Happy Birthday Jeab!

Dear Readers,

Today is my dearest friend Jeab’s birthday. Jeab – if you want me to give you a  character name, let me know and I’ll change my post right away.

Let me tell you a story of our friendship.

Jeab and I met in Chulalongkorn University. And I think that both of us have matured since then (at least for me, she’s always been very mature) We had/have? such stubborn personalities that our heads just kept/keep on butting. We always grouped up together for business projects, argued over everything, I even remember calling her STUPID once! (hahah soooooooooooo sooorrrry)

We also spent alot of time together in Chula Debate Club (once a debater, always a debater, so that’s a warning to all of you who want to discuss anything with me) so maybe our bond formed strongly there?

I can sit here typing and thinking and typing about when was the exact point when our friendship bond increased from classmates to good friends, but it would really be pointless. The simple fact is that we are somehow from two different worlds, our personalities are quite different, we like different things, but at the end of the day, we find commonalities and have sisterhood.

There are only 2 friends that I consider as being my big sisters, (rather than friends), Jeab and Tiffany. I have learnt the most paradigm-shifting lessons from them, and their lessons come in simple sentences like

Tiffany’s ==> “Stacy, you never HAVE time you MAKE time”

and Jeab’s classic ==> “Don’t make any expectations, or else you will be disappointed”

I have to admit that I am one annoying expectation’s princess, I chant Jeab’s wise words in my head as a daily mantra “Don’t make any expectations…Don’t make any expectations…Don’t make any expectations”

That being said, I am expecting ALOT of fun tonight, because I bought us tickets for this Bollywood gathering at the Intercontinental hotel. In the sea of Indian party go-ers, there will be 2 chinese people tonight! hahah…Jeab loves Indian culture, so this will be a very good treat for her! And plus, I am planning a few dares and activities for her…Muahahahaha

Will tell you all how it goes.

Jeab, I want to wish you the best birthday! I hope that this year is better than last year (things just keep on getting better and better!) and that you remain happy, comical, and forever inspiring.

love you Jeab! Thanks for being my true friend

Stacy

Yay I’m a Size 4

Dear Readers,

I’m a size 4! I don’t remember if I wrote about that earlier, but I don’t mind typing it again.

Yay I’m a size 4!

Though, according to asian standards, I’m still one huge mama.

I switched up my fitness plan, I lost quite alot of weight through strictly dieting, but I hit a plateau. So, I decided to go to the gym 5 times a week, and I’m sticking to this goal for at least the next 4 weeks.

I strongly believe in the 6-week test period, if you do or/persist with anything for 6 weeks, it will become a habit, anything before 6 weeks is most likely a simple fad, you lose interest and fall off course. I’m swimming twice a week, for 45 minutes each session, and 1 hour of tennis per week, then all the other days I’m doing weights.

Random Shopping tips:

For all of you who are visiting Bangkok, I just have to say one thing – CENTRAL WORLD PLAZA – Quite a few mid-designer brand names there, and if you go into their pathetically empty outlets, they have discount sections!

I bought a pair of pants from Vivienne Tam, and a very pretty halter top (to be added to my “fantasy closet”). It is seriously one of the best feelings in the world, to wear size 4 pants. And, my top is a size P!

This illustrates what my Mom always tells me, that if we lived in Canada I would be considered normal, here I’m XL (I think I downsized to L now!).

For example:

On my recent trip to the salon, my hair stylist commented that I looked great, lost weight, then he added, “You no more *hand action of a pregnant belly* *thumbs up and a supportive grin*”

Wow maybe he thought I had an abortion? or maybe I gave birth to my baby a few weeks ago?
Thai ppl do that, they say things like “Oh, you have baby!!!” and sometimes when I have no mood to say

“Oh silly, its not a baby! its my growing fatty belly!!”

I’ll just smile and reply, “Yes!! I’m 3 months along and she’s going to be a girl! yay!”

For the record, I’ve never been pregnant.

Thanks for stopping by,

Stacy

A day documented – Movie Star – September 25th 2008

Dear Readers,

I went on live television again today. My 3rd time, and so I was surprised how non-chalant we all were. Went there an hour before the shoot, got our scripts and had our make-up done.

I really put effort in fixing my curls last night, used serum, my super wonder hair curling cream (as recommended by my guru Denise) and fell asleep lying perfectly still in bed so I wouldn’t ruin them.

Picture this – the make-up artist finishes doing my makeup, says I look really good, and asked me if I did my hair at home, and I smiled sweetly (as sweet as my limitations go) and said “yess “

She does this smile of approval, pats my hair..smiles…and then RUNS HER FINGERS THROUGH MY CURLS TO PULL THEM OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: *jaw on the floor*

And because I used the super curl wax, she pulled and tugged on them like tangles. hahah what a sight.

Anyhoo, the live show was quite good, our customer came on the show to talk about his experience with HAIR2! Its so nice of him to do that! He’s quite a good looking fella, so I’m happy we were able to help him, but his willingness to come on the TV show when I asked him was so surprising!

I’m lucky that the camera was focusing on him for the majority of the interview, my only downfall was that I sat in the middle, and when I saw my self on TV, I honestly looked <———————> THAT wide. DAMN!!! So being the incredibly person I am, I tried to fidgit just a bit, switch my angle so I look better. haha.

The MC’s didn’t follow the script and improv-ed the whole interview. Which is totally fine, just that Joy’s english isn’t 100% so we practiced the translation for an entire hour (prior to the interview). The MC asked us, Does hair fall out after the customer stops using HAIR2? With my limited Thai, I understood that’s what he was asking, but Joy was also a bit nervous so she said to me in english “What about stop hair loss and HAIR2″ and I was like…hmm??? say what? And then I just replied to him “No.”

and he was waiting for me to say more, and I said, “No hair loss.” haha so ghetto! And he was like, wow NO!!! such a simple answer! haha

A bit embarassing, but we all just laughed it off.

Ohh!! I’m not the movie star in my family!! I just saw Doug on MTV!! “Respect The O.K.” 24 Herbs!!

He’s now in Singapore performing as I type! I’m insanely envious. (of him being in Singapore, not of him being a rap star, not that being a rap star is a bad thing, just not my thing.)

Congratulations Doug!

I performed really badly on live tv today,

Extremely embarassed,

Stacy

A day documented – Signs – September 25th 2008

Dear Readers,

I have had a day where I can blog about basically everything – and hence I will document my day in a series of post.

This post is called Signs

I was happy to wake up this morning and check my email – I got an email from Mitchell and Becky! TWO emails, thats alot and small things in life make me happy.

I replied to both emails in a super rush, so while I was in the car (on the way to work) I was thinking what to reply to Mitchell on  Sunday (our usual scheduled email times.)

The newest update? Dad rented me a car! A family friend had a spare car and agreed to rent it to me. Dad’s so sweet! And I’m scheduled to get it on October 1st. I was planning on writing to Mitchell, how now I have no excuse to be a hermit – I have a car, so I can’t hide behind the ‘lack of transport’ excuse.

How exciting! My life doesn’t have to be on hold anymore! And I continued to daydream about the ballroom/ballet classes I wanted to sign up for, actually going out to meet friends (WOWWW) and also when my dynamic duo partner comes, we can maybe live at my other condo on our own!

Fastforward to work – my father’s friend is late for the meeting, because of a car accident.

…..

There goes my car.

And right in front of me I see a clear sign from the omnious one. Saying…

It’s not your time yet. ACCESS DENIED. get back into your damn hole and work!

How Lovely!

Your Number 1 hermit,
Stacy

Procrastinating is fun but deadly

Dear Readers,

I have work to do, but I have been doing everything but work.

Yesterday I set aside personal time to play guitar, which I haven’t done in AGES! It felt very powerful belting out-of-tune. And tonight, I had the heart to start typing out my work..but ended up remaking my RETRO HITs list on Windows Media Player.

I’m having the most excellent time, picking songs then dancing to them (seat dancing) but at the end of the day, I really have to finish the work tonight, so while procrastinating is super fun, it’s extremely deadly.

Still not finished my song list, oooh MJ’s Wanna be starting something is playing!

Yay!
Stacy

I think someone made a pass at me today

Dear Readers,

After doing my set of crunches, my trainer asked me to show him my hands. I did. Then he was like, mm uh huh, ahhh… my pinky doesn’t grow past the top line of my ring finger, and in Thai culture, this means I won’t live long.

GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT *thumbs up*

That was one anti-climatic palm reading (but a good thing I didn’t break my new years resolution of NO FORTUNE TELLING.)

I walked away to get a drink of water, when I got back, he asked to see my palms again.

Him : mmm, ahhh *placing both palms together, specifically looking at my heart line* …

time passes and…

Him: Oh that’s good.

Me: ???? what is it?

Him: Oh nothing, I just wanted to touch your hands

………

*smack my forehead* wah. played by the oldest trick in the book. That has got to be worse than my ‘man-hands’ move. haha (which..btw, I have stopped performing)

It has been so long, I have no idea how to interpret what happened today.

But…hmm…I have a sinking feeling that he made a pass at me…

what do you think?

lol. how funny.
Stacy

Sleepless nights

Dear Readers,

I really miss my dear reader entries, and I miss my sign offs.

Anyhoo, I’ve been a bit moody lately – not in the sense of constantly grouchy, more like going through a roller coaster of highs and lows.

I had 2 extremely low days (in a row), took the BTS to meet my parents, and I was in a rush so I was just so agitated and easily irritated. At the end of that day (last Wednesday) I realised that if I am angry I attract really negative things.

For example, I was cursing my schedule, having to go to the BTS kiosk to get change, and I DROP a ten baht coin, which is something ..okay something I usually do, but at that moment it was incredibly upsetting, because it meant that the germy 10 baht coin, dropped on the more germy floor, and I had to pick it up. Rushed for my hand sanitizer right afterwards. Then I ended up buying the WRONG ticket, and when I was at the turnpike going into the station, the lady in front of me was as slow as a MULE and she put her card through, she was walking through….I put my card through, and then she STEPPED BACK (on my foot might I add…)

WAH! i’m getting irritated again just talking about it! And then the following day, Mom and I were stuck in traffic for 45 minutes to meet Dad, then when we picked Dad up we stayed another 1 hour in traffic. Gagh! I also bought Grego a McDonald’s set, and she gave me the WRONG burger! That was the final straw, and I just had to run upstairs in my room and take few deep breathes.

Recovered a bit, then called my dearest friend if she would consider coming to Bangkok, my parents invited her over. Didn’t expect much, but it was worth a shot and she said yes!

Hurrah! I haven’t seen her for over 6 years! I’m so excited! i haven’t been able to sleep for the past few days because my mind is racing about all this planning we have to do, and also for the sheer fact that we are going to meet each other!

The dynamic duo reunion!

I wish our rising-star could join, but I guess that reunion will have to be for next time in the Greek Islands!

Anyhoo, I move around alot, so when I leave places, I have a sinking feeling that I would never live there again. For example, I will never live again in Toronto or Montreal, and I will never live in Singapore again.  So in the back of my mind, I always wonder if I will ever meet my friends again, or am I destined to have a perpetual long distance/internet connection  relationship with them?

For example, I never thought I would ever see our Japanese friend (we were his sort of big sisters at York, he was one of our frosh) ever again after toronto, but here I am, 6 years later, presented with the chance of a reunion! Who would had thought!

So I have approximately 6 weeks until my great 2008 adventure, and I’m on a deadset mission to lose those final 5 kgs before the trip (because right after we are going to Phuket).

I want to sign some business deals, and lose 5kgs in 6 weeks. That’s my goal. I know I wrote about destination addiction, and how I should live in the now, and not constantly chase things. But you see, i’m an addict, this is what I do.

My body is sore from a complete hour of tennis plus an intensive 30 min weight workout. 

I’m going to break out of my Bangkok bubble!

Hurrah!

Speak soon,
Stacy

Few and far betweens

PM Samak was asked to resign because he breached the constitution, he had private employment during his term of PM.  

The cooking show, Tasting and Grumbling (what a catchy name) was the ultimate down fall of his political term as PM. Apparently, he was asked to appear on 4 episodes, and was paid 20,000 baht per episode.

*gasps* 20,000 baht!

Quite frankly, that is considered peanuts compared to what I was given a quotation to hire emcees for a talk show….I agree – taking money from a private firm is bad, very bad…but..er hmm…how about as honoraria? debatable no?

But that’s besides the point, it is quite amazing (AMAZING THAILAND!) that they can oust him based on this charge. Rather that using any of the bazillion-and-one reasons to have him removed, he was caught red handed wearing an apron and frying chillies.

Nigella Lawson, I love you, if you do get into politics, please remember to give up your Nigella empire – yes that’s right,  Nigella Express and Nigella Feasts have to get axed too.

In my opinion, finding a man who enjoys cooking is quite a feat. Few and far between.

Thank you for punishing a man who has a passion in cooking, so much so that he unknowingly sacrificed his power and position for it.

Cheers to few and far betweens.

HAIR2

As I am blogging during work, its only natural for me to write about what I do.

  I am the marketing director of HAIR2Centre.

My father bought the worldwide distributorship of HAIR2 in 1997, so its been our core product for the past 11 years.

You know, approaching people about hair loss is an extremely touchy subject, and so, I take on the more soft approach…put HAIR2 out there, and if people are interested, they contact us. It’s extremely touchy when I see a friend who has hair loss, because I know that I have the answer for them, but everyone’s a skeptic.

I’ve honestly seen many customers change the way they look. We had one printer, who bartered with us (products in exchange for print jobs) and when I came back from York University, he dropped by our office and it was so amazing! His whole crown was thick, and he was very happy.

Also, when we first started the company, during a conference, I met a 5 year old chinese girl (couldn’t speak to her because of my lack of putonghua skills) but the doctor told me that when she was 2 she was walking near her mother when cooking, and the scalding soup pan spilt on her. Her bald patches were from the burns, and HAIR2 helped her grow back hair, at the Chinese hospital.

Oh and most recently, my sister’s friend used it and he looks completely different now.

So yes alot of people can say that I can say whatever I want, but I sincerely know that HAIR2 works.  Like everything in life, it takes effort and patience to make things happen. ( A total course of HAIR2 is on average 5 months)

I just re-designed our website : www.hair2centre.com

and just for ease, I’ll also be uploading our hair loss articles in my blog.

September 8th goes down in history as a downright disappointing day.

During my first morning meeting, (one of many) I wrote down in my notebook ‘2008/09/08′ and thought to myself, today is going to be a good day. (Obviously right, what 8th days are not good?)

Anyhoo, we had a super huge lunch. I cannot explain how huge, but I actually ate rice (big deal) and I did this because I knew that I’d be playing Tennis today. Note: I’ve noticed what a significant difference it makes when I don’t just eat yoghurt for lunch.

I checked online that Murray beat Nadal, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOO FEDERER! So I was in an extremely high energy tennis mood, despite this, the weather didn’t agree with me.  Dark and grey cloudy skies.

Tennis was good and fun, I borrowed my brother’s Prince racket, so I assumed that it would be magical and transform my ground strokes to power ripping shots. Needless to say, the power and skill lies in the player.

I felt the first drop of rain on my skin, immediately glanced to Dad, and said, “Dad, It’s raining!” He waved and smiled and told me to finish the basket (we hired a tennis hitter). I felt like…if I remember correctly…the Gross-Jean Vs Roddick match at Wimbledon, when it was raining and obviously dark and they just kept on playing, until Gross-Jean slipped and cursed the umpire.  We ended tennis 5 minutes later.

Went to the gym, had a body aching work out, and then did 8 amazing minutes of grocery shopping (the type where I’m sliding and running down aisles)…Had a happy chat with Mom and Dad on the way home…

And here it comes…we get home, I see my LSE exam results in an envelope on the coffee table.

WHAT A GOOD DAY TO RECEIVE EXAM RESULTS!!! The gods must be shining on me!!

I got Greg, Mom and Dad to stand behind me while I opened it.

Pulled out the white paper…took a look at the results….

….

…

….

Let’s just say that something is wrong with the LSE exam markers, because not to sound like the most prissy perfectionist bitch in the world…BUT..I did not deserve those grades. I’m an honest and realistic student, I work hard and usually after every exam I can accurately guess my result with a margin of +/- 3 points. Not TWENTY FIVE!!

I seriously believe something went wrong with the marking, or maybe that the Bangkok British Council (damn them!) did not submit all the booklets I wrote.

One thing I will never get to shake off: Picture this scenario. – A moment of after the Management exam -

***

I’ve written 3 booklets.

The invigilator has no string to tie them together. I ask her to go to her room to get it…

Sloppy Invigilator..tugging the booklets..: No it’s okay, I will do it for you when I go inside the office.

Me..grip tight…: No, I rather you bring it here please so I can see it tied together

Sloppy Invigilator..tug tug…: No no no, don’t worry, I will do it for you.

Me: Sure? (smiling)

Sloppy Invigilator: Yes

Me..iron strong hold…: Are you sure? (cringing)

Sloppy Invigilator..final big pull..: Yes very sure (agitated but smiling. that’s Thailand, service with a bitter smile)

***

Me now: Blogging in anger and with regrets.

Boo.

BOO!

To all UOL/LSE External exam takers, heed my advice:

1. Always write down the exact question numbers that you submitted on your exam booklet, and in your journal/notebook for safe keeping after the exam.

2. Always check and double check your candidate number and all those other nitty gritty details.

3. Always stare at the invigilator collecting the exam paper.

4. Always MAKE SURE THOSE DAMN BOOKLETS ARE TIED TOGETHER WHEN YOU SUBMIT!!!!

After a very sweet pep talk with my parents, and with some friends. I know i know that the exam results are not a reflection of myself (by far).  And at the end of the day, I am graduating LSE with Bsc in Accounting and Finance with a Second Upper classification.

Dad says, “it’s a step away from 1st class”. I said, EXACTLY!  I was so upset that I cried. As I was wiping the tears from my cheeks, I hear a voice in my head: “Oh, so you are a typical type A, aren’t ya?” (a very wise friend said this exact sentence to me a few months back when she was visiting)

Yes. I am an overachiever. I am EXPECTED TO OVERACHIEVE.

Thus why, September 8th 2008 goes down in history as a downright disappointing day.

Bah humbug.