Friday, October 31, 2008

And so we smiled once more...

Today was Rashidahs' last class at Cali... technically for this round of employment at least. And yes, I've calmed down and stopped crying like a baby already. Enough of having lychee eyes, swollen face and chest pains.

I head down to Novena to pass her some flowers.
Cotton stuff toy ones that would never die. I usually get her fresh flowers on occasion and holidays but just in case I don't get to pass her fresh ones as often as I'd like, cotton ones will have to do for now. And they're pretty cute too! How can anyone NOT give Rash flowers!? She's a woman goddammit! GUYS!! BLIND LARH U!!

So non swelling teary faces no more, we finally take some smiley shots after her final Street 101 class in hopeful anticipation of things to come.

The petition and appeal to bring her back so far has garnered around 77 signatures and more in the coming classes which I will be going tomorrow and by other students with the forms going from dance class to dance class. I suppose by next week, we would be able to collate all supporting documents and submit it to CF management for their reconsideration.

If it works, there will be many happy people at CF and we'll have her back! If it doesn't, I pray that Rash gets the BEST offer EVER from another place and we'll all move to join her there. Or even better! Start classes on her own! *Babe... seriously consider that... there would be alot of supporters!! seriously!*

So we took some group pictures... SMILE!! and then somemore... *sigh.. I love Rashidah... hahahha... in a girl-friend kind of way.. OKAY!* Here's wishing her the best of luck and get well soon Babe... poor gal has fallen sick with all this hoo-ha!! *pat pat*

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

We Want Rashidah BACK!

If you're a dance student with Rashidah and are just as devastated as we are at her leaving, sign in the petition which we will hold till we get the most signatures we can. This has to be fast people. Chop Chop! Pass this on to those you know.

Bollywood Zumba Pictures...

With reference to the DEEPAVALI post, here are the pictures as promised. Instructor Daniel aka Ban Ban and Me.

With Instructors of the day... Ruri, Daniel and Me.

Dearest Rashidah...

Dearest Rashidah,

It was back in May this year, 23rd of May to be more precise that I took my first Zumba class with you. I enjoyed myself so much that I kept going back for more and it changed my life. I actually found something that I was naturally good at by chance!

I've always loved watching other people dance but never thought that I would actually be good at it. I kept to your class as religiously as possible and took inspiration from your excellent skills and the way you moved. I was always and still am awe struck by the ease of how you make each move and how you made each one look so good. How does someone dance so well with such ease & passion?!

Over time, I improved and improved tremendously under your guidance. So much to the point that I got good enough that people actually thought that I taught Zumba too! And I almost did or more so, I might... in time.... maybe.

So today really came as a shock that has left me crying since I heard the news from you that you were leaving and today was your last Zumba class. It has been 6 hours since and I still haven't stopped crying. I've never cried so long for years so this really takes the cake. My eyes are now practically swollen to slits and still tearing as I write this.

It never occurred to me that today would be the last time we would Zumba together. You played all my favourite tracks. Worked the class so hard that I was practically wheezing and everyone was euphoric and then the news hit and everything came crashing down and I've lost my mood to dance.

I'm upset that I'd be losing a mentor. You are young, so many years my junior but your impact in my life is tremendous. Sad at knowing that I'd miss you so much. Sad that you would not be there for class anymore. Sad that news like this was so sudden and I am not mentally prepared to let you go.

Sad that I do not feel that you being asked to leave was justified, unless you are leaving on your own accord for your own reasons but if it was otherwise. Many.. and I mean MANY people are here to fight for your return and I will be first in line to do so followed by a very big crowd behind me. Too many of us love you to let you go. Its just so wrong that you're not going to be around anymore.

While people would say. Its just a job. Things like this happen... you're still in Singapore and you're still a friend that I'll keep in contact with but its just not the same. I'm immensely upset with you leaving. You're my dance instructor, I feel like a part of me just died.

Heck! Even for now, I'm considering dropping Zumba instructorship as it seems so pointless without the right guidance. No one at the gym is as good a dancer as you. No one inspires me to dance more than you. It is you, Rashidah that brought dance into my life and changed me.

If I move on with dance, I will always credit you months and years down the road as it is because of you, Rashidah that I dance and dance so well.

When people say they love how I move, I proudly tell them.. "Rashidah trained me" and I still say that all the time...and they say "she must be good" and I tell them.. "but of course! I only learn from the best..." and the day I have my first class, it will be dedicated to you. If ever I have one. And I'll make you proud.

You are an amazing dancer, with youth on your side too, you have great potential. I'm sure one day, we'll see you on TV or in the papers and I will then proudly tell everyone that you taught me before.. you are my dance inspiration and my friend.

While my tears still have not dried, I know I'm going to miss you so much that it hurts. You know my number, you have me on msn so please log on sometime, you've got all possible emails to me and I know you read my blog from time to time so please do not lose touch. And we still have that dinner to go to together one of these days. We've planned for that dinner for months now... so we must go.

Here's wishing you the best that life can bring, the most amazing love that you deserve, the happiness that you've always dreamed of and the glory and fame that the passion of dance can bring...

Love, Pam

*Note to other blog readers: No, I'm not lesbian. No, I'm not Bi. Just because I love my dance instructor & friend doesn't make me any of that. OF COURSE SHE HASN'T DIED, *CHOI CHOI CHOI LAH!!! even though I've been crying like someone did. And Yes. I'm extremely upset so don't make it worse by being inconsiderate with your comments. With this, I'm going on a short blog hiatus while I recover from this trauma. No words of comfort needed as nothing is going to help other than Rashidah saying "I'm coming back". I've written so much about Rashidah, pictures/comments and posts about her can be found HERE

And this last picture was taken in the midst of all the crying, I've pixelized it for the sake of making us still look "human" amidst the swollen faces while the original shot is for our own personal records only. I'm sure we'll find the time to take some very pretty and smiling shots in the coming weeks. And Yes.. thats' Claudia, me, Rashidah and Nadnut from Rashidahs' last Zumba class this evening...WE'RE MISSING YOU ALREADY!!*

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Egg Toast with Cheese

Made Egg Toast with Cheese after checking out some open face sandwich pictures over at my usual parenting forum. I used to make this sandwich alot some months back and I saw that it was revived again lately and it triggered a craving.

How do you make it?

Cut a hole or square in one of your sliced bread pieces. Butter all the sides of your bread.

Either line the outer crust area of the base bread with cheese slices so that it seals the sides and prevents the egg white from leaking out of the sides.

Or place both bread slices together and lay a square slice of cheese OVER the hole on the top slice and crack your egg onto the cheese groove.

I usually scoop in the yolk first and slowly pour in the whites as there usually are too much egg white to fit into the hole as we like buying large eggs.

Season w/ salt, pepper and italian seasoning and slide into the toaster for 5 minutes on medium heat to cook the egg and a final 1-2 minutes to toast the top of the bread. Once eggs are set, serve & enjoy!!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Happy Deepavali Everyone!

Here's wishing all my Hindu readers and non-Hindu friends & readers a.....
Very very Happy Deepavali!

May you be blessed with love, luck and happiness for the rest of the year.... :)

I wore a bindi today at class as seen above. Ruri, one of the instructors passed me a pack of Bindi stick ons and I donned a lovely dark pink one today in occasion of todays' public holiday.

Zumba class this morning was Bollywood inspired. Majority of the songs were Banghra or Latin inspired Banghra which was pretty fun! The moves too... very true to theme. There was a little belly dance and I have a bellydance coin sash so I wore that too! Finally, my sash can see the light of day and not sit in its plastic bag waiting to be worn and wear it I did!

For both Zumba and Rumba class today! *ching ching ching ching!* I think I shook too vigorously that some of the beads of my coin sash actually CAME OFF after Rumba!! *wails*.... lousy larh!

Anyway, we took some pictures in our get-up for today but its in another members' camera so I'm waiting for him to upload it to his Facebook so that I can grab them and post them here!

So in the meantime while I wait for todays' shots, Wai Han who was there at the school dance session the other day, passed me some pictures that she managed to capture before her camera died and I found this one a pretty good shot where we were somewhat not so blurry, still managing to smile and in action on stage before we turned into dripping sweaty slabs of vibrating human meat with the students. Blargh!

Read about that HERE.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Do you want to do a Press Ad?

Going to the gym has many benefits to fitness and achieving an active lifestyle. It also contributes to your social circle as I've gotten to know many people who share the joy of working out together.

Made some good friends and am completely enjoying their friendship and companionship in and out of class. Learned new tips, learned new skills and slowly gaining a better healthier body too!

With all this, it also opened up opportunities that would not have otherwise risen such as being approached by a talent agent. Who so happens to be one of my class mates in dance class.

You really never know who you get to know at the gym! We engaged in some friendly talk and she told me what she was doing and told me she had noticed me for some time now, thought that I would be suitable for an upcoming job and wondered if I would be keen on doing a photoshoot for a Press Ad for one of her clients.

Of course I said I WOULD!! How could you resist something like that.. right? I can't. Hahahah! So we exchanged contact details, we communicated by email with some audition pictures and personal statistics.

Remuneration wise, not too fantastic but alright for a days work. Or more so, 4 hrs of shoot +1 hr *make up/styling* work. And I really do not mind seeing my face - as long as its done tastefully and its a nice photograph out on this certain brands' press ad! In fact, it would certainly be my pleasure.

So she mentioned today that she had submitted the shortlisted people, incl. myself to the client and they are now doing their selection. Even if they do not choose me, she's assured me that she will keep me on her talent listing for upcoming work. Always good to have an active talent agent representing you. Whooppeee!!! Happy happy lah!! *Cross fingers that I hear from her soon as she said the shoot will definitely be Nov/early Dec at very latest.*

For now, filming for the TVC that I mentioned sometime back is scheduled for November. I hope it turns out well! Wish Cj and I luck! :)

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Working out so Hard till you Wheeze...

Today was such an amazing workout day! One of the best class combination I've had in weeks! Months even! My schedule is going to go haywire once my dance instructor David leaves SG for 3 weeks as his classes will be replaced by other instructors & other classes. BAH!! So not looking forward to that.

I usually don't write or toot about my class regimes but it was such a good day, I have to record it so that I can replicate it again someday. You would think that as you go from class to class that you would lose steam but I've found my stamina strangely amazing too! Full On for ALL 3 classes! Coolness!

Why was it so good? Well firstly, I joined 2 great instructors, Ayesha & Daniel in the morning at Novena for a Zumba class at 1010am. Ban Ban aka Daniel invited me to join him on stage to do a few numbers with him. He knows I loooove doing that lah! Haha BanBan, you humour me lah! *hugs* And he played alot of my favourite songs! I think why I liked it too is because his style is very similar to Rashidah and everyone knows how much I adore Rashidahs' Zumba class *love love*

There was one reggaetton song by Winsin Y Yandel named "Pam Pam"... how apt right? And yep we did that track together on stage after he dedicated it to me...awww SO SWEET!!.. And strangely, we were so outfit coordinated BY CHANCE! Both in a black fitted tank top/black bottom and in a WHITE CAP! People would have thought we coordinated it to make it look like that just because we were doing some stage tracks together but it was really co-incidence!



And we did a Soca track by The Soca Boys named "Follow the leader" too! If you know fun dance music, this track is DAMN FUN CAN!! I found this video which is damn funny lah!! Of course we move to this with some dance moves and jump/wave when needed. Is a very fun track.. I'm definitely using this track if & when I instruct Zumba next time...



And we even warmed down with No Me Ames by J. Lo which is one of my blogsongs here. And I know all the lyrics to that song too! Love it lah! *muse muse*

Ayesha too had real fun moves. I loved the energy of the class. I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to taking Saturday morning classes with Ayesha. I'll try to slot that in if I can esp. since David will be heading out of town after next week and his 1.20pm Sat class would be busted since he's not around.

I then head down to Orchard and at 120pm, I took Rumba class with David and I was VERY very pleased to note that he decided to make it Reggaetton day. Completely reggaetton.. DAMN COOL CAN!!

What is Reggaetton? Check out my previous post on this HERE.

I just asked him yesterday when he would be doing a reggaetton class and HE DID it today!! Aiyohh!! It was SOO high intensity, I was gasping after each set and the tunes just got faster and faster that I had to scream intermittently just to keep going. Damn good lah!!! I really enjoyed that so much. I was so high after that class... I moved on to my next one of the day... I would assume that most of the people would have "died" after the class. But I was still feeling pretty good!

The only DUH thing that happened today was that I absentmindedly LOCKED MY LOCKER KEY into my locker and LOCKED THE LOCKER. I threw the key with my hair band into the locker and closed it and the split second before my fingers snapped the lock shut, I realised "my key is inside! FUCK!!!" *click lock close*

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!! *kicking self*

And I was standing there naked in a small white towel. Fuck again... I gingerly pranced about the locker room to look for a dance mate I knew and asked her to go to the front desk to get the attendant to CUT MY LOCK *wails*. They cut it and NOW, I need to get a new lock. Thank God, however my friend Carol lent me her lock so that I could go to my next session. Thank you Carol! You're the sweetest! *hugs*

I then moved to Bugis to take a 350pm Tae-Bo class with David. I was still reeling from the reggaetton session and was feeling quite good. Got changed up into my 2nd set of workout gear - cannot wear the same one the whole time! All dripping wet liao! And BOY was I in for a crazy session! I'm going again tomorrow! Hey friends and dance buddies reading this, you HAVE to join me for this... Its SOO good! hahahhaahaha! He should make this class a permanent insertion into the weekly schedules. CONFIRM LOSE WEIGHT ONE!! Hahahhaa!!!

What is Tae-Bo? You can check out a warm-up video of his class HERE. Its similar to Body Combat BUT HARDER because it focuses more on techniques and completing a full move instead of half moves. Ie a complete front jab with ur arm completely stretched instead of just a half choreography move. What you see in the video is just warm up. When it gets down to class proper, we're jabbing, upper cutting, kicking, knee-ing and jumping like mad monkeys...Whoot!

It was SOOO FREAKING HIGH INTENSITY... it hit at least 80-85% intensity for most of the class! I was flinging sweat everywhere! It was SO GOOD! Gasping would not even be the word, I was literally wheezing through the last 15 minutes as I refused to drop intensity and get lazy. If I was going to do a class, I'll do it well ALL THE WAY. He ran non stop tracks and as usual the music was amazing. I had to be vocal for this class too so that I could complete the move without crashing to the ground. "Urgh!! Arrghh!! Whooot!! Urgh!! Aarrghh!! Whooooooott! Hai! Hai! Hai! Ooofffff!!! Aaaffff!!!" Yeah... that noisy one was ME if u were in the class.

*musing and wondering why I'm still so alert right now and not crashing into bed yet* It was SUCH A GOOD WORKOUT DAY!! I feel so satisfied and pleased. I know its hard to replicate this day bc firstly, the Zumba Joint class is a one off thing, it was the first time David did a COMPLETE reggaetton class and Tae Bo isn't fixed on the schedule yet but I hope this schedule gets fixed with this combo again someday soon. Love today. Love it!

Friday, October 24, 2008

When Kittens get Nua....

My girls and I name all the felines that we come across that we have an affinity for around our residence. Particularly those who also take to us well. We've had a kitten named Booger - only because it had a black spot on its nose that looked like a booger, we've had a kitten named Patches because of its strangely shaped coloured patches on its fur that lived in the coffee shop just downstairs.

We came across a tabby striped kitten the other evening as seen above and it was so affectionate and trusting, we all fell in love with it immediately. *Ignore the aunties in the background, we were sitting around an area where they were gathered* Eirian kept on stuffing her peanut butter kaya bread to it and it kept on eating it while smacking its lips while holding the bread in its paws! SO CUTE CAN!!! Even in my arms, it just lay there and ate quietly. It ate quite abit to a point where it refused to open its mouth anymore much to my daughters dismay who kept on trying to stuff its mouth with more food.

I carried it and it went soft in my arms. It loved being carried! It snuggled in my arms and I flipped it over. How secure and trusting a cat is with you is when they expose their belly to you.

I flipped it over and it just lay there. I rubbed its belly and it just purred. I cuddled it close and listened to its soft vibrating "rrrrrrrrrrr" it was eminating. It also had a cute soft meow and reminded me so much of one of my old cats named Max. It didn't want to be put down!

We eventually put it down and it toddled into some bushes and my girls are now contemplating its name and we will christian her with her "new name" when we see her again next week. IF she's still around.

There is also another cat that we always see on a daily basis on our way to my daughters' school & back. A black adult cat with green eyes which we named Mister Meow. He recognises our voices from afar as we start meowing to him as soon as we spot a black spot in the side drain where he resides. He starts running to us meowing and literally THROWS himself onto us in happy greeting.

Mister Meow is one of the most affectionate strays we've known to date. He slides down and plops his fat body down on our feet in attempt to hold us in place. Rubs his face on our toes. Weaves in and out and about our legs and playfully swats strings and attempts to nibble at our slippers/shoes and when we chide him "No! Mister Meow! No!" and we tap his head he looks up at us with his mouth open and tongue hanging out. SO CUTE LAH!!!

WE LOVE CATS & KITTENS!!

Linguine Bolognaise w/ Broccoli

Today's Linguine Bolognaise w/ Broccoli is a spin off from yesterday's Vegetable Soup.

Since I made so much soup last night, I kept a big container aside and kept it in the fridge for today's pasta sauce. And it was even simpler to make today. Everything just prepare & boil!

I only added sliced hotdogs, sliced button mushrooms and a can of corned beef to the soup and VOILA! Yummy Pasta sauce!

Boiled the linguine and broccoli. Combine everything together when done and top with cheese! Yummilicious! Another complete meal for the day. Enjoy!

*Note: NOT a carb watchers meal obviously. If you're watching carbs, do not touch something like this*

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Vegetable Soup w/ Baked Chicken

On a cold windy rainy day like today, I decided to warm the tummy and make Vegetable Soup w/ Baked Chicken and Garlic Toast.

You would think that vegetable soup would be easy peasy but for me, preparing this soup takes quite a while because of all the dicing. Everything in it is diced except the hotdogs thats sliced.

And I made a MASSIVE pot of soup that could literally feed 3 families. I intend to keep a portion for vegetable pasta soup for the girls one of these days and maybe freeze a portion for tomorrow.

The good thing about this dish is that its so adaptable. Add pasta and it becomes a vegetable pasta soup. Add minced meat and it becomes spaghetti bolognaise. Just boil spaghetti & add cheese! Cook some pork/beef cubes and it becomes a stew!

When I cook, I have my dance music on for ambience and CJ popped his head in at the kitchen door while I was cooking and said "I know whats going to come out is going to be really yummy. Y'know how I know?..... because you're dancing and enjoying yourself" And it was so true! A happy chef makes good food. :)

The thing that CJ didn't realise was that he was going to consume a large amount of vegetables! From a non vegetable eater like him. He would not purposely choose & eat vegetables unless I make it. And this definitely gives him more than his usual daily vegetable serving requirements. :)

The ingredients listed here was what I used but I would assume that for a NORMAL family portion, you would need only 1-2 of each vegetable at most. I love my soups chunky so this is how I do it. No straight from the can soup. This one is completely super for the tummy.

Whats in it? Remember, everything diced.

2 carrots
6 potatoes
4 sticks of celery
1 old cucumber *brown type - remove seeds*
6 medium white onions
8 fresh red tomatoes *remove jelly/seeds*
2 large corn on the cob *kernels chopped off the cob*
4 cloves of garlic

1 pack of chicken hotdogs *sliced*
1 small can tomato paste
1 small can tomato puree

Seasoning: 10 dashes of the following...

Black pepper
White pepper
Paprika
Oregano
Italian Seasoning

2 teaspoons of light soyasauce
3 cubes of Knorrs Chicken cube

Put everything in one huge pot, pour in water till almost near the brim or at least 2-3cm above the top vegetable height and let it boil, stirring occassionally. But for me, I stir every 1 minute just to make sure all the heat is distributed through all the vegetables.

I let it boil on medium heat for at least 40 minutes or till the potatoes are super soft. Then this comes the troublesome part. I scoop out all the hotdogs and half the the chunky vegetables into another pot and use my braun soup blender *as seen below* which goes into the existing boiling soup and blend the remaining vegetables in the pot to make a stew like soup base. Once they're blended, I remove my blender and pour in the hotdogs and chunky vegetables. Turn off the fire, stir and cover to let it combine and sit till ready to serve.

The Japansese style crispy Baked Chicken - was ready made from the frozen section of the supermarket under the brand Kellys. I just popped them into my toaster and baked them till they were hot and sizzling. And Garlic Toast on normal white sliced bread - how to roast garlic HERE and recipe for toast HERE.

At the end, we each had an ice popsicle and a bowl of coffee ice cream. Yummy!!!

Hot warming comfort food and dessert thats good for the tummy and calming for the mind. Enjoy. :)

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

And So We Danced...

With reference to THIS POST, the dance session went well. I reached the school this morning at 9am and checked the equipment and surveyed the area. David and Wai Han *who also happens to be one of the popular instructors at Cali. and also his girlfriend* came soon after and we got setup. Unfortunately, her camera DIED soon after as the battery went flat so she used my camera to take today's shots. Apparently we were moving too fast for it to be captured so all of these pictures here are blurred. -.-''

Oh and if you were wondering, I DID wear my white cap but I had to take it off because I knew it was going to fall off and luckily I did bc my head would have been SAUNA-ed under the stage lights if I did wear it throughout.

And thanks to everyone who wished me Good Luck for today! Luckily you did because I REALLY nearly DID fall off the stage at one point. A big group of students were up on stage with us and they were really crowding to the front so we had to use the minimal space to dance and I missed a step and my leg swung off the stage. Luckily I wasn't putting my weight on that foot and could pull it in after a tiny stumble if not I would have slammed off the stage in very UNGLAMOUROUS MANNER. *phew*

When we were getting set up, David announced that I WOULD BE DOING 2 SETS. "Pam, you're doing 2 sets and I'll do the others". I was stunned. HEY!! HOW CAN LAH!! So last minute cannot larh! I haven't even run the choreography through my head. Must at least tell me LAST NIGHT RIGHT so that I can run the usual sets in my head. *grumbling grumbling*

Then he went on stage and asked the students "Want to see Pam dance?" AARGGH!!! SABO!! I panicked, turned around so the students wouldn't see and shoved the mic back to him and told him "too last minute lah.. I can't! Don't do that to me..." I think the panic was obvious on my face so he laughed and said "ok ok.. fine I''ll do it." Eh.. Señor Velez.. you are the lead dancer in this session HOR.... want me to lead MUST TELL ME EARLY right! *grumble grumble*

The syncronising was down pat though.. I've taken so much of his class that I can easily fall into step with any moves and he didn't do anything today that we have not already done in class. Quite a relief actually because while it was a case of winging it. I was familiar with each track.

Each time he had to jump off stage to settle the music tracks which was all the way behind the hall, I took over the mic and I'm glad to note that my event experience with children was fully utilised. I had them bopping about, screaming, waving and getting their drinks and moving about the hall while we waited for "the man" to get back on stage.

One mistake though. In the beginning, we asked the students if anyone wanted to join us on stage and we didn't expect MORE THAN HALF of the group wanted to come on stage so it was a whole group screaming and running up the steps to be on stage. Not a good idea but we have to admit that the students were so interactive, they enjoyed themselves with all the running up and down the stage. Several times after, we asked SOME students up on stage with us and each time, we had to block so many students from running up.

It was hard to crowd control a group of international school 10-11 year old kids that we got so hyped up.
Because so many were on stage, we had to go on the floor level so that those on stage could see the moves too.

We did several routines. We had reggaetton, hiphop, cumbia, rock & roll, La Cucaracha which is cockroach in spanish and this was funny bc alot of the students there take spanish as their 2nd language and they were singing along to the song in spanish!, we did the Macarena too, quite abit of salsa, some merengue and bellydance.. there were so many kinds.. I really can't remember how many we did. We just did so many. We were dripping sweat like no one's business like as if we showered with our clothes on and it was so hard to keep smiling bc the kids kept on smiling back at us. The stage lights were so bright and hot!

And so we danced. And danced. And danced. And before we knew it.. the hour had passed and they STILL WANTED MORE.. the teachers kept on prodding. "More! more! more!" but we knew at least 1/3 of the students were already tired. Some already plopped themselves by the sides of the hall to rest n drink up. But we still obliged and the session went on for a full 1.5 hours from 930am to 11am... *tired ah!!*

The short haired american lady up there, Ray is one of the teachers there, she also happens to be the one who invited David to do the session at the school, and it also happens that she's one of my dance mates in class too! She joined us on stage and it was great! She's real fun and funny too!

Dancing on the floor level. And we ended with belly dance with Shakira. We didn't even do a warm down bc the kids were either all so hyped or already exhausted from the session. And so it ended... overall it went well.

At the end of it all, every kid wanted to give us a Hi-5. And I mean EVERY. I've never given SO MANY Hi-5s in my LIFE. First they crowded on the stage then we moved down to the floor level so they won't accidentally fall off the stage running up just to give us the high-5. It was insane! They were all so cheerful and so happy and so star-struck. It was really an experience.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Do you speak F language?

Can you speak F Language? No, its not French language and No, its not Fuck language. Its F-Language. Ever heard of it? You may have heard of it in grade/primary school in the 80s. You may have used it then and we still do till this day.

It works very well for us because only CJ and I understand it at home and speak it very fast because we've gone past the stage where we can spell out the words that we don't want our children to realise we're talking about. He knows that once I start talking in F, it means its something that the children is not supposed to hear.

Previously we were like, "hey shall we go for a S-W-I-M?". We spell it like that so that we don't let our children know that we were planning it in case we change our mind. Letting them know plans in advance that we don't carry out just means disaster in terms of disappointment / pouty faces / wailing / whining and mild temper tantrums. BUT now that our girls CAN READ & SPELL, spelling out our "hidden" words just doesn't work anymore. So we fell back to speaking F language real quick in these occasions and it still works fabulous.

So how do you speak F language?

Its where you place a letter F in front of every syllable break.

You break up a word if it has syllables and say the actual word, then u repeat it again right after but remove the first letter of the repeated word and replace it with an "F".

The first exception is that when its a vowel, you just add an "F" in front the repeated word without removing the vowel. Another exception is that if the original word already starts with F, just say it once. Ie Fish is just fish, not Fishfish.

For example:

How are you? is Howfow arefare youfou?

Shall we eat pizza or macaroni tonight? is Shallfall wefee eatfeat pifi zafa orfor mafa cafa rofo nifi tofo nightfight?

You damn fucking bastard, I'm going to kill you! is Youfou damnfamn fucking basfas tardfard, I'mfi'm gofo ingfing tofo killlfill youfou!

Shall we go swimming or go to the beach? is Shallfall wefee gofo swimfwim ingfing orfor gofo tofo thefhe beachfeach?

The trick about listening to someone speak the F language is that you just listen to the first syllables and ignoring the F-f-f-f that comes after that. What other people would hear is a whole bunch of words that they partially can understand but a whole lot of FFFffffsss...

So there you have it. F-language. Specially effective for parents of lower primary levels where they still haven't figured out what the heck their parents are Fuh fuh fuhing about. Or just when you want to pass the message to a fellow F language speaker while confusing other people when you feel like it.

Thankfank youfou for readfead ingfing myfy blogflog. Nowfow gofo learnfearn somefome F langfang guagefuage. :)

Dance Session with 250 Kids...

My dance instructor, David was invited to the Overseas Family School over at Orchard for some International School Celebrations and he was requested to conduct a 1 hour International dance session for 250 kids and their respective teachers at the school tomorrow from 930am to 1030am.

Being the experienced international fitness presenter he is, I'm sure it would be fun and turn out relatively well. The crowd and space at the Auditorium is big so it would only make sense to have at least one more person on stage for a better visual impact.

So who else but Me? LOL! I would be there for that stage balance as his shadow dancer as I'm familiar with his style of conducting the dance session and can understand his accent and way of switching from one move to another without too much of a stutter.

The only problem now is... He hasn't even thought of his choreography yet MUCH LESS be able to rehearse or give me an idea to what we will be doing tomorrow.

I'm pretty much just going to turn up, MAYBE get an idea if he knows what we're doing then or if he's just going to WING IT and I just follow from beside or behind and pray that I don't fall off the stage in that hour OR sweat so much as it makes me look very unfit OR end up standing there BLUR like sotong while he does the session. Very Embarassing Can!!

While I'm okay with him WINGING IT off bc thats what he does in class anyway, we never know whats next because it would depend on his mood for the day and what's in his iPod. I'm still a little nervous. Public Speaking I can do but Public Dancing is a whole new thing for me.

Dance infront of a 40-50 strong crowd in class? Sure! I haven't been pulled off stage yet. Dance on an auditorium stage in front of a school... *going into a coughing fit*....... GAH! *saying a silent prayer*

Experience wise, I'm sure it would be great. Who gets to dance in front of such a large crowd when they're still an amateur like me. PFFttt... after this, whats a 40-50 person class? LOL!

And I'm still open to try out being on stage with the rest of the dance instructors for the 10K strong Zumba party crowd if they are open to non instructors joining the presentation. *still under close door discussion* I must be insane but it would be SOOO GOOD! I'm pretty sure if I fuck up tomorrow that I can kiss that opportunity Goodbye...

Meanwhile, let me breathe deeply while I try to ease the panic thats settling onto my chest while I rest up for tomorrow's session. Wish me Luck!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

A Virgin Attempt at Dying...

Dying hair that is. I was sick of having my duo toned, inner base strands dark brown and the lower strands a highlighty chestnut colour so I popped by Guardian today, chose a DIY Revlon hair colouring kit in a light golden brown and happily skipped home. $7.50 only mah! Can try.

Only to realise around 930pm that I knew NUTS about self dying and started to worry about making myself a BLONDE accidentally so I warned CJ that it might happen because I really didn't know how it would turn out.

I caught Shelly online over MSN and I started asking her a whole load of questions and she very kindly volunteered to come over and do it for me. So at 11pm at night, I loaded some garlic toast into the toaster for them and Shelly & Nash trooped over.

Aye, such is a friend indeed. Who would drive all the way to your house at 11pm at night to dye your hair for you leh?! *muse*

I got geared up in a top that I didn't want anymore and an old towel and Shelly set off to work on my hair with expert skill and efficiency. She gently smeared vaseline all over my hairline and my ears - so that it won't stain my skin.

I have to add that she didn't use the gloves on one of her hands so that she could hold the comb to evenly distribute the lotion and this meant that the lotion stained her fingertips a dark brown. And it REALLY STAINS! Like, cannot come out for a week to 3 weeks that kind! Knowing that she's quite particular about her hands and her cleanliness, it really touched me that she was willing to "get stained" just for me. *love SOB SNIFF SOB love*

I asked how she knew what to do so well and she said, "just by observing at the salon lor!" Wah! Power. Hhaha...nothing to say.

The whole process took about 1 hour and it was well past midnight when we were waiting for it to set. The boys aka the hubbies were getting along quite well in the hall with their computers and whatever they were talking about.

After washing it off, I put on the hair conditioner provided in the box and now my hair is sitting lovely and soft on my shoulders, finally ONE single tone and strangely, it followed my previous highlights so the highlighted strands from before are also lighter now. So I STILL have highlights somewhat!

We'll know by tomorrow how it looks like in the sunlight but for now, I'm glad that my head is now ONE COLOUR. And the deeper tone looks pretty nice as it is right now. :)

Thank you Shelly & Nash for coming all the way here. Just for my hair. *muaks*

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Fish & Prawn Curry w/ Roasted Garlic Toast

After a very long 13.5 hour sleep from yesterday evening from 2 days of very tiring roadshows, I woke up very hungry today and decided after buying breakfast that I would make Fish & Prawn Curry so I did! When it was all done which was really simple too, I was highly satisfied with the outcome.

I take any reason to make my Roasted Garlic Toast so I made that too! Yummy!

So how do we make today's dish? Lets see....

About $10 of fish *I chose batang fish and had the fishmonger cut them into large cubes, I don't like Fishhead bc its all bones and I'm not a fish eyeball fan, I rather have fish MEAT*
$5 of prawns *deshelled & butterflied*
4 red onions *quartered*
10 large ladies fingers *sliced*
3 large tomatoes *sliced*
1 large eggplant aka brinjal *irregularly sliced*
1 cup boiled water

1 pack of Fish & Prawn Paste
*I use A1 brand*
1 small pack of coconut milk
1 small pack of mixed spices *I see mustard seeds, cumin and some other spices. Picture shown below for your reference*

Heat the pan with some oil and fry the eggplant till they're half cooked aka they're somewhat soft on the outside but not fully cooked through.

Remove from heat & throw in dry spices as above and dry fry for about 2 minutes then put in curry paste & onions. Stir about till fragrant.

Add tomatoes, stir. Add fish/prawns/prawn heads & cooked eggplant. Stir about, add coconut milk and keep stirring as it boils. Add water to desired gravy consistency.

Throw in ladies fingers, stir about and leave to simmer for 3-5 minutes. Cover the pot while curry is still boiling and turn off the fire to let it cook it its own heat till ready to serve.

Some people have been asking what it means to roast your own garlic and how I do it. I made Roast Garlic Toast the last time I made Chicken Curry. The recipe to that can be found HERE.

To make the roasted garlic butter, slice the tops off your garlic cloves as seen above and put them on foil. Season the tops with Salt, White Pepper, Paprika, Black Pepper, Italian Seasoning, Olive Oil. Recipe for this can be found with the chicken curry recipe above.

Toast the garlic for about 10 minutes till the sides tops are a dark golden brown. Turn the cooked cloves upside down and press down the middle section with a fork and the soft roasted garlic gloves will pop out the sides.

Mash up, season more if necessary and add butter & 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar. Use as garlic butter paste for french loaf or normal sliced bread. Very nice!! Enjoy. :)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Cam-lovin' Moments...

What do you get when put a blogging mommy & her daughter and a cameraphone together?

A Cam-lovin *as opposed to cam-whoring bc it sounds much nicer* picture on the way back from school!

Lauren finds it an annoying chore to take photographs so this shot was a rare capture that she was willing to take.

Me: "Lauren! Look to the tree there and look like you're err..... wondering what to eat for dinner!"
Lauren: "Okay Mommy!" *pose*
Me: *clicks camera phone & looks at picture*
Me: "Wah lau eh.. why do you look like you're in pain har?" *close phone* -.-''
Lauren: *shrug & continues walking*

And before the day ends... I take one more.. just for fun... :) Welcome people... to Dreaming Reality... enjoy your stay here and come back for more.... *smiles*

The Big Toe Phenomenon

Imagine this scenario.

You're dressed to go out and just before you step out of the door, you suddenly have this urgent need to pee/shit so you go to the bathroom.

Finish the deed and get washed or wiped and take your underwear or boxers or panties... whatever u wear to cover your crotch and you fling it open to open up the leg holes and lift your leg in preparation to wear the article.

With your leg up in the air, you attempt to step into your undergarment, only to have your big toe snatch itself onto either right in the middle of the crotch area of your underwear or by the side like some kind of magnet and your leg comes uncontrollably crashing down as you lose balance.

In your mind, you're going "Oh shit, shit shit! please let the floor be dry! please let the floor be dry!" and "Oh F**K!! I'm falling!! Aaaarrghh!!!!!". But of course, yes, you're falling off balance but the floor where you're standing just happens to have the biggest damn puddle of water in the whole bathroom!

Great. Just great. -.-''

So there you are, in that split second of horror while visions of whatever horrible things can happen in your mind happens, with a leg that feels like a ton and then....

"PLLLSSSHHH!!" Your freaking foot lands and pins your DRY underwear onto the wet ground.

AAAAAAAAAArrrrgggghhhhhhhhh!!!!

You then in frustration lift your leg to remove the offending wet article of clothing while cursing your non-agile-ness of the situation. Wet already how to wear har?!

Grab a new underwear if possible and now, on dry floor, GINGERLY ensuring that the leg hole is wide enough so that your toes won't decide again to "kiap" your underwear to the ground and finally step in successfully.

This my friends, is what I call The Big Toe Phenomenon and I'm pretty sure it happens to alot of people bc I've checked! Very not graceful one lah! Tak Glam lah! Like that also can?!

This scenario not necessarily has to be when you're on your way out. It can happen anywhere as long you're trying to step into an article of clothing. Ie dressing room/public toilet... whatever... and sometimes this applies to shorts or pants too. Not just underwear.

Has it ever happened to you?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I love Annoying Songs! Esp if they're about Cats!

Check it out!! And Sing with Me!! "Its a Cat! Meow! Flushin the toilet! Its a Cat! Meow!" More strange songs about about various creatures/objects can be found HERE.

Fish Porridge w/ Mixed Dishes

Tonights' dinner I didn't cook. My mother in law made fish porridge with REALLY BIG pieces of fish and made a whole pot of really soft & tasty porridge. Very smooth on the throat comfort food that everyone in my family loves.

I topped it with pepper & chili oil to give it an extra hot kick. And we bought vegetables & meat from the cooked food stall. The guys downstairs always give me ALOT of food for just $2 per selection selection that I order so now I'm literally the appointed purchaser from that stall. -.-''

Soyasauce Pork with onions & dried chili, Taugay aka Beansprouts with sliced chili, Chai Sim with sliced carrots and Spicy sweet garlic Brinjal aka eggplant. All of which were VERY VERY good! Must be the MSG... hahaha..

Everything together with hot piping porridge went very well! Yes, I had a small bowl of porridge too. Dinner was good. I hope you had a good one too. :)

Monday, October 13, 2008

BodyJam: The Next Big Thing!



California Fitness Group GX is now training up a group of instructors with some master instructors from other countries to lead up a new Les Mills class called BodyJam and its slated to be the next Big thing to hit the gym class schedule when its launched in probably 2-3 months time.

I still want to pursue the Zumba course as mentioned before but I hope by then BodyJam doesn't override Zumba in terms of intruige and interest levels! I love Zumba and I love the music and I love the moves and I love my dance instructors but people must WANT to come to Zumba class so that it doesn't die off!

I've gotten a taste of the choreography that's in the upcoming BodyJam classes and I like it already. I'm sure that I will be including this in my up & coming 2009 regime and I'm mentally trying to rehearse the choreography to what has been given so far as the class is a completely choreographed class which means there is very minimal freestyle.

This being said, once you get the choreography down pat, you can start to making it LOOK GOOD. Which is what I intend to do. I'm already penning down David and Ayesha's pending BodyJam class to fit into my regime as I know it would be great. Ayesha ran through the point snap routine with me after class today and she was surprised I knew the basic starting steps. "Hey! How did u know that set?" Oh... David had already intro-ed it in class! Hur hur hur...

Why is it that Rashidah didn't take the training this time, I want to know as she's one SUBERB dancer and she could very well make BodyJam really spectacular. Eh babe! Why arh? For now, I'll concentrate on what I can do with Zumba and wait for Rashidah's go ahead to when the instructor's course will be up next. *coughlook.at.Rashidah.how.ahcough*

Like what they say, its "Like the spanish inquisition but with a hip hop soundtrack". I'm all for having hiphop and latin fusion. Thats what Zumba is about too right?

What is it? BODYJAM™ is the cardio workout where you are free to enjoy the sensation of dance. An addictive fusion of the latest dance moves and hottest new sounds puts the emphasis as much on having fun as breaking a sweat. Check out the intro video on the BodyJam Site.

There is new music and choreography released every 3 months and BodyJam is now on BodyJam 46. Its been around for awhile but we're only having it now but at least its current. I might assume however that by the time, Cfit launches, we might be in BodyJam 47.

Basic Key Moves and Demo can be found HERE. Check that out dance people! I've reviewed these moves several times and realise that David has already used all of these during his Rumba class.

We just did the point snap combo on Friday and now I know, David actually started incorporating the moves in his Rumba class ALREADY! No wonder the choreo was different that day! I'll be practicing these moves more these couple of weeks. When it launches, I will be ready and in good timing.

I'm pretty sure if I can follow David's class routine as well as I do now bc he's really GILA! *crazy* that I can attempt BodyJam. It might take a little while but I can try. D. has no fixed structure to his class so his class really depends on his mood. So its BodyJam time! And I know several dance mates are getting as excited as I am. You guys & gals know who you are! Why are you reading this! Go rehearse the basic key moves I linked up there! And, Rash, I think I need to get started on Street 101.

I'm all excited. Aren't you? Will you be joining me for this class?

Look Younger by Losing Weight

I took a photo of my hubby, CJ when he came back from teaching the other evening and I was musing at how boyish he seemed at his current age of 37 this year.

Being fat really does make you look alot older than you really are. I would even assume that I didn't even look like I was in my 20s in this shot because I was! And CJ looked like such an Ah Lao Pek aka Old Uncle.

So the 2 lower photos shows a now, 30 year old me, 100kg vs 70kg and a 37 year old CJ, 115kg vs 85kg. Both a difference of 30kg each from Sept 2007 to current 2008 and some youth regained together with it.

So if you're feeling like you're looking old and you're out of shape/overweight/obese, do something about it and you'll start looking younger in the process. :)

Whats the secret? Stop stuffing your face and exercise!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hilarious: Wife Catches Husband Cheating

I've had this for some years now and its pretty hilarious. Bwuhahahaha!! "You are my favourite Buddha call" & "25% of the time, you're on the periodical".

Enjoy! This guy is SOOOOOOOO DUH!! Listen in!

Welcome Baby Noah!

Don't you just love babies?! They smell SO GOOD!! See him yawn? So cute!!!

My oldest *frm Primary sch* girlfriend Phoebe gave birth on the 8th of October, 630pm at Thomson Medical Hospital to her first son, Noah Chong.

Phoebe and I go waaaaaaay back from all the way to primary 3 till now. I remember her visiting me when I delivered my children and its come full circle when I visited her at the hospital today. Its really heartwarming to see my oldest friend finally become a mother to such a beautiful boy. *tears welling up - sniff sniff*

I know there will be questions to me as to since I love babies & their smell so much, if I would be having more children and the answer is.....

NO. But I leave the possibility of having a 3rd child open to a chance where if it happens then it happens but if it doesn't. I'm not purposely going out to make another one if possible. I'm very happy with my 2 girls and for selfish reasons. I like my independance, body, sleep & sanity now. So.. NO.. NO more children for me. :) Thank you.

For now, I'm quite happy to be Aunty Pam... to all of my friends/relatives/sisters? kids and help carry them in my arms to savour that soft sweet baby aroma that emenates from their head. And not poop/vomit/pee kinds of smells okay!!

Congratulations sweetie Phoebe!! I love you. May you succeed in breastfeeding Noah for months and months to come and that both of you be happy, healthy and loving always. :) *love love*

Friday, October 10, 2008

Crazy Animal Dancers

A little more on Reggaetton... but animal style. Hahhaaha!



What a crazy turtle!!



Oh and this purple hippo had me staring at my screen, a little appalled, a little stunned and with my mouth open. WHOA!! Like that also can har?! Wah lau look at that ass!!



This one has a nice collection of a number of dancing animations/animals too and also that I like Ella Me Levanto...

Okay.. the next one is really those WTF kinds so unless you have like 1.27 minutes to waste and kill some braincells.. check it out. *smacks head* WTF!!

Thursday, October 09, 2008

OMG. Do you sing like her?

*Watch at your own peril and with speakers put on loud please*

For those who still don't really READ my sidebar. YOU CAN PAUSE MY BLOG MUSIC by clicking on the top right corner of my music player if you want to watch a video on my post.

I came across this video from a blog I now regularly read and I was extremely tickled and had to post it up here for all posterity. Wow.. she's really such a "great" singer. Wow.. I'm so impressed. Hhahahaa! Do you sing like her? Oh...*gush* Look at that expression! Tone of voice! Wow! *mouth gaping*

Unbelievable but Undeniably Courageous. Oh... and I'm sorry if this traumatised you as much as it has me. HAHAHA!

If ur Ass can Break a Toilet Seat - You're TOO FAT!

There was a curious topic on my parenting board of how women, these days, don't seem to know how to pee properly and end up "spraying all over the toilet seat & the floor" probably bc they SQUAT ON public toilet seats. Leaving behind undesirable dirty shoe marks on the seats and pee or menstrual blood splattered over the floor. GROSS!!!

I think the best way to use a public toilet is just to horse stance above them and hover and get it over with as quickly as possible without ANY contact with the seat & bowl. Only if the toilet is hotel/gym/airport standard of cleanliness then I would gingerly attempt to make skin contact with the seat after furiously wiping it down and wasting bales of tissue before I even sit down.

But this topic reminds me of a time early last year where the unthinkable actually happened. I could not believe it myself and never thought in a million years that it would happen to me. But it did. And I was amazed.

I broke a toilet seat.

Just by sitting on it.

With my 100kg body.

Perhaps the seat was already not in the greatest condition but I heard a loud "PIAK!!" and I quickly stood up and I saw that the seat had cracked.

And what happened after... Lauren who was in the same loo with me........

....BURST OUT LAUGHING. *smacks her - Shhhhh!!!*

I was horrified, amused, confused and appalled all at the same time. WTF! Like that also can har?!

As much as I make it a joke each time I relate the incident, the shock of what happened actually really hurt me. *Not physically but emotionally / psychologically larh* I have shed a good amount of tears thinking at how unbelievable it was.

Was I so big that I could BREAK A TOILET SEAT? OH.. AND IT WAS A PORCELAIN SEAT HOR!! Not plastic. -.-'' *faints*

Indeed, I was too fat as you can see above... in my size 40 jeans. Click on this to see how that pair of jeans looks like NOW. (Oh and don't ask me why I'm posing like that.. maybe I was doing some demo?) so when people ask me, what made you want to lose so much weight? I'd say, I was too fat. Anyone at 100kg or near there must decide to embark on a healthier lifestyle for their own sake.

Or at whatever size you are unhappy with. Just don't get obsessed over weightloss if you're already almost bone thin. Think more of toning.. not weightloss. Ie. those in the weight range of 46-56kg. On average, this size is your standard healthy weight range. Just tone!

Is there a secret to losing weight? Well I tell you more HERE.

The toilet seat thing was not the reason why I decided to cut the flab but it sure helps to look back and swear that.... I'm never breaking another toilet seat again. EVER.

Tauhu Goreng

Today's lunch was Tauhu Goreng! Very easy and simple to make.

What do you need for this?

4-6 large Tauhu squares *one per serving*
1 large cucumber *shredded into long strands*
4 large fresh red chili *sliced into long strands*
3 leaves of lettuce *shredded - not the usual but I had extra so just throw in*
2 handfuls of Taugay aka Beansprouts *around 20-30 cents worth*
5 mushrooms *not the usual but I love mushrooms*
6 hotdogs *sliced - not the usual also but I need a little meat in my dishes*

Garnishes:
Crispy Fried Onions
Spicy Sambal Chili Sauce

Sauce: Satay Sauce *you can make this yourself by getting the satay mix from the dried goods store & adding 2 tables spoons of chunky peanut butter & 1 cup of water* I bought this one as seen below, it comes in small packs that cost around $1.20 per pack.

One pack makes enough sauce for 2 Tauhu servings.

Boil the taugay/mushrooms/sliced chili till cooked. Probably around 5 minutes. Remove & leave to cool.

Put the peanut satay mix into a pan with hot oil and stir around for around 1-2 minutes, add the peanut butter scoops and stir about for another 3-5 minutes. The mix turns into a paste when it starts heating up in the pan. Turn off the fire and add water a little at a time & stir till you achieve the consistency you want. Put aside.

Pat dry with a clean cloth each tauhu piece and deep fry each side of each tauhu square. The trick to not having oil splat all over the place when you're deep frying is to add a teaspoon of salt into the hot oil and stir about before putting in your food pieces and make sure your food isn't dripping with water!

When finished frying, place tauhu square on a plate, cut open and top with all the vegetables, garnishes and pour over satay peanut sauce and fried onions & serve!

Low carb friendly? YES! Definitely! Although you might want to take less peanut sauce. But this whole dish is good nonetheless! :) Enjoy! :)

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Weightloss Update: 70kg!


HOLY COW!! Today's weigh-in is FANTABULOUS!! Last weigh in last week can be found HERE.

Weighing in at 70kg!!

I have now hit the 30kg weight loss mark!! Thats practically shedding a pre-schooler off my body! Another 15kg to go & I'm HOME FREE!!

Can you freaking believe that? I couldn't. I stepped on and off the scale SO MANY FREAKING TIMES and exclaiming "OH SHIT OH SHIT! YAYYYYYYYY!!!" I'm almost dizzy.

*screams*. (Chanting "I wanna break 70! I wanna break 70! I wanna break 70!!") *doing the happy pammy spastic dance*

But then again.. I've been having double classes daily this week since Monday. The amount of activity level I've put in this past 3 days are exquivalent to a normal persons' one week workout!
BUT YAY still!!!!!! *3 cheers* Next stop!.. 69kg baby yea!!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

My Galfriends Love Me and I Know it Because...

They know exactly what I like, in the colours that suit me taking into account the cutting, material, style and size that I wear without me needing to remind them of these details and they select great stuff for me! I love my galfriends lah! I can feel the love lah girls! I love ya'll too!!

Shelly passed me that white halter dress you see in a couple posts back, yes, the one that made the guy slam into the wall dress. And she passed me a pair of smashing looking jeans *not in picture* that looks FAB on my ass. And this Outfitter Girls halter top that I wore today for my lunch appointment with my galfriend Kay.

It was gorgeous and I had my daughter, Lauren take a couple of shots for me in them with my going to drop off my ass size 35 jeans *need to get some size 32-33 pants soon!*

A straight up sweety shot, a bitch with an attitude shot and a I'm just passing through Oh Hello! Shot.. hahhaha!

Love the top lah babe.. THANK YOU! *hugs hugs hugs*

And my galfriend, Kay had a surprise for me during lunch too! And it was perfect timing! My sandals recently broke and I was intending to get some new ones asap and she surprised me with this!

Sandals specially ordered from Australia which her fiance purchased specifically upon her request and couriered them into Singapore just for me!!!

Wahhh!!! I'm so touched!!! *sniff wipe tear sniff*

Rubi Shoes...*ahem* sorry.. Rubi Sandals and bc its in black, it matches perfectly with alot of what I wear regularly! I loved it when I saw it already.

Slipped them on once I reached home and prodded about the house gleefully. So comfortable!! I'll be wearing them to death! Thank you Kay!!! *hugs hugs hugs*

Monday, October 06, 2008

I heart Reggaetton!

Anyone who has been to dance class with me knows that I'm a BIG reggaetton fan. BIG!! And everyone knows I love moving like this. I love the beat and I really can move naturally well to it too. And we have used this set in class last week I think. Damn freaking good for cardio! And I couldn't resist it. I had to try this video out. Easy peasy and SO FUN!

When they ask me how I do it.. I also don't know.. natural inclination perhaps attributed to the fact that I'm part spanish filipina by blood that has something to do with being able to move easier?

You've got to admit though, spanish filipinas DO sing and dance well. :) Too bad I can't sing. WTF happened there Ma?! Hahah!

And I found this video replicates very closely to what we do on some sets at Rumba and you will see why I'm enjoying dance so much. This video is also so funny, one moment all singing then the next they're breaking out in dance! I would love to gather a group of my dance mates and do something like this.

When the complete reggaetton only class comes out on schedule *which my dance instructor, David claims he will start one day*, I'm so definitely there. I LOVE REGGAETTON!! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!! *SCREAMS* LOVE IT!!

And I think my body is built just for this kinda dance too. I've got the shakey shakey booty shakin' ass, my arms are long, I've got the body shaking down pat thanks to Rashidah's guidance and constant practice and my hips are practically detached from my torso in class anyway.

And I know when people say they love my dancing, its very likely they were checking me out when we were doing the reggaetton sets. I LOVE REGGAETTON! Whooot!!!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Curry Chicken w/ Roasted Garlic Toast

Today's meal is Chicken Curry with potatoes with Roasted Garlic Toast.

Anyone who has eaten at my place would know that my garlic toast is first class. And even myself who is TECHNICALLY not eating bread bc of the carb levels will be having some slices today bc its just TOO GOOD! And I'll share how to make garlic bread Pam's way here.

Whats in todays Chicken Curry?

1 chicken *chopped*
1 pack of curry paste
5 potatoes *diced big*
2 onions * cut into quarters*
1 small pack of coconut milk.
1 cup of boiled water.
Sprinkle Paprika, white pepper and black pepper on top of curry upon serving.

Optional: Dark soya sauce upon serving *my hubby, CJ always takes his curry sprinkled w dark soya sauce* and boiled vegetables by the side for some daily greens.

Heat oil. Pour in curry paste and stir fry it till fragrant. Add in onions & pototoes and stir fry for around 5 minutes. Add chicken pieces, stir for another 5 minutes then add in water and coconut milk. Blend well, cover pot and leave to boil on high for 8-10 minutes & turn it to low heat and leave to simmer for 20-30 minutes stirring occassionally.

Pam's Roasted Garlic Toast
*recipe enough for 1 standard size baguette*

4 large whole bulbs of fresh garlic
Salt
White Pepper
Paprika
Black Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Olive Oil
1 tsp of granulated Sugar

Slice off the top 1/4 of the garlic bulbs and season open top with all the dry ingredients liberally and drizzle olive oil on top of cloves.

Place them into toaster for 10 minutes till the garlic turns fragrant & some sides turn brown.

Pull out of toaster & leave to cool and use a fork to mash out soft roasted garlic from its papery skin. Throw away the papery skin. Mash soft garlic and add 5 large tablespoons of butter *SCS* or margarine *I use meadow lea* and blend together.

Season to taste with more of the above dry ingredients and slap them onto to sliced french bread aka baguettes and toast for 2 minutes till bread becomes hot & crispy.

This can be made in advance and put in the fridge and toasted when required.

What you get is a heady deep flavourful roasted garlic sweetness with fluffy crispy toasted bread that can go with curry/pasta/chicken and whatever you eat garlic bread with.

Low carb option: Don't drink the curry, eat up the chicken pieces. And no touching the potatoes. Eat all the vegetables.

Enjoy! :)

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Lounging at Kallang Riverside...

What does a mother, on a Saturday when she doesn't have dance class because the instructor is out of town and has 2 bored children bouncing against the walls at home do?

Well it has to be something that is relatively low in budget, convenient, relaxing for the mom and fun for the kids all at the same time.

What do we do? We go to Kallang Riverside!

Its only 2 bus stops away from where we live, so the only thing we had to bring were snacks and bus fare!

Cheap? *tick* Convenient? *tick* Relaxing? *tick* and Fun? *tick* - OK. GO! At 2pm when I assessed that the sun wasn't burning hot, I yelled, go get your swimming suits! This was followed by a flurry of cheers and alot of scrambling to put their stuff together!! "Can we bring toys?! Can we? Can we?! Huh? Huh? Huh? Mommy please?!"

And so we packed and left. And I took the opportunity to try on a Bikini set today too! Whoot! I only realised the duo-toned boobs this evening when the pictures were uploaded and it was a sunny day too so all the pictures have us sweating alot. But sweating is better than burning at least!

-.-'' Looks like I need some serious suntanning soon.

The last time we went there, I ended up FRIED. Entry to that can be found HERE.

So this time, I made sure that I brought a REALLY GOOD sunblock and my umbrella. The only thing we forgot however was one of the most crucial. The Ground Mat. Which we only realised that we forgot it when we reached the riverside. Damn! I had to sit on plastic bags. Again. :( Must remember to bring the mat next time so I can lay out, lounge, watch the clouds roll by and read my books on the pokey grass!

So food was cake bread, prawn crackers, digestive cookies and water. And for entertainment... my phone fully loaded with my favourite tracks to add to the ambience of the lazy afternoon.

And it was off to play! Scoops and buckets to make little sand castles and for shell collecting.

Eirian was quite pleased enough to play in the sand and take pails of water to douse her area so she could mold the sand into various little shapes.

Lauren on the other hand, decided she wanted to go fishing and she did! She proudly caught 8 little tiny fishes and brought them home in the pail.

In the course of our explorations by the waterside, I saw a partially covered lump by the shore and went to prod it and realised that it was a fish! I saw bubbles by the side and realised that it was still alive so I shoved it back into the water.

It was alive! And it swam about happily for a moment and then...

IT SWAM BACK and plonked itself onto the dry shore. AGAIN. I thought it was weird and maybe strange coincidence. So I shoved it back into the water and it swam about again and CAME BACK and plonked itself on the shore AGAIN! WTF!

I squat down and prodded it and it let me prod it. And I picked it up and stared at it. It looked like it was alright. So I flung it deeper into the water. And...

Thats right. It swam back. KNN.....

I did that 10 times. 10 times, it swam back and flung itself onto the shore. WTF! Spastic fish or what?! Was it so depressed that it was trying to kill itself?!?

Anyone know what kind of fish this is? Or is this some kind of amphibian that is trying to get to shore and mutate and is not actually a fish but a strange giant frog mutation?

I picked it up again before I attempted one last throw into the water and took its picture. Not surprisingly, it returned so I gave up. WTF. Weird fish. It sat by the shore while I watched it from the grassline. I made one last attempt before we left to leave it PARTIALLY in the water at least to keep it hydrated and not dry out on the sand.

The Kallang Riverside is simple to locate. Its a 5 minutes walk from Kallang MRT station or you can drive and park by the roadside and enjoy the afternoon there.

Other than being a serenely quiet place, there is also the convenience of having a washroom/toilet nearby so you can wash off the sand and relieve yourself if necessary!

The sandy areas aren't too clean but its clear enough for older children like mine to watch out and be wary where they step and not stamp on bottle caps and other potentially harmful objects.

The most noise you would hear are maybe the dragon boaters practicing their rounds around the lake or perhaps on some days, wakeboarders doing their laps with the light buzzing sound of the motor boats dragging them along the river.

So thats about it for us lounging at the Kallang Riverside today. If you have kids and are looking for something to do and can appreciate some mindless lounging in a windy open space, go check out the riverside. Who knows, you might catch us there too! :)