Confessions of a City Slicker

It was Eleen and Michelle’s birthday party last Saturday.  I’ll just let the pictures say everything.

Met some celebrities there (or rather, celebrity look alikes)…..

David Boreanaz of Angel was there.  This guy told me he was the stunt double

Chris Doughtry of American Idol.  This guy is a Triathlete

Zidane

The birthday girls blow their candles.  That’s Eleen on the left and Michelle on the right.

Marcus and his girls…..probably the only guy there who had the most fun (or satisfaction?)

It was Eleen and Michelle’s birthday party last Saturday.  I’ll just let the pictures say everything.

Met some celebrities there (or rather, celebrity look alikes)…..

David Boreanaz of Angel was there.  This guy told me he was the stunt double

Chris Doughtry of American Idol.  This guy is a Triathlete

Zidane

The birthday girls blow their candles.  That’s Eleen on the left and Michelle on the right.

Marcus and his girls…..probably the only guy there who had the most fun (or satisfaction?)

My belly dance class got together last Friday to practice for our upcoming performance.  Instead, we spent most of the 3 hours together talking instead of practicing.

Mind you, despite the differences in background and age amongst us, the topics we discussed were wide ranging from the law, in-laws, eyebrow embroidery, having kids, shopping, work, you name it

If only our teacher could see us then.  We have always been very quiet in class.  Questions by our teacher are always met with silence or just a sheepish smile from us.

Unfortunately last Friday proved that old theory is true.  When a group of women get together they talk…….and talk……..and talk………and talk……..

Hopefully next meeting will see more progress on our performance.

I finally made my first sojourn to Queensbay Mall last night after it has been opened for over a month.  Touted as the biggest shopping mall in Penang, it was definitely impressive in terms of size.

Although there were ample parking spaces available in their multi-story carparks as well as the wide open spaces outside the mall, the typical ugly Malaysian culture of drivers ditching their vehicles anywhere that is convenient is still the order of the day.  Parking is still free when I was there as the Autopay system is still not up and running yet :)  Free parking was only for the first month after the official opening.

Of course people who know me know that when I shop, I zero in only on items I am looking for that particular time and only visit shops that sell those items, therefore saving time.  Guess that’s why I managed to recon the whole place in under 2 hours.  Can’t stand those people who just have to go into every single shop in a mall whether or not they want to buy anything from there.

Am happy to declare that I have finished my shopping for CNY clothes with some comfy clothes for visiting relatives in the hot weather but the majority of purchases were to upgrade my choices of office attire.

All in all, the range of shops in Queensbay Mall was not very impressive except for Borders and Nichii Fashion.  Most other shops can be found in any other shopping mall in Penang.  However, it’s sheer size ensured that the place would not be too packed during the public holidays as opposed to say, Prangin Mall.

This is so exciting!  After almost of year studying belly dance, I finally get a chance to perform in front of an audience, together with my class of course.

The performance will be during the upcoming hafla (belly dance party) where each class is required to select a routine they have learned and perform it.  We are given creative license to add spice to the routine, so long as the basic steps are still there.  Hmmmmmm…….this should be interesting.

My class had our very first practice last Wednesday where we decided on the routine we want to perform and discussed on costumes, accessories, etc.  We decided, of all things, to do the routine beginner classes use for their warm up, mostly because as far as we know, none of the other classes are doing it.  Therefore it will increase our chances of at least not ending up in the bottom of the barrel

I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what we come up with in the end product.  Hopefully I can get someone in the audience to record the performance for me.  I’ll only post it here in the blog if it is good :p Meanwhile, I have to schedule a recon mission to Little India soon to scout out possible shops to get our costumes.

Wish me luck for the performance!

What Women Want is a new reality show on 8tv.  As the title suggests, it’s a contest to choose the one man who has all the qualities that women desire.  Of course me and my girlfriends watch it for the eye candy ie the gorgeous guys (a handful of them anyway).  My guy friends watch it for Hannah T…she’s a hottie!  Sweet, dainty, petite…definitely my definition of a pretty girl.

This is Charles, my favorite candidate to win, probably because in the intro episode he was the only guy in a suit.  I love guys who know how to wear a suit.  He also has the most mischievious smile which tells me he has a playful streak.

Episode 4 was a bit of a nail biter for me as Charles had to face the jurors for failing the elimination round with another guy who was voted to be eliminated.  The task was for the guys to learn to salsa. Ooo la la.  IMHO, none of the guys did exceptionally well, they only had 5 hours to practice so can’t really blame them.

Charles is still in the running (yippie!!!) since they sent home the other guy.  Else I’ll strictly be watching the show to see which looser is finally chosen as the embodiment of what every woman wants.  Now that will be a poor reflection on the average Malaysian woman’s taste.

For more info on the show, here is the website

Aaaaaahhhhh…..A New Year, New Blog.  Geezzz, I sound like Bridget Jones, don’t I? (snicker).

For my new year resolutions I have decided to reduce my cholesterol level, up my protein intake and increase muscle mass.  Basically, getting healthy.

The action plan?  To include more fish in my diet and reduce intake of meat, in particular, my most favorite BEEF :(  That went on well enough for the first week, until last weekend when I had the worst craving for meat ever!  Thankfully, willpower prevailed in the end and I ended up going to bed a little dissatisfied with the cup of Milo I drank, but nevertheless proud of myself.  I wonder how I managed to carry that off a few years ago.  I believe I stuck the fish diet for almost a year.  Guess actually being able to fit into my clothes again was a big contributing factor.

Next - going back to the gym and really put my heart into it!  I admit I had been slacking off my gym schedule these last few months, but I made a promise to myself to start again, especially going for Body Pump at least once a week.  Unfortunately, that got off to a rocky start as I only managed to go for Belly Dance at the gym.  Shame on me (blush!) heheheh…

Why all this sudden health craze, you may ask?  Well, had my blood test results and body mass analysis results back recently and they both tell me that I need to do something on all of the above.

So wish me luck!  I’ll update on my progress from time to time.  Till then, Best Wishes for the new year.