We did it!!!!

We did it!!! We did it!!!!! We managed to get thru the competition without any horrifying mistakes!! lol! Go to my partner's site to watch the video and see some pics.

Thanks to my lucky pardner (he picked out our number), we were the last couple to go on (#7). Giving us enuf time for our costume change and also make an impact, hehe... ;o)

Anyway, we were up for the Group Dancing first. Being the last couple to go out to the dancefloor, we had quite a bit of space so we weren't cramped up like the others. Screwed up a few leads here but kept the smile in place, haha...

Each couple's routine went by pretty quickly but me and Chin Lai were pre-warned not to watch, lest it made us more nervous. From the dressing room, we noticed that they did away with the short interview session (thank gawd! Given the emcee's gawd-awful English, I dun think I would've understood a single word he said!).

As our turn came closer, could feel my heartbeat increase as well, up to a point where Chin Lai remarked, 'Uh, ur heart's beating fast' and i went 'uh huh'... haha... or sumthin to that effect. I was just trying to keep my head together and calm myself down when i hear the emcee announce 'Couple No. 7!'...

So out we went, did a short bow and took our places. Nodded to the DJ to play our song and off we went! Started out pretty ok but when i did the one-leg-squat-with-other-leg-extended, darn floor was sooo sticky that it was so hard for Chin Lai to turn me around! Gawd, I swear my left arm muscles had to work doubly hard that evening just to make sure i didn't fall over! lol! Blah blah blah... oooohhhh, can u believe that we blanked out at certain spots where we'd never had any problems before?! I think the major one was at our 'wow' move... my partner, bless him, i could see on his face, a look of pure blankness when we got to that part. And i was like 'oh my gawd! oh my gawd! he forgot the move!!!!'... and was soooo worried coz i needed him to sorta lift me for this move and there was no way i could wing it on my own. So I just went for it and thank gawd he remembered in time and we just managed to scrape thru, though not as gracefully as we'd normally done it. Phew! Close call! And our ending dip, i managed to bang my left ear on his knee.. oowww! But no matter, at least we managed to finish the routine without any humiliating mistakes, haha! :o)

Aisha was so funny... after the competition, she told me 'when u came out, i felt like crying!'... and i went 'haha, like how a mother would feel if her child were to perform the first time, rite?'... and she said 'yah yah'...well, it's thanks to Sam and Aisha for their hard work and patience in coaching us that we'd managed to even make it into the competition, so here's to Sam and Aisha... THANK YOU! :o)

And most of all to my partner, who looked absolutely dashing that nite ;o) ... thanks for sticking by and not strangling me when i was at my worst... haha...

oh, did i mention that we were voted Crowd Favorite that nite? I'm sure my SMCK buddies had a fair bit to do with this, lol! That's them on the right... :o) Me and partner were stunned when this was announced coz we weren't expecting it at all... and we were standing there, looking lost coz we didn't know wat to do! lol!

So well... there u have it... the organizers will announce the finalists this Thu so we'll have to wait and see if we make it... BIG THANKS to all who turned up to support!

One down, one more to go...

Well, we managed to get thru the dress rehearsal in one piece... haha... The most tedious part of the entire process was putting on the makeup! Ugh! I never liked this part of putting on a show... takes me at least an hr to put on my Odissi makeup and I think i took abt the same amount of time last nite to do my makeup, and that was with Melanie's help. Gawd, and fake eyelashes are sooooo weird! At first, it felt like i had something constantly in my line of view but then after a while, i kinda go used to it... hehe... made me look like a doll! lol!

So anyway, while the Intermediate class was going on, me and Peggy were busy with our makeup and costumes. We were to do a mock performance after the class.

10:30pm...Show time! Sam called our names and we went into Studio 1. All the Intermediates and whoever else who showed up were sitting on the left side of the room, part of the lights were off to create the ambiance... haha... Sam then asked each couple a few questions, a mock interview la. Then we started the General Dance. He played the same song that was used at the first heats!

So we started dancing... boy, was it difficult to keep that smile in place the entire time, man! Couldn't figure out some of the leads so I just faked it, did some spins and hand styling, haha. Constructive feedback from the audience was that we needed to interact more with the crowd.

After General Dance, time for costume change! My costume took a lil' longer to put on so we get Eric and Peggy to go on first. While changing, could hear the audience's wolf whistles and yelling.. lol! Then... it was OUR turn!!!! Went out to the studio and held my head high. Put on a 'i'm a diva dancer and i'm gonna show it' look... lol! Music started, i did my intro spin, the son came on, then the one-leg-squat-with-other-leg-extended... the crowd seemed to enjoy that... hehe... The rest of the routine went pretty smoothly except that we sped up at certain points and *gasp!* i had a blank-out moment where towards the end, after a right turn, i'd forgotten that i was supposed to our 'wow' move i.e. the lunge-duck-spin move. Gawd, I can't believe i blanked-out!! How horrifying! This is bad... i thought it happened in Odissi coz the items are so long... but in a 3-min performance too??? This is absurd! So anyway, thank gawd i remembered the move in the nick of time and we managed to finish our routine without any untoward incidents... phew!

We still got the comment that our routine seems too choreographed... we really need to work on that FEELING, man! ARGH! Oh well... tomorrow's D-DAY so I guess we just have to do our best and most of all, have fun! Oh, my pardner looked absolutely SMASHING with his hair gelled up and his red shirt (Martin's), jacket, and Lycra pants (Sam's) ;o) And I've gotta keep the smile in place! ARGH! SOME ppl (namely my sister) thinks it's so blurdy easy to smile the entire time while concentrating on executing the routine. I'm sure it comes naturally to some ppl (lucky for them) but unfortunately, I'm not one of those ppl so I've gotta work extra hard to put on the smile. So stop harping on it already! I know wat I gotta do and I'm trying! U saw the diff on Mon and Tue... geez...

Wish us luck and hope to see y'all there! :o)

Dress Rehearsal!!!

It's dress rehearsal tonite!!! I can't wait to get all dolled up! lol! I've gotta get used to dancing in my chilli red costume, hehe. Am praying that I won't encounter any wardrobe malfunction (thanks to Janet, we've now got a term to describe 'unexpected happenings' with our clothes! haha!).

Am just trying to fill myself up with happy thoughts so I can radiate positiveness through our dancing, since that was the main comment we've gotten from our 'audience'. I'm gonna smile so much till my face hurts! haha! Well, not till my face hurts la... since I'd end up looking like i'm in agony then, hehe...

Went to get sequins to get sewn onto my skirt. Wow, there're sooo many different shades and colors of sequins... so pretty!! Hehe... it's obvious that I'm not an arts+crafts person... well, i used to do a lot of sewing when I was younger but not anymore. No time!

Anyway, bought several packets of sequins, from silver to transparent. Hopefully at least one of those will match the skirt I'm gonna be wearing for General Dance.

Am having my 2nd cup of coffee for the day.. bad bad BAD! But i'm so tired + sleepy... have to keep myself awake. Not that coffee helps but am banking on the psychological effect, which occasionally works, hehe...

Think happy thoughts... think happy thoughts... hhhhmmmm, wat's my happiest thought??? ...... wow, this is not easy! hhhmmmm..... i think i'm gonna be bouncing off the walls soon, feel myself getting a bit restless. It's raining and damn blurdy a/c in the office is soooooo cold! *shiver*

3 days to showtime!!!

Well, we've 3 days left till the competition. This evening, we had an impromptu audience, a pre-preview, so to speak, hehe. We = me + Chin Lai, Eric + Peggy. My sis and Aisha were the audience... hehe... So anyway, we tried to do a mock of the General Dancing part of the competition. Oh maaaaannnn!! Disaster!! At least, for me it was. I think I was too used to dancing our routine that I'd forgotten to how to follow and poor poor Chin Lai, had to get black looks and hisses from me during the dance! Gawd, how mortifying! Points to self:

1. Just follow the blurdy leads and dun think so much!
2. Even if i dunno wat the lead is, just FAKE IT!
3. Look at my partner, and as always... smile, smile, SMILE!!!!!

Next, we performed our routine. We added 1 more member of the audience here : Erin. I think we were ok during the routine but maybe coz we were anxious, we sped up a bit and went ahead of the music in a few parts. Points to self:

1. Look at the audience, get them 'involved' in the dance.
2. Look at my partner (yes yes, I've been neglecting the poor guy)
3. And for gawd's sake, look like I'm enjoying the blurdy dance! lol! I really gotta work on this bit... coz i feel like i'm smiling, but unfortunately, the audience says otherwise so... i think i really gotta fake that smile! Ugh!

The comments from the 'audience' on stuff that we (particularly I) need to work on are as above. Positive comments were that we're fine, technically. Sis even said we were too clean! Is there such a thing ah??? I think that means too choreographed, which i dun think is a good thing though... hhmmm... Technically ok, but no feeling... damn, if there's one thing i suck at is putting the 'feel' into the dance. I think u could get me to do almost any move and i'd probably get it technically correct but when it comes to the 'feel', that's where i struggle the most... sigh... so, loads of stuff to work on with only 3 days to go! *GASP!*

Also, I've observed that competitions bring out the best and worst in ppl. Aisha says during a competition, a person's personality is magnified 10x! So, if i'm an anal person in normal situations, my anal-ness is 10x more during a competition! SHITE! And I think it's true... i'm such a stickler for detail!! Not only in competitions but also when I have performances. I need to get everything absolutely correct on the dot! My poor partner... am so glad that he has the patience of a saint. Other guys would've told me to take a hike by now! lol!

Another thing I've observed is that sometimes, the normal camaraderie between friends gets lost somewhere in the process of preparing for a competition, due to the competitiveness or for whatever reason. I dunno abt others but for me, I just wanna do a clean routine and I dun really care abt wat other competitors are doing. It's more important to me to put on a good, clean show rather than be as canggih or more canggih than the other competitors. So I think I'm competing more with myself rather than other ppl i.e. pushing myself to see how 'perfect' a show I can put on (of course, we all know there's no such thing as a PERFECT show. It's how well we recover and cover up the mistakes. lol!). Of course, it'll be great to win a title and prize (if any) but at the end of the day, these things are just short-term anyway. The most important thing, to me, are the learnings (good and bad) that we get from the entire experience. And it'd be really cool if all competitors could be friendly with each other and feed off each other's positive vibes rather than putting on the 'i'm-holier-than-thou', 'no-friends-between-competitors' or similar attitude. It makes the situation so much less tense and there's good feeling all around. It's really quite apparent when suddenly some of them are so friendly to everyone around you except to you and ur partner...hhmm... But that said, everyone has their own way of dealing with the stress of competing and all, so to each his/her own, i guess. Some would argue that it IS a competition, after all. Or maybe, it's just me being too sensitive to my surroundings. I'd initially thought maybe it was me who's putting on my 'dun-mess-with-me' face coz u know how ppl seem to reciprocate wat u display to them? But have gotten feedback that I'm no more friendlier than I normally am i.e. I'm like how I usually am la, nothing more, nothing less so nothing I can fix on my side. Ah well, I think I'm getting on ok with most of my competitors (those that I know la) so it's not too bad really... and I'd like to think we give each other constructive feedback on wat we each can improve on, like today, during the pre-preview, hehe.

To all the competitors of the Conlay Salsa Competition, ALL THE BEST! :o)

And most of all, to my dear, patient partner (i'm sure he's dying to strangle me by now! lol!), u know wat u stand to get if we win BUT only if i call the shots!! lol! JUST KIDDING LA!!! I really dun care if we win or not... it's been really fun working with u on this, let's do it again next yr?? Haha, i can see u running for ur life! lol! Kidding again la... this is for ur viewing pleasure... sorry, i cannot afford the real thing, copy+paste is all i can do, or perhaps u'd rather go test-drive one, which I'm sure u've already done but hey, can go do it again, rite? ;o)

(courtesy of the BMW website)

I think i need to go work on my smile in my sleep now... zzzzzzz...

Airbus A380

I love planes... discounting the fact that I dun particularly like flying (I prefer my feet to be on firm ground), I think planes are one of our most amazing inventions. The fact that we managed to put together minute pieces of metal and hook up the electronics to actually get the machine up in the air is just short of amazing and I'm always in awe when I'm in a plane. I especially like sitting near the wings where I have good view of the flaps and slats during takeoff and landing. I just love watching the individual pieces working to control the force during takeoffs and landings. So coooooll!! :o)

Soooooo... the arrival of the new spanking new Airbus A380 is nothing short of awesome! Imagine this great big bird in the sky, man! 7-storey high, seats 500+ passangers... wow! And I lurve Airbuses! More so over Boeing... coz their interior design seems cleaner, more sleek, and roomier than Boeing's. And imagine, it can fit in bars, gyms, and duty free shops!

The bird touched down in KLIA at about 8:30pm last nite. Wow, I'd just like to take a tour of the plane, man! It's sooooo massive! Was listening to radio this morning and they were talking abt it... I wonder if they're giving away free passes to check out the plane, hehe...

A few A380 facts:

• Its wings are built in Broughton, North Wales
• Engines made by Rolls Royce
• Originally called the A3XX
• The '8' represents the plane's double-decks and is a symbol of success in Asia

Here's a pic of the big bird (courtesy of Airbus' website)...

Countdown : 7 days!!

Yikes!!! 7 more days to the 2nd heats of the Conlay Salsa Competition!! *biting nails* Gawd, I'm getting more freaked out by the day! *deep breath* I'm more concerned abt NOT making a fool of myself on the dance floor than anything else! lol! I just wanna do a clean routine and even if we dun get into the finals, that's fine... as long as our routine is clean...

Yesterday, we checked out CL's costume at the costume place but the suit that he tried on didn't look good on him at all coz it was too big and it made him look sloppy. Soooooo... we've decided to have him wear his own suit with a red shirt and Sam's lycra pants. Wow!! He looked HOT! Lol! (CL, dun get a big head! :p) I swear, with the pants and the jacket, he looked inches taller and stood straighter! lol! So I've come to the conclusion that clothes DO maketh a person... haha! We've gotta go shopping this weekend for a red shirt for him... after that, we're set to go... oh, and of course, daily practice sessions till D-DAY! :o) Tis amazing the amount of time and effort we have to put in just for a 3-min performance...

Last nite's session turned out to be hilarious, wat with CL trying on his suit/costumes... and for some reason, we both just burst out laughing throughout practice for no apparent reason! lol! (I think it was the pants! haha!) This is good... we need to relax more... or rather, I need to relax more (yes yes, CL, i know... it's ME!). Sigh... wat to do, my usual perfectionist self is rearing its head again... always happens whenever I have to do a show, wat more a competition. I'm sure a lot of ppl haven't seen me this uptight before! lol! Hang in there k, CL... I'll be back to my normal self after next Thu! ;o)

Tonite, am gonna head over to Conlay to check out the 1st heats so that i'll have an idea of wat goes on and try to minimize any surprises next week. Gawd, I'm soooooooo freakin tired! Am contemplating skipping tonite's Odissi but I have to skip next week's as well coz of the competition soooooo... hmmm... I think I should attend tonite's class... oh but I'm sooooooooooooo exhausted!! :o(

Me?? Temper?? Nooooo!!! ;o)

Received a mail from someone a few days ago titled "HOW BAD IS YOUR TEMPER ACCORDING TO YOUR HOROSCOPE?" Now, I normally dun pay much attention to horoscopes and such... but I have to admit, it's quite fun reading them... hehe...

Here's my anger management reading based on that email:

TAURUS APRIL 21 – MAY 20
You are generally quiet and have control over your emotions. It is difficult to predict what will upset you, so when you do lose your cool, people don’t know how to react. Your temper is like that of a raging bull, and anyone trying to pacify you will be the first one to get a verbal bashing. You generally get upset when you are concerned or when people accuse you of doing something wrong. You also hate being reminded about mistakes you’ve made in the past. You also have the potential to be terribly vindictive if rubbed the wrong way.

Hhmmm... I typically get pissed when (1) I'm being made a fool of (2) I'm accused of something that I've got no clue of whatsoever (3) I see great injustice in the animal world, and sometimes in the human one as well. But I guess the accurate part is that I typically dun blow up but when I do, God save whoever's at the receiving end... lol!

mulling...mulling...

am @ starbucks now... trying to de-stress with a cuppa Tazo green tea and temporarily fill up my stomach with a blueberry danish. Yucks! Found a HAIR in my danish... and some weird stringy thingy in it too... so decided to discard the remaining of it... bleeccckkk...

trying to get some ideas to put into my biz plan... unfortunately, the brain's in underdrive at the mo so am totally not up to coming up with ideas. So i'm just sitting here, waiting for time to pass while downloading songs... practice again tonite @ 9pm. Gonna go to the studio earlier. Am soooo tired! *WAAIILLL* Gotta stay awake... gotta stay awake... only 1.5 more weeks and it's over!

tmrw gotta go down to the @#$% store again to get the iMAC fixed. I swear, i feel like a blurdy technician! Thank gawd i managed to arrange for one of my IT guys to come with me, else i'd have to lug the blurdy machine from the store to the service center and back to the store again. For the millionth time, i have no blurdy freakin clue why the hell we offered them 24x7 for all the equipment when all that needs to be up and running are the servers and the POS system. GAAAHH!

on a brighter note, last Friday, went to the costume store and managed to pick out my costume!! Gawd, still can't believe i'm gonna be wearing that! lol! Now just gotta pick out CL's costume...

headaches, screaming limbs, and viruses

gosh... dunno wat's happening but have been getting headaches quite frequently lately. Am having one now at the moment... not unbearable but a nagging ache that's bugging the hell outta me! ARGH! Hope it's just from the lack of sleep and not due to some other reasons...

have no inspiration watsoever to write anything remotely interesting. boring... boring... booorriinnnggg!!! Been having salsa practice for the competition every single nite... i think the schedule's wearing me down. Dun min the hard work (since i love dancing and all) but i think my body's screaming for blurdy mercy already... sigh... and i'm getting panicky coz the competition's next week! ARGH!

just got an email from IT. my notebook's the No. 1 client with the most viruses!! 157!! HAH! What a joke! I dun even know how the hell those viruses got into my laptop coz i dun even surf much at work... duh... my infamous record below... i think last month i was 2nd or 3rd on the list... hmph...

soul urge number...

Just received the email from 123numerology.com regarding Soul Urge numbers. Calculated mine and found it to be a One.

Soul Urge numbers are calculated by adding up all the vowels in your birth name and reducing it to a single digit. The vowels in our name define our Spiritual and emotional intentions. The Soul Urge number has also been called Heart's Desire and Spiritual Urge. It is our secret, innermost longing. Our dream, our motivation, it is the fuel that energizes our journey. The Soul Urge number reveals what we secretly strive to be or accomplish. Some have said that this number tells us what we have been in previous lifetimes, the accumulated growth of our soul. The Soul Urge has also been called our "Inner-Sun", the vitalizing magnetic force that heats up when we encounter a person, place or idea that aligns with it.

This is wat it says abt mine:

My Soul Urge Number 1
You are the essence of individuality and independence. You are intense and convicted when it comes to defending your beliefs, as you never doubt your inner strength and ability to handle any challenge. Many are inspired by your confidence, while others may feel irritated and view it as arrogance. You are likely to attract people and situations that allow you to express this part of yourself or else they will mirror these traits back to you.


Wow, some parts of this interpretation is so true, it's freaky! lol!

Another reading (another site):

Your Soul Urge is the number 1. With a Soul Urge number of 1, you want to lead and direct, to work independent of supervision, by yourself or with subordinates. You take pride in you abilities and want to be recognized for them. You may seek opportunities to display your strength and usefulness, wanting to create and originate. In your desire to manage the big picture and the main issues, you may often leave the details to others.

The positive 1 Soul Urge is Ambitious and determined, a leader seeking opportunities. There is a great deal of honesty and loyalty in this character. If you possess positive 1 Soul Urge qualities, you are very attainment oriented and driven to success. You are a loyal friend and strictly fair in your business dealings.

The negative side of the 1 Soul Urge must be avoided. A negative 1 is apt to dominate situations and people; the home, the spouse, the family and the business. Emotions aren't strong in this nature. If you possess an excess of 1 energy, you may, at times, be boastful and egotistic. You must avoid being too critical and impatient of trifles. The great need of the 1 Soul Urge is the development of friendliness, and a sincere interest in people.

Interesting, eh? ;o)

more on numerology...

When i was doing some reading on numerology, i signed up to receive free weekly news/updates regarding my numbers. now, numerology consists of 4 core readings (according to 123numerology.com), which are the:

• Life Path Number
• Life Expression Number
• Soul Urge Number
• Destiny Number

I've already read up about my Life Path Number, which is a Nine (incidently, The Star turns 9 this year and they're having a contest that revolves around the number 9, and are featuring interesting bits of info in the papers everyday re. the number 9, including numerology readings).

Here's another interpretation of my Life Path Number 9:

You are all about spirituality. Those on the number 9 Life Path are destined to travel a humanitarian path. These sophisticated individuals are very selfless souls and are often patient, trustworthy and honorable from the very beginning to the end of their life. These individuals make great environmentalists, teachers, artists, priests and healers. Sometimes a 9's lofty ideals are presented in a manner that others find absurd. Part of a 9's life path is to express spiritual principles through actions, rather than through preaching or proselytizing.

*Sumthin tells me that 9s are suckers for sob stories (true or otherwise) and may get taken advantage of by others due to their 'selfless' nature... hmph... Lofty ideals? Hhmm... yeah, i agree that others do find some of my principles to be rather extreme... lol!

My Life Expression Number, however, is a One, where each of my names is treated separately and the values are added up according to the conversion chart below:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

A B C D E F G H I

J K L M N O P Q R

S T U V W X Y Z

MY Life Expression Number 1

You express yourself best through independence. Your talents include originality, creativity and the ability to launch plans into motion. You have the potential tobecome very prosperous as a result of applying these skills. Socially or professionally, a number 1 is the person that makes "things happen." They make great entrepreneurs and do well by striking out on their own. Your highest potential in life is to become the leader of something great.


I dun really agree with the entrepreneur bit... do not possess good business acumen and dun like dealing with anything to do with business... hhhmmm...

time for a change....soon

i'm feeling it... i need to make a change in my job/career... SOON! was initially ok with staying at my current place but a recent incident at the workplace has left a sour taste in my mouth and i dun have any desire whatsoever to stay here any longer. have gotta start my job hunt actively again. definitely wanna try to get outta the IT industry... getting quite sick of dealing with hardware and software and whatnot... maybe try out something more towards the creative line... hhmmm... unfortunately, all the openings i've seen on the jobsites are not remotely stimulating or interesting at all... sigh... time to work on my biz plan...

Rare in-form occurence!

Wow! I was in suprisingly good form @ salsa last nite! I could actually do multiple spins and still feel stable! Gosh, if only this could happen more often! Unfortunately, it's one of those really rare moments that hit me before I even know it's happened, and when I do, the moment's already passed... sigh...

Anyway, was dancing with Jordan and the guy, I swear, he was in a spinning spree or sumthin... he spun and spun me sooooooooooo many times and i was just amazed that I managed to stay on my feet and in relatively the same spot throughout! lol!

And there were quite a fair number of ppl there last nite that I've never seen before. CL theorizes that they could be checking out the competition for the event coming up soon... hmmm...

Wat the...??!!!

ARGH!!!! How infuriating!!! Firstly, had to deal with the whole stupid freakin mess with the Customer Service person who's supposed to work weekends for my project due to some misunderstanding... next, I'm getting stupid customer calls on my mobile!! WTF????!!! Gawd, my patience is running damn freakin thin already. This is a simple SMS contest engine but coz the client wants to use the freakin receipt nos. instead of assigning a set of Serial Nos to the products which we can upload to the system, making it so much more difficult to do any validation... no wait, can't do any validation at all... which makes it more prone to error and the customer getting Invalid Entry messages. AAARRRGGHHH!!! And I have to come back to ofc this freakin Saturday to train the temp Customer Service person that I've managed to hire. GAAAAHHH!!!! I'm soooo freakin pissed, u can almost see smoke coming outta my ears!!!!!

*WAAAIIILLL!!!!* I have to come in to work on a freakin Saturdaaaaaayyyy!!!! Boo hoooooo!!! :o(