the weight thing

I have been looking at people pictures. And people watching. At the malls, sitting in restaurants, gazing out. On the roads, driving, stopping at red lights, looking (surreptiously) at pedestrians. Then looking at before and after pictures at sites like fitnessmagazine.com. And wishfully thinking I wanna look like her. Or her. Or her. Or her. Even her.

How did I get here? Girlfriends of course. Haha. And a book too.

'How to Meet a Man After Forty.. by Shane Watson'. Which I'd gotten ages ago, but never managed to sit down and read. I mean really sit down and read. I had quoted bits and pieces off of it to my sounding board :) He was teasing me about the quality of the stuff I read, so I started quoting lines from it just to prove him wrong. I like the book and I'm just over midway through it. OK I diverge.

The first chapter is called Am I Good for My Age? And it is hilarious! But it also made me think. Or rather cringe. One of the things I fear most is wearing stuff that is age-inappropriate. Under this chapter, Ms Watson has a section called Looking GYFA : Know Your Style and she categorizes all the different styles so neatly into;

Too Body Conscious
Too Youth
I think I can still do Scruffy Rock Chick
I'm doing Old-school Glamour
I'm a Chic Lady
Floaty and Feminine
Kitten Girl

In Too Body Conscious, she sums it up perfectly in this line - 'tight is cute on girls, and sexy on vamps with personal trainers, but can look desperate on a regular woman wearing ordinary underwear.' 

I wont go into the other sections, they're just as plain speaking as this. And spot on. And funny. OK I diverge again.

About three weeks ago (maybe 4 or even 5), I met up with some girlfriends and we had started talking about appearance. I thought that all of us looked good in our own way. However, at the end of that exchange, everyone in the little group unanimously agreed that I was a tad too skinny and needed to put on some serious weight! No boobs, no butts were their verdict. Hey, I'm not so vain that I got worried about that, but what scared me was one of them saying, if I didnt put on anymore weight, I would age before my age! Nooooo! Everyone immediately went into expert mode on how best to put on weight.

See, I do eat. A lot. I am hungry all the time. But the calories start burning off as soon as I so much as taste the food. And eating all the time does get to be boring very quickly. Anyway, so one of them suggested I continue eating the way I do, but also to start drinking weight gain formula shakes in between meals. Which I did religiously for about 2 weeks.

And I did notice some weight gain. And I could fit into (and bought) a super cute strapless bra! Something I never thought I could manage!! Woot!
But I was also going to the bathroom a lot. And my stomach was bloated and queasy the whole time. Is that normal? Even if it is, it can't be good. So I stopped taking the milk shakes. I feel better but the downside of it was I lost all the weight I had gained!! :(

I spoke to another girlfriend two nights ago. She said, I look good the way I am. Never mind what other girlfriends say. They probably are just envious of me and want me to be fat like all of them. I guess so. The thing is I do think I am too thin and I think it would be nice to have a little cleavage and a little more butt. Haha. Yea, I know. Didn't I just say I wasn't vain? Damn. The grass is always greener on the other side.

I will have to make up my mind though. There is just enough weight gain formula left to make two more shakes. I think I will have those shakes before the day is over. Damn.

Langkawi ~ The sky on the sea!

Reflection of the sky on the Langkawi side of the Andaman

Wat Pracacinaram, Kelantan - Bots and Cats

This isn't your regular wat picture I suppose, but I just had to put up a picture of these felines. They were almost all over the place at Wat Pracacinaram.

This is my first ever wat. Ever. Yaay!

I had no preconceived idea about what a wat should look like and I was blown away by what seems to be a wonderful balance of quaintness and over-the-topness, not at just this wat but at all the wats we saw that day.

Well, except for the last one we saw (Wat Chonprachumthat). That I'll save for another write-up. :)

There was on-going construction at the time of our visit (that was November 2009). I guess they would have finished by now. The construction, however, in no way dampened our visit.

I also first learned the word 'bot'. One of the men said we could enter the 'bot' as it was unlocked. I had no idea what he meant. I thought he mispronounced 'boat'! Haha, stupid me. And travel buddy said, no he said wat. I kept my peace. I thought I could differentiate the sound of 'b' and 'v'. Still, one never can tell.

Anyway, afterwards, back at our room in Kota Bharu, I googled 'bot' and found out it to be the prayer house, or I just googled it again, it defines a 'bot' as the finest building in a Thai Buddhist monastery. Talk about wow.

This picture does NOT do it justice tho :(

Anyway, we didn't enter this fine looking building since we weren't sure that we could. Lesson of the day; in case of ignorance.. ASK.

It also happened to be something like all souls day or something. There were Buddhist devotees placing offers and burning paper money. We tried not to be too intrusive and kept out of the way. Good thing they were quite nice about us (me rather) taking their pictures :)

Wat Photivihan, Kelantan - the tale of the purple mangosteen

 

Welcome to the home of the largets reclining Buddha in Southeast Asia!

The second wat we saw in Kelantan was Wat Photivihan. Totally different from Wat Pracacinaram, and again different from the next two wats we were fated to see later the same day. I like this wat for the different trees growing in the compound. This one I'm standing under is a mangosteen tree. There is even a cocoa tree nearby.

Before anyone thinks I am an expert fruit tree person, let me set the facts straight. I DO NOT know my trees, except for rambutans, durians, mango and banana trees. I dont think I can name anymore. Maybe they'll come to me after I'm done writing this piece. It's always like that isn't it. :)

So I'm standing under this tree for shade, trying to make a meaningful picture out of the combination of concrete seats and over-manicured tree. As soon as I clicked on the click button, something dropped onto the ground next to me. I was creeped out of course. I looked down. A dark round thing rolled to my feet. I got really creeped out. I looked up the tree. Nothing out of the ordinary. I looked down again at the dark round thing. Then I saw that it was a mangosteen. Hmm. I should have taken a picture of the fruit. But as I said, I was creeped out. Who remembers anything when they're creeped out except to get away as far as possible as quickly as possible from the creepy place?

Anyway, creeped out as I was, I picked the fruit up. Looked up at the tree. It seemed to smile at me. I smiled back and said thank you. And walked quickly away.

I looked for my travel buddy. He was busy taking pictures. I decided not to bug him and took some more pictures on my own.

Afterwards, when we got into the car, I showed him the mangosteen. I said if I ate it, it would be the freshest ever mangosteen I'd ever eaten in my entire life. Would you like to have some? He shook his head. I said, but what if it were cursed or something? You eat some too, so that at least if we died or something, we'd die together or at least have dysentry together.

So he ate a wedge. And I ate the rest.

To this day, we have not experienced any adverse effects from it.

Phew.

A white antrium in Cameron Highlands

This fly spent some time on this white antrium, allowing me to experiment and re-experiment (taking pictures). What a lucky break (for me).

What a year!

Iced lemon tea. Egg rolls and peanut dip. Noodle soup. Lovely conversation. Movie.

How time flies. (when you're having fun)

How time flies. (when you don't want it to end just yet)

So sad.

Butterfly Park Kuala Lumpur - cool winged ones!

The Butterfly Park in Kuala Lumpur is a favourite haunt. I try to go often, but haven't been as much this year. I just realised it's already December... and I've only been...  twice!!!

These pictures are from October. The time I went, there were a whole bunch of Atlas Moths. Amazing winged creatures! They were HUGE! I hadn't seen them on previous trips so that was a nice surprise. I should go again. Maybe the park has more surprises in store. :)