Early bird catches no worm

Tried my first ever Mysore class today. Wah, I actually woke up at 5am fresh, had time to snooze for 30mins before going about the daily dog chores before heading down. Mysore starts 6.45am onwards and I'm there 6.55am thinking I may possibly be 1 of 3-4 students. Wrong. First approaching the studio I was startled to see already a good number of shoes lined up outside. Obviously there are birds earlier than me, and from the looks of it, 70% of the room is filled and majority are already a good 20 mins into their practice. Apparently a lot of students wanted to take advantage of Matthew being around and thus packed his mysore classes. Since I didn't know the sequence well enough I was only given poses up to Navasana before finishing. A little disappointed but hey, yoga is not about how fast one can get there (in terms of doing the pose) but it's an inward journey, and more important a journey of the mind and inner self. Of course, since I'm still a novice at the inner journey, my somewhat egoistic self can't help but peek and marvel at what some of the other students are doing. And gosh, there are a lot of students pretty advanced in there, mostly doing the full Primary already. Even Damien who started yoga only months ago, is much further along the series than me. His practice is actually quite good considering his limited experience.

I must say the uncalculated but good advantage of having a membership there is, I got to use the lounge area as a study facility for the whole day. I nabbed the corner space, lush seats with plump cushions and full view of the scenary outside. And very quiet, much better than any library. Shopping and food is easily available within the building. A definite plus. Can see myself coming here each time pre-exam to study. Couldn't help but snicker when I saw some students studying at the noisy coffee bean, loud music blasting and ear-deafening chatter of its customers. Next best thing today was that I used my coffee bean card points to redeem over $20 worth of F&B today. I am extremely pleased how much I got today for so little. heehee.

F for Yoga Teacher

Had a strange dream this morning, that I was a newly trained yoga teacher leading a hall (and I mean a large hall) of yoga students through an ashtanga practice. But not quite. As I led the chant through the opening prayer, I started to flail as I forgot the words to the next phrase in the prayer. A deadening silence descended upon the hall. Everyone seemed to hold their breaths (really sucking it in and hold!) as they waited for me to remember. I struggled, and sweat beaded my forehead. Can't remember how I fumbled the rest of the way through, and then I woke up. Guess it's a sign from someone above that maybe I should just be content being a yoga student. I sucked at my first teaching class. Sigh. What a crashing ending for a career aspiration that's not even started. Om.

Ticket to Auntie-land

The truth is out - I'm officially under the "auntie" category now. Yes going to tekka market and bargaining with stall uncles for discount on meats, and bitching kopi-shop talk with tekka gang is auntie activity. But tonite, tonite, I think I finally have to admit I've gotten a full qualifying entry ticket to Auntie-land. The cause of all this lamenting, well, a gathering with my gang of poly girlfriends whom were my best buddies during those 3 memorable school years.

Eileen, the prettiest amongst us, looks like a real hot mama. Despite only giving birth 5 months ago, she is now back to her svelte 48kg frame. And I mean flat abs, small butt and all, looking like a 24 year old fresh faced girl. Leona, all flawless in make-up and professional looking in her outfit that just screams, "don't mess with me" especially in her tall, built, 1.77m frame. Even Susan, who was more dowdy during our school days, looks like a japanese popstar icon that just stepped out of a magazine in her jap perm hairdo, and street clothing getup like those you see at Far East Plaza. And here's Wen - black pants and a white sleeveless blouse with a couple of safety pins, makeup that has washed out and not touched up during the day, with a shiny forehead (forgot to even blot my face, argh!), and really plain in contrast with 3 colourful women at the table. In short, AUNTIE.

I should have known better, really. I could just hit myself against the wall for not remembering that for a group of women, good buddies, that only see each other some 2x per year, I should have made more effort to dress up and play the part. Having become so used to my sloppy yoga-wear only attire on weekends, I become even lazy to dress better at work. Not to mention hanging out with school buddies. So what's the point when I have over $500 in cosmetics sitting around at home when all I use everyday is powder and lipstick? And I don't even bother to touch up during mid day for that matter. Aieeee. Laziness has it's price and I've just paid it. I dreaded the moment we had to take a group photo, wah, I really looked washed out and yellow-faced next to the 3 of them. Sigh.

Auntie-dom here I come. No turning back for me now. Aunty Moo.

Grocery Euphoria

I'm a grocery junkie. I am. I get immediate gratification just walking down the aisles of supermarkets. Not just any supermart, but gourmet ones. Last week I headed down to Jasons to buy some bread and a can of soup, and wow, think my eyes just glazed over as I floated along the aisles with a silly expression on my face just like a junkie who had a recent drug fix. All sorts of pretty things in pretty packaging. Ooooh soooo tempting. Canned soup is not just Campbells. But we're talking Heinz, Waitrose and godknowswhatother exotic brands. The packaging is so impressive. Juice section is another wow wow wow. Oh and look at their exotic cheeses. They have pies, quiches and samosas too. Hmm, great for dinners on those days I get bored tah-pauing from the zi-char stall. Kerching! Jasons is some $50 richer thanks to my 15 min junkie operation.

Yesterday night the same thing occured. I just wanted one teensy bread roll (only 60 cents) after yoga, but hmm, brie looks nice. And wah, the multigrain bread too. Oh might as well build my own sandwiches with extra tomatoes etc. Oh they have bagels! Must get cream cheese. Hey they have Arnott's fruit rolls. Oh I've never seen this type of sweet potato chips before.

$30 poorer as I floated my way home. Still floating today. Some days I dream of having a large stainless steel freezer from Armana. I drool.

But UH OH...if I'm not careful this might end up being a 60 cents breadroll become $5000 refridgerator project. Remember the SIMS game? Dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee. GULP.

The Science of Poo

Woke up in the wee hours before dawn today, and made a feeble attempt to do some meditation, suceeding for all of 1 min before flopping back to bed again. My mind and body battling between waking and sleeping, the angel on the right suggesting I could do a couple of sun salutes, the devil on the left saying oh how good the bed feels. I took the coward's way out and did a Uttanasana and Supta Padang. Easy stuff and none of the hardship, and at least I didn't feel so guilty.

Daily Poo Index is Baaaaack!!! This time with a horrofic twist. Holly was spotted licking some other animal's early morning dump. It was grey, soft and squishy and smelt foul. The stooooopid gal managed to give it a few tentative licks before I yelled at her. YUCKKK!!!!!! I am soooo not going to kiss her or even put her head near my face this morning. Ugh. Part 2 of the Poo Index involved some fast flying dog poo - in our evening walk today Holly was squatting down and emitting a long produce when Bis suddenly sprinted. Stupid girl of course didn't want to loogi, and her competitive streak compelled her to chase after Bis despite not knowing what the heck for. Of course whipping around in a 360 deg turn while pooing halfway meant the offending particle was flung from it's original intended spot. I'm sure someone can explain the physics of it - blah blah force and blah blah velocity = poo flew xyz distance from resting position. Or something like that. Anyway it flew so fast I could hardly see where it landed. Kinda reminded me of a short putter.

Fed Holly some durian just now in hopeful bid to negate her early morning poo breath. Salmon for dinner. I think the combination of the 3 things must make her breath even more foul should she burp. Aiieeeee. Gross factor 9/10.

Weekend Zen Warrior

This has been a really busy weekend. Starting Friday night, where C and I out of the goodness of our hearts (and the evil intention to be the first to bond with Nicole's new pet), helped Nicole pick up her new 'son' from the Changi Airfreight Center. Truly, without our help she would have been lost, trying to find her way to and around the macham ulu place. Her shiba inu, named Tiger (aka "tai-ker" in chinese, aka taiwan-hokkien for "lame") has arrived at last, after more than 6 months of waiting and searching. Honestly, Tiger is really cute. And wah, very zen-like. Very calm. He just sat in his crate calmly like a zen master in meditation. He neither yelped or bark nor moved around. He just sat and watched us. Tiger was REALLY smelly, having probably sat on wet papers infused with his own pee on the long flight. But nevermind, C and I cuddled him anyway, while Nicole whined, "You're so cute!! EuuuWWW!! YOU STINK!!". Poor fella is probably getting his 3rd bath since landing in Singapore as we speak. Nicole has this fetish for sanitizing things. That's a separate story for another time.

Back to Tiger - he calmly sat in C's lap while we drove from Changi back to Nic's home. Just sat there patiently. Until I started singing. Maybe he didn't enjoy it so much. Err, maybe it disrupted his peaceful state of mind. Suddenly he climbed over to me , scrambling to the window in what is possibly a cry for "GET ME OUTTA HERE!" or an apparent bid to take a flying leap to the outside world to escape my yodling. Ummm. Hmmm.

Ashtanga weekend on Sat and Sun, starting with led classes at Pure, and Dena Wiseman's workshop immediately after. Part 2 of her workshop this morning. This really calls for some serious stamina as we went thru the full Primary Series. My 2nd, in my entire yoga lifetime. I was doing pretty well until the last couple of poses where I've never learnt them, but wah, there it's just quite interesting to watch the other students who can, do it. Trying to pluck up some courage to attend Mattew's mysore classes while he's here. Since it's free, musn't loogi mah.World renowned teacher leh. Dena is a fantastic teacher, not what you'd expect in an ashtanga teacher. Her teaching is very precise and infused with a lot of iyengar-like precisions. The class loved it. Would hope she comes back again. Today is one of the few times I'm completely exhausted after yoga. But it's so good. Om shanti. Oh yeah, and Om Moo.

Flying Yogi Rescue

Attended the meet Matthew Sweeney event at Pure Yoga earlier tonight with Yvette and YP. Boyo it was really well turned out by >100 people, all packed and crammed into the reception area. Matthew gave a 20 min demo and it was really quite impressive. It was as if he was a featherweight flying between poses, it was all so silent and graceful. Quite unlike the elephant landings u hear when a yoga student is attempting those vinyasa jumpbacks. And watching him forward and backward bends (into urdva danurasana) repeatedly, ouch, my back just hurts watching that. His spine is like rubber. But well, he started yoga at age 16, and I guess it pays off. I think for me, it's pretty hopeless as I don't think I'll ever get to such a stage. Hamstrings too tight lah. YP brought Lenny along and to his credit he slept throughout the noise of 100 pple chattering and barely fussed. Maybe he has some potential to be a yogi too. Good to start young. Already can put his foot into his mouth. :P

Attended a first aid course this afternoon, sponsored by the office. A lady from St. John's gave the talk, it's just basic first aid but wah, her use of singlish is macham powderful. My Englishman colleague could barely understand her. But she's real funny. Ok honestly, I don't think I will remember all those steps I need to do in an emergency situation where I might have to give first aid. I'll likely just panic and start yelling and screaming and flap around like an anxious hen. But I guess if I HAVE to give CPR, I could probably do it. Just hope I don't break any ribs. Errrm.