Row, row, row your boat!

"Argh....! Stop that! No! Help...! I'm gonna topple over..!!" I screamed and shouted early this morning, at 7am!

Ever since my studious years, I have never woken up as early as this! Heck, even when I was schooling, I was the queen of being late! In college, I usually skip the early classes (if I'm bad luck enough to get such a schedule) or arrive late. Lecturers never scolded me, in fact they all liked me a lot, well, as long as I perform, I guess..

Now, what am I doing at such wee hours? Nothing much, just exercising. To be precise, boating. Ok, I know I don't exercise much, now, you shut up :P

A gang of colleagues who have been boating (kayaking) for months now have invited me to join them, and today is my first lesson. Although I was a bit reluctant at first due to the timing, I think that this is gonna be my new hobby. At least for now :)

Since there were eight of us, we were divided into 4 boats, each with a beginner and expert. For the first 20 minutes my partner briefed me on the 101s of boating and balancing (I found out that that's very important, unless you are in for a quick dip into the murky waters) and synchronization (with your partner). And soon after that, voila, I was just rowing away! Gee, I must admit, I am good!

Boating was pretty fun, as I have a good partner/coach. Although I have always liked him for his sense of humor, I came to find out today that he's also a very strong man indeed (Yeah, girls like strong guys!).

We chatted, sanged Row, row, row your boat.. , tried to race another boat, did funny stunts, and enjoyed looking at the wonderful scenery at the *Putrajaya Lakes. Now I'm gonna stick to him everytime we kayak, muahaha... he's in deep hell.. but being a sportsman that he is... we'll see!

*
Malaysian time = being sane homo sapiens, the Malaysians are almost always, late. Our time is always 5 - 10 mins later than the GMT (+8 for Malaysia).
Putrajaya = the new administrative state in Malaysia; the equivalent of Washington DC in the US.

Choices

Why are human kind given so many choices? Pink or blue? Rice or noodles? Coffee or tea? Or me? hee..

Imagine, the world without choices. Yes, there would be no freedom to choose. BUT...

1. there'll be less fightings/arguments/war!
2. people will conform and accept when there's no choice!
3. men will be men, and women, women!
4. there'll be less headaches!!

Making a choice is making a decision. Given a scenario, there are many things to view before taking that very action. There are the internal factors, external factors, etc to think about. Your decision might have an impact on a lot of people, but you yourself will also suffer greatly if you make a bad one.

Making a choice comes with experience and knowledge, but until we are wise enough, we will continue to make mistakes.. (which is understandable). But what about making a decision that impacts your entire life?

Are you going to wait until you are 55, 70 or when you're deemed 'wise' enough to make the decision that you're supposed to make when you're 23?

As the old saying goes.. 'you can never have the best of both worlds'. Ok, so you chose one of it. And what happens? You end up thinking for your entire life, 'what if...'. See what i mean? Problem is, sometimes, either choice may end up dissapointing..

So, which is right and which is wrong?

Well, as long as you have made a decision, and decide that whatever happens, you're not gonna regret it.. I guess it's alright... Just make the best out of it then.

Good luck.

Welcome the year of Monkey!

Two 'lions' pranced into my house!!

Paid their respects to the dieties, bit off the vegetables (and the *ang pows attached to it) from the praying altar.

'Chewed' and 'spitted' the veges all over the place! Yucky!!

Danced their way around the house, looking for more veges to chew and more ang pows to 'pocket'.

And finally.... on their way out of the house, they spotted a 2-metre high pole, on its higher end the wind blew the ang pow excitedly. The two lions 'discussed' their plans to snatch the last one left..

The lion climbed onto the other lion and tried to bite off the target. Failed. Second try... failed again! Third try. This time, suddenly the lion at the bottom seems to have 'grown' more legs! Half the troupe members have suddenly jumped underneath the lion 'costume'!! Failed again! &^%@#$*! The lion at the top seems to be quite frailly!! Eww..!! The entire scene reminds me of my beloved *Simba when I am waving *treats at him, haha!

Finally, on the fourth try, someone grabbed and tried to lower the pole (playing tricks, not fair!!) .. mission accomplished! The lions did it!! Yey!

*prat prat prat prat.... BOM!*

The illegal red-firecrackers exploded to everyone's delight.

This was what happened during the open house that my parents organised on the first day of the Chinese New Year. We were all watching in awe as a troupe performed lion dances at our house. Roll in, all good luck!!

I told my dad that next year, I will invite a better lion dance troupe as I could not see any kung-fu actions earlier. My brother suggested the famous Penang troupe, and I nodded in unison (assuming that he's the one paying for it, haha).

This *Monkey year, I took a two-week break to celebrate CNY at my hometown, much to the envy of friends and foes. It's basically one of my best CNY celebrations as I practically stayed at home and did nothing. Well, except eating, eating and more eating.

Well, I lied.

Confessions.

I went clubbing until the wee hours in the morning.

I played mahjong for many days in a row, winning monies from basically everyone and anyone, and shouting "cheating cheating!!" when I lose...

I watched two 20-episodes tv series from *TVB non-stop for three days in a row, hogging the newly-built *Gold Class at home.

If I reveal more, I shall be condemmed to not eating ice cream for a year!


*ang pow = red packets containing money that are given to the 'younger' ones by married couples
Simba = my lovely Shih Tzu
treats = doggie treats rewarded when the Simba performs a trick or two...
Monkey year ~ according to the Chinese Zodiac of 12 animal signs, this year is the year of Monkey!
TVB = Television Broadcasts Ltd. A famous Hong Kong company that produces Chinese movies and series.
Gold Class = the nickname of our new home threater room at home, featuring individual reclining leather seats and exceptional sound quality that supports the latest DTS 5.1 ES with Sonus Faber Grand Piano speakers.