Counting Down… June 28, 2011

I’m starting work at my new workplace on Friday! I know, it’s such an odd day to be starting work right? But I have high hopes for it, hahaha. Plus, if you have a horrible first day of work (I said “YOU” and not “I” because “I” am definitely not gonna curse myself), you can just say, “Oh at least the weekend is here”. Hahaha. To be honest, after relaxing around for so long, I feel really odd about going back to work. How odd, you say? Well, I feel as if I’m a fresh graduate going in for her first job. -___- Gotta knock some reality back into my head. Meanwhile, been keeping busy, especially with gym. Hoping to lose weight a lot of weight before I start my job, but in fact I feel like I have gained weight some more… geez!

Anyway, the main point of updating was to do the “weekend updates” thing to recapitulate what happened on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Friday started off nicely, with me passing Tron the orange cake. The verdict of most people on the orange cake is that it tastes nice, but why is it so moist? It’s because it’s a flourless cake! They tend to be more moist… at least, that’s what other people are saying. It could also be due to me not being able to 100% puree it properly since I was doing everything by hand. And it’s a job I don’t look forward to doing again (read: please buy me a food processor).

On Saturday, I wanted to treat Tron to a “fine Italian feast” at Z*. I made the reservation a day before, and they allowed me to make the booking for Saturday at 12:15pm. However, when we arrived there — the place was closed! It was awful… why did they allow me to make a reservation and then not even be open for business? Plus, the opening hours for the restaurant is from 12pm-3pm… so it should be open ANYWAY even if I didn’t make a reservation, right? I called the restaurant multiple times, and each time I only got a recording. Disappointing.

WAS so excited to go to Z*… even make-up-ed and dress up nicer than my usual ‘lecehleech’ style.

Closed!!

I know this isn’t concrete proof, but you can see the time from my original photo (if Z* / Dealmates wanna request, I can send over the ORIGINAL photo). FYI we waited until 12:25pm and it still wasn’t open. And if they opened that late, how long before all their staff comes in, the kitchen gets warmed up, etc? What time would we actually EAT?

I complained to Dealmates to ask for a refund… and they said that the restaurant is undergoing renovation, and as such, they will make a concession for this deal to be extended til the end of July. To be honest, Tron and I have no “heart” to eat there anymore. Z* is not an easy place for us to get to from Subang. Plus, when we made the reservation, the restaurant took down my contact details. If they were closed for renovations, they could have called me up to inform me. Do they really think that all people who will be eating there are just living nearby? Sigh… really, really disappointed! Dealmates said they will help me get a refund from the restaurant even though their policy is to refund only deals that have been purchased within 14 days or if the deal doesn’t go through (meaning, not enough buyers for the “deal”). I find that policy really unfair because it is somewhat not being completely responsible in the deal. I had no such problem with Groupsmore & Milkadeal… so I’m really really hoping that Dealmates will help get my refund for me. It’ll give me so much more “peace of mind” to buy deals from their website. Otherwise, boh pian, I will have to take it off my group purchasing list.

Because of  Z*, we had to have lunch at Canton Fare, which was nearby and seemed to be teeming with patrons. The food there is quite worth it IMHO, because the portions are HUGE. The char siu  and the siu yoke is the best part of the meal (no wonder, as Canton Fare calls themselves the “King of Roast”). Tron and I enjoyed the roasted meats so much… at RM18 per plate, no wonder it’s so yummy la.

Tron’s Olive Fried Rice. I didn’t quite like it, but if you do, be happy cos the portions are huge…

The char siu + siu yoke…

My seafood porridge. One huge bowl of this = 4.5 smaller bowls! I was really stuffed!

Played  Street Fighter IV with Tron again… and this time he showed me a list of “cheats” which isn’t really cheat IMHO as it is NECESSARY to know those moves!! Anyway, after some training, I can now do hadouken, hurricane kick and shoryuken with ease… hahaha. Well, more ease than before. I’m going to train up my RYU so I can really whoop ass after this. I <3 Ryu…

Was enjoying myself so much playing games that Tron had to be the one to suggest, “Why don’t we go 1 Utama now?” Hahaha! Sounds like role reversal right? Usually the guy will be playing games and the girlfriend will ask the boyfriend to take her out shopping. Anyway, it turns out that Tron wanted to check out the Club 21 sales. Cis! Not like I can afford also. Everyone says that since I’m starting a new job, I should treat them lunch, dinner, treat myself, go shopping, etc. But they have forgotten that I have not gotten paid yet. And in fact, my old company banked in RM600 less from my usual salary. I have to call them up tomorrow and find out what the jizz is going on. -___- So in fact I’m feeling poorer than normal.

Ate at Cravings, erm… our usual favorites la. Minced pork with peanuts & basil leaf + Fried beancurd + fried kangkung. Everytime I order kangkung, Tron will remind me that it’s a vegetable that grows from a drain, blablabla… but it’s so delicious, especially fried with belacan…

After church on Sunday, Tron and I met up with Raymond at Gardens. Raymond = my EX-colleague now. Hohoho… Raymond just wanted to update me on what’s been going on in the office, and his latest updates as well. Met up at Austin Chase, and in fact wanted to force him to treat Tron and I, but Tron said it’s darn bad cos Raymond treated us to Saba last time. =p *greedy Leech* So, thanks to Tron, I got a chocolate mocha ice-blended… not bad! Quite like Austin Chase, even though Raymond chose this really “private area” lounge where I can’t really talk / laugh loudly as per my usual self.

You might think that there’s not much that we can talk about… but in fact, we were at Gardens til quite late. Zomg! I had another “gathering” to attend after that. But not before I forced Tron to follow me to redeem another group purchased coupon. This time from JackCow. It was a buy 1 free 1 promotion for Ireland Potato. Basically, can be used for all french fries + topping EXCEPT for their super cheddar cheese one. Original price for ONE Ireland Potato is RM8.80, which is darn expensive in my books. However, I used to order it when I ate in Wong Kok, so I thought that it would be quite good?

The french fries are not bad lah, but I think that the portions are quite small… considering that it is RM8.80, and the toppings that I chose is not SUPER expensive also. I took Pizza Sauce and Honey Mustard. Pizza Sauce doesn’t even have any meat inside, just mushrooms! So I am damn glad that I got this deal to try out Ireland Potato, I don’t think I’ll buy it otherwise. Tron said it is not bad, though he is iffy about the type of oil they are using. But the one who REALLY REALLY like it is … my brother! Cos both Tron & I were quite full from Austin Chase, so I ta-powed most of it for my brother.

His first words were, “Ireland Potato? Isn’t it really expensive?” I told him to finish it all off, and he wiped out both packets of my fries darn fast… -___- By the way, I much prefer honey mustard to pizza sauce, which actually has a more sour-ish type of taste…

And yes.. the other gathering for Sunday was… meeting up with Kim & Dee, my friends from college. I haven’t seen Dee since erm… nearly 7 years ago. She’s since moved to Australia (for studies, and now work). It was nice to catch-up with both of them, and finding out how life is like overseas. Conclusion is : life *is* better overseas, hahaha. Oh, and really envious that she had a rocking trip in New Zealand, doing all kinds of extreme sports like bungee jumping, white water rafting, black water rafting (if you’re wondering what this is, it’s apparently rafting in a CAVE), flying fox, etc. Zomg, so jealous!! I want that kinda trip too!  =p

And Kim still doesn’t want to tell me where she’s working, lol. I can’t believe that we were in Tony Romas that long.. like almost 3 hours? But we all had so much to update each other on…

My shrimp scampi pasta from Tony Romas… I loveddd it.

Four Days – Tourist-ing Around In Skirt and Wedges March 1, 2011

This blog post will hopefully serve as a reminder to myself to NOT be a tourist in a thin skirt from Dotti and wobbly wedges.

After two days of general bumming around, we told ourselves that we most definitely had to do SOMETHING touristy. FYI, I planned to go to the Underwater World as well… but “couldn’t find the time”. Hehehe. We decided to go on the cable car instead and to go around Pantai Kok. Wanted to be all uppity and eat at The Loaf while looking at people go by on their luxury yachts. Hmmm… My friends ate their Ramlee burgers (from the night before), but by the time *I* woke up, I found ants crawling all over my burger. I don’t know whether the few hours of extra sleep gave the ants more time to crawl into my burger, but I was super unhappy about it. I’m not the type who will just brush off the gazillion ants and eat the damn thing.

I had a traumatic experience when younger… drinking a can of A&W root beer that was left open overnight and had tonnes of dead ants in it. And then a second traumatic experience when someone stupidly insisted that I drink something that was left open, insisting that it was alright. Found myself scraping ants off my tongue a second time. The conclusion is that I hate ants and will never again bring myself to eat something that has the possibility of an ant colony inside.

Didn’t have time to search for brekkie as we had to check out and then move to Charlie’s Motel, the new place the gals found at Pantai Tengah. Honestly for the price, it’s better than Grand Beach, but both have their pros and cons. For one, Charlie’s Motel‘s fridge had fungusy stuff growing in it and doesn’t actually work well. (Grand Beach’s fridge worked… but when we first arrived, Fuzz found mysterious liquid floating around at the bottom… yuck!) The toilet had great water pressure and worked just fine, but it smelled funky too. However all in all, the extra RM20 was worth it. The place is really pretty too. And the beach, though it is not private, it seems private because people who DON’T stay at the motel all congregate on one end of the beach, which is pretty far away from the part of the beach that is nearer to the chalets.

Drove to Pantai Kok… my friend Dull was pissed at me cos on the 1st day, she insisted on driving the Persona even though she’s not used to manual cars. She seriously made Fuzz and I nauseous. I don’t know about Fuzz, but I was seriously feeling woozy from the flight (I am so not a good traveller), and her constant braking and unable to put the car into gear properly, and her reluctance to stop (because would have to balance the clutch and start all over again) was seriously disturbing! And I told her so! But guess what? For my honesty, and then my generosity at offering to drive, she decided to annoy me by complaining about my driving. -____- She kept going, “Ugh! I’m nauseous!” every 2 seconds! Seriously man, wanna slap her til she die… after that, I super boh song already, so Fuzz had to drive for the rest of the trip. Muwahahaha…

In the end, we couldn’t find where the Loaf was, though we were right there at Perdana Quay (owned by Petronas!!1!). The little quay was so picturesque that we stopped by to take photos, and then somehow or other, I wound up eating lunch alone at the Kedai Mesra there. Hahahaha! Dull and Fuzz still full from the Ramlee burgers in the morning, and I thought it wasn’t fair to drag them to waste time at The Loaf when we had so much tourist-ing around to do. Plus, I was the only one really up for it.

Continued on to Pantai Kok, and finally arrived at the Oriental Village to take the cable car! Aside from little craft shops, some segway rides, the cable car and a giant lake.. there’s not much going on there. Ooh! I touched a python! RM10 to take a photo with it, but not worth it la. And though I’m not SCARED of the python, I feel quite geli to touch it la… eeks! The cable car ride itself was SUPERB! Worth every last sen of the RM15 (half price for Malaysians… others pay double!) I spent. It goes from the bottom of Gunung Machinchang right to the top…. well, almost ther anyway. You can stop at two different stations.. each has an observation deck. However, the one at the higher station requires you to scamper through about 250-300 steps in the forest before you reach the suspended bridge. The view it offers is AMAZINGGGGG though. However, both Fuzz and I were a bit scared to walk all the way through. When the wind blows (and it is pretty strong!) you can feel the whole bridge sway! And some planks are a little wobbly, so it makes you think shit is going downnnnnnnn…. hahahahaha….

Went to Kuah town (again!) after we had enough sight-seeing and wanted to splurge instead. :p I spent a lot of money on stuff after all (just paid my credit card bill today… *sob*). Altogether, I bought :
- 2 bottles of ice wine (one drank on the 1st night, the other present for Tron)
- 1 bottle of Dow’s ruby port wine
- 1 bottle of Pimm’s! Ben, remember how I was on the lookout for this after having it at The Queen & Mangosteen?
- 4 bars of Whittakers – 1 bitter orange for Angeline, 1 dark choco for Luke, 1 rum & raisin for parents, 1 kiwi for myself! XD
- 1 tin of Cavendish sweets in pear & blackberry
- 1 packet of Reese’s peanut butter cups (for myself, dunno why I bought also as I don’t really like it wtf)
- 1 mixed packet of Snickers, Mars, Milky Way and Bounty for my colleagues – 1 pack of 3 tins of macadamia nuts from Hawaiian Host. 1 for Tron’s parents, 1 for my parents and 1 for my colleagues

Phew! Thank God for 20kg bag limit.. Fuzz went nuts buying Cornell dishes some more. And her list of chocolates to buy for people was immense (cos so many people asking her for help). Crazy man! By the way, since Whittakers is the same price as Cadbury, I super recommend you to take Whittakers instead man! It is soooooooo good! Cadbury is actually cheaper cos they have buy 4 free 1 deals and they do have really nice flavors… but oh man.. Whittakers….

After dragging all our stuff back to the chalet, we quickly changed for a dip in the ocean… the only time we went into the sea! Hahaha! At first there was some misunderstanding… everytime we headed into the water, someone would blow the whistle and there was a guy waving his arms. In the end, it turns out he was signalling to the paragliders… wtf! At first we thought he was preventing us from going in. And at the delicious time of 6pm, there was no one in the water! Thought we were in jellyfish infested waters or something! Anyway, the 1.5 hours dip was soooooo delicious and relaxing and wonderful. Though Tron says that sea water is dirty, I think it was good for my skin la! I had good skin days for 2 days after that… came back to KL and now got 2 pimples ady, sheesh! Was just lazing around, giving self foot exfoliation and general just chit chatting. The only bad part was the so-called “sea flies” that Dull said is causing some random itch on my arm. It goes away after you get out of the water… seriously what bit me? Sea fly? No fly also?

Went to Fat Mom’s for Dull’s birthday dinner after that… and seriously it’s the best place to eat in Langkawi!! The food is cheap and delicious and the owner is so accomodating. He allowed us to open the bottle of port wine with no corkage charge as it was Dull’s birthday celebration. And on top of that, he even gave us complimentary fruits, and said it was the birthday cake. Hahahhaa! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DULL!!! Glad you liked the birthday present…. I had a really hard time choosing the gift for you! <3 <3 <3 Don’t be so panas baran and I pray that this year will be a year with many blessings and happiness for you, whether in terms of career, love, or just general havin’-a-great-life-ness.

We had more than what is pictured … altogether 8 dishes. Missing dishes are another serving of seafood tofu and some fried broccoli. Pictured on top is :deep fried squid, spicy garlic prawn, seafood tofu, Thai style fish fillet, butter chicken and fried vege with garlic.

Ended the night at Sunba, also THE best place to go drinking / clubbing / pubbing / dancing / whatever in Langkawi! Wow, seems like I’m starting to like Pantai Tengah more than Pantai Cenang ady. :p Had endless rounds of Mai Tais and ended with a killer Long Island Tea. The band was pretty good, played mostly rock covers. And when it ended around 1-2am, everyone was already dancing madly. The choice of dance songs they continued to play (Sunba, not the live band that already ciao-ed) was addictive and I let loose of inhibitions. Hahahha. Dancing is fun when there’s no creepy guys around that try to come up from behind.

Totally died-ed by 3am and when we went back, all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but Dull said not to waste the 1/3 port wine we had left. I will story you in on what happened after I had dozed off… in the next entry.

Four Days – Our Friends From Japan March 1, 2011

To be honest, I surprised myself by being able to even wake up the next morning. Honestly, was feeling like something the cat dragged in — sigh, gone are all those days of drinking practice. I think I’m too healthy for that now.. my body cannot take the alcohol. :p :p Anyway, we woke up nice and early for a stroll along the beach. It was not that hot, and we just amused ourselves looking at all the hotels on the beach that were so much nicer than ours. This Dull really siasuey la! As we walked along, she saw some beach activities stand, and said (damn loudly), “Hey girls, we should really go for a banana boat ride la!” Right after that, she shouted (damn loudly), “WHAT THE F*CK! IT’S RM90 FOR 15 MINUTES! WHAT A RIP-OFF!! KNNMCH LA!”

Fuzz and I were just ignoring her… and continued walking… a gwai lo passed us and he turned to Dull and said, “Well, we do offer discounts!” and proceeded to sit at the stand… HAHAHA! OMG, she was so embarrassed, serves her right! And I thought that *I* was the one who always got caught in embarrassing moments, hahaha! After that she was really quiet. :p

We walked darn darn far along Pantai Cenang… and wound up at some random Malay restaurant for breakfast. Actually, we wanted to eat at Breakfast Bar, but it was closed for all the days that we were there! Even on the day that they said that they were going to re-open. It was so darn disappointing… we loved that place the last time we were here! I had some pretty good nasi goreng kampung here, so no complaints. Fuzz had a lovely mushroom cheese omelette that she said was too much for her. So if you like your stuff in generous portions, then I guess this place is the place for you. Too bad I have no idea what it is called.

Walked back to the hotel room, and drank some moscato wine. Erm… ya, the theme for this trip is wine, we are DONE with all that hard liquor stuff. By the way, I guess I’m a noob with wine, but you really need to drink almost one glass of water for every glass of wine you take. The stuff is freaking dehydrating, and I suppose that was why I felt as ill as I did. The Banrock Station moscato wine is really good… and it’s only going for RM25-RM30 over here! So worth it ok! By the way, the Hoegaarden was about RM4 and the Hooch was RM5.50… omg! The Canadian ice wine is RM59, but since it is only 375ml, it makes it the most expensive thing per ml that I bought. But I promise you, it is a wine that you will remember… bought one back for Tron. Let’s celebrate! <3 <3

Er… then I knocked off for “a bit”, but it was actually for about 3-4 hours. The thing was, after drinking the wine, we were waiting for the maintainence guy to come and fix the toilet. Since we couldn’t leave the room unattended as he fixes the loo, we just sat around.. and then I fell asleep. My friends went to the beach (and took pictures of topless women), but I don’t envy them. Who goes walking on the beach at 3pm in the afternoon anyway? I think I’m really not a beach person after all… I don’t like the hot sun, I don’t like the sand between my toes and I sure don’t like the insects or jellyfish. The only thing I like about the beach is the fashion and the bikinis wtf!

By the time I woke up, the two of them said that they were driving along Pantai Cenang / Pantai Tengah to look for alternative accomodations. The toilet was literally a pain in the ass… and it got to everyone. When I finally dragged myself out of bed.. then I explored the beach for a bit, the lovely little tourist traps along Pantai Cenang … so I guess I didn’t miss out on the touristing around that the other 2 did earlier. Talking about tourist traps, I wound up with :
- a sling bag saying “I Love Langkawi”
- a painted wooden bracelet (I bought one for RM10 in Bangkok before, but I broke it… *sob* About the same price here, so not too bad)
- 3 scrunchies for RM5 (and I thought Bahau was cheap! But admittedly the designs were a bit er.. aimed for kids)

Went for an early dinner at D’Melati restaurant… also along Pantai Cenang. You can’t miss it. Everything we had that day was superb – regular pizza for RM16 only, yummy fish and chips, succulent burger, super fresh chef’s salad… the only thing about this place is that you shouldn’t dine here if you’re in a hurry. You’re supposed to like, chit chat, maybe play a few card games while waiting for your food to come. And boy do they take their time! It was probably the longest lunch/dinner I have ever had. But it was worth the wait, I guess! It helps when you’ve got good company and lots to gossip about. Hahahaa!

Oh! And my friends told me that they found the perfect place to move to after we leave Grand Beach Motel. The place is at Pantai Tengah (instead of our favored Pantai Cenang), and it has a seemingly private beach (SEEMINGLY being key here) and was only RM20 more expensive. I was elated! Finally, I could go to the toilet, wtf! That night, we bummed around until it was quite late (honestly, I don’t remember what we were doing, but there were a lot of crosswords, a lot of reading Eat, Pray, Love, eating chips and all that. Aside from the moscato, we didn’t drink much! After bumming and relaxing, Fuzz insisted that we check out that awesome Babylon Bar that we kept walking past. We took so long to get ready that by the time we were walking there, it was around 10:40pm! The band stops playing at 11! Lol! We had a minor drama over whether we should bother or not, but since there were online reviews raving about the place, we went ahead.

The place exudes an air of being very hip, very cool, accessible and just so laid back and fun. The band was really good (played rock hits) but … it was a bit too hip and cool for a nerd like me. Everything was on the beach, and they had some cool (but uncomfortable) log furniture laid out right on the sand. At 10:40pm, the place was so crowded that I didn’t know how we were even going to get seats. However, as we walked nearer, 2 guys started waving at us to join them. Saw that they were asian, and although asians are generally less perverted (wtf) I was like, “eh, anti-social la… let’s get our own table.” :p

We got our own table.. which was just next to those 2 asian dudes. Dull decided to help us get drinks (pina coladas) and while we were waiting, the dudes joined us at the table. The tall guy was very friendly and hapless in a Japanese sorta way (they were both Japanese lah) and since they seemed harmless, ok lo. We joined them, but we didn’t drink from their dodgy looking “special mix” and they just talked about travelling and stuff. The tall guy was very flirty with Fuzz! He said that she was just his type. Hahaha! Then the muscular guy asked Dull, “Out of all the guys in the world, what kind of guys do you like? American? Chinese? Malay?” When Dull answered, “Malaysians”, he replied, “Oh Japanese guys you like the most? Good good…” WTF!

Then the two guys also asked me am I Japanese.. and they waved to me because they thought I was. -___- Please lah, so many Chinese girls in Malaysia being mistaken as Japanese, but when I compare them and myself, I don’t see any similarity at all. Hahaha. Maybe I’m like Japanese obaa-san. Anyway, they mainly flirted around with Dull and Fuzz la, seeing as I said I have a boyfriend. =) And in case you’re wondering why I refer to them as the tall one and the muscular one, it’s because I didn’t even get their names. They are so strange la… maybe it’s normal for people in that country, but they didn’t even know my name, but one of them asked me if I wanted to travel to Sabah with him. -____- But not to say that they are evil, pervertic or whatever… they were just two funny fellers… after drinking our pina coladas we left (no point, band also not playing ady), and they didn’t insist on following us creepily. Though the tall guy did invite us to join them at Sunba.. and alternatively, to go swimming the next day! -_____-

This picture happened because I asked him to help us take a photograph, and then he said, “Oh you want my photograph?” and proceeded to camwhore. -___-

Went back to Pantai Cenang to buy Ramlee burger… while waiting for Ramlee burger, they passed by on their scooter, and as they waved at us as they potted by, one of my friends said, “See? I told you they were harmless. Should have let them buy as drinks la….” -_____-

To be continued…

GymWorkFamilyFriends (My Personal Top 4, no particular order) March 23, 2010

An update on things that have been happening in my life! It’s been way, way overdue. Well, I have not been blogging much since I came back from Singapore… been busy with work, gym stuff, family and friends. All good stuff, not been up to anything bad. ^^

Okay, so the 1st quarter workshop for Les Mills has gone and as usual, I went for the Body Combat and Body Attack new releases. It was held at the Twin Tower Fitness Center, as usual, and I felt (physically) much better than the 1st time I went for the workshop. I suppose it’s also because I knew what to expect this time around, so I was not so kekok as I was last time. Plus, last time, Dan & Rachel Cohen came to present the BC new release, so it was so, so very packed with lots of instructors from across Asia coming to get in on the action. I much prefer the Q1 workshop… somehow still a lot of people, but more intimate.

It has been 3 weeks since the release, and in fact, True Fitness is gonna have the 1st Q launch as well, so I don’t really remember much of the new release except for Body Attack (because I have the tracks). I just remember being REALLY REALLY REALLY impressed with the new Body Combat release. There’s some new moves there (like the “shoot”), and I really love the awesome energy in the 3rd track – Love Drunk. “The Black Pearl” and the “sword fighting” style is also interesting and cute in a way… these two were the most memorable tracks for the latest release, but the whole package is pretty nice as well, and will surely have members packing each class. Great release! Thumbs up!

In contrast, Body Attack did not catch on so quickly for me. Probably because the songs are not that good. I feel really bad talking about it like this, because we are supposed to be more gung ho about it I suppose. But I can’t even get myself enthusiastic and worked up about the new release, how can I get others to do the same? The warm up song, the song that is supposed to get you in the “mood” to start Attack is a really bad remix of Evacuate the Dancefloor. That song is so overplayed. It’s so overkill. Just like “Just Dance” two releases ago, but at least the remix version of “Just Dance” was still nice. Somehow this version of “Evacuate the Dancefloor” makes me want to evacuate the studio. The mixed intervals track is MUCH nicer though, quite like it. It’s called “Don’t Upset The Rhythm”, and it really is more energetic than the lacklustre beginning.

“Fire Burning” for the 3rd track is AWESOME and is probably the best track for this release. The plyo track after that is not as good… chorey feels messy , with all kinds of things being jumbled up together. The superman track for upper body workout is a great song, I love it… but like all upper body workout tracks, I don’t love it THAT much. Simple running track, simple song which is not really that memorable. The agility track is the 2nd best track for this release. Nice new movements which are rugby inspired and I like the song as well. Quite cute, with statements like, “Just do it do it do it!” Somehow the agility tracks always catch my attention… hahaha. Track #8 and #9 are forgettable, seriously. For something like “We are the Champions”, there should be more difficult movements, especially after the amazing “Zombie” power track in the last release.

The lower body conditioning, core conditioning and the cool down songs are nice and listenable, but nothing that really grabs my attention. All in all, a mediocre release… very mediocre. I really had no mood to do Attack any more after this. Did horribly during my tuition some more. Well, I had only 1 day plus to practice my two tracks because I was sick for so long, I was really considering telling the BA head teacher that I didn’t want to go for tuition. But I didn’t want to give any excuses, so I just went. Of course, did horribly. I don’t even know why I even bother anymore…

Quite a few people have been asking me to do Body Combat instructor training… and although I love BC… I don’t want to become like what happened in Attack. From something that I love doing, it becomes something that I am scared of doing, because of expectations. A* said, “I feel it’s a waste if you don’t do BC, because you really enjoy it and I think you’ll be good at teaching it.” But I enjoyed Body Attack too, you see. The whole point of it is that I really do not have enough time for it. You might say it’s excuses, cos there are a lot of people who do like, 5 programs and they can do all 5 programs excellently. And they have day jobs too. Well, pls impart your secret to me. For me, it takes me DAYS to learn ONE track. DAYS. -___-

Ok, don’t want to complain more, here’s one photo of me that came out in the workshop… hahaha. Just my non-existent butt… but I think you can see that the back of my thighs are quite muscular wtf.

Master presenter Teoh is training us for the agility track… “move faster than the music”!

Work-wise, I’ve been given this new major project to complete, and … there were words shared between my boss (senior manager) + my direct team leader and project manager and myself. Basically, about my future in the current company. Nothing bad! Seriously! I know I’ve been very demotivated of late, especially because I feel like I’m so “stuck” here… they were thinking of ways to help me feel more involved, I guess. I’ve also been thinking about ways to improve our life in the office… we are always so stressed about certain things that “keep” on happening… thinking of ways to get out of the rut and make things better for everyone. And as always, there’s production problems because we are supporting branches… so things are busy for me. A lot of major projects being implemented… a lot of things to test, revert, program, manage, etc etc. This kinda ties in to my gym stuff… there’s just no time to learn more stuff. I have to learn more stuff at my office as well. Sigh… anyway I am quite certain that I won’t be doing Body Combat training, as much as I think it would be fun to shadow certain instructors… I know they won’t expect me to just shadow forever, and then that’s when I start to feel pressured, hehe.

Before I sign off, here are some happy photos from outings with friends and family.

Celebrating LY’s 28th Birthday @ Frontera
Dad and Mom in Frontera… the four of us were eating alone for 1 hour before LY and Kris arrived! They had some mad drunken party the night before.

Brother, with pinata in the background.

Appetizers…

Andrew’s choice. Not bad, it smells GREAT. Really helps you work up an appetite.

Mine … dunno why, had a hankering for country fried steak. Used to eat that all the time in Chillis. My choice, always.

Mom wanted something authentically Mexican.

Dad ALWAYS chooses fish & chips!

The HOTTEST level wings on the menu… it’s pretty inedible. Choose the 2nd hottest one only for lip burning yet lip smacking goodness. We went overboard. This was really just for lulz.

Check out mom’s face… and dad looks pleased that he wasn’t dumb enough to join us burning our lips off.

LY and Kris finally arrive, and they share some fajitas.

Close up of their food.

Me after eating the hot wings!

Andrew after hot wings… he accidentally got some sauce into his eye!

Mom and Andrew, who is munching on celery to take the pain away.

Group pic!!

Dad and mom in Coffee Bean, where LY bought all of us drinks. *heart* Mom looks kinda cute here.

Posh dad in coffee joint.

Had dinner at Canton Bay with the family minus sis & husband for dinner.

So-called had a table with nice view… cos the restaurant was practically empty.

Profile pic quality! ;P

The food we had. Some Mongolian-style venison, mushroom veggies, and Thai-style chicken.

WIP to celebrate Dull’s be-early Birthday!

Ambiance shot

Ambiance shot #2

I had a granny smith mojito, while Dull had some mandarin orange mojito. The mojitos are unique because they have sugarcane stirrers… a little bit potent on an empty stomach…

Birthday girl…. *heart*

Aneesha’s food… so healthy!

Fuzzy…

Fuzzy and what a Fuzzy eats.

My food… love the burgers & sandwiches at WIP! Very good stuff….

Dull had the portobello mushroom burger I had last time… it comes highly recommended, yo. She loved it too…

Close up of Fuzzy’s food. She said that this is a must have in WIP….

The loving sisters, hehe

Birthday girl and I…

Group pic #1… forgive me for looking manic, I’m crazy happy after I’ve gotten some alcohol in me… even after a grueling day at work.

Group pic #2….

Quite like the last group picture! Thanks to the waiter who is sooooo accommodating.

Italiannies + Sanctuary
Not many pictures because the person I was with doesn’t want pictures of himself plastered over the Internets, and anyway, I didn’t take that many photos. The food at Italiannies was not that good, but I was happy that he thought of going to Sanctuary, as I haven’t been there before. But the drinks there are really worth it, and his pomegranate mojito is super nice!

Will probably bring the galpals for drinks here one day. Nice place!

Italiannies calamari — pretty good stuff!

Italiannies pasta — not nice.

Who wants to see more pictures like these? Not me….

Last few random bits

Ang pow haul this year…. Actually, even more than these. And this year, I had sooo many generous colleagues giving me angpow. *shameless*

I am proud of my presentation skills.