Final week - volunteer. drums. shopping n final plans

Volunteer, Sat;

On Sat, I went to the workplace first to meet up with FW, then took a cab with 2 big luggage trolleys to the venue. Man, it was hot there, despite being in the shade. 4 students came to help out. So after setting up everything, we were told off not to start until 5pm, when some pple came over and started 'donating' before then. So spent more than an hour just waiting... What a waste of time.

When I got a break, I took a quick walk-about to look at the stalls. There were 4 wings full of stalls. I went to the ice-cream stall and bought some ice-cream for the students and FW, none for myself cos of my cough. Students help out FOC, so small treat for them. Went back to the stall and stood around. Then as 5pm drew close, the crowds swelled. I helped to answer enquiries by locals about how much the items cost, what's the charity about etc. They couldn't see the Eng displays which were pasted at the tables cos when people crowd around, not able to read. Also the Jap versions were pasted on the hanging string, so only Jap explanation us visible... Nvm. Many donated $2, quite a few $5, $10 especially when you tell them to donate generously for charity.

Later after many hours behind the booth, I went and stood outside the stall, holding up the signs and calling out for people to come to take a look cos it's for charity, hand-made products made by our students for charity. Dunno how long, until the students were let off around 8pm and the crowds started dwindling. Both of us continued to stay until about 10pm. Then packed up the remaining items and shared a cab back to drop off the luggage at workplace, then drop is home. Bleah... It's meaningful for charity but if it becomes adopted as part of the program and yet I am the one 'volunteering' year-by-year, it's not kinda fair to me. Cos even during the preparation lessons, had to put in extra time to clean up after students etc. Dunno how it'll be like next year. For now, I'm glad it's over.

Drums, Sun;

Apparently my right leg and right hand are not time-coordinated, meaning if my right leg kicks the bass drum and my right hand hits the snare, it doesn't sound like a clean one sound, but is disjointed. Surprisingly my left hand is coordinated to my right leg, little or no effort can creat that sound... So I tried to do the tapping exercise in my own time. I went for class and still salah, but I asked the instructor about certain postures, positioning and he answered me, which I really liked. Learnt more through questioning and answering, drummer's wrist warm-up, where to position the sticks, a full-downstroke and a downstroke.  About half-way, after drumming around, getting better at the R-hand, R-leg thingy. Sometimes still off but better than last week. So more tapping exercise. It's not easy but doable. As long as I am progressing, it's good.

Massive Shopping, Mon;

Didn't go for KM cos mom asked if I was free. So she wanted to go and meet Geoky for lunch after her work event. Asked me along on Sunday evening so I didn't msg for class. We met at Illuma for lunch. My treat at Poulet, then we walked around. I ended up buying a lot of stuff at OG, despite me earlier snubbing it as a boring place... So now I know, I am at the "aunty-stage"... Cos BHG was under massive renovation, nothing much there. Ended up with new undergarments that cost me $135. Cos really needed but just kept forgetting and putting off. So one time restock everything. So that's a year's worth. Also bought a 2-liter tea flask with a diffuser inside that cost only $16.90. From the way I drink liquids, this is very suitable. I was looking for such tea flasks with diffusers but they were often too small, just a cup or a small jug. That's not enough. Also bought 2 shorter-styled 3/4 (abv knee caps) that were much more affordable $30 each so that I can have a choice not to wear jeans always cos no bottom. Work khakis require ironing. Then my sporty berms makes me look sloppy n don't match. Often end up with my grey 3/4 or the brown shorts. Not enough choice. Now should be better though both are darker brown. No size or colors. Nvm. I have lots of brown n earthly colors.

Other plans

Tomorrow I am attending my first double KM since the shift and the changes. Just to use my last bit of free time to find out if it would be difficult or taxing. Cos going thrice is challenging, so go twice but once is a double lesson, to make up for 3 sessions a week. See how it goes, if its ma manageable.

My final extra drum lesson is this week, last time to use an electric drum which is really cool, at least u can control the volume unlike a conventional one. But it's like comparing between acoustic and electric guitars, both have their good n bad. I like them both, though more towards acoustic but I listen to more songs with electric guitars. Will take a photo.

2/3rd mark

Fixing the sleeping time:

Now I am trying to readjust my sleeping time cos really sleep at 3am and wake about 10-11am. Might end up like zombie if I don't rectify now. With another 10 days to go, better start now. Moving sleeping time forward to midnight and setting morning alarm clock.

'Volunteer'

This year, I didn't misread the circular and mistakenly sign up as a volunteer for this summer event. But because for my dept, a couple left, some are already involved in the other duties for that event, so left FW herself with the whole cohort's hand-made products, so I asked her of she needed help, and thus ended up being down for that charity booth duty.

I went down today, to help make some information printout displays, and pack the stuff. Offered my luggage bag to use to pack the stuff. The rest she said she'll handle tomorrow, so I don't have to go in again until Sat. We agreed on a time to meet at the workplace and go down together. Hope it can get good proceeds for charity.

Music

It's interesting to have 2 different drum instructors. My fixed one emphasize the basics, which is good cos it drills the important blocks. Still at snare and bass drum. The other goes for coordinating and sight-reading to play the parts of the drum kit and also playing with songs. So it's a good balance and makes it fun. I would miss the variety cos next week is the last week of the hols, so once work starts, it's back to once a week, under my fixed instructor. But I'll try the second instructor's way if I get tired of doing basics.

For guitar, working on one of the j-rock song on the acoustic guitar, managing the introd and into the verse 1. Still have many parts to work on, but it is a bit smoother. The other j-rock song, I'll keep until I've finished this one. The j-pop song, I'm still working on cos that's on electric guitar and need to get used to moving along the neck quickly for power chords, will it's a much easier song compared to the j-rock ones. So happily practicing and forgetting all about work.

Exercise & Diet:

Into the 2nd week of diet, so far controlling and fewer lapses. Without weighing, I could see my tummy a bit flatter (still got tummy) so I can see the progress. Still not down to lowest, need more time but lost 1kg I think. 

Exercise is into the 3rd week, I am going for my 3rd KM within this week. Still got that uneven numbers but try not to let it affect me mentally. Just thicken my skin and do it. We are doing more combative; aka how to do a combination of strikes from front, side and rear. It's good cos it helps to put atks into a doable combination instead of trying to come up with some ko-ya ones cos lack of combat experience. I must say, it's very good aerobics workout. A bit of sore knee and shoulders but doable. See if I can aim for thrice next week, still a challenge to move from twice to thrice.

In-doors

I find I haven't gone into town for a while, maybe 1.5weeks? Cos all the courses and stuff kept me going to-and-fro East-West, haven't gone to town. Did go to Msia twice with patents, once CitySquare and once Perlangi, banking stuff n spend some RM. Not much to do besides eat and buy discs. 

Tomorrow I plan to go out roaming, guess in-town, so can kill two birds with one stone. Think at least from after lunch so don't anyhow munch rubbish. 

This holiday seems to pass much slower cos of the courses, dinners and events. It does slow time down and makes this time more memorable than other summer vacation. Think this is the direction I wanna aim for, at least to make adulthood more memorable. Doing something out of the usual is important especially if everything seems routined, even things like dinner outings, courses. 

Wanna enjoy this last spurt of free time, next term is a killer and it goes on-and-on plus I remembered the increased classes so it's doubly tiring. It'll be a long time before I can take another break like this.

15th days, halfway mark

Drums:

The extra drum lesson I added, under a different instructor was fun. First time playing electric drums. The instructor is good, more structured than the other. Introduced to the other drums beside the snare. Toms, high hat, bass drum and even the crashes. Got to play along that pattern to Simple Plan song, nice, though its not exactly how it sounds but its a way to practice drumming with a song. Interesting and by the end of the lesson, I could do the basic drum pattern that involves the bass drum. A matter of co-ordination. It was fun figuring out, like your brain says one thing but your limbs went another way. After class I walked to a couple more restaurants to enquire about corporate dinner. Went home quite contented. Hope to keep this up. 

Audio-books:

Borrowed the Fellowship of the Ring, 16 discs and almost finished with it. Also have Harry Potter, final book. Nice to listen to narration. Except I can't read while listening. But if I'm just stoning, can just listen and focus on the story. Hope to finish them and go to Book 2 & 3 of the LOTR. 

Others:

Slowly moving into the second week of exercise routine and first week of controlling my food intake. It's not easy. I feel at times conflicting thoughts, much like a devil and an angel on my shoulders; one is saying "Nvm, can take it easy lah. Enjoy your holiday. One more nvm" and the other is "Health matters, must have some discipline. Just do it. Hang in there." An internal struggle and I have to get through 21 days of this. Almost mid-way there. Just cheer myself on and keep reminding myself of the commitment and celebrating every little step. I realized that's why I blog about it often.

Investment:

Going to make my second loss and its a large loss $11k cos I got a number of shares at a higher cost than the price they offered to delist at. It's my Dad's counter, I regretted listening to him and learnt a painful lesson to never touch his counters at all ever. Luckily I didn't lose my overall capital but it eroded a chunk of my total profits over these 5-6 years. That's irritating and sian cos this year I hardly made any gains from the stagnant market, just $1k, then I am still $9k more to my annual target then this huge ass negative came in, making it like a $20k target which is really hard. Never mind, I can't undo it, it's a done-deal. So I just got to learn, be careful and try to make back this 'loss' gradually. Just irritated. Bo bian...

KM:

The Adv class has more stuff to learn though there is a refocus on the basics but they combine more things together than the singular stuff at the Beginner class. But the 'unfriendliness' of it at times makes me feel reluctant to go for it. Yar I still trudge ahead, reminding myself of the deeper reasons I have, but at times it's a pain to go for. The longer traveling, have to eat dinner early before or later at night after class, is not helping. Luckily I figured out a nicer timing to leave home when the buses and trains are slightly less crowded but still very much standing the entire journey. At times I feel like reducing to just twice a week until I feel the 'interest' to increase to thrice a week. Hope as I get used to things and the awkwardness reduces, my resolve can get me through this distractions and keep me from quitting easily. Keep reminding myself to keep positive, brush aside the negative.

Mental resilience:

I realized I am getting stronger mentally. If it was my younger self, looking back, I find I don't give up as easily as before. This is a cumulation of past experiences,  age & maturity. I am still not as strong emotionally, but I feel more so than before. How does one gain mental strength? 

It's really not taught through books but through doing stuff; learning your own inadequacies & fears and forgiving yourself for being less than perfect because no one is. That, making mistakes is normal, everyone does. That, you have your own pace and despite others seemingly progressing faster at times, ya don't have to compare but just continue working on yourself. You might be surprised at the pace of your own progress with time. Need to overcome the sense of anxiety, sense of failure, fears, insecurities and doubts and just keep going forth. That's what I remind myself again after another KM class. Not just for the courses I'm going to, some things I am pursuing but I try to apply that to work, which is another area fraught with doubts, insecurities and worries. Keep an open mind.

KM plans, Flab

KM:

There is a high drop-out rate for KM. From the batch of P1 with me, I just saw one guy. Those familiar faces in the beginner class seemed fewer too, after the shift. The Adv group is not as friendly, not that I am chatty. I kinda keep to myself but more of they kinda stick to their partners, it's more difficult cos of the  few female and with odd numbers, sometimes it's difficult. Awkward but Tab's bro has been very friendly.

But I remind myself that I have deeper reason than just fitness and interest to pursue. Just with a P1 is just a beginning, haven't learnt anything complex and sophisticated, so I ain't quitting anytime soon. My package is until Jan, plan to keep to it 2-3 times a week. Think I can't commit to more than that with the increased traveling time and longer distance. My traveling time has increased to more than an hour. So it's really you go cos you really want to, not for a mere fancy.

I planned to go thrice this week but yesterday I waited until I came home cos asked my mom if she still wanted to go to Bugis with my company. Asked her on Mon but she didn't want to once she knew I had KM class that night. So after class I asked her but she had things to do tonight. I didn't SMS to go. Woke up in the middle of the night, right elbow hurt, pasted medicated plaster. Much better today. Glad I didn't go n can rest. Body and mind need time to digest yesterday's lesson and pointers.

Thought:

This week, decided to go twice, next week try to go thrice. A bit like no life, if go 3 days of KM and 2 days of drum. Like so hectic, think I also want to relax a bit. When work resumes, won't have such lax.

Been over-eating for 2 months (from blog entries) so put on 3.5kg! If don't control, would go back to my fat self, no thanks. This entails curbing my incessant eating. A game of self-control & will-power! It's been difficult. Restarting with a 21-day plan then continue for 2 months. It is a struggle to control the food portion and rein-in my appetite. It's just into Day 3. Have to battle. Really most of this weight gain comes from over-eating than lack of activity. Gone are the days of eating everything and anything, with no ill-effects. 

I started exercising this 1st Aug. Besides days of KM, I started exercising at home. Started with just pure dips 4 sets, then I did one set of KB. Continue with more dips and moved to 1.5 set of KB. Almost on a daily manner. Yesterday increased the dips 5 sets, KB 2 sets n added back conditioning push up and sit up, 2 sets. Into the second week of exercising. Hope to intensify until everyday do a bit of exercise, be it dips, KB, a bit of shadow fighting exercise. 

Plan:

Haven't gone wandering yet, later on. I have to look for a dinner venue for the whole workplace. Later cos that's work.

Practice guitar and a bit of drums today, tomorrow, going to JB, have to see sinseh n drum lesson 2. 

A Queer n Peculiar Dream

For a person like me who hardly ever dreams, they are rare and very infrequent. The number of times I do, can be counted by the fingers on one hand. That rare.

Didn't know what brought about this peculiar dream early this morning. I dreamt that I went back to teaching locally and kena posted back to my last workplace. Thought things were bad but as I was shown around via a tour, there were changes. A nice ex-colleague promoted to Director so that the a**hole of the P who was still there, was subdued. I walked around the premises which was a combination of my own pri school, my two former workplaces. There were ex-pupils who saw me and rushed forward; a mix of my pri, sec friends and a few older versions of my last class. There was a feeling of nostalgia but I did have other mixed feelings throughout the tour. Then I woke up. 

Realized it was a dream cos there were so many elements mixed in, my own school days, people from my previous two workplaces. I sat up and counted how long since I've left and how old that ex-student of mine is now. She'll be in P6 this year. Wow, time flies. Indeed it flew past quickly. I contemplated whether I should drop by to visit those two ex-workplaces but shortly decided not to. 

In the first workplace, most of the colleagues whom I was closer have left n my students have already graduated. In the second workplace, I don't have news but my last batch of students are in P6 now, probably morning session, and my previous level was in the afternoon session. So dunno what's the point of going there. 

There isn't. It's just the memories speaking. There wasn't too much regret leaving except for leaving the students and some colleagues. Definitely no love lost for the mgt or the system. It's peculiar cos I resigned just before National Day. Now is August, the month of the summer vacation. Coincidence or just my sub-conscious reminding me of the lapse of time?

It's nostalgic to relive some elements but it definitely ain't so rosy when I was working there in reality. It's just that with time (lots of it) certain things can be forgiven, forgotten and overlooked like how the dream was. 

I don't take this as a sign I should go back yet. Not sure if the push and pull factors are going in that direction overall. I feel it's just a bunch of memories coming together and manifesting in a dream in the month of my leaving. Like a forgotten reminder. If I wanted a sign, then I should have been dreaming about the Toto numbers. There's a 3 million draw today. I didn't glimpse any special numbers from the dream though I could remember much of the short dream. If dream were signs, I should have dreamt of six exact number dancing and jumping around me, then switch to me sipping piña-colada on a pristine beach. Or me in my own $200k car driving to visit my last workplace to gloat at certain mgt people. Something like that. I did wake and bought my numbers but through the system instead. Not much chance but a hope.

Crabs @ MelBen

I've heard about MelBen from my local office colleagues cos they helped suggest one of the level's dinner places to be there. I didn't go for that one but subsequently heard that the colleagues did enjoy eating there.

Its in Tab's area and she knows it well. So after a long time, this holiday, decided to jio Tab n Quet to eat there. DF came along too so we can eat more crabs with more pax. Decided on the Crab bee hoon & Salted Egg yolk (cos if order the chilli crab, will end up eating lots of mantous which are super high in calories)  Went for the lesser evils but with higher cholesterol.

We were all a bit late from our planned time. But we arrived about 6.15pm to find ourselves in a long queue. Bo bian, all not so hungry yet so we queued and chatted as it moved along. Quet joined us at the 2/5 mark and we continued chatting until about 8pm when we moved  to the front of the queue. 

Finally after 2 hrs of waiting, we were seated to much relief, all hungry by then that we ordered a coconut each to munch on the flesh n drink the cool juice despite the initial plan for Chinese tea. Now we know, the process of queuing is a ruse to make patrons hungry that each would have a coconut. Ha, we fell for it ;P

I was glad to be able to munch the coconut flesh to get something down my stomach cos I was feeling the pangs of gastric coming. Just in time, it abated. Our orders; bamboo clams, stir fried broccoli and their fried bean curd came soon and we swept them off in a short time. Then the main dishes, the Crab Bee Hoon plus extra soup n bee hoon & the Salted Egg Crab came. Luckily we were persuaded to change to medium crabs instead of large initially cos the medium crab is really big already. That was the largest pincer I ever had. 

It was nice to dig out the crab meat, scoop the bee hoon and soup and slurp it down. It reminds me a bit of XO bee hoon style but the soup has a different flavor. With crab meat, it tastes really good. The salted egg crab was good too, except that the frying made the flesh shrink and hence a bit tougher but u can't resist but keep licking the crab as u eat to get all the sticky egg yolk surrounding it. Definitely very savory. It is also nice to have 2 flavors as a contrast. One is soupy, other is fried. It is also nice if u dip the salty egg crab into the soup of the bee hoon soup to moisten it and eat it and the salty egg taste transfers to the soup and it's even more flavorful. Yumz! Ate many bowls of the bee hoon. Ended off with a second drink of chinese tea to wash down all the rich, savory flavors. It cost $53 per pax, worth it cos ate until so full. I've had to pay $60 for those level dinners that don't satisfy as much. 

That's my final indulgence in the month of August. Really out on some weight this time from the incessant eating that my tummy is buldging out more. Stepped on the weighing scale, bleah, about 3 kgs extra that needs to be worked off, if not, I would revert back to my weight soon. No thank you, cos it took me so long to slim down. Plus with another health checkup in Nov, need to clean up my eating habits. 

When I reached home, I made a big cup of Chinese tea with 3 tea bags. Let it sit and had a bath, then chug it down. Felt better. That glass of tea we had wasn't enough for my taste. And at midnight cos I was not sleepy, quite alert, I started doing my dips exercise and then did 1.5 set of my usual KB. I felt a bit stronger compared to when I initially restart with just 1 set. Didn't do the body conditioning exercises cos those I haven't restarted yet. Need to keep this up, with KM and a lot of sensible n careful eating. This would be my first week out of 21- days to build up all the broken exercise routines.

So fast it's 10 days

Time does fly... Already it's the 10th day of the hols.

Done nothing much productive. Most of it is spent lazing around.

I did go for a trial drum lesson on the 4th Aug and decided it was okay enough for me to continue with it. I paid for a month lesson plus 3 extra weekdays just for the month of August. Once work resumes, it'll be back to once a week, Sunday. Can jio me for lunch in HV area. I have no idea what level I am aiming for, it's something I wanted to do, besides guitar. Use it to inject a sense of excitement into my rather routines life.

Besides that I resumed KM and went for 2 lessons in the old venue and a lesson at the new venue in the east... Next week I am going to go thrice. Help me burn off the tummy that has bulged up from my incessant eating for almost two weeks. Today I stepped on the scales and it ain't pretty. I also resumed exercising at home though its just KettleBell one set, once and 4 other days of just pure dips. Need to rebuild the 21 day routine. This is just the 1st-2nd week.

Took out both guitars and started working on 2 different songs. One is a J-rock song I really liked but its really complicated for my current ability. The other is a J-pop song that is kinda easier cos its just power chords on the electric guitar but its really fast, so not there yet. 

Also bought myself a pair of drumsticks so I can practice drumming on my pillow... First time ever, I so diligently sat down with the metronome app on I-phone attached to speakers and practiced the rhythm patterns. Did more than an hour of that, no wonder my left wrist felt strained (weakened cos of prior injury) I got the patterns down. Not bad. I hope the improved sense of rhythm and stuff can help me be a better guitar player.

Finished up a bunch of fantasy storybooks. Haven't gone to the library cos of the long public holiday weekend. The Thur and Fri were super boring for me. Stayed at home, didn't know what to do with myself. I even did guitars n drumming practice on Fri to no end of my boredom. 

Summer holiday start, Audio book

Today's the first day of summer holidays. Slept a bit later before I woke at 8.30am.

Went out for breakfast, laksa and teh-o. Paid my bills. Came back and tidied up my pile of letters, while listening to the audio book 'The Hobbit'. Borrowed it recently and started listening to it during the final few days of work. It's nice to have somebody narrate to you, reminding me of the 'Story-teller' series from my primary school days. So it helped drown out my Dad's loud music in the living room. Quite engrossed that I didn't noticed he went out. Good idea.

Besides this, borrowed about 10 books to read, have 2 band scores to try out, 1 song with chords, KM tonight - twice to thrice, and starting this Sunday, drumming. Hope to level up my guitar playing through some hard work. Plus do some working out at home, restart KettleBell which I've stopped long time back. Ate too much last weekend and the final days of the term.

No travel plans, just trying to 'slow my pace' down, enjoy the lax. Time to tidy up the room, clothes and my table. All these get neglected during work time. The break allows me to tidy the junk before it becomes unmanageable. 

August, other personal things planned; a crab dinner at MelBen, Tab's house-warming.