pigging out in style

if you thought i was gonna upload more pics of Langkawi, ure wrong, coz an oath was made (yes, even in semi sobriety) that everything stays in Langkawi. so moving on....

If i ever said Metropolitan College was evil, i'll take those words right back and swallow them up right now. literally. because Metro.simply.rox. period. Name me a college that'd treat you to an amazing high tea buffet at a 5 star resort and I'll pay for your tuition fees sweep n mop your floor for you.
The college treated us Greasers today at Sunway Resort's Atrium Cafe & Lounge. The place looked amazing. I was wearing my brand new mng white cropped pants and i was feeling under dressed. That was how grand it was. The food was a wide array of seafood, rice, really creamy soup, ice kacang, funky dessert, extra scrumptious creamy soup, truffles, pudding, fantabulously rich cheesecakes, super duper delicious creamy mushroom soup, ice cream, potato wedges, and did i mention the creamy mushroom soup?

sigh...now my brand new mng white cropped pants fits a little too snugly. time to hit the gym. *shrug*

Ingredients for a great trip

a dash of the sea...

a hint of nature...

a sprinkle of disappointment...

a touch of serenity...

a shower of thrill...

a slosh of sin...
a handful of great company...

*smile*

Off to have fun in Langkawi...look for photos and possibly videos on Thursday...:)

semester 5: checked!

at 10.40 am i handed in my 21st final exam paper since i started life at Metro. it's a grand feeling knowing that i've only one more semester with 3 more subjects left and i'd be done with a degree. Bachelor of Commerce. me. sounds so grown up. i dont think i'm ready for the world of taxable incomes and insurance policies yet. but i'll cross that bridge when i get to it la. =)

1.23 am on my last day of the semester. i should be thrilled. exhilirated. ecstatic! but that doesnt seem to be the case unfortunately. what i feel right now is actually a dash of relief, a pinch of fatigue, and a tad of that-taboo-of-a-feeling-which-i-would-not-mention.

the irony of it all, i know. still it seems befitting to be feeling this way now in the depths of silence in my room, with the cold air-conditioned air against my skin. perhaps it is the fact that i have missed 2 'training' days in a row. or the fact that the mental work out is finally catching up on me.

maybe i need sleep. rest. i should be my perky self again tomorrow. holidays are here!:)

***

i just had to wonder. what have you been up to? how are your holidays coming along? how are you? its been some time since the last conversation. and i think i left it with a very awkward statement.

metaphorically speaking...

If Small Business were a food...it would be a slice of Secret Recipe's Chocolate Indulgence.

delicious, simple, piece of cake. and an eaten one too, no less.

If Analytical Marketing were a drink...it would be a super milky teh ais from a dingy mamak stall.

it took ages to come, and it's currently a pain in the behind due to lactose intolerence.

heh.

well isn't it a sunny sunny day!

today. simply. rocked.

let me tell you why....

*edit*
one. Dr Mario Del Castillo called me this morning. He said Kiwanis Malaysia is organizing a Circle K convention...at national level....and he asked our club to host it! *yesyesyes* Of course i was totally psyched! but i had to confirm with my BOD first so i told him i'll get back to him. But i hope they agree!!

two. my period came today. which means it'll end in about 4 days' time. which means the beaches in Langkawi can be well honoured by my presence! Bring on the banana boat, honeyyy!

three. i went to college today. and whipped out my Analytical Marketing book from my locker. dusted it off and drowned myself in the stats and computer commands for 2 hours straight. and i'm glad to say i have pretty much revised everything i need to revise on that paper. tomorrow when my friends hail hallelujah i could probably join them for the first half of the celebration, before running back home to revise for AM some more. :)

and four. the sun was bright. the air was crisp. i hit the road at 6.30 pm, trudging up the hills of ss18. Round 1. legs were strong. round 2. spirits were soaring. round 3. 4. 5. 6. 7...my tracks were on fire! i ran down the hill. and made it just under 32 minutes. wooot~!

not even Small Business can bring me down at this point. not like it had. but yea...life is pretty good at times aye? =)

smile, and the whole world smiles with you!

I'm finally done with two papers! i know...i have friends who are done with finals altogether. But i've only leapt over 2 hurdles thus far. But the next 2 hurdles are around the corner and i'm practically sprinting to them! I can't wait to get them over and done with!

This morning's Entrepreneurship 300 was...numbingly neutral. I have no complains about the paper, neither do i have anything to shout about. the whole process of reaching college, meeting my friends (who were buried in their books just minutes before the exam), taking out my pens and ID card, chucking my bag in the locker, sitting down in the exam hall, writing my details, answer the questions, drink some water, hand in, and get out of the exam hall just went by...like that. monotonously. No heart palpitation, no sweat palms, no oh-shit moments. It was all so...automatic. I think i did as well as i always do. which is...acceptable. hahaha...one of these days my nonchalant unassuming attitude is gonna get me some enemies. =)

*edit* compare this post with this. And we sat for the same darn paper! hahaha...

***

I'm proud to say training's been going on! On Sunday however i was smart enough to scarf down one whole packet of fried carrot cake. thus, i resorted to walking with my dad. But yesterday saw me running again, 6 km. And today i spun 12 kms to Channel V Countdown. *grin*

Maybe, just maybe i'd start a training log....=)

because...

because the weather wasn't conducive for studying...

because i have finally recharged my camera batteries...

because i am disheartenned by the fact that some of my aussie educated friends are now done with their exams...

because the drawing was just so darn adorable...

i just HAD to post it up. i gave my gymnasts a test last week, asking them to write down their ball routine on paper and pass it up to me this week. One of my gymnast handed in this...

p/s: note very very green entrepreneurship book in the background. i have been studying okay. :)

training resumed!

I have gotten myself back into some sort of a training regime. Though not a fixed one, I have decided to act on any one discipline each day, depending on what i felt like doing. I started on Wednesday. I did a 6 km run and was surprised to see that I could still do it under 33 minutes. :) Thursday saw me running in the rain! Well, when i started it wasn't raining la. It decided to pour on me when i was halfway uphill, so i thought heck, let's go running in the rain. :) I did cut short my run by 860 m though. Today i cycled on the spinning machine at home. 11 km with heavy and light gradient on interval.

So that's 3 days in a row. I pray the fire continues. =)

On the other hand, my next exam is on Tuesday. Entrepreneurship 300. Interesting subject. Hate the studying bit...

mission statement

What have i been doing all this while? Wishing upon something that would never come true. I knew that it would never come true. Yet I prayed and wished and harped and pondered and indulged in that very something which made me the person i hated to be - all flustered, un-composed, falling apart, static.

Yes. i have come to a sudden, abrupt self revelation. A self discovery, so to speak. It's. not. worth. it. It never was. If I had to go through so many days, weeks and months of emotional torment, only to seek an answer which I have known all along...an answer which I know would shatter my heart into a gazillion pieces before I am able to rebuild it piece by piece to find peace of mind (who knows when will that be, by the way. Who knows when I'd stand up again, look the world in the face and holler out "Ok men, i'm ready now")...then it's not worth the pain.

I met an old friend today. and she made me realise my own worth. Her simple yet honest comment on how great I looked this morning had sparked a new sense of self worth in me...almost narcissistic...but very much rejuvenating. I cocked my head at an angle and stared at my reflection in the mirror. It made me think of all the things that i am, of who i have become and it felt so empowering that it made me think, "You know, I'm alright. Not too shabby." haha.

So I'm through. I did not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I found an exit door. And behind that door was far better what awaits me at the end of the tunnel (or at least, i'd make sure it is). My gloomy days are over.

I'm throwing myself back out in the market. For real this time. hahaha....

p/s: Yes i did just watch Jerry Maguire, hence the inspiration of a "mission statement".

why do you think he suggested as such?

Well how was I supposed to know? The marketing director of McDs decides not to follow a competitor in coming out with 2 for the price of 1 discount vouchers and they ask me why he decides as such?

well, aside from that itsy bitsy question whereby a mysterious marketing director of a certain fast food chain acted in mysterious ways, i would say Strategic Marketing 310 was alright.

My thumb and middle finger of my right hand is rightfully sore. Hence, i believe i must've done something right. I had something right to say for every question, whether or not the explanation which follows are thought of as complete bullsh*t by the examiner is something i have no control over at this point.

Owell, 1 down 3 more to go. :)

***

sometimes, i find that i don't have something right to say for your every question. and that really bothers me.

a little training deficit

i haven't been training much lately. i haven't been running much. i used the spinning machine about 2-3 times in the last month. and i sure as hell have not touched the pool. it is a bit worrying considering i aim to do an OD in July.

and lately, my dad and my brothers are ALL about training. especially my recently turned IT-savvy father, who has engaged a training log which logs the amount of training he does everyday. and my brother too. when they first told me about this training log of theirs, i swore never to be intimidated by them. so they work out religiously. Good for them. but the more i looked at it, the more i feel the pressure to get up and sweat it out a little.

then i chanced upon JonMing.com. and he too has come up with some form of training log. and, boy has he been logging! which is very impressive. Jon Ming is a friend of Jonathan and Sam, my 2 esteemed running friends who have taken a big step into the world of running and looking to stay in there for long. In all my years of persuasion, these 2, especially Sam has been the longest lasting friend of mine to stay in the running world.

I knew for a fact from my shameful defeat in the NB 15km run that Sam has been training. a lot. Now i know Jon Ming has too. It's all very amazing. it really is.

I repent. I wanna start taking my training seriously again. Just keep logging, people! There are times when kiasuness serves as an advantage...this is one of them.

Quentins & Sukan Wanita

The book started out like a guide to "How to be a Mistress". Seriously. It taught me everything there is to know about being one.

Then the mistress in the story started losing out really bad and everyone she loved was affected by her wrong doing. This was when the drama unfolded and the storyline picked up a little.

Basically it had many little stories in one big story. The stories blended in well together. It's suitable for light reading if u asked me. I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't go all hoo-haa on it.

***

Sukan Wanita was a weird experience. Everything didnt seem right about the tri.

For starters, there were 2 transition areas. Which was alright for me because i dont use clip shoes, but for the more elite ones they'd have to separate their running gears from their cycling gears and place them in individual bags to be carried off to T2 which was some 10kms away. Nevermind that. The finishing was at a different place too. This was bad. Because we had to leave our things at 3 different places (the start, T1 and T2) and worry whether or not they were being taken care of. Especially since i was on borrowed property (Uncle Peter's Bike). Then, we had to wait for everyone to get onto a bus before we could go back to the starting. And then, we had to wait for a lorry to come bearing our bikes and stuff. I shudder at the thought of the bikes being transported in lorries.

Next was the fact that it was an all-female race. I should be all out for such an event, but the weirdest part is, i actually felt pretty out of place. I had my friends acquaintences here and there. but no one to actually sit and chat with. at the end of the day, i found myself sitting at the table with Mr Tee, Mr Cheng and Uncle Peter. weird huh?

And i just had to laugh at the 180 degree change in roles. No longer were the wives and girlfriends snapping photos and passing water. It was the men who took the backseat now. Cheering the women on. It was almost hilarious! i saw several men with their clothes all wet. They say they were escorts, but my guess would be they were itching to jump into the water and do the whole darn thing themselves.

Anyway, it was alright. I have to say though, i have more fun at "co-ed" races. *shrug*

in my memory

In September 2005, a rather rotund man with a cheesy smile came up to me in the Putrajaya Powerman. He said hi, and told me he's been to my blog. I can't remember feeling any more pleased. i think it was among the first few times a reader approached me in real life and tell me he/she's been to my blog and that alone was enough to make my day. (it still does now, btw...:))

anyway, i learned later from blog surfing that the guy was a Powerbar team elite member. and that he was fighting a brain tumour. i learned that he started the Penguin group of athletes, to inspire other overweight people to get up and get active.

I met him at a couple of other events after Powerman 2005. And he never failed to give me that same cheesy smile.

Today, Terence Leong passed away. My regret is not having any pictures taken with him. I hope the Penguins continue to race and recruit more people. I wish his family my deepest condolences.

Terence, you're in my memory....:)

tell me

tell me that i don't need you
because lately it's been that way
i lean on your smiles, yes i do
and hang on everything you say

tell me that i can stand alone
because its getting harder each day
i long to hear your voice on the phone
when i really should be staying away

tell me that i'd move on from you
because i see no hope in sight
it's been a journey and i've yet to pull through
and i'm starting to think i won't see the light

tell me that i'm strong, and i always was
because my heart seems fragile now
it may crack under the tiniest force
and it will shatter if you ask me how

tell me that you don't love me at all
because i need to hear it straight from you
let me stumble, let me fall
and then, let me start anew...

teardrops

why exactly do people cry at farewells? what exactly are they sad about?

is it the thought of the person's absence? the mere fact that he/she won't be there when needed? is it the fact that overseas calls are so friggin's expensive and timezones are a pain in the arse? is it the worry that he/she won't be able to take care of him/herself? that he/she might break down out of homesickness and loneliness?

or is it the fear of uncertainty of what lies ahead? the fear of not knowing how different the future would be from now on? the fear of "out of sight, out of mind", that we'd drift apart and forget how close we once were. i have that fear.

i fear that the distance and the absence would change everything. i fear that the next time i see her, we'd have a whole 2 years of tales and new memories to form a gap between us. i fear that i may forget the little things about her through time, like how she sometimes switches off the fan on purpose so that she can sweat, or her liking for simple white things. like how her second toe cannot be straight, and her ability to hold the "cobra" pose far longer than any of us could.

I'm already missing her. She was the best shopping partner ever! She'd tell me what looks good and what didn't. I loved our sleepovers. Though she usually falls asleep on me. I'd miss calling her up just for fun, just because i havent heard from her all week. RSG gatherings will never be the same without her. I'd miss the things she gets for me whenever she goes for a trip. And the cakes and cookies she gives to me when she feels domesticated enough to bake. I'd miss her remedies for removing double chins and chubby cheeks. I'd miss her being there for almost everything i did. I'd forever miss being her gim partner in all my 8 years of gimrama.

Darn...i would really really miss her. :(

Lyn...don't forget to remember me aye?

five point five

sometimes i wonder if i will ever possess the will power to really study. as in read the text book, do sample questions, check errors, absorb, reinforce, vomit it all out...that whole mumbo jumbo. in all my years as a student i had never been studious. i blame the Malaysian education system for spoiling me with all the spoon feeding and the workbooks with past year questions which come ready with answers and the really low distinction marks. i never did exceptionally well, but i always managed to remain above average with very limited studying.

i do, in fact, wonder how well i can actually do if i did put my best efforts into my studies. all the time. and once or twice, i thought i'd challenge myself and put myself to the test. but i never went through with it. it was all too much of a hassle to want to beat myself every year. i was happy with carrying on with what i have done before. study past year questions, spot, and hope for the best.

5.5. that's 0.5 more than 5, which on a scale of 1-10, signifies a pass. a 5.5 would mean i have gotten 0.5 more than the passing mark. and in most cases, i'd settle for it. in most cases, 55% would do just fine for me.

5.5 is what i got for my participation mark for one of the subjects this semester. in most cases, i never gave 2 sh*ts about participation marks. they seem too insiginificant a value to make any detrimental impact on my total marks. but when a 5.5 is given out of a whole list of 7s and 8s and 9s? that's when participation marks start to matter. and when people whom i know participated less than me are given those 7s and 8s, thats when a 5.5 is unforgiveable.

this calls for a change in approach. for some reason, that 5.5 has got me worrying. so perhaps this time around i'd actually test myself and go through with it. perhaps this time around i will see what i can truly do.

perhaps...

sawadeekaaaaaaa.....

Chiang Mai...rocked. :) It was a much needed break from all the hours (though much less than others) spent on my assignments and before i hit the books (which im guessing won't happen until maybe Thursday). In short, the timing was perfect.

Chiang Mai was a rather wholesome endeavour. There was thrill and fun in every aspect - culture, food, shopping. I have to say I really had a good time, eventhough it was much too shortlived. In my 4 days there I enjoyed every single moment, except for the morning calls i suppose. But the drowsiness subsided almost instantly in Chiang Mai. haha...

Let the photos do the story telling...:)

more pictures