Body Combat 50, Body Attack 75, Body Jam 59 December 22, 2011

On a quest to lose more weight, so been more gym-bunny in recent days. Like, today I was on leave and I did weight training for about an hour, Cardio Wave, and then in the evening I did some light stepper before going for Body Combat… muwahaha. Craziness….~ Finally I can blog about this quarter’s new releases, having just done Body Combat!! BC used to be my fave (and still is), just that for some reason I have no fate with it in Jaya 33! Even the new release was done in Jason O’s class in Taipan. Tsk tsk. Anyway, let’s talk about the new releases…

BODY COMBAT 50

As mentioned, Wednesday was my first time doing this class, but I had actually seen one of the tracks being presented when I was in Jaya 33, so I was not that “astonished” when the move came in the class today. Muwahaha. =D Personally, I felt that though the tracks are quite ok for this release, a lot of the combos seemed to be rehashed. Ya, I know we have the new “sword move” (which is not that new since it was done before in an old~old~old release) and there is the advancing sidekick that is really confusion town. But other than that, a lot of the combos are been-there-done-that. Then again, how many ways can you combine jabs, crosses, hooks and uppers?

a) Warm-Up Upper Body : More (Spice Club Remix). Quite a nice warm-up track. I like the song, that’s about it. The shuffles, etc, all very familiar and nothing special.
b) Warm-Up Lower Body : Rolling In The Deep (Fizzy Deejay). Interesting remix of the Adele song. Again, nothing special about the movements, I might even consider it forgettable. Seriously, just did it and I find myself struggling to remember what the moves are.
c) 1st Power track : Frozen (Big Fiesta). Interesting cross block, elbow and side kick formation. Other than that, never really liked the Madonna song either, so not really feeling this. ;P
d) 2nd Power Track : What’s Up (DJ Destiny). This song was used in a recent BA release, and I quite liked it. It’s such a nice, happy, sing-a-long-able song… probably my fave track for this release. The combinations may be confusing to new comers at first, but after a while, just go crazy with the punches and have fun!
e) Lower body workout : Let It Die (Kartsy Wolfbaine). …Where they introduced the advancing sidekick. Really not a fan of this move. I think it looks clumsy and there is no way I would fight someone by advancing to the left in such a manner. Maybe looks cool lah, but increasing your own possibility of tripping over your own feet and landing right on your noggin in front of your opponent. Not too challenging a lower body workout once you get the hang of the advancing sidekick. Everything else is just back kicks and squats.
f) Aerobic? track : Nessaja (Scooter) : The song is cute, but I heard it long ago when I was on my I-love-Scooter-I-want-to-have-all-their-records phase. Don’t really remember the moves. Tee hee.
g) Recovery : Gimme Dat (Ciara) : NOT A RECOVERY TRACK AT ALL. CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT.. but at the same time, they did this to us before in a previous release. If you do this properly, there is no way that your thighs won’t be feeling the burn. I could barely stand up after this!!
h) Muay Thai Track : Eye of the Tiger (Uprising). Muay Thai track is fun and fast — just the way I like my Muay Thai tracks. Besides, Eye of the Tiger is a great song for Combat. Probably my 2nd fave track for this release.
i) Finale : You’re The Feeling (Heaven 7). Not really feeling the music for the ending… it’s like not motivating enough for a finale track. I need something more… the combination a bit tricky (need a bit of flexibility to move from the jab-hook-upper-body rib- hook thing (I may have gotten this combo mixed up with another track…), and it really challenges your arm stamina! I like the combos, but I don’t like the song!!
j) Core conditioning : Pause (Pitbull). The push-ups are not that challenging, but the cross shoulder tap is! Kinda hit or miss with me.. sometimes I can do it, sometimes the tap on the shoulder is more like me quickly slapping myself and then stabilising my body again. *grin* The open cross push-ups also not that challenging… the 32 count bicycle crunches were killer though! Especially the 2nd set! And especially when BODY ATTACK has the same movement too and you just did it 2 days ago!
k) Cool down : ISHFWILF (Disturbed). Normal stretches with the weird kata (Sp?) from the beginning which I’m not such a fan of…. and this song not “we overcame it all~” motivating enough for me. Hahaha. “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”… after doing the whole BC release… actually, quite apt lah.

I know I’m reviewing the music more than the moves, but like I said, none of the moves are really spectacular to me. So I just talk about the tracks…

BODY ATTACK 75

I just managed to try the latest release on Monday – Jason Y’s class! Since it is at 6:30pm, I once again couldn’t make it quite on time, so I missed the first track! Joined in at the second track only…

2) Mixed Intervals : Party Rock Anthem (Party Playaz). This is such a fun track for the mixed intervals, there is a new move here which can get pretty confusing when it’s fast – the turning in of the leg and the hook… haha, I’m not even sure if I’m doing it right, but Jason is very kind and say “LeeCheng, you’ve got it!” Hehehe.

3) Aerobic : Freakin’ Perfect (Flo Drive). Your usual suspects of superman and shuffles, lots of jumping jacks… the song is pretty nice though. I remember it being upbeat and fun!

4) Lower Body : Party Over Here (Dan Winter). A lot of lunges, side steps, ice-skaters… but challenge accepted! I will perfect this track soon enough! Right now loss of stamina, so had to do the easy option for some of the lunges. *ashamed

5) Core conditioning : Sweat (Duration Plus). Similar moves to a previous release, whereby we have the step forward, reach up and back to push-up position…. not the toughest core conditioning ever, I find it easier than the ones with lots of triceps and the “crab walk”… so this was good too…

6) Running : Night Nurse (Studio 88)… an ok running track. Nothing too confusing actually. No across the room running and such. Jason Y was having fun with the lyrics and “pai ngor siong toi” again by singing the lyrics as “I wanna be LeeCheng’s lover” lololol. Everyone in the class must be so confused.

6) Agility : We No Speak Americano (Mario vs Global). OMG… love this! Agility is “back to normal” for me. A fun track to do agility to! Previously, the agility tracks were getting to be TOO “sports inspired” until it became a pain in the butt (literally). Like in the previous release… there were too many jump-squat-switches. Insane! Agility used to be the “easy” track!!

7) Intervals : Fallin (Breeze). Not a very memorable track.. a lot of kicks, knees, and switching sides around the room… kinda standard…

8) Power : Fading Like a Flower (Vegas Crashers). This is quite a fun and challenging power track… from the jump squat that later transforms to a tuck jump later… lots of jump jacks and switching sides like in the previous release too. Haven’t done it enough times to really remember the moves, but I think this track has all my favorite elements of a Body Attack power track! The only thing is the track ain’t that memorable…

9) Lower body workout : The Edge of Glory (Southern Light). I like the baseball move, interesting touch. The song is also quite motivating, especially since you should be exhausted beyond belief at this point!

10) Abs workout : Own This Club (DJ Marc). THe only thing I remember about this track is the endless amount of bicycle crunches!! Killer!

11) Cooldown : Telling the World (Logan S). Hmm.. don’t really remember this track. I think the best cooldowns ever were “The Best Is Yet To Come” and “Hold My Hand”.

All in all, a great release for Body Attack.. I think they are bringing the FUN aspect back, which I love, cos I think it was getting too serious and hardcore. This will definitely help motivate me back to 3x a week BA!

BODY JAM 59

This is the class that I did twice so far for the new release, and the first time was with Sharon T. She was surprised to see me in the class (on a Sunday) – and yes, I usually don’t go to gym on Sundays unless it’s really late, and even then, only for weight training. So happened that Tron and I didn’t date so long that day (lol), so I rushed to J33 for her class! She warned me that the new release is super cardio, super killer, so as my first time doing it… beware! Hahaha. Indeed, it’s very cardio heavy, but I actually think it’s not that bad compared to the Party Rock Anthem running man track from the previous release!

I think it’s because this is more hip hop inspired, and not house. The house performance tracks or Afro-Caribbean or whatever that they do is always more crazy. The hip hop ones are more difficult technicality-wise, but usually the movements are more “smooth” / “sexy”, so not that fast. IMHO only.

1) Warm-up : Til Death (Wynter Gordon) fading to Drop It Low (Kat Deluna). An ok warm-up … I like the songs! Really gets you in the mood to PARTY. =p
2) 1st Block : Get It (T.I), Countdown (Beyonce), Happiness (Alexis Jordan), Run The World (Beyonce). A little confusing in the switching sides with the legs looking like they are playing hackysack.. but I love the stomp and turn around bits… so cool. I heard Countdown before this, but I never thought it was such a dance-able song until Body Jam!!
3) Recovery : Bass Down Low (Depth Emblem Vegas). Cute & sexy moves, and the song is really, really a booty shaker! A bit confusing at times, but cos I think the choreo matches the song so perfectly, it makes me want to do it til I master it!
4) 2nd Block : Judas (Southern Light), Metrum (Fedde le Grand), Champagne Showers (Party Playaz), Til Death (Wynter Gordon). A lot of work here yo, especially with the turns and squats and jumps. What are they trying to do, make us do Jam Attack?! To me, it’s a great workout, but the movements don’t look particularly good on the dancefloor. I mean, you definitely can’t dance like *this* in the club! The songs are awesome though… really gets your adrenaline pumping!
5) Cooldown : Dedication To My Ex (Lucid Long). A sexy cooldown, I like! Feels so long since we have done something like this!

All in all, a fun release, a real party-hard kind of release. Love it and looking forward to the advance option starting next week!

Meanwhile, patiently waiting for True Fitness to bring in SH’BAM!

Body Attack 73, Body Jam 57, Body Combat 48 June 24, 2011

Finally got to try my 3 favorite program’s latest release! Phew! Been really busy at the gym, but I managed to try the new releases only 3x for Body Combat and Body Jam, but only tried Body Attack tonight! Like, just 3 hours ago! Anyway, all the new releases are really, really nice – definitely more challenging (they are always pushing the bar higher) and the songs are really good. Let me review in more detail below :

Body Attack 73

1) Warm Up – Only Girl in the World : Quite a nice track to start the class with. Simple enough movements, not too challenging. It is not as impactful as previous releases (“California Girls”, in the previous release was really good), but still – not too bad.

2) Mixed Intervals – Dirtee Disco : I don’t like the gallop, run, and arms movement, but I think you’ll find it hard to find any member who doesn’t like the disco hands and the rolling arms (that and the running forward and hop back – with turnaround!). Thanks to that last part, I really, really like this mixed intervals track. Attack has gone back to being fun fun fun again! Yeay! I was afraid that it was getting too hardcore for a moment.

3) Aerobic – Raise Your Glass : Quite simple movements, nothing special… until you get to the 8 jumping jacks which goes straight into the superman (x4 on each side). Aside from that burst of energy, don’t think it’s anything special. I don’t quite like the song also (got sick of it from the radio, and this remix is not so nice).

4) Plyometrics – Shake It : You will definitely get “shakey” legs after this. I quite like this track because it’s fun too! Ice skate 4x, running back and then high knees to change sides. After moving “around the room” in this manner, get ready for an insane amount of lunges. Thankfully, there are some side-step and jumps that ease it, but be prepared for more lunges towards the end! To be honest, I was really surprised that I can still do non-stop lunges as I have not been so regular in Body Attack. But this new release gives me hope… I wanna be BA crazy again!

5) Upper Body – I Got My Eye On You : Oh, definitely was not at peak performance for this one! My arms are still shakey after the last weight training + Alex C’s insane “Rapid Abs” class which made my arms feel more pain than my abs. There are a lot of TRICEP PUSH-UPS (my Archile’s heel) and after that… crab walks with more push-ups in between. I really couldn’t do the lower half push-ups… maybe another day when I am not so koyak from the previous day workouts. *shy*

6) Running – Wherever You Will Go : Normal running track, no special movements that I can think of… don’t really like the song either.

7) Agility – Head, Shoulderz, Kneez & Toez : Wow! Even more new moves for agility. It’s so different from Agility “in my day” HAHA. A lot more sports-inspired moves that I was confused about. So hard to do a squat and remember that the outer leg starts the 3-step run again. And after that – more super fast travelling (I just call it the “out out in in” move, lol). I have to improve my range of movement for this track!

8) Intervals – We Dance On : Actually, the movements for this track is really simple, an emphasis on kicks only. But what makes this track truly shine is the song! I love this song and I’m glad they actually have this for BC’s new release as well! It is inspiring and it is just a really, really cool song. I would do BA again and suffer through 7 tracks just to do this 1 track. Hahaha!

9) Power – Are You Ready For This? : Awesome power track to push us to the limits at the end. The starting is quite confusing, but therein lies the beauty of this track, haha. High knee run to the front and jump jack to the right, then high knee to the back and jump jack to the left. Lots of side-step and jumps… and MORE LUNGES! Can you stay strong and finish strong for this track? Challenge yourself!

10) Lower body – Higher : After all that lunges, we are further punished with …. more lunges and squats! There are no special movements for this track, but just take it easy and ensure that your form is correct. Enjoy yourself, it’s almost over.

11) Core conditioning – Yeah x3 : Hate to say it, but this Chris Brown track is quite enjoyable. The core conditioning was not really challenging, except for the plank at the end. The abs workout was a walk in the park!

12) Cool down – What Do You Got : Normal cool down, the song is not memorable to me… but I remember thinking it was OK.

Body Jam 57

Tell you something strange – I only did Body Jam 3x so far, and it was all with the same instructor! I think he’s new as I haven’t tried him before, but he is alright though he often complains about my movements and he says that I’m one of those that look at myself in the mirror and not look at him. Er… I think it’s stranger if the feller keeps looking at the instructor but doesn’t know how himself / herself looks like. You might look at the instructor and THINK you are doing totally like what he is doing, but in fact you look like you are scratching yourself like an ape. Correct? Anyway, he’s a good instructor, you can check him out in True Fitness. The name is “Shane”. The first time he taught us, he said he’ll be gone a long time so we should ask him for tips on the movement. But obviously that’s a lie, since I attended his classes 2 more times after that right? Anyway, about the release :

1) Turn Around : Very nice track to start off the new release! Fun, simple moves and I just LOVE this new track from Flo Rida!

2) Go Away : Sexy track for isolations. There’s one part which involves slapping your butt or touching yourself. Really cannot bring myself to do it like how Shane does. He got the “bitch face” on when he does the hand snapping and butt slapping. Hahaha! Anyway, I just found out that this track is actually a 90s track by Gloria Estefan! I love the part where she goes “And when you go I’ll be having a ball, you will see!”

3) Jump Up : A very tiring track, actually. It starts out deceptively simple with the toe taps and the arms…. until you reach “THE FINGER”. Crazy… I look like a maniac doing this. (See, checking myself out in the mirror). The song is energetic though, the choreo totally suits it.

4) 1st performance track (La Tromba Risin’, Turn Around, Move)  : I forgot the name of this genre that this is, but the instructor said it’s African + dunno what. After we were done with it, he said, “So do you feel Blackanese now? Any Chinga?” LOL. Aside from the move where it looks like you want to fly like a bird, everything is ok la. Not too difficult. Need a lot of stamina though, as you will be doing some samba, that flying bird move, reaching up and reaching down and skipping on your heels to the front. Hahah! I can’t explain the moves la… but there’s a lot of new moves here that  I haven’t done before, so it was weird, but nice too!

5) Whip My Hair : I totally cannot do this track because I don’t know how to “Whip my HANDS” back and forth. I look like I’m spazzing out! Hahahha! When this track comes I just do my own thing, much to the irritation of aforementioned instructor.

6) 2nd performance track (Don’t Stop The Party, Vegas, Do It Like This, Tomorrow) : Quite a challenging performance track — for my knees! Actually, a lot of difficult moves here. You start with the funny little twist at the start (I say “twist” but those who actually do it know that it’s quite energy consuming with the twist and kicking the heel up.. and the tempo is so fast! I only got it during my 2nd class!), and then you have something which requires you to bounce your butt up and OUT while moving your hands.. I don’t know how to explain this. It’s kind of a hit-or-miss thing with it. Sometimes I can do it, sometimes the butt refuses to move. The next step I count as “recovery” because it’s easy, but it goes into the rocking thing later which I find is hard on the knees. Finally, you have the switch knee thingy which I can’t do nicely cos when the instructor says “put your hands up!” he really means “put your hands up but if you really wanna look stylish, you have to jerk your shoulders around like I do”. Guarantee can lose weight if you keep doing this… who says dance is easy. *sulk*

7) Like Glue : Quite a fun cooldown track… I like! And there’s now some core conditioning incorporated as well?!!? Zomg!

Body Combat 48

1) Warm-up – In My Head : Actually, quite challenging for a warm-up track already since there are so many side shuffles. Whenever there are side shuffles, I get quite -___- already because there was once I side shuffled and nearly fell down! Hahaha. After that I’m scared of it. Chicken. Must learn to man up! Still, I love this track for an opening track to BC 48 cos it gets you in the mood. Not bad, but not the best.

2) Lower-body warm-up – Airplanes : No new moves, but I like the track! Oh, I like the combo of shuffling to the front and doing a roundhouse, then shuffling back for … SCISSORS on the floor. Is that what it’s called? Anyway, it’s fun! So far so good, 2 tracks also nice.

3) 1st fight track  – Smooth Criminal : Again, no new moves, this time introducing the lunging kick instead of roundhouses all the way.

4) 2nd fight track – We Dance On : I think this is a boxing track! Love this song, as mentioned in the review for Body Attack. A new move introduced here, kind of like an avoiding kinda move, but it works your core and in a way, your flexibility I think! I have to admit, when I do the move, I look like I’m doing Body Jam! This song is awesome, and the choreo to go with it just gels together so well. I think my favorite track for new release HANDS DOWN!

5) Lower Body – Come In Hard : The ultimate lower body challenge! Although by now it’s not a challenge anymore. *action* There’s a lot of side-kicks and it involves a lot of BALANCE as well. Strengthen your core in order to do this well! I think my derriere went numb the first time I did this! Aside from that, a lot of lunges and kicks as well… sien!

6) If I Were You : Don’t know the description for this track … but it’s usually the circle track in classes. TBH, I don’t really remember the moves for this track, but I remember the music well as we use it before in BC itself!

7) Drummer Boy : Another lower body challenge! Psh, and it’s supposed to be recovery? I think there’s NO RECOVERY! This is even more challenging than the earlier lower body track because you’re ALREADY so tired from the first one! This one has a tonne of side kicks (again) and front kicks and back kicks. Alternating between each will also make you feel dizzy, haha! But I love this track… I think it goes so well with the chorey.

8) The Last Fight : Don’t like this Muay Thai track as it has too many elbows … looks like we all went swimming… hehehe. The track is also too hardcore for me. Don’t like don’t like!

9) Everywhere : An alright track to end the class. A lot of punches and jack-cross on the floor, but that’s about it. Kinda bored with this song already since I heard it so many times during Body Attack …

10) Lower Body Workout – The Time (Dirty Bit) : Quite a challenging lower body workout, can’t believe it’s more hardcore than the BA one. Problem is I really hate this song. So I don’t enjoy doing it, somemore + difficult moves = feel like going home.

11) Cool down – The Silence : A nice cooldown with some taichi moves… the song itself, I don’t really remember…

That’s all for today… tomorrow I’m going swimming! And FYI, I really do like ALL 3 new releases, so I’m always in a quandary over which one I should go for! What did you think about it?

The Physically Tiring but Mentally Awakening Weekend June 25, 2010

This was a pretty sporty weekend for me, because … JENG JENG JENG.. guess wot party people? It was True Fitness’s 2nd Quarterly Launch in Jaya33! As usual, I always aim to go for my 3 favorite launches – Body Combat, Body Jam and Body Attack. I loved the timing this round… could finish by 4pm. Usually Body Attack is the last one, which means we finish around 5. There was also less lagging between classes, everything just proceeded uber smoothly.

However, sad to say that I didn’t like most of Body Combat new moves & songs, and I didn’t like most of Body Jam new moves and songs. Body Attack… well, got special place in my heart, so I think it was ok. Generally got nothing REALLY special for BA to me, and the movements.. gosh.. even some instructors have come up to tell me that BA69 is hard to teach. =\

The best part of Body combat 44 to me is the latest “core challenge” move… the side kick challenge. I think it’s great! Balance + strong core needed… And the “Ignorance” song by Paramore is one of the new tracks for BC44… I am actually quite sick of the song IRL, but somehow for BC, it becomes cool again. Hahaha! Other than that, I am neither super excited about doing BC tonight, nor am I dreading it. The “alligator crawl” is something that I don’t look forward to, not because I think it’s soooo difficult but because I really think the studio is too small for such fancy moves.

Body Jam was only nice because the presenters that day was AWESOME! Su Lin, Leonara, Azie, Simone and Shirlyn were part of the launch team, but I can tell that if it’s not the whole lot of them doing the class, I will be very bored liow. =p What I found funny is that there’s a Body Attack song for Body Jam! Namely, the “Lala Song” from BA68. Hahaha! Aiyo, there were some real sissy moves for that song. Disco la. Yeah, I like the disco performance track. Other than that.. sheesh, I’m starting to not like Jam so much liow. I really miss the old days of Jam. The song selections are getting yucky, honestly. But here’s a pic looking like I’m very syiok sendiri during the launch :

I look syiok sendiri here, but actually the instructors on the stage were all still super hyped up wan!! I’m not being siow!! Everyone else is too tired… come on, upzz the stamina, pple!

A lot of repetitive posing… yes, I’m holding a banana in my hand. BTW, the theme is “HOT SUMMER”, so everyone was asked to wear either orange or yellow. I love it when everyone shows a lot of support for the themes!

Body Attack has 2 particular super syiok crazy moves… the super fast easy walk with travel forward. And the plank and push-up. Seriously, the upper body workout for this release is sick. But I like how Jason Y motivates with statements like, “Being sexy isn’t easy!” (the track for the upper body workout is “Sexy Bitch” by Akon). Thats true, yo. The 4th track (plyometrics) was very good… that’s all I really remember lol. Tonight, hope to be doing BA again, if I have energy. I was actually quite worried that I wouldn’t be able to go for the quarterly release as I overexerted myself the night before, and after that, my knee felt a bit funny. Gosh!

Here I am looking lost in the middle of the er… agility track. I think. But everyone else looks kinda lost too, so I think Edmund was merely demo-ing… *consoles self*

After my super duper workout (BC started at 10:15am and BA ended at 4pm), I had to attend my colleague (Andric’s) wedding at Tai Thong in Puchong. I was not sure how to get there even though I drove past the place 1 week ago wtf. So in my nervousness, I arrived at the restaurant 5 minutes early, and was too shy to enter the place. Hahahha. The upside of all this is that I got great FREE parking. The downside is that I wound up waiting 90 minutes before the wedding actually started!

Camwhoring before I left the house

Showing L my bling… fake wan, hahaha!

Another one, cos bored waiting in the car. -__-

The funny part is that Andric placed me at a table with all the hardcore “drinking” gang. WhyyyyYYyyyy!! That night, I didn’t even drink at all because I drove myself there that night… what a pity. :p The wait for the wedding to start was so long that we finished all the peanuts that they served us and asked for a refill four times. -__- At first I asked Binz if we could get refill, and he said that’s such piggish behavior. I got a refill ANYWAY, then he syiok and got the next rounds refilled (same person keep asking, quite shy also mar… :p).

With JY, WeiNee and Jane and the groom, looking for the seating. Shit la this photographer make me look so weird! -__-

Since we had 90 minutes to spare, most of the time was spent reminiscing about Andric, hahaha. About all the vomitting sessions he had to go thru when drinking with the guys. How they once tricked him to drink a graveyard all in one go because he arrived late, and that was his punishment… and how we all took pictures with vomit spewing out of his mouth. In Victor’s words, “Very hard to get picture of someone like that you know! From the time you snap the picture, the vomit is all still flowing out.”Imagine how much vomit was inside him, hahaha. =p

Also saw GKL and his wife’s super cute baby Gabriel… who was non-stop eating. Gosh. Everyone kept looking jealously at Gabriel… as Raymond said, “He is the happiest guy at this table.” At 8pm, we were all still starving, but lucky Gabriel had his lovely mummy cutting some sausage sandwich for him and feeding it to him. Everytime she stopped (because she’s talking / listening to us), he would tug his mom to remind her that he is still waiting, ahhaha. So cuteeee! In fact, when the mom took out the tupperware with the sandwich, his mouth started moving like goldfish already… anticipating the meal. Aiyo…

Baby Gabriel, GKL and Mr AIP

Tun, Zona and Binz

Mr AIP, CCL and Tun (who is looking at live update n the World Cup from his laptop… gambler. :p

Here’s the food pics…

And the funniest pics of the night goes to Andric… he was so scared of us that he ensured that our “yam seng” table was the last! HAHAHAHA! You can see from the pic how Tun is restraining him (that arm over the shoulder is not just a show of buddy-ness) and not letting him go til he has finished all the red wine…

He came to “yam seng” at our table last cos he knows the guys are gonna “tui lam” him.

Drinking the full glass of red wine that Tun and GKL poured for him. Easy peasy?

Looks like trouble. Tun is comforting him, his wife cannot do anything at the back, lol.

Tun is making sure he does not run away!

Continue… Tun gave him some chinese tea to “calm the stomach” lol.

Andric’s wife (LihYee), Zona, Binz and Raymond at the side, laughing!!

Game over liow.

When we left that night, Andric actually told me, “Do NOT upload the pictures to Facebook!!” HAHAHAHAA. Sorry, that’s something I did not promise…

On Sunday morning, I got a phonecall at 5am… and it was an international phonecall. Now what would you think if you got a phonecall in the wee hours of the morning? When I asked Raymond that, he said, “Erm… the computer operators at Cambodia or Laos encountered an end of day error?” And he would be absolutely correct. However, me being me… I was spooked out by some stuff that L was telling me, so I was afraid that it was a ghost calling me. -____- At 5am in the morning. -_____- So at first I contemplated not picking up the call. But as it rang on, I thought that it was someone from overseas calling me to tell me that I had won a contest. -______- So I picked it up…. and it turned out to be a Cambodian staff having an end of day error wtf! Hahahaha!

Well, I mean, I am supposed to help lah, so I don’t mind, but when I remember back my “thinking” process at 5am, I really wanna slap myself for being so stooooopid. ;p Anyway, so I was up from 5am til 6:30am troubleshooting. When I think back about it, I get quite pissed off for the following reasons :
a. my company never provided me with a support phone for times like this. I answer calls using my own h/p personal number, and there was once when I picked up a call from Laos, my credit went down to 0 from a previous RM85! And because at that time I was using prepaid, I didn’t have item billing, so I couldn’t claim back my money. I dunno how much it cost me to talk to the staff that night.

b. the staff asked me to go online and talk to troubleshoot + he can forward me stuff that I require for troubleshooting. How did we do the troubleshooting? OVER GCHAT, how classy. At first, he asked me to use Yahoo chat, but I gave up on that long ago due to lagginess.

c. At the end of the night (or morning) when everything was resolved, the staff said, “Why don’t you install SQL profiler on your PC for faster checking next time?” This was because he sent me the SQL profiler file which was 22MB. I don’t have that program installed on my PC (it’s my home PC btw, not my company laptop), and because it’s so large, it cannot be opened with notepad / wordpad or it’ll hang. Or maybe my PC is just lousy. So I told him.. SURE I’ll install it if PB sponsors me the software. He told me to go and install pirated software on my PC. Which is not like I’m so holy and I’d refuse to do it… but… why should I clutter my PC up for this?

FYI, it’s not that I’m not willing to help as obviously I just sacrified 1.5 hours of sleep for this matter and I don’t get jack for it (not like I can claim any $$ for additional support), but I have asked many times before for better support tools. I even said that I would buy a laptop and install all the tools and programs required for my programming… all my company has to do is not even to buy the laptop, just sponsor a small amount, like 30%? And it’s so that I, a staff, CAN WORK DURING THE WEEKENDS FOR YOU. And they still decided not to. And they are soooo adamant about not copying out source code (which is written by ME) out, but if I didn’t have the source code with me during that Sunday, how could I troubleshoot properly? So utterly rubbish, their thinking. It’s not like I got the company laptop with special log in to be able to remote in to the work PCs.

If they suggest that I drive back to the office to work, let me tell you… production EOD problems are TIME CRITICAL. I live 30-45 minutes away from the office. The system had to be up by a certain time… if you fail to solve it, do you know how critical those 30-45 minutes are? Also, you’re asking me to drive out at 5am in the morning. As we all know, our country is not the safest country in the world lah… if anything happened to me… WHO IS RESPONSIBLE TO PAY BACK MY LIFE!!!!

The more I think about it, the more indignant I get! And if you ask why am I the one who has to do it, why not someone who stays closer to the office, firstly, don’t you think it’s unfair to the person who stays nearest to the office to do support ALL THE TIME? In this case, that person had a bit too much red wine during Andric’s wedding, and couldn’t wake up when the staff called him. He called me at 930am, super kan cheong voice to ask me if I managed to resolve the problem, HAHAHA. Secondly, I am only one of TWO staff that have the handphone number given to the people overseas to be on call. I can also say that at least 3 others if you call them, you won’t be able to resolve the problem. (Not boasting here, just that to solve production problem, you need 3 things : skills, experience and GUTS.)

Anyway, don’t want to talk about work anymore…

In the afternoon (after I woke up at a glorious 11:30am…!) I went to Salvation bookstore in SS2 and got a bible. Hahaha. L kept asking me to get some brown leather covered holy bible which is like his, but I thought it looked fuddy-duddy and did not appeal. =__= I know that if push came to shove, I would probably get one like that, but I want to look for something that I would like looking at. In the end, I found this super awesome LAWN GREEN and BABY BLUE bible with a soft leather cover! And a tiny metal plaque in front stating it’s the holy bible!! And it was the last copy left!!! Got it straightaway… There were other books in the bookstore that I was interested in reading… like one called “The Hole in the Gospel”… I got another book called “10 Lies the Church Tell Women” … which actually addresses something that I feel strongly about, as when researching, I noticed a lot of people saying that the bible is sexist and God is misogynistic. So this should be a good / interesting read.

There was also this book called “HELL”, written by this guy who said he spent 23 minutes in Hell.. (must be some near death experience kinda thing)… and I considered getting it, but in the end don’t want to… I think that it’s not good to scare people into Christianity… and despite what he says about how even “good” people will go to Hell, I would like to believe that they won’t, that they might find grace in God’s eyes…

Anyway, the conclusion is that there’s a lot of interesting books there. But first.. I started reading the bible last night. And after 11 pages, I have like 50 questions. Maybe I will write it out here for open debate… I just hope that the debate won’t end with “You are not to question God” or “I’m not God so I won’t know”.

By the way, the cost of my books from Salvation was around RM160… and recently, I got a cheque from GlobalTestMarket for RM162.50!!! What is the money for? Well, around 2 – 3 years back, I signed up to be a volunteer to do online surveys for them. It’s been a longggg time, but I finally managed to accumulate the 1,000 MarketPoints required to cash out my USD50. Honestly, when I first signed up, I thought that it would be FOREVER before I saw the money, and if you compare this to blogging, etc… of course it is a long time. But the fact is that I managed to cash out with minimum effort and I ACTUALLY HAVE THE MONEY. O_o It’s like money from the sky for me, haha. The surveys are sometimes very long, but when it’s very long, the pay back is like 50 MarketPoints or so, so I guess it adds up? For me, I’m online A LOT when I’m at home, so while I’m playing Mafia Wars, I can answer surveys too. I get nothing from referring you to the website, so really, just spreading the good news around. =)

My letter and my cheque.

But aside from my uber cool bible (never thought I would say this), I had a relaxing Sunday… watched “Seducing Mr Perfect”, a Korean movie starring Daniel Hennley… so darn good looking, gosh gosh gosh!!!! He was quite a bastard in the movie though… the movie itself is also quite silly … but heck, I bought that movie ages ago in Petaling Street (at least 3 yrs ago!) and now only found the time to watch it! HAHAHA.

I also got to try my friend’s “Super Mop”… designed to make housework fun. Well, I won’t say it’s FUN, but it was definitely easier. Hahaha. That night, celebrated Father’s Day with family (minus sister and bro-in-law who are in PANTAI CINTA BERAHI) at Gou Yan Yuen in SS15. Not a bad place, and the bill came up to exactly RM111.10. My dad liked it, so that’s the most important part.

Andrew and mother.

Mother and father

Our food, clockwise from top left :stuffed tofu, simple fried kai lan, steamed fish in chilli bean paste and steamed chicken with ginger and rice wine.

Only Andrew and I had desserts… he had some soya thing, I had my favorite “gwai ling gou” with honey.

Happy Father’s Day to all the cool dads. By the way, one of my friends from gym baked bacon, cheese and beer cupcakes for her dad! It’s like an explosion of flavors, something I really cannot imagine. Should I try that too… ? Hahahhahaa…

Gym Stuff Yo! April 2, 2010

Quick update! I find that I have less stuff to write here… maybe because there are more stuff that I CANNOT write out nowadays. Hmm… let me talk about the 1 thing that I can always wax lyrical about … gym stuff!

Recently, True Fitness had their 1st Quarter launch… the theme was “Earth Day”, so we were encouraged to dress in green or black. Or was it green and white? Anyway, I didn’t have enough green shirts to go around, so had to wear pink in the end for Body Attack. Yep, I went for my Body Combat + Body Jam + Body Attack new releases… fun times. I basically was at the gym from 10:00am til 5:30pm. Hehehe.

I had already tried the Body Combat new release during the super workshop, and was really looking forward to the release in TF. Launched by Terence, Simone, Nicholas, Jayson and Phui See… it was electrifying! Great launch! Here are some pics of yours truly [all pics taken from Su-Yee's FB page, kekeke] :

Alex C asked me to take a pic with her…I think it turned out quite nice though I’m not decked out in hand wraps and all.

Aiyah.. Alex C kicked so fast. Push kick! I think I was blurrr!!

Putting this up cos I’m smiling so nicely in the background, hahahaa. That’s Nicholas on the stage.

Again I’m in the background lar, that’s why this is up here. Lol lol. Nicholas and Phui See.

Generally, the new release was well received by most members, except a few who thought the “shoot” movement was too awkward. I have to admit, it reallllllly works your quads and your bum-bum (Terence’s words, not mine) on that one! Soon I won’t be able to do the BC + BA back-to-back classes anymore because my legs won’t be able to take it! Also, I realised that the warm up track for BC is the intervals track for BA! Hahaha… gosh. Still love the “Love Drunk” boxing track and the finale track… very nice. Don’t like the conditioning track though…

There was a longggg break between Body Combat and Body Jam, which I went for lunch at OTK and shopping at the pharmacies (Guardian + Watsons, but Watsons wins hands down k, in terms of pricing. In terms of variety, Guardian wins!). Seriously, pharmacy shopping is soooo addictive ok. There are so many hair products, shower gels and other pampering items that you want to try… I spent like RM120 after 45 minutes…! I have so much shampoo, shower gels, masks and … BRANDS ESSENCE OF CHICKEN to try. T___T Madness!! And there’s even MORE that I wanted to buy, but I had to stop myself…

Okie, back to the gym thingy… Body Jam new release is not really up my alley… too much hip hop! But everyone else seemed to love it, so Imma not raining on their parade. However, I did enjoy the launch soooo much because I thought Zarina, Su Lin and Simone were awesome. Even though I didn’t like the movements, they made me feel like the release was great… hahaha. So kudos to them… but I don’t think I’ll try Jam after this… I don’t really have the time any more anyway.

Su-Yee asked me to pose for this because of my shirt, but I look like crap here!! Hahahhaa…

Su-Lin on the stage, and I’m in the background. Hahaha. Whatever it is I’m doing, I look good doing it, wtf.

Finally, it’s the Body Attack new release… which, same as BC, was my 2nd time doing it. Actually, the new release is slowly growing on me. I actually HATED it with a passion. I thought most of the songs are already overplayed on the radio, and then they had to use it for chorey, bleh. I’ve already talked about it in the previous blog entry, so dowan to be so “cheong hei”… just that I’m likin’ it more and more.

Me and Frances… and Siew Fong in the background. Love it when Frances is around cos she is a fellow syiok sendiri person, you won’t feel so lonely syiok sendiri when there are other SS-ers around.

Heisman during agility track.

I just did Body Combat again on Monday and seriously, this is a really good release! LOVE IT! So drama… love it love it!!!! *screeching* Last gym related pic… this are a few pics from the Pushmore Open Day that I attended on the 13th of March! Looks quite gung ho eh… LOL. Thanks to Anita for telling me that there were pictures of me on their Facebook group!!

People attending the open day…. CrisChen is the one in blue who encouraged me to go, so mucho thanks, I really enjoyed myself! I also didn’t realise he is so damn biggggg

5kg medicine ball throwdown, hahaha. My friend said, “Wah, so gaya”. My reply : “Gaya orang tengah sakit!”

Me and my WOD partner…

Okay, another thing I’ve been spending $$$$$$ on is clothessss. First of all, I got myself a new dress which is quiteeee expensive for the Tan Sri’s birthday dinner in early March. I talked about it a little earlier, so here are some pictures. I think you can agree with me that the money was well spent lor. A lot of people complimented me on the dress, so I’m happy. Haha. The only thing is … where else can I wear this to next? O_o” My brother’s wedding? Hahahaha…

Pretty Mandy, me and sweet Julia! I think we all look good here!

My direct boss & team leader, myself and Cindy! All of us dressed in purple, which so happens to be the Tan Sri’s lucky color for this year! (I swear, I did not know that when I purchased the dress, it was not intentional!)

Me and my two favorite users in the treasury division over at the headquarters … Mr Ooi and Mr Soo! Mr Soo’s brother is a badminton champion in Malaysia, can you guess who?

Mr AIP, myself and Raymond. I’m darn pissed off that I’m wearing 5″ heels and I’m still shorter than both of them! Anyway, the 2 guys who I’m closest to in the bank… known them for 6.5 years already… O_O”

Preview pics of the dinner… there’s more under the cut at the bottom of this post. But I reckon if you’re on my FB, you’ve seen all of ‘em already.

The welcome / march-in dancers, staff and invited performers… waiting outside the Mines Convention Center

Ahhhh… now you know who I work for..

The super duper grand hall.. love the decor…

ONE of the free gifts we got… it was a box of expensive chocolates. Super sweet… I gave them to my parents to “thank” them in a way for taking care of me when I was super sick AFTER the dinner, lol.

After buying the expensive purple-ish blue-ish dress for the Tan Sri’s birthday dinner, I bought more stuff from Yesstyle… I didn’t even show you the first round of clothes that I bought :

Huge package… for me???

My new favorite shopping site.

CLOTHESSSSSS!!

I would recommend these few brands in Yesstyle : Melissa, Tokyo Fashion, 59 Seconds, Puffy, Click N Funny, Spicyholic and ZOO. If you have other favorites there, do share. Hehe. Anyway, the clothes are generally accurately represented on the website… however, you have to realise that what looks good on the tall and lanky model might not work so well with you. After the 1st round of purchases, I then bought another bunch of clothes, but this time it kinda pissed me off because stuff that were in stock when I clicked on it wound up being out of stock by the time they shipped it to me! I waited 3 weeks for it to be processed only to be told that out of 6 items I bought, only 3 would be shipped to me. -___- However, they were decent in the sense that store credit points that I got were still for the 6 items that I bought, and I still got free shipping (which is only applicable when I bought 6 items, as the 6 items were above a certain amount).

Also, and this is where the crazy comes in, while I was waiting for them to look for stock for the 2nd round of purchasing, I bought even more stuff. Because new summer products came in and I was droooooling over the lovely stuff that could be worn for both casual and formal occasions. -___- Now both my 3rd round and 2nd round of shopping are being shipped to my house AT THE SAME TIME and I think my parents are going to go ballistic when they see all the online purchases…

2nd Round :

3rd round :

Talking about online purchases, I’m freaking pissed off with Aeroline. Remember my trip to Singapore early this year? Like the 1st week of January? Well, they double charged me… it was clear that the first transaction did not go through, but they charged me twice, so that the cost of my trip was like, way more expensive than any flight to Singapore. Heck, even my Tiger Airways flight cost less than the bus tickets, so I’m never taking the bus down to Sg ever again. -___- Anyway, the point is that it took Aeroline up to MARCH 23RD to refund me my money. By this time, there were finance charges racking up on my credit card and I doubt they paid for it. So yeah… consider me an EX-customer foreverly forever, and here’s me warning you to NOT take Aero-freaking-line. -____-

Ok lar, enough TCSS for this entry… see yaaaaaaaaaa. I’ll update some really backdated stuff later… like the final instalment of my sister’s wedding!!

Click here for the rest of the Tan Sri’s birthday dinner photosss: