Journey back to Zen

It's been awhile since I've blogged about my yoga practice, guess as all things in life goes, it just becomes a part of one's routine, and stagnants until something inspiring (or otherwise) changes it. My yoga practice has been stagnant awhile - you know, reaching a part in the curve that says "diminishing marginal returns" or something (drats, econs class starts tomorrow), Anyway, the practiced has sorta flattened out, and haven't been able to make any significant breakthroughs in awhile. Maybe it's cuz I'm practicising under various teachers, and things tend to go a bit haywire vs a dedicated practice under 1 teacher. I like Viv, just too bad at sham it's pay per class, otherwise at Pure, hardly anyone can help me move along my practice like Viv can.

Finishing an advanced workshop with Stephen Thomas from the Pure HK studio tonite, reminded me how pure and how beautiful the practice is. He's 41, and certainly looks and has the body of a person 10 yrs younger, and has a beautiful practice. It seems different from the class he taught when Pure first opened in SG, more ashtanga and less hatha, but today is hatha at the heart and the core of the soul. Groove yoga class, he calls it. Hatha and movement to the flow of groove music. With the intense energy levels of all the students in class, the journey of the inner self becomes much more open, much more aware. Just really disappointed I have to give the entire 12 hr weekend workshop a miss, if tonite's class is a good opener to what lies ahead, I bet the workshop is going to be smashing. But it's back to school to Econs tomorrow, and Econs is not a subject I can smoke despite having earned a bachelor's degree in economics - hey, that's a thing of the past, and now I can barely differentiate marginal utilities and marginal costs and whatever those curvy curves are supposed to represent. Yucks. I used to love econs, that's cuz I had a great teacher. But then it all fizzled out with subsequent econs teachers. Guess the same applies to yoga. But tonite I found my peace, the beauty and the quietness of the practice. No tension, no holding breaths, just being there and letting go.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.

Pain in head, Pain in pocket

My post-vacation euphoria is almost over. Nearly and pathetically squished no thanks to a bad miami-not-so-nice-vice that gave me a 2 day headache, a crater-size-of-england ulcer that has grown since last night (now a sizable 0.5cm across and any deeper, my gums will rot), plus another overwhelming fatigue thanks to Isetan sale shopping last nite.

About the Isetan sale - you either love it or hate it. Women love it because of the deep, massive discounts, we're talking 30%+10% extra for private sales. Hate it because, no where in this country you'd find so many female bodies packed into every inch of space, stepping over strewn clothes, stepping on each others' toes, jabbing elbows, pushing bags, and queues so long it snakes around in concentric circles it makes the most sane person dizzy. At 9pm last night, scores (thousands) of women still shopping with bright eyed fervour, like people possessed. Spending monies as if they owned the ATM machine. Maybe it's because I'm just back from vacation, but more likely due to my semi-yogic-zen lifestyle, such inyourface competitive shopping isn't for me anymore. I felt like I was watching Miami vice all over again. Painful.

And if the scores of bitching jabbing women were not bad enough, turns out most of the women's clothing were going at 30% discounts. That means, all the $400 I spent at isetan (thanks to a failed Rojak outing) 2 weeks before, could have cost me $280 if I waited for the sale. GRRRRRrrrrr!!!! So, the $5 rojak really actually cost me $400 + $120. OUCH. OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH. That's like another Krabi vaction. Major OUCH.

Didn't I say I have an crater sized ulcer? So now I cannot chew on my left. Since I haven't been able to chew on my right for weeks, the jaw joint a little out of place from it's socket I think, that means I'm going to have to master the art of sucking food with a straw real soon. Either that or inhale food through my nose. Hmm puts a new spin into the yogic breath. Ah well, maybe that will help trim down the tofu butt a little.

Big tales

C told me that eating coconut flesh, the fat goes straight to the butt. True? I dunno, but all I do know is when in Krabi, I ate a heck lotta coconuts. The latest poke-butt-test-firmness experiment yielded results that seem to suggest this theory is true. But then, my now squiggly butt has been failing the test in the last couple of weeks, thanks to my dance with gluttony. You know how soft and squiggly tofu is? Yeah, now my arse is exactly like that. C wants me to let it be known, that it's officially true that he has a bigger but FIRMER arse than mine. Ok, so now I'm announcing it in my blog. :P

Not only my arse is getting big these days, but now I have the mother of all ulcers in my mouth at the gums. It just popped out overnight 2 days back and kept doubling in size everyday. Now it's a giant crater with a deep pit, i.e. a hole within a hole. It's so deep I swear it has hit the root of my teeth. Ouch. Any bigger and I have to start sucking food through my nose. Eeeek.

Miami not so nice

Miami vice is a bad movie. Really bad. So bad it gave us a headache. I like Miami Vice the tv series as a kid, Don Johnson was cool. But what's with Colin Farrell and that strange mustachio he's got? Plotless, senseless, pointless movie with more talk and little action. Plus Gong Li on a bad hair day. Aieeee. The headache from the movie still lingers on today. Man, it really made my eyes hurt. C said 'How much do you love me' was pretty bad, but hey, vice beat the crap out of it and took the title for all time high 'bad movie of the year'. At least in "love me" there was Belluci and her buxom to lust after. :P

Oww my aching head, and eyes.

OM painful head.

Life is still good today

Some of my vacation good luck must still be halo-ing around today. Oh, did I mention today is my HR exam? I didn't do much studying, unless we counted the 1 hr 30mins of reading on the flight back from Krabi, and the 45 mins of reading whilst sun tanning at the poolside at the Tubkaak some days before. Unfazed, I was pretty certain I could smoke it in the exams, which I pretty much did. I think I did fairly well, and I feel pretty smug about it. The one smudge was I brought only 2 pens, the blue ballpoint leaked like crazy, and I managed to ink my way through one essay with it - hopefully the examiner can read through the blots and smudges. The 0.4tip pilot that I used for my 2nd essay, damn, it ran out of ink 3/4 of the way through (and I just bought this pen when I started my MBA back in May!). The smudgey bit was I had blue ink all over my hands from my leaking pen and accidentally wiped it on my nice esprit pants. Yeoow. I walked around the rest of the day with smudged pants. A classmate was aghast to learn I just arrived home from vacation 8pm last night and still looke confident today. HR exam I am not worried, its the next one on Business Econs that is just one of those 'uh ohs' subject. Classes start next weekend sigh.

Ah well, after exam, life continues to be good. I had a good portion of William's Rojak, well satisfied at last, before heading out to another 90mins at the Spa Esprit, and then had my toe nails done up prettily at STRIP in a dirty mud brown. An oxymoron. Ha ha. Stepping out of the salon with my freshly muddied nails, I was started on my journey home when the dessert menu at the Sun Moon across from STRIP caught my eye. Sun Moon desserts are divine, I really like the Sun Moon concept, and hey, 5pm is tea time right? I think I deserved to reward myself, and settled happily for a seat in the cafe and ordered myself a nice little treat - a wafer with sweet potatoe, red beans and ice cream. Plus $1 for a pot of tea. Ultra yummy. And cheap at a grand total of only $8. Must go back soon and sometime soon. Tea break at Sun Moon is really a good time to be there, chill out alone or with friends, because it's actually peaceful and quiet with few customers.


On a side note, a little guilt for not having practices yoga for a whole week. But hey, a vacation can be counted as a zen experience. OM sandy beach krabi.

Krabi so good

Back from a 4 day vacation at the Tubkaak in Krabi. Life was so good there, one of the best escape vacations I've had in a long time. Great views, great food, good company and good prices which did not burn a hole in the pocket. Gimme one more of those anytime.

Service at the Tubkaak was absolutely fantastic, we arrived very early and was checked in immediately instead of having to wait for the usual 3pm check in time which is de riguer of most hotels and resorts. In fact, our check out time was automatically extended as we had a late flight, and staff took the initiative to arrange the hotel/ airport transfers for us a suitable time, all without us asking for it. We were lucky to get an excellent off-peak price package, plus cheap Tiger airways flight, airfare was a cheep cheep $40! But taxes were double. Nonetheless, cheap cheap. The ride on Tiger air was good and smooth despite our reservations about service and flight quality standards for a $40 fare, but everything went so smoothly it just made the experience all the better. The resort was in a remote part of krabi, but with its own private beach with stunning clear blue waters and beautiful island scenary - we took a boat ride out to the islands and for the first time ever, I went snorkelling. Not that difficult as I thought. Sun, sand and lovely sea, I got a nice tan too.

Best part of what I loved at the resort, was the built in sunken outdoors bathtub, yum. I loved the bathroom, I just do. I want one exactly like this one if I ever have my own home in the future.

We rented a car for a day to explore the rest of Krabi, in town, there isn't much, Ao Nang was a little better but much more touristy, in fact in sorta looked exactly like Phuket and it's touristy shopping strip. Krabi and Phuket doesn't look much different, both are about a 3 hrs drive from each other. Having explored town, there was really nothing much about it unless one is interested to visit the various caves and temples. I suppose the what most people do in krabi is either chill out at the beach like we did, or go diving/ snorkelling/ island hopping. Driving around was fun, not much traffic on the roads, and easy to navigate, except, to my great surprise I found out soon enough that BeefGreencurry is a lousy map reader. He really sucks. Really. Who said women can't read maps? C should just stick to driving, and I'll take on the navigating role.

C really wanted to go fishing but we couldn't find a fishing area for tourists at all. But we did find a giant catfish farm. Whoa, these suckers are huge, and damn hungry. With their perpetual wide mouth look, they look like evil sea creatures out of some B-grade horror movie. My best advice - don't even try to stick your hand in the water to feed them, you'll never know how many fingers you might lose.

Good time and great fun, even Slick was chillin.

Ink got no water

BBQ on Sat turned out fine, despite a slight drizzle. Food aplenty, but we were able to finish 90% of them, yeah. I didn't binge as much so yeah! Just a couple of satays (can't resist!) and a healthy portion of Yvette's tacos and the Vietnamese Rice Rolls Viv's sisters made. Whoa, seriously good. Everyone had a great time, even JungleBeefCow who turned up as last minute entertainment for Martin's kids. Ha ha ha.

Managed to finish my 2nd MBA assignment too - I was smugly working on it on Sunday, thinking I would be submitting it ahead of time. Only to realise at 9pm last night that the due date was actually Monday today and not Wed as I though. Drats. That put the pressure on me to finish up the assignment quicker by working through the night. It's an ok paper, bro walked by and exclaimed, "hey aren't you supposed to put in several citations?". Yeah. But since I didnt' invest the time to read up much as I should, there were hardly any citations to be added. Bro snickered with disgust, "I thought it's supposed to be an MBA paper!". Yeah well. Guess we had to make some sacrifices between watching chinese dramas, or reading up for essays. Hmm. Not difficult to decide. :P

Here's the finale - while printing copies of my assignment off bro's printer, I realised his printer was nearly out of ink! The essay was a true experience in grayscale printing, ranging from dark, to light to spotted to dotted. Wah. I wondered if the professors ever received similar essays from students before? Maybe they'll give sympathy marks thinking this student is too poor to afford a print cartridge. Now I'm sitting here at the office wondering if I should print off better looking copies and resubmit tonight. Hmmm.

Calorific High

Calorie count this week - Wed Amaretto Flambe and Profiteroles, Friday lunch Sinful Coco Mousse cake, Friday dinner Warm Chocolate Cake, Lemon Souffle, Grand Marnier Souffle. Sat....BBQ coming right up. I think my calorie counter has broken down after being seriously OD'd. When one puts on a pair of old baggy jeans (as in baggy at the waist and baggy at the hips and so loose such that legs of jeans drags on the floor and will have to be folded up), and said baggy jeans now sit snugly at the waist and no evidence of bagginess at the butt can be found, one knows that one's lumpy arse has now arrived at Super Big Arse status. Even more damning when folds of flabby waist is now SPILLING over outside of the waistlines of jeans and pants. Holy damn big Cow.

Lots of first time places this week though - with Valentino ristorante earlier on Wed, and then the Jushinjung Korean BBQ for lunch yesterday, and then for the first time ever, Morton's of Chicago. At Morton's, those cows are HUGE, like the size of one of my arse cheeks. Well we know how big my arse now is. :P Actually everything at Morton's is in stupendously large portions, right down to the most gigantic souffle I've ever seen, it's the size of my face. Not great in taste though. Well actually my mini lobster tail is just the correct size, but for that tiny portion it doesn't come with a tiny price. The comforting fact is whilst the food binge this week has been damaging to the waist and butt-lines, it has been kind to my wallet as all the meals were courtesy of kind friends and generous bosses. Phew.

BBQ tonight - I'm making a fruit salad and a russian potato salad. Will try to stick back to the seriously derailed OM-diet plan.

BBQ OM.

Fat OM

I found the most divine initimately small family styled Italian ristorante. Thanks to a couple of food savvy colleagues from the medical division. Name and location shalt not be revealed, I plan to make a return foray with beeftenderloin(nowinjungle) sometime. Dessert there was fabulous, an amaretto flambe - whoooeee! But wah, once again the calorie counter went on red alert overdrive, I think I was about to combust internally as well. Could feel my already squiggly butt expand even more. Speaking of which, beefinjungle had a good look at the lumpy arse couple of days back and involuntarily let out an "Ohmygawd ItsGrown!" squawk. Drats. No fitting into my bikinis anymore. Grrr.

Stamina at yoga is not as good these days, maybe thanks to too much calories too much sugar and too lumpy ass. Can't even do proper vinyasa jumpthroughs anymore, cuz butt too big to jump through the space between the hands, not to mention land with an un-female like 'thud!' in between. Double grrrrr.

Fat OM.

The deadly Rojak

Pretty sure there won't be a sign with my name on it at the gates of Heaven, for not only have I committed the sin of gluttony, but today, I've become slothful as I decided not to go for yoga, having finally succumbed to sin after a morning long battle having to choose between going for yoga and catching up on the rerun of Doors. Of course, sinful, weak spirited slothful cow that I am, the chinese drama won. I put up a hard fight, mind you - for I convinced myself I could go to the 1.45pm class anyway and no harm done by watching Doors and missing class at Shambhala. But come 12.30pm, my body fatigued, I decided to take a nap instead. Hey hey, in yoga, teachers always say, listen to your body. So my body says it wants a nap. Blame it on the most wonderful massage and spa treatment I've had in a loooong time yesterday, for my body was like mush and my neck and shoulder muscles loose and free. Wah, the tiny therapist at Essence Vale is truly not to be underestimated. Truth be told I had the greatest sudden urge to eat Rojak, and my already battered will and body caved in to gluttony once again as I decided once and for all to skip yoga, and make my way down to far east plaza for a plate of William's Rojak which has been haunting me all morning. As my arse bad luck would have it, the stall was CLOSED today. ARRRRGHGHGHGHG.. GRRRRR!!!!! Depressed, I made my way to Bean with a latte whilst I contemplated my next move.

Post-latte I decided to make my way home, but somehow found myself wandering towards Isetan for some window shopping - after all, I came all the way to Orchard and deliberately missed yoga, I can't go home immediately can I? Unfortately that was the biggest rojak tragedy of the day - what started as a plain beige mango top for $30 cumulated to a whopping $400 contribution to my already tightly spaced wardrobe. Yes, SIGH. As one who knows me by now, it started innocently enough with only one article of clothing. And then, oh! isn't this pair of pants cute! Ah this would look great with the pants! Hey this top is funky! blah blah blah etc etc etc, and suddenly I feel a renewed burst of energy (which I was unable to muster up this morning to go for yoga) and of course, much happier and $400 poorer. Aiieeeeeeee.

Moral of the story - Rojak is dangerous. What was supposed to be a $5 lunch turned out to be deadlier than that. But I still didn't get my rojak. :(

OM not.

Too much of a good thing

... can't always be good. Depends on what it is. Money - well, the more the merrier. One can never have too much moolahs, unless you happen to be Bill Gates or Lee Ka Shing. Health, yes, a more healthy life is always good, except I believe that one should have sufficient moolahs to ensure one lives a reasonably comfortable life. Quality, I say, not quantity. Good food.....ahhh....well here's the topic of the day. Good food is great - a temporary euphoria, especially if one is a true blue Singaporean; but maybe not so good if one is supposed to be a semi-vegetarian yogi wannabe (or pretendtobe), who is supposed to look beyond wordly ways, to be one with the cow-self and true to the journey of zen. Err, whatever that means. Cows are vegetarians right? So they don't eat their own kind right? Well for tonight (and much of this week) I have broken many cow-laws and committed myself to gluttony. Yes, lumpy bits are being fed and will continue to grow.

My ex-colleagues and I met for dinner at Aburiya. Indeed they are true to their reputation of great service and even better food. Japanese BBQ; and since meat cannot be avoided, much meat was consumed by my traitorous cowself tonight - lamb, duck, cow; seasoned in various sauces and sizzled on the grill. Burp.


Walking around aftere dinner we stumbled upon The Chocolate Factory - a truly gem of a find. The guy who owns the place actually has the professional title of CHOCOLATIER, he's the real deal chocolate maker from France, pro-trained and looks like all french chefs who are serious about their profession. This place beats Max Brenner hands down with their thick dark hot chocolate (too much, too rich, too generous) that came in a giant cup complemented by the most sinful melt in your mouth dark choc cookie, a marshmallow and a praline. We helped ourselves to 2 souffles. Absolutely divine. And all this while our calories contribution kept climbing and climbing, I could feel my internal calorie counter flash red alert (!!) and overheat to overdrive. In chinese terms 'walk fire enter demons', an overkill but a wondefully sugar-high one. But so damn good.



'Tis the season for jolly eating, and I doubt my expanding lumpy arse and flabby love handles will get a break to shrink down to their previously smaller size anytime in the next 6 months. Met my ex-classmate for dinner on Wed, will meet friends for dinner on Sat, and then more dept lunches next week, a bbq, and then more dept lunches, plus a bridal shower. Then mooncake festival, a wedding, and then start of the holiday season for mad year end eating through CNY. Nope, no chance to shrink lumpy bits, and even harder to stay on course of being semi-vegetarian. OM not.

Lumpy - not such a cool deal.

Lumpy. When one's pants starts to feel tight around the waist, and the tummy sticks out and one's arse noticeably fills out the butt of the pants without any 'spare cloth', one knows that one has put on the dreaded weight in the dreaded areas. Yeah, right now I'm pretty lumpy. Drats, that's what happens when slack begins to build in one's diet - so you think a pie here and a cake there and maybe a couple of sugary drinks won't hurt cuz of all that yoga? Well wrong. One's lumpy arse is even more obvious when one puts on her yoga pants. Wahlaueh, even orang utans has better looking posteriors. Sigh. Time to put discipline back into the diet; but but but........ the pantry is stocked with my fav jam cookies!! Those reminicent of my childhood days, when kong guan biscuits and marie biscuits are a daily staple, plus afternoon ration of milo. Is it my fault I love to dip my hand in the cookie jar? Ok ok so maybe 15 jam cookies daily aint' such a good idea.... but but but..... they ARE jam cookies. :P

At least I'm not the only lumpy one around. The dubious honour is also shared by our friend the Biscotti. Looking at his profile from top down, our friend has clearly lost his err...streamlined look. He more resembles a lumpy potato these days (same colour too). Dog uncles and neighbourhood regulars have commented how 'prosperous' the Bis has been looking. Man, the fella can't even really run these days, all that excess weight must be too cumbersome to heave around. Hmm, actually, the lumpy roll of honour also has Beef bulgogi somewhere on the list - his belly has grown, looking more 7 mths preggers now. Fwahahahhahahaha. Honey are you reading this? Give a pat to your tum will ya? ;)

Speaking of food, I chanced upon another good food blog today. Singapore is really an eater's haven, there are lots of foodies on the island and lots of really good food blogs. It really reminds me of my younger adventurous epicurean days. But these days are over for me, yoga (and lumpy arse) does make a difference. But still, it's really quite lovely to read, and bask upon the delicious glory these bloggers must have felt.

Had a whole plate of meatballs spaghetti today. Gosh this is a total diet blow-out. Burp.