My Energy Drinks

Yesterday, my stomach was punishing me after I took a big bowl curry noodle at 6pm. I felt a sharp needle pain in my stomach while I was teaching a new choreography in the studio. It came in gradually. In about 15 minutes after the pain begun, I rushed to the toilet with the urge to vomit. I continue back to teaching then, I felt a little breathless when I dance to show the new routines, of course I did had to rush to the toilet when diarrhea calls. After 2-3 rounds, I felt in total exhaustion… I cant continue dancing, I demo some small sections of the routine for them to practice. Thanks Goodness, my student May bought a 100plus for me immediately (Thanks to May). I finished the whole bottle of 100Plus and the whole bottle of mineral water. The 100Plus was a little comforting to my stomach and help me to gain some energy. The water helped restored some H2O in my body… I felt much better and continue the next late evening class.

I don't think it was the food, no one else got sick, I think it was my body. I pretty much carry around a little pill box with me in which there is usually medicines (for diarrhea). A note to me be careful with what I put in my sen-si-tive stomach!

Another year gone by....

Christmas is past for another year. As for me, I'm glad I had my Christmas family celebration early this year. It is time to recover from the exhaustion that too many cookies, glasses of wine and holiday shopping, Seriously, I’m developing a little pot-belly, and now I don’t dare step on the scale to check! Time to rest and relax, reflect and sigh.

Yes – it’s time to think about another year gone by – 2010 is coming. This year has brought many changes of my life. As I reflect back, I know my dancing journey has been a long one! I am still working hard on it, carrying on each day with one foot ahead of my students - pick the songs, start working on dances, breaks things down in small sections so my students learn the routine in pieces before we put it all together since most of my student never taken a dance class, they are not a tiny 5-6 year-old ballerina girls or a jazz dance girls, I am super, super focused and when I put my mind to do something or have a goal I want to accomplish, I always get it done. After a while they can actually dance to the routines and that was really exciting. Of course there was a moments where they will lose their balance and complaint too many turns, but some days they are better and better. Just a quick Thanks to everyone have been working so hard for!!

With all the rehearsals, competition, performances, makeup, photo shoots - all these always blows my mind. Most of our costume are hand made, every sequin and every bead is painstakingly and lovingly applied and sewn by hand. Costumes have to look great and we would be able to dance and move in them. Aahh…I can't wait for my PINK costumes!! When it come to troupe costumes, it's really, really a mind-blowing. The costumes have to fit for the dance style as well as the troupe wearing them. Hair and makeup is much the same. Belly dance is very dramatic, very heavy, over the top – lots of eyelashes and glitter and rhinestones. I love makeup, it's really fun and the hair and makeup are so great!

My full time job – I work 5 days a week as an administrative for a large public company and mostly my schedule was absolutely eating me alive. But, still I have refused to give up the things I love in my life – dancing. Cutting back on my dance activities has left me very little time. I teach a class on Monday to Tuesday evenings, and I teach on every weekend on Saturdays too. What I'm looking at now is getting more and more involved with belly dance emotionally, intellectually, financially, and physically especially with teaching, that the more I work at it the better I get at it. Yes, I love it. I fully anticipate that I'll be in love with it for the rest of my life.

Oh and I forgot to mention my calf muscle, it is heeling but it's not back to normal, I took really good care and it's healing well.

People in my life have played such an important role - Good friends that speak life to me and I am grateful for what I have gained - rather than lost. Their daily words to me have been a “life boat” when I was sinking. And those that just turning their backs on me, sit there and laugh or ignore me, I will let them go – for good. And that will be okay. God knows my heart, knows how the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit, something is missing, but it is not forever. And I will okay!

Until then, I look forward with great anticipation to 2010, I give all my hope for the best!

New Intake Belly Dance Class

NEW Beginner's class starting Tuesday, January 5th! The class meets every Tuesday & Thursday from 8.00-9.00pm! Space is limited so please try to register asap! In order to make your experience more enjoyable, I prefer to limit the amount of people per class, this gives you more space to dance, more "mirror time", much more individual attention from your instructor, and just makes your experience more enjoyable. We do not "mix" students like some other studios. Beginner students that start out together - progress together! Each level of students from beginner through advanced have their own set of classes. Beginner students generally have NO experience belly dance.

NEW Intermediate class - will meet up once a week for ONE hour plus starting January 3rd from Sunday 7:30pm-8.45pm! Although we will need to cover basic hip works and shines, this class will focus more on slow to medium tempo music while putting more emphasis on drills and move on to slow & sinuous taxim and making belly dance simple and FUN. You don't need to dance to super fast music to be a superstar on the dance floor! Belly dancing is about feeling the music and being able to spice up our dance.

All you have to do is come in or call me at 012-489 5395, get registered and show up to class weekly and you'll be surprised how much you learn at the end of each class!

Women United

After work last night I went to attend Women United dinner. It was an anniversary meeting for women to get together, to share, to laugh, to talk, to learn, to cry and etc,,,

It was a fantastic night for a fashion show in 'normal' clothes. What was lovely was every table must have one model to go up on the stage, the materials for outfit was not a proper costume either. Our table received a scissor, few pieces of broken fabrics, 1 piece elastic, 1 piece of A3 size yellow paper, bangles, some safety pins and rubber bands from the organizer. Then, we had our model and we decorated her outfit with broken fabrics. We let her wear a scarf on head. We fold here, tie here, knob there, and folded a cane with the safety pins and rubber bands and make her look like a belly dancer. And our model accents for the hips was ¾ shimmy when the music is on, look brilliant isn’t it? Yes, Finally, we won the 2^nd prize!!

BINGO... I am home

I found these tassel..

That’s working so hard..The bank staffs doing street marketing by walking around in Chinese traditional cheongsam and high heel. And I stood there, trying to figure out how they walk with the high split with the high heels for the whole day? Just imagine that…If I have to wear that cheongsam whole day, I cannot sit with the high collar, plus I am sure I will be go off balance and stuck in cheongsam rolling on the floor….

Yeah, the beers aren’t cheap, but 450 BAHT for a barrel is fair for cheers! .

Pray...Pray... Pray...

I pickep up some belly dance stuff here

I told the fat guy in the red suit what I want most in 2010..

Tut Tut in Bangkok is so 'small', 7 of us cannot go in

waiting to depart...

The trip to Bangkok seem to me like a blink of the eye and .. BINGO I reached. While I was enjoying the city decked out in its Christmas finery, enjoy seasonal entertainment…. BINGO I am home. Ahhhhhh!! it’s time to head back to my office. I felt my heart skipped away into that happy shopping mood.

My first visit to Bangkok got me hooked. It was definitely a trip to remember... and we actually had planned it all out some time ago! Thanks to Jack, he leaded us where to go, where to eat...where to shop....shop....and more shopping. Our first destination was the Platinum Fashion Mall. If you are a bargain hunter, you can get the wholesale prices for just two pieces. But I am lucky, I got a wholesale prices for a minimum of three pieces from the same store.

The Weekend Market Chatuchak - the biggest market in Bangkok and it is only open on Saturdays and Sunday. It’s almost like a maze. They have all kinds of things there, such as accessories, clothes, household stuffs, food, toys, pets, you name it. I picked some accessories because most of them have an ethnic feel. In Malaysia, accessories are always sold at much higher prices. I was drenched with sweat, and I hate having to push through crowds. I cant remember how many times I sat to rest my feet. It’s impossible to walk around the whole market. We left at 3pm and hopped back on the taxi to the other side of town where I picked up a couple of new shirts and lovely stuffs again. And I was about to run out of money too. I didn't take much photos cause we were busy walking....eating...walking...

So, to sum it all up the tri[p in Bangkok was shopping and more shopping. One thing for sure, is that this city does not sleep! It operates 24 hours every day, literally. There are night markets if I wanted to do more shopping...and shopping. Makan stalls everywhere.... and of course many other attractions which I won't mention here.

This post will be a quick. Year end is near, a bunch of work to do.. Well, time for the big push, this week.

Woopy....

I am now sitting in Airport, going to depart to Bangkok. This trip is my personal holiday, it is not a dance journey. I am now taking to reflect things I have done for my dance teaching and things I like to look forward too. I will write and make a list! Besides reflecting, I am blessed to have such a fabulous ‘family’— talented, loving, supportive students, and they are just damn fun! At the same time think about my possibilities to bring something challenging in my day-to-day dancing life also.

I still can't believe how fast this month has flown...One of these days, we are going to have our Christmas dinner with my Christian friend, Susan. I only got chance to meet her during Christmas time. Again, she invited us for the church anniversary event. She is so happy when I told her 10 of my students are coming. I'm going to just give out my cards soon, with the website printed, to likely candidates, or may be just text sms when I am not able to see those always busy friends. Then, when I am back, we have a rehearsal, we are performing on new year eve soon, the 1st time in Alor Setar China town new year eve festival!!

Woopy! Till here then, this is going to be my fun shopping weekend.

Holiday Brainstormed

testing my camera shoot

Turtle Bay

we screamed out loud when someone throw the see cucumber to us

Over the weekend, I went to Pangkor Island. This time we were in the large groups of 9 families drove all the way from K/L to Lumut. I took a late night coach and arrived in the morning at Puduraya, then we went straight to Pangkor Island. After parking we walked up to the jetty. It cost RM10.00 per day on weekdays but we need to walk to the Jetty which is about 5 minutes away. Alamak!! During school holidays, there was a long queue of people at the jetty. I had to stop twice because of the searing pain in my legs. And I walked like a duck. Ah ha…Thank goodness, nobody see my walk. I was very exhausted and as soon as I arrived in the hotel, I took a long nap while others went out to the beach.
I spent most of my time lazing in the room and eat, eat and eat and sleep. It make me fresh and energetic. Of course, I never forget the things I do for love - brainstorming of my "favorites". I was able to note it down in black and white, where maybe I can build up some techniques to fill out my dancing. Huh, so the first thing that struck me about this list was that I must practice harder till I completely comfortable with that I use it regularly while improvising without actively thinking too much about it.
Well, This trip was good except I missed out the water sport fun. But I had an only chance to cycle around the island before we check out on the 3rd days. I choose the small bicycle, so that I can just use my right leg as breaks when I don’t want to put too much pressure on my injured leg. I managed to cycle some distance at the coaster road, halfway cycle I return back because no strength to go uphill.. I end up walking my bike a good amount of the time. Haha… My palms hurt as I gripped to hard on the handles, fearing that I would lose balance and fall.
I’m off work on Wednesday again. Start my vacation week to Bangkok. This is so good. It’s gonna be a shopping, eat, sleep and shopping week. Next week, I'll tell you about my adventures in Bangkok. Meanwhile, have a great weekend, get your Christmas shopping done early and be well, my students and friends. Cheers!

Be More Patience...

After the third days on medication, I noticed my foot turned purple and along with my calf injury and I had a severe swollen ankle. Now that my calf is healing but still hurts a little when I first stand, seems odd... This thing cannot possibly heal soon enough as far as I'm concerned. I canceled my Wednesday & Thursday class. Not much that I can do about it except have to be more patience. :-(

Great. Now, I can go home early for dinner with my mom. I have more time to read my book. Oh…This book I bought years ago and have been putting it aside - Thick Face, Black Heart by Ching Ning Chu. Its quite interesting and I just cant put it down... It also described how to be “Thick Face, Black Heart” practitioner helps you with all aspects of your everyday life, but more importantly when we put the principles into practice within our business skills. It gives you a clear and powerful understanding of human nature. The author also approached in a different way to explain a little more about why “Nice guys” don’t win, and why “being nice” isn’t as nice as it seems. And when practicing a black heart can be equated with spirituality. I don't believe this point. Anyway, I better censor my thoughts. You know, just in case. If you read this book, write me about your comment.

Two of the CD's I ordered earlier have arrived, "Music for Arabian Dance" and "The Essence of Belly Dance". It turned out to be great timing, since I can lay down dancing to a song from each of the two albums. Hurray… for no teaching class!

My Calf Muscle Torn

Thank God for Nanci. Always interesting to see different teachers styles. A couple of REALLY good tribal workshops! After a few different basic move but then explored LOTS of different ways to learn Tribal Belly Dance. The "Mirroring each other " part of the workshop is open myself to new experiences. I had so much fun and felt really creatively inspired! My arms were so tired, my hamstrings were cramping! The 6 hours’ time just rushed past too quickly. I learned that Nanci needed to be at the airport for around 5:45 pm, then we quickly rush to the airport.

I love this cute chest circle, can you do it ? Remember the 1/4, 1/2, 1/2 1/4!

Diagonal to right - Chest circle to R/B/L/F
½ turn start with left foot,
½ turn come back to position.
¼ turn to diagonal to left - Chest circle to L/B/R/F
½ turn start with right foot,
½ turn come back to position.
¼ turn to diagonal to right & repeat.

I usually will run through the moves after workshop or to review the notes. I was tired last night, after rest awhile and regain my strength, I spent a lot of time moving around the floor. Hmmm…and suddenly, I heard a ‘pop’ and felt a bang on my left calf, I was feeling like someone threw a rock at my leg!! I turn my head and look around around, not sure what’s went wrong, all of sudden I cant put my weight on my left foot. I screamed because of deep pain, I then shout my mom for help, she applied the massage cream and help me to patch ‘traditional china koyok’ on my calf. This is the only way she can do in the mid night. Thank to my mom have to poured water for me.

My mom and my friends said I have damaged the achilles tendon. Both of them said this could be a partial rupture. This morning I went straight to KMC before I go to my office. According to orthopedic doctor, it was my muscles torn in my calf. The doctor told me to stay off from exercise for as long as it takes heal completely. He recommend at least 2 weeks, and make serious calf stretching an integral part and icing it on and off. While sitting in front of the doctor, I said ‘yes ok ok’. Thankfully my leg is not swollen. But now I can't walk on my left leg except on inward-twisted tiptoe. I need to ice it, relax, stay off my feet for a few days, If after a few days the pain still persists I need an ultra-sound. Oh God, I am feeling sick for my calf pain. I am feeling sick of taking pain killers, I don’t want taping techniques to support the injured tendon!!! Its no joke and such an inconvenience.

I never cancel my evening class, I still will go, but you dance I watch, all of you will be under my watchful eyes!

Learn Real Tribal Belly Dance

Not feeling well today. All I can say is thank god I don't have to get up early in the morning!

I took out my homework given by Nanci, get myself ready to fill up the part ‘student to fill up’ then get ready to practice, my challenge tonight will be drilling with a swollen ankle. Okay, see, I stepped into a big hold while walking to the car park with my high heel, thankfully didn’t fall but woke up discovered my ankle swollen – nothing serious still can practice Isolations, pop and locking for muscle control.

Sunday is our 2nd workshop with Nanci. We are going to learn the Eight Basic movement in Tribal Belly Dance - First 4 Tribal basic moves & Second 4 Tribal basic moves. There will be a lot of body work this time but little paper work :) this is what Nanci told me. Anyone interested in a Tribal Fusion should consider the foundation of movements is where all the Tribal Style movements are based off of. I am happy with this great deal to learn and experience the REAL Tribal in dance and the music. Nanci is a great teacher. She had a lot of lovely moves in there... and some facial expressions and arm movements. And its an amazing price too! I really recommend it!!!!!!!!! See you on Sunday.

Holiday Mood

Where has the time gone? This means we're just 3 weeks away from Christmas. December is sure to get anyone in the “holiday mood”. Well, It is time to take a break from your work to enjoy some relaxation with your family. Others, like my students, they are on vocations. I know the "holidays mood” and its attendant "spirit" will soon be in the air. So my new class still not open yet.

I remember one of my friend told me that in our journey for survival we did not find time to enjoy and keep each other company; like what his Australian friend once told him – “You Malaysian don’t know how to enjoy over a dinner together!” You know why he said this? Because each time when my friend have a dinner with him, my friend always rush in and rush out to answer the phone call. While, when the dinner is plan, this Australian friend make sure the dinner is 4-5 hours long with lots of beers and wine, and surely there must be Karaok lor. This Australian friend really make so much fun for every one! All of them will be drunk and dancing and singing “We are the world” together, hugging each other and everyone singing like drunken frogs.

I think what he told me is true, we fail to enjoy. We work hard and miss to enjoy hard. This made me think about the importance of my daily work or dancing in my life. As it is with dancing, I think I physically and mentally suffer when I'm not writing (lot of tasks because of planning). For the past few weeks, I haven't been writing anything much, I felt crabby and just plain out of sorts....

Now I am just catch up on reading or continue to write, either out of habit or simply because I don't have a house full of relatives visiting. Yahoo.... I am also taking a very short break to go to Pangkor Island next week and then Bangkok. I will keep working, keep posting, keep dancing every day.