Soul searching weekend

I named this my soul searching weekend with my girl pal. It's the weekend where we get away and just relax to have a peace of mind without any care in the world. 

Sometimes you need time to isolate yourself from the rest of the world and just shut yourself in. 

First of all, we went to the gym - had a class of dance and then lunch. Last minute adjustment and late check in, we ended up in Hotel Sentral since it was located nearby the mall.

I never been to this hotel before but I heard it was quite good - aside from the shady area. Drenched in the rain, hurrying up to the hotel our check in was fast.

The deluxe corner room. Nice room except for the leaking window by the bed side. The staff were quick to help us rectify the problem but there was nothing much they could do. The damp smell of the room was already there.

Determined not to let that ruin our weekend, we showered and just rolled around in bed.

The night scene through a window. Can you see the KL tower from here? I can't.

We went back to the mall for dinner and ended up upstairs at Manhattan.

Shared two plates of food - pasta and rice with fish. Both of them were delicious. I love penne, compared to other different shapes of pasta.

I'm usually not a fish person but it was yummy with the fragrant rice.

We did a little shopping before heading back - not too late as we were told it was a shady place and we're just girls.

The other thing I was not pleased was to discover the wifi slowing down towards the night. Luckily it was not a working trip where I HAD to be online else I would be pissed.

So we watched tv, rolled around and talked some more. I had this vision where we'll be chatting till the wee hours of the morning but perhaps combined with the exhaustion of the day - we knocked out before 1 am.

Talk about getting old.

The best thing about getting to bed early was we were up by 7 am - ready for the day! I had such a good sleep as it was so comfortable despite the damp smell. 

Good morning world! Look at the monorail track. 

I bet this car park is full during the weekdays. 

Look at the beautiful sky!

I had low expectation for the breakfast but it turned out to be quite a variety. This is probably one of the rare time when I get to enjoy hotel breakfast without rushing out to anywhere so we took our time to slowly indulge. 

My first course :P

Breakfast was at 5th floor with a garden floor view which is like an open space. 

After breakfast, it was time to go back to the room to laze around. 

The other side of the room. The room was spacious for us. 

It was very tempting to continue sleeping but I insisted we do our soul searching for about an hour. So we did until it was time to check out. 

The sky was very nice that morning compared to the rain that drenched us completely the evening before. I wished we have more time to spend in the room, just rolling around falling asleep - a break from our usual working days. 

Later dayz,

Simply D

Another food trip with Xiao Mei. This time we headed to Simply D for a quick meal. I have never tried Simply D before and this meal has been postponed several times because I kept getting fast food in the way involuntarily. I had to flush them out of my system and take some time off from fast food. Am I weird? Maybe. 

So anyways we got the burgers - mine is grilled chicken and Xiao Mei's one was lamb ( I think?). It came with a side of fries and a little saucer of coleslaw. 

Here's our differences when it comes to the burgers - I prefer to compress mine and open my jaws like a python to squeeze them in one bite while eating the fries as a side dish. Xiao Mei opened up her burger, separated and take a bite from different sections after she cleared her fries .

The chicken burger was alright, I wouldn't mind coming back for more but I guess this would be the only burger I will get again as I don't eat beef or lamb. Xiao Mei didn't complain about her burger so I guessed it was alright. 

We also got the milkshake. I got the nutella one while Xiao Mei got the salted caramel. She complained that it was too sweet. I was a little disappointed that the cup was kind of small and I didn't completely finish my milkshake.

I would come back for the burger but not the milkshake. 

Later dayz,

Hot Body Year Round Book!

It is finally here! Last year when Cassey announced that she was writing a book, I was determined to get it - mainly to support and thank her for the push and motivation she had given me through her videos. Even if it burn a little hole in my pocket, I'm going to get it because I knew I would not be disappointed. 

When her pre order came out on January 30th, I booked a copy for myself and waited excitedly for April. It felt like a long time back then but now we're already in April. 

I am in love with the book. I could feel Cassey poured her whole self into the book and as I read, I can hear her voice narrating. This is crazy but it's a good crazy lol.

I love seeing all my favorite torturing moves included in the book and as an old time Popster, reading these moves one by one made me smile as I recalled how it felt to be on the mat and feeling so sore and painful. It took me back to the journey when I first started and how much I could endure now compared back then and how much more I can improve now and in the future. 

Fitness is a slow progress but it all starts with a single step. I'm so glad I found Cassey who pushed me to my first step. 

Oh because I pre ordered the book, I received the tote bag 2 days before the book came. I am loving the gradient font and I don't know what will be so worthy to put in this bag. 

Hot Body Year Round is an absolute Blogilates form in a book and I would recommend getting it. I now can teach my friend some pilates moves as well - at least now I know how many reps to give out and also reminder for beginners pose. 

Later dayz,

Say hello to the gym!

A while ago, I posted about quitting the gym and the reasons I did it. Well, it bit me back in the butt because I am now back in the gym. That's why you should never say never. 

Here are the reasons why I rejoined the gym :-

1. The gym is now near to my workplace. No more excuse of distance. 

2. Yes, I still hate cardio but I learned to appreciate the result of these intense workout. I basically visit the gym now for good run and that's it. At least that's my goal - at least now I have a goal. 

3. After running, I just get back to the locker room for a break and man, those are the sweats dripping. It felt good! Plus, now I have the polar watch I felt the other thing that made me felt awesome about exercising is looking at how much calories were burnt. 

4. I still felt like I'm comparing myself to other people but at least now that I've taken off from gym, gotten stronger with Cassey and returned, I don't feel as inferior as the first time. There will always be people stronger and fitter than me but this time, it's about me. It's about my pace and I know where my weakness lies. 

On top of that, I have a gym bunny now who actually dragged me to classes. For her to be so motivated in turn motivated me. 

I am still loving Cassey and blogilates. I love working my abs even though it's sore like hell as well as the other parts of my body. I was even "homesick" when I first stepped into the gym again - like .. what am I doing here? I want Cassey!! I just need Cassey!! 

I'm such a drama mama lol but I do understand that even though I'm stronger than I was before, I still need to improve my stamina - I still need to burn off the excess fats therefore I run. I still get down on the floor and get my pilates on during off gym days. 

Plus, I do believe my stamina has improved a lot. Previously I completed 100 burpees within 40 minutes and only jumped for half of them, this time I completed 100 burpees within 25 minutes with full 100 jumps. I surprised myself and this just fuels my determination to keep running. 

Just gonna stick around the gym for a while to try this out. 

Later dayz, 

Touched by a furry one

Whenever someone brought up the topic of pets - the most common answers would be cats or dogs. Maybe a guinea pig or a bunny in the mix. Well, I never had any of those. I had hamsters. 

Before you write off hamsters as "children's pets", you got to know that taking good care of hamster is not an easy task and certainly not for little kids. I had loved and lost both of my hamsters. I still miss them even up to this moment. 

A pet is not something to play with until you get bored, a pet is a family member you are committed to from the day you brought/adopted it until their final breath. Unlike you who have so many other things going on, your pet only have you so please think a million times before getting a pet just because your friend has one or because it's cute. Unfortunately hamsters have a short life span of 2 years + 

I never regretted the day I got my little hamsters because aside from bringing me joy with their little antics, I learned from them. I learned to find the little joys in life, I learned to be patient and I learned not to procrastinate. 

These lessons came naturally because I'm committed to these little lives and I love them. I would do anything for them. Never in their short span of being with me had they ever been neglected or had a shortage of love. 

I know they love me, they grew fond of me. My little hamsters would groom me before grooming themselves and they trust me enough to sleep in my hand.  Their whole lives are in your hands. It hurts so bad when they passed as illness robbed them away from me but I'm so grateful to have their presence in my life. The memories are overwhelming and I often wondered was it a wonderful dream that I had. 

For love, for life, for patience, for compassion, for joy, thank you for being mine.

Play well at the rainbow bridge.   

I love you from the beginning till the end

Later dayz, 

聽爸爸的話

I've been listening to Jay Chou on and off since 9 years ago but whenever I stray away from his songs, I'm always pulled back by a memory of an old song or something new that will latch on my heart and pulled me back. 

There were different difficult period in my life where Jay's music accompanied me and it marked that certain obstacles in life. 

 This time it's this song :- Ting ba ba de hua (聽爸爸的話) [Listen to father's words]



I'm so into that the chorus and that painful tone that Jay dragged out in the end, I'm so addicted. 

In fact, this song got me motivated to run faster instead of my regular fast beat songs. I'm a little Jay nut and I have a feeling I will always be running back to his music.

Enjoy!

Later dayz,

Self love

I used to wish I was skinny. I used to envy the girls who can wear whatever and looks good. It took me a long time to actually realize that try as I might, no matter how I would never be able to achieve the same skinny frame that they have. 

I'm not born with the skinny frame. I'm not genetically small either. Once I understood that, I stopped hating my body and see myself for the person who I potentially could be. I stopped feeling sad for myself and I tried to get myself into a fitness routine. 

The quote that inspired me most was this : -

It really reflect on how long I felt sorry for myself and how much time was wasted. I'm wasting my youth moaning about something that I can change, something within my control. 

Fast forward a year and 8 months later, I felt better about myself. Not because I'm skinny, not because I have an hourglass body but because I finally learned how to love my body. 

Along the process, I started to appreciate my body for being there - an opportunity for me to sculpt it into something awesome, something I can accomplish. I am still on my way but loving myself was not something I thought I could do. 

I'm a rectangle by the way. 

I no longer envy the skinny girls because we are all different. I'm me, rectangle me and I am going to work on this body because it's mine. Everyone have their own body shape so be proud of yourself - it doesn't matter if you are a triangle or round because your body will show you what it is capable of if you work it and eat right. 

Be the shape you are meant to be but work on it to be toned, strong and healthy. 

That's all. No magic formula. Just train hard + eat right and you will be fine. 

Later dayz,

The pregnant dream

I had a dream. I was pregnant. 

Maybe because I am surrounded by pregnant colleagues. Maybe because I was watching a drama before bed time but I dreamed that I was pregnant. 

It was not exactly a happy occasion and I woke up feeling intrigued and slightly disturbed. So I googled the meaning of my dream. 

What do dreams about being pregnant mean?"At its core, this dream is about creativity," Mead says. "Women literally create new life out of their bodies. If you dream of being pregnant, you are likely craving time to be creative, or 'dreaming up' a new and exciting creative project that will come into existence down the line. This could be as small as a home-based renovation project or a large-scale artistic work."
- Huffington Post

It took me a minute to reflect on this piece of information. It's quite true that I felt my creativity had been suppressed lately. I wanted to take the time out to write. I wanted to get my hands on creative little projects, I just didn't find or make the time for it. I'm uninspired but I want to get the wheels going. This year I wanted to write a novel and complete it. Just for my sake - just for myself. 

What are projects you want to do? 

Later dayz,  

Code Factory, Jaya Shopping Center

A week ago, I organized an outing for my dear friends to Code Factory. 4 rooms, 6 people each room with 50 mins to escape. 

Since I've been to the Classroom Murder before, I excluded myself from that room and placed the others in that room.

* All posters are taken from Code Factory site. No spoilers ahead. 

This group managed to escape from this room - props to them for I failed in doing so. Their reaction was the room was fairly easy with everyone working together in a good combination to solve each puzzles.

Luckily this group have brave hearts as I heard that this room was quite eerie. The props were scary and they kept shoving each other to go ahead. I don't think I would want to play in this room, I have a chicken heart. 

I was in this group and it was not scary but it does take some logical thinking and sharp observation skills to get out. We ran out of time - if only we had longer time I'm quite sure we would have gotten out.

The hardest room of all where the group only managed to solve only one puzzle the entire time lol. 

Overall feedback from the groups - teamwork were good and everyone played a part to escape from the rooms. I had fun organizing this team building activity and I enjoyed cracking my brain in the Operation room. 

Since there were no one waiting for the next round, we were allowed to figure out the room and try to complete the rooms by ourselves. I would recommend this escape room activity to anyone who like to take up a challenge. 

Later dayz,

I fine.. thank you .. love you

It might be Cinderella week but the movie of my choice was not the childhood fairy tale. Instead I was attracted to the romantic comedy from Thailand- I fine .. Thank you ... Love you. 

Yes, the title is weird and the movie is quite cliche with a predictable ending but it's been a while since I indulged in a nice sweet movie. I was looking for something light, sweet, funny and adorable. This movie has just the right amount of that. 

There were some scenes which I could do without and I was lucky I had no popcorn with me that day. I really dislike those type of humor but overall I love this movie. It was so unnecessary for the plot. Probably just in there for some cheap laughs.  

This movie : Definitely a rewatch with some fast forwarding of certain parts. Love it! 

I'm also in love with one of the soundtrack - Walk me home. On replay.

Catch the trailer here - this movie is really funny. I kept recommending it because it is so worth watching!

Later dayz,