茶道 Japanese Tea Ceremony

Today is second day of Chinese New Year, I tried a new event 茶道 Japanese Tea Ceremony. My Japanese Sensei invited me and my friend Tamako chan to her house. Her friend is holding a tea ceremony to introduce this Japanese culture to people.

First, we were asked to eat okashi(sweet/candy/chocolate) , then we were taught how to turn around the bowl and drinking tea. Nihon go (Japanese) sensei told tea master that I couldn't take much caffeine so they prepared a different tea ( mild) one for me.

Later , we were taught how to make tea, folding the Chakin (茶巾). It was difficult to fold the chakin. We were told , it took nearly 1 week to learn how to fold it by another student who showed us. I was fully focus in attending to the tea ceremony so I dind't take any photo. The student who showed us is a guy. All along I thought tea ceremony is a lady's hobby because I never heard from Jap guy friends that they go tea ceremony. :) Today, Japanese teacher told me tea ceremony started by man. I discussed with my Japanese teacher , we both agreed Tea ceremony is a very high cost hobby as you need to have many Kimono ( which is super expensive !! ) plus the fees to learn tea ceremony. Ladies and men wear kimono in tea ceremony.

To learn more of this Japanese tea ceremony : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony

http://www.holymtn.com/tea/Japanesetea.htm

Gong Xi Fa Cai !

To all my friends and relatives who celebrate Chinese New year , I would like to wish you ' Gong Xi Fa Cai' May the Ox year brings you tonnes of happiness, prosperity, good health. May all your wishes come true !

I just had my reunion dinner. Reunion dinner on Chinese New Year eve is the most important event in Chinese New Year for all Chinese. All family members from all parts of the world will try to gather together to have the dinner together.

What I will doing in this Chinese New Year ? Relatives visiting, ex primary school classmate gathering . Oh yeah, my Japanese sensei invited me to Japanese tea ceremony on Tuesday. I am going to explore this new event ! Watching TV with many new year special shows , Gym as usual !

Brunei Trip

おとといはBrunei へきました。きのは帰りました

Brunei はとてもつまらないです。私とOracle Malaysia の会社員ひこきでBrunei へいきました

火曜日Penang からKuala Lumpur　まで、Kuala Lumpur からBrunei まで 。私ぶらぶらにAirport.

金曜日の晩十時に　うちでした。今　くたくた。

私　Nasi Lemak を　たべました

BruneiのえびCraker　を かいました

hhahaha not sure how many mistakes I made from the above. If you notice , please correct me.

Now English version ! I got a 4 days short job since last week. It was a pre-sales job so I prepared pre-sales material and flew to Brunei for 1 day presentation. It was my first time to Brunei.

My impression of Brunei is a very ulu place ( village), small place. However, I was there only a short while and busy with work so not much time to feel bored too. Customer took us to eat Chinese dinner, the dinner was good and quite authentic Chinese food. Next day, he took us to eat Nasi Lemak( according to him best in Brunei) but I think can find better one in Penang or not comparable to Madam Kwan's nasi lemak.

After lunch, I asked what is the signature souvenir I can bring back to Malaysia. I was told ' Keropok" ( Prawn cracker) . So they took me to minimarket to buy prawn craker but it was raw type. Need to fry it ! ahhaha I told the customer if I buy this and pass to my friend in Penang may be I will be scolded kekeke so I decided to buy instance cooked crakers, end up I bought Junk food ! kekekeke...

I saw the mosque with gold plated roof on my way back to Sheraton Utama hotel. It was a very grand mosque. Nothing much about the hotel except the buffet breakfast was good. I wanted to take some pictures in the airport but we were all told to check in earlier and need to be seated in the gate earlier as the sultan was coming back from other country and the airport will be closed for certain section. Anyway, it was a good and short trip , as I added a new country to total country visited list of mine !

Hey ! hehehe I wanted to check what I wrote in Japanese make sense or not, therefore I pasted the paragraph in the Japanese translation website, this is the English output below generated by the translation tool'

''It came to Brunei the day before yesterday. Coming returned. Brunei is very trivial. From Penang to Kuala Lumpur from Kuala Lumpur to Brunei on Tuesday when it lived in Brunei with me with company employee of Oracle Malaysia. It is Airport in my. It was within in ten o'clock of the evening of Friday. It is dog-tired now. ''

I guess not too bad right ? errr both , my written paragraph and the translation tool accuracy ! hehehe

Birthday celebration

Cousin, friends asking how did I celebrate birthday ...I had Thai dinner with my family. Mum bought me a fruit cake. She took the exact candles but I refused to put the exact candles ............for a reason !!!!

I told I might want to blog this picture but I did not want to publish my age in the blog kekeke

It has been 2 years I was not at home on my birthday. In 2007 , I was in London. A group of Dell colleagues gave a surprise birthday party . In 2008, I was in Osaka, it was second week after I first arrived in Japan. I had dinner with a few colleagues , then I remembered I bought myself a piece of crepe cake . kekeke.. birthday must eat cake !

Once agains, thanks for your emails, sms, facebook messages of birthday wishes ! & also presents of earing, shu umera's eye shadow, crabtree hand cream, Giodano top, Juicy Conture handbag !

My wishes will come true !!!

Thanks for your Birthday Greetings !

Big thank you to everyone for remembering my birthday, your wishes and presents are greatly appreciated ! It just turn 12 o clock not long ago, getting older by another year but......... as long as life is getting more interesting , happier, prettier , successful then I am happy to grow elder ! kekekeke

きょは わたしの誕生日です！１月１５日

日本友達,どもありがとございます

わたしの'wish'は 日本へ行きます　

毎朝私　勉きょします

月曜日から金曜日まで勉きょします

Special thank you note to all my friends in Japan for remembering my birthday and all the birthday wishes . haha I don't know how to say wish in Ningo go, tomorrow I will ask my sensei.

If you see I make any grammar mistake, please leave me a comment so that I will correct it. Domo arigato !

2nd Attempt of RPM !

This evening, I had second class of RPM !! killing class ! 50 min, sweat like raining ! whole shirt was fully wet. Tonight class was pretty full. For RPM class, we got to register 10 min ahead because there are limited bikes in the cycle room. Therefore, it is on first come first serve basis.

Now , I start to enjoy a new hobby ! kekeke ! My instructor John kept pushing me " Li Mei, faster faster ....." " Li Mei accelerate" hahaha so paiseh(shy) nya ...Whole class might also know who is new and who is Li Mei. This is new hobby, I need some more time to master it . Unlike body combat , I am a senior student now ! senior combater kekeke

Just now, we were asked if we all wanted to add one more track. I was sitting on the fence. In the end, he added one more track. hahaha if is combat class, normally I will vote eheheh but RPM is new student, so I be a quiet new kid in the class !

Oh ya ! in the class, the instructor trying to push everyone to work harder by saying ' I will never give up ! " hehehe...powerful slogan to bear in mind !

Friday small Party

Last Friday night, I had a small birthday party with my good friend to celebrate our birthday ahead. We are both January girls ! haha I didn't 'purchase' Gigi's photo copyright, therefore, I only have my photo here !

We had dinner in Waka Japanese restaurant. Since came back from Japan, couldn't really find a very satisfying Japanese meal . hehehe... I miss Japanese food in Japan !!!

After dinner, we went to our usual hangout place 'G Spot Jazz Bar' in G hotel. G actually stands for Gurney. Gurney Drive is a popular place by the sea, near my house.

The bar has a Brazillian singer who sings Brazillian jazz songs. Every 3 months, the jazz bar will change singer. First time, I went there, there was a British singer, it was her last night singing there. G spot became my usual hangout place because I find it less crowded compared to more disco place .. hehehe , and less people smoking there so it is not smoky place, suits me. It is more of this reason than anythingelse. :P hehe The singer might think I am her fans ... actually is not. hehe... more of the place I prefer , anyway, there aren't many this type of hangout places in Penang. Last Friday, Brazillian singer performed exceptionally well, the best performance so far after I been several times. Perhaps, there were more people on that night so she was more movitated.
I had 'Pink Perfection' Mocktail. It is a combination of fruit juices of strawberry, watermelon, pineapple ?????... haha I forgot the content ...oh ya , another reason, it has nice juices there. as you know I do not drink alcohol. Most of the times, the juice is nice. However.... 2 times, they mixed pineapple can drink in the pineapple juice .. then I got to think ... may be apple juice , water melon juice is better choice since you can easily tell if is a apple can juice and so far i think there is no water melon can juice ! kekeke

New Exercise 'RPM'

Yesterday, I tried a new exercise 'RPM" in the gym. My good friend just joined the gym and she has interest in RPM. I accompanied her to try one class..... and it turned to be I quite like it too as I feel it burns lots of calories. This month gym schdule has reduced one combat class, so I found a new subsitute now ! :D

Sample Video

RPM is another Lesmils program. It is a 50-minute indoor cycling class based on outdoor riding. You ride to inspirational music over the equivalent of 20-25 kilometres of varied terrain, controlling the intensity of your workout with a resistance dial and pedal speed.

• Increase your cardiovascular fitness, burn fat and tone and shape your legs, hips, and butt



• Increase leg strength and muscular endurance without building bulk



• Burn up to 600 calories in a normal 50-minute structure (RPM™ has been proven to burn up to 800 calories in one hour)

First Post of 2009 !

New Year , New Look , New feel of my blog ! I thought first day of the new year, I must have a New look for my blog too ! Change my blog template to a sharp Orange colour !! Refreshing ! and Orange colour bringing new hope !

Last month, I shared one studio photo I took at Christine Dior counter. haha... actually, there were more than that. I paid extra for additional photos but I was told I could only collect after Christmas. hehe... Now I have a full collection of 5 photos ! They were taken and kept for my memory, representing a look of a new chapter in my life ! hehe I hope is a good one ! Next time, when I become old and look back , at least I remember my look at this stage of my life ( at least I was this pretty before ) ! kekekekekekek... !