Bikram Yoga - Part 2

Just got back from my second Bikram yoga class at Myaree and now I can say that I have done Bikram yoga! I cannot believe that I could not even sit up to write the 104 after my first class and that was only a week ago!

In a nutshell, you do 26 stretches over the course of 90 minutes in a 38 degree heated room.

To me, the class brings out a natural balance in the body. It makes you focus on your body, on every muscle contraction, the rhythm of your breathing, the sweat cooling your body heat, the pain and satisfaction of every stretch.

It is enthralling.

It felt like I had expanded my lung's capacity and transformed my body into a rubber-like object, twisting and turning slowly to positions instructed by the yoga teacher. She, by the way, was amazing! Beautiful curves, again the celebrity golden brown tan, excellent posture, gentle but firm abs and she held such a calm and soothing tone in her voice.

She explained to us how our bodies benefited from the positions. Where to exert pressure to push the stretch even further. In a non-forceful manner, she made us work. Work really hard.

Enthralling. That what she is.

She said to think of our bodies in terms of three colours. Yellow to indicate the environment where our bodies normally operate. Orange where we have edged out of what we do routinely, out of our comfort zones. Red when we are pushing ourselves past our limit. And she told us not to go into the red.

Thanks to Marie, I found myself completely out of my comfort zone and drenched in the orange. It challenged my brain pulses, sizzling the "NO" stream to a steamy "YES!".

Bikram Yoga

As I lie here in my state of exhaustion, my sister is typing away at the computer while I narrate to her and in inadvertently to you.

Why Bikram yoga? I asked myself the same question too as I stood there registering myself for the class. I browsed through a list of questions from "to enhance my fitness plan" to "to lose weight". I ticked "other" and wrote "to try something new "

I walked in and was greeted by the most beautiful man on earth. It was like a scene out of the movies. Where restaurants hire good-looking waiters and waitresses to attract customers, this Bikram yoga place hires a dude with golden tanned brown skin served with gentle, delicate yet firm abs. If only I could have written him as the my reason for being there. True but not appropriate.

What is Bikram yoga?

Now I can say it is 90 minutes of insane heat blowing at your body while you're stretching muscles that you never knew existed. I don't think the muscles knew they existed either. It was the first time I saw sweat emerging from the pores of my hands. Starting out like little droplets of demure sweat, merging and flowing but thankfully not as much as the man beside me who was like a human fountain.

After what seemed like the longest time, I took a break while the rest of the class was balancing on one foot with the other high in the air and their hands stretched out like they were carrying a baby. All the while Mr extremely hot and tanned continued to tell us to raise our chins, kick more (stretch the leg that is in the air further up). Minutes later, exhaustion dawned upon me and i became dizzy - as well predicted by the lady at the reception.

It is perfectly normal to feel like your elbow is about to break off, to breath loudly and to want to collapse on the floor and stay there forever.

How do I rate Bikram yoga? It was so out there that in the end of the session when my instructor walked out the door, he said "Namaste" and I followed the others and said namaste with pride and also with a heave. Going again this weekend.

Here's to a hot and sweaty 104.

Learn Chinese

It is terrifying - the idea of learning the Chinese language. Mainly because I am Chinese and I am expected to already know it proficiently. My parents speak it. The rest of my family members seem to do quite well conversing in the Chinese language so why am I not?

Truth is, I neglected the Chinese language intentionally in my primary and secondary school days. It was not considered cool in my books. And not cool to my school friends either (so I thought).

I began to appreciate the language at a much older age. I wanted to speak to my parents in proper Chinese. To write letters to them. And maybe even send text messages. I wanted to be able to communicate to my parents without struggling for words or replacing them with English words. I wanted to build a deeper relationship with them, to learn from them, to listen to their stories and understand them better.

So after about 5-6 years of saying that I wanted learn Chinese, I finally signed myself up for a Chinese course at TAFE. Little did I know how much I was going to learn. It was a true challenge. I had to stop myself from using my mispronunciations. It took a lot of self-discipline to not skip classes and to pick up Chinese sentence structures.

My biggest handicap was writing in Chinese. The strokes are so difficult to master and I spent hours writing and erasing and rewriting characters so they mirrored (as much as possible) those from the textbooks. I have been told that my writing is similar to that of a child. It is a working progression and it takes a lot of practice and patience.

But I love the art of Chinese calligraphy. It is beautiful and I am so happy that I am now able to recognise some characters.


During my recent trip back to Brunei, I spoke more to my parents and family members in Chinese. I was not shy to use words and I even wrote a card to my parents in Chinese.

And today, I took my test and passed! I have made some really good friends in my Chinese class and we are all planning to continue with the second semester. It has been a very rewarding 104.

Huang Ying Zai Lai

Stop eating chocolates for two months

The history
My chocolate story began with a Ferrero Rocher. At a tender age of 10 (from memory), I was given a golden wrapped chocolate as a Christmas treat. As I reached the core of that perfectly circular chocolate ball, the world faded away into a rich creamy satisfying silky sweet ocean of hazelnut and I knew then that I had found my new love.

The journey
Since then, I began to venture out to other chocolates. Discovering other hazelnut flavored chocolates, smooth dark chocolates, chocolates partnered with fruit and nut and it was an exciting whirlwind of chocolate adventure.

The connection
When I was down, chocolate would come to my rescue and take me up on cloud 9 where all my troubles melted away. Over the years, it became my personal reward at the end of a long day. Then, it was a daily treat. One big bar at a time.

The intervention
One night it dawned upon me how dependent I was on chocolate. And how badly it could potentially affect me, health wise. My teeth were not in their best condition. I could not afford another major dental fix. Pimples were attacking left, right, front and center. I needed to cut off my supply of chocolates.

The 104
So here it was. A 104 laid out in front of me. To stop eating chocolates *gasp* for two months *h-h-help*

The temptation
I was tempted so many times to stuff myself silly with chocolate. From homebaked chocolate cake to chocolate birthday cakes at work to gifts of chocolate boxes (Harrods included).




The near end
But I had to resist. Control myself. And over time, it got easier. It was easy to falter but I held on. And when I finally made it past two months (coincidentally) Hanah came over and presented me with an oreo cheesecake.




The victory
It was beautiful. But I still needed something that had pure chocolate. It was only until I was mid air on Royal Brunei Airlines when I discovered that the desert had creamy luscious chocolate.

I was, ladies and gentlemen, in heaven.

It was the ultimate 104-choco-licious experience.

Go online shopping for clothes

Call me a stinge but I would browse online clothing shops for hours each time choosing from hundreds and hundreds of clothing options, throwing in what I thought I would like into the virtual shopping bag. Then I would narrow down my selection to what I really wanted/needed. And when I did, I would calculate the conversion rate, freight charges and then review my selection again. But back out before I could cause any serious damage to my bank account.

Whilst saying that, I did key in my credit card number once and went through with the shopping transaction to the end. Who would have guessed that I, of all people, would get a refund instead of the clothes that I shopped for because the delivery went missing. Lost forever.

So this was a more than a dare. It was trusting in a system that I knew had failed me once before. But I braved the risk of losing my delivery and money (from the exchange rate) and went online shopping at Victoria Secret.

All up, it would have been a total of 15 hours of my (now a routine) browsing. Decide on seven tops which were "simple" but ones that I could easily dress up or dress down, depending on my accessories and lack of. Cost me just over AUD $150 including delivery. And it took exactly two weeks for the delivery to arrive.

You cannot imagine my relief to its arrival!

The tops fit me really well. The colours were a perfect match to my skin. I now own two great off shoulder tops, two cardis, a long black singlet top, a plain white and black top. All stretchy and really comfy. I am so super excited. When I can, I will take photos and re-edit this post with them.

But for now, here is a preview of one of the tops.

Need I mention the models on Victoria's Secret are good enough a reason to want to shop on there?! Here's to a really fulfilling 104!

Go to a toastmasters meeting

What is "Toastmasters" you say? Well, in a nutshell, it's anything and everything to do with public speaking.

In the meeting, you have from one to 10 minutes, depending on the part of the evening your presentation sits in, to stand up in front of a group of people and present a topic. You get evaluated on a number of "objectives" such as your body language, grammar, description of events/things and the list goes on.

And those who evaluate your presentation also get evaluated.

Who are also evaluated.

And why is it a 104? Well, I have heard so much about it previously but never had a chance to attend a Toastmasters meeting. Yes, I am an "invite-only" person. Even if I really really want to go, I will only go if I am invited. So when the opportunity finally presented itself, I took it.

So, what was my take? It certainly made me squirmish in my seat watching the toastmasters members present. It was like reading the best written book in the world but instead I've got someone doing all the story telling right before my eyes. These people were really good at capturing their audience's attention and honestly, I was so impressed by their presentation skills.

I did a 46 second (yes, they timed it) "presentation" amongst other guests and members and and and... I won the "Best Table Topic". I have never won anything academically before and this certainly was the closest to it so I embraced it with much joy. Another super 104!

Threading

From the time I heard about threading in 2004, I have always wondered how one could possibly remove hair by using only a thread. So after six years of delay, I finally walked in Zubias Threading for my first eyebrow session. I could not wait to leave looking a Mediterranean Goddess!

In the first few seconds, I thought, hey, this is just thread brushing against my skin. Not bad. Then suddenly, I could hear my eyebrows being pulled out from my screaming follicles. And I started tearing up.

Yup, she has one end of the thread in her mouth. No idea why and she somehow wound the thread around her fingers so she could pull at my hair. Thankfully she was friendly which helped my "I laugh when I'm in pain" syndrome.

$19 later, I was beautifully eyebrow shaped and certain that I will head back there once the hair grows back (which I hear isn't anytime soon). Phew!

Work it at Zumba class

The drive to my first Zumba class was enough to throw me off into another dimension. The cars in front and at the back of me were all heading in the same direction towards the youth centre. It felt like synchronized driving.

And there were at least 70 people already waiting in the gym by the time I got there. I couldn't believe how long I've been putting this off. MONTHS now. The instructor was this cheerful (not chirpy) late 20s, early 30s lady who definitely had some South American blood in her cuz she could move her hips like in the movies.

I did think that it could be a bit daggy considering there were so many people (only 2 men) in the class and thought maybe the instructor would do really basic slow moves. But it was quick, to the wicked latino/african beats and so much fun! I felt so free like I was dancing in my room.

At times, her moves were so sick that I thought I was watching a movie. It was out of whack! Best 104 ever! Thanks Marie! Am planning to head back next week. Wee hee!!

Promote an Oxfam Project

Since I joined Oxfam, I have been given lots of opportunities to do things that I have never imagined doing. Thanks to Caron who has believed in me and suggested for me to do what I have done. Like...

1. Manning Fair Trade stalls
2. Giving a talk about my experience in the Fair Trade Group to a new group of volunteers
3. Promoting Solomon Island Earrings
4. Buying Fair Trade tea and coffee for the shop
5. Buying a commode (Oxfam Unwrapped) from shop sales
6. Hearing first hand from a volunteer about war and inequality

Fair Trade products ensure that producers receive a fair minimum price for their products. And Fair Trade organisations work in these villages to ensure that any extra money goes back into the community. Like building schools, water systems, creating work opportunities for women and the list goes on.

It took me a couple of years before I finally put my hand up to volunteer and now my eyes are slowly opening. We can all sit and doubt about Fair Trade. To think that it is impossible to Make Poverty History. But it takes one person to believe for change to happen.

Let's give where the giving is most needed.

De-activate Facebook account

It was a sudden decision but I was spending too much time on facebook. First off, I don't even keep in contact with 9/10 of the people on my list. Some I barely know. Yet, I was hooked on to it.

So I said Cest la vie to my luvvies and gently took facebook out of my life.


Facebook is so clever. Just before you click the de-activate button, it displays pictures of you where you were tagged in albums and proclaims that those people will miss me. It did make me think twice about deactivating my account but no, I was going to stick to my 104.


So how is life after facebook? It was almost an immediate feeling of "awesomeness". With the spare time, I blog more, spend no time stalking people which is quite a relief and I focus more on doing other nothings. Tis good!