Late on a weekday

This is a first for me since I got back from the UK last December.
I only got home like almost 3 am this morning.
I spent the whole night watching all the Salseros and Salseras dancing.
And I must say you really need to have the guts and the determination to take to the floor.
For one, I saw ladies asking men to dance (wow).
For the other, I saw how the less-able dancers were learning on the dance-floor as they went along.
And many of the ladies brought their dancing shoes to change into when they arrived.
As you can see, they meant business.
It was all-in-all an eye-opener!

I also got to speak to a couple of acquaintances who have been helping out at my classes (my class has more ladies than men).
One of them has gone to Intermediate 3, and still dances like he is a beginner.
It was a total surprise to me, as I thought he was a newish learner like me!
Another is rather good.
He asked my other classmate and me why we didn't dance.
I told him I am only a beginner, and I didn't want to embarrass myself.
And then after saying that, I had to go embarrass myself by attempting to say hello to another acquaintance-cum-helper!
This guy has been a regular helper in my class.
But acted somewhat aloof.
I guess he is living up to my dance school's name (Attitude) and slogan - "You pay for the classes...the ATTITUDE comes free!" :o)
Oh well, I shall not bother with him anymore.
I've got an attitude too. Ha.

Met up with a couple of old friends too.
One at the Salsa club, and the other after I left the place.
I had an important discussion I had to make before my other friend left for Thailand later today.
In fact I think the plane has just taken off...

Salsera and Salsero?

Yesterday was my last beginner's module for Salsa.
I won't be starting on my Intermediate module 1 (there are altogether 4) till July 11.
In the meantime, I will be trying to get some practice in - like from tomorrow!
This is partly due to pressure from my instructor.
He said that we learners won't cope at Intermediate level if we don't get proper dancing practice in actual social setting!
Luckily, I have 2 other friends who are keen and have not danced Salsa before.
Together with a classmate of mine, all 4 of us will be meeting up tomorrow.
Apparently, one can pay a small fee to learn Salsa on an ad-hoc basis at the place we are going to.
Should be fun!
Will keep you posted...

BTW, I bought a case of red wine online.
The case got delivered today.
It was an assorted mix, as I think my parents are ready to experiment and try out red wine from different countries.
You see, they liked the South African bottle I got last weekend.
So now that they are more adventurous, I figured, why not.
I shall open one from Chile later...yum! :o)

Hectic is the word (2)

This weekend has been a b.l.a.s.t.!
But I will start recalling the past week first.

Salsa classes are getting tougher, and on Monday, everyone was having difficulty at following.
It is to be expected, especially for people (like me) who don't actually practice the steps or actually go to social places to dance.
Our instructor said we HAVE to.
So my gal friend and I decided we should do something about it (stay tuned...).

On Tuesday, I went out dinner with a friend whom I haven't seen in months.
She just came back from a trip to Hong Kong.
As it is her birthday today (Sunday), I thought it would be good to meet up with her to present her pressie in advance.
It was a great evening spent, as we were updating each other with our respective news.
But it was a tiring day for me too, as I had to carry out a work-related interview with a rather enterprising young local entreprenuer.
He and his business partner are only 28, and they had this business running since they were 22.
What's amazing is that they had started out as garage programmers.
And their success is in the speed with which they respond to customer requests over the years.

Wednesday saw me postponing heading down to a place where the Salseros and Salseras usually hang out.
That's because I learnt that a female cousin from Malaysia - whom I haven't seen for 5 years - would be heading this way on a business trip this coming Friday.
Being youngish and single, my cousin is the kind who likes to party.
Like me, she previously got her degree in the UK too.
And when she heard that I was going to check out that Salsa place, she was keen to join me too.
Although my cousin doesn't know Salsa, she has learnt Latin dance before.
So I had it postponed to Friday night when she was here.

Wednesday, Thursday and earlier-half of Friday saw me transcribing the interview data like crazy.
I have RSI, so I made sure I didn't tax my fingers too much with the typing.

Come Friday, I didn't get to finish the transcription till 8 pm.
Which meant I was late at getting to my cousin's (she has been staying at a local hotel).
And at meeting another friend of mine after.
I took an overnight bag with me as I was invited to bunk in with my cousin.
It was fun, as I've never actually stayed at a local 5-star hotel, other than the one time when my local college was holding a Proms night when I was 18 and I shared a room with 3 other girls.

Friday was SO FUN.
My cousin and I, and my girlfriend first checked out the Salsa place.
It was crowded, and many people on the dance floor were good!
Then we got bored and decided to go to my favourite watering hole to drink and chill.
So I had to inform my 2 other guy friends (2 more couldn't make it) about the change, with a third guy saying he couldn't make it.
He said in his text message that he was tied up.
I replied "Enjoyed being tied up". Ha.

At my favourite watering hole, one of my guy friends and the rest of us shared 2 bottles of red wine (not a lot, I know).
We also had cheese platter and a small pizza to go with our wine too.
At the time, there were only 4 of us.
Then we went to search out another friend of mine.
He was clubbing nearby.
Initially, my gal friends and I were joking, saying that one of us ladies should get into the club to look for him, and pretend it was his wife or girlfriend - just for a laugh.
It would be great fun, as he is someone who can take a joke.

Anyway, we decided to go clubbing when we met up with my other friend.
It was wild - we went to an R&B club.
It was called Gotham Penthouse, I think.
Thinking I was out-of-touch with the latest R&B music, I discovered that I was very familiar with many of the songs played!
The DJ was good too, as the continuity of the songs was smooth.

I also had a great time teasing the 2 cute-looking squids in the fish tank!
No, I WASN'T drunk.
In fact, I was the most sober one out of the lot.
And that was despite having had probably a 1.5 glasses of red wine, 2 Tequilla shots, a Whiskey sour, and a Gin and tonic for the whole evening.
Everyone else was like feeling sleepy or happy.
Isn't that sad???

Then again, it means that I had been able to moderate my alcohol intake.
I had the nibbles from the cheese platter and drank plenty of water in-between drinks.
Which probably explains why I didn't get the usual alcohol-induced allergy of rashes the morning after. :o)

Didn't get much sleep at the hotel.
My cousin and I only arrived back at the hotel shortly after 6 am.
Broke my all-time record of getting in after 5 am...over a year ago, I think.
Ha.

Not that I have the habit of staying out till this late, mind you.
In fact, I hardly had that opportunity - in my earlier years of adulthood, my parents would be ringing me repeatedly on the phone as soon as it went slightly beyond 12 am.
Or they would make me feel gulity that they had stayed up all night to wait for me, despite me telling them NOT to.
Being the filial one, I ended up giving in to them.
But I lost out on a lot of opportunity to hang out till late with my friends at the time.
But I shan't complain.
Because I know they meant well.

Moving on...I didn't get home on Saturday till late afternoon.
That was after having treated my cousin to a Japanese lunch.

And later today, I am going out for another sashimi dinner (ha)!?
I am particularly looking forward to the black sesame ice-cream dessert afterwards.
Yum!

Next week is another fun-filled week.
At least 2 social appointments have been lined up...

Hectic is the word (1)

Past 2 weeks have been hectic.
So brace yourselves for a blast of news! :o)

Two weeks ago...

That Sunday is now too long a time to recall.
So I shall skip that.

Monday was great(!), as my Salsa class had us finishing the lesson off by filling up the studio's dance-floor like a proper party!
Not to mention we were asked to execute our individual special moves known as "shines".

Acutally, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were hectic days.
I had to prepare for a a work-based conference call for Tuesday.
Then it got postponed to Wednesday.

When the call finally happened, things were not as bad as it sounded prior to the call.
I guess our minds could get over-imaginative sometimes, and assumes the worst in a situation.

Prior to this conference call, one of my local business associates was sounding frustrated with another business associate of ours based overseas.
All it took - I found - was a bit of "coaxing" and politeness to have our request seen to during this call.

My local business associate (it was 3-way call) came across as rather impatient man.
Not to mention that he is not very particular about keeping a record of things.
My various work experiences have taught me to document all work-related things, events, meetings, communication - and I thought this is a standard practice for everyone when at work.
But obviously not for him.
I've been chasing for minutes of meetings on-and-off from this business associate of mine, and it became apparent he was unused to such a work procedure.
So this time around, I made sure he wrote the minutes for this call (since it is his project).
I made the suggestion that I would review his drafted minutes and to add on to what he might have missed (I am the consultant).
I figured that would do the trick of ensuring that this call was documented. :o)
Well, it did.

On Thursday, I resumed the drafting of some new case studies that I am developing - all exciting stuff (but it's trade secret, so can't reveal anything here - sorry folks!).

Friday was the same work-wise, except that I also agreed to head out for a yummy sashimi dinner at a posh district with a friend even busier than me.
This Japnaese-owned restuarant is one that neither of us have ever been before.
And initially, we had a hard time locating it.
But it was worth the search, as the food was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.!!!!
The raw fish was so fresh that the meat was tender and juicy still.
My friend and I adjourned to my ulitmate favourite watering hole.
It is not so noisy like a pub - at least people can hear each other during conversations.
I also bought a bottle of red wine for my dad on Father's Day - i.e. TODAY.

I was exhausted by the time the weekend arrived.
So I decided to rest over the 2 days.

Bummer

I've been having stomach upsets the whole of today, and it was a blessing in disguise when 2 of my friends decided that they won't be joining my girlfriend and me for a Salsa promotional event earlier this evening.
It was due to the fact that they both weren't able to make the start of the promo concert, which was the main reason why we were going in the first place.

A couple of hours after that notification, the sky went dark, and I could hear thunder sounding in a distance come dinnertime.
So I rang my girlfriend, and asked her if she still fancied venturing out to attend the promotional event (I kinda hinted that I wasn't).
I didn't tell her about my stomach upset problem, but I was relieved that she also said she was feeling a little tired.
So we decided not to go.

I ended up viewing an interesting blogsite that 'promoted' an SPG.
SPG stands for 'Sarong Party Girl'.
In the Singaporean context, it refers to local ladies who have a preference for foreign men as opposed to the local men.
This lady is only 19.
She writes well, is obviously intelligent, but I feel that the explicit descriptions about herself and her constant, promiscuous activities with various men whom she knows (she maintains she's not into one-night-stands) may be a bit too revealing.
Especially when this little island is still considerably conservative to a certain extent.
Anyway, the reason why her blogsite was mentioned in today's papers was because this young lady has posted nude pictures of herself on her blogsite.
These pictures were professionally and tastefully done, no doubt.
But still, out of the number of blogs I've read at random, they have one thing in common mentioned repeatedly - all the men she has slept with kept saying how beautiful she is, how great her body is, etc. etc.

And for your information, she says she is 1.5m tall.
So that means one should assume that from the many men who has hit on her (or so she says) and the ones she has slept with, she must have a very proportionate body.
Well, I took a close look at one of her photos (a more decently covered one, but still scantily clad).
She has short, muscular legs (big thighs too, I've noticed) that she said she has, from all the running she does daily.

My conclusion?
There are far more attractive local women than what she has made herself out to be.
And women who are confident about themselves and their own looks would not keep repeating how beautiful they have been told they are, by others!
That's because they KNOW they are beautiful.
So no need to TELL people that fact - they can see and judge for themselves.
In what little psychology that I know, people who tend to repeatedly recount compliments they have received from others do it as a form of reassurance.
And that stems for being insecure about themselves.

BUT, the saddest thing (I feel) relates to this young lady's parents.
They appear to have brought her up well - or thought they have.
What would their reaction be if other people recognise their daughter's face after today's news-posting about her?
And since she's now waiting to enter university, how would she feel given 3, 4 years down the road when she is more grown-up and mature?
I shudder to think.
I simply wish her luck.

W.T.F.

That stands for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent working my socks off, checking out hundreds of websites to narrow my findings down to a number of useful ones that are relevant to my latest task.

And that's not to mention that the second-half of Thursday was spent incorporating new information into a report that I've been working on.

Friday (today) was spent mostly outdoors, with one meeting after another with my boss and/or a business associate.

It was his second-last day in Singapore for my boss, and it was another packed day of meetings for him too.
Knowing how much his likes pickled ginger - the kind that we normally get in the Japanese restaurants, I decided to hunt around for some.
That was whilst waiting for him to finish off a meeting in town.
I was fortunate enough to get him 4 little tubs of those things from a restaurant.
By the time my boss finished his meeting, it was lunch-time.
I ended up lunching with him, and after presenting him with the bagful of ginger, he opened 3 tubs - one after another - and devoured them with his plate of rice and a few selection of dishes!
I've never seen anyone who had that much ginger at one go before.
So I dread to think what all that consumption could've done to his stomach!
Ha.

Sashimi

My boss is in town.
I met up with him on the other side of our little island called Redhill.
He was in that area for a business meeting, and he suggested to meet there.
We had a good 2-hour chat.
All mainly business talk, mind you.
While I excused myself to visit the ladies room at the end of the chat, my boss asked around if there is a restaurant in that building.
We ended up going to a Japanese one to have both our mutual favourite - sashimi.
It was a good dinner - the set course meal had SUCH a variety!

I came back for a short while, only to get a phone call for an impromptu dinner invite.
A friend had just finished working out at the gym, and was starving.
There was the offer to pick me up to go for dinner, but I declined.
I had a long day, and didn't fancy heading out again.

Then another phone call came.
This time, a friend is in my neighbourhood, and asked if I wanted to meet up for coffee.
I turned that down too.

It's usually not surprisingly for me to get asked out in the evenings during the week.
But rarely have there been offers one after another in the same evening like this.
So life is indeed unpredictable.
And interesting.

I have also yet to get back to a number of other friends whom I've said I will be meeting up to have a meal with too!

But I think I've caught another flu again.
And I've only just recovered from the last one.
Ah well...

Salsamania

Just got back from my evening class of Salsa.
I had grabbed a bite to eat after my class as usual, as I tend to find myself starving after an hour's dancing lesson.

It was yet another good class this week.
I guess learning more dance steps and adding complete routines into the last couple of lessons was fun.
I even got complimented on the fact that I did my turns well...

I had managed to partner an advanced learner briefly this evening.
He was the one who said he liked my turns.
I must say he is a good dancer - learner or not.
He led well, and it gave me the confidence to relax and go with the flow.
That is - according to our instructor - an important principle to Salsa-dancing.
The guy must lead (not the lady) and if the lady doesn't look good on the dance floor, it's the guy's fault.
I like that.
Haha.

The last week and this week seems to be Salsamania week.
Not only have I seen an increase in the number of new learners at my dance school registering and paying up for their new beginner's course (which is straight after my lesson), I've also heard there are lots of Salsa events going on currently.
It has been given so much publicity that I'm sure lots of pubs and clubs will be organising Salsa nights soon to rig up their business!
But there are already a number of places that does that.
Except that I haven't had the time nor the energy to check them out.
I will though, soon.

Check this out!

I like analogies.
They give an insight to things that help make sense (or not, for that matter).
I just read one blog that I chanced upon.
It was about the extent of the value of one's job measured against what you can be replaced with.
Or - as coined by the blogger who has termed it - "replacement valuation".
Such an observation was made after the blogger saw a man handing out fliers on a street with no need for any word spoken, as the advertising banner was worn over his body.

Here is the excerpt:

"If a rock or a sign can replace you (i.e., street marketers/ demonstrators, etc.), then your company will treat you like a rock.

If a computer or technology can replace you (i.e., piece workers, laborers, etc.), then your company will think of you as a cheaper machine. You are a button pusher.

If a textbook can replace you (i.e., customer support, teachers, etc.), then your company will see you as a cheaper alternative to printed manuscripts. You are a live audio-book.

If your job requires lying and swearing (i.e., lawyers, politicians, executive officers, etc.), you are priceless. And how much you earn is determined by how much your position is valued, which explains why the questionable of society are so high compensated.(It’s hard to put a price on public service workers, so we leave it up to the “liars” to decide their worth because that's what makes sense to us.)

What can never be replaced is genius (crafters of originality: i.e., inventors, composers, authors, artists, scientists, etc.)... but most geniuses aren’t recognized until they’re dead. They are replaced by copy-cats."

Interesting...

For more of such insights, do visit: http://workdogs.blogspot.com/

Time flies

Wow.
I've just realised that I haven't blogged a week since Friday!
Time has flown by for me this week.
And I truly don't know where it all went.

Good time now to recall.
Saturday and Sunday were spent tipping my room upside down.
It was because I was (still am) nursing my flu, and didn't fancy going out.
So I postponed all my social engagements till when I'm better.

But the restless me simply couldn't stay at home all day without doing anything.
Hence the clearance of things in my room.
I've not done such a clear-out in many years.
I even found clothes that I had worn since my first university days!
Didn't know I was a SUCH a hoarder.
I am so ashamed...
To defend myself, I shall say that I'm a sentimental person.
Ha.

Anyway, during the 'tipping' process, I decided that I needed more storage space.
So only 5 minutes away in my neighbourhood, I went and bought myself a chest of drawers.
That was Saturday evening.

The chest of drawers was to be delivered for Wednesday.
So I had to make sure there was a space for it in my room.

Monday was a work-day, and my Salsa class day, so I couldn't do any more clear-out.

On Tuesday evening after work, I managed to do that a little, and halfway through, my dad came into my room and said my room looked like a rag-and-bone man's living quarters!
Sheesh...

Wednesday came, along with my chest of drawers, and up till today, I've only had it cleaned.
I am taking my time trying to decide what goes into the drawers.
I've also decided to give away a lot of old clothes that either don't fit anymore, or they are stained with yellow from not having worn them in years.
I hadn't realised I was that big size-wise in the years before my last study-stint in the UK.
And it is indeed true that once I took up regular exercise, my body shape changed.

I have found myself leaner than when I was younger, walking straighter, but also that the places where they are supposed to protrude have become more flattering.
While all that may sound great, such a change has also brought me some problems.
Clothes that are meant to fit me can't anymore.
I'm no longer a 'standard' size, whatever that means.
Dresses that I try on may show off my smaller waist perfectly, but the fit on the upper-half of the body feels tight.
That's the problem with the clothes sold on home soil.
I guess I'm now of a European sizing.
I could happily fit into a size 6 or 8 shopping in Next in the UK and be the envy of many over there, but in Singapore, I'm a 'medium' at best.
How demoralising is that?!

Moving swiftly on...

Thursday and Friday were slogging days.
In fact the whole week saw me holding voice-chats with my boss!
There were lots of things to do.
And temporarily, I am now down to my last piece of work due on Monday.

My boss will be here from Sunday afternoon.
And he's staying for a week.
I am hoping there will be less work and more meetings.
Which means I can catch my breath having to cope with my flu and working my socks off in the last couple of weeks.
We shall see.

Today I chose to stay at home to clear that piece of work for Monday.
Am intending to make tomorrow a 'free-and-easy' day.
Wish me luck!