Mutterings of Yogini

When was the last time I blogged about yoga? It's been a LOoooooong time. Am proud to say though post-MBA classes I have resumed yoga with a regularity most anal types can be proud of. Back to 3x minimum per week. Of the many new xmas presents I got myself, it includes 2 brand new yoga mats. C was incredulous, why do I need so many yoga mats for (current count = 7). Pure yoga classes are getting alittle better, I did find a few teachers I like going to. There's even one Franck who is just as good as Vivian. Being that good, his classes are always packed. Signs of a good teacher. My arms and torsao is aching from all those chaturangas. A thought just occured to me - I've been doing that for years, yet still going to yoga and multiple pushups still make me ache. Wonder why. I want my smaller butt back, it's recently been let to grow more than a little. C doesn't mind, but when one doesn't quite fit into recently bought new pants. I mind.

Sidetrack a little, I braved Isetan sale to snag a steam iron for 100 bucks. It's freaking shocking how maybe a thousand people can throng the stores of Isetan at 8.30am in the bloody morning. The sight of so many pple in a dept store that early in the morning is absolutely shocking. Even worse than wet market. Gawd, all these aunties.

Xmas... time of Eating

There's really a lot to eat during this time of the year - gatherings in office, friends' houses, even food at home. We did a potluck at Jac's place where I contributed a (you guessed it) salad. At Veron's place last week we had a nice western meal. This weekend at DD's place for...No Signboard Seafood. Yum. In contrast though my Xmas day was spent quietly myself - yoga, groceries, and a first-time risotto. I am so proud of myself for making that risotto, for a first attempt I must say it's rather fabulously fantastic. Here it is:

Colourful Mixed Vegetable Risotto (serves 4):
1 Carrot, 1 Celery, 1 onion
handful of mushrooms
2 ripe tomatoes
200g Risotto
2 Tablespoons pure butter
Olive oil

- dice everything up. Fry onion & mushroom in olive oil for few minutes on medium heat. Add carrot & celery for few more mins. Add tomatoes last. Add butter, some salt + pepper. When tomatoes softened, add risotto, stir for few mins more. Add 1.5 cups water or more, bring to boil, simmer 15 mins. Voila.

Yum. Yum yum. Pair it up with a simple salad, red wine. Fabulous.

Christmas, Time of Giving

Christmas, time of giving....to myself that is. C found my stash of branded designer goodies (see previous blog) post K-fashion phase. His eyes goggled at how much I had spent, I feel somewhat abashed myself. Especially he is right in pointing out I have yet to buy him a birthday present, and also had nothing to give him for Xmas present. He was rather sweet about it of course, and seemed pleased enough that super-atas Wen of the designer goods is back, rather than the perceived rather disastrous K-fashion, cheap tacky freebie gold bag and balloon pants phase. I still miss them of course. I did get 2 presents from C, one of which he had to brave orchard road shopping and mad crowds to buy a nice piece of overpriced leather. It made me so proud of him, under normal circumstances he avoids mad Orchard like the plague. Come to think of it, he should be proud to have a gf who shops for him. Save him from the crowds. ahahhahahaa.

My other present from him? Brand new SE hp. O2 sucks. It's a wonder I lasted 2 yrs with the sucky phone. God I'm glad this is over. Back to numeric keypad sms-ing. Yay.

Hello Taiwan

Was in Taipeh for a few days on business trip for the first time. It's a nice city, beautiful weather. Of course it puzzled me how people would bundle up like a bah-zang even in temperatures of 24 deg. Out came all the long coloured stockings, boots, coats etc. We were dressed like as if in SG, normal blouses, slacks, in comparison to the Taiwanese people, a bit more "duh".

Experienced smelly tofu, umm, it's truly like bad long-kang water, enough to make one gag. But somehow I got the gung-ho spirit, able to eat a good half portion of it. Not bad, tastes like regular tofu, just smells like toilet. Taiwanese food is truly something different, very good, even better was Hakka cuisine which was extremely different. Hosting guests is a grand affair I think, even at lunch we were offered 11 courses. burp.

Went shopping and bought a long winter overcoat, and a leather bomber jacket. What do I need them for in sunny hot humid SG? Dunno, but they look nice mah.

Of course, signs of festive eating are showing already. Especially when one cannot fit into and button up brand new pants bought less than 2 months ago. Hamburger layers were bad before, now it's truly....spilleth over.

K no more

It's over. My association with K-fashion, that is. Just as suddenly it appeared and spread like a bad rash, it's subsided now to a dull zing. It was a brief but memorable encounter. Somehow the thought of Far East plaza doesn't excite me as much as it would anymore. I am safely back in the arms of high-end branded fashion, C would be so glad. As proven by recent acquistions (let's see, there was reward present, hard work present, year end present, Xmas present....). Of course, my other big problem now is how much wardrobe and cupboard and storage space I DO NOT have. Bags and bags and luggages are strewn all over the floor, my room looks like a warzone now.

Of course, high-end fashion is much more expensive than K-fashion. ouch. Ouch ouch ouch and ouch. Just as certain the several zeros at the end of the charge card slips do not refer to rupees but SGD. :P

Ah well, merry xmas to myself.

Deck the halls and fa-la-la-blah blah

Oh man, it's that time of the year again - shopping for xmas presents. More a chore than joy. This is one of those times I am glad I do not have many friends, else the shopping list and accompanying headache will probably be intensified x1000, not to mention the accelerated depletion of the bank account. Actually I'm not sure what's worse - having to buy 100 cheap presents for acquaintences or 20 presents worth a min of $50. Hmm, if I buy a tod's for myself, does that count as 1 present or 30 presents???? Speaking of which, Holly's bday is coming up, she turns 3. Yes 3 and still an airhead bimbol.

Q: How many Hollys does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A (by Holly): What's a lightbulb? Is it edible?

The thing with Holly is, all you have to do is look at her and realise there ain't no lights turned on in her head.

Boo.

Is Europe a Country?

There's something to be said about stupid americans and dumb blondes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juOQhTuzDQ0

Now, imagine if Holly was the one being quized:

Q: Which european country has the capital Budapest?
A (by Holly): This might sound like a stupid question.....
Holly (cont'd):....but is it edible?

Duh.

Anatomy of a Yogi

Exams are over. Finit. Done. The end. Yay.

Finally, it's over. Last paper bye-bye. I didn't put much effort in studying for this one though, and I don't think I would have scored well anyway. But I think I've got enough to pass. That's the mantra I learnt from C, he said we only need 51% to pass, who cares whether the MBA is a merit, a pass, or an A* student. So 51% is the mantra I've been chanting for weeks. Now I only need to focus on my final assignments and the big project.

Speaking of mantra, I'm spending 3 days at an anatomy workshop. The body is pretty amazing stuff, and only humans are anal enough to name every single part even little cartilages or ligaments in the body. And mostly all in latin. Why can't folks make it easy and say, part 1, 2, 3....... there must be a thousand names. God only knows. Anatomy in relation to yoga and understanding the practice is amazing, a lot of things now makes more sense to me. Now I know why I'm tight in the hammies, why my pelvis tilts and how it relates to lower back pain. Yeah, yoga teachers with intimate knowledge of anatomy are certainly great teachers.

School is over. Finally I can get back to real yoga classes on a regular schedule. No more flabby butt and arms. Maybe more practice will help with the saggy boobs. I could even invent a new posture called Boobsasana?

Things that make you go "HUH"

Showed off another one of my Far East plaza acquisitions today - a heavy, raincoat like dress teamed with a corset belt complemented by black stockings and my purple plastic booties. It's really the 'in' thing these days - the corset belt, black stocking and booties. Of course it did turn a few heads with the office people, and of course, C was anything but complimentary. Best he could muster was something like, "if i gave you a broom, you could sit on it and fly". Eh, i can't help it if ordinary people don't keep up with fashion trends, it's too bad they are ordinary and boring in their dressing. I explained to C, since spore is getting really crowded these days, me dressing very differently means he could easily pick me out in a sea of crowded people. He had to agree on this point.

GV at vivo charged $16 for a movie tix today cuz of their bday bash thing, which is kinda stupid we thought. So we rejected the movie, and went down to Superdogs for a meal (as highly recommended by Billy who claimed it was the greatest best dog stand in SG). The prices were the usual fast food prices, but of course C being C, ordered the biggest dog with extra toppings of everything. One thing that never cease to amaze me till now, is how my Concow can turn even a cheap meal into a rather expensive one. Price of normal superdog = $8. Price or normal superdog with extra everything = $15. HUH. Dog was all but dead within 5 mins, and C went back to order a super burger (you guessed it - with extra everything). Total price of our fast food dinner = $35. HUH HUH. How does one eat $35 of fast food??? And we rejected movie because of $16 tix?? The economist would ask, the utility of a $32 movie vs $35 fast food meal is how different?

Later found a gigantic candy store at vivo basement. C wanted some candy. I imposed a $10 limit, but at check-out, the bill came to $35. HUH. You guessed it - extra supersize of everything.

Moral of story, supersize bf = supersize burgers and dogs = supersize candy = supersize clothes = need gf with supersize bank acct. Any rich tai tais out there?

Is-Lama-bad?

This one really got me going off my rockers. There was some show on cable, produced the Frasier guy, which is basically a parody of some lame and cheeky jokes. The first of which they flashed a pic of a lama on telly, and a pretend newscaster flashing the headlines - "Is Lama bad?" (Islamabad). It was unbelievably corny but damn funny. I couldn't stop repeating this to poor C day in and day out. He looked at me as if I've lost my head. There were other pretty lame and corny one through the 15 min segment, one gotta hand it to those folks who has to think of lame and corny jokes for a programme like this. What genius!

Jokes aside the rather pathetic bit was when the K-fashion spree has shown me how it truly crippled me poor ol' bank account. Went to the bank to withdraw some cash, only to be cold heartlessly and ruthlessly rejected with a big sign flashing "account balance insufficient to meet withdrawal amount". OUCH. Nothing can be more painful than that, except maybe a big neon sign and alarms flashing and wailing madly atop the atm machine each time a person tries to withdraw more than available balance. C looked at me with big blinking eyes and a sympathetic look, "you are that broke huh? And it's only the 20th of the month...".

Ahhh yep. Maybe it's time for awakening. Spree over.

Desire

Having spent so much on K-fashion and K-drama, I wonder maybe if I should just go back to being the T&T girl. Yes they are lovely, beautiful goods, but suddenly the thought of spending over $400 on shoes or $2K on a bag doesn't come so easy anymore. Not that it was easy before, it was always with some reluctance to spend on luxury goods, it took some convincing, and then a lot of saliva to swallow when the credit card bills came. But yes, there are still things at T&T I desire, lovely classy jewellery, and bags and shoes. I spied a wallet....but at $500+....aieee. Desire is just desire, sometimes we just have to desire, and only admire from afar.

Desire again. I watched a cooking show on tv, made me miss again potting around in the kitchen, making real meals. My cookbook remains dusty and unused. When can I finally get back into the kitchen? The last time I quit my job I spent a month at home, just K-drama and cooking. It was great, it was fabulous, and also rather expensive (apparently I did not cull my spending habits despite joblessness). Hmm.

Reel vs Real

K-drama is pretty dramatic. Someone always have a tragic history, someone gone through some unbelievably suay series of events, someone dies, and someone always cry a lot. In fact, the over-crying bit is what irritates me. These girls cry so much, cry all the time, just cry cry cry cry cry. How can hero expect to fall in love with such crybabies? For some reason beyond me, they always do. Ugh.

C said to me, let's have some meaningful conversation. OK. Sure. So I start telling him how he should declare his love for me, for I am his sun, his moon, the stars in the sky would not shine as brightly without me. Without me his world is darkness, I light up his life, I make him glad he exists, his heart is so full of me that anymore will just make it explode, if he had 2 hearts it will just burst with joy and love for me....yadda yadda yadda. Somewhere in the midst of all this C was making gagging sounds. I was like, hey, in K-drama the couple in love does this all the time. Of course, he raised his one eyebrow and said to me, it was his love for me that stopped him from strangling me there and then at that moment, and that should be love enough. Hahahaha. Sure, he loves me, but pllllllleeeeeeeeaaase minus the balloon pants. Oooh, topic for another conversation. Surely love me = love my balloon pants too right? Again another look, and he declared, if only he had a knife in hand right now.....

Wen's Twelve

Twelve. My Twelve. My Twelve pair of new shoes. My Twelve pair of new shoes accumulated in the last 4 weeks.

Yep. Twelve.

Do I have space for twelve pairs of new shoes? Obviously not. So shoe boxes are stacked all over my room. C commented how the room looks like it's gonna implode. He was also flabbergasted how much new clothes I've accumulated for "this season". I proudly showed him a fashion mag to justify my purchases. Of course I don't have space for so many new clothes, so it's just hanging all over the place in my room.

Yep, internal implosion looks imminent.

Descent: Evolution

I proudly showed off one of my Far East Plaza acquisitions from yesterday - a pair of silk pantaloon shorts. I must say it takes certain guts to wear them, if anyone wore them, I'd certainly stare. C's jaw dropped to the ground, he was gaping speechless. I joviously commented how "cute" I looked, his eyes rolled so much it would have dropped out of his head if it could. Silly, yes. Ugly, yes. Tasteless yes. Stupid yes. Cute, no. He bemoaned how my once very classy dress sense has now degenerated to cheap and tacky. How I once even used to make cheap look good, my fashion sense has quickly descended to awfully tacky. But oh, this is how the kids who shop at Far East dress anyway, all cheap and plasticky. I just needed to blend in, I countered. Going in my expensive-do will just make me out of place. To compliment my balloony-pantaloons look, I even (for the first time ever ever ever in years), made use of a cheap, ugly, totally tacky looking silver bag that came as a freebie when I was buying some skincare earlier. Whoa. Mega-cheap tacky Wen going about town. People were probably staring in agape horror, I didnt' care, rather, I was having quite abit of fun. C refused to even walk side by side or hold my hand. It was truly amusing, but it was fun to amuse him and listen to him run out of words to describe my new dress sense. In recent weeks, there have been many a first for me. Where I used to buy only Tods, I have now succumbed to $59 cheap shoes from Far East. I even degenerated to the level of buying a faux (gasp) fur leopard print bag (gasp gasp) with a fake prada-like logo for $49. The last bag I bought was $200, and even I considered that degenerate at that point in time. How low can I go? I chuckle at the thought. The silver freebie bag is probably the ultimate.

Far East plaza shopping = several hundred in total. Price of horror on C's face for hours = Priceless.

Oh what fun moo.

Price of ADDICTION

First thing the beautician exclaimed when she saw me, "Wah! You work very long hours or use computer a lot issit?". I replied, "err...no leh. Why, my dark circles very dark issit?". Her response, "Hei de bu de liao!". Meaning --> very jialat dark eye circles. I sheepishly admitted I had been chasing K-dramas awhile.

Now, come to think of it, the startling revelation of the day was, when was the last time I slept at 11pm?? Not for months. I probably haven't slept earlier than 1am since my K-addiction started. And its starting to show. According to my beautician anyway. Years ago I would not understand why people are so addicted to K-drama. I found them overly dramatized (not that I even watched a single series, merely an impression led me thus). But now, now I understand the magnificent power of K-drama. Frankly, not all male leads are good looking, I still find Koreans look a little wierd, and probably a small fraction of actresses can even be called pretty despite their overly highly plastic-ized society. It's the K-fashion that keeps me watching. K-fashion is really something else and it has spawned a new addiction ....SHOPPING.

I can't help it. I cringe and whinge at how much I spend shopping. But having discovered the price of cheap Far East Plaza fashion lately, my weak-willed self could not resist the lure of cheap trendy clothing. This season's layered, booted look is everywhere. I want it. I need it. I must have it. More clothes. More shoes. More bags. Buy buy buy buy buy. Shop assistants hurry to serve me gladly when they see how many bags I am carrying. The word BIG SPENDER must be imprinted on my forehead, no matter I am in shorts and t-shirt and unglam sandals. They clearly recognize "lui". Like chinese say, "ren qian bu ren ren" (recognize $$ don't recognize face).

How much did I spend today? Eooow. Ooooo. OUCH.

Meaningless but Happy

The other day whilst in conversation with C, I asked if should one day he become wealthy and didn't have to work for a living, what sort of jobs would he do just for fun? Out came a number of suggestions, one being a pilot. As for me, if I didn't have to work for a living, my dream job could possibly be 1) Korean drama reviewer (yipeee, get to watch all sorts of K-drama for free before anyone else does), 2) receptionist at an aesthetic clinic (then I can get my boob lifts and face lifts at a good price). Somehow or other the conversation moved on to "The stupidest jobs one could ever have", and I gleefully replied in a smug tone "Pig procreation assistant". It's a real case of a real guy whom a colleague encountered in the ER of a hospital, this poor chap had the unceremonious job of assisting pigs mount each other in the process of pro-creation. Apparently pigs have some difficulty due to their huge bodyweight, and the male anatomical part is of some corksrew shape. One day whilst attempting assistance, one of these big bellied pigs fell onto the poor chap and broke his arm. OUCH. Talk about job hazards.

Of course, C conceded that indeed there could not be a job dumber than that. Why would anyone want to be in this job we wonder?

Records

Few things noteworthy:

1. Having to work over the weekend for an important project, juggle a school assignment due at the same time, plus marathon of K-Drama Bong. Amazing, but I did it. Had about 5 hrs sleep daily for a week but hardly even needed caffeine. I realised watching marathon K-dramas actually kept me awake and energised early. Whoa.

2. 7 years with C this month. Wow it's been that long. A new record for the longest relationship ever - the previous one being some 6.5 yrs. When I asked C if I was sexier now or years before, he said now. Before I was young, innocent and rather stupid. Apparently now I'm no longer young and innocent, but still same old stupid. Sigh. Indeed, for strange reason I am not quite my bright brilliant self when with C, he somehow manages to con me. But I think he secretly devises ways and means to trick me, so he gets a thrill of it. Things like.... "a sexagon is a 6-sided object...". Uh huh.

3. A record 3 weeks no bath for my dogs. The odiferous wafts of doggie stench reached their absolute limit. When one steps into the house and gets assaulted by a rather poisonous smell that could fell a lesser person....ah well. C couldn't believe I can't even take 5 mins to bathe 2 dogs (yes it's that quick). My response? Bis and Holly no likey baths. It's not criminal not to bathe them, in fact, I'm simply improving my customer service level to them. Dogs no like baths, dogs don't get baths. If they had to fill in a survey form and rate my performance, I get full marks in this section for customer service. Ahahahhahahaahah.

4. Boobs. Definitely sagging. Awww. Imagine when I reach 60.....wahlau. I didn't appreciate them before, but that and the wrinkles on my face are just reminders of aging. Bleh.

Butt Pain

Butt pain from sticking my ass to the sofa. You got it - Korean drama addiction yet again. Guess part of growing old and older, is addiction becomes worse. Shopping addiction, spending addiction, K-drama addiction.....

Surgeon Bong Dal-hee didn't look like a promising show, I only saw 2 eps on cable by bored chance, went to the dvd store to rent some other show but everything I wanted was "out of stock" except this one. Turns out to be a good choice, as good as the last one I watched (Queen of the Game). I peaked with 5 hrs or non-stop eyesgluedtotv on sunday for this. Bong is also the only K-drama I watched 2 times. Searched the web and surprisingly realised the male lead is the same guy who acted with Shu Qi in My wife is a gangster 3. That movie had me in stitches, I couldn't believe it's the same actor, he looks so different. Best (or worse) of all, when watching Bong I was struggling to meet work and school project deadlines. Somehow still managed to rush home and plug in 3hrs of dvd till wee 2am each night. Un-frigginbelievable right?

It's called ADDICTION, capital A.

Price of Vanity

Vanity is very dangerous. Because it is very expensive. Was at the salon to get my haircut and colour touch up, I had a naggy feeling it would be an expensive jaunt. This stylist is very expensive, but at least she knows what she is doing. As usual, I left the salon with a very very nice hairdo and colour job, but about $300 poorer (ouch).

Vanity is expensive because whilst sitting in the chair getting my hair done, I poured through half a dozen fashion mags. I swear there must be a conspiracy between fashion mag publishers and hair salons, because what else can one do whilst stuck in a chair with rollers all over your hair, except to think about shopping and what do buy and what to match. Which is precisely what I did after my hair appointment - go shopping.

Shopping is a dangerous thing (refer to previous blogs on shoe blitz).

For some reason I decided to head out to Far East Plaza since some pretty stuff was featured in the mags, not a bad choice since I could have rojak for dinner. By the time I arrived, rojak was closed. Awww. Consoled myself by shopping.

Shopping is a dangerous thing, no matter how cheap the clothes are. I must have been shopping too much at high end stores lately, because I almost couldn't get over the shock of how one blouse would cost only $39.90 (I thought only hdb sells clothes for these prices). Naturally the cheaper they are the more I will buy. Predictably, I went around a couple of stores and spent about 3 hrs; which netted me a about 10 pieces of new tops. It must be the season, because most if not all are either black or white. Now what I need are boots and more accessories to complete the latest overlaying, overdressed, booted up look.

Damage from shopping? Some $800. OUCH!!

I must be mad.

Mad cow moo.

Maturity

Maturity has manifested itself in several ways this week. Bis has turned 5, in human years he's 35 years of age. Certainly earned his "maturity" tag. It's been 5 years, yet I still remember the time I first saw him as a 3 day old pup at the breeder's home in Melbourne. He looked like a tiny hamster then, only palm sized big. Now, he's like an old man in many ways - eccentricity, attitude, even the belly paunch, the resigned sighs, the white hair. Iggies live an average of 10 years, 5 more good years left. I can't imagine when the time comes, no doubt I will be immensely sad.

Maturity as I look at myself, my wrinkles, my deep laugh lines, the saggy jowls, the worn out joints, backaches, neck aches, muscle achesl, white hair. Saggy boobs - once my pride and joy....ah well, things eventually always go south. Considering I might have another 30 years, things aren't looking so uplifting at this point. Maybe I should join the crowd in using the services of a good aesthetic physician. :P

Maturity in my dressing - wahlau, my wardrobe still has clothing from like 8 years ago, which I fondly had to wave goodbye as in my objective to become a more trendy fashionista, I have to stop dressing like AUNTIE. Ironically, I have joined the AUNTIE ranks as yesterday whilst passing by Isetan on my way to the supermart, I spied a sign that said 70% off jewellery. I am now the proud owner of some rather ostentatious looking bling blings. I have joined the crowd in showing off rocks on my fingers. Well, at least I've not reach the extent of getting some rather obiang-sized blings (there were a couple of oversized eye-blinding blings at a very good price). I might either get robbed, or fingers chopped off, or bosses will think I'm being overpaid. As in all typical auntie-hood, the blings are not really real of course, I mean, they are real enough blings, but synthetic rather than of mother earth. i.e. I am el cheapo. Wahah.

On the Edge

I must be making up for lost time. Lost retail time during those growing years, when at school, other friends were interested in shopping and shopping and shopping at far east, centerpoint etc, I simply preferred to work for more pocket money via tuition, save $$ and shop at giordano, or wait for the metro annual sale where I will go bargain bin hunting. Credit cards are a dangerous thing - sign sign sign and sign, and I would probably sign my bank account away without knowing. It's probably the 8th pair of new shoe to my newly exploded shoe collection in the past 4 weeks. No shit, I think I spent nearly 1k on shoes recently. Gulp.

Finished my korean drama. Good. But exams coming up. Resist the urge to get another drama. Feeling edgy now. Fingers and butt itchy.

Read from YP's blog she's having problems at home. The breastfeeding bit....well I would not disagree with her parents on that point. I don't think she realises the boy doesn't actually want milk per se, but he wants mommy. He simply sees milk as an association to mommy, and he knows mommy gives him what he wants. I don't think she's doing him any favours by spoiling and giving in to him; imagine in his teenage angst years how his friends will ridicule him when they find out he was breastfed up to age 2. Even worse, with a spoilt temperament it'll be disastrous on gf relationships. He'll either want a gf who does everything for him like mommy, or the girl will have to be a fierce bitch type who can handle him. Now, YP as a MIL will either become exactly like her existing MIL (no girl is good enuff for her son), or will get totally trodden over by the bitch of a DIL. Where's the hubby when you need him? I think he deserves a big spanking. Men need to take care of their wives. Else why would we need a man when we have to do everything ourselves?

Drama Mama

Addicted to a new Korean drama series. Again. Spent some 9 hours over the weekend with my arse plastered to the sofa, spent some 4 hours each night since Monday till wee 1.30am plastered to sofa. Actually even was late to work on Mon and Tues because I could not bear to leave for work without watching 1 ep in the morning. Man it's so good. Angst-ridden revenge-driven hero of the plot, who by the way, is extremely good looking. Now now, why aren't there more scenes of his topless naked body in the shower hmm? Heroine, innocent irritating spoilt brat who becomes a kick-ass tough cookie. Very pretty. I like. I like them both. I love this drama. Of course, the plot is too dramatic (real life surely cannot be like that right?). Korean drama really takes the cake these days on plots that are so dramatic its incredible. But of course, all their plots are intense, emotion driven types. Love like this only happens in the movies, or in the black-box.

In real life...

true love Bis version = scratch my belly everyday, let me sleep on sofa everyday. Get rid of Holly.

true love Holly version = Can I have more (food)?

true love Slick version = Dark side wins the day

true love Con version = harem of Kylie Minogue lookalikes parading around in tight dresses showing off their fabulous butts

true love Wen version = Gimme more T&T (Tod's & Tiffany's)

uh huh. That's real true love.

Unconditional Love

Like a precious store of coins we save in a chest for a rainy day, only to find when you need it most the store is really quite empty. Even the one that was the brightest spark has now dimmed; worn down by use, abuse, or taken for granted. Like the push-cart ice cream man that I would depend on daily, one day just stopped coming. No word, no sound except the missing ring of the ice cream bell. A lot of things have upped and left in the years gone by - my techie smarts (now I'm a certified techie idiot), frugality (see other paragraph about shoe-spend), ambition, humour, compassion. I'm now a grumpy, angry, naggy middle aged person. Before I hit my 40s I'll probably be like one of those bitter, sour, dour-faced, shrivelled dried up old biddies we often read about in those victorian romance novels. Yet amongst all the two brightest sparks still left would be Shameless and Clueless and their unconditional love and affection - for as long as I feed them of course. They live simply and don't ask for much. Perhaps as humans we should be taking lessons from them. Simple expectations = happiness.

Over a decade ago when I was forced to give up my first dog, I wept as I left her at SPCA, broken-hearted. She was soon picked up by a family who loved her deeply and provided better care for her than I could. I only visited once, but she thumped her tail vigorously as she greeted me despite the weeks of separation gone by. She never bore a grudge, yet I felt so ashamed I had not given her a better life in those 10 years. I had given her so little but only then I realised she had given me so much. I wept again as I left her new home, never to see her again. Ache & regret in my heart remains till now.

Loving means letting go. Apology and contrite after the fact is of little use. Like a precious vase shattered, glueing the pieces does not make it whole like before. Memories become the most precious thing.

1 layer, 2 layer, 3 layers....

Unmm, those rolls of fats on the tummy area sure is looking more "robust" these days. Think I've got a solid laughing buddha down there. Yep, those creases and folds sure are deep. It doesn't help when I just downed 2 slices of blackforest cake courtesy of veron's bday party. But when a cake is this good.......it'll be such a waste not to eat it.

Speaking of folds, I'm quite certain C's own has grown as well. Well, time to start buying his clothes from US stores online. I can't find pants in Sg in his size anymore. Ouch.

Bis is still looking chunky......

Guess this is what we call mid life crisis?

Marbled cow moo.

Indulgences

Let's see now, another pair of new shoes. More clothes. More clothes. Even more clothes. Some more clothes. Have I mentioned more clothes? I count 1, 2, 3,,,,,,,,,,oops, looks like I might have 10-12 pieces of new clothing this week. Whoa. Ever heard of speed shopping? It's when one zips into Raoul, points to red shirt, tries it on, pays for red shirt, walk out of store. All in 7 mins flat. C is late to meet me? No problem, zip into nearest boutique store, try on a few pieces, walk out $100 poorer. Wardrobe is certainly expanding. Bank account is certainly not. Let's hope I have enough to pay my bills when it comes. Yikes. I must be making up for all that lost time (2 years) during which I did not visit Tangs. All it takes is 2 weeks and about 1k to make up for it. Should I cut up my credit cards? *whimper*.

Went to a Chris Watts stretch session. Very costly at $170 for 90 mins of private work, but this guy is brilliant. I'm like a basket case of one hip higher than the other, some hip rotated front and the other rotated back, a pelvic tilt that is causing my back to arch, and yadda yadda yadda. But in 90mins , he was able to correct my inconsistencies significantly. In fact, my neck has never been so free (save other than the Ana Forest class), and wow, the range of movement in my neck is incredible after this. Of course, that means I have to practice more of those stretches at home to make it a lasting effect, and now I can feel poor posture creeping back in as my body moves back to what it is used to. Me, practice daily stretches? It's like asking Holly to stop and stand still. Yeah.

Hunger

We watched No Reservations today. It struck me how very much I am like CZJ's character in the movie, and C is like Aaron Eckhart's. How did I end up being like that? Boyo, I have issues. Maybe I need some therapy too. Retail therapy doesn't seem to be make me any better of besides make me poorer in the bank account. On the other hand, watching that movie, and also planning to watch Ratatouille made me realise how long I gotten down to do some real cooking. Last count I had 28 cookbooks, and I still do. C asked me if I remember when I last cooked for him, and honestly, I don't remember. The last time I made something from my cookbook was for my boss' bbq party earlier this year (or late last year) - way too long ago. I miss cooking, and haven't done any since seriously starting school, and I miss cooking for C (since he just about eats anything I cook, except for the dreaded nottobementioned WBS).

I stare wistfully at my cookbooks. Soon I hope. Soon I will be reunited with them again. I need to take time off from work before it turns me into a sour old biddy.

Parting thought of the day - does an erection add weight to a man? Somehow wierd thoughts worth blogging always come to mind just as C rounds the corner to my house. I look at him and whop in glee at a new bloggable idea. He looks at me as if I'm daft. But these thoughts are always worth a penny or more. I certainly think a woody add weights, hey come on, one min the fella is a limp beanbag, and next it's a solid woody. Bigger = more weight right? Ho ho ho.

Contemplation and Clutter

Today, I realised that sitting alone contemplating is dangerous matter. In my boredom I contemplated what to do, so I contemplated to go to Tangs (my 1st visit in nearly 2 years). Goodness is 1/2 of the women in SG shopping at Tangs? It's crazy, I ask the shopgirl if it's like this all the time, she said, "today is not so bad". HUH. Contemplation cost me nearly $400 today. I haven't bought cheap shoes in awhile. And by cheap I mean, less than $200. I spy a pair of shoes and gasp when I saw it cost $19.90. HUH HUH. Who actually sells shoes at $19.90 these days?? Do they actually make margins?? I grab. Soon after I spy another pair of very pretty shoes, hmm, price is cheap, I grab. Before long, I was happily piling belts, necklaces and other accessories on my arm. I spy yet another pair of beautiful sandals. Less than $200. Wow. Deliberated for 30mins before going in for the kill. I was on the verge of buying more before I was able to curb my impulse. But when was the last time $200 netted me 3 pairs of shoes?

Now where do I put those shoes......?

Room at home now looks like a warzone. Bags, bags, and bags everywhere. Clothes everywhere. Even the number of PCs are piling up (there's Kibble, Megan, and now Noodle). Ohmygod there's actually 3 iPods. Thank god number of dogs still equals 2. But oh wait, there's also Slick, Codie, Mogu. Yikes.

Fly fly away

Time flies. Exams come and go. I just finished my 10th. Yay, 2 more to go. Miraculously overnight I managed to transform myself into some Finance expert, enough to take an exam and likely score a B+ anyway. Not bad for someone who started the day-off day watching tv, studying for 15 mins, taking a shower, studying another 15 mins, wash hair, study 20 mins, take noon nap, study 20 mins again, watch DVD whilst waiting for C to take me out to a late lunch, spent time dating C and then finally got my fat arse down to do real study work at 5.30pm. And then it was GO all the way till 1am. I'm pretty proud of myself if I may say so.

What else flies? Yes the dollars in my bank account seem to be on a fast trip to la-la land where I never see them again. Credit cards are dangerous. Just flash and sign. Sign sign sign. Happily sign. Last weekend, 3 cardslip signatures cost me nearly one grand. So I'm the proud owner of a pair of Oakleys (the store asst was cute by the way), and several pretty accessories. Did that add up to 1K? Wow.

Happenings

Long time since my last blog, let's see, what has since transpired. Yep was in Sydney for several days for work. You think Singapore is crowded? Wait till you see Sydney. You think Singapore is expensive? Wait till you shop in Sydney. Friggin donut costs well over $2. Cab fare for a 45 min ride is $80. Ouch. Thank god I'm on company account, but else I don't see why people want to migrate to Aussie for a better quality of life?

Bis and Holly ought to be renamed Shameless and Clueless. The inspiration struck me as I observed them side by side one day. Very befitting names don't you think? No prizes for guessing which name for who.

I got a new toy, well, C gave it to me - or rather, he said I compelled him to give it to me. It's a mac powerbook which I named NOODLE. Noodle is supposed to be all-powerful, but frankly, my gizmo tech talent truly upped and left me after age 24. One day I woke up and my blain is fried, I'm stoopid in this dept, because frankly, I could not get Noodle to really work for my iTunes. Of course several things transpired in between which I figured Noodle aint' as smart and powerful as he was touted to me. C still thinks Noodle is smart because I'm stupid. Think he's a little upset he had to give Noodle to me, he kinda loved the fella (what was Noodle's name in his past life before coming to me...hmm...iCon?). Even commented several times how he lovingly wiped Noodle down and cleaned him up nicely before giving him to me. Even asked me to pet Noodle a few times. Whoa.

Nic and I went to see the danceshow Floorplay. Great show. Lousy seats. I should have known NEVER to trust Nic with choosing seats. Damn woman had to choose center row seats, which meant of course we had to sit right at the back of the theatre - a bad thing when we are talking hot dance bodies and shirtless 6-packed lithe young sexy men shaking their booties on stage. These are the kinda things we should be right at the front row, regardless of premium paid.

Much ado about nothing

Through the week I had lots of thoughts to blog, but now as I finally had time to sit down to put words to keyboard, the mind is a total blank. I look at my nails, I look at my dogs, I look at the blank wall space (not really, it's not blank) and blank thoughts come to mind. Ah well. One is getting old.

Random things this week:
- Signs of getting old - boobs are beginning to sag. One's bosom friends is no longer as uplifted as before. Gawd, by the time I'm 40 they will be getting nearer to gravity, and by 60, they'd be stretching for my knees. Yoga boobs? 60 is the age the A-cuppers are laughing their heads off at the sagging melons of the big busters of the yesteryears. A-cups are the only one whose boobs probably still stick firmly to the chest walls, whilst all the Miss Juggers have turned into long cucumbers hanging from a floppy vine. Except for those with silicon implants that is. Does that mean implants are the key? implants stay forever uplifted do they not? Hmm.

- Sleaze do exist in the office - I just found out how much (or how little). Gosh we'll never look at our colleagues in the same way again. Sleazebags are everywhere, even in reputable offices. Euuuuww.

- Women are vain - well at this this particular one. Spent another $150 at a BB workshop which I did not need to go, and bought more makeup which I will never use. I still have stuff from past years in their original boxes.....accumulating at my dresser. In fact, I have makeup in the past 5 years, I haven't been able to finish. The only stuff I remember finishing are 2 tins of loose powder, only because I use them daily. Oh and one GA lipstick #10....

Financing cow dung

It's no surprise finance is a subject I have no affinity for. Actually anything that has to do with rates of some sort, I have no stomach for it. Foreign exchange? Easy, I go to the foreign exchange counter, tell the guy i want such and such amount of foreign currency, he punches a calculator, tells me how much I need to pay in SGD. Voila, I get foreign currency. But no, in the past 2 days, I learnt that foreign exchange is like a jungle, you have to navigate like a maze, you have to wheel and deal. If nothing else, finance is like shark invested waters, swim or just die. Maybe it's something right up Slick's alley, he'll probably get on the phone to a broker next morning, taking out a 6 mth USD forward contract, or maybe a currency option in swiss francs, reinvest excess funds, take advantage of weakening rates in south africa, play the money market and make a nice quick buck and earn his ticket to a luxury vacation in the Bahamas. Think somewhere in there may be a swap as well. Exchange rates? It's not about going to the counter to change money anymore, it's evil, cunning, scheming and plotting. Oh, and it does not hurt to have good forecasting abilities so we know how hedge correctly. But then, if one has good forecasting abilities, let's just make it easier by forecasting the next winning lottery numbers. It's simpler, more direct, and we don't have to pay transaction costs to the bank. Windfall is non-taxable too, capital gains are not - unless one finds a way to hide money in an offshore account.

Man, I'm so confused. The only numbers I know well are my phone numbers, my bank account number, and the number of dogs I have. Say, if I go to the forex counters to swap my dogs, you think they would give me 1 show quality whippet in return? Hmmm.

Tomb Raider

Lara Croft I am not, but I did get to visit Angkor Wat and the famous temple and site where Angelina Jolie filmed tomb raider. Of course, me and about a thousand other tourists as well. I gotta say, in the ancient past, when there is no such thing as cable tv, and dvd rental, or GSS shopping, what people tend to do a lot is to carve on the walls. Excellent carvings if I may say so, each etching so brilliantly masterful one can not but feel a twinge of regret that much of history's crafts and skills were not preserved through time, and let to fade away. No modern master has the skill of their ancestors from before. More's the pity.

Cambodia is like a sleepy Thailand. No doubt 10 years from now it will be much more different, but hey, it's easy to see how one can easily retire to a place like this, set up a bar or restaurant to cater to indulgent tourists who have squeal with delight at finding bottled coke for USD1 and think martinis that costs USD3 are dirt cheap. No, not difficult to retire mid career and move to a simpler life backcountry at all.

Well, not sure what Slick will have to say about this. Of course, I don't see any IGs running around. Guess backcountry is bad business for bis and holly. :P

No free lunches

Whoever said that there is no such thing as a free lunch, is probably right. But there are such things as free samples. Skincare samples. I needed a night cream, time to try a new brand I thought. What better place than to check out the spanking brightly lit Watsons at Takashimaya and their tremendous skin-friendly offerings. Lovely displays and stands. Stood around one of the counters and pondered awhile. Where are the skin consultants when you needed them? too busy chatting to pay attention to me. (on several other occasions I didn't need them they just seem to follow me around like ghouls). Alright. Move on to next bright counter. Browsed awhile. Stood in front of one consultant, but was blithely ignored as she was attending to another customer whose arse seemed stuck on the chair for a good 30 mins. After more pottering around several counters, and received no offers for help, I gave up and made my way to the Guardian's next door. Narrow displays, crowded corners. Poorly stacked. But hey, when I moved to the skincare corner, a happy "HELLO!" popped out mysteriously from a consultant I didn't see lurking around. She made me plenty of recommendations. And soon, 1 night cream became 1 night cream plus a few other items. See what good service can render?

The best part was, she opened this little drawer and started out dishing samples to me for free. It's like oh I'll give you this for free, and then she reaches in, and "oh and this too". Goes over to another drawer and..."why don't u take this too..", and "how about this one", then "take a few more of this ok". Pretty soon my arm was laden with loads of freebie. Sample sizes but good sizable sample sizes. Was she ever gonna stop I wonder? Of course she did, but I think in the end, both of us were pretty happy with each other. I never had so many freebies from a beauty purchase before, most consultants were always so stingy. I betcha that sourface at the Watsons counter wouldn't have given me this much freebies even if I would have bought the same stuff from her.

Moral of story, freebies are good. More freebies even better. For the best freebies, go look for the Vichy consultant at Guardian's Ngee Ann City.

Happy Moo.

Why Therapists are profitable

If I had to give a dollar for therapy for everytime I got mad, then my therapy bank would have hundreds of thousands of dollars by now. Actuallly everyone needs therapy. People may not know it but we all have therapists. I have several - spa, yoga,.....to some extent dogs...and most importantly (and one that has profited immensely from me) ...retail therapy. Everytime I'm in a strange mood, Tiffany become slightly richer. Or Tods. Or some other well-deserving shop.

Nic said it, I shop too much. I walk by a store and see the SALE sign, I cannot resist. I buy something I don't really need, it's pretty anyway. My wallet bulges with all the charge slips. I gap at the bills when the bank statement arrives. And the cycle starts again.

Let's see, what made me mad this week. Citibank (lack of) service wins hands down. Used to love Citibank, now I hate them as much as AMEX. I'm a loyal, big spending, prompt paying customer who would never owe them a dollar. What do such loyal customers get in return? Sucky service. People like C, on the other hand, who treats his bills completely opposite of how I would treat mine, get better service than me. Even his expired muji stamp card can still continue to be used.....muji says out of goodwill. Yeah, goodwill obviously is lacking at Citibank. Well the lack of goodwill cost me a pretty penny....I am now the proud owner of a brand new crystal ring (yes yes alarm bells ringing furiously, but I could not resist it), and a brand new pair of shoes.

Bank account is probably a sickly yellow by now.

Another one bites the dust

Guess karma is no good this year. Or the fengshui in my office. Somehow or other the elements in my horoscope or earthly-watery-fiery-airy signs must be at conflict. Another one bit the dust....another one of my precious ring (from a fast dwindling collection). Maybe it didn't like me, for it slipped off my fingers whilst I was washing my hands, and fell to the floor in a deathly shatter. What was once stunning beautiful swarovski ash crystal is now dust in several bits and itsy pieces. Ouch. Total surviving ring count after this fatality = 3.

Deep sigh.

The plan for aircon installation aint' seem to be working either. Somehow the idiot salesman at courts where bro bought the goods failed to mention that each hdb flat only allowed 1 goddamn compressor. Mom already has one unit in her room. To get ours installed we have to remove hers. To install new aircons for all 3 of us means the power distribution will be amongst 3 units instead of 2. Simple mathematics dictate each of us will receive lesser output than desired, since godforsaken HDB regulations stipulate a max allowance on the compressor unit.

Does anyone have a good solution for hot days? Other than eating bucketloads of ice cream or walking around naked. Huh.

Hello Digital

Finally I've gone and done it. Swapped the SCV set top boxes to the digital ones. I've resisted for the longest time....the boxes I had were the originals, since 10 years ago when SCV was first installed. Tried to hold on to them till the very end, and resisted upgrading; there is some pride in telling people I'm one of those still on the old ancient analog boxes of grandmother era. But alas they too will eventually fail of old age, as one box gave up and died. Ah well, it's been a good 10 years. Now there's something called a hdtv set top box set..... my motto is....resist till the very end! In fact, C got me a flat screen plasma tv. Frankly, I can't see what the heck the fuss it's all about. Yes it's flat as an AA-cup bra, but what's the big deal? The old bulky fat gigantic lumpy space-taking heavy tv worked just fine. Sharper pictures? Errr...don't see any. Guess I'm one of those resist technology types...technology is evil and will take over the world some day. Blah blah blah. But then, my karma with technology hasn't been good since age 24. Somehow my techno-touch just upped and died like a wilted flower. Ever since then, it's bad luck everytime I get a new techno gadget. Even the new ipod C got me doesn't work, cuz it needed new software on the PC. Tried to install software only to be told the PC cannot handle it.n Somehow in the process I lost all the iTunes music. C fixed it, but now the old ipod cannot work on the PC. No new ipod and no old ipod. It's like...wahlaueh... you get what I mean.

'Tis the season to be smelly

Smelly season time, and no I don't mean my dogs. It's the DD season - dreaded durians. Super yum. C and I got to our fav combat durian stall at balestier and were immensely pleased at the pungent, nearly alcoholic bitter without that irritating hint of sweetness fruit that we had. Well worth $25 spent, and just enough to get me craving for more. I recognize the start of the DD addiction, yes I can see it now, every weekend will be spent heading down to the stall for more of the bitter stuff. Like a deja vu of last year (has it been a year already?!). Think I better increase my durian budget this year to $500 .....(wait a min, that's like a pair of TOD'S shoes!!!). Horrors.

Tod's vs Durians. Uh oh. Is there an economist out there who can show me the math of which gives more utility and satisfaction???? Argh.

More comments on shit

Yesterday as C and I were cruising home after Gangster 3 (literally cruising, since the petrol tank was almost empty), we finally floated our way to the SPC station. Turns out there was about half litre of petrol left in the tank, we could probably go another 5km before the car emptied out. That's C for you, always testing limits. He always wanted to find out what its like having an empty petrol tank in Spore. He does that all the time because he knows it drives me nuts, I don't take risks and I start yelling at him to stop by the next damnable petrol station whatever brand that is. But nooooo....he only wants SPC. Yep just loves getting my heckles up.

Now on the shit thing, I blithely commented that one day someone could invent a car that is runs organically, i.e on animal poo. Shit would be recycled and the Earth would be saved. Bis and Holly poo can finally be put to good use. Of course, C gave me a dirty look (no pun intended) and reminded me how much poo both dogs would need to produce in order to get a decent car running - we'd probably have to stop every 15 mins because we ran out of poo in the tank and we'd have to yell, "come on Holly! Poo now!", or "hey Bis, stop taking your own time, we don't have all day!". Hmm, come to think of it, and maybe even run over to the car next to us and trade for poo. Wow, that could be a whole new commodity - the Poo Index finally has a new meaning. And it's certainly dirty business.

Welcome members, time to go apeshit.....

Borders just launched their membership programme. For this weekend, new members get 30% off everything. EVERYTHING. Except multimedia. But who cares. Obviously I went apeshit. I skipped meditation to head down to the store, plonk down my details and went away with my new shiny gold (members) card. I had a basket with me, and in went business books, novels, magazines. All in all over $220 dollars, but with a whopping $70 savings down to $150. The only slight pause at the cookery section - I was in a dilemma over my growing cookbook collection, and also my intent to be more organic and vegetarian in my diet. Guess 28 cookbooks is good enough for now, not that I have time anyway to even cook instant noodles. But I am a happy camper this evening. 30% storewide is like a banner from heaven. Whooeeeee.

Yesterday we went to see My Wife is a Gangster 3. This show is damn hilarious. Weak plot, but hey, with ShuQi there, nevermind. But the show stealers surely must be the Korean lead, and the female Korean translator. I was in stiches, even the girl next to me kept glancing at me in agape fascination as I laughed my head off in what probably seemed to her as unladylike fashion. Who cares.

Ape moo.

The Dog and the Car

What does Holly and a BMW cabriolet have in common? Let's see:

Holly, BMW
Stunning Good looks 1 , 1
Fast as the devil 1 , 1
Lacks brains 1 , 1*
Eats a lot 1 , 1**
Very expensive 1 , 1
Scrap after 10yrs 1 , 1


(*uh huh, the GPRS is really stooopid)
(**uh huh uh huh, thirsty thing)

Well at least the BMW does not pee everywhere in the balconey and produce copious amounts of poo. But then again, at least Holly does not need parking space. She can sleep everywhere.

Just an (extra)ordinary sunday

This sunday was certainly a different one. Started with yoga workshop with Stephen T., me bad, signed up for a full weekend but ended attending only 50%. Body was sore and I was happy to head off to PS Cafe at Dempsey with C, which turned out to be a fabulous (albeit expensive) choice. Dempsey certainly has its charm, in a quaint, old english way. Too bad you can quickly see that it is turning into a commercial development, like they say, to rival Holland V. Food at PS was certainly good, but it was the view, the lush view that was more enchanting than anything else. Wasn't able to catch a movie, so managed to convince C to join me at foot reflex. We scoured far east shopping centre in search of a sleazy joint for massage but alas, none to be found. How disappointing. Ended up at footworks instead. But ahhhhhh.......what a treat for a sore body and tired legs. Nuah is the word. Detoured back to dempsey again for a durian hit. It's start of season, so the bittergood stuff ain't quite there yet. The fruit we had was a little above average, but not satisfying enough. I will patiently await. Yum.

Came home and heard giggles of conversation in the bathroom. I roll my eyes. C decided to loudly shout, "Wen! I need an OJ..." and we both snickered our way to the kitchen where we loitered a little, before C loudly announcing, "I'm going back to the room now...". Needless to say, any conversations and giggles in the bathroom ceased for all of that time. Damn evil, but snickeringly entertaining. Wahahahhahhahahahaa.

Hello, welcome to sucky service..

Citibank service sucks. Big time. What do I get for being a loyal, on-time, in full payment customer all these years? Crap service. Ask them for help, the auto response is "but this is our bank's policy." duh. Platinum customer so what? Still get sucky service.

Service in Spore just sucks overall. Brilliant example of our lunch at cafe cartel. They gave me the wrong salad and insisted it was the right one until we demanded to see the handwritten order. Lasagne was 45mins late, with a lame excuse the kitchen was busy. One of my colleagues had a broken toothpick in his sandwich which he bit into ....ouch. I showed them (black) face, and showed them good. My black face is legendary and even more poisonously dangerous these days. I'm forever in a black, dangerous mood. Job sucks.

On a side note, saw a tv ad for Gain-IQ milk powder. All these new moms gushing how Gain has made their kids brighter and smarter. I made a comment to Con and suggested maybe we could give Holly some Gain, it might help improve her ditsy bimbotic IQ a notch. He looked at me and said blithely, it wouldn't work, as her brain was too small anyway. Well, it could be worth a try.......

28

No not my age (though I wish). Perhaps it's Bis age in human years (if 1 dog year = 7 human years). Not the amount of money in my bank account (thank god!!!!! though I wouldn't mind a few more zeros added to the back). No, not the number of spartan men with their well built, rippled bodies packed into tiny loincloths. But rather, 28 is the number of cookbooks I have actually accumulated.

28.

28 hardcover cookbooks. Recipe books. Famed, reknowned authors. Most are quite excellent, some are so-so, and there are a few that has been purchased, but recipes never tried. Come to think of it, I haven't invested much time in the kitchen preparing meals, since I started MBA classes. Last I could recall really getting into flow of checking out the recipes, was when I was in between jobs and had a month long break. Pretty cool.

So now there is 28. Probably nearly a thousand recipes, and I've only tried and tested a fraction. Beautiful books, lovingly kept, but underused. Ah but what dilemma - as a yoga practitioner the diet is often plain, simple, organic if possible, and ultimately vegetarian. I don't think Jamie Oliver or Anthony Boudain is going to write a vegetarian cookbook anytime soon. Vegetarian chefs ain't that popular I guess. How many ways can you cook a broccoli?

A friend of mine commented, "since cows are vegetarians, so it would seem if we ate a cow, we could be considered vegetarians too right?". Whoa. Now that's really something to think about. The whole concept of vegetarian re-expolored.

Motivation

Nicole's dog Tiger is pretty smart. Psycho that he may potentially be (pity the poor fella, who had to endure days of Nic's whinings and complaints about work and life), he certainly learned how to roll over and play dead for the first time after Nic brought home some leftover chicken from our Soup restaurant dinner. Freak event perhaps. Last sat we had a BBQ and some leftover sausages which I told her to take home to Tiger. She had complained about him eating up her tv remote control. So I said, use the sausages to train him to change tv channels. Which she did. Within minutes apparently the dog can indeed press buttons on the tv. Now the only thing she said, was to teach him how to change to specific channels she wants to watch. Can imagine,, "tiger, go change to channel 5!". Whoa.

Now imagine my dogs. I bet my bottom dollar Holly has no freaking idea what a tv is, or a remote control (unless it smells like food). Asking her to fetch my remote control.....well, I think I have a better chance of finding a needle in a haystack. If I were to train Bis to fetch the remote, he'll likely give a huge woebegone sigh and just amble off to the nearest doggybed. Slick, on the other hand, could be bribed to fetch the remote control. But knowing him, he'd probably use the $ to outsource the actual job to some other minion in his reporting hierachy (maybe Hootie, Herbie or Mogu) and paying them peanuts (if at all).

Moral of story, when Wen wants her tv channels changed, she's better of using the remote control herself. Safer, quicker, and less frustrating. Then again, since dogs won't be changing channels, they aint' getting any sausages nor samsui chicken neither. Heeheehee.

Not meant to be

The universe has its laws. And some things are just not meant to be. School assignment is due tomorrow, and I was planning on scrambling for it this weekend. Had lunch with Viv, Nic and gang at Imperial treasures (really very good dimsum) after which they tried to convince me to go to Viv's place to complete the afternoon with a round of dvd watching marathons. Nic even offered to write up my strategy assignment in order to convince me to hang out with them. Apparently she is some kinda strategy studies expert; she also claims she can write an assignment in about an hour. 2500 words apparently is a walk in the park.

Of course, in about 2hrs, all she did write up for me was 539 fairly good words. Apparently the remaining 2000 words should be "all gas" as the whole point was just to embelish the BS that goes on in assignments. I saved the file, sent a copy to myself via email, and borrowed Viv's thumbdrive to save an external copy. But the universe has it's ways - apparently there is some software incompatibility, or the file was corrupted. Neither the emailed nor thumbdrived version allowed me to retrievve the doc. I had to sms Viv to email me another copy, and as a precaution also had her send a 2nd email with the contents of the doc pasted in the body of the email text. Smart thing to do, I thought.

Of course the Universe has its ways. I came home from yoga all ready to write my assignment. Lo and behold I realised very quickly I had not brought my laptop secureID home. DUH. No security tag = no way to retrieve emails. I could of course text Viv again to email another time to my hotmail address, but that's not the point. The Universe has just made it glaringly clear to me that I'm not one of those people who could get away with foisting my assignments off to others. Everything comes full circle. Now I'm back here again writing my assignment from scratch. Sigh. So how come some people get lucky and some don't? DRATS.

Lost Again

It's GSS. Though the offerings this year aren't anything to shout about, and despite my determination to only spend moolahs at the upcoming Tod's sale, somehow I always get sidetracked. The number of receipts in my fast bulgeoning wallet is growing at an alarming rate. Tiffany here, Spa there, dining everywhere. Not to mention the coming Tod's sale. Even thinking seriously about installing an aircon system in the house. Have a sinking feeling that this month's expenses will be way over a month's salary. Aieeee.

Think this year is bad karma with Tiffany. Got myself another bauble from Tiff's again. Thank god the salesgirl convinced me to put it on before I left the store, cuz the empty box and bag went missing shortly after, thanks to my ailing failing memory of leaving it somewhere behind and not realising it till hours later. Mental note to self - all new Tiff stuff from now, I'm gonna wear it when I leave the store. Will be damn super effing pissed had my new Tiff been in the box when I lost it today. Super effing damn. Of course, the lucky person who picked up the box would have been sorely disappointed nothing was inside. Bad for them, good for me.

Weakness

Weakness for all things Tiffany. Tiffany beckons whenever she wants. And yes she beckoned me. Just after yoga I spied the store empty, and she seemed to smile and beckon me to enter. Once in the store, all resistance is lost. It's like a kid in a candy store. Of course, I exited the store with couple sums poorer in my bank account, but a blue paper bag and ribboned box in hand. Come to think of it, prices at Tiffany's are fast matching prices at Baccarat. Now, I just need to find more storage boxes for my growing collection.

Weakeness for bathroom and kitchen accessories. A date with C led us to foray into a nice bathroom accessories place at Balestier. All is lost from there as my eyes focused unblinkingly at those ohsobeautiful porcelain bowls and shower gadgets. Actually I've always wanted to go to the HansGrohe boutique but whenever we get there, it's closed. Drats. Actually all I wanted is maybe to change the shower system. But once in store I could see myself fast making adjustments to the plan. Change in showers means wash basin should be changed to complement the shower. Oh might as well change the WC anyway. Ooooh, that means have to change the tiles and redo the whole bathroom to match the new accessories look. YougetwhatImean. I can see my original $300 budget fast adding another zero to the back. Eeouww.

Weather is damn hot these days. Maybe need to give serious thought to installing AC in the house.

Sweating Moo.

The TV is mightier than the Keyboard

Q: Why has Downward Dog's blog been neglected for several weeks?
A: Wuxia drama addict rise again.

Anyone who is a fan of Jin Yong will know this guy writes the best wuxia novels. Most of them got made into tv dramas anyway. Now, I got caught up with the latest china remake of Bixue Jian. Relatively unknown cast butbutbutbutbutbut the fighting sequences are really damn good. One of the best I've seen in a long time. Finally could not resist so had to rent the entire series from the store so I could finish it ahead of slow-poke SCV ch55. :P

Oh it's that good. I hardly went yoga, I finished work promptly as much as I could, so I could sit my big arse at the sofa for 3-4hrs nighty till 1am, happy as a lark. Took me all of 4 days to finish 20 eps. Pretty good record.

Of course, now that Jin Yong drama fever is back, I got myself the entire rental set of Flying Fox from the store too. But aiyah, sequence, hero and cast is not as compelling as BXJ. Yawn.

The Great Eruption

An eruption of epic proportions today. Mt Vesuvius @ Kim Keat ave style. Massive spreads of grossly stinky, wet, odiferous, stench gaggging blobs of 'molten lava' in piles everywhere from the balconey to the living room to the kitchen to to the dining area. Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. That was the scene that greeted me as I stepped out of my room at 7am this morning. 2 sheepish looking iggys looking up at me with big blinking yet guilty eyes.

I had to spend 30 back breaking perspiring minutes cleaning up every glob, wet and dry. Copious amounts of dettol and bleach were used. Rose candle was exercised in full force to counteract stench poison. Euuuw. Major euuuw. My gf says changing diapers for her precocious Lenny is nasty business and she tries to avoid it. Well when one has dogs, cleaning diapers for babies is like a walk in the park. Dog owners in the shit cleaning business for at least 10 years. Lenny had better start potty training now if she doesn't want to change diapers anymore.

Went looking for the butter pound cake Veron had baked for me after the vesuvius messs was contained. Only to find the brown paper bag on the floor, a whole in the corner, and the alumnium pound cake tray that once held a butter pound cake now poundcake-less. The plastic lid was off. It took no genius to put two and two together to realise one or both of the vesuvius perps actually got onto the dining table some how, dragged the paper bag to the floor and ate everything. Which is why vesuvius erupted. ARRRRGHHH. Con says it's their Happy Mother's Day present to me. Man, if one could see the look on my face.

Poundcake-less Tiffany-less Moo.

Lost

Lost my square Tiffany ring. Not even sure how and when. It was there and then it wasn't there. Man, what a heartache. $400+ down the sink (had a sinking feeling it slipped off my fingers after I washed my hands). Arrrghhh. It's a beautiful piece, but to replace it...gawd, means I'd have to sacrifice some Tod's shopping budget or a vacation budget. Arrgh. Decisions decisions.

Heavy Burden

Extra 5kg is no lightweight matter. As I soon realised in yoga, an extra 5kg makes handstands, push ups, upward dogs, and even jumping through is so much harder when the butt is one heavy pendulum swinging things around and throwing me off balance. Skinny arms didn't grow weight proportion to how the butt and tummy grew, so ouch, man, that 5kg sure feels heavy. Not to mention when one's yoga teacher is making adjustments to one's posture, she had to slide her hands to my belly to remind me to tuck my tummy in. Errrp, how embarressing. Super malu. Aiyah.

Speaking of 5kg, the Bis is reallly looking like an old man with a bald spot and a paunch. And his heavy burden means he aint' no light fleetfooted IG no more. And it shows. He can't even catch up with Holly when chasing her, and gets winded after a 5 sec chase. Alamak. Even Con says Bis is looking like a sorry miserable old hound. He chipped another of his tooth again, and one other tooth had started to decay. Bad mommy, cuz she hasn't been brushing his teeth. I have to admit, there was a heck lot of grime accumulated at the underside of his teeth when I finallly took the toothbrush to him. Even the toothpaste had expired from lack of use. Aww man.

Bad Mommy OM.

Revelations

Revelations.

1. Stumpy looking shorty balding old men who look like janitors are actually doctors in disguise at Mt E clinics.

2. When handed 2 plastic containers + 1 inconspicuous white plastic bag, and pointed to the restroom. It's the universally understood command for producing "samples" on demand. Errr.....

3. Learning yoga helped 'grow' me 0.7cm taller as I learnt to straighten my spine when they measure my height.

4. Learning yoga does not mean one does not put on weight. One has reached the remarkable line on the scale numbering 49.9kg.

5. Yoga does not reduce body fat.

6. Yoga also does not prevent waistline from reaching a remarkable 74cm. Momentarily stupefied was the expression when first informed.

7. Guess learning yoga does not stop one from pigging out like a errr...pig, cow, sheep.

8. Upmarket boutique at Paragon having closing down sale. 90% discounts. Designer clothing at rock bottom prices. Cheap cheap cheap. Except my bottom ain't exactly hard like a rock. It's more like 'flabby-gasted' as I huffed and puffed and blithely had to admit size 29 pants is a tight fit. You knows those filipino aunties in tight fitting tops and crop shorts you see flitting around Lucky Plaza with their fleshy parts sticking out? Yes green Roccobarroco pants are pretty, but when one's pale quivering (frosty like chicken) flabby-gasted thighs and arse fill the hot pants to the brim and arse spilleth over..... Time to reconsider. (moments pause). Well for a $30 price tag, not much to consider. Pants now safely in cupboard.

Cows in midlife crisis.

Yes as I looked around in yoga class today, and see people I havent seen in awhile, looking fitter and leaner and stronger before, I feel like a real auntie now.

Cow in hot pants arse-spilleth over moo.

Strange encounters

Strange encounter #1: Walked dogs in the morning and met 'jogging uncle' who exclaimed, "wah! miss, haven't seen you in a few days, you face puffier and rounder leh!". My reply, "err, uncle. Maybe it's the hair lor, permed leow more pong pong, make face look rounder". Although I really fervently hoped my perm of an excuse was true. But yes, face is rounder indeed. Hardly can see my pointy chin nowadays.

Strange encounter #2: Con had a Beemer 7 series on loan for the weekend, thanks to his moron of a brother who somehow had a cool job as an editor of a gadget magazine. Anyway, driving this monster is scary. It's smooth, silent, and heavy, but as I slowly meandered my way around traffic on saturday morning. I cross all fingers, toes and limbs that I wouldn't put scratch, dent or injury to this car. Beemer is actually pretty cool, beautiful inside, with seats of supreme comfort, hi tech gadgets that has a button for everything, secret compartments and fancy smancy stuff. My childhood ambition was that the first car I owned would be a Beemer, I haven't achieved it yet, but driving one sure is scary. And expensive. Well, if I had $300K to spare, then I guess $4k in road tax and $25 per 100km in petrol is peanut shit. Maybe I'll stick to energy friendly solar powered hybrid cars instead. But we had a fun date with Beemer, parked at mt faber and reclining in the back seats munching on chips and soda, watching dvd on the in-car entertainment system. Best part of the evening was how cars next to us kept moving in and out of their parking lots, as couples came and went. Obviously that carpark is a happening spot for necking couples. It would have been so much fun had C let me walk over to them, knock on their windows and yell, "Make sure you use a goddamn condom!". Fwahahahhaha.

Actually, maybe it's a good idea to setup a small pushcart at that parking lot hawking drinks and condoms. I mean, surely sometimes emergency supplies are needed, right? Fwahahhaha. Muahahhaha.

Price of Innovation

Creativity, innovation doesn't come cheap. Take this for example:

Cost of haircut + perm = $270.
Cost of hair colouring + treatment = $250
Cost of new clothes to match new hairdo = twice total expenditure on hair
Cost of business books on strategy etc etc = $120 (even after borders coupon)

No, innovation is not cheap. Could have gotten a pair of new tods shoes. But then, I have so many shoes the cupboard is overflowing. Bis and Holly has taken to chewing the rubber off those that are left outside the cupboard. Aiieeee.

Do all the above give me a competitive advantage, or make me win like a leader? Don't think so. Think I'll just sigh deeply when I get my credit card bills later. Gulp.

Today, I have a big tina turner hairdo. It's volumnous, hairsprayed to the death. Sure it elicited many stares on orchard road. Con says it looks as if I got a hedgehog on my head. Actually I kinda look like Medusa now. Con and slick agrees. It's just strange feeling not to be able to comb my hair. Feels wierd.

Cows turned sheep Moo.

Taxes

Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes. Well, maybe also include the fact that Holly is a bimbotic pea-brained short sighted IG, Bis is a ball-less wuss, and con has a carnivorous pet fish.

So I dutifully filed my taxes. Click click click done. Govt made it easy of course, didn't have to do anything except click click click away.

Maggie-mee hairdo is looking a little limp, thanks to my talentless ability to simulate the big-do blown up doll look last week. Now looking a bit like a rained in, wet, limpid auntie shaggy look. Aiyah. Did I mention I got a bald spot at the top center of the head? Wah its looking more and more obvious. I'm holey in the head. Alamak.

Breakups

Breakups are hard to do. Yesterday, I ended my 8 year relationship with my beloved atm card. For the life of me I just could not remember my atm pin. The brain cell that contained that info was gone. Poooffed! Gone with the wind. This was my 3rd atm pin ever. I remembered my first and second pins well. And now, I broke up with pin #3, to go back to a relationship with my ex. It's been 8 yrs, guess all good things come to an end. Morale of story, money wins all. No money, no honey. But got cow, can lah.

The other breakup was with my limpid, frizzy, tired looking unmanageable hair. Now this breakup wasn't hard to do, I wanted to dump the style long ago, except for lack of time thanks to long working hours. Now, now I got a new-do. A new maggie-mee do. No kidding. Serious maggie mee stuff. Maybe next time I got guts, I'll go for Afro. ha ha ha.

Grey anatomy

Really am getting old. Senile.

As I stood there at the AXS machine trying to pay my credit card bill. Except when I inserted by ATM card I suddenly blankly stared at the keypad, and I could not remember my atm pin. Tried twice. No luck. Stood there like a moron for 5 mins whilst the guy behind me wondered what the heck I was spacing out at the machine with a blank look on my face without a freakin clue what my atm pin is. Not that its a new card, I've had this card for 8 years, I've had this pin for 8 years, I just drew cash 2 days ago from the ATM. Now I can't remember my pin anymore. But maybe it's cuz I've had a long day and it's nearly midnight. Consoling myself as I walked home I was sure after a good night's sleep would refresh my memory in the morning.

First thing when I woke up this morning, I realised I still could not remember my atm pin,

Just this evening, I tried to access cash withdrawal, thinking I had a good idea what my pin was. 2 strikes and no success.


So here I am, $7.20 left in my wallet, an atm card with no pin (btw, what good is internet banking when one realises, internet banking cannot dispense cash to me???!). So guess I gotta go to the bank and queue up for a cash handout. sigh. Haven't queued up in the bank for eons, last time it was probably 3 yrs ago to exchange some new notes for CNY red packet.

Better start eating more ginko supps soon.

Senile Moo.

Strategy

According to Porter's definition, Strategy is what Not to do. Strategy is to do something different from what others are doing. So if I apply that to daily life, I guess Holly's strategy is Not to act smart. She acts dumb and bimbotic, which is exactly the opposite of Bis. So when it comes to messing up the sofa, the shoes, and peeing all over places except the pee tray, her strategy is to stay silent, act stupid and no admit to anything. Well, guess maybe in that aspect, Holly is not as dumb as we think. Maybe she's just acting dumb. Of course, she gets away with most things, even murdering and dissecting poor innocent toys and relieving them of their 'innards'.

Strategy then, is probably to get someone else to do my work for me, and then putting my name on it and claiming the credit. Wahahha. Now, if I can only get this to work at the office......

Strategising OM moo.

Reinforcement

Put on my new cop copine blouse today. Looked in the mirror. Darn, this one really is like a maternity blouse. Made me look as if I was 6 months pregnant with its billowing puffy waist. Nevermind, I thought. It's fashionable to look a little different, a little more adventurous, cutesy.

At the office, pantry aunty comes over and tells me, "Miss, can see you put on weight eh? Yah last time when you first joined the company you were slim and small waisted, now can see your waist bigger leh. Your butt also bigger". :O Huh. If pantry aunty noticed, that means I'm really piling it on. Couple of days back when I weighed briefly at the scales I was an eye popping weight I've never been at before. It's official. I'm heavier than YP. gawd. New office colleagues today came over and quietly whispered, "eh, how many months u pregnant ah?".

Fat waisted jokes aside, I do look like I'm a pregnant woman in this getup. But guess what, no one in the MRT or bus, offered to give up their seats to this 'pregnant' lady. So much for a gracious society. Not.

Obsessions

300 rippling, muscular, gorgeous, manly men. Ummm, up till now those well defined 6 or 8 packs abs are still haunting me. Drool. Major drool. Wouldn't mind watching the movie again. This time in a gold class lounge maybe. Did I mention their rippling muscles? Whoa. Mmmmmmmm. Slurp. Imagine if I could live in a city where men walked around clad only in their cape and loincloths. Not just any men. But manly men. Muscled men. Broad shoulders, tight arses (oh did I mention that beautiful shot of the naked arse in the moonlight?). Wooooohoooo. Yum.

Veron's baby first month celebration today. Went shopping for a last minute present. Prices at Tiffany's baby gift section is astounding. $570 for a photo frame the size of my palm. Goodness, I could buy 2 Tiff pendants for myself for that price. What price children these days. Thank goodness I only need to raise dogs. But then, no one, even myself, buys tiffany for my dogs. Aiyah, want to buy, might as well buy for me. I will appreciate it on my dogs' behalves. Heehee. Speaking of gifts, I still owe 2 of the tekka gang their belated bday presents. And that reminds me, YP still owes me one too. :P

Did I already mention how I love those spartan men and their manly muscles?

Yummy.

Gluttony

Gluttony is when one sacrifices going to yoga in the name of playing host to a group of aussie and kiwi colleagues and joining them at a brunch. Not that it hurt going to the Four Seasons, where brunch was a kingly $85 for the non-alcoholic like me. All on company expenses of course. So my sacrificing wobbly arse sat there at the Four Seasons lounge for a good 3 hours, while I paced myself through the buffet line. Multiple helpings of tiramisu and dark chocolate aside, I did down several rounds of fresh fruit juice. Guess that makes me feel a little better. The evening before, C and I went over to Lau Pa Sat to satisfy a satay craving. Point to note - stall 1 Fatman satay is really bleh, I think they were sooooo much better at the old satay club before. Now their satay just tastes like minced flour-y paste on skewers. Yuck. We didn't even finish our 30 sticks, I made C go to stall 6 and yes, the last 15 sticks of satay made us both very happy.

Lots of mozzies in the house lately. Something must have given birth to hordes of these flying suckers lately. How many eggs can 1 mozzie lay? Do they lay and hatch eggs multiplying in the hundreds like those alien monsters in Hellboy or Aliens? Ugghh. Days ago as I was in the bathroom I spied a giant mozzie on the wall, and I immediately reached out to smack it. Of course it was a gut reaction. Of course I failed to realize I was wearing a swarovski ring. Of course my very pretty amber ring smashed into pieces on hard contact against the tiled wall. Of course the mozzie escaped scot free. Of course now I am amber ring-less. What else can I say about my poor hand-eye coordination? C rolled his eyes. Mozzies probably laughed at my stupidity. Duh.

300

300 good looking, ripplingly muscled men with washboard abs, tight butts and pectorals so firm one can just ogle at their broad chests for hours. Actually the word would be "goggled". Oh yeah, what a visual feast. 300 half naked men clad only in loincloths and a cape for 2hrs, certainly made good visual entertainment. Did I mention those rippling muscles?? *goggle goggle*. Muscles and bulging body parts aside, 300 is a very entertaining show. I wouldn't have minded watching this one at Gold Class.

At home, I supposed C tried to replicate the heroisms of the spartans by attempting to rescue me from a gigantic fat lizard which was lounging at the kitchen sink. Whilst I jumped and shrieked, C valiantly attempted to remove it by encouraging our reptilian friend to climb onto the kitchen broom. which he shortly then tried to place the lizard onto a wall outside the kitchen window. Except for reasons unknown to me, the fling of the broom caused the lizard to splat heavily on the walls outside, and for reasons unknown, said reptilian failed to stick his sticky paws onto the walls for a good grip. End of the story was, lizard fell 5 storeys to the ground. OUCH. Major Ouch. Hey I don't fancy lizards, but I got nothing against that one, and I felt a little indignant at it's treatment. And now it seems like we have a really dead, or very concussed lizard somewhere on the ground floor. Ouch.

Oww my aching..

On sat I attempted my first level 2 yoga class in over 3 months. Hatha 2 was not something difficult for me before, but it IS something of a challenge for me now. Naturally I don't have that much core strength anymore to hold chaturangas for even 6 counts before I start huffing away, and yeah, a few vinyasa sun salutes is already enough for me to call it quits. Stamina has taken a big nosedive, yep. Not surprisingly I woke up today with a sore body. Thank goodness for a 90 min massage by my fav therapist, it still aches but much less. As we say in hokkien, "lau leow lah".

Speaking of nubile bodies Nicole and I went to watch the day event of a local dancesport competition. Quality of the contestants are so-so only, but there were some noticeable highlights from the small number of european participants which included a Paris Hilton lookalike, a Brad Pitt lookalike, a Hot pink lady and a Zebra lady. These europeans are really good, latin dance is in their blood. No wonder asia partipants have always paled in comparision, there is something maybe in the genetic makeup of asians, we just cannot shake our bon bons nor dance with attitude like these ang mohs can. So angmohs have bigger butts, bigger boobs, bigger waistlines. But these angmoh's bon-bon can shake like an earthquake on richter scale 8. Here is one event, that if one is a marie france or expressions customer, I am pretty sure one will not be able to demonstrate dance abilities to the maximum. All the stick insect asian contestants are like...wahlau...stick insect arms, bland expressions, no chest, no butt, yes we see some flabby waists but...sheesh...all move like stick insects. Here is one show where we say, "show us some butt!" anytime. Even got a few 'lau hiau" senior participants that are half quite good. I mean, at 50+ and most of the males looking like the lau gangster cum karaoke cum lounge club ah beng, already not bad leow lah.

When will it be my turn? Hopefully not when I'm 50 and qualify for lau-hiau status.

Cows dun dance?

Whines of fat

So my pineapple tart indulgence, lack of exercise and regular yoga, and junk food snacking lifestyle has finally made it's presence felt. These few days as I looked in the mirror I belatedly realise my face is now rounder, fuller and cheeks chubbier than usual. I can hardly see my chin anymore. Of course, the flabs around the waist are also more pronounced, the 'hamburger layers' more like a big mac than a fish fillet these days. The last straw - a male colleague came by and bluntly asked, "eh, you put on more weight eh? Can see your upper arms flabby leow". O....K...... I pride myself on lean, strong, toned upper arms, my biceps well toned, and triceps. But now after months of slack, nearly nonexistence yoga push up practices, the biceps are softer,, and the triceps are now the dreaded Kimono-sleeves. Yes they wiggle, they flap about when I shake my arms. Today in yoga class as I observed myself in the mirror, I noted with a little horror when I raised my arms that my upper arms are indeed bigger and flabbier than before since having lost muscle tone. GASP.

Ok this whole blog entry is just dedicated to my whinings of flabby body parts. Can't help it, I'm female after all. :P

Arrgh. Better get my wiggly arse moving back to regular yoga pronto. Speaking of wiggly, it's not only wiggly, it's growing SIDEWAYS. More gasps.

OM Flabby Moo.

Silence

What an amazing difference a day without emails make. All peace, quiet, and happy solitude. No interruptions, no distractions, no frustrations. My email programme got corrupted somehow, and needed a day for the helpdesk to fix it. So I had a day to idle, had time to actually clean my desk, clear my cupboards, do all my filings, and complete all my other work that I couldn't get to. The only thing was I could not send emails (I did not mind not receiving any), but otherwise, wah. What a lot of difference not having emails make. Much more efficient, so much happier. For the first time in 3 months, I was able to catch the 6.05pm bus to yoga. This is the first weekday yoga in months. Amazing, and felt so good.

Speaking of yoga, those rolls of fat around the waist....aieee. Even a yogi friend commented diplomatically, how I look like I "put on some". Ahem. Monday I wore pants to work, only to find it very tightly cinched at the waistline. Needless to say, rolls of fat were spilling over. Sigh. And those pants were fairly new.

"Enuff about the fats. I heard a rumour our new found Red Riding Hood is a possible carnivore too. 6 of our new fish kampung community friends mysteriously went missing on day 1 upon arrival into the tank. All the discus fish were poker faced, no one gave a clue. Sigh, and here we go again.....

Sunk costs

In corporate finance, sunk costs are irrelevant. The experts say, forget about it, just move on and figure out if the future is worthwhile. Monies invested in the past are dead and gone. I wonder if the same can be applied to relationships and emotions. There's probably a lot more truth to it than we will admit; friendships once so valuable become lukewarm, emotions invested in a relationship does not guarantee a happy future, monies lent and spent are monies one should expect never to see again (except in one's dreams). So perhaps the question is - if sunk costs are dead and gone, then what next? What for the future?

There was this famous taiwanese actress turned millionaire businesswoman turned nun, because she figured out that all things in life a transient. Actually the same for yoga, the more yoga one does, and the more yoga scholarly texts one studies, we eventually come to know that all things will be as they should be, they come to a full circle, and yes, all things are transient. That said, $80 durians are dead and gone, and well on their way to being digested in ours (and dogs') tummies. Can nuns eat durians ah? It's considered vegetarian right??

The thing about love and sacrifices, as I mentioned in the previous entry, is that for all the sacrifices we make we don't expect rewards, but only not to be taken for granted. Often as we all get bogged down by the daily routines and the demands of living a life, expectations become rooted. Doing things because you want to, vs doing things because you are expected to. Where does it start/ stop? Let's switch roles for a change, maybe we'll understand and appreciate each other better. YP's latest entry reminds me of how my dad would come home, lie on the couch the rest of the night and expect the household to run by itself (or by mom's invisible hand). My brother pretty much does the same thing. So does YP's beloved hubby. Is it written in the genetic makeup of the men, that women are expected to extend their invisible hands everywhere? Why doesn't someone do the laundry, or iron or clothes, or mind our babies/ dogs, and fetch me a darn cup of water for a change? All deserve to be spanked with a kitchen ladle. :P

Sunk OM Moo.

Ding Dong the Witch is dead!

The wicked witch is dead. Yep, with lots of fanfare and great aplomb the wicked Cindy finally got so miffed she decided to plot a great escape from the red alcatraz bucket. She heaved and ho and flung herself with the mightiest might, broke through the netting on top of the bucket and sailed through the air inhaling her taste of freedom. She apparently didn't calculate that there is no water outside of red alcatraz but the hard wooden floor. I can imagine the loud "thud!" as she landed, got concussed and finally suffocated to death. Ouch. What a way to go. But maybe she wanted it this way, all drama and diva. Of course, Concow was sleeping like a stuck pig when the drama happened, so Cindy was pretty much a kiam-he by the time he found her. She was then unceremoniously flushed down the toilet. We also lost another discus today, a fragile orange one which the witch so viciously chewed the fins off and had been hanging on a thread in the past 3 days. Methinks Orange must have witnessed Cindy's doomed flight of freedom and cackled his last breath in happiness that he finally managed to outlive the bitch. I wasted no tears - we went out to the fishfarm and bought ourselves a new community of fish to repopulate the tank. The new resident of honor is Rapunzel, a pretty, watermelon colored discus. With any luck she'll be as ditsy and as A-D-D as my dog Holly is. Hmm, come to think of it, Rapunzel was a blondie. Maybe we'll rename her Red Riding hood instead.

Fury of a female scorned

Cindy must be pretty miffed by now, last I heard she was busy populating the red bucket with loads of dung. I wonder if she seems to realise she's swimming in her own bucketload of shit. Eeeuuw. But I guess she must have laid a curse on us, being furious about being isolated. What was it in the fairy tale about a wicked stepmother with a bad poisoned apple? Concow was the first victim from a massive toothache after his filling dropped out - whilst eating a honeycomb crunch. Huh??! He had to endure a 2 hr wait at the dentist's trying to squeeze in an appt to fix the tooth, and not more than 24hrs later, filling dropped out again. Double huh huh. Our dentist does good work, but Cindy's curse is all voodoo. Me on the other hand, stepped out of the house to be immediately hit by the mother of all headaches - a flash of bright light and a hammerlike pain between the eyes. Not a good thing when I'm in the middle of Orchard road and have to keep my eyes peeled for the nearest trashbin or side drain in case I had to barf. I haven't had migraines twice in a week, but apparently since the Cindy red bucket incident, Hmmm. Yes I admit I'm a whiny, complainy, bitch with a mean attitude. Con's mother is even more diva power than I. But as we all realised, the most ultimate supremo queen bitch of them all - voodoo Cindy.

Speaking of bitch, being goody two shoes doesn't pay. YP gets abused by her family, even her young son. Some spanking is obviously in order, hubby obviously deserves a good smack on the head with the kitchen ladle. Love is about sacrifices but folks need a good smacking once in a while to remind them not to take things for granted.

Kick-ass OM.

Retribution of a Fairy Tale

Cinderella is a mean bully. She mercilessly beat up all stepsisters, cousins, distant relations, destroyed most of the shrubs, ate her servants when they displeased her, and probably caused some of them to commit suicide in depression. She's the female version of Hitler. Make that a Discus version of female Hitler.

Cindy btw, is a giant, white discus fish in C's tank. Old bitch, hard survivor and mean bully. Just think all pumped up steroidal version. She's a big one, because she's eating all the food meant for the other fish. Poor other guys, either get nothing to eat, or get eaten by her. Have lost count the number of small tiny fish she has eaten (perhaps >100 in her 2 yr career), she has even found a way to eat the giant snails in the tank. She knows her escargots. Hmpf. She's even mean enough to bully the other Discus fish so they either die of depression or starvation. I think over $300 worth of Discus have not lived past 6 months thanks to her. As I said, petulant and ill behaved children ought to be punished. I finally convinced C to put her in a red bucket by herself. Oh she's not pleased, but she needs to be punished. In old england, criminals are locked in a tower and beheaded. A bucket is too easy a punishment for her.

I got my econs results back - I passed, yay. So seems the professor bought into my cow-grazing externality theory. In fact, based on my scores, I'm a better economist than human resources person. I guess the HR lecturer did not like my paper on women's equality. Old british farts probably still think women ought to stay at home and milk the cows. Moo. Anyway, who cares. Except maybe a very pissed of Cindy in a red bucket. If Cindy were to write a women's equality paper, I bet she'll kick some big ass.

Blip of Happiness

Coffee Bean has finally come to Toa Payoh!!!! AT LAST!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Was on the 238 bus home today when it rounded the corner and I spotted the all too familiar COFFEE BEAN sign board. Yes!!! It's now at the corner of the HDB Hub next to Delifrance, YES YES YES!!!!!!

That's my one true blip of happiness on the radar today.

On the other hand, job continues to suck. I feel so bad for Nic too. Yeah, maybe it's time I moved on, life is short, why get stuck in a rut.

I need to make it back to yoga frequently, I miss my zen lifestyle. Yesterday at yoga class, I can barely go up in handstand. As I posed upside down, I can literally feel all the pineapple tarts of the last 2 weeks, sinking heavily into my diaphragm. Where I used to feel lightness before, now it's like, a lump of flabby blob moving around the tummy area. Even during forward bends when my teacher came around to adjust me, she had to put her hand under my belly, I was mortified because of the rolls of fats there. She didn't say anything. Neither did I. But, no more pineapple tarts for me.

Just a regular weekend

This is the first normal weekend I've had in a long time. As in, go for yoga, go to the spa, get my hair done, lunch with kakis etc. It has been so many weeks of abnormal, it's such a relief to be normal again. But then, sitting here on sunday night blogging, and later having to 'work', well that puts a spin on things, but at least the weekend has been mostly normal. I finally had time for a haircut, it's looking long, messy and very auntie-like. Finally I had time to spare at the salon - a good 3 hrs though 1hr was an unecessary wait. My mood was almost black, but I managed to convince myself to stay cheery; no point being angry when I've been angry for a good 2 months already. Yesterday, my hair was pretty again, having been washed, blown straight and treated to a bouncing, light softness. Man, this guy can really cut hair, in 15 mins, snip snip snip and 1/3 of my hair on the floor, and still it looked like he didn't snip anything away, but wah, my hair looked like the nice rebonded image of before. He was able to reduce volume but retain shape. Very nice. until this morning when the natural curls came back, but still, very neat. For $100, it's good stuff. Except the wait.

Veron's baby popped earlier than usual. The big hooha was how it was a boy when everyone including the OB was confident of a girl. There goes all the pink clothing we bought. This little fella sure is very cute, and very un-fussed. His gaze has the all-knowing wise look. Sorta like bis. And a very calm temperament. He merely observes us, and fusses very little. I like babies like that, in fact V's other son is very well behaved and charming little kid. That reminds me of Lenny, who on the other hand, who wails like a female in distress. Maybe he aims to be an opera singer. That guy takes advantage of his doting mom, who unfortunately is too indulgent for his and her own good. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Reminds me of whenever she complains her mom spoils her brothers. Maybe these things run in the family. Me, I'll just stick to dogs.