sacrifices
No doubt that Original BootCamp Malaysia has given me a lot. I’m sure some of you are sick of how I go on and on about OBC, how much better that I am feeling etc etc. My friends are so disgusted with me blogging about OBC so much that they subconsciously skip over the posts where I do not talk about OBC. Such is life.
The truth is that while I am really enjoying the process of getting fitter, there are some things that I have to sacrifice which I wish I didn’t have to. As I am enrolled in PJ Bravo, it means my Saturday morning sessions begin at 7am. I set my alarm to ring at 5.45am so I can snooze till 6. I’ll need at least 4 to 5 hours of sleep the night before else I’d really suffer on the field. Prior to that, I’ll need to reach home a couple of hours earlier because I need that time to chill out and calm down before I sleep.
This routine means that less or no time hanging out with my friends on Friday evenings. We used to chill out at Starbucks till closing time (they close at 2am at Centrepoint) and talked about everything under the sun and moon, fuelled by lattes and companionship. It was just our thing and it was something that I looked forward to at the end of every working week.
Another thing that I’ll miss are my boobs. I know that when you lose weight, your boobs will go too. All fat tissues mah. Doesn’t mean it hurts any less 
Goodbye, boobs.
cikgu ahmad of smk convent batu pahat
A friend posted on her Facebook that a teacher from our high school passed away this morning. Encik Ahmad Amir taught us Bahasa Malaysia and Sejarah in Form 1 and Form 2. It was a long time ago so I don’t remember the exact subject for the year.
I remember En. Ahmad for 3 reasons. The first was that he was always dressed immaculately – a crisp light-coloured, short-sleeve shirt tucked in a pair of black trousers held together with a belt. His shoes were always shiny, his beard nicely trimmed, basically a clean, sharp appearance.
The second was the way he walked. En. Ahmad did not just walk through the corridors of SMK Convent BP – he strutted. His chest would be puffed up and his head a little higher and he trotted confidently but not in any way arrogant. I often wondered how he could see what and where he was walking because his eyes were always straight ahead. Well he did slipped into a drain once so I suppose that didn’t work out too well. A few of us were near him when he fell – of course we sniggered but he took it in his stride.
The third and most memorable was a lesson that he taught me. I was the opposite of the perfect student, and such did not always… errr, complete my homework. I thought his method of making us memorise the history book redundant, plus I was lazy to write a lot. Naturally I would always try to escape from him until one fine day when he finally caught up with me.
“Why are you afraid? Just own up that you did not do your homework. If you are afraid of something, you will eventually be scared of it. Fear leads to hatred. I don’t want you to hate me. That is not what I am here for.”
A Malay version of a Jedi Master, eh? Rest in peace.
obc: s06e04
After this morning’s session, I have only one thing to say…
LISTEN TO YOUR BOOTCAMP INSTRUCTORS!!!
When they specifically tell you not to drop the equipment, you do not drop the equipment. Even though your body’s twisted in excruciating pain, please take the extra 5 seconds to slowly lower your body and put down the equipment gently. We can wait.
Sekian, terima kasih.
dusun @ centrepoint, bandar utama
Alright, it has been more than a week since the new year and I think I should really move my arse to update my blog. Not that I am lacking of things to blog about: in fact I have more than a couple product reviews pending. But that takes a lot of concentration which I’m lacking at the moment. New year mah, lots of activities, easily distracted, normal lah. Hopefully I’ll get my groove back… soon.
Anyway I think my first post for this year should be about fruits. Don’t ask me why, I’m rather random like that.
I’ve never been much of a fruit-eater (does that sound… wrong?) even though my sister parades them in front of me as if they were NBA cheerleaders in skimpy outfits. Since I’m straight, Gerard Butler in the movie 300. My sister despaired over my lack of enthusiasm for the fresh, juicy, colourful, exotic fruits that she buys on a very regular basis. I would like to think that she sheds secret, sorrowful tears because I was not getting the nutrients and vitamins and fibers and whatever it is that you get from eating fruits, but that may be due to my sadistic nature as well as a brain overflowing with words and imagination at this hour of the night. In other words, toking kok.
After joining OBC, I thought that I’d at least make an attempt to eat better. That means reintroducing fruits to my diet. Unfortunately my slight quirkiness dictates that I do not find a lot of fruits to my liking. I hate fresh oranges and pineapples. Apples are too crunchy. Watermelons are too watery. Cherries are too expensive. I do not view bananas as fruits suitable for consumption before or after a main meal. I will not eat rose apples unless they are from my parents’ house in Batu Pahat. Mangoes are okay but sometimes I just do not have the mood to eat them. And so on and so on.
Papayas on the other hand… I love!
Damn long-winded so far right? I wanted to talk about this fruit shop in Centrepoint, Bandar Utama and I ended up writing grandmother grandfather stories. Whatever lah. You’ve read this far, might as well finish reading till the end, right? Heh.
So, papayas. They are awesome. I like those with a bit of texture, a slight crunch. The squishy ones just piss me off. When I realised that buying the whole papaya is cheaper than buying them in ready-cut slices, I decided to get one from the fruit shop in Centrepoint, Bandar Utama called Dusun.
Since I have absolutely no idea how much papayas cost, I am hereby making the assumption that the fruits in Dusun may be very slightly more expensive than what you can get at the market. However it was still a lot cheaper than buying those individually-wrapped ones (at Dusun or elsewhere) and I like the kind of papayas they get. The texture and sweetness of their papayas are exactly what I like. So I decided to get my papayas from them and them alone.
The other day I was with Horng at Centrepoint when I decided to get a papaya from Dusun. The shop proprietress was friendly and suggested that I eat different kinds of fruits rather than just sticking to papayas. Something about different colours, different benefits etc. I told her that I don’t like anything but papayas and since it’s the only fruit I’d make an effort to eat regularly, I’d just stick to that.
A couple of days later, I returned to the shop to get another papaya. She remembered me and we chatted for a bit again. She decided that since I liked papayas so much, I had to try the ‘Solo Papaya’ from Hawaii (smaller and a lot more expensive than the usual ones that I normally get) there and then. She cut one open, removed the seeds and handed the halves to me with a spoon.
I found out that her name is Shan Shan and she opened Dusun with her sister. Shan Shan seemed young, but she was rather knowledgeable about fruits, the varieties, their benefits etc. The thing that struck me the most was her passion for fruits. I mean, have you met anyone with a passion for fruits? No? You should go check out Dusun and have a chat with Shan Shan. It is actually quite amusing and heartwarming at the same time.
As for her shop, she sells quite a variety of fruits. She replenishes her stock thrice a week, sometimes with fruits that you’ve not seen or heard of before. For example, when a few of us went to Dusun earlier, she enthusiastically showed us this fruit called, ‘Doughnut Peach‘. At first glance it was almost a flattened peach. It’s just odd lah but apparently they taste better than regular peaches. Google.
Shan Shan also branches out from just selling fruits in their original forms. At Dusun, you can sit down and order a fruit rojak while observing customers walking in and out of the shop. Wash that down with a smoothie or fruit juice, then go to the Subway next door and get a healthy sandwich. Or walk a couple more steps to Cagayan’s opposite Dusun for an extra large portion of juicy ribs slathered with barbeque sauce. I can’t think of any reason to do that other than to fulfill an implanted subconscious self-destructing human desire to stuff yourself with sinfully delicious yet artery-choking, calorie-laden, open-letter-to-heart-attack feast. But yummy.
Anyway the thing I really want to share about Dusun is their fruit delivery service. It’s pretty innovative, creative and actually quite worth the dosh. For RM60, you can get a serving of 3 different fruits (that’s 3 servings, a serving is about a handful) delivered to your workplace every working day. That comes up to 20 days a month, and they deliver between 10am to 12pm. If you would prefer 5 different fruits each time, it will cost you RM100. Calculate the cost and it means that each serving is RM1.00, which is cheaper than some places selling individually-wrapped fruits. What’s more, the delivery is FOC. I think it’s a pretty good deal, except that I don’t eat anything other than papayas.
At the moment, the delivery service area is limited to Bandar Utama, Damansara and areas nearby. Shan Shan mentioned that the furthest they’ve delivered to is KL Sentral but due to lack of manpower (i.e. delivery people) and time constraints (as mentioned above), they are currently unable to deliver to, say Cyberjaya. You could always call them up or e-mail them to ask for more information though.
Shan Shan of Dusun
That was a pretty long blog post, wasn’t it? Oh well, this is definitely not an advertorial… except for that free Solo Papaya. What can I say, I guess people with passion inspires me. Either that or I’m on a sugar rush from that brownie earlier. Whatever works lah, kan?
2009 in review
I was going to do a year 2009 in reflection blog post. So I began going through my archives, selecting blog posts that I thought would serve well to highlight what I did for the entire month. Then I got lazy and thought, ’screw this shit.’
Look, I had an absofuckinglutely blast.
There were ups and downs, laughter and tears, happiness and sadness, friendships built and let go, great holidays, great trips, great and horrible incidents…
I have a great family, great friends, a great job, a great boss, great colleagues… At the risk of conjuring images of lighted tea candles, aromatherapy oil, clouds and puppies and cotton candy, I have to say that I am surrounded by love.
Sometimes I will have to keep reminding myself of that. But I think I will be all right 
Oh another reason why I’m happy is because I do not have New Year’s resolutions. They suck.
Happy new year!