CASP

I'd been brainwashed since I was a kid that, sport was just a recreational activity; something you played in and if you happened to excel in it, oh cool, you could represent the school and get some certs/medals and later use it to embellish your CV and aim for those scholarships and then carry it over into your resume for job applications later on.

Turn professional? CANNOT. Wait not enough food to eat, no money to lead a comfortable life and basically suffer. This sort of mentality isn't really something bad - it's just our Chinese instincts getting the better of us. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you:

The Chinese Art of Self-Preservation,

indoctrinated in children and iterated and reiterated as they grow up. Taught to preserve oneself at all times, in all situations, in any part of the world, the Chinese are famous for being selfish, kiasu (scared of losing) and kiasi (scared of dying). Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion and should not be quoted to describe Chinese in general.

So I read about Ben Leong today. He's certainly one of those unusual ones, who actually turned sport into a profession. Whilst not exactly some blazing Tiger Woods, but he's doing real good. And guess what? I actually have an autograph from him somewhere *rummage rummage* back from when he was still a teenager!!! Haha - can imagine Ze shuddering and his mouth forming the word "GEEK" at me.

It certainly feels good, reading about the achievements of our Malaysian sportsmen. I can cheer for him whole-heartedly, yet I like to adopt the Chinese Art of Self-Preservation: sitting in my comfort zone and cheering Ben on, boasting about our Malaysian achievements if he does well and secretly going "Yalar...told you already lor-becoming a professional sportsman here, not worth it la!" if he fails.

This Chinese Art of Self-Preservation (CASP) is a prudent practice - while we might not achieve glorious victories, we certainly won't suffer too much if things go wrong. Ouch, when you think of all those missed opportunities passed over simply because taking risks is considered rash. But then again, why, lah, do you want to suffer when you already have the things you need already?



I've been thinking about this CASP in the back of my mind for quite sometime now. I've been trying to break out of it, but CASP is like this persistent, annoying voice that checks every step of mine. At times, sheer laziness overrules my rash, roving mind, but most of the time it's just CASP sinking its fangs into my brain. I really need to wake up!!! It's nearly December now, the end of yet another year, and I don't want to look back a couple of years later and remember nothing, except this one big routine. Arrgh!

Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat

My old friend came to visit me yesterday. She rudely woke me up at 5am without so much as a warning and as if that was not enough, she made her presence felt by being a pain in my stomach literally.

My old friend is obnoxiously called Gastritis.

I haven't had such severe gastritis for many months now. The last time I had it, I had to be put on a drip because I couldn't keep my foods down. At 5am yesterday, I woke up with a sharp pain in my tummy. Before I could say "oh, no" I was rushing to the bathroom to throw up. This went on for about 2 hours until Mum forced me to take an anti-vomit pill, which did the job. The pain refused to go away though, so I was curled up in bed the whole day, feeling absolutely sick and wondering randomly if childbirth were worse, and if it were worse, I wanted to rethink my maternal plans.

Today, I was nauseated the whole day, probably because I hardly ate anything and was in bed the whole day yesterday. I could hardly stand/sit up for more than 15 minutes. Thankfully after an extremely light lunch, I started to feel slightly better and now, I seem to be able to move about more normally. The lightheadedness still persists though.

The worst part about today was that I actually felt so hungry, yet could hardly eat. I elt like throwing up with each bite, yet my stomach kept going, "More food, please." This is actually the true meaning of the word 'dilemma'.

Anyway, I didn't mean to bore you with that hag, Gastritis. What I really wanted to talk about is this:


I spent the previous hour finishing this book!

Title: Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat
Author: Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle
ISBN: 978-0-09-190710-5
Price: Last seen retailing in major bookstores for RM45.90

For those who love food, love reading about food, love watching food documentaries, this is a definite must-read book. Add in the 'healthy' element and you have a perfect storyline.

Naomi Moriyama exposes traditional Japanese cooking and its many health benefits. Exhorting her readers to adopt a Japanese-style eating habit, she took me through a wonderful food adventure, complete with recipes and instructions on how to adopt this healthy lifestyle.

Using bold exclamations "There is a land where women live longer than everone else on Earth" and assurances of low difficulty and complexity "It is easy to start your own Tokyo kitchen", Naomi Moriyama slowly but surely indoctrinates you with the many benefits of Japanese food until you find yourself nodding your head vigorously at her (somewhat exaggerated?) statements.

"It's all in the presentation," says Naomi Moriyama. As such, food must be served artistically and tastefully (pun intended). Food must be made visually appealing to enhance the eating experience. This was something which I'd never believed in. Note my usage of past tense. Yes, I'm a convert.

Such is the power of this book, that my family have been eating Japanese power breakfasts every now and then, ever since my sister finished reading it a few months ago. Every time we have left over soup, rice and dishes, we keep it in the fridge and reheat it for our breakfast. Naomi Moriyama promotes Japanese breakfasts as light, yet guaranteed to last. I am pretty much a cavernous pit but I find that each time I have Japanese breakfasts, I do not need to grab a snack at 10am. On usual days where I have oats for breakfast, I definitely find myself rummaging around the office food cabinet at 10am.

This book is definitely a good gift for your friend who is trying to lose weight. You are encouraged to eat wholesomely and NORMALLY but practise hara hachi bunme, which means eat until you are 80% full (Aack, I *gulp* have difficulty practising this).

There is an added advantage - the Chinese diet is somewhat similar to the Japanese diet, so there are not much changes to be made for those Chinese Japanese-diet-converts. Probably the key difference is that Japanese eat a lot of fish - a plus point for my fish-loving family. I can hardly recall a meal without fish when I was growing up.

I'm so hungry now - all this talk about fish is making me hungry too. I hope I'll be able to eat my dinner without that horrible throw-up feeling.

Click here to read more about this book.

You Must Wow Along With Me

because you really have to. I'm writing this thinking that I'm really like the most rusa masuk kampung person ever. I still will write it anyway because I'm sooooooooooooo impressed.

And before you read this, you must condition yourself such that you have the most amazing powers of imagination, OK? Very important for this post.

I was checking in to Le Meridien 2 nights ago, in my rush I forgot my shoe bag - so I had to do what I had to do.

Calmly walked into the hotel lobby, with my trolley luggage in one hand, and my heels in the other!

Hehe. Not exactly the grand sort of entrance you would want to make at such a hotel, but sometimes, you just have no choice.

So there I was at the reception counter checking in, and Concierge comes along.

"Oh, just leave my shoes," I mumbled at him. "I wouldn't expect you to take it." Grins at him while he peers at my shoes with a most inquisitive gaze.

10 seconds later...

"Ma'am?"

OK, OK, read carefully: here comes the drum roll bit.

*Drum Roll*

****

***

**

*

I turn around and there stands Concierge with a paper bag for my shoes.

W-O-W. I mean, is that excellent service or is that excellent service???

Tara Road

Title: Tara Road
Author: Maeve Binchy
ISBN: 0-440-23559-6

I like this book. It hit a nerve.

I've always been touchy about extra-marital affairs. Throw in an innocent wife, a best friend who betrays you, a self-righteous husband and there you have it: a boiling Grace, even though it may really be none of my business.

The storyline is nothing new: after all, unfaithfulness and betrayal have been around since the days of Genesis. Human nature has hardly evolved over the years. Yet what makes this book a good read is the totality of the story. I'm talking about Maeve Binchy laying out the story from the start - telling us of Ria (the heroine) as a young girl, then getting married, sticking with the husband through thick and thin and ultimately of the inevitable heartbreak.

The story is very real, the foundation for infidelity is insidiously paved throughout the years, and it is hard to lay the blame on anyone - except, perhaps for the fact that Ria's husband unfortunately has the male weakness amplified in his character. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the objective part of me grudgingly admits that Ria could perhaps have been more attentive to her husband to avoid this heartbreak.

I cried BUCKETS when I read this story - probably cried myself sick reading it. Why? Because I hate sad endings, because I know these things happen for real, and because I kept imagining myself as Ria and it hurt so badly to be betrayed. It's a good reminder for myself to be less oblivious and be more in tune with my surroundings.

Additional credits: This book is on Oprah's Book Club list. I'd recommend this book for girls!

Read more about Tara Road here.

Patola Day

I've never felt so miserable before in my life.

I had an 8am meeting. That was probably the most challenging meeting I'd ever attended at work and it caused me lots of frustration, heartache and the involuntary opening of some ducts.

To make matters worse, I had to rush from that meeting to another meeting to another meeting and yet another meeting. It was like this all the way until end of the day. Lunch was only 15 minutes and then I was on the go again.

The morning saga really made me feel bad and sad. I felt utterly miserable the whole day and was totally upset about it. Move on, they say, but sometimes, frustration can make you feel utterly helpless and it hurts so badly.

It was just too bad for me that everything had to happen in one awful jam packed day. It was also too bad for me that I had to start my day so horrendously.

Food is probably about one of the things that can really cheer me up, so I came home looking forward to my dinner only to find fried fish and sambal on the table - which I couldn't really eat much of because of my stupid ulcer - and patola. I quite hate patola. Thinking about the morning fiasco only made me get emotional over my dinner.

It's just a totally shitty day. I'm going to cry myself to sleep.

Coming Soon!

Could you believe it? It's already NOVEMBER!!! I feel almost sad as I write this: sad at how time flies, sad at how the present will soon fade to be a memory, sad at how things change so fast without us being aware of them.

Anyway, I didn't intend for this to be another gripy post. What I really wanted to say is:

Christmas is coming!!!

Last year's Christmas!!!

Christmas used to be just another public holiday for me - we never celebrated it so it was just another day for me. Recently, however, Sis and I decided that we would make it a point to celebrate this occasion - and provide an excuse for the whole family, extended members included, to gather and just be merry! The religious factor..uh...isn't the reason actually, rather because I come from a rather orthodox faith which doesn't talk about celebrating Christmas. If you think that's weird, click here.

So la la la...Christmas is coming!!! and so I made it known over dinner today.

Bro-in-law: Eh, my phone is giving me problems - it's spoilt.
Sis: All I want is a GPS for my car.

0_0

I tell you - my family is commercialised.

Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, you join 'em right? Hehehe. So, so, so (I'm coming to my favourite part now), what do I want for Christmas???

Shit. This can't be happening to me. I'm a girl. I'm supposed to think of a whole list of stuff like clothes, makeup, shoes and the like. But I'm not. Damn, what's happening to me? I must be having some weird hormonal imbalance but my time of the month is over!

Urgh. *Slaps myself* *Hard*

I must be stressed. Because I can only think of one thing right NOW. (and it doesn't start with "s")

Books!

Yes, books! That's what I want! I'm definitely getting geeky. (Ze: What are you talking about? You've always been a nerd.)

I'm getting rather obsessed over books these days. I find it really really tough to put down a book unless I'm nearly half asleep and the words all look like "chocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolate" to me. I can exercise self-control over just about anything, except books. I don't understand it myself. I simply adore reading.

Probably because this is something that I really do out of sheer enjoyment. 100% enjoyment. And I'm getting slightly irritated now because I want to read but I'm typing this post. So I shall abruptly end it here. Goodnight.

Mayada, Daughter of Iraq

Title: Mayada, Daughter of Iraq
Author: Jean Sasson
ISBN: 9780553816402
Rating: Can Read (Oh, please read Captain Corelli's Mandolin and The Alchemist first!)
Price: Currently retailing for RM35.90 at Borders

I was slightly disappointed by this book.

You see, we've all been spoilt by the mass media. Movies are dramatised to the max, extreme emphasis is placed on sound in the theatre and even written stories are sensationalised by the press. The general public are suckers for drama. Why else would people lap up "Dear Thelma" stories every Sunday?

So, it was with the same expectation that I picked up Mayada, Daughter of Iraq. After all, the book had a bold tagline proclaiming:

"One Woman's Survival in Saddam Hussein's Torture Jail"

Expecting a full-blown account of torture instruments and methods, I turned the pages eagerly only to experience some sort of anti-climax. Of course, there were torture stories - but, the book somehow failed to leave enough of an impression on me.

Oh, go ahead and condemn me for revelling in people's suffering and misery, but this is after all, an account of Saddam Hussein's Baladiyat prison! Jean Sasson could certainly have done a great deal better. The book lacks depth and did not give me enough to chew on. It's just like trying to eat fried chicken with chopsticks within 10 minutes. You can only eat a small piece at at time and when time's up, you find that you've only managed to eat a small portion. Not filling, lah and totally dissatisfying.

But then again, one has to understand the author's dilemma - trying to strike a balance between sensationalising a book and maintaining a factual account.

Overall, I felt it an insightful-enough book - for Mayada is from one of Iraq's most powerful families and so the story was told from the eyes of the privileged, a story which is not often easily attainable.