innocent brutal honesty

I love people who tells me the truth.

I love honesty.

I definitely love people who are transparent.


Now that I have made that clear. Anyways, the world will be a beautiful and awesome place with everyone being honest and kind and wanting no more than just joy and bliss for everyone around them. What a happy place to be.

*no, I'm not on some Happy Pills.


But there is a little something called Brutal Honesty.

These are people we should learn to love because they tell it like it is. I am still learning to open my heart wide enough to accept these sharp, killing words with a smile and warm embrace. I truly am still learning the art.

Today, I received Brutal Honesty in its purest form.

It just so happened that I was feeling fine and dandy and on top of the world after having an awesome lunch with awesome drinks and awesome clients to meet.

I was feeling so awesome I was smiling to myself. Like, what a beautiful day, right?

Then I met 2 colleagues who caringly told me:

"Oh Yvonne, Yvonne, you have become fat, I can see." (direct translation)


I held my heart (well, left side of my chest) and feigned a fainting face. Like, seriously!

And I thought by doing that, they will pull back their words with a smile and laugh it off and start talking about donating to charity. But NO! it is not meant to be...! Instead they earnestly looked at me with the expression that says something to the effect of "why are you treating this as a joke? we're serious, darling."


My life just came to a halt for 1/10 of a second when I realise that they were not in anyway trying to spoil my day. It is just plain old innocent brutal honesty which slipped past the Mincing Department. It came Whole. Cold and hard handed over with warm hands.


Of course I did not feel like a major super star after that. I just felt like I needed a jog.


See why we need more of these? I felt like a jog after what seemed like years of deprive. I need more brutal honesty in my life.

H1N1 days...

Now, everywhere I go there are people taking my temperature to make sure I don't have a fever.

Temperature taken when clocking in for work, when I walk past the KL Convention Centre (and gets an orange sticker if I pass) and also at entrances to offices and factories that I visit.

Occasionally there is also a bottle of alcohol hand sanitiser to encourage you to sanitise your hands. Some smell good (brands like Dettol and Eskulin), some smell like it didn't try hard enough to mask its chemical properties. Some are placed in beautiful glass pump bottles (ala Ikea), some in industrial size plastic bottles (ugly), some in electronic sensor dispensers (cool).

Some even provide face masks to those who opt for a safer journey ahead.

All very good measures to protect ourselves from the deadly virus. But embarassing when the thermometers are prone to hiccups! Or when your temperature fluctuates...

"Why you always got temperature one??" asks my colleagues.

I don't!! It's just the thermometers.

Some use those ear scans, some use those laser scans on foreheads, some use those temperature piece placed on the foreheads for a few seconds (slow).


Recently I got a forehead scan and failed!

"Wah, 41 darjah selsius! Miss, you tak boleh masuk ofis kita la!"

Cannot be!!!! try again!!

"Sekarang 38.5. Pun tak boleh la..."

So, how did my temperature change from 41 to 38.5 in 3 seconds? I totally do not trust your little machine and plus the fact that I drove so far away in the heat to come here! GRRR! (temperature rising).


And another encounter at work (building up a line)

"OMG, Yvonne, 39.5! You can MC today la! hahaha!" *some colleagues gasped, stepping a little further away from me*

Cannot!!! I have appointments already~~~ Try again!

*digs around for ear scan instead*
"Oh, 36, OK pass... Happy working!


Why ah?...

back to basics

You know how all babies look cute? (when they are not screaming) They look even cuter when they are happy! And many times I have seen babies playing around and then laughing to themselves. So happy and carefree.

Most of the time, you see them lie on their back and lift their legs up and clutch their own feet. Cute right? Like this image:


So a few days ago during yoga, as my class was looking forward to the Child's Pose (all time favourite), our instructor told us to do the the Happy Baby instead. Yes! This little taken for granted thing that babies excel at is actually an official pose.

But of course, when done by adult female, can be kind of awkward to the sight. Imagine a group of women 'kangkang' habis and laughing away. Oh well, Happy Baby pose, everyone! This sort of caught us by surprise but soon everyone was laughing and having a good time stretching our inner thighs and what nots. The pose is essentially to stretch the back too and normally we roll side to side to "massage" the back.


Now, if you are having a bad day and need a comfort zone, just do the Happy Baby and roll around on your back. Better than to indulge in a pint of super creamy and delicious and addictive and heart-melting Coffee Truffle ice cream from Haagen Dazs. Good tip, eh!

"yay! child pose!"

Today was my 6th yoga class and as I get more familiar to the various names of the poses, my yoga class seemed to get funnier.


Last time, when we don't hold our poses long enough, our yoga instructor will threaten us by saying "whoever drop out of balance first must do 10 chaturanga!" and nobody really reacted because.. er.. what's a chaturanga?

This is a chaturanga:



And now that we know what's a chaturanga, when she says "give me 5 chaturanga.." you can already hear us going "oh my gawwwd!!!"

Followed by the "urgh! urg! urpppp!"

My yoga instructor is super patient as she smiles and say, "OK good, now hold, hold, hold"

That's the favourite line: "Good, now hold, hold, hold"

And because she is so patient and nice, naturally you'll want to follow what she says and you go hold, hold..... not quite.. "aik!" *crash* *gets up quickly*... hold. Cheat at yoga!


Anyways, as the class gets smaller, the instructor has more opportunity to scrutinize your every pose/stretch/posture.



Just when you seem to be in a comfort zone with your Downward Dog, she comes to you and ask you to bend lower and have your legs go straighter. And another favourite phrase of hers: "OK, I'm coming to lend you a hand"

She says this ask she pushes you to your stretchability limits. Never did I know I can do that!

And during the one hour class, around the 45th minute, after we have stretched more than we can and held more than we could ever imagine, she will announce, "OK, now, get into a child's pose to relax yourself a little"

To which we will go: "Yay!!!"

"My favourite!"
"My comfort zone!"

amongst others exclamation of happiness. Well, there's not a lot of poses where we ALL excel in other than the Child's Pose.

You see, this is a Child's Pose:
Good right.


Anyways, I told my instructor that my aim/goal is to do the yoga handstand. And she duly did this:

"Is it this one?"

"Whoaaaa!!" went the class.

She said that some people can achieve this just after around 3-6 months of practicing yoga. Hontouni?!!

Cool. If I ever get to do this, I'll make sure I take a photo and post it here and even in Facebook.

Insufficient snooze

Yvonne's Health Journal Entry #3 (3rd so far I think, hehe):


My body is changing everyday and it is changing at an alarming rate! People say that once you hit 23 years old, you should start to take care of your body as you would advice your parents to. No more "aiya, I'm still young. Bak Kut Teh everyday, no problem! Later go gym la.." Oh no.


How true it is. I just recently reacted badly to milk (which I used to drink every night before I sleep!) and just yesterday, I reacted badly to coffee.

I used to have headache and little flutters in my heart after coffee and I get so hyper I start talking and talking and talking. People sometimes ask me to drink coffee for that. (!!). About an hour later, I'll be back to normal and I'll even get a good night's sleep after I worked out all that coffee. That's why I sometimes drink that before a night out. Hehe.

But yesterday was crazy! Headache and heart palpitations and difficulty in breathing. I even popped my head out my window to gasp for deep breaths in case it is my room that is stuffy. I really, honestly think I was dying!

(and coincidentally, I just unthinkingly told my colleague last week that I think I will die young).


SO, in summary, no more coffee for me for now. No alcohol either because that one will really kill me. And no milk. And no dust. I also make sure I eat at a fixed time everyday and thank God I have a cafeteria in the hotel. This is to prevent gastric. Aiyo.


These are times when you wish you are still staying with your parents. Dad will remind you and mom will cook nourishing, tasty food. *touching tears well up in eyes*

And guess what? I just tested my own limits when I just had a very hectic week at work this week. Maximum physical and mental activity with minimum sleep. Symptoms:

-hand shaking
-heartbeat very weird
-shortness of breath
-puffy eyes (no!)
-dry skin (sigh)
-unshiny hair (ayo!)

I think I should try to sleep 8 hours a day for 2 weeks and see what is the outcome. Will update after! In the meantime, I think I should start to cherish my life.

Milky way

I love to drink milk. I drink a big glass of milk every night before I sleep. Those who know me better will even know that I sometimes do some mixology with my milk. 1/3 chocolate, 2/3 full cream. :D Yes, I'm that into my bedtime milk.


And then some unscrupulous, greedy, money minded beings decided to taint their milk products so they can dilute it and generate more profit, killing babies and making thousands of them ill with kidney stones. They didn't even have a chance to say "I got kidney stones because I didn't drink enough water". Aiyo!


Then the brand that I drink, Dutch Lady, decided to announce that they are clean. OK. Cool. No probs.


And then latest today, a new list of tainted products were published and everyone paid attention to the 8pm news. Those products include Dutch Lady's products! :(


M&Ms are not safe either. :( :(


Now I need to check for kidney stones. :( :( :(

sporty update!

I've just decided that maybe rhyming is not really my forte. I suddenly had a vision of Phoebe in Friends strumming her guitar and singing her hearts out while her friends smile/squirm in support.

But then again, if she's having a great time, what's the harm right?


Ooh! I'm so proud of myself! I played badminton again yesterday! Roar. My thighs hurt so much because of the whole LinDan-ChongWei inspired game (Run for it! Reach for it!). My colleague Edwin even got butt cramps. But I like this kind of muscle pain. It makes you feel fresh and you get to sleep really really well after. The pain that I don't like is the waking up early on a Saturday morning to go to work until 5.30pm kind. This is true.

The perennial rain did not dampen any of our spirits. Some traveled all the way from KL and have to go all the way back. Some ran in the rain from the LRT station. My colleague Wolter was the most hyped up one. He bought a new and expensive racquet and a big-ass racquet bag and even wore a sleeveless yellow jersey with red shorts ("LinDan is my neighbour"). o_o

After the game, we all went for dinner and had a long gossipy chat and everyone kept on saying "oh the night is still young" and continued the gossips. I thought, you know, wow... working out is so much fun now! You get value added stuff like the latest news about who and who and the what, when, where. I was like, we should do this more often! I'm telling you, people in the Finance departments have the most stories. Haha. I would prefer to view this as networking. Sharing is caring. Being in the know of things. So enjoy la. It was very much later that I realized that I was the only one who was working the next day. The pain...

wong ah WAH

I've been pretty busy still but I felt a responsibilty to blog about this good food discovery.

Preface:

I've been taking my health seriously! I actually have been jogging and playing badminton! And hopefully will continue to do so regularly. Cool stuff. No pictures at the moment because I guess working out seems to be like such a cherished activity that even I didn't think of taking photos. My work out buddies a.k.a. colleagues and I have to work our jogging time around work time.


Let me paint you a picture with random snippets (no names shall be mentioned!):

"5.28pm. I'll be back in a while! Don't go without me!" *and then come back at 6.00pm

"It is 5.25pm, OMG OMG OMG, we promised 5.30pm. No, 2 more minutes, let me send this last 2 e-mails. 5.29pm. Argh!! gimme 5 more minutes!! 5.35pm. Argh!! one more e-mail! Let me save my documents! Argh!! 6.00pm."

"Better not dampen our spirits! Let's go!!"

"Argh! Where's my other sock!! You! Go photocopy this! Argh! My hairband!! "


So, that's, like, our warm up session lor.


It is good to give our heart some pre-amp pumping before the real heart pumping.


So last Monday, after a really good sweat-fest, we played host to one of our colleagues from Manila. We brought him to this restaurant/stall on Jalan Alor. Blink an eye and you will miss it but it is unmistakably in front of Royale Bintang. That's the best I can describe it. :)


All the precious minutes spent on the running tracks were duly cancelled by each juicy, savoury chicken wing which was a favourite with everyone. Superb.

Well, clearly the chicken wings were their Star Product

The noodles dishes were very good. Both Hokkien mee and roasted pork mee were very yummee. No stinging on ingredients here.

The lala was yummy too. Vege was cooked just right and fresh. Satay was pretty juicy. And if you notice, at time of snapping, some chicken wings were already MIA. The grilled stringray (not in pic) was done to perfection too and OH, did I love their sambal. *happy contented high pitched sigh*



Btw, I'm currently going for Adobe Flash training. Wheee! Now, I'll have to find out how to publish my little homeworks here. :D

In The Name Of Wisdom

It is Sunday night and am waiting for the weekly series Ghost on 8TV. I must say I am actually liking this show! A pretty good story but most probably used in numerous Singaporean dramas (both Chinese and English) a decade ago. Filming style is pretty refreshing too. I don't know all the jargons here but somehow it is new. A good step forward! They didn't forget to make it really Malaysian. Manglish, the -lahs, datins etc, all included. Only thing is, they can't decide when Zack Imran(Nazrudin Rahman), the titular role, can or cannot touch things. Sometimes he can go through doors and can't seem to pick up a glass of water but sometimes he could. Anyways, it's on!

*note - loved the opening soundtrack too!


Advert time. Alamak. My wisdom teeth are coming out. Two are already poking their noses out and another two are making their presence felt. So itchy-butted me went to see the dentist. I have this very naive thought of removing all four because they are sometimes painful and I just feel like getting them over and done with.

I'm lucky I had a conversation with my housemate first or the dentist will be having an absolutely fun day laughing at me. "Good morning dentist! Oh, today I want to remove all my wisdom teeth!"

It seems that a wisdom tooth needs surgery to be removed and one would need X-ray first too. Wow. And then I thought, why not remove the one next to the wisdom tooth? To this, my housemate said, "Maybe".

So I went to the dentist hoping to get some sort of solution to this irritation. I waited 20 minutes for my turn (thank God my dad made an appointment for me) but I was only granted 2 minutes on the precious dental chair.

"Ah, let me see. Oh, so this one and this one coming out. Not a problem, not a problem. If you wanna remove, need surgery. But if it is not too painful, let it grow out."

Oh. Just like that? And then he asked me if I have allergies and prescribed some antibiotics and pain killers.

"Oh, just like that? Can you clean out my teeth? Maybe do some scaling?"

"No lah. Let me see. Not necessary lah."


I stepped out of the clinic feeling like I have just wasted my 22 minutes. And on top of that, I have to take antibiotics.


My dad dutifully asked, "So how was it?"

"The dentist tak layan me at all!"


Then he made some excuses for the dentist (his old friend) and told me at least we can have fried battered calamari later.

my first blood donation

Hari ini dalam sejarah(peribadi) : On the 15th of November 2007, Yvonne donated her blood for the first time.

The day before the blood drive, I thought of all the excuses possible for me to not be able to donate blood. According to the guideline, one cannot donate blood if:

-one weighs less than 45 kg
-one has had less than 5 hours sleep the night before
-one is homosexual
-one has multiple sexual partners
-one has HIV+/ AIDS

OK. I think I can only admit to #1 and #2. Anyways, seeing the determination and willingness in my boss and colleague, Bin, I decided to just go for it. So I slept early the night before.

*Silently hoping that I would turn out to be 45kg or less tomorrow . -_-.

-Bin reading the fine prints-

Anyways, so Bin and I went first. It is also the first time for him and he seems to be more nervous than me. Me? I was still hoping that I would be 45kg or less. Anyways, he came up with excuses like, "I feel a bit weak. How come ah? I think I feel a headache". "Please lah!"

-My blood was tested-

Whatever. When the time came, we both filled in the forms and went for the tests first. It turned out that my blood type was B! Cool. So now I know. I was so excited watching them test my blood. The nurse politely smiled and explained but I think she thinks I have been living in the jungle for the past 22 years of my life.

Anyways, first test was the weight. I was 46kg! Shit.

Second test was the amount of iron in my blood. They will take a drop of blood and drop it into some solution and if that drop of blood sinks, it means that I have enough iron to donate. I passed this too! Shit.

Next, it was to proceed to the doctor to test my blood pressure. The doctor said, "Wow. So you actually passed the first stage. Let's see if your blood pressure pass too."

I asked her, "What normally happens when people like me donate?"

It seems people like me normally experience dizziness, feel weak or just plain faint. And probably cry during the donation because of fear. -_-.

-Trying to keep cool when the doctor said that my blood pressure passed too-

Huh! This was my last hope as an excuse to escape this scary experience. OK. I think I should just shut up and go ahead. I asked the doctor, "Are you sure?" before deciding that I should really just shut up and go ahead.

For the record, I wasn't forced into this. I wanted to do it for the experience but of course the little voice in my head went "siao ah?!"

Anyways, so there I was. Very excited. Bin was also excited but scared. So there goes. They made sure my name was correct and asked me to hold some cheap plastic cut off pipe. I thought I was going to get a red squishy rubber ball! OK. Maybe low on budget. Anyways, my veins were very easy to find so it proceeded without incident. You could locate my veins without even slapping my arm like how they slapped Bin's arm.

I was laughing all the way and instructing Jon, my trainee who was afraid of blood, to take photos for me to blog with.

"Jon, I want side view, ya! Can see the packet of blood not?"

Anyways, halfway through, Bin's blood stopped moving and so the nurses poked him again. It was very unfortunate for him because he ended up with some blue-blacks. Anyways, I kept on laughing at him and at the whole experince and that probably made my blood flow out faster and also fortunately made me forget that this was scary. The doctor even came over to look see. "Wah, you're still OK! Haven't fainted?"

Finally after about less than 15 minutes, 350ml of blood was out of my system.

"Whoa."

I thought 350ml would be like a can of coke. This was like crazy big packet. Like blood from my whole arm was inside. Surprisingly I did not feel weak or dizzy or faint or cry.

I was making so much noise calling Jon to come over and take photo of me with my packet of blood. The nurse kept if aside and when Jon came, he passed the blood to him. Jon was like, "wtf!" (No he didn't say it but I think he thought like that)

Then they said they have prepared some food for me. A cup of hot Milo, a packet of chocolate biscuits, a Red Bean bun and a packet of Yeo's soya milk. I thought I had to finish everything so I did. I forced everything down even though I didn't like Red Bean buns. I had Nasi Lemak for breakfast wei. I later found out that I could actually choose which one I wanted to eat. Oh.

Anyways, they also gave me a little red book to keep track of everytime I donate blood. I thought "Wah. They have so much confidence in me?" because the book has space up till # 112. Haha. Erm, I don't think I can fill it up in this lifetime.

The more you donate, the more benefits you will get when you visit the hospitals. You get upgraded to better wards and you get free outpatient treatments. Some could get free Hepatitis B jabs and so on. Wow.

Donate today and think about the lives you will save! It is not painful and it doesn't leave any scars. Cool stuff.

I told my dad excitedly through SMS that I donated my blood.

He replied, "I have been donating for years."

Show off!

cramps crap

It is when I am busy with important things that I tend to focus on unimportant things. Notice the totally random and emotionally imbalanced post of "song I don't get sick of". Anyways, this time, it seems unimportant but it turns out to be actually important.

I have this believe that once you turn 21, you are classified under "adult" and thus all health problems related to "adults" will start to apply to you. A colleague recently revealed a shocking health problem and said that his doctor said that there is no such thing as illness for the elderly anymore. Everyone of any age can get sicknesses which we used to think happens only to the veterans. Which confirms my believe. Better watch those hips, people.

I recently experienced leg cramps at night. One day it is the left leg. The next day it is the right. Then, back to the left. These are really painful cramps in the calves and I had to wake up and massage my calves and keep them warm and all that. What really bothers me is not the excruciating pain. It is the waking up. What if I was dreaming of Takeshi? You'll never know.

Anyways, I did some googling and chose www.patient.co.uk and found two causes which could apply to me.

1) Over-exertion of muscles
2) Dehydration

Have I over-exerted myself? Erm. I know I have been walking a lot lately but it has been this way for the past few weeks. Why only now? Have I been so pampered by the buggy rides that when I attempted to walk that 400m last week, my legs decided to throw a tantrum?

About dehydration... yeah, I don't drink 8 glasses of water a day. Who does?

It seems many things can cause this problem. Some of the rather extreme causes which probably does not apply to me are:

- Lead poisoning
- Under-active thyroid gland
- A list of medication I cannot pronounce
- Excess alcohol (would have died of allergy by then)
- Rare disorder of nerves
- Pregnancy (in the later stage somemore)
- Cirrhosis of the liver (terrible, this one)
- Sarcoidosis (tsk tsk)


Anyways, I remembered that my dad once told me that cramps can be caused by insufficient salt (sodium) or bananas (potassium). It is also stated so on the webby. So I added an extra pinch of salt into my daily breakfast omelette but have decided that maybe I shouldn't risk my kidneys this way. As for bananas, I couldn't find any small ones (pisang emas) and big ones are not sweet and just too much to finish. I don't particularly favour bananas anyways.


So I'm left with 2 choices which are to keep hydrated and to do some stretching to prevent these cramps. A recommended exercise from the website is as follows:

-erm.....-

Three times a day! 7 am, 3pm, 11pm. This totally clash with my daily schedule. Like, I sleep at 9pm these days, dude. And 3pm means during office hour. It IS a rather awkward position, I must say. Erm... better not. I'll do double shot once I get home. :)



*note to Gary - Any medical advice?

How to cook rice

-Just some old pics of food-

We, humans, love food! When we don't have to cook it, that is. It is a common fantasy to have a personal cook. For the first 18 years of our lives, our mommies did a good job filling in that position. Now, 4 years on, we are expected to take over. "Like, why?!" I hear some whine. A Malaysian answer: What to do. Big girl already. Must know how to do house chores and cook!

Some might even add: "Hey, at this age last time, you already have 6 kids!"

How typical but we hear less of this nowadays. Standard of living is on the rise(6 kids?!How about college?!). Also, parents are trying hard to keep their kids from unwanted pregnancy and stuff.


OK, back to the point. Last week, Shobeedee raised the point that her mom was worried about her cuisinability. So this post is dedicated to Shobie and all you college students. Here's how to cook rice for one person(or two to appease Sathya) quickly, without wastage (such as rice sticking to the rice pot) and with minimal mess (such as washing the damn rice out of the rice pot). And the results are almost always guaranteed because of the cooking method. Here goes:


















First, measure the amount of rice in the little cup usually provided with your rice cooker. If you don't have this, I think you can use your yogurt cup. Anyways, for one person, it should be 1/2 cup. For 2, then 1 whole cup. For Yvonne, it usually is 1/3 cup because I believe in eating more dishes than rice. :)



















Next, pour the rice into a glass/porcelain/clayton bowl and wash with clean water.



















After draining the water which you washed the rice with, add more clean water to cook the rice with. Measure the amount of water by placing your fingers flatly on the surface of the rice. If the water level is about where the picture shows, then it should be alright. I think. This is when you need to "agak-agak". Trial and error. However, there won't be much damage because we are using the Steaming method.



















Next, place the bowl of rice and water into your faithful rice cooker which was earlier washed and filled with some water.



















Always remember to press the lever! I once waited so long just to find out that I was keeping the water warm. -_-



















Check on the rice in 15-20 minutes(Not every 5 minutes because then you will lose the heat and steam). If it has risen and looks solid, then it is done! Use a chopstick or fork to "loosen" up the rice and steam for another 3 minutes.



















Ready to serve! But you can choose to decorate it a bit. Make it look Kim Gary-ish or Japanese. For that moment when I was taking these pictures, I only had limited resources (egg and canned meat). Here are some suggestions.



















Et voila! Healthy food! (Munch on a cucumber to make it balance and make mommy proud)


Here's another serving option:

Well, as long as you get the basic rice done, it should be no problem. The accompanying dishes can be any vege, some eggs and meat to make it a balanced meal. Happy cooking and bon appetit!


ps: I miss mommy's cooking. :(

Random Poppadom

My daily life has been very boring lately. So boring it could bring tears to your eyes. My eyes, already. Nothing interesting. None!

What I didn't have:
No gossips. No food sampling(well, of course there is but nothing to-die-for). No chocolates(due to heatiness). No eye-candy lengchais. No movies. No Grey's Anatomy. No life.

What I did have:
Projects, assignments, gastric problems (during my one and only scheduled shopping trip!! aR!), fatigue, heatiness, one little ulcer, more work and boredom. And, ooh, my "cucumber fresh" shower cream finished so I had to use my "almond moisturizing" one which is quite unnecessary in this current hot and superbly humid weather.

So...time for Show-n-Tell!

-ooh-
At Mid Valley Fashion Week before my gastritis hit.

-spot my feet-
I have this tendency to develop an urge to clean things up when I'm busy with important things. Way more important things.

-How low can you go?-
Just a comparison of my highs and lows. Plain and Polka Dots. White and Black. Work and Play. PVCs and Satin. Tweed and Cotton.

-whooooosh...-
It is nice to have friends with connection with airlines. Cute new toy. Cathay Pacific has some too. Totally cute. Can make imagination go wild.

-ahpooh-
And then there was ahpooh. Keeping things light and bright. As usual.

as fit as a fiddle!

I was once again planning to lament and blabber about how I'm so busy and stressed and so on when I realized that it would defeat the theme of this blog. Therefore, I'm going to show you a very positive update in my life. I, my dear friends, have begun to take my health seriously. Yes, the neglected one since 2003 (after leaving the comfort of home and ever green nutritious food). I shall start from my fitness point of view because I know I will never eat right while still in college.

Just an introduction to my health or fitness situation:

-my fitness chart-

As you can see, there were dramatic drops at age 12, 15 and 18. I blame the 3 major exams which are UPSR, PMR and SPM. I did try to make up to my health by taking Brand's Essence of Chicken during these dreadful times but the level continued to drop and especially so when in college. It dropped from ZERO to PIG in within 2 years. I knew I had to do something before something happens to me (OMG, I'm Still ALive?).

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I have decided to exercise. Last Thursday, Jiawei and I decided to play Badminton. The game that I used to play as a small kid when my fitness level was at All Time High! (I was pretty good then:). I later attempted to play badminton again in high school when my fitness level was at Improvements Needed and I decided to quit to save myself from embarassing myself and my dad (who used to coach people).

This time, I don't really care. I need to sweat! So I brought my Carlton racquet and Jiawei's Yonex racquet (England vs. Japan?) from Kluang on my way back last week. I forgot to bring some of the dozens and dozens of shuttles kept in my storeroom so we had to buy some shuttles which were of poor quality and high price and no brand. I never knew that these things actually cost money.

-RM3.33 each!-

Dad will be very proud of his shuttles from yesteryear. So, tools, checked. We were ready.

-A photo before I sweat, of course-

-Jw complete with towel and wrist band-

How did it go? We played for about an hour. Well, maybe less. The problem lies in the fact that I didn't sweat as much as I wanted to. Even when Jiawei tries to make me run for the shuttle cock. Has my body forgotten what it was like to exercise and sweat? Hmm.. To make up for that, I even ran around the court 4 times before we left. But to no avail. Nevermind. SlooOOoooOowly does it. I have decided to make it a weekly thing. *Nod.*

And as a result of this exercise debut, as you can see from my fitness chart, I have graduated from Pig! to Terrible. Wheeeeeee! :D