Happy Anniversary!

Dear Readers,

So April 2nd marks my anniversary … anniversary of leaving HK and moving to Bangkok……It’s been 12 years!
I still remember March 31st was my last day of school, and my friend Arun asking me, “Stacy, is this all some really sick April Fool’s Day joke?”

Aww…and Grace and Arun came to the airport to say goodbye to me, can’t believe what babies we were then!

12 years later, I’m alone… my parents most likely have moved back to Hong Kong, and there is honestly nothing really holding me to this place – except for Gizmo and Perdy.

So when I moved back here from Singapore? I realised that I had to find happiness here, and since my source of happiness is to be around my parents and family…they love Bangkok…they live in Bangkok…thus I accepted Bangkok.
When they left Bangkok, and I was faced with living here indefinitely? I became super proactive, started doing things I liked to do, and I would say made something out of my time here.

There are lots of things to love about Thailand, the people are so wonderfully nice (to a fault), everything is affordable…food is good, shopping is great…weather is fabulous….and then there are things to hate about Thailand…for example….TRAFFIC.  And my life is really nice and comfortable here, I drive a nice car, live in a nice apartment, I have a bff here, perdy and gizmo are here….life is good and happy!

Alvin told me that he thinks I live in “Canada” because my life isn’t a Thai life at all. But i think that makes sense, I make the most of my time here, I enjoy staying at home, and just chilling with my darlings, and staying in my bubble.

So wow, Happy Anniversary Bangkok. I think our romance has been off and on, love and hate, a lot of indifference, and now, you are just one fabulously comfortable city.

Finally I’m comfortable,
Stacy

A day in the life…

Dear Readers ,

I woke up with a mission this morning – beat the traffic, submit my yearly income tax EARLY – as in be one of the first to submit. (2nd last day to submit)

And…my car wouldn’t start.

My battery collapsed
The battery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This happened to me 2 weeks ago…on a tuesday too, maybe it’s a tuesday curse kinda thing. And the same nice man, who lives 4 floors below me helped me again! He is a pro because he owns some auto-tuning shop…and he found someone who was willing to help me (so nice!) to jump start my car, and when the car was running he took hammers, wrenchs and what nots and was hammering, and tightening bolts.

And the taxi cabbie who helped me jumpstart the car? I offered him money and he declined!

On days like these, I really have to acknowledge and give props to the kind nature of Thai people. Such nice wonderful people!!! 

I made my way to my class at Goodwill.  (1.8 hour drive….12KM!!!) And I have to say, I love my ladies!

Today, Chapter 4 was titled : Do you like Rap?
So we went through all the different music genres, they didn’t know the difference between Country and Folk, so I whipped out my iPhone and played Kenny Roger’s The Gambler, and Joni Mitchell’s Case of you to illustrate the difference. And they didn’t know the Beatles and I wanted to faint. Haha, but it turns out that in Thailand, the Beatles are known as *thai name for Beatles*, and once we established that connection, we spoke about John Lennon, how he was married to a Japanese Lady (Yoko) and how he was murdered. They knew all these random details! amazing!

And, I dont know about this Chapter 4…it was a really interesting chapter, because basically, Tom asks Jennifer…Do you like Rap? And they get to know eachother, she doesn’t like rap…thinks Enimem is a pianist…and prefers Celine Dion. And in the next class exercise we have a Dating Game show where Linda chooses between Bachelor 1, Bachelor 2, and Bachelor 3….(She chooses Tony.)

And then the final conversation was Dave asking Susan for a soccer-match-watching-date. And usually, I’ll give them some background, and share a bit of this ‘western’ type of culture. You know, as in, Okay, well for us, if a man is interested in a woman, he’ll just ask for a dinner date, or some date…directly, no need to go through this whole group date…friends-first sort of business.

And to prompt this discussion, I asked them, “so do Thai men do what Dave just did? outright ask women out on dates?”

To my surprise, all my students replied, “YES!”….”Yes they do, they usually ask for dinner, or a movie.”

………….

WHAT? 

They do? Damn…why am I getting short-changed here!

And there you have it Ladies and Gents, I am just too optimistic for my own good. Instead of facing the fact that I’m not being asked out for dinner, a movie, or anything social – because simply, there’s no love. (:() I just misinterpretted this whole lack-of-initiative as shyness! No wait, correction, lack-of-INTEREST = shyness.

Shame on me. Another huge and painful wakeup call.

And when we were going through this whole dialogue, honestly speaking? It really isn’t difficult to ask someone out.
Dave: Hey, I have tickets for a soccer-match on Friday night, would you like to go?
Susan: I’d love to, Thanks, what time is the match?
Dave: 8pm
Susan: Oh, so shall we meet at 6pm for dinner? (I LOVE SUSAN, POWER TO HER!)
Dave: I’d like to, but I have to work late…

so simple yet so difficult at the same time.

…

After class, I went for lunch with some of my students, which was really nice. A quick lunch and a rush to the revenue department. Which…wasn’t a bad experience at all, everyone is all smiles and I was out of there within 30 minutes.

Tennis and Gym Encounter
I think my tennis is improving, it now takes me 20 minutes to finish rallying one basket of tennis balls. But the sun was glaring down on me, and I felt like I was going to collapse so I finished tennis 15 minutes earlier than normal. Decided to use these 15 minutes to stretch upstairs at the fitness dome….saw Sebastien…wasn’t in the mood to chat or entertain him, just smiled and went straight to this private area, at the back of the gym to do stretches….

Right into my cat pose…lo and behold…..the stunned trainer approaches me. And he BOMBARDS me with questions! Oh my goodness….so stressful!

Trainer: Oh wow great to see you here…*beaming smile*…what are you doing? oooh that’s your tennis racket right there? Great, how was your playing today? how long did you play for? do you only play tennis? Oh you have two water bottles…ahaha……

Stacy: yup… and er..–

Trainer:  – So you dont teach today? what is your schedule tomorrow, do you teach tomorrow? what do you do? Oh when will be the next time you come to the gym? Do you come often? do you only play tennis? do you play weights? do you this ? do you that? do you do you do you….?????
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I was really patient for the first 3 minutes, and trying to do my stretches as he was badgering me, but I was coming down with a headache, and I figured I needed a powernap before I drove home, and his questions just kept coming and coming and coming, I felt so overwhelmed!

Gagh! I had to apologise and ask if i could finish my stretches, and he apologised profusely and wai-ed and bowed out.

I felt bad for 2 seconds, and then I just enjoyed my peace and quiet.

I know I am such a fussy person, complain when I get no attention, and when I’m bombarded with attention I feel like crawling back into my shell and hiding.

Home is where the Heart is
I have to say that, when I got home at 6ish, I was feeling so incredibly drained and spent. But when I saw my two best friends, and they showered me with love and affection, all that angst and stress just melted away!

I am just so happy to stay here with them in this condo forever, and I think …at least tomorrow, that is EXACTLY what I’m going to do.

Thanks for listening to my rant, what a tiring day!
Stacy

P.S. Thanks for listening to my rant, what a tiring day!

Dieting

Dear Readers,

My monday started off so very nice and fresh as Day 1 of the GM Diet. Tuesday was great too…

Wednesday I cheated a bit and met Anne for coffee, and Aubrey for dinner and a movie. Wednesday was all about fruits and vegetables. At the movie theatre, Aubrey asked if I wanted pop corn, and I figured, Yes why not, popcorn = corn anyways right? It’s simply…popped corn? so I’m not really cheating there, and I asked for the lightly salted ones only…

Thursday, I picked up Greg from school took him to dinner and shopping. And that’s when I all let it go. Friday? I suppose I stuck to most of my diet plan, but today Saturday…totally let go, had icecream TWICE and lots of starch…damn…

And I’m starting to see that, when I’m by myself – Monday to Thursday, it is so easy to really keep to diets? But when I’m responsible for Greg, it is so difficult to stay true to dieting. How can I, when I have meals to prepare?

It’s very difficult.

I just came back from snacks with Dianna and Mark, my first time snacking in a long time, and I have to say, I honestly feel sick! I don’t like supper anymore! my body can’t take it. I feel full bloated and really grossed out with myself. Tomorrow morning I’m going to make myself a nice fresh glass of watermelon juice, and hopefully start being healthy from there.

I’ve got 1 week ’til I hit HK, and 2 weeks until Jay and I hit New York! and 2Kgs to go! I hope I’ll be more disciplined next week.

If you have strong discipline, and want to see weight loss results fast, I recommend you try to GM diet. It feels great and healthy and I’m seriously considering changing my eating lifestyle to strictly fruits and vegetables!

Disappointed with my diet disobedience,
Stacy

United Colors of Benetton – It’s My Time – Global Casting Call

Dear Readers,

United Colors of Benetton has launched this really interesting campaign called It’s My Time, it’s a global casting call. The top 100 entries (determined by popular vote) will be published in a book, and from this pool of people, the judges will select 20 to be models in their 2010 catalog!!

It’s exciting really.

I saw it and right away asked for my sister Elizbeth to sign up, because she is really talented. Just graduated and is about to start her career in modelling. I thought, hey this will really give her a headstart in the industry.

The thing about this competition, is that each voter/contestant has 20 votes daily, and we can only vote for contestants ONCE per day. The logic is, if you get 100 votes today, tomorrow you should have 200 votes because the 100 people from yesterday would vote again. But, it is really difficult to find daily voters!

Not complaining at all, I understand people are really busy, have their own lives, I’m not angry. It just means we have to work double hard to get votes. Some contestants have 3000 votes already!?!? how is that possible! It must be their loyal fan base, 300 base, tomorrow you get 600 votes, next day 900 votes. So that’s what we are working really hard for right now.

Elizabeth’s profile is right here:
http://casting.benetton.com/users/257250-elizabeth

I’m such a proud sister! For anyone who found my blog by googling,  maybe you are a contestant, or maybe you are a supporter/voter for your friend, whichever the case, you have 19 extra votes at your disposal!! Please please vote for my sister!

Thank you for all your love and support!
Elizabeth’s Campaign Manager,
Stacy

Here is how to vote:
***
Sign up an account at:
casting.benetton.com/signup

The website will send you a veritifcation email, please click the link, and then you are ready to go! :)… See more

Please go to Elizabeth’s profile:
http://casting.benetton.com/users/257250-elizabeth

On your top right corner there will be a green button with a heart that says VOTE.

Living in the 1920s

Dear Readers, 

So this year, Dianna had the most interesting birthday theme – 1920s! Really vague, speak easy, gangsta style. 

Anyhoo, was very wishy washy abou the whole thing because I was feeling like a hue-mong-go (sp? please?) cow, and not in the mood to really shop, but after checking out styles – I was super happy…because 1920s = flapper style. 

Flapper – something loose, feminist, lots of makeup, associated with promiscuity. Great! Loose clothing! I was thinking of wearing a poofy ballerina skirt (hmm..) but mom called and gave me such fabulous ideas! I went ‘shopping’ in her closet and pulled out a beautiful sleeveless long wrap dress.
I called Pantea, and she told me to go on YouTube! to see tutorials, and voila! 

 

This was my first attempted at the “Faux Fingerwave Curl”

<—-early morning, tried this on, no makeup. 

Just before I headed out! Yes I know lots of makeup but that was the 1920s style!

When driving to Dianna’s place, I really had to listen to Cole Porter and Ella Fitzgerald (although…she was more of a 1930s-1950s artist). It was really nice, especially singing along to my favourite song “Someone To Watch Over Me”

I completely fell in love with that song when Heather performed it to us in the common room (as a practice run for her what was it…a casting call or something?)

Anyways, before I left my house, I looked in the mirror, and thought to myself, WOW. This looks quite right! As in, I often wonder if I really belong in this time? because all the books I read are rather…old (20th early century books), I like to listen to more Big Band classic music, and hmm, I’m not being very articulate at the moment, but I had a brief moment where I thought, wow I really belong in the 1920s!

Then…I think it was either Mom or Andrea who said, “You wouldn’t like the 1920s, the WASHROOMS were different”

Ohhh right…..I love the comfort of modern technology!! hee hee, right away I’m back in reality and appreciate the era in which I exist in. haha

Dianna’s gathering was quite nice. I met the same people who attended her gathering last year, so got to chat with them again which was nice.  But at the same time, I had my night totally ruined by this immature party attendee who completely berated me over something so miniscule. I realised two things that night:

1. I am very patient and VERY unconfrontational.
and
2. I really feel like I want to crawl back to my nunnery/nest (whatever you choose to call it) and just stay there.

I’m really at this point in my life where I am very content with myself, and would very much rather be in the comfort of my own home than be mingling and putting myself in a position where I meet incredible losers.

Call me judgemental on this one I don’t care, this guy was a SUPER JERK! No manners and not a gentleman! Oh and one of my major petpeeves = people who curse alot. I mean, is it really necessary? Oh and loud people. Geez.

The night winded down at 2am, but Greg wanted to go to GAZEBO (do you remember that place! I wrote about it last year when Jeab and I went for her birthday, G-H-E-T-T-O!!!) So we decided to go there for the afterparty. The two guys who came with us had no idea what they were getting into…which was quite amusing actually. It is always great to see shocks of horror on decent people’s faces when they enter gazebo…

Mainly because there are alot of prostitutes, wild tourist and people who are REALLY FORWARD! Some guy pat my back, and I thought it was Greg, I turned around, it was this african guy (I’m not racist, im just describing the situation please!) and hes like “Hey….what’s up…..?” and I just turned around, saw his face, and I THINK my face just had this sheer look of horror, that he completely backed away. ahahahahahahaha so funny. I think the party-Stacy would had grabbed his hand and flung it off her shoulder. Wow, I’m way out of practice.

And then, we danced in the corner of the room, which I thought was perfect because it was just a huge bunch of us 10 ppl? and we were with girls Greg’s age…so around 19-20 maybe? so I was quite protective, thankful we were in the corner. Then after the girls left, it was just Greg, Jay, PJ and I, Dianna and her 2 friends. Then Jay has this idea to dance near the fans or something? I THOUGHT we were leaving or something, Jay says, “Let’s move here Stace.”

She drags me to a place right near the entrance, in front of huge industrial-looking fans…right away I’m like….why…are…we….here…

Look left there is this ghetto guy in a white wife-beater shirt with tattoos. Lots of small sweaty white men dancing  around us. Look right there are ladies in leather mini skirts swinging their hair around and doing body rolls….

Wonderful! But yes it wasn’t hot and stuffy there, so it was better. But basically the move was from “safe-no-creepy-crawler-environment” to…”creepy-crawler-environment”!!!

I was so thankful when we left, so very very very thankful.

Overall, life is never boring with Miss Dianna Lee. Especially when we parked the car outside her friend’s Restaurant, and had to walk through piss-smelling dark alleys to get to Gazebo……

I really hope Greg and Jay won’t drag me there for my birthday……

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stacy

A great start to a busy week

Dear Readers,
Look at me! I’m blogging while I’m stuck in traffic!! Wonderful 🙂
Just came from Goodwill Foundation and I start to teach feb 2nd!

How exciting!

To be honest I was a bit apprehensive about volunteering for this organisation.
In the morning, I google searched for its address and came across this one forum post warning teachers not to volunteer. The author of that post said that we volunteers are training Thai women English so they can leech on to farang(Thai word for foreigners)

Argh I don’t want to do that, I don’t want some unsuspecting farang to be tricked by a gold digger….

At the foundation, I asked the programme organiser about her students, she told me that they were mainly disadvantages women trying to have a chance for a better life. A huge sigh of relief on my part. And I felt even better when she upfront honestly told me that some of her students want to speak English so they can get a farang boyfriend. She doesn’t condone these actions but she quite rightly told me that even if this is the case, these women need English skills to make sure they aren’t cheated or taken advantage of. Which, is a valid point, and I’m choosing to see the positive side of this issue. She said, “you know, not all farang are rich, and some can do bad things to these women.”
Hmmm….

Anyways I’m observing a class tomorrow and I’m starting to teach next week 🙂

On another note, Wednesday is the book club meeting and I can’t find *Tender is the Night* anywhere!!! I’m now heading to UTCC to check out their library and to pick up jay. I found the weirdest book at the bookstore, Check out the photo below.

I think i’m going to start to love Bangkok soon!

Excited and positive,
Stacy

Being Proactive!

Dear Readers,

Just as I clicked, “publish” for my previous post, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be lovely if there was some book club in Bangkok? In Canada there are so many book clubs (other places too) my friends tell me that they go, and share their experience, and I always wish that there was something like that in thailand. (Especially, if there was something like the Jane Austen’s Book club…did you watch that movie!!)

Guess what, I found it! The Bangkok International Book Club! And the most fabulous thing is that the next meeting is next wednesday, and the book is Tender is the Night! I’ve read it eyons ago, so I’ll have to dig through our home library to find it, and if not, I’ll buy it at the book store tomorrow!

Quite exciting! Will let share with you how it goes.
I love being proactive!
Stacy

Happy New Year!

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year! I can’t believe we are entering a new decade. It’s scary!

So last night, we had countdown at the hotel. Doug, Fiona, Jerry and Sandy joined! Doug hasn’t counted down with us since…my goodness, I can’t even remember, 12+ years! So it was great having him here.

We then proceeded to Zuma, which is quite a sazzy place. The music was really horrible to be honest. And what is with HK drinks? The bartenders are way too generous with the alcohol, so much so that the cocktails taste nasty.

And I gotta say, I went out because I thought, yup it would be fun to go out and celebrate with the family, do something different in 2010.  And I’ve come to realise that I no longer find any enjoyment or pleasure when clubbing.  Yup, that’s right. I wasn’t a party-pooper,  I’m just saying that when I’m standing/dancing in a club, I feel very pointless and I feel that I’m wasting my time and/or that I rather be in bed.

Oh and I saw Vince Chung!
Lame-confession – I had a small tv crush on him, and was a complete fan of team Sam & Vince on Amazing Race Asia! And when I saw him in person, I was a bit shy to go up to him and say happy new year, because that’s just weird…. And hmm well, I just didn’t feel like going up to him. So it is good to see/meet ‘celebrities’ in person because only then  can you throw them off their magical pedestals.

So, had my opportunity to say hi to vince, but didn’t. Oh well.

2010 is starting off funny for me, I’m still sick from all this holiday eating. But I’m positive and have a feeling that 2010 will be a great year.

Happy New Year Everyone!
Stacy

Revelations at Lan Kwai Fong

Dear Readers,

I was incredibly disgusted by 4 men on the 30th.  Doug took us for supper at Lan Kwai Fong, this pizza place  apparently by a Canadian guy. Sitting at the next table were 4 CBCs/ABCs (Canadian Born Chinese, American Born Chinese) who spoke EXTREMELY loud, like inhumanly loud. The type of loud that if you were standing in front of the speakers in a club…you’d be able to carry out a decent conversation! And what a conversation they chose to have at the supper joint!

F&!)$K! man,  what you didn’t f&*^K that girl? NO WAY! I f&!*Ked her in the park DUDE!

I don’t give a f*$!K what I do man, I’m f&*#king 30!

Stacy’s thought at that moment: Omg that guy is thirty!! WHAT A LOSER!!!!!!!!!

That’s a toned down example of the language they used. Completely vulgar and distasteful, and I’m sitting there cringing, thinking what perverts..and THEN at the other table another group of overseas chinese girls/guys were like, “DUde so would you do a threesome?ahahah”

So I’m thinking, am I just super sensitive to all of this, do people talk about s*x all the time, wherever whenever they want? If a group of friends are having dinner at Spaghetti House (a family place) do you think they would have the decency to keep s*x out of topic?

Seriously, I’m not a prune. I’m just saying, pick your time and place to chat about these things, and not share with the whole world your (lack of) sexual escapades.

So yes, back to my point. Turned off by the Lan Kwai Fong crowd. If what I’ve seen during the past 2 nights is representative of overseas chinese people in HK, I’m angry and ashamed! You know, there are some CBCs/ABCs who really think they are the shit because they grew up overseas. That thinking irritates the hell out of me.

After the new year’s party, Jay, her friend Joanne, Greg and I went to Lan Kwai Fong because Jay said people were still partying there. It was 4:30.
This is a huge generalisation here but I’ll say it anyways….the ‘after-party’ type of people are greasy! Alot of dirty people. Lan Kwai Fong was dirty in general with so much garbage on the street, and again wherever you turn you hear overseas chinese people speaking loudly.

No wait, I’m not hating on overseas chinese people, hey I’m one myself. I’m just really not impressed. I’m really embarassed when I think about what impression local HK people have on the overseas chinese community.

From my point of view, we come across as loud and over-bearing, cocky, wild and supremist! I hate that. But maybe that’s just the impression the overseas chinese clubbers give. Whatever the case – I’m highly not impressed.

From this point onwards I am definitely going to limit my Lan Kwai Fong exposure, it is such a crappy place!

Missing Singapore!
Stacy

Goodbye 2009

Dear Readers,

I’m a bit sick, sick from overeating. I’ve been in HK for 7 days and I can’t even recognised myself! No wait, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, I can recognise myself, but I have to say that I am completely free of inhibitions…when it comes to food.

Which..is really gross! It’s like, I know I shouldn’t have another serving of *e.g. dish A* but I go for it anyways.  Wedding dinner on the 25th…Boxing day feast on the 26th…Heavy yum cha on the 28th, followed by an amazingly huge birthday feast…29th was yumcha again….

Ugh, I feel sick just typing it out. Bleck.

But anyways, this post is about reflection, and in reflection, I feel that I need more moderation in my life, know my boundaries and practice control.

And, it’s sad to say that 2008 broke me so much so that in 2009 – my passion was lost. 2009 was my year of non-passion! (um, excluding events like the mooncake thing okay?)  When anything happened to me, I just took it with stride.

Oh standard charter doesn’t want me? *shrugs*

Oh car accident? *shrugs*

Lousy GMAT score? *meh*

I’ve become so detached from everything, if you nudged me, I wouldn’t flinch.

It makes me feel sad when I think about it. I didn’t put 100% into anything in 2009, very half-assed my way through it. Was equipped with the mentality of “que sera sera”

Equipped to a fault.

I admit, 2009 was a year of alot of emotional growth and maturity. But this apathy has got to stop.

Hence for 2010, I’m bringing passion back into my life!

That’s my resolution, to find back my passion in life, live life to its fullest, and finally get my groove back.

Thank you 2009 for all the lessons you’ve taught me.  I’m very grateful, but I definitely will not miss you.

Saying hello to 2010 and waving goodbye to 2009,
Happy New Year everybody :),
Stacy