Something meant to be shared 真水无香

If you are a woman reading this, you might find it very rude. But if you are a guy…

          Last month, National University of Lesotho Scientists released the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of Female Hormones in beer.

          Men should take a concerned look at their beer consumption. The theory is that beer contains Female Hormones (hops,contain phytoestrogens) and that by drinking enough beer, men turn into women.

          To test the theory, 100 men drank 8 pints of,beer each within a 1 hour period. It was then observed that 100% of the test subjects:

1) Argued over nothing.
2) Refused to apologize when obviously wrong.
3) Gained weight.
4) Talked excessively without making sense.
5) Became overly emotional.
6) Couldn’t drive.
7) Failed to think rationally.
Had to sit down while urinating.

No further testing was considered necessary.

          People, you gotta check these out!!

• http://www.experiencewonderyou.co.uk/
• http://www.oooooouch.com/

          Just the moment I think my life is in a place, my dad sent me a text message this afternoon, saying if I can bring him 100,000 RenMinBi back this time when I go back to China. 100,000 that’s 40,000 Ringgit!

          After my dad retired from Chinese Army in 1995, he started to work as city branch director in a bank for few years, then decided to quit his steady wealthy job and started a business in his own. He is a great general and a brilliant leader, but he is not made to be a businessman I am afraid, the first two years was barely profitable. He sold his company in year 2003 and retired with my mum. Meanwhile, he loaded his and my mum’s 3 million (RenMinBi) retirement fund to his so called business partner to start a business. It turns out, the guy refuse to give back the money to my parents after his company started to make fortunes. 

          They went to court, and my dad won. That guy appealed the case, so it’s still running – it is a marathon. It means money. The business law in China is yet comprehensive, and the guy simply has a stronger financial situation than my parents, my parents don’t have the money to sustain the case if it is gonna be a long run. Besides, I have no much faith in China’s justice system.

          I always feel I am really blessed because of my family, my dad. He have given me all sort of unique life experiences that many people couldn’t even imagine – be a daughter of the respectful general, a powerful banker, and a luxury of living a life the way we wanted. And all of these have been taken away the moment he decided to start his own business.

          I can bear with self-sufficient after all the proud and privileges have been taken away; what I can’t bear with is I don’t know how to help my parents. I am stressed out. I fight my way through ever since I started working, which was the same time my family started to go down hill. I try to be good and independent. And I save, at same time seeking for suitable investment for long term planning. I am on the way to live steadily and satisfyingly. Yes, I have small amount of savings, I worked really hard for it. I also have my goal to accomplish and plan to fulfill. I have been very responsible for myself and my future. The problem is how I can it giving in when I am not even sure there is a sure return?! The risk is big enough to ruin all my effort and hard works.

          What should I do now? I suffer when I feel my parents are suffering.

Everyone talks about lifestyle, so, what kind lifestyle I am having. I list down some of the essential stuff that made my so called ‘lifestyle’.

Let’s start with the basics-

Living in a condo with all the necessary facilitates, 24 hours guarded in Bangsar

Have choice of either taking a cab or LRT or walk

Having a decent job, and a part time job

Fancy dinning to Maggie mee, anything goes

I like to cook, I like to learn new recipes, from oriental to western 

Fairly healthy

A nice flatmate

 

Source of information

TV, of course, I realize I watch a lot of MTV, Channel V, Travel and Living

I don’t really read newspaper

I read books when I find the books I like

I read 3 to 4 types of magazines every month 

I like to talk to all sorts of people

I pay extra attention to advertisements

Watching movies

Pirated DVDs

I blog and read other people’s blog

Fashion

I don’t believe in branded stuff

I don’t believe in Sales

Most of my clothes and accessories are from small boutiques like Blook etc

I need at lease one new item every month

I don’t like to have what everyone is having

I mix and match

Social

I socialize not only because my part time job, it is a part of my lifestyle

I like Bangsar still, I liked even more what bangsar is going to becoming. I like to have Sunday brunch in La Bodaga and couple of drinks in TSB after work.

I don’t mind Heritage Row, Cynna and Atrium

I am not really a KL town person

I party, some times chilling out

I am good friend of a few ‘hot’ club/restaurant/bar owners in town

Friends

Though I can easily make new friends, I select my friends very carefully

I stay loyal to my close friends

I have both close girlfriends and guy friends, so I get the best from both

I have few different groups of friends

I make time for my friends

Sports

I consider myself an active person

I know bit of everything, and I do bit of everything

I go to the gym at twice a week for half an hour to keep fit

Music

Music is the soul

I associate my life moments with music

It is my therapy sometimes

It is personal

I can find connections to all kind of music apart from Hard Rock

Travel

Travel is one of my main purposes of working hard

It fulfills me

I travel to outside of Asia at least once every year and twice within

Asia

Relationship

A stable good relationship

A nice caring smart man

A life partner

Self-indulging

I don’t really indulge myself materially

I go to massage once for a while

Fine dinning when I feel like it

Obligations

I don’t have load, yet

My parents are self-sufficient

I have no investment yet

I save

I have 500 hundred debts or more

I have no religion

Self improvement

I never force myself to study English, but I consciously wanna improve it

Constantly self-examining

Keeping an open mind

Meditation once a week

MBA

Lifestyle changes according to different life stages. Being an ‘attached’ modern single, especially going to be 27. I am glad my life is more than just working and boyfriend. All these elements made my very own lifestyle and each of them are important to me, they keep me fulfilled. There are soon will be some adjustments once I agree to move to next life stage. So, let’s just enjoy what I have for myself now.

Al was in the Sunday Star (Dec 10,2006).

The first time I met Mathew Martin was through a friend in Poppy, and my first impression was, “Man, he can really dance!” Few months later, I met him again in Velvet, obviously we know we have met somewhere, but have no clue where and how! He still dances like Chinese version of Usher. We exchanged number then, and he asked me out for dinner few times. It didn’t happen - I was busy, and not really keen. Then, he has gone quiet.

Until today, I sent out invitations for party in Luan to all my friends, including him. He asked me for dinner, again. Well, I was practically free tonight, on the other hand, I want know what’s with the name ‘Mathew Martin’, he looks Chinese to me!

Then, he picked me up from BSC with his E200 Kompressor, I was thinking, “This dude is trying to impress me.” And we went straight to Hilton for dinner, which, again, he picked the place. Anyway, he looked little tired, and I try to break the ice, so started to giving him a little bit of my background. I told him I am from China (I didn’t wanna lie this time, it was a ‘test’ for him anyway), and lived here for 8 years, yada yada…When we reached the restaurant, and started to talk properly – I am glad he was a nice company!

28 years old, fairly charming, coming from a blessed family, have half Chinese blood from his Mum, quarter India and quarter Japanese bloody from his Dad. Educated in overseas, lived in few countries, working as an engineer in an oil & gas company, and doing fairly fine. He was being himself the whole time, very honest (to the good, bad and naughty), and well behaved. Relaxed yet a gentleman – I was impressed – lucky he didn’t turn out some kinda Ass**…haha!

He mentioned about Land Banking which brought up my interested to the max, he shared some information which I find quite useful. Yada yada… This is the first time we went out (It isn’t a date, I am afraid.), and I feel he has no other intentions, at least not obvious.  I can see there are rooms for us to know about each other more. So, good, I just made another potential good friend. 

          

          “We exercise in the name of duty. We work overtime in the name of duty. We visit our parents in the name of duty. We sometimes marry in the name of duty, and then have children in the name of duty, too.” I read this from a magazine which has ringed a bell – yes, I think I am addicted to endless ‘duties’!

          The consequence of it is that, I forgot to live in the ‘Now’.

          As children, we were always taught to think about future. About next year’s exams. About what we’re going to do for living when we grow up. About scoring enough as to qualify for a better future. Everything we do seem is about future.

          Then we grow up, and find that we still think about the future: Bills, relationships, insurance, etc etc – we never short on things to worry about tomorrow. But we also cast bleary eyes into our past and look back at those crucial life-changing incidents we think defined out lives. The first time we stood up for our parents; the first time we date someone we really like; the first times… years after it all, we think about what we did and what we said and regret what we do. We think about how things would be if we behaved differently. Future and past; tomorrow and yesterday. But isn’t today what matters most? 

          See, I am not in a denial of the now; I am just so caught up with past and future. I am not escaping from the ‘Now’; I am probably just another extreme of pushing responsibility to the ‘tomorrow’. I live with a ‘to-do’ list, and check it everyday. I am so afraid of missing something out that will cause a mess in future. The point is that, I am not even a super organized person! In my head, there are these endless responsibilities and duties, the more I try to make things under control, the more I lost the focus of feeling the moment of ‘now’, which IS the preparation for the future. That feeling of a gap between future and now is frustrating - it makes me feel I have gained nothing in the end of the day, because nothing I have done in a day seemed register in my mind to satisfy me. What I truly feel is a big black hole that I have already missed the Now, and the future yet to come.

          I also give time to my past, blogging for instance, most of the time, it is about living the moment of thoughts in the past.

          Living in the now is about attaining a peace of mind that sometimes extends beyond the senses of the surroundings. It is about recognizing and feels about the transience of time and knowing that the past is gone and the future yet to come. The only thing we have is the Now. It is not how we handle each Now that counts, but our attitudes towards it. Planning, fulfilling the responsibilities and duties are good, and sometimes, we just have to stop we are doing for a moment, and ask ourselves – are we wasting the Now for our past and the so called - future?

Sis just opened a new club in the Curve, called Sanctuary. I went to the soft launch last Saturday with Al, Carrick and Andrea. The place is ‘ok’, not my type though, too much ‘dark element’ in it. It also supposed to be Sis’s birthday party. You see, this is one of the reasons I never get together with Sis – he is a workaholic, and most of the time he works at night! He either really doesn’t mind to mix his birthday celebration with his new club opening party (which I know he will be too busy to actually enjoy it), or he is too good at marketing by using his own birthday as attraction to the new club. Either way, I feel sad for him.

It was also the first time I introduced Al to Carrick (my flatmate), surprise, and yet not surprise -they got along really well. Good.

Party was fine, but I feel strongly that I am responsible for certain people and situations, such as Carrick, Sis, Al, Andrea as always, Friend’s girlfriend, and even my Ex’s buddies, so I couldn’t really relax and enjoy. It also made me think, here are couple of snapshots I’d like to share….

I started clubbing when I was 21, to lot of people it consider late. But I ‘catch’ up very quickly until it has become a part of my lifestyle nowadays. So, what’s with clubbing? Why people clubbing?

Clubbing life in KL is one of the selling points for ‘Cuti Cuit Malaysia’. Zouk’s 2004 opening helped generate excitement in the club scene. However, I don’t feel any one club is dominating the Klang Valley today. Everyone is doing their own thing, On Saturday night; Poppy has got the RnB lovers down there, while Zouk has a different crowd on Friday and Saturdays. Loft has its own crowd too. So, everyone has their fair share.

Though competition is good, part of the problem is KL might not be a big enough city to sustain to diverse a dance scene. There are too many potions out there, but not enough of a population to support it. Opportunities are not as much, the reason being there are also more DJs nowadays.

When house music first hit KL, it was simply house music to most of people. Today, a more discerning crowd exists, and they know where their preferences lie. There are four types of music that are big in clubs today: electro, rock, minimal, and hard house. However, popularity alone doesn’t always translate to money – the ravers go in and drink one beer and dance all night. That’s why generally RnB is till one of the more popular genres, it comes down t business. 

Clubbing won’t die. And I came out with a set of psychographics for the clubbers, if you think you are a clubber, which one do you fit in? I think I am little bit of yellow, green and purple ; )

          I am in love with the new Bond - simultaneously bad, tough, elegant, plus the irresistible subtlety. I know Daniel Craig from few small British films even before he got famous. I like him then, but I was afraid that he might not be able to carry the role of James Bond… I totally surrender after watched his first Bond…oh, his beautiful blue eyes ….

           There is one difference between the old and new Bond, that traditionalists are likely to regard as utter sacrilege. Under stress, the new Bond orders the usual, a vodka martini. "Shaken or stirred?" asks the grinning barkeeper. "Do I look like I give a damn?" he answers.

          Someone said, "She is so lucky to have him…" And it sticks to my mind the whole night.

         "I am not lucky to have him, just as he is not lucky to have me. We are only lucky if we have each other". And I ask myself how lucky I am - The truth is I don’t feel extremely lucky, not just yet.

         Don’t really like to be told or reminded how lucky I am, because this kind of things are not about how ‘lucky’ the person is, ‘Lucky’ won’t make a person happier, being ‘lucky’ won’t lead anyone anywhere. There are more things need to be considered, there are more work to be done.

          Bottom line is, only these two people know how lucky they are. Only these two peolpe have the right to say, "We are so lucky to have each other!" - because that comes from a long way, that’s real.