What a difference a smile makes

So I resolve to be less grim and eccentric, I try. C laughed when I said I was doing the yoga teacher training, he said I was prob the most un-zen person he knows of, prob students would be too afraid to take my class.

Prana Vinyasa class with Franck is always fantastic, the mood is great, the flow is awesome. People always come out of his class in an excellent mood. I resolved to be more open, more friendly, I actually braved and chatted up some people I've seen around in class but never made friends with. Voila, no hardship there. Even collected 1 new phone number. Went down to toast for lunch and bumped into shambhala yoga friend, who intro me to another friend, who intro me to another friend. I collected another new phone number. Clearly, today is meet new friends day, even bumped into Yvette who's out for a day with her hubby and family.

Went shopping to buy Joshua's present. The thing is, don't know how but ended up spending more on me at the store than his present. Once again I must have SUCKER on my forehead, otherwise how else could I spend over $100 on a jacket for myself at a KIDS' boutique???? To think I hesitated for 2 months on buying a lulu yoga top which would set me back by $90. Irony of it is, I went off to Raoul to buy a $100+ belt which I saw at the display window. It's clearly 20x overpriced but I liked it anyway.

Aiyah. Sucker.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

It's the Lunar New Year today. CNY these past years are very much non-events as well. CNY eve? Gosh, all of us were home, and all had our dinners (or take outs) separately, each did our own thing. Not quite the usual family reunion, but then, we're also not quite a normal family. I spent today going to yoga, movie and hanging out with Nic rather than visiting. Really not sure what's the purpose of visiting anymore, same old questions, same people, same talk, and all married cousins can talk about is "how's work", and the antics of their children. OK it's probably me, as I get older, I get more eccentric, stiff upper lipped and emotion-incapable. In yoga today I could hardly do backbends properly because shoulders are so tight, shoulders are always tight. Arun (and few other teachers) say, its because we're holding too much emotion. We have to let go, let go. The key is surrender.

On the bright side, spending the day out on CNY aint' too bad. Starbucks was blissfully quiet (I LOVE IT!!), orchard road is like deadtown (YAY!!!), the the only place that was a buzz of human activity is actually Borders.

Here's Hootie and his CNY celebration dinner. Even the animals get their day.

Non-Event

Twas my birthday yesterday, what a non-event that was. Sadly, I must have dropped off the face of the earth on my friends' contact list, no one remember to wish me happy birthday, no friends, no colleagues. Even started the day arguing with the taxi driver. Even had lunch alone. Of course, I used every excuse then to shop, spend $ on myself and bought myself a few trinkets. Though lots of credit had to be given to C, poor dude was as sick as a dog, and drowsy from medication and lost his voice completely. Yet he struggled to spend the rest of the day hanging out with me (and of course, had to tolerate my crappy mood from a lousy day). Guess that's what bfs are really for - being super sweet and tolerant when necessary (which is ALWAYS, ha ha) and rescuing damsels from bad days and taxi drivers.

By the end of the day, I did get 2 bday wishes, one each from ex-boss and ex-colleague. Well, I guess bis and holly would count too.

No holding back

So I'm down with a cold, I skipped yoga because the body is sluggish and achy all over. Though I continue to make my way downtown to the spa for a much needed massage (aahhh, does that feel so good), as I slowly meander my way to the spa like a doddering 80 year old, I pass by Raoul. There it was, the sign plastered to the glass door - SALE. I have 15 mins to my spa appointment. I walk into the store. And no, being sick, sluggish and lethargic with a runny nose does not somehow affect the Shopping Victim part of my brain. Apparently that part runs on its own brain juices, totally oblivious and immune to illness. 20 mins later I walk out nearly $300 poorer; flu or no flu, cold or no cold, headache or no headache, its true testament that one can apparently still make shopping decisions whilst ill.

'Enuff said.

Mindset in Yoga

For the first time today I made it to the Advanced Class at Pure yoga. It was a really good class, I enjoyed it. What makes today special is the partner work involved. Partner work in yoga requires some amount of trust and confidence, having Dagge there for me was something special, especially when your partner is one who is open hearted, one of those special people that always view the world in a positive light. For someone at my level who has been practising yoga for years, I could go to any yoga class offered without much difficulty. I've always resisted the advanced class though, for reasons of self doubt, lack of confidence.

Looking back, yoga is really about having no pre-conceived expectations of one's performance. Yoga is about giving, opening up the heart. Can't do the poses? Nevermind, just the effort of being there, being in the pose, trying, is good enough. I resisted advanced because I doubted my ability in class full of competitive people. But today has taught me, so what, everyone is there to learn, no one is there to judge except ourselves. We are our own worst and most critical judge, and learning to let go conciously makes a big difference. It's something taught to beginners all the time, it's something I have to relearn again, to let go, not be in control, but just be in the pose. Small step forward in yoga, large step forward in mindset.

Dimwit's discovery

Couple of months back C gave me a large flat screen TV. At about that time I started on the K-drama craze. One thing that irks me watching it on cable is that I could not get the dual sound to work. Pounding on the "dual" button on the tv remote a hundred times just yielded the message "mono" flashing on the screen. Recently I gave it another try by retuning all the tv channels, even adjusting cable and tv setup connections. No success.

Today I looked at the cable remote. Pressed the Help button. There it was - Audio button on the remote for changing sound setup. Pressed Audio button. There it was, dual sound in Korean. I made it! At last! Nearly 6 months late. Naturally there was a big DUH in my head when the dual sound went on. I couldn't believe it, it took me 6 mths to figure this out. Any dimwit with half a brain or a 10 year old could have probably done it in 1/10th of the time. Point being - my techno brain is is really upped and gone. Kapish. Kapowed. Kablooped. Gone. Bye bye. Sayonara.

To prove this point? On my new SE handphone, it took me 3 weeks to figure out how to configure MMS settings correctly and send my 1st MMS.

Things to do on a date

1. Wax your partner's butt crack. Hear him scream like a girl.

2. Attempt to wax your partner's underarm. Watch his eyes grow big and round in fear.

3. Give suggestive looks to partner's nipple hair whilst waving a wax sheet. Watch him cower like a girl and attempt to karate kick wax sheet away.