Yes, one of the thousands that must must have to have the Wii Fit - the revolutionary at-home personal trainer. I preordered this nearly three weeks ago, and it was delivered on launch date of 25th April. And it was well worth it!!!

It first measures your BMI, which puts me at overweight– no suprises there, especially since I entered the wrong height measurement. Then it measures your balance , which gave me my Wii Fit age at 44. Hah. However, I do think that it tends to measure younger users and give them an older age, whilst older users will be assigned a younger age. All about motivation me says. The younger ones will be determined to lower their Wiiage whilst the older ones are so happy about being a younger wiiage than they actually are and thus continue playing

And its games -nothing like Bubble Bobble or even Grand Thef Auto. This was just out of the world! Over the weekend I had jogged on the spot with the Wiimote (the controller) in my pockets, headed footballs, ski jumped, dressed up as a penguin and chased after fishes, did pushups and many others. What was excellent about this Wiifit is the Yoga section, which measures if your weight is evenly distributed between your feet and how much you are shaking when you are doing a pose. This is nearly impossible to judge with traditional classes or even one to one yoga training. Wiifit takes out the doubt that you might be doing it wrong by measuring your centre of gravity and shakiness of your leg supporting your upper body.

I also found out that I rocked in hulahooping! Excellent for straining the thigh muscles, it was absolutely exhausting! Step aerobics was one of my plus points as well, fairly similar with dance dance revolution. Just trying to do more cardio stuff at the moment due to my Mii ( avatar on Wii) currently resembling a rotund barrel - it automatically shrinks your Mii if you’re underweight and vice versa.

This was bacon doing step aerobics

I might dissapear in the next week or so, but will definately take more pics! Been to busy excercising myself and had no time to take pixs. Very happy with my progress so far, seeing that I am horrible with sticking to gym, Wiifit will actually scold me if I was not consistent with my excercises! It says good morning to you, asks you if you’ve had your lunch and tells you to stay off the afternoon snack. Now, have you seen a friendlier personal trainer?

The trailer is available from YouTube here

Having worked in the energy industry, I am always wary of the tree-hugging greenies who insist on exhorbitant flights taxes, renewable energy for all and no packaging for any food. And of course, all for a very cheap price. I do not believe in extremism (unless the word chocolate is in there somewhere) yet I always think that one should do as much as they can. There is no point staying under your shell and never leaving your country of residence due to CO2 emmissions - what sort of ignorant children will you breed then? And as an acciddental migrant, the fact that my instant noodles were flown across the world or my salted duck eggs sailed seas to get to me is really irrelevant to my inevitable homesickness.

But it definately does not mean that I am just out there with my light-saber preparing to slaughter the world. And unlike many people I know of who is all talk about saving the world but no action, I am in the progress of changing my habits whenever I can.

Today is Earth Day. What have YOU done for your planet?

I have:

Converted most of my lightbulbs to energy saving sort
Walk around the house turning lights off that bacon had left in his blazing trail
Lowered my heating to 16 degrees
Restrict heating to 3 hours at night and 2 hours in the morning.
Iron really quickly (thus the burn!)
Try extra hard to remember to use my own bags for grocery shopping
Do not use separate plastic bags designed for grouping loose fruits & vegs.
Request for no bags for items small enough to fit into my handbag (creams, hairbands ect)
Try extra hard to recycle, even though it means glass bottles collecting dust in my kitchen before my next trip to the bottle bank
Recycle magazines, plastic containers & newspapers

Happy earth day!

Probably my own fault for accidentally scratching it

Sorry for my encore performance of no updates. Have been crazy at work - but what’s driving me even crazier is the fact that my parents have confirmed their trip here.

No, my parents are not the pain in the ass. It’s the fact that they are bringing 10 other people with them. Yes, TEN. Sepuluh. Dix. And ALL staying at my place. This is taking mi casa su casa a little too far! I also have to basically plan their whole trip, from trips to Edinburgh to trips to London and airport pickups and car rentals. Also pre-pay for all their trips first on my credit card and have them pay me back when they get here. Thank goodness for 0% on purchases credit card ;). I am seriously considering charging a commission for all this hard work .Failing which, I would settle for the transportation of my collection of shotglasses. They even wanted to go to Paris at which I drew the line. As the only person speaking any French whatsoever, I am not losing anyone in Paris - finding them would be absolutely horrendous. Glad my dad’s done more travelling than them, so I’m sending them off to Amsterdam for two days with my dad in charge.

Nearly confirmed now, should get everything sorted out by end of next week. I am so glad for this weekend, I really do need a rest from work.

And oh, I have at last applied for a L license. Yes…omg again. I did it in California and I am doing it again. I gotta go through the whole 9 yards of doing my theory exams and passing my driving exams. I really can’t be bothered, so I will be doing the exams in automatic transmission / stick shift. No point doing it in stick shift anyway, which is what all driving licenses in Malaysia is issued on. I don’t understand people that drives manual transmission, as city driving of stop-start traffic jams surely calls for an automatic car??? We were stopped at a traffic light the other day when some old fart in a manual car in front of us nearly crashed into us as he was in the wrong transmission and reversed at least 10 feet before I started honking the horn like crazy. Automatic transmission should be made compulsory!

Again the efficiency here impresses me to no end. I sent off my passport and application on Monday. It takes about 3 weeks to process the license and for them to send me a probationary drivers’ license. I was thinking that I will probably be without my passport for three weeks, but I received it back today in the post, with a note that they are still processing my probationary license. Excellent! There is still red tape here, but I have no doubt that if I were to post my passport off in Pos Laju, that would be the last I see of it - ever.

Anyway - haven’t started yet as I just received my book from Alicia this week (thanks!) but will definately slot it in for May - and the practical test in June.

and this is the reason why. A perfect pick-shaped 3rd degree burn

The last time this happened, I ironed my stomach.

Sorry for the general blurriness of the pix - taken inside my warm car on a cold cold afternoon at the traffic lights

Spotted on a Reliant Robin, or what I call a trimotor. A three-wheeled car anyone? Better than a kancil anytime!

I wonder whether it will tip over if you have a very very large passanger?

You are iPod I am iDuck….

heehee.

What’s an iDuck, no, not any iDuck, but iDuck nano;what the flying duck?

heehee. Yes,can’t help but to buy it. And does it take like a duck to water?

And it even changes color..

Now, you will never be lonely again during bath time - with a portable iDuck nano, you can now glow like a superstar!

Continuation from the post below - Sufiah had just sold her story to the newspaper that broke her ‘dirty little secret’.With NSFW videos and pictures.

I wonder what will the Boleh Government make of all this. After their grandoise plans of speaking to her mother and saving her soul, she basically just came out saying that prostitution had given her good sex.

This is just one of the few examples of what kiasu parents can turn their child into. I was never pushed that far, due to it being an accepted fact that I was not going to go very far anyway - until I startled eveyone by excelling in college .Of course, it was only the Malaysian kiasu education system that failed me, I did not fail me. People take the piss out of the American education system, but it taught me more in the 4 years what the Malaysian education system could not even achieve 1% of in the 5 years before.

Not everyone are born to be doctors,and parents need to accept that instead of pushing their children way above their limits. Children should be allowed to experience a real childhood of playing and learning and getting to know the world, not forced to stare at times tables all day long. I know parents world over would mumble its for the child’s own good, but I really do wonder if it was more for the parents to have bragging rights, another tumpang glamer incident to live their live through their child.

I vow not to push my child to that sort of limits

I first heard of this name back in the early 90s, this apparent child genius who is of malay-pakistani parentage who is born and bred in the UK essentially. At that time her mother (who was in born Johor - no idea if she even still holds a Malaysian passport) was apparently trying to get the Malaysian government to fund Sufiah’s foray into the Oxbridge route. She must be around 12 or something, as she was accepted into Oxford at age 15. The Malaysian government apparently offered assistance to her instead of many other brillant Malaysians - hell, she (Sufiah) does no even hold a Malaysian passport! I doubt that she had spent any long amount of time in Malaysia as well…why should the Boleh Government sponsor her?

But as always, the Malaysian governemnt always ‘adopts’ random people of dubious superstar status and making them their own. Tumpang glamer, like they say in Malay = borrowed fame

With news breaking in the UK over the weekend about Sufiah’s apparent foray into prostitution, the Malaysian Government has apparently decided to come to her rescue instead (even though she had never been a Malaysian) -

The Prime Minister’s Department and the Malaysian Missionary Foundation (Yadim) will try to assist former child mathematics genius Sufiah Yusof, now aged 23 and fending for herself as a prostitute in Salford, Manchester.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Zahid Hamidi said they would help the gifted girl return to the right path through the “Save Sufiah Programme”.

“The first thing we should try to do is to contact her mother or arrange a meeting with Sufiah to find out the reason she turned to prostitution, offering her services through the Internet, using the name ‘Shilpa Lee’,” he said.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Khaled Nordin said Sufiah was also of legal age and could do as she liked with her life.”We just can’t bring her back. She is big now and can decide for herself. She has the right to do as she pleases, ” he said yesterday, adding that the Malaysian Students Department in Britain had been asked to look into Sufiah’s case.

Seriously, it is NONE of the Prime Minister’s problem if she had decided to turn to prostitution. And a Save Sufiah Program?? OMG WTF IS THAT?? If they are so concerned about prostitutions ect then maybe the first step would to look in their own backgarden and eradicate the problem, instead of saving someone who has never made Malaysia her home.And what do you mean bring her back? Malaysia was never her home, she had never been a Malaysian student abroad, so why is the Malaysian Student Association been requested to help her??

This coming from the Boleh government who never, ever answers their phone in the Embassy - thus I have been unable to register my existance or indeed my marriage until today. I am apparently still living in Malaysia and single. And now they are sending the dogs out to help someone who have dubious claims of being a rakyat, who had not even requested for help.

Should we not be saving our own souls before trying to save others?

And I loved it how the Malaysian papers lapped the news up (as I knew they would) ; but omitting the topless pictures that were splashed across the actual papers . Click here for the actual article, including NSFW pictures

Well, not yet.First step to summertime is always my favourite spring. Unlike Skippy’s Hanami @ Japan, its not as nice here but close enough - well, probably as close as I will ever get to a real hanami where families and friends have picnics under the sakura trees just to enjoy the pretty flowers. Imagine having a picnic in Malaysia under a bunga raya (hibiscus) plant..

Taken on my way back from work, need to try again for a brighter shot, the pinks are actually very pretty. I do miss having a cherry blossom tree right outside my bedroom window like in the old house

And of course, the blooming of my annuals!! I love tulips! Actually, I love most flowers that grows from bulbs, as they come back again and again every spring, and the bulbs usually multiply as well, so it come back better and bigger each year.

Of course the cat enjoys it as well - just like his blondie owner he loves basking in the sun and rolling around..

I know I have been abandoning my blog - and nothing says more than WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU??? than getting two smses in one morning from different parts of the world asking if I am still alive and kicking. And I just found out as well about the comments with putting my face on a milk carton and the likes

SORRY LOR!

pix stolen from amazon.co.uk

This is the bane of all my problems. Now I understand how blokes get addicted to game consoles. I can’t help it, me and bacon have been having competitions on a nightly basis with yours truly always losing. I had wanted to get a wii ever since I saw it launched in Melbourne just before christmas 2006 - could not really fanthom forking out the moolah for it until last chrismas - when it wasout of stock since October. We went to Toys R Us one sat morning looking for it as the salesman had told us that they would be getting some in the next morning -at 7.30am on a Saturday, there was already a queue going around the building!

So anyway, after I got news about my happy bonus, I promptly went out to buy one and had not stop ever since. I had even pre ordered Wii Fit just like a proper little geek - no, I seriously don’t know what is wrong with me, other than the fact that I find doing yoga with a game console fascinating. At £69.99 for the game and board, it better be. We only had been playing with two games thus far - Wii Sports which came with the console, and Wii Play, which gave us a free remote. And YES, I do realize this is a lame excuse! Yes, I am a Loser with a capital L.

SORRY LOR!

On other news, spring’s well on its way!! Look at the weather from BBC! Yes I know, not like it’s really warm, but the sun’s been rising around 6am and its cheering me tremendously waking up to sunshine instead of gloominess

I now have my fleece on instead of my winter jacket (even though that was slightly too cold) , and very soon my pretty wedges and sandals will be out as well! Painted my toes yesterday so that they are well primped for summer - I don’t care come rain or shine this weekened I am letting my feet breathe! I buy quite a lot of shoes, but what you may not know is that I actually hate wearing shoes, preferring to go barefoot or in sandals. In summer I practically live in my two pairs of birkies and nothing else. God knows why I like buying shoes if I can’t be bothered to wear them..:).

OK, with power comes responsiblities, so I promise from now onwards I will update at least twice a week ok? Heh - not like as if I have any powers, but I do feel extremely guilty abandoning the blog; everytime I Wii I will feel like I’m cheating on my blog - not a good feeling. I hate dissapearing acts and I pulled one myself. And of course, the long lost roti canai chronicles will be back soon!!A little teaser:

Deep fried baby crabs at Sepetang, Taiping

Tomyum @ Koh Samui, thailand

Cendol @New World Park. Penang

My favourite Cheese Baked rice, with pork slices & preserved vegs, red sauce and baked with cheesy goodness. Kim Gary @ Sunway Pyramid, where else!

Fav minced meat with deep fried pork fat Koay teow soup, lorong ceri (aka chit long) , Butterworth