were all gone. So, we ended up making do with the basic nasi lemak with rendang chicken and side dishes of tempeh and mutton. The rendang chicken was quite good but my mum complained the sambal was a tad too sweet for her tastebuds. I like the way they cooked their rice. It's cooked in santan but the rice is just nice and firm and not too soggy. (the picture at the side is not from Village Park but rather a picture that i got from www.malaysatayhut.com/menu_large/Nasi%20Lemak.jpg though what we got was similar to this...hehehe)

This is definitely a skill, believe me...as i had cooked nasi lemak before and well, let's just say it's not too bad and edible lar....hehehehe...see, it was for my Home Science exams and we were all given different topics to cook. I chose nasi lemak as i thought it was the easiest and sorta coerced my family into eating them for one whole week as i had to practice and practice till i get it right!!!! kakakakaka.....and the dessert was ondeh-ondeh...which i must have made thousands of them!!! I think my sis was so sick of eating those that she just told me that it was perfect and i don't need to practice anymore....LOL

Yeah, back to Village Park, i've been there twice previously, both the times during lunch. And usually there's a huge crowd around, sometimes had to wait for seats too so when i got there yesterday and there were just a handful of people, i was really surprised. Perhaps, it should have alerted me. Ahwell....now i know better. Their mee soto and mee jawa (i think) are also good. The basic lemak served includes sambal, half an egg, cucumbers, ikan bilis and nuts. Additional condiments like the petai, sotong, beef or chicken rendang, mutton etc are add-ons and calculated according to the quantity taken. Admittedly, the price is steeper than the usual mamak stall variety but then again, the price is commensurated with the quality that we get...

Super-Size Me

2006-11-26T00:05:00.000+08:00

Anyways, since my dad was hogging the tv, i couldn't watch my dvd and waited till yesterday to watch "Super-Size Me" after i got home from gym. I was supposed to do BP but as i was late (again) and chatted with LM, i hit the stepper instead and did some cardio workout...not that i fancy but better than just bathe and go back rite? I wasn't feeling that great as i got some 'disturbing news' that day so it wasn't really a TGIF kind of thingy...

Right, back to the documentary. It was filmed in 2004 and followed the legal case of 2 girls who sued McDonalds for making them obese. The director who also wrote the film, put himself through a 30 day McDonald's diet, 3 meals a day, where everything has to be ordered from the menu, even the water! At the end of it, he put on like 25 pounds (which took him more than 9 mths to take off!!!) and his body fat and cholestrol level went sky-high!!! He had to take the super-size option (which was way larger than our local large size..*shock* *shock*) when offered which he ate and puke at one of the meals! It was utterly gross as they showed the puke too. I wonder how many of the Americans can actually stomach such monstrous proportions?? hmmm....would have taken me 2 to 3 meals i think....ironically as i was typing this, there's a McDonalds just right opposite from me.....hahaha....oh, just to share an interesting trivia....apparently, their salads, which by the way is not served here, contained more fat than Big Mac!!! Just wonder what kind of 'healthy' eating they are serving?? Hmmm, anyways, i haven't had McDs for awhile now. I remember previously i practically took McDs almost every week while i was collecting the Pooh soft toys!! yeah, yeah, yeah...that was some donkey years ago when i was still young mah...hehehe....well, i still have them and i'm proud to say that they are still in absolute 'mint' condition....muahahahaha

Recently, there was an article in the local dailies on the increasing obesity in the Asian regions with M'sia topping the list!!! And i quote here "Malaysia has the most number of fat people in the Asean region. In fact, the number of fat people here exceeds that in many developed countries, including Germany and France." Question is how did we get so fat? Was it due to the lack of exercise or are we eating way too much fast food due to the easy availability and fast-pace and unhealthy lifestyle that we are leading??? Hmmm....something to ponder on...

As for the legal case, McDonalds won and there was a Cheeseburger bill that was passed which ban lawsuits against the food industry that makes the people fat!!

Re-cycling BC

2006-11-25T22:49:00.000+08:00

Went for SGP BC the other day. Gawd!! It's so damn packed!!! Sigh!! And i actually thought of taking back this class? Oh boy! i must be nuts! As usual, i was late and didn't register or rather i was too late to register as the class was full oredi. So, i had to wait for everybody to get in first and negotiate with the 'bouncer' at the door to squeeze me in. Bahhhh...of cos, i can't just leave like that...it'll be such a waste of my time! And to think that i had snucked out from work to go for this class! Anyways, i was just too 'brain-dead' and wasn't really 'into' BC that night plus the tracks were mainly re-cycled from last fri's class. Beat It...again??? Oh gawd!!! Kill me puhleeeess...? Feel like beating him instead....He changed Track 5 though to Saturday Nite something...which i don't fancy too so i took the liberty of answering nature's call instead and took a breather outside...hehehe

Came back for Anything For Love, which is one of my fave track...the rest re-cyled tracks again. *Ahem* i thought he only re-cycles songs on thurs and fri, now it's like a week past and still re-cycling? duhhhh, luckily i don't go for monday classes anymore...can you imagine doing the same tracks like 3 times a week?? *choke* really beh tahan lar like that...after the class, we were told to stay back to *ahem* sing a birthday song for one of our gym buddy, LCG as SGP commanded...Wowsie...i reckon, the royalty don't get such red carpet treatment huh?? Well, i can't complain much since i was given a piece of the cake after the class, which i gulped down happily...apparently, it was baked by FBB and it was a lemon meringue, the same one as i ate in SGP house-warming i reckon....hmmm...chatted for awhile with some gym-kakis to catch up on some uhhhh...gym gossips....with the wookie...kakakaka

After i got home, where i was supposed to do some work, i decided to test my newly-bought dvds instead. I just got this new dvd which is called "Super-Size Me" , a documentary on the fast food, especially McDonalds...

Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle

2006-11-25T15:23:00.000+08:00

As I have been swamped with work lately, I haven’t been going to that many classes. On tues, I managed to sneak off early, got home, ate, slept and then only went for cikgu’s class….hehehehe…While going to the changing room, bumped into cikgu along the corridor who saw me and tried to hide from me as he knew I was gonna smacked him for something that he did. *evil grin* bah, he’s lucky that I’m such a forgiving person… hmmmmphhhh…I got into the studio and saw that everyone had oredi lined their boards nicely. So, I just squeezed in between 2 seemingly bigger gaps and chuck my board in while pushing the board behind me just a wee bit…uhh, okie, a lot more further from me…*snigger* well, the owner wasn’t around mah, nevermind lar, he wouldn’t notice at all…of cos, I forced LM to accompany me into the class as well…hehehehe…cos I dun have anyone to chat with me before the class starts mah…

BM and MIL stood at the back and were busily chatting away…hmmm, after I discovered BM knew I called him BM, I reckon he tried to stay far far away from me liao…anyways, I’m just too embarrassed to face him also lar. This time round, I was crossing my fingers that there was no JW in front of me so when the guy in front started his steps, I nearly choked!! Omigawd, he’s not a JW but a Butt Wiggler (BW)…ROTFL…step up, wiggle, wiggle…knee lift, wiggle, wiggle…basic, wiggle, wiggle….muahahahaha…it was seriously hard trying not to laugh out loud and stare at his butt and his barely there butt-length shorts!!! *choke* *choke*

Gosh, why is it that I am always standing next to some weirdos?? I think I was staring real hard at his butt cos at one point he just clutched his butt in an attempt to stop it from wiggling so much….and he turned back several times to glance if somebody’s watching (u know kinda like the feeling that somebody’s watching u from behind?)…the guy standing diagonally from us must be wondering why I was focusing on the guy’s butt all the time and he also turned to look at BW!! Kakakaka…oh man, this is so hilarious! Half the time, I wasn’t listening to what cikgu was saying lar so I got most of my chory wrong liao…hehehehe…though at one point I caught the words which went like “If u do this blah blah blah, u’ll have nice legs like mine!” Ugggghhhh, now i think he’s definitely obsessed with his legs….I looked at him and rolled my eyes in disbelief….uhhhh-ohhh…not this line again?…he laughed sheepishly…

We did “Let’s Get Loud” for the party track which had that sashay thingy…was thinking hmmm, is this fella doing this on purpose or what? I just complained to him that I dunno how to do the sashay thingy in my freestyle class oredi and now he’s torturing me with this??…bahhhh…Idiot! My only consolation that night was my fave track, One Night in Bangkok….ahhhh, it’s definitely been awhile though I got my legs all twisted up doing the wrong steps…hmmm, come to think of it, he hasn’t done Voodoo Child for some time now…must remember to ask him to do it the next round liao…hehehe

Bumbu Bali

2006-11-24T12:32:00.000+08:00

After finishing my gym session, me and LM decided to go catch a movie on a spur…I first went home to drop off my wet stuff then ate at the nearest kopi tiam. I love this kopi tiam as most of the hawker food is yummy…of cos my fave has to be the curry chicken chee cheong fun or the curry assam laksa (cham ‘tong’) When we reached the GSC, it was packed as usual, more so since the school hols has started…Unfortunately, the movie that I wanted to watch, Flushed Away (which I reckon would be better than Happy Feet, which urm, seemed juvenile…hehehe) was at a later showtime…a no-no since I had a dinner gathering later in the evening. So, we ended up watching Casino Royale again…yeah, me watching the movie 2nd time but I reckon it’s worth it cos this time round, I am able to absorb the storyline better and of cos the action scenes are really good too…just wished they didn’t cut it too much…

I had expected the movie to be 2 hours but ended up it finished around 2 and half hours plus all the preview trailers and wat-nots. So, was late for my dinner appointment liao when I got back. The rain had started to pour by the time me and family were on our way to the makan place. A friend introduced me to Bumbu Bali in Puchong and I found the food to be quite good so had wanted to bring my family to try it out. The place serves Balinese food, albeit fine-tuned to suit the local taste buds. Deco is very much Balinese style with soft music in the background and some paintings and knick-knacks from Bali being sold at the side. Furniture is teak (I think) and the whole ambience is very relaxed, which I favour.

We called 3 of their signature main courses to share as the portions are huge, namely the Nasi Campur, Nasi Ayam Betutu and the Grilled Chicken and Lamb Combo. Had the sate lilit on the side too (which are actually mixture of prawn & fish and looks like our local sate but was skewered in lemon grass instead of the stick) I found the recipe here...http://www.baliguide.com/balicooking/sate.html

Everyone love the ayam betutu, which was marinated and deep fried nicely, the meat was still tender and not coarse. I called a mocktail named Extra Virgin "something" Margarita to wash down the food. Unfortunately, as it's a mocktail, it kinda lack the 'kick' of the normal margarita plus it was really sour....which i guesswas good for digestion though with the amount of meat that we consumed. We couldn't finish the 3 main dishes and was thankful that we didn't ordered a meal each..as it is, we are stuffed!!! Previously, i tried one of the popular desserts, which was called Es Campur, not unlike our local ABC but it was sooooo sweet!! I had like one sip of plain water with every spoonful of the dessert...uggghhhh, which made me felt so bloated....

Dazed and Confused

2006-11-21T01:53:00.000+08:00

On sun morning, I religiously woke up to go for my Basic Steps class. The class is definitely getting more packed and those who were late had to stack their boards at the corner which happened to me previously. BCow taught more complicated chunk of combos and most of us were dazed and confused, so to speak, as the front looked to the back for guidance at times and the back just stared in front, lost!

I hate it when he does the ‘sashay’ thingy where he just sauntered off to the other end of the room and comes back with another style…think it’s a gallop or something! All I could see was just legs and more legs twisting and turning on the board and on the floor! Hmmphhhh…luckily he’s patient enough to teach it in slow-mo and gave easy options for dumb people like me, who gets really confused and worked up especially since it’s on an early Sunday morning, which is all the more torturing on the brain as it’s still half-asleep!!! I love his song choices though…and he introduced this new thingy which he called the ‘side pendulum’ whereby we do a side pendulum on each side of the board….interesting, I must say since I haven’t seen it before, though for the life of me still don’t know how it’s done as I took the easy option of multiple side taps… I lost my focus a couple of times during the class and ended up going the opposite way from the others so it was hilarious!

After basic, I rushed for SGP’s BC. Unfortunately, I was told upon arrival that he had FFK the class and there was a replacement. Ahwell, it’s LM’s fault….hehhehe…if she had gone to meet me for basic, I would have stayed on for Hooligan’s BC. Tsk, tsk, tsk…anyways, I reckon I’m not so choosy nowadays on the BC instructor anymore, unlike previously where I’ll just walked away if that particular instructor wasn’t teaching. So, the replacement was Youngest Incredibles (YI). I haven’t tried his classes since god knows when so was kinda curious on whether he had improved. Urm, not sure whether it was nerves or fear that the hardcore SGP fans/crowd was making him pressured so he made some errors, especially on his cue-ing and his ‘rhythm’. Song choices leaned towards the older releases which was easier to teach as they have simpler chory.

Anyways, I have to admit that it’s hard to follow other instructors style simply becos SGP’s rhythm is somewhat slower than the rest of them albeit following the music beat religiously. BM was hanging outside after changing from his BS attire. I can see that he’s no longer wearing ‘loud’ colours and he was errr, giving me and LM weird glances. Suspected cikgu might have told him what we had said after all…hmmm, I shall wring his neck if he did…Anyways, BM didn’t go into BC till the last 2 tracks! That was when me and LM had gone outside for a breather! And he did shout…both me and LM heard it! Hoo-hoo…I’m gonna tell cikgu that he’s so wrooong, wrooong, wroooong….

Steaming Hot Karaoke

2006-11-21T01:08:00.000+08:00

I felt lethargic on sat morn but still managed to drag myself to work in a half-daze. By the time, I reached home in the evening, I was so tired that I just fell asleep on the couch! Fortunately, I was able to wake up on time for my dinner appointment. Me and my friends went for steamboat in Yuen Steamboat in Sunway, which was supposedly good. Anyways, my gym buddy told me that the shop opened at 6pm so being kiasu, we arranged to reach there just in time for the shop to open in case there’s a long queue so imagined our surprise when we reached at 6pm and found the shop to be packed!!! The boss told me that they opened at 5pm and not 6pm as I thought. What a bummer! We ended up waiting for 45 minutes sitting like dungus on the outside stools before we finally got our table….am definitely making a reservation the next time I go…

The steamboat was buffet-styled so some volunteered to go get the raw grub….though we ended up eating a lot of balls! Chicken balls, sotong balls, fish balls….you named it, we would have eaten it! Gosh, I’ve never eaten so many balls at one go…well, no thanks to our dear friend, CC lar…*snigger* Midway thru our dumping the raw stuff into the pot to cook, we heard chair scratching on floor sounds and people rushing to the buffet table…CC enlightened us by saying that it’s those kiasu people who were trying to grab the chicken wings!! Hmmm…just wondered whether their chicken wings are really that good? Anyways, sad to say, after 3 times of serving the chicken wings, we still didn’t managed to get any due to the more kiasu people sweeping everything clean…of cos we blamed it on our seating position, which was at the far end of the room…but even the students who sat behind us managed to get the wings for a 2nd helping so it was kinda an embarrassing defeat!

Stuffed on balls and ice-cream, we adjourned for a karaoke session as we finished rather early. Unfortunately, we couldn’t even get into Sunway Pyramid, which was heavily congested due to some closure of roads so we landed up at Galaxy KTV (previously knowned as SongBird KTV), situated down the highway. There were parking available plus it has the added security of being located next to a police station so I guess we are pretty safe!! *chuckle* As we had gone in during “happy hour”, our package included 2 drinks and a buffet dinner as well and compulsory tidbits!! Which I think was daylight robbery!! Since we were already there, we just went along with it and got shown to our room. The room was spacious and could easily sit 8 to 10 people. As there were only 5 of us, we could practically perform somersaults in the room! The remote was not user-friendly like the one in Redbox so it took us awhile before we got the hang of using it to select the songs! We selected song choices ranging from oldies to 80s music to latest hits! Even attempted some Chinese/mandarin songs but as all of us were “banana people”, we could only sing a few verse lar….which is not to say that it’s the correct pronounciations too…but since there were no one to judge us, heck care…hahahaha…Nowadays, I favour more rock songs as it’s much easier to sing than the slower songs, which tend to lull one to sleep….and so melancholy too….hmmm…we finished off by midnite as everyone had the Cinderella syndrome and were yawning continuously….and you know how contagious a yawn can be! YAWN!!!

A Sensory Journey

2006-11-20T23:10:00.000+08:00

Last thurday, I was “summoned” to attend a business dinner. Now, I wasn’t really looking forward to it as the previous business lunch that I went, I was bored to tears though I was treated to delectable Japanese fare at Genji which was lip-smacking good…I had the buffet there previously and it was superb!! However, as I didn’t have a stomach big enough to try out everything that was laid out on the buffet spread, I had to discriminate about what I take and put into my mouth!! Well, as long as the sashimi is fresh, I do not have any complaints...though my pick for Japanese buffet still goes to Kampachi in Equatorial Hotel…until i try Jogoya in Starhill, which everyone's been raving about...

Right, back to my business dinner…when I heard that it was gonna be at Senses, KL Hilton, I was mollified as the food is decidedly good cos I remember the times that I’ve been there for functions and dinners at their ballroom, I’ve not been disappointed so far. When me and my boss arrived, the waiters had arranged a table set for 6 at a quiet and intimate corner with soft lightings, which had me urm, surprised as it looks too ‘romantic’ and was more suited for a gathering of friends instead of conducting a business meal. So, we waited for awhile for them to re-arranged the tables and sit us at another corner, which is more ‘open’ and conducive, not to mention being able to peer into the neighbouring restaurants…the high overhead ceiling was beautifully decorated with coloured glass panes in the 12 zodiacs…which I normally would have photograph if not for the fact that I was supposed to be on my best conduct that night and not behaving like some ‘Jakun’ who just came out from the jungle!!! LOL...

The aptly named Senses restaurant is classy and contemporary in deco and is headed by an award-winning world-renowned Malaysian chef who was previously attached to the Hilton Adelaide. The fine-dining restaurant serves Asian Fusion cuisine. The menu itself has limited choices and for once, there are no prices (??) on the menu and the chef had actually matched each of the culinary dishes with a wine listed below! Whoa…somehow felt ownself being 'elevated' into the upper echelons of society and got a sneak preview into the 'lifestyles of the rich & famous' ....ohhhh, luckily the company is footing the bill. Hmmm, the waiters and waitresses were very professional and were able to recommend food choices for each of us. We were given smoked salmon as starters, which came in kebab-style sticks topped with pickled cucumbers, which everybody thought were big blobs of wasabi initially....*chuckle*....compliments from the chef and different types of bread choice, which we get to select from the waitress and our own individual butter stored in jewellery-like box...the butter was really nice and creamy…you can almost eat it on its own without the bread!! Hehehee…The scrumptious picture on the above right is the chef signature dish, a starter named Four Dances of the Sea, which is a combo of seafood, taken from their website....

I started off with a seafood soup, with the seafood being presented in an interesting bowl and the soup then poured by the waiter from a teapot into the bowl. Hmmm, that was rather creative. The rest of the group had all their soup poured from an individual teapot as well. My boss had the Maestro Vegetarian starters, which was also one of the chef signature dish. The artistic dish looked too nice to be eaten and my boss raved about it. Ok, back to my seafood soup…the seafood was not boiled together with the soup as is the case elsewhere and thus, was able to retain its own natural flavour and not as bland if it had been done so otherwise. The waiter recommended me the Australian Halibut as my main course but I found the fish quite coarse, perhaps due to over-cooking or it was not defrosted properly. Unfortunately, I accidentally took the beef as well, which tasted like fried bacon even though I had informed the waiter to omit it. Hmmm…and I remembered seeing him write down the order too…oh well, no use crying over spilt milk I guess….My neighbour had the wagyu beef and she told me that it was really good. As for the rest of the group, some had the salmon and one had the Australian crayfish, which looked really delectable!! Wished I had chosen that instead…bad choice, bad choice…

We ordered fruit platter for dessert as everyone was too stuffed and were pleasantly surprised to see them arranged in a creative and beautiful manner, marrying local and imported fruits with sorbet at the side! It was fun trying to figure out which fruit was what, with the various types of berries in front of our eyes. We were also given chocolates, mini tarts and a sorbet each, compliments from the chef again!! That was a really nice touch even though we knew that the costs was somehow ‘inputed’ into our bill already. By the end of the dinner, everyone was fully satiated and beaming with a smile on their faces. My boss told me that she’s definitely going back next time for another Sensory Journey!

Return to BC!

2006-11-20T12:26:00.000+08:00

After skipping gym for like ages, I finally dragged myself for SGP’s BC on fri. Since boss left early for her dance class, I took the liberty of leaving early as well…snigger…it’s just too depressing to stay back on a Friday nite I reckon. So I went home, changed and picked on some tidbits before going. It was drizzling when I reached! Drat! Rain, rain, rain….all it does is rain everyday and makes everyone miserable…really beh tahan!!

I was late as usual for class…they just started warm-up so it was still alrite to jump-in midway…warm-up was Nessaja, one of my fave tracks…but since haven’t gone for BC for awhile now, memory is kinda rusty so got the chory a bit mixed-up…hahahaha..Track 2 was Blow My Whistle…urm, dun really fancy it but it’s still alrite…SGP did Addicted to Love for Track 3, which incidentally is Nikeboy’s fave, which he almost always do in his classes…Track 4 was Beat It, SGP’s fave…am not sure why...neither the song nor the combo is uhhh catchy to me….maybe it’s cos I don’t really fancy MJ...we did the circle track of Faster, Harder, Scooter for Track 5…which somehow always gets messy if done in a big studio….that's why most of the instructors hardly teach this track...

I absolutely luuuurve Track 6, which is Vogue from the new release…gosh, it’s so damn stylo…I can practically do the track everyday man!! Muay Thai was Hit them! (I think) and finished off with the stoopid gallop track, Furia….Ugggghhhh, I was intro to this track when a certain instructor (who has stopped teaching now) replaced one of SGP’s class and it has somehow left a bad taste in my mouth cos it so reminds me of him each time this track is being played, whether it’s by SGP or other instructors…conditioning track was One of My Kind, which I haven’t done for ages also…hmmm, finally, the cooldown, which is SGP’s fave again (but haven’t done for ages) was Freur Frei by Rammstein.

Reckon SGP looked tired and kinda lost his ‘spark’ in the classbut thought maybe it was cos he just rushed from another class before this. Later learned that he was sick the day before…hahahaha…which is so typical of him, spreading the virus to the gym members just so he could get well faster when the virus managed to latch on to some new victims!!! Ahwell, I do that all the time too!!! Waakakaaka…

After BC, I decided to go for BS as well since the class was being replaced by Flintstone. I haven’t gone for his classes before so was game to try it out. SGP was very ‘encouraging’ since that’s his friend and the class usually attracts only a handful of members, mostly non-regulars I would say….anyways, I started out putting my board right at the back of the class but since there was a huge gap between me and the person in front of me, I moved it in front. The guy, who saw me moving my board forward decided to move his as well (??) so both of us continuously move our boards till he’s right in front of the instructor and me landed in the 2nd row!! At one point, i noticed that the guy in front was wearing an anklet (?) Hmmm…is it normal for guys to wear anklets, i wonder?? eyes rolling....anyways, it turned out that the guy was also a JW and he started gyrating at some point!!! Sigh! Why do i always end up behind a JW, huh?

Flintstone cue wasn’t really that spot-on and he didn’t do it as high-impact as cikgu…well, maybe it has something to do with his size, i reckon....so he kinda looks comical at certain errr movements....LOL....Sori, just couldn't help it....of cos i know it's unfair to compare to cikgu after all they are both uhhhh of different stature and size.....anyways, cikgu gets real 'high' doing BS and his movements become even more intense and high-impact, which motivates the class to work harder, i guess!!! And, ohhhh, did i forget to mention that there’s the added ‘bonus’ of looking at long and toned legs moving and jumping around…yeah, that's definitely a bonus and a good motivation factor!!!…hahahaha…

Casino Royale

2006-11-17T18:28:00.000+08:00

Woo-hooo…went to catch the preview of the new James Bond movie on Wed…Cheeky Chick (CC) had a few free movie tix so I and another fren went after work lor. Initially when I knew Daniel Craig (DC) was gonna be James Bond, I wasn’t enthusiastic about watching the movie as he urm, doesn’t look like the ‘archetypical’ Bond, if you know what I mean…anyways, I changed my mind after my bro showed me the movie trailer and it looks quite good…and well, he uhhh got quite a nice body too….hahahahaha…As the movie was a preview, there were some securities involved eg. we were not able to bring our mobiles into the cinema as they are afraid that we might ‘filmed’ the entire movie and duplicate it into pirated vcds and dvds to distribute to society….(yeah, rite…like what’s the capacity of a camera phone lar??? Can filmed the entire film meh? Duhhh..tat’s like unless u have a camcorder lar) Anyways, we were ‘scanned’ by metal detector as well just in case we didn’t feel like surrendering our mobiles to them…of cos, we were smart enough to dump it in the car…I mean who’s gonna guarantee that any ah chu, ah kau won’t take our hp wor?? Hmmm, don’t trust lar this kind of thing…plus, my whole phone book is in there so if I lose it, I’ll not be able to contact anybody liao since I only remember my own hp no….kekekeke

There was a trailer on “Dukun” which was a local movie about the Mona Fendi case…looks very gory and violent...anyways, I kept my eyes averted cos I can’t watch horror movies without getting nightmares!!! Right, then the movie started. Hmm, DC still don’t look good though he has the bluest eyes! He looks haggard and crinkly but beefy-licious…LOL. Okie, overall, the movie is pretty violent but it definitely has a better storyline than the rest of the Bond movies (I watched most of them…hehehehe) and the lead actress has a meatier role than the usual bimbo character. She’s an accountant with brains…*ahem* *ahem*…whom Bond fell in love with so the movie is kinda romantic and funny at times as both of them exchanged witty repartees initially before falling in love. Ummm, the sceneries are breathtaking as well as it was filmed in Venice, Switzerland and Prague…ahhhh, sooooo beautiful!!! Daydreaming….How I wish I could go there now….

This movie, which is the first Bond novel that Ian Flemming wrote tells how James Bond got his ‘00’ Licence to Kill and how he became more refined as the movie progress. The actions are really spectacular and the opening chase scene had us clutching to our seats cos very ‘kan cheong’!! DC seemed to have done most of his own stunts as there were close-up shots of him performing them…of cos, there was a very ‘painful’ torture scene which I think most guys will go “Ouch” when they see it…hahahaha… surprisingly, this movie doesn’t have very high-tech gadgets like the previous ones though the Aston Martins are real cool…ok, spoilers ahead…

The ending was really sad as the girl died even though Bond tried to save her….i reckon that’s why Bond became a womanizer and doesn’t really trust anyone anymore cos the love of his life actually betrayed him! Well, I believe she does love him to a certain degree even though she has a boyfriend who was kidnapped by the terrorist in exchange for the monies that Bond entrusted her with…ahwell…maybe I’ll go get the book to read..it should be better than the movie gwa….hmmm

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

2006-11-14T22:55:00.000+08:00

I attended a social event on the weekend. It was pretty amusing as i was asked some really weird questions throughout the night...First off was "Do you speak Mandarin?" Ok, this is not really surprising as most people seemed to think that i know Mandarin and are most likely to start off a conversation with me in Mandarin. Though i had tried studying Mandarin (confessed sheepishly twice in fact), i don't seem to have grasp the language very well. Of cos, when i start to speak in Mandarin every time, people will either burst out laughing or continue to speak to me at which point in time my brain had to work extra hard to process what the other person is saying then do a slow translation from Mand-Eng, digest, then think of a suitable reply in Eng before attempting (unsuccessfully) to translate back to Mand! See, it's just too much effort, i reckon so sometimes i just shake my head and say "I don't speak Mand" to kill off these people hopes of conversing Mandarin with me once and for all...Once in awhile i'll also get a lecture on why it's good to know your own mother tongue and bla bla bla...Sheeesh...

Next fave question was "Are you a Christian?" Now this is rather baffling especially when it was followed by the above question. I mean, most people who are Christians are usually English educated people so this really gets me stumped....i mean, how many English-edu people actually knows Mand too?? So, i asked them whether i looked like a Christian to them in which they answered yes...Go figure...though i agree some people do seemed to have a "Christian face" (no offence to anyone)

One person had the cheek to ask me whether i was a disco-kaki? I nearly jumped on him! What? Me? Someone who is so demure-looking?? muahahahaaha...oh, but seriously, i seldom hear this though my colleague had the same impression on me and didn't really believe me when i told him that i was a gym-kaki rather than a disco-kaki...Hmmm, just wondered what gave them that impression...perhaps i should revert to a China-doll hairstyle huh to look more goody-goody? LOL...

The highlight of the night came from a guy who asked me what was my profession? I told him in which he asked me what exactly do i do? In my mind, i was wondering which planet does this guy come from? The jungle perhaps?? So, i gave him a smile and replied sweetly that i deal with figures, accounts and calculator and he nodded his head! Imagine my surprise when he hit me with the next question? "So, are you the accounts clerk? or accounts assistant? or accounts officer?" I just looked at him baffled and wanted to smack him across...gees, does he like have an understanding problem or am i not speaking clearly enough...well, since other people seemed to have no problems understanding me, i guess it must be him! I patiently repeated that i'm an accountant and again he nodded his head. Then, get this...he said "What a co-incidence, i'm looking for an accountant to do some book-keeping for me" I'm like....errr, are you like offering me a job or trying to hint something here cos we don't seemed to be speaking the same wavelength after all....?? Then, i told him that he doesn't really need an accountant to do book-keeping...he just needs a LCCI grad who can jolly well do book-keeping for him at a minimal price...since he complained that the person that he asked quoted a 'big sum' to him...oh, what the heck! It's none of my business...i was very happy when i moved away from him and hoped that i'll never set eyes on him again....praying silently to God...

The other FAQ (frequently asked qustion) that i get is "Am I Local?" Gees, i never knew i had an 'outstation face' until people started asking me why is it that i never go back to my hometown during long breaks of hols...And me gives a big question mark face and replied "What hometown?" The funniest incident happened when i got a cab ride to the bus station during one of my hol trips. The cab driver, seeing me get in with a bag pack asked whether i was going back to my hometown. I told him that i was just going for a hol trip. Then he said, "But you are not local right?" I said yeah, but i am. He then proceeded to argue with me that i'm actually from Ipoh and that i'm only just renting a room here....I'm like...Hey, do you mean to say that you know me better than i know myself when i had been what..(counting my fingers) barely in your cab for that 10 minutes?? Anyway, after arguing unsucessfully (as he didn't really seemed to believe me) i just pretended not to hear what else he was saying and soon, he gave up and left me alone....

See, there are all sorts of people in this world and i'm just so lucky to be the one to meet them all (not)...it's just hilarious to think that people seemed to have all sorts of perceptions on another person based on the 1st impression when they meet the person...Oh, my gem of the night was "Are you still schooling or working?" Muaahahaaha....that at least salvaged a bit of my pride!!

Mad Mad Dash to Class

2006-11-14T18:37:00.000+08:00

It was absolute madness yesterday! Rain started pouring after i left the office and was on my way to pick LM. See, we had planned on going for cikgu's BP class and we even had a hand in selecting some of the tracks. Of cos we gave him a list of the 10 tracks but he said that he'll only pick a few of our choices and others will be his own. Oh well, whatever....better than nothing i guess since we don't even have a say in the other BP classes that we go to right? The rain became heavier as we went and practically everywhere's traffic was bad!! I finally got onto the NKVE driving at snail speed as i could hardly see the road!! I was also cursing at the other drivers who were obstructing my path and kept telling LM that this is a wrong, wrong, wrong decision. Somehow, whenever we decide to go for his BP class, something is bound to go wrong. The last time we went, it was really jam (as usual) and as i was rushing for time, i was very 'kan cheong' so i missed the turning and head on straight to Shah Alam!! Then when i was on the right track, i missed a turning again and almost headed elsewhere!!! Drat! Luckily i had full tank! So, as usual, we were almost late for class! hmmmmphh...

Cos of the heavy downpour, the usually packed class dwindled to less than 20 people. Hmmm, that was a blessing as i am claustrauphobic! When we reached the gym, we quickly rushed in to change and register ourselves. I was dying to go to the loo but there was a queue as one of the stall was out of order. Anyway, i told LM that we better go arrange our equipment first then get back to the loo. Fortunately, LM's sis got us the step board and mat already and i moved my stuff to my fave spot. I was very frazzled as LM had took mismatched dumbells for me so i was running back and forth the class trying to grab my equipment and set-up as quickly as possible.
Cikgu of cos was amused as we looked like some hens who lost their heads!! Duhhh....he asked whether the class was ready but was actually throwing a questioning look at us! Bahhhh!!! Must keep cool and pretend that he wasn't talking about us...

After setting-up, I couldn't withstand it any longer and rushed to the loo to answer nature's call then went back to resume the class! My calf was still hurting from yesterday's hike so i wasn't do my squats properly and i tried putting on lighter weights instead. Can't remember what was the squat track but it had a lot of bottoms down! Oh man...the chest track was killing too. He played "Phantom of the Opera" which had lots of singles! Ugggghhh...definitely not one of my faves as what LM had thought. Clean and press was "Olympia" which i kinda like. Was a bit puzzled though as cikgu didn't really fancy that track when we suggested it previously. Anyhow, he was singing happily to the song! Hmmm...contradicting, contradicting...

Triceps track was LM's selected "California". I love the song but not really into the triceps dips. What the heck, this track only have 16 dips as i heard the next release will have 28 dips!!! Oh man! eyes rolling...am thinking right now perhaps i should go to tomorrow's BPH class to see whether i'm lucky enough to get a sneak preview! Ok, ok, must sleep early tonight! Provided i finish the work that i brought home to do afterwards?...uh-oh...

He did "Pump It" for biceps. Omigawd! I feel like killing him oredi! My biceps hurts like hell and at certain juncture where i thought he wasn't looking, i just hold onto my barbell without doing any biceps curl! kakakakaka....that's the advantage of being a member and not an instructor. Heehehehe...Lunges was dunno what track but started off with calf raises. Gees, as if my calf is not hurting enough oredi! As usual i tried to slack off but was caught red-handed...i blamed it on the too few people in the class and thus, i was not able to hide or camouflage myself behind someone else. Of cos, being somewhat in the line of fire also had something to do with it, i guess...Bahhh!!

Shoulder track was cool..."War Machine"...which other BP instructors also favour. Using dumbells is much easier than using the barbell, especially when i have no more strength to do my upper head raises. Yah hooo, finally my selected track was on for conditioning..it's "Left Outside Alone" by Anastacia...Last but not least, cooldown was from the latest release, a duet by Eros something & Anastacia. Ooooohhh, I love this track!! Hmmm, maybe should try downloading the song afterwards...After class, i saw CL in the next studio and kacau him from outside...CL was shoo-ing me with sign language and some of the members were somewhat perturbed! Heheheehe..Then, me and LM chatted with cikgu for awhile. I asked him whether he did some errors in one of the tracks cos he burst out laughing suddenly during a seemingly long pause (which was weird and kinda out of sync with the track chory) so i gave him a questioning glance...but he was adamant that he didn't wor. Hmmm...oh well, doesn't matter lar. He just complained that he was tired and so had to take lighter weights than normal...which i reckon was pretty obvious

On the way home, it was still drizzling...bother, bother, bother...was in 2 minds whether to goto the pasar malam and even passed by but decided since it was raining and had just finshed bathing, went home straightaway....

Whimsical drive

2006-11-13T00:26:00.000+08:00

After class, went to shower and left, Superman was watching the class from the outside...hmmm, didn't know he was interested in freestyle steps too?? Oh well, i was too tired to think about the whys and wat-nots. I decided on a whim to go down to KL and proceeded to do that after i dropped off my stuff back at home. Along the way, it started pouring!!! Man, does it have to rain like everyday? Huh...such a bummer...i hate rainy days! Makes me feel so depressed...

Anyway, i got down to BB Plaza and did a spot of window shopping. It just seemed like ages since i came down to KL since i changed jobs. There was a fashion show ongoing at Sungei Wang Plaza concourse when i passed by so a lot of people were gathered around. After about an hour of loitering, my feet was killing me and i had a blister from the morning hike and i was also feeling very sleepy. So off i went and sped quickly back home yawning all the way!!! yeah, yeah, yeah...i know it's dangerous and wished i hadn't beeen so whimsical. I practically dropped dead on the bed for 2 hours catching on some zzzzz when i reached home...though initially had only wanted to take just a short half hour nap...and do some work when i get up....hahaha...like who i am kidding??

After i got up, i went to the pasar malam to jalan-jalan and came back to finish the TVB dvds that i bought...and that's the end of my Sunday! Drat...working tommorow again...

Steep Learning Curve

2006-11-12T23:11:00.000+08:00

Woke up real early this morning as I had promised to go hiking with a couple of frens at the nearby neighbourhood hill. Used to go there quite frequent in the past, almost every weekend but after I had some knee problems, it’s been awhile since I last went. It’s great to exercise outdoors as you get to breathe in the fresh air and admire the greenery in the surroundings. Sometimes, we can see some monkeys swinging by the trees or walking past on the pathways. Some gung-ho mountain-bikers and their groupies zoomed past us along the way. Today didn’t see the horse riders from the nearby equestrian club taking their horses out for a jog though.

After my morning hike, I went to the gym as usual for my freestyle steps class. As I was meeting my frens for my morning brekkie before the class, I quickly rushed to the studio to book a spot. Whoa! There was some step boards already in placed! So, I’m not that kiasu after all...hehehe…took some butter kaya toast as was hungry. Didn’t fancy taking in too much food otherwise will get cramps during class which I’ve experienced in the past. While going on the way to the studio, saw Superman at the juice bar...Hmmm, wonder what's he doing here? I thought he didn't have any classes today? Oh well, couldn't be bothered lar. The instructor was late as usual. Everyone just loitered around and chatted while we waited for him to come. Big Cow (BCow) came in and told everyone to turn the board vertical instead of the usual horizontal and informed us that today’s class will be ‘different’ and more ‘advanced’...uh-oh…gees, thank god this wasn’t my first class! Otherwise I’ll just freaked out and leave after 15 min again. Hmmm...there was only 1 beginner in the class today...poor thing! Wonder whether she’ll come back again next week? *evil laugh* BCow apologized for being late (like what’s new?) and told us that he had to rush from his place in Sri Petaling…hmmm, but I reckon he knows he has a class at the same time every week, no?

During the class heard some ‘board toppling over’ sound and the lady right in front of BCow fell onto the floor!! Omigawd! Scared the hell out of me man! BCow oso ‘jumped’ and asked whether the lady was alrite? She was so embarrassed cos she was standing right in front mah so everybody could see her lor. *Shudder* *Shudder* Oh boy, must be careful, must be careful…step fully on the board, step fully on the board…I kept reminding myself! Today, the learning curve has somewhat notched up! Chory was more complicated too and the girl in front of me was kinda lost so I had to focus on my own rhythm and tried hard not to look at her, which made me lose focus whenever I did that….the guy behind me was also lost in the middle hehehehe….and at one point I think half the class just stood there lost and looked at BCow helplessly...muahahaaha...until he showed us the steps again!

Wow…it was really fantastic!! I’m beginning to really like freestyle steps now even though it’s so confusing and complicated at times but there’s a real satisfaction at the end of the day and the best thing is every class is so different unlike the LM programs!!! I guess this suit my fickle personality very well too…hahahaha…No wonder, LM and cikgu are so ‘passionate’ about it and kept ‘promoting’ freestyle steps to me ler…now only I understand why...LOL

Gotta Pump It Up!

2006-11-11T11:06:00.000+08:00

I woke up this morning feeling pins and needles everywhere. Drat...just a little too ambitious maybe, having done pilates and BP the day before...ugggghhh, my abs hurts like hell!! And my triceps...gawd, I can’t even straightened my arms without yelping...it’s all LM’s fault!!! If she didn’t made me pile on the weights during BP, I’ll still be functioning like normal...hehehe...

Gees, it's been a long while since i've gone for pilates! Gotta blame it on not being able to wake up every time! kakakaka...if LM didn't 'keep watch' i might have been tempted to go back to sleep again. Shhhh...hehehe...well, what can i say Professional Pilates Instructor (PPI) is well a real 'pro'...from the start go, we were just working our abs, thighs, arms, legs and wat-nots till the end! And there were no options...uggghhhh! Stretch longer, Hold the core, Let your abs do the work! she rattled on...Oh boy, this is seriously too early to be tortured like this....eyes rolling..i should have just listened to my head and went back to sleep instead!

Kylie did almost the same tracks yesterday as last week, give or take a few track changes. Let’s see whether I can remember them:

1) Surrender
2) Celebration
3) Summer Rain (hurrah! my fave)
4) Here I am
5) Jump
6) Humping Around
7) Lola's Theme (i think)
8) U can't touch this (i think)
9) No idea...hehehe
10) Cruisin

Yesterday’s crowd was rather subdued compared to last week so Kylie was kinda puzzled and kept checking with the crowd whether everyone was doing ok? I was half expecting to preview some new tracks but unfortunately, she did mostly the older releases. LM got me excited cos she had some previews in a BP class that BPH did earlier of the week and she was just raving about the new triceps track, which has like 28 dips!!! Uggghhhh...dips are definitely not my fave. I reckon i can’t seem to do it properly unless i do it on a chair.

Yesterday was surprised that GRO (Gym Resident Odium) turned up cos she usually just come to do her CD even when BPH was teaching that slot. Was wondering like when did she started picking up BP again? Oh well, not like i bother. She's after all the reason why we established a Support Group (SG) in the first place and SGP voluntarily self-proclaim himself to be the President when he heard about the SG. He was ecstatic and even invented a little dance like what those 'Red Indians' seemed to do at their campfires? Our SG seemed to be expanding every now and then and god knows how many members we have now...Drat! everyone is just so scared of GRO...i heard the latest victim is another instructor! Huh...Why am I not surprised?

It was lucky that LM did BS before BP and so managed to grab good spots for us. Cos as usual the members didn't queue and just tried to barge in to book a good place for themselves. The front desk people even wanted to tick the names as registered...phew, luckily i registered this time round!! But as everyone was impatient to go in, the girl just relented in the end. Cikgu and his kawan took the back slots. I was laughing at him cos he's so darn tall...if he stood in front, he would have blocked everyone else's view!! I went to grab the clips first cos last week there were no more clips and so those who had all the equipment ready couldn't do the class without the clips. But LM already got most of the stuff for me so i just passed the excess to cikgu lar...shaking head in disbelief...really dunno what he's doing lar...just stand there only like the king waiting to be served? hmmm...Anyway, we got set-up real quick and i just sat there and looked at GRO haphazardly trying to grab all the pump equipment before class starts...

Today, when i pile on the extra weights, i could actually feel the 'burn' and my legs were shaking like jellies during the squat track!! I was sweating buckets man! Oh boy, she's really hardcore! One guy in front did his squats wrongly and Kylie kept telling him to shift his legs in to do it correctly. At times, she alternate between front and side profile to show the correct techniques. This is called a 'real pro'...i was ecstatic to learn that this will be her permanent class in future!!! Yeahhhh...i will go for more BP classes...hopefully...*chuckle*

Keep On Stepping!

2006-11-11T00:44:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I went for steps again..it just seemed like I’m doing steps every other day...drat! If I had known cikgu was gonna do back the same tracks, I may think twice about going. Anyhow, I suggested a few tracks for him to change earlier but he as usual very hiau, ‘ah jie ah jor’ gave a lot of excuses so in the end, he was there early to cakap kosong again...though didn’t see him parked at his ‘usual spot’ when I reached the gym yesterday! Hahahaha...probably was afraid that I’ll ketuk him again! The only tracks which i like on that night was Toxic and I just Wanna Be Happy. The rest of the tracks i don't really fancy so was feeling a bit uggghhh having to endure the entire class!! Anyway, after last week’s ‘unfortunate incident’, the number of people to the gym seemed to have dwindled. Well, good for me cos I feel very claustrophobic when there are too many people surrounding me. Like last week, there were like more than 50 people and we were putting our boards so close to each other not to mention have to be so 'kiasu' to grab the board and booked a good spot!! Gees..luckily the people around me are regulars otherwise we would have bumped into each other liao.

The guy in front of me yesterday was a step regular (who also went for the tues class)...didn't know he was also a Jammer-Wannabe (JW). Almost from the start, he was very SS and gyrating at every given opportunity which was rather comical seen from the backview!! So, I was trying very hard to control my laughter throughout the entire class and I was practically focusing on him that i sometimes missed my step!! People must be thinking that I was fascinated with him!! Can't help it...i get distracted easily, which is why i can't stand next to the door otherwise i'll just be looking out there all the time or i tend to stare at the person in front of me!! At one point however, when we turned to do the side knee lifts, i suddenly caught a glimpse of how short the guy right in front was wearing and I just let out a snort and tried unsuccessfully to supress a chuckle! My gawd, my eyes nearly popped! Gosh…I think it’s just long enough to cover his butt! This is seriously the shortest pants I’ve ever seen a guy wearing. Hmmm...plan to tell cikgu after class since it’s his fren. *chuckle* Today cikgu’s supporters turned out in full force to support him, BG, BM and UFO came..ohhh..but MIL didn’t come of cos...she usually just goes to his tues class. Whats-her-face (WHF) also came and stood in front on her usual spot which coincidentally was in front of JW. She seemed to have stopped BC as well or perhaps i'm not going that frequently so i don't see her around much though i know she does BA as well. At least she has 'minimised' her glaring at me nowadays cos she knows i don't give a damn gwa and not likely to usurp her place anytime!

Last week, one of the newbie instructor was doing his clearance in cikgu’s class. He did 4 tracks straight...Track 6 till 9...which is rather taxing I would say since previously, the newbies are only required to do 2 tracks only. Anyway, I could hardly hear what he was saying and his cue-ing was quite off at certain times, luckily I knew the chory well so had no problems following. BS Head (BSH) and CGF were there to do the clearance. After the class was over, I could see some instructors gathered outside, including the ex-BSH. I learned afterwards that they were having a BJ practice with Tracy and Kylie for an upcoming demo. Likewise yesterday night, the same group of people had a practice session after our class. But this time round, there was another group of instructors gathered...the BB group…hahahaha...gosh, wondered what time they had to practice until?? Poor souls..

Hmmm, had my supper with LM then proceeded to go visit the 4 participants who entered the “Living in a Box” 7 days no bathing, deco your own room thingy by MIX-FM… Nothing much to see as everything was still a Work-In-Progress (WIP). The participants were having a 'meeting' with one of the DJs in their so-called living room...so after going one round, we left..

Attack-Jam-Heart Attack?

2006-11-10T15:01:00.000+08:00

After my dentist appointment on sat, I went to the gym. Had wanted to go for yoga but since ding dong here and there, couldn’t make it on time. Instead went for BA. I was surprised to see Cyborg there and so was she. Heheehe…cos last week when I went for BA, Cikgu’s Good Fren (CGF) TT with another instructor mah so I thought this week also same lor. Anyway, after chatting with Cyborg for awhile where we were teasing each other as usual, Hooligan came. Again, both of us registered shocked expressions!! Cos I haven’t been going for her BC classes regularly anymore, she didn’t expect to see me there lor. She probably thinks that I just go for Support Group President (SGP) BC classes all the time anyway, which is quite true oso lar...hehehehe..

Anyway, ended up 3 of them went on stage to teach BA. Cyborg wanted to stay on the floor but CGF asked her to go up on stage to be shadow. She as usual lar do her high-impact BA. I really suspect whether she’s human at all?? I mean where does she get all her energy man?? I do half BA oredi feel like pengsan!!! And after yesterday night BP, my limbs were all aching oso!! I could hardly do any lunges!!! Felt so tortured!! My gawd! I dunno how LM can endure since she did yoga before that too!! Eyes rolling in disbelief! I scooted off during track 6 on the pretext of going to the loo then stayed outside to watch…hehehee…but joined in the next track lar since i like the song!! There was this angmoh lady who stood behind me and during the class; she unceremoniously told me that I was standing too close to her!! As I didn’t hear her too well above the loud music, I kept repeating Pardon? Pardon? So I guess that made her more angry gwa…anyway, heck care lar, she was the one who take such big steps wat and beside her was plenty of space, so don’t understand why she still wants to stick behind me for?? Not like I smell so nice oso?? Hmmm...We banged a few times and she seemed to glare at me so I used sign language to indicate LM to move a bit to the side to give me more space!! Kacau saja...Towards the end, the conditioning track seemed to have neverending push ups, triceps, triceps, chest, chest chest...oh boy, i can't feel my arms anymore!!! Gees, who invented this LM program anyway?? Trying to kill people ar??

After BA, stayed awhile for BJ…as usual danced like cartoon so stayed at the back in order not to memalukan own self. It was a special class as Kylie was TT with Tracy so I wanted to see how good Kylie was having gone for her BP class. We were not disappointed as she’s good!!! On the plus side, we were given ‘sneak previews’ of the upcoming release cos some of the tracks are the latest hits so it can’t be from the older releases ya…1 of the track was really “Bollywood” so we were practically dancing and moving about like those Hindi movie...

Kinda reminds me of the Bollywood Dance that I went during my trial session with True Fitness. It was such a hoot as the instructor was from India so he speaks limited English and there were only like 6 of us in the class!! I can’t for the life of me understand why the instructor wore a long sleeve sweater to teach a dance class and the air-cond wasn’t even turned on…well, errr, even if it is, must be minimal since I can’t feel it also! Hmmphhh...so, I was laughing all the way while attempting to twist and turn and do the hand movements like the Bollywood stars...must have looked real farnee !! Kakakaka...

Anyway, back to BJ..halfway thru the class, my stomach started to growl so I told LM I want to go shower and eat. It was lucky that I managed to shower and was just blowing my hair when they announced over the PA that t all subsequent classes were cancelled! *Snigger* *Snigger* Felt kinda smug that luckily I had came for an earlier class! Cos I heard some people complaining that they just came and now have to go back liao!

As I was about to leave the changing room, I bumped into LM and told her that all classes were cancelled and then somebody told her sis that apparently somebody fainted downstairs while running on the treadmill. And then suddenly there was like a commotion everywhere...people were telling one another what is happening, even the cleaner was busy telling 'her story'...We heard that the body was still downstairs so we decided to go down and have a peek! When we went downstairs, a lot of people were gathered around but I can’t see where the body is...so just went to the juice bar to get a drink instead. Someone said the body was moved to the RPM room so I walked past on the way out but could only see the back of the head which was facing the door! The body was covered with towels. Anyway, my fren was calling me on my mobile to chase me for my makan appointment so I just left lar. As I left the gym, I could hear the front desk closing the doors and telling the newly arrived members that the gym was closed for the day!!

Freestyle or My Style Steps?

2006-11-09T17:22:00.000+08:00

I haven’t done any BC classes this week. and I don’t seemed to be too hung up about it somehow…gosh, I wonder whether I’m losing interest in BC already….nowadays it’s just BS, BP, BA, yoga (sometimes), pilates (errr, once in a blue moon…hehehehe) and freestyle steps. I don’t really fancy doing BA cos it’s too intense and it puts a lot of strain on the knees…Not good, not good…I don’t want to end up in a wheelchair when I get old and crinkly…*shudder*…and I find that if I do more BA, I find BS rather slow in comparison! Hmmm, I’ll probably get smacked by cikgu if I tell him this…har har har…or he’ll just spin all the hardcore tracks in one class to torture me I reckon..LM will be pleased since she’s so S & M…*evil laugh*…

Last week Banana Man (BM) made his first appearance in cikgu’s BS class….me and my gym buddies had a good laugh as he was dressed in striking yellow top and bottom! Also, since he stood right in the middle of the class…it’s really very hard to miss him really….LOL Cikgu made a few errors during the class so I asked whether it was due to him being distracted by the BM? Hehehe…it was lucky that the BM didn’t wear striped tops and bottom otherwise he would have looked like the Bananas in Pajamas (BIJ)….har har har….
nowadays I noticed that the BM seemed to be following cikgu’s class and I heard he’s keen on taking up freestyle steps as well…hmmmph…wei, he’s thinking of becoming cikgu’s Ultimate Fan No. One (UFO) is it? Oh well, as long as he doesn’t stand in front of me and blocked my view like ‘yat poh she’ (tree), I reckon that’s fine… I wonder why he suddenly have this ‘interest’ in participating in so many classes…cos sometimes I see him in BC as well…I know he does BJ…whoa, talk about trying to become an all-rounder…? It’s funny that previously he doesn’t go in to any of the classes though…gees, why do I even bother? Not like it affects me oso…crap.…

Right, so now I’ve gone to like 3 freestyle steps classes oredi and am beginning to get the hang of it, I find myself enjoying it…of cos the instructor was nice enough to use back similar steps taught in previous classes before building on it so it was not hard to catch up unlike the first time where I was just stumbling around like a cartoon trying to figure out right foot go where and left foot land where? The instructor was very patient and he kept showing the steps till we get it right, the first time he even came and stood beside me to show me the steps…eyes rolling…yeah, I’m that terrible!!! ….hmmm…good, good, good…I shall master it this time!!! Hurrah!! I just hoped cikgu’s steps do not differ much from this one that I learnt otherwise it’ll be just a waste of time…gees…

I’ve actually attempted several times in the past with different instructors to learn freestyle steps but gave up after just managing like 15 minutes of actually doing some of the chory and the rest of the time stood there like a dungu watching other members twist and turn and basically just flying around lar…of cos me having a not so good memory was also a factor I guess…if I remember the 1st part, I’ll just forget the 2nd part and vice versa..and it’s kinda different from BS really…I mean BS is more ‘structured’ so when the tracks are played, you kinda know what moves are coming up next unlike freestyle steps where the chory is made up by the instructor so each time it’s different and the music just acts as a ‘back-drop’….the learning curve is higher than learning any of the other LM programs and in a way, more challenging just like yoga and pilates, which took me like at least 3 to 6 months just to master and get my basics right… but there’s a great satisfaction at the end of the day when you can actually follow thru the entire chory and fly around the class with everybody else….Ganbatte!!

Arggghhh...It's The Dentist!

2006-11-09T12:10:00.000+08:00

I feel so lethargic…no matter how much I slept it just doesn’t seem to be enough. I have been working late these past few nights so the thought of going back and updating my blog was not something that entered my mind…well, it did but I just well, pushed it aside….hehehehe..After all, I am already facing the pc the whole day, my eyes are so tired!!! Gosh, and I have so many things that I want to write about…hmmm

Last sat, I decided to visit the dentist. Now, I don’t really fancy going to the dentist or the doc anymore than other ‘normal’ people do…I have been getting this ‘numbness’ on one of my back tooth whenever I drank some cool beverages so I figured there must be a hole somewhere in there….so I trotted off to the nearest dentist to my house…See, I don’t have a ‘regular’ dentist that I go to just like I don’t have a regular hair stylist, beautician or masseuse that I frequent. I just goto the nearest shop from where I currently am or whenever I feel like having a haircut, a facial, a massage or wat-nots. Of cos, the downside is when you do a walk-in, chances are you might have to wait….sometimes for ages!!!!

Don’t believe in sticking to the same ones like other people. Cos I guess sometimes, when you become a regular especially hair stylist, they are afraid to experiment new styles on you, or if you ask them to do a different haircut or colour, they are reluctant to do it, which is not something that I fancy. If there’s a new hair salon or beauty salon, I’m always game to try it out…Once I went to Cheras to makan with some frens. After eating, we didn’t have any plans so we decided to go for a haircut. So, we just went to the nearest salon and enquired. Sometimes, by talking to the stylist or the beautician, you can somehow tell whether they knew what they were doing and so, will not end up messing your hair or your face!!! But to be on the safe side, we still went around a couple more shops before settling on the first one! What was supposed to be just getting a haircut ended up to be a colour + highlight + treatment + haircut job!!! And god knows how long we sat there! More than 3 hours! We were the last customers to leave but we were so pleased with the results, I reckon it was worth it….After that, I went back to that salon a couple more times until they started pushing products to me which is another thing that I loathe….

Right, back to the dentist…I don’t know why I always get side-tracked into talking about other stuff all the time! Gees…Eyes rolling…anyway, I went to the dentist nearest to my house…the dentist was not in till late afternoon. I had planned on going to the gym after the dental visit so off I went to see the next nearest dentist that I used to frequent. What a bummer! The dentist was fully booked and so was the next one that I visit! It was exhausting running around trying to locate a dentist just to do a filling for me…I was practically drenched with sweat…fwuaahh…and I’m going to be late for my gym session….my last attempt was a dentist in a mall. It looks kinda expensive but I reckon since the company was paying for it and I badly needed to see a dentist…what the heck lar…I was ecstatic that I didn’t have to wait as a dentist was available to see me!!! Yes! Yes! Yes! This is the right choice!! The whole filling thingy took like less than 10 min…but when the dentist told me that I have another 2 tiny holes to fill, I told him I’ll come back another time…in my mind, I was already calculating the costs…My gawd…he’s out to squeeze me dry man!!! I reckon I’ll just go back to the dentist nearest to my house lar…at least that one is more reasonably priced!! Hehehehe…

In a past instance, I had to go visit the dentist at night…I’m not sure how true it is but people tells me that it’s not advisable to visit the dentist at night! Well, anyway, it was an emergency…I had a hole in my wisdom tooth and it was unbearably painful!! The dentist told me to extract it since it was pointless to do a filling as the hole was quite deep…hmmm…so I was like…yeah, extract it so I’ll have one less tooth to brush!! Har har har…So, he gave me some anesthetic and told me that I had to wait for 20 minutes for it to take effect…The dentist and 2 other nurses surrounded me and started yakking…sometimes in Tamil, sometimes in Malay. Anyway, I just felt like a dungu propped up on the bed listening to their hoo-hah, hoo-hah all around…hmmmph….when it was time to extract the tooth, the 2 nurses beside me grabbed my head hard, one on each side while the dentist used a dental forceps to grasp my tooth and rocked it back and forth to loosen it from my gums…man, my head was practically spinning from the rocking back and forth…no wonder the 2 nurses have to hold my head still otherwise my head would have been wrung from my neck!! Thank god, it was a ‘clean’ extraction otherwise would have to perform minor surgery to extract the tooth roots left behind!! Hmmm…do not fancy that…went home with my bleeding gums and a mild headache! Couldn’t eat, sleep or drink for the next few days!! Ho hum…It just seemed like a nightmare extracting a wisdom tooth…wonder whether it made any difference to my IQ level now that I’m only left with 3 wisdom teeth… hehehehe

Stairway to Heaven

2006-11-07T09:57:00.000+08:00

Oh gawd, my insomnia is coming back again!! I drank so much sangria on sunday night in SGP house that I couldn’t goto sleep, which surprises me cos I thought I would sleep like a baby! Maybe the alcohol mixed with laughing boisterously with some gym-kakis are too potent to let me drift to sleep. I complained about it to Choobacca the next day as he was the one who had concocted the sangrias...hmmmmphhh...This is an absolute torture! My colleagues are wondering what I do every night as I have been turning up to work every morning looking like what the cat dragged in!!! Duhhhh…..Hmmm, just can’t seem to figure out what I am not doing right…I drank some punch and exercised like nobody’s business and I had my dinner early, by right I am so lethargic that I would ‘dropped dead’ on the bed, right!

In a desperate attempt to rectify this problem, I finally decided to skip gym for the night to see a masseuse. I stumbled upon a newly opened massage place at TC on the weekend but since I just ate before that, I couldn’t have a massage. It’s the same principle with exercising…no food at least 2 hours before class. Well, apparently they have some ‘promotional’ opening offers so I’m gamed to try it out. It was a Thai mixed with traditional aromatherapy massage. I don’t really fancy Thai massages, which is concentrated more on pressure points. I had a Thai massage few years back when I was in Pattaya…it was dirt cheap….RM45 for 2 hours!!! But, I didn’t really enjoyed it…it started off alright and just when I was about to doze off, the masseuse yanked me off the floor with her legs pushed against my back!! As I was ‘semi-conscious’, I gave a big yowl. Oh man, I nearly pee in my pants in fright!! After this episode, I shudder at the thought of another Thai massage so I clarify with the front desk that no yanking will be done this time round…

So off I went to my ‘chambers’…where the Thai masseuse starts off with a foot soak for me…ahhh, feels great…somebody to wash my feet…brings to mind the ‘olden days’ where maids wash their owner’s feet…”evil laugh” After that she started the massage. See, the thing is I usually doze off during massages and facials. So I reckon, especially during facials, they could have just washed my face, wait for me to drift off then sit down beside me reading a novel for all I know! Anyways, this time round, I didn’t doze off but was relaxed. It’s good to get a massage once in awhile to get some relief from stress and to just unwind. Uhmmm….felt fantastic!!! After the massage, they gave me a cup of tea, not sure what tea it is but sure tastes like ginger. I usually get green tea but I guess different establishment different approach. As I paid for my massage, I chatted with the owner. Apparently, they just opened for a month, same time as another massage place upstairs. I visited the other one also the other day to check out the rates cos it says 2nd person 50% off. The lady boss told me that they have an in-house doctor (?) who concocts their own aromatherapy oils and she demonstrated by rubbing some of the oil on my hands while pitching her sales talk…the oils weren’t that ‘oily’ and doesn’t stink…well, you know, some aromatherapy oils kinda stink. I went for a massage once during lunch hour and when I got back, my colleagues asked me why I stinks after I went for the massage….eyes rolling…and I gotta stick with the smell till I got home…can you imagine!

Mamak Makan

2006-11-05T01:32:00.000+08:00

After yesterday's 'insomnia' episode, i slept real early after my gym workout. Looked so 'charn' the whole day and practically walking around like a zombie. Should have gone home during lunch hour to 'power nap' to refresh...but instead went to Kayu to eat Nasi Kandar instead! Urm, it's funny but the many times that i've been to Kayu, i never tried their nasi kandar before, which is real famous. It's delicious but i think it's a tad expensive! Huh...they must be laughing all the way to the bank!! Otherwise they wouldn't even open an outlet in Melbourne too! Yeah, you read that right...as in Melbourne, Aust not somewhere in Ulu Kelang! eyes rolling...

Anyways, back to my nasi kandar. I was torn between having the sotong or the mutton curry. Reckon ayam is a bit too 'normal' lar to pay for such a price so i chose sotong in the end. The sotong are those big juicy sotongs with the 'misai' attached wan, not those small ones which don't have much meat on them. Then they add in a bit of vege and some dunno wat but looked like spiced fried coconut i think and some papadum lor. I told my colleagues that i could probably get like 2 similar nasi (with more meat and vege i may add) in the food court next to our office lehhh with the same price!!

Previously, i had maggi mee goreng ayam there for lunch as well. They charged me around RM 7.00. Gees, the fried chicken costs as much as the mee itself and how much does a pack of maggi mee costs? 50 cents maybe?? Oh boy...am i being slaughtered? But it's undeniable that their maggi mee goreng is a huge portion and they fried it real nice lar, which i can't seem to do at home or maybe lazy to do..hehehe...The fried chicken is marinated thoroughly and the meat is really succulent!!! Oh boy...besides famous for their nasi kandar, the roti pisang and roti tisu are really good too! Especially the roti tisu, it's so huge that they need 3 plates to hold the entire length of it!!! Which reminds me that i haven't had that for awhile now....salivating...

Fast Food Junkie

2006-11-04T00:57:00.000+08:00

Hmmm, i went for A & W after gym on tuesday. It's been quite awhile since i last ate fast food. I guess it's a case of not missing something which you haven't taken for some time. Anyways, i had this sudden craving for A & W waffles and rootbeer so off i went. Yum yum...double scoops of ice-cream with maple syrup and butter on waffles...Wow! Delicious!! Am salivating at the thought right now.

I remember when i was very young, my parents love to bring me and siblings to A & W. Of cos this was before McDonalds, KFC and Burger King was introduced here. And A & W had a drive-thru!! Yeah, i know...cheap thrill!! So, you see a lot of families drive-thru, ordered their makan, rolled down their car windows and just ate inside their car! No need to cart everyone into the fast food joint and queue up to order after settling everyone down. You may think it's yucky since it'll leave a smell in the car or maybe the kids will drop crumbs on the car floor....yeah, but since we were kids, we didn't have to wash the car then wat so heck care lar...ahahhaaha...Oh boy, am i gonna be smacked if i had said this then..LOL....Moreover, we always manja our parents to 'tah pau' back the big bottle (urm, i can't remember what's it called oredi) of rootbeer...hahahaha..hmmm, their fish burger and curly fries are yummy too....

And who can forget the A & W mascot, the A & W Bear? Of cos i remembered since the bear kacau me before while i was having my meals there...not on one occassion but several times lehhh!!! Aiyo, why the bear so gatal wan ar? I think they are the only fast food who still have somebody who dressed up as a mascot. Frankly, i havent seen McDonalds or KFC mascots walking around the restaurant before, maybe just their 'stoned' mascots sitting on the bench outside the restaurant, where old people likes to sit...hehehe

Anyways, when McDonalds and KFC was introduced here, me and my siblings were ecstatic!! We love fast food soooo much!! Love those McD's fries (still do!), burgers (yummy) and KFC mashed potatoes and fried chicken.

See, to us each fast food have their own 'speciality'. Although haven't eaten KFC chicken for awhile now but personally prefers McD's fried chicken instead as it tastes much better (and also bigger!...not sure whether those stories about KFC headless chicken were true or not mah? as very 'kiasi' that's why dun dare to eat lor...hahahaha) As for Burger King, love their burgers especially when they used to grill them. I've been told that most people go there for their Whopper burgers (don't take beef so gotta trust them on that) Now i think they have changed to fried. Uuh..ooh, and who can forget their scrumptious breakfast too? Love their hash brown and croissants...it's much better than McD's breakfast set...hehehe

However, most children identify more with McD's probably due to their 'nicer' free toys (sheepishly confessed to being a Mc'Ds toy collector previously...:P)

Don't fancy pizzas that much but reckon Shakey's Pizza Buffet was quite worth it though they don't have it in all their outlets. They have variety of pizzas, salads, spaghettis, fried chicken, soup etc etc...

Previously, there were Grandy's, Wendy's, White Castle too but all these had closed down. And now we have this local fast food called Marrybrown which i have never tried. hmmmm...maybe i'll have McD's tomorrow...:D

Sleeping Beauty

2006-11-03T10:47:00.000+08:00

I drank one whole pot of English tea yesterday night and ended up staring at my bedroom ceiling the whole entire night!!! Didn’t manage to sleep a wink and this morning my eyes became bengkak (swollen)!! Gees, had I known that drinking English tea is gonna have this effect on me, I wouldn’t have touched it man regardless that it came in a supper set!! See, Coffee and Chinese tea has no effect on me. I can drink them just before I sleep and I’ll still doze off easily. When I was still studying, I have to drink at least 2 to 3 cups of black coffee to sustain me through the night when I burned my midnight oil studying for my exams or doing my assignments!!! It’s weird cos I have tried other tea like fruit tea, green tea and rose tea, which doesn’t seem to have any effect either. Hmmm….must really checked out what tea they served me yesterday.

Anyways, I have always been a bad sleeper…and also a light sleeper. Any noise in the middle of the night will wake me up including when it rains, when I get sms on my hp (which is really irritating and thus, sender will get told off by me) or when I get kicked by my sister (when we used to share a room!) Nowadays, I can only sleep in beds, not in cars, not in buses, not in trains, not in planes, hotel beds also depends…if I’m too tired, then chances are I may fall asleep but there’s a possibility that I’ll wake up in the middle of the night! And, to make matters worse, I can’t seemed to sleep late on weekends anymore.

It’s like I have this internal alarm which wakes me up on auto-mode on the weekend, same time as I usually wake up on weekdays. Of course this also means that I have a Cinderella syndrome i.e. I need to go to bed by midnight!! Or else I’ll just keep on yawning and yawning till tears roll down! I remembered previously, I used to be a night owl! The latest (or earliest) that I stayed up was till 6 am in the morning yum cha with frens!! When I went back, my dad was getting ready to goto work and I quickly scooted off to my room to sleep through the day!! Hahahaha…even on weekends, I used to sleep till at least 11am to noon. Omigawd, this must be a sign of old age man! eyes rolling...

Big Bully...

2006-11-02T12:21:00.000+08:00

On Mon, after gym, I wanted to goto the pasar malam (night market) and decided to swing by that area to see whether I was lucky enough to get a parking space. The whole area as usual is congested and while I was stuck on the road, I could see all the people who walked past going to the pasar malam. This was supposedly the biggest pasar malam in PJ lar. I love going there for the food variety and just simply browsed through all the knick-knacks that the hawkers peddle. I used to go quite regularly after Mon gym. Usually, it’s easier to find parking after 9.30pm as most people would have left by then.

Anyways, back to the parking, I actually managed to get a spot (illegal parking) in a side lane but hey, everyone also parked there mah so no problem lor. I locked my car and everything and was about to step off from the car when this huge car behind me wanted to turn into the small lane. I sat for awhile and observed the driver trying to maneuver her car into the lane to ensure that she doesn’t banged into my car. However, she just maneuver, maneuver, then stopped…halloo…it’s like she’s judgmentally-challenged or something….even the blind also can see the car is too big to go into the lane lar (of course my car was “partly’ blocking the way as well) Haiyo, so I finally decided to just go home and forget about my pasar malam rather than getting my car scratched. So I got out but I needed to turn one big round to get back to the main road. When I passed by the same side lane where I parked just minutes ago, I was furious cos the big car was now in my parking spot!! Hmmm….talked about “tai har sai” (big bully the small)

See, that's like a society's problem. We see it all the time on the road. All the big cars like to 'bully' the small cars or rather they tend to barged their way in or moved so near to the back that they seemed to kiss our cars backside! The worse of the lot are the buses and lorries...they are seriously intimidating! Especially when they kept hovering at the back and pressed their accelerator impatiently or flicked their lights to ask you to speed it or move it!

Excuse me, What u talking ar?

2006-11-02T11:20:00.000+08:00

See, nowadays we like to use a lot of slang terms and colloquialisms in our spoken & written language. I’ve been infected as well and since I started writing in the forum, I reckon my standard of English is dropping by nanoseconds!! I dunno but somehow it just seemed ‘fun’ using all these slang terms like wei, woi, boh, neh, ar, nolar...it really adds ‘flavour to the expressions especially in written words where you can’t emote through facial expressions...

It’s like speaking to the Hongkies…somehow or rather you’ll tend to speak like them, ie in a sing-song way, speak the 1st word in a high tone then the next word in a low tone…(no offence to the Hongkies, ok) Maybe it’s our Malaysian culture...if you notice, most Malaysians are very “versatile” and adaptable to their environment wan..when they are overseas and they speak to the angmohs, they tend to speak with an “angmoh slang”, then speak to the Hongkies, use Hongkie slang, speak to S’poreans, use Singlish, come back to Malaysia, speak Manglish.. ie mixture of English, Malay, Chinese, Indian language…

Once, an angmoh told me that he’s really impressed with us Malaysians cos we could speak so many languages and seemed to be able to switch from one language to another effortlessly…it was then that I began to appreciate the diversity of our multi-cultural country…

My sister used to berate me for using so much of these slang terms which our Malaysians are very fond of doing. “Wei, where to makan ar?” “Over there lar dwoing” “Got shops there meh?” “Who said dun haf?”…these are some of the common phrases which me and my frens like to use in my everyday conversations. So, when I talked to her (and write emails) I make sure I use proper English (if i do write, then i do a spell check before sending the mails) I remember when she was the editor for her college mag, she used to throw some essays submitted by her team members for me to read through. And sometimes, the command of English and grammar structure is so bad that we ended up laughing our heads off!! Also confessed to laughing over my classmates essays during schooltimes. I know this is bad but just can’t help it lar. Well, this has kinda become a habit of mine now, where I would automatically spot typo errors or grammatical errors when reading through any reading materials...LOL

Coffee Break

2006-10-31T00:24:00.001+08:00

Yesterday night, I went to Starbucks to yum cha with a friend. Initially we went to Coffee Bean but as the outlet was having water problems, we adjourned to the nearest Starbucks. See, didn't fancy having nowhere to pee when nature calls. Actually, between Coffee Bean and Starbucks, i prefer Coffee Bean's coffee. Still thinks Starbucks coffee is a tad sweet for my taste buds. However, I see most people seemed to prefer Starbucks. Maybe it's cos they have wi-fi?

Anyways, noticed that a lot of people goto Starbucks with their laptops in front of them, making full use of the wi-fi facility (and oso electricity!). Some were with friends, mostly solo with laptops. What i don't get is how those people who bring each of their laptops can share the same table? I mean what's the point? After all both of them just stared at their own laptops wat...Curious, I peeped into some of their laptops to see what they were doing.

Some were actually playing games (appalled!!), some were surfing the net (god knows what websites, probably not porn cos they are in public!), the one next to me was on chat i think cos every now and then i hear a 'ding ding' sound coming from behind my shoulders!! Hmmm....I think it's a very good marketing ploy...offering free wi-fi service. I mean everyone who goes there are most likely to drink at least 1 cup of coffee right? How much does the wi-fi costs? Probably 10 cups of coffee should cover it? See, nothing in this world is free! There's always a catch somewhere...Made me regret not bringing my laptop...uh-huhhh..

Gym Bunny

2006-10-30T02:21:00.000+08:00

Ho hum...today i went for freestyle steps. This was my 2nd time and i felt a sense of achievement as i was able to follow most of it. (although the steps seemed much easier today compared to last week) The class was really full (unbelievably so since the instructor also commented that he was surprised at the crowd!) and as i was late, i had no choice but to stand at a miserable corner, where i can't even see the instructor! The lady in front of me sometimes like to do her own thang so i get confused when i tried to follow her and lose my focus...so, i reckon, freestyle steps is really very much a solo thingy...once you lose focus and follow the person in front of you...Wham! you will end up looking like a lost lamb!

Next, i did BP. I took lighter weights than usual since i knew i was going for another class after this. Yeah, really ambitious...this was in a bid to lose some weight before i attend an upcoming wedding! It doesn't seem to be working though i have been going for a lot more back-to-back classes...maybe the fact that i'm still eating like a glutton contributes to the fact..ok, must cut down on food in take. Boy, talking about food makes me hungry now...noticed that we always get hungry once it's past midnight? i wonder why...

Next i did yoga. Today's class was really advanced and it's either i couldn't do a lot of the poses or my limbs were shaking...a lot! And i was sweating like a pig! Which was good...drip, drip, drip, uggghhh...drop down...drip, drip, drip, ughhhh, stretch!! My left and right neighbours were regulars and attempted to try the 'challenging' poses that the instructor did. I tried too but very easily gave up! Hey, i just did 2 classes! I'm tired!! Snigger...Oh, i also did 10 minutes of high-impact..emphasized...high-impact BA! before yoga so it's understandable...after all, i reckon i'm not Hercules wat...hehehehehe

After gym-ing, was famished!! But still spent like an hour cooling off and yakking! By the time i ate, it was around 4 plus so had to eat something light. If i ate too full, it'll spoil my dinner upon which i'll get nagged again! Hmmm, ate some mini buns and bought more bread...

There seems to be bread shops mushrooming in recent times. And those bread are not cheap! Friend recommended a newly opened bread shop in a mall so we went to have a look after "lunch". Noticed that the breads also come in fanciful names nowadays, which i guess is to grab the customers attention and induced them to buy. Today, i spotted one which is called "Good Boy"....hahahaha...filling is cream or something...i bought a "Brokeback Mountain"...which had chicken floss filling with cucumber stuffed inside...i wonder why it's so named...?? Snigger..Then i also got one which is called Alishan Mountain or something...yeah, i do have a thing for mountains i guess....Nah, i just love chicken floss...hehehehe...:D

Car Wash

2006-10-30T01:52:00.000+08:00

I don't like washing the car...oh, okie, okie actually i'm just too lazy to wash the car. Well, who in their right mind actually likes washing the car?? or washing anything for that matter?? Except maybe the car-washer?? Hmmm... After gallivanting to the morning market, i stopped by the neighbourhood carwash and sent my car to be cleaned. Uh-huh-huh...I can't even remember the last time i washed it. What will take them probably half an hour to wash the car would probably take me like half a day so i reckon why not just pay them to do it while i shake legs and watched them instead, right. Well, of course otherwise there wouldn't be so many car wash in business. So, i sat down and while waiting for them to finish the carwash, i did my sudoku. I mean, might as well boost some brain power instead of idling, ya....see, my new hobbies will usually lasts me at least 3 days! muahahaha...

Anyways, the boss sat down beside me and started chatting. Me, not wanting to be seen impolite layan him a bit lar. But when he started interogatting me and told me that he recognised me cos i always pumped petrol at the petrol station and knew i stayed nearby, it gave me the creeps! But i told myself to relax...he's probably being sociable and friendly. When he produced his namecard to me and told me that he also has other 'businesses', my suspicions were confirmed. Haiya, tu orang trying to network lar....aisehhhh

An Apple a day keeps the doc away!

2006-10-29T23:34:00.000+08:00

Whoa, i finally visited the doc yesterday! Head was really heavy in the morning and i was feeling really lousy and the thought that i had to go work again made me even more 'sickly' so i decided to visit the doc and get an mc for the day. (though have to confess that it was probably also due to hanging out late at the mamak late yesterday night had something to do with it...) After all, i figured it was only for half a day so i reckon my boss wouldn't miss me that much, ya. Anyhow, it was not like i take a lot of mcs too. (an angel comes to mind!!! hehehe) So, off i went to the nearest panel doc and hoped that i wouldn't need to wait for more than half an hour like the previous time that i went! Which is why i dread going to see the doc, that and taking the med of course...Usually, when i get the med, i'll take it religiously for the first 3 days, after which i'll just let nature take its course and let my illness heal by itself.

When the doc heard that i had been sick for 2 weeks already, she voluntarily blamed it on the haze!!! Hahaha...lucky me! She told me to wear a mask next time when i go out which i nodded my head in agreement but secretly thinking...yeah, rite, like i'm going to wear a mask out, looked like an alien and become a laughing stock!! Not in a million years or at least unless the haze was so bad that i had no choice!!! Suddenly noticed that the doc was sniffling as well and had a runny nose....hmmm, in my mind was beginning to doubt her doctoring abilities....Anyways, I got the mc for the day (hurray!) and immediately felt better! Noticed how miraculously we seemed to 'recover' at the thought of getting off work for the day! chuckle...And so, instead of going straight home to take the med, i decided to go to the local dvd shop to get some dvds since it meant no gym-ing for the day so i will become a couch potato instead!!!

Unfortunately, the dvd shop was not opened...hmmm, but there was a pasar pagi nearby wor. So, being gatal, i went to jalan-jalan in the market instead and hoped maybe to grab some grub along the way. As i traipsed through the market, a lot of dead ducks, chicken and fish and wat-nots stared at me from the stalls...oh, right, there is also the stench!! uggghhh...drat, now i know why i don't fancy going to wet markets!!! When i was younger, i followed my aunt to the wet market and the experience wasn't urm put it this way...that memorable lar! The first few times i went willingly cos i was curious, after that it was an absolute No, No, No....

Right, after passing the poultry section, i saw some people buying fried 'yau char kuey' and suddenly craved for it. Hmmm, noticed that we always craved for food that are bad for us and especially when we were told not to eat them? Waiting patiently in line for my turn, there was this aunty who suddenly just barged in front of me and started picking all the fried stuff that she wanted including the ones that i've set my eyes on. Hey, aunty got manners or not ar? Eyes rolling in disgust...i consoled myself that civilised people like me do not fight with these uncouth people. After the yau char kuey seller tah pau the rude aunty punya pack, she layan me. Munching happily on my "fries fatty breakfast", i spotted a dvd seller! Hurray! All is not lost after all...hehehe...hmmm, do you know that they actually sell tvb serials too nowadays besides the usual korean and english tv serials and boy, are they cheaper than renting it...and the shiok part is 1 dvd has many chapters!!! Talk about a lazy couch potato's dream come true!!! So, i quickly rushed home, take my med and proceeded to watch my newly bought dvd...so much so that i actually got a headache from watching too much tv!!:D

The Roots of it...

2006-10-27T18:37:00.000+08:00

I am a Hainanese by default. That is cos my dad is a Hainanese and mum is a Hakka but as we all know, we usually follow our paternal side, bloodline, surname and wat-nots. Unfortunately, I think the Hainanese dialect is dying. Most of my cousins either don’t speak or don’t know the dialect at all, like me. Snigger. It’s not that I am renouncing my roots but the dialect itself is not easy to learn. Heck, it’s not even comprehensible. Unlike Hokkien, which I can still decipher some parts or try to make a good guess.

There was once where my family had dinner with my grandaunt. She speaks limited Cantonese and usually conversed in hainanese with my dad. So as usual, me just sat there and ate like a glutton and tuned off since I don’t understand a word that they were saying. At one point, my dad nudged me and chided me for being rude as my grandaunt was talking to me and I just looked at my food and continued eating making her looked like a dungu! Hey, it’s not like I pretended not to hear her but I didn’t even know she was talking to me mah!

People often tell me that the “pure-bred” Hainanese guys are very good-looking. I don’t know how true this is since my brother and my cousins are all rojak already! However, i did come across some really good-looking guys before, whether they are Hainanese guys i don't know...Hehehe...Of course the other myth that 9 out of 10 hainanese are wacko, and the last one is crazy, I can’t confirm either since I am not a “pure-bred”….(probably in denial here too) since i can't admit to being urm, sane...hahahaha

I spent the first few years of my childhood with my aunt, who is my mum’s sister so I can understand Hakka, most of it anyway and used to be able to speak the dialect but since it’s been many moons since I last conversed in it, I doubt I can still claim to be able to speak the dialect now. It’s funny but I have always thought that the Hakka people are really gregarious by nature and they conversed very loudly as though they were having a shouting match!! Hahahaha...let’s not even talk about when they were playing mahjong!! When I speak to my aunt on the phone, I make sure I hold the phone at least 2 inches away from my face!

Kiddie Tales

2006-10-27T14:46:00.000+08:00

I love my childhood. I reckon it was the happiest time of my life…those were the carefree days, where you only need to think which tv programs to watch each day once you wake up! No need to go work, no need to do housework, no need to exercise, just laze around, watch tv, eat, sleep, watch tv again, eat, sleep and there goes the whole day. Of course, this probably went on till kindergarden, where I played for another 2 years! The memories are getting a little hazy, all I can remember from my kindergarden years was that I used to play this kiddy game of ‘masak masak’ where we just threw some stuff onto the small plastic kuali and pretended that we were great chefs and cooked some really fancy stuff! Oh, I also learned how to climb trees here as I was mixing with the boys. At home, when I was old enough to discover fire and matches, I used to collect all those dried dead leaves, gathered them in a heap and burned them…like what they do at campfires…even plucked my own hair to burn before. Did you know that when our hair gets burnt, it emits a nasty smell? It smells like plastic burning…..

I was very close to my sister when we were younger, probably cos there was only a 2 year gap between us and we went to the same school. So, I was her little tag-along, everywhere she goes, I go too, whether it was school, tuition, shopping or parties. And I had to wear her hand-me-down clothes as well! That was the not very nice part. Or else, we wore identical clothes so a lot of people thought we were twins. Our parents usually bought us the same tops, albeit in different colours and as we shared the same wardrobe, sometimes we kinda get confused which belongs to who. Anyways, there was this particular top that both of us had. One was pink and the other was yellow. We spent god knows how many hours arguing over the pink top belonging to whom. In the end, my sister produced an old photo which had both of us wearing the 2 tops to prove her point. Hahahaha…that was hilarious!

We also shared the same room when we were young and as I was the talkative one, we used to talk every night before we go to sleep. Of course, I was doing the talking mostly, and sometimes, I would end up just talking to myself when I hear the snoring sound next to me!!! That is when I started keeping diaries to pen down all my thoughts and dreams when my sister became too busy to listen to me. I supposed that's where i get my literary flair (or literal crap) depends how you see it...

I used to have vivid and surreal dreams. Mostly, it doesn’t seem to make sense but I penned it down anyway. One day, I chanced upon my sister’s diary. As usual, curiosity killed the cat, so I read her diary and even wrote some comments inside! Hahahaha…when my sister found out, she didn’t scold me but replied on my comments and told me not to read her diary anymore! I offered my diary for her to read in return but she refused as she knew I have told her whatever I wrote in my diary already! :D

Sick Cat

2006-10-27T10:53:00.000+08:00

Oh great, now my flu virus has mutated…so now instead of a runny nose, I have a blocked nose!!! Right now, I am alternating between breathing like Darth Vader or opening and closing the mouth like goldie the goldfish…(mumbling incomprehensibly)…I still find it hard to wake up this morning as my body seemed to have grown some roots and strapped itself to the bed…well, the truth is, actually, my body is still aching. I should really visit the masseuse before my arms and legs detached themselves in protest! Yesterday afternoon, I was determined to skip gym for the day and go shopping instead, in a desperate attempt to prove to my friends and (myself) that I have a life besides gym. However, come evening, I was “swayed” into going to the gym again! Sigh! What can I say? I’m a softie who is easily persuadable… And just now, my colleague just told me that I looked very ‘charn’ and sick cat today…Ouch! That really makes me feel on top of the world right now!...not….Hmmm, to see or not to see…that is the question? The doc, I mean…oh well, will see how it goes by nightfall perhaps…*sniggering and snorting*…

After gym-ing yesterday, we had a little fiesta not unlike a pot-luck thingy though the food was provided by one person only! Well, there goes my resolve into abstaining food after gym…again! Had some lemang, curry and rendang chicken (which I love and which I also know is very fattening) Anyways, I reasoned I did the entire class and I didn’t slack too much (which is a denial statement to console myself cos I did slack due to knee pain), so I can afford to indulge a little…oh, the cookies were heavenly (not sure whether it was cos I was hungry or otherwise)…very buttery and stuff…like M & Ms, they just melt in the mouth (before it has the opportunity to melt in my hands, I may add) hahahahaha… One of the gym members was busy helping himself to some ketupat (most of it in fact) and I chided him for being such a cheapskate and treating the ‘little makan’ as his dinner!! Now, I know why I love going to gym so much…mostly, it’s the “company” and friends that we love to gather (and gossip about other people) after exercising. Of course, the exercise itself has to be enjoyable too otherwise I would have given up 3 months down the road…which was what happened to me at my previous gym.

Bean Counter

2006-10-26T18:11:00.000+08:00

I’m pretty much a fun-loving person who believes life is simply too short to mull over the trivial things in life. Actually with my vivacious nature, I reckon I’m in the wrong profession. See, when it was time to further my studies, I thought about becoming a psychologist but then my parents banned the idea as they think that there are no job opportunities for this so-called profession or maybe deep down inside, they were just scared that I’ll become wacko!!! (not like I’ve turned out any saner) So, one profession was deleted from my lists.

Next, I thought I should get into the IT line since I love playing pc games so much. I remembered playing pc games since I was 13 and after the games, I could never sleep as my brain was too active and began to think of ways to break my own high scores!!! But, I rationalize since my sis was in the IT line, I decided not to join cos that’ll mean being compared to her again! As if my whole childhood was any different, sigh!

I couldn’t do sales…no let me re-phrase that…I can do sales but it’s just that I hate doing it. The thought of begging or apple-polishing people to buy my products…uggghhhhh….eyes rolling…can’t stand it. See, I’ve done it fleetingly when I was a volunteer in a school thingy and though I managed to sell the stuff in no time at all…it’s just too ‘fake’.( no offence to all the salespeople, ya) So, that narrowed down my choices for a profession. Well, like my tutor used to say, the accounts people are needed in all companies and they are almost always the last to be fired! So, I guess job-security do count after all…at least in my parents eyes…though I must confessed that I actually change my major 3 times while I was in uni!! :D

Any name will do

2006-10-26T18:07:00.000+08:00

Why did I choose this nickname? Well, actually there’s no fancy story behind it and neither am I a fan of Ultraviolet (though I secretly aspire to look like Milla Jovovich…nah, just kidding…hehehe). Anyways, it just so happened that I had just watched the movie right before I started posting in a forum and due to lack of creative thinking and imagination, I decided to adopt the name as my nick. On hindsight, the nick is pretty cool as it also means UV rays, which excessive radiation can cause skin cancer though I would like to think of reading too much of my posts will lead to brain damage onli….hahahaha…so beware!! Anyways, you can read more about it from this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet

Post-Hols Blues..

2006-10-26T12:17:00.000+08:00

This morning it was hard waking up…mostly, it was cos I didn’t sleep well yesterday night due to my flu, which was getting worse and the fact that my brain was actively thinking of new ideas to blog. Right now, I’m actually contemplating seeing the doc since my flu, which I caught 2 weeks ago in Lumut showed no signs of recovering. It’s really troublesome especially when I’m gym-ing halfway and I get a runny nose, which I then had a choice of letting other people witness it flowing down and my desperate attempts at vacuuming it back to my nose or make a beeline to the locker room which hopefully the instructor didn’t notice, ‘pau my wantans’ ie blow my nose and run back in…hmmm, anyways, between a cough and a cold, I would definitely choose to have the cold…it takes me ages to cure my cough! Well, if the doc asks, I shall blame it on the haze, since the weather has not cleared over the long hols and not due to me not abstaining from cold stuff and heavy gym-ing instead of resting at home….*evil laugh*…

After the long break, the brain is really slow (like the car engine, the brain needs some vroom, vroom time before it slowly picks-up and run smoothly, of course in my case, regardless of whether it’s a 1 day hol or a 1 week hols, I’m still brain dead!!!) and so, I’m sticking to more mundane tasks like checking and casting rather than going into those things which need brainworks at the moment. Gees, am so looking forward to lunchtime now….yeah! been nibbling on my cereals since 10 min ago…which is how I reckon my sore throat never got well, which directly affects my flu of not getting any better…right, who says we need the doc? Bah, I can very well do my own diagnosis…*blowing nose happily*

Kiasu to The Bone!

2006-10-25T22:45:00.000+08:00

Boy, oh boy...My first post on my blog...gees, not sure what to write. See, i have always wanted to write my own blog but was stumped on the topic to write on and so have actually procrastinated all this while. Created a blog space some time back but have since forgotten the address...Hahahaha..

During the last few days of the deeparaya hols, was supposed to start writing and do some work which i happily brought home on the pretext of doing it and going off early on friday...snigger...but of course as usual, ended up gym-hopping instead (not to mention killing myself in the process!!) and not doing much of anything basically....So, was supposed to start working just now when i switched on the pc but ended up surfing the net and chatting instead...and now posting on my blog...yeah, like what's new huh?

Alrighty, the Deeparaya hols have been very productive as far as gym-ing is concerned...i have not done so many back-to-back classes for ages and now it's taking an absolute toll on my body! Talk about being kiasu to the bone! Today i did BC and BS (well, half of BS actually since i was in and out of the class mostly) and probably 10 minutes of yoga since i couldn't wake up on time (and also cos the instructor sucks...well, she couldn't make up her mind what to teach, alternating between basic poses to the really advanced poses when she gets a brainwave...eyes rolling!)....so now my knees is hurting like hell due to the over-enthusiasm and excessive combo of BA-BC-BS-BP-Pilates-Yoga over the course of the past 5 days...must curb enthusiasm in future!

On the weekend, i visited Borders and spent a couple of hours browsing through the bookstore. I actually love bookstores and used to loiter in MPH for hours! But the thing about reading in bookstores...i don't get it how people can actually spent hours reading in a bookstore especially when it comes to sitting in an armchair. Mostly, i just end up dozing off and buying the book i was supposedly browsing. So, i was a really dedicated book-reader...no, make that book-buyer (i have tons of books which i thought i needed and will read when i had the time, which of course had not materialise to date) when i was previously working in the thereabouts of a certain shopping mall....heck, i was a dedicated shopper as well....i could practically see my Jusco points rising by the day!! Of course, this has now been curbed ever since i changed jobs and is now located at some god-forsaken place....which was kinda good too, less temptation to shop, less to buy...

Anyways, back to Borders...i bought a novel, a crossword dictionary, a sudoku book (yeah, crazy addicted to it now) and a female mag. So, right now, besides heavily gym-ing, i was waking up and falling asleep with my little sudoku book by my bedside!! Hmmm....i wonder whether my brain power has been boosted these couple of days after doing so many sudokus? hahahaha...yeah, fat hopes right....oh gees, it's coming to 11.00pm...already? What a bummer...have to work tomorrow...ughhhh...drat drat drat.....i hope i can get up!