I was digging around my drawer looking for accessories for Boss’ wedding dinner when I found these.
These are the ang pows I got from last year’s CNY, all still unopened almost a year later.
Guess sometimes we do come across buried treasure, huh?
OK, gonna sign off now and go count how much loot I got. Ka-ching!
I was nervous about today’s BMI scan due to the 3 day big dinners last weekend. I must say, I’m darn proud of myself for showing such self-restraint and not gorge myself with food. It wasn’t easy, especially with so much food available.
So of course today’s BMI scan showed little change except for more increase in my muscle mass. However, the centimeters are starting to drop off. While previously, most of the decrease were from hips down, today, there were decreases everywhere.
Yup, I can definitely confirm that the centimeters are coming off. I tried on this tiny top I bought a few months ago but never wore. When I first tried it on the bulges were everywhere, especially around the bra strap area. Today, they were gone. I could lose a bit more for it to look really good, but the bulges around the bra strap area have definitely disappeared.
Best part is, after meeting with Coach I decided to drop in on a few friends to check out their new bachelor pad. All of them remarked on how much slimmer I looked.
Aww…come one guys, I wasn’t that chubby before, was I?
I said it before and I’ll say it again - I love this program!
Second BMI scan today.
Again, showed no significant changes in weight loss but I manage to lose 1 cm from my belly, hips and thighs.
Amount of calories burned during resting period has increased also. If I’m not mistaken I need to burn another 20 calories to be in the efficient range.
Metabolic age is 30, a drop by another 2 years 
No change in fat loss. The buffet dinner last Friday must be my undoing. Oh dear, what will I do about next weekend, with the farewell dinner for a friend on Friday, Em’s eve of her wedding dinner on Saturday and Pat & Em’s wedding dinner on Sunday?
I think I’ll just skimp on dinner these few days to make up for it.
Meeting with Indah Water has remained consistent although the results are more solid nowadays. That’s a good sign.
By hook or by crook, need to lose the inches by Conny’s hafla. If you have seen my costume, you’d understand what I mean. I don’t have a choice.
I am such a klutz!
I took a small bunch of Lucy to put in my office. Found this dainty little vase from home to put it in.
There is a tiny new shoot growing and I can’t help but pick it up once in a while to admire it.
Well, today of all things to happen, my hand collided with the screen of my laptop and I dropped the whole vase! It didn’t break but there was water everywhere.
My main concern was that the water will short circuit the laptop so I quickly tried to wipe the place dry. Damn Murphy and his stupid law! The laptop KOed on me not long after that and I couldn’t get it to boot up again.
OK, don’t panic. Maybe if I give it some time I will be able to get it restarted again. So I left it there and went for lunch. When I got back, same thing.
On calling the helpline for the laptop I was informed that if water happened to fall on the keyboard it will seep into the laptop and onto the motherboard. Any attempt to restart it will damage the motherboard, which will mean BIG TROUBLE.
Oops…too late. Already tried to restart the damn thing countless times before that.
I left the laptop in a standing position hoping that what ever residual moisture that is left in there will drip out overnight and I will be able to boot it up tomorrow.
I hope……..
Just wanna capture the mood before I forget…
Yeah, this morning is one of those rare moments when I actually was up with nothing to do. Most mornings, I’ll be sleeping in (if I’m not working), or rushing to work or church or wherever else I’ve planned to go.
My foreman was coming to collect my daughter for her yearly tune up, so after seeing her off, it was nice to take a moment of quiet contemplation on my balcony with my capucino Herbalife drink.
I don’t think I have seen this time of the day for years. Not really a morning person, but on the rare occassion that I do, it’s…….peaceful, quiet, still.
Just standing there seeing my neighbors starting off their day. From my vantage point, I can see as far as Bukit Dumbar and the peole there doing their morning Tai Chi and morning walks. Haven’t been to Bukit Dumbar since Baby died. It’s still too painful.
Some people from the apartment across the street are going for a tour, it seems. Their van came to pick them up not long after that.
I see a few housewives bustling about their homes with their daily chores. For the record, I’m not one of those nosy neighbors, but when you live in a highrise, you can’t help it (wide grin). Especially when their curtains are open and you can see right inside their homes.
And our pool, ugh! No wonder people rarely use it. It’s so dirty, filled with dead leaves. Guess the cleaners haven’t been around yet, else it would be nice to go for a dip.
Yeah, one of those rare lazy Saturday mornings! OK enough, of that. Think I’ll go back to sleep now 
Boss held a workshop at Park Royal last year, so as a sign of apperciation for the business, they sent an invite to a grand dinner for me and a guest.
Ahh….the one of the perks of being a sexy-tary 
Theme for the night was Batik. The only Batik I have in my closet was this yellow cheongsam I bought years ago but never wore.
Upon trying it on, found good news and bad news. Good news is I’ve lost a lot of weight since the time I bought it (hurray!). Bad news is I’m so much thinner now that most of the dress just hangs loosely around me and you can’t see the curve of my back. Have to see a tailor to have it altered one of these days.
Met my fave event manager there, the guy who was so accommodating to help me with the arrangement for Boss’ workshop. Definitely top class service!
Dinner was buffet style and there was so much food! I’ve got the feeling my next BMI scan will show a BIG step back for my diet. I ate so much, I didn’t manage to make it to dessert. BURP!
Overall, a very fun evening. Didn’t manage to do any networking, though. Too busy eating!
After dinner, my date went to our usual hang out for Round 2. I went home because Mac’s back on TV. A perfect close to a long week.
Idol moves to the Lone Star State.
Started off pretty slow tonight, with very few characters for the Hall which got me thinking that Dallas people are pretty tame.
Little did I know they saved the best for last.
The Birdman Cometh
Seacrest couldn’t have said it better.
Renaldo, with his winged white hat (with Simon’s name emblazoned, I might add), silver cape and white pom poms on his shoulders might as well have been Big Bird’s crazy cousin.
You are my brother, best friends forever
Singing this song that you love
This is the oft repeated phrase in his original composition song that had everyone singing along
And oh yeah, he idolizes Simon where others cower in fear of him. Not our birdman. Nope, he thinks Simon is a saint.
The Witches
Saw 2 girls dressed up as witches. One was a mime dressed up as a witch and the other actually went to the trouble of painting herself, and I mean ALL of her, green!
Crossdressers
Also spotted 2.
One had the hottest pair of legs for a she-male. In fact, the whole package was a knockout!
The other one kinda reminds me of John Travolta in shampoo. He had on this really auntie dress with tights underneath.
Memorable quote: "You guys should try this. Pants are so restrictive. I’m actually feeling a breeze where I’ve never felt them before."
The Guy Who Wouldn’t Leave
This guy saves his voice, I mean literally. When asked to shout and cheer for the cameras, he kept quiet. Says he heard Christina Aguilera saying that if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could do some serious damage to your voice and he doesn’t want that.
So come his audition time, he goes into the room and asked to be allowed to warm up then proceeds to this very strange ritual that sounds like monks chanting in Tibet. Well, if only the sound he produced was that soothing.
Needless to say, he can’t sing to save his life, but still insisted on going through his strange ritual and singing again and again and just refused to leave.
Second guy that got thrown out by security so far.
Woman of Few Words
Ask her a question and she will give a very brief answer, then……long pause. Urm, I’m just not feeling the excitement and enthusiasm here.
Of course, not all of them were bad.
Like this guy who is saving his virginity and his first kiss for his future wife. He wears a key around his neck and his father wears the heart that the key will fit in. When he gets married, his father will give the heart to his wife and it will be the symbol of their love and commitment.
Awwww…..that’s so sweet.
Well Honey, if you’re going to Hollywood, you’d be hard pressed to save your virginity and your first kiss :p
Anyway, I didn’t manage to find out whether he made it or not because I got interrupted by the phone 
Guess I just have to wait till Hollywood week.
There’s also this farm boy with the smouldering eyes and rosiest cheeks I’ve ever seen.
I noticed in this episode that Simon is actually nicer to people. Hey, has the Brit lost his edge?
Well, folks, it’s that time of the year again to search for the next American Idol. Amongst the bunch of hopeful talents, there is always a bunch of hopeful no talents who in spite of everything, still hang on to that non-existence chance of going to Hollywood.
This year’s Idol search began in Philly. Here are some of the more memorable characters spotted tonight.
The Star Wars Fan
Actually there were 2 of them.
First is this real hairy ape of a guy dressed in a Princess Lea iron bikini. Oh God! How I wished I hadn’t just eaten then.
Physically, he was more Jabba the Hut than Princess Lea. And don’t even get me started on the body hair. On Paula’s suggestion, because the cleavage of the iron bikini was framing his chest hair like a centerpiece, he actually went and got his chest and I guess some of his butt and cellulite ladden thighs waxed before coming back for a 2nd round of audition! LOL :))))))))
Needless to say he won’t be seeing that stage in Hollywood this year.
But I must compliment whoever did the wax job for him. Totally clean! I’m impressed. He better had tipped whoever it was generously because believe me, that job would have lasted a few hours, at least.
Second is the Princess Lea wannabe who came complete with the cinnamon bun hairstyle, biker chick boots and fishnet stockings. The hair is fake.
She didn’t make it either and cried her eyes out, remarking that she didn’t make it because she didn’t dress like those typical superficial girls that came out with the golden ticket.
Which brings me to the next category.
The Aneroxic Chics
Saw several of them. Girls so thin, their arms look like twigs.
Don’t they know that the aneroxic look went out of fashion together with Ally McBeal?
The Female Sasquash
OK, maybe I’m just being mean here but that was the first thought that came to my head when I saw her.
A blonde, obesed 16 year old African American girl that goes by the name Temptress who came for the audition with her even more obesed Mom.
Mom is wheelchair bound and hooked to an oxigen tank because of her weight.
Ms Motor Mouth
This girls sure talks a lot. If only she can sing just as well. She loves glitter and was very generous with it on her face with her silver eyeshadow, glitter dust on her forehead and cheeks and fuchia lipstick. Ugh! Loves the word "Victorious" and now, since she didn’t make it on AI, she’s gonna venture into acting.
God help us all!
Well, if she doesn’t make it in acting, she can always try speech writing. What she said may be over the top, but with a little polishing, she could do very well for herself writing speeches for politicians.
That is, if she can learn to take constructive criticism…
The Psycho Stalker
This guy wrote his own song dedicated to Paula. Looks intently at Paula as he sang it and wouldn’t stop advancing towards the table. They had to call security to throw him out.
His song was about (what else?!) stalking Paula and has really creepy lyrics like how he’d like to break into her house when she’s not home and wear her underwear!
Creepy weirdo. I predict in the future he’d actually be arrested for breaking into Paula’s house and trying on her underwear amidst sensational publicity from the paparazzi or is that just my imagination running wild?
No Sex Allowed!
Here’s another song writer wannabe. He’s over the qualifying age but still insisted on them letting him sing his silly little ditty about no sex allowed.
Guess there will always be people who will do anything for that 5 seconds of fame, no matter how stupid it makes them look.
I have been on the Herbalife diet for a week now. Time to meet up with Coach again for my next body scan.
Hhhmmm…no significant amount of weight loss but the BMI numbers have shown some very encouraging changes.
Biggest change - from having once a week meetings with Indah Water to daily meetings. But this seems to come about best with coffee.
I’m still no where near my ideal body weight yet, but these numbers are encouraging.
My Indian neighbors had a "Name Thy Child" ceremony last weekend.
The crib where the baby will be displayed for all to see was placed in the middle of their living room and beautifully decorated with red and pink fabric.
Said baby was born a month ago and this ceremony is to officially name her.
Hmmmm….does that mean that for the past month the baby doesn’t have any name? How do you get her birth registered, then?
"No lah," Tai Mai said. Of course the normal procedures to register the birth and getting the birth certificate would have been done when the baby was born.
This ceremony is something like a grand launching of the baby’s name with official blessings from the temple priests and all that jazz.
Seems to me like the Indian community has a lot of ceremonies to commemorate each milestone in a person’s life.
There’s even one for a young girl’s first period.
According to Tai Mai, her matchmaking first date with her soon to be fiance was also done in full ceremony at the temple with blessings from the priests.
Now that was an interesting affair, according to her. Even in this day and age, a young lady was expected to act shy and demure like it was in the olden days and both parties are to be accompanied by their parents and other kay poh chee family members.
Her upcoming engagement will also be another grand affair. She will be fully decorated in a grand saree, finger tips colored with inai and hand decorated with henna.
That practically makes her married to her man already.
With so many celebrations in their lives, it’s no wonder that the Indian community is always associated with tradition, bright vibrant colors and festivities.
