ROTFL .. why white girls don't date asian guys

LOL.. you gotta check this short film out.. one of the few rare gems on the internet haha. Thanks Leong for the link! ^^

In case you wanna check the 'producers' out.. this is their site.

Last day of lion dance ..

Today was the last day we leave before the sun rises and go home after the sun sets. Yup, our lions gonna go 'on leave' after today, and replaced with dragon dance training until our big BIG performance in Seremban on Saturday.

Though this might be the last day, it's the worst of all the days we've worked. Worst not in terms of performance.. i'd say we've improved somewhat since our first day (maybe not a lot.. but still..). Worst as in we can hardly move a muscle at the end of the day.. everyone was on the brink of exhaustion. We had the bare minimum of six people.. four for the two lions, one drums, and one cymbals. Any less and we won't be able to perform ^^". And because we had the bare minimum, i had to be the head for the first half of the day.. until i can't lift my hands already - after which i took over the cymbals until the last job. Even now my whole body's still aching..

To make things worse, today was the busiest day too. We had so many appointments we're running late before we even finish the previous job. Had to rush from one location to the next without stop. It was dance, travel, dance, travel, dance all the way from 9am to 7pm. Don't even have time to have a proper lunch ^^". But then from the 11 odd jobs we had today, we earned the most in a day too.. 3100+ bucks! O.o . Haha.. the MCA Cheras head treated us to a really nice seafood dinner, complete with red wine and all =D (the restaurant is called Jembo or something like that O.o lol)

And with the end of today, thus ends our job as lion dancers (there might be a performance on Friday, but that ain't confirmed yet) and it's time to take out our dragon now. Can't afford to screw things up in Seremban.. though till now i still don't know what event we're performing for ^^"

Self-thought: No more lion dance for some time after this.. wonder if i should continue training after CNY? My dad is not keen on me joining after CNY.. but then i really wanted to learn lion dance and dragon dance 'properly' (the jumping and all ^^). I'll see how it goes before i decide la..

PS - didn't see any other lion dance troupe in Cheras beside us today.. heard that lion dance is getting less popular these days. Hope not.. this is our culture after all ^^. Esther said in Miri there's like more than 10 groups from a single chinese school alone O.o .. here, i'd be surprised if there's more than 10 troupes in total over here. Is modernization killing tradition? =/

my hands are red O.o

Damn.. i'm beginning to ache all over. Had to be the lion head again yesterday.. the whole day. Now my neck feels sore.. hope tomorrow there's not many 'jobs'. And i'm not getting enough sleep too.. =/

Yesterday had to do lion dance from the morning till 4pm, then i had to rush back to Bukit Jalil. My parents were already waiting there before we go Klang for my brother's last dinner here in Malaysia in at least a year. Didn't really made it in time, but then i'm already rushing. And it had been a really long time since i got really irritated after my Dad called my so many times to ask me to hurry up. Wonder why i got so easily angry then.. maybe i was just too tired.

So my bro flew to Melbourne yesterday. Sent him off at 8pm+. Sigh.. i'm gonna miss him. My room in Bukit Jalil is going to be real quiet. Too quiet. Sigh.

On a lighter note, we did dragon dance just 3 hours ago at a Datuk's place. The job was only confirmed 2 days ago, and we only trained for 2 hours before the performance, so yeah, it was crap =P. Haha.. but we're noob mah, to quote Chow, give chance la! And the space was really small.. i knocked Chua (who's behind me) with the dragon twice ^^". Oh and the small boy from the performance at UE3 (the one who can play drums really well.. and he taught that himself) came to join us too. Couldn't sit still for 5 minutes. Damn hyperactive haha. He's 11-year-old i think.. so small. I feel so old now haha.

Speaking of old, i finally got to see my first ever niece today. She's my cousin's newborn, 3 months already. Haha so cute. Really funny when i looked at my mom and aunts surrounding her =P. She only cries, drinks milk, and sleeps. Nothing else ^^". Finally an 'uncle' now. Guess i really am old ^^".

I'm burned ..

As in sun-burned >.< . Just found out all the sitting on the lorry without cover for the last two days have made my face, hands and the back of my neck charred. And i do mean charred ^^". Anyway i've been posting a lot on our days as lion dancers, and i will until the end of CNY. So if you don't like it, too bad =P. Go read someone else's blog.

Third 'working' day .. (2nd February)
The more performances we had, the more i felt like i'm working or something. Only thing is that i don't know how much we're getting paid, but that's not of my concern at all. I'll still do it even if i had to fork out my own money for travel expenses and such. Yeah i'm in love with lion dance haha.

Anyway, on our third day .. our lions are out of job ^^". Only had one shop to perform at in the morning, then no more. Spent the rest of the morning going around tamans looking for work. Lol. Yeah, a MCA representative was going around the shops and houses asking whether they want a lion dance performance or not (while the rest of us played the drums and cymbals on the lorry haha). Until afternoon our lions are still unemployed. I was kinda hoping for that anyway =P. Haven't even recovered from the previous day's fatigue. And we're running a skeleton crew.. only six of us (4 for the two lions, one drum and one cymbal). Pathetic. Lol..

Fourth 'working' day .. (3rd February - today)
Had much better luck today. There was supposed to be only 2 performances, but we added 3 more on-the-spot. The indian boy who spoke much much better Cantonese than me came today, making our numbers one more than yesterday - seven. Oh btw he can play the drums too.. heard he's from another lion dance troupe which broke up already (Esther told me that Coach told her the better a lion dance troupe is, the more likely they'll break up O.o).

First was a grocery shop, then the salon next door hired us on-the-spot as well after the first performance. I was appointed the lion head for both (our 'best' lion head's holiday ended.. and had to return to work as of yesterday).. and i was supposed to cai qing as well. As in, they placed a pomelo+oranges on a plate on the floor, the lion's supposed to 'peel' them open and hand the plate to the owner (or boss). Never did it before.. so my lion was erm, a bit awkward ^^"

Then did a little dance at a car repair shop nearby (another on-the-spot job) before lunch. Next was a tuition centre somewhere in PJ, which was the most 'troublesome' job today. We had to go upstairs, enter every 'class' (8 in the first shoplot), go back down, go over to its 'branch' nearby, go upstairs, enter 3 more classes, cai some qing, go back down and back to the first shoplot, upstairs and cai some more qing. Geez.. but it was really fun haha. Lots of children there. So easily amused. If only we never grow up, eh? =P

Last job was a brief one at a newly-opened minimarket in PJ too (on-the-spot too). Nothing much la.. it's almost the same as the others. So we ended some time before 4pm. Had to be the lion head in all the performances, and Wan Chieh had to be my ass for all too haha. Think his back broke already ^^". Btw had lots more to improve on my lion dance though.. have to make it more 'alive'. Mine looked more like a sleepy lion =P

Leaving on an airplane ..
Sigh.. tomorrow i'll see my elder bro for the last time for a long time. He's flying off to Melbourne, and looking at our current financial situation, he won't be coming back unless he had a really good reason to (not even during holidays i guess). Have lion dance tomorrow too.. but it'll only be until afternoon last i heard. Hope we don't get too many on-the-spot jobs again ^^". Wonder how much he'll change when i next see him tho..

Oh btw.. i'm honoured.. to be on the MMR's Medical Blogroll (added along with Prasad, Yih Seong and Lishun! ^^). Thanks to whoever did that =P .. though i don't think anyone would be interested to read my non-medical related posts ^^"

the dance so far ..

Today is chu si (fourth day of CNY), and also the second 'working day' for our noobish lion dance troupe =P. Have been very tired since... since i can't even remember when i'm not tired. I even forgot what day it is sometimes ^^"

First day.. (29th January)
Started out our very first kai gong day last Sunday, 1st day of CNY. I woke up like 4am O.o . Haha.. not that i'm very excited bout it or anything.. maybe because i slept too much before that =P. Met up at Maluri LRT station at 7.30am (blog-surfed until it's time to leave ^^"), and went on to perform at one shop and four houses for the rest of the day. Just 5 locations.. but we only went back at 5pm. Don't ask me how.. time just seems to fly so damn fast.

It was our first day after all, and we're still noobs, so needless to say we're far far from what you can expect from a 'real' lion dance troupe. As in, we barely learned for a week in total! What else do you expect? O.o Still we just went ahead la.. crap performance also crap performance la haha =P. But it was fun.. especially those little kids who seem just so damn amused by lion dances. Damn fun to play with them haha..

Shit happens though. At the shop we performed at, they want us to cai gao qing (err.. pluck high greens? haha). Which means we're supposed to do the front-guy-stand-on-back-guy's-shoulders thingy (tie luo han i think? forgot what it's called). Shit. Coach said we're not supposed to do that until Wednesday (today) but what to do.. they want us to do it. So firstly it's me who's jumping. Even though i couldn't do it the previous day, but then nobody else tried to do it before (we're severely lacking practice). Maybe it was because i jumped too much the previous few days.. or that i'm subconsciously afraid of heights, but my legs went soft after i climbed onto the shoulders. Tried to stand up, but lost my balance and jumped back down. Couldn't go on coz my legs are really hurting from the training, so Chua took over. Tough luck, he couldn't do it also, even fell down and dented the lion O.o . So in the end we didn't do the tie luo han la.. >.<

Second day.. (1st February)
Today.. our second day. 4 more houses, and two warehouses (for the same boss though). No mishaps this time, even managed to do the tie luo han.. but not me la, it was the deaf/mute guy the other day. He's bout 5kg lighter than me.. looks like i too fat liao lol ^^". He's taller than me so Coach didn't expect him to be lighter lor. Most of the performances were just us (as the lions) going around peeling every single damn mandarin orange that they placed around the house/warehouse. ^^"

The warehouses were our second job.. and we're supposed to perform at the new and old warehouses (took us 2 whole hours for that ^^"). I was one of the lions for the old warehouse, and i've never ever cai qing before (er.. it's just peel oranges), i was told to peel and EAT the mandarin oranges. Like, if there were one or two nvm la.. but SIX. Bloody six oranges i had to peel and EAT O.o . I 'danced' to the first orange, peeled and stuffed it into my mouth, move on to the second one, stuff half and kept half in my pocket (i didn't know where else to put ^^"), and the next few oranges i gave to my ass to eat. Wen Chieh (my ass =P) swallowed a total of three oranges.. with the seeds and all O.o . It's only after i cai all the qing already that i was told to just peel the oranges only and leave them there. Damn.. now they tell me.. after i developed mandarinorangophobia already >.<

After the warehouses we went on to the 3 houses left for the evening (the other one was done in the morning - there's a mini lion dance by the owner's kid at the apartment ^^ so cute..). Nothing much, just the usual routine. Go around peeling every single damn mandarin oranges they placed. There'll be an ang pau under each orange, which we're supposed to take after we cai those qings. I was one of the lion heads for the last house, and either they bought too many oranges for the new year, or they thought the lions love to eat oranges so damn much. I wasn't counting how many oranges was i peeling.. it just seems endless. There's an orange on top of the TV, an orange on every table in their house, oranges all the way up the stairs, oranges on every single bed, they even placed an orange on a really big egg-shaped ceramic thingy O.o . At the last count by Wen Chieh (my ass, again =P), i peeled SIXTEEN oranges. And we had two lions going around peeling them (which makes the total more than 30! and this is just one house!). Thank god i wasn't supposed to eat them.. O.o

PS - Tomorrow Wong and Chua start working edi.. and they won't be joining us for the lion dance (they were the 'best' we had =/). Looks like us IMU noobies (me, Esther and Wen Chieh) have to make use of whatever little stuff we know.. ^^". Hope we can survive tomorrow.. i'm already dead tired after today's performances.. back still aching from bending over too long (the consequences of being the ass)

P.PS - funny thing.. someone ended up on my blog searching for 'lion dance' haha ^^. The name's don, and he intro-ed himself as a lion-gila fella lol. Damn lot of pictures at his blog, and there's videos of how 'real' lion dance looks like too (when i say damn lot of pics, i really mean damn lot). A new member of 'Khuan Loke' in PJ, who got 2nd at the national level last year ^^ (when only can we reach that standard..). Funny how you can meet new people on the internet hehe..

A day before our first day ^^

Gah.. swear i've never jumped this much in 2 hours before. My legs are hurting now, too lazy to even walk .. and i'm going to fall asleep within the next hour ^^". There's some more training tomorrow morning and then it's the big performance for us. Please don't let us screw up.. please don't let us screw up..

So. Good news is i finally get an idea what we're supposed to do tomorrow. We'll do the lion dance at houses and shops nearby i think.. to drive evil spirits away or something like that (that's what i read on the internet). I kind of get the rough layout of the dance already.. it's not as hard as i'd feared. Bad news is i'm supposed to jump. Onto the person behind who's gonna be my ass (as in the lion's ass la =P). And today was the first time i was practicing those stunts. Man.. we're so lacking practice now..

For the first stunt i'm supposed to just jump onto the guy behind's thighs.. which was not so bad. Second one is the same, but he had to rotate 360 while i'm on his thighs. We scrapped that ^^". Third one is me standing on one leg on one of his thighs after jumping.. we scrapped that too haha - no time to practise. Last one had me jumping on the spot and the guy behind is supposed to step forward and let me land on his thighs. Almost the same as the first one.. no sweat =P. Last one.. man i still can't get the last one right. I was supposed to jump onto the guy's thighs, then proceed to step onto his shoulders and stand straight. Like, O.o . I can't even do that without holding the lion o.O . Gonna practise the last stunt again tomorrow i think.. my legs are already going to suffer from rigor mortis edi from all that non-stop jumping >.<

Btw heard there'll be a dragon dance performance in Seremban on February 11th. Hmm.. looks like i'll postpone my homecoming a little later ^^. But we only have exactly 2 weeks for training.. and that includes the days we had to perform during chinese new year. Gah.. why is everything so rushed.. ^^"

Oh btw.. Happy Chinese New Year to all my friends! May you all have a prosperous new year ahead! Get married soon so i can get more ang paus! =P

PS - Keat How left for his hometown this morning.. met Jason on the train while he's heading to Pudu bus station to go to his aunty's place in Seremban.. that leaves no Sem 1 student in IMU except me! So quiet around here.. except for the non-stop fireworks nearby..

PPS - This will be the first time i sleep before 12am on a CNY eve.. but what to do.. tomorrow have to wake up at 6am ^^"

A little update ..

And then there were two.

We started out with 2 sad IMU students who are not going home for Chinese New Year. Then Wen Chieh joined, making it 3 from IMU. Bout a week later 2 more joined, Loh and Goh (not sure their full name.. coach always refer to them with their surnames only). And the last to join the training was Keat How.

2 days away from our first 'real' performace, we ended up with 2 sad IMU students who are not going home for Chinese New Year. Wen Chieh will only be joining us on the 3rd or 4th day, Loh and Goh somehow disappeared halfway through training, and Keat How was never free during Chinese New Year in the first place.

Sigh.. so it's up to me and Esther to perform on the first few days of CNY. Seriously we only learned a few moves in lion dance, not really sure what we are supposed to do also ^^". Got some jumping around la .. and some rolling around .. that's all >.< . Hope we don't screw up ^^".

Btw an indian boy joined us today.. he can speak Cantonese (i think) so much better than me >.<" . And there's also another new member.. a mute/deaf guy. Time to put my sign language lessons to good use! (actually i forgot everything liao.. next time have to bring along the sign langugage book to talk to him ^^")

Got woken up this morning by Daddy's call.. at freaking 10am >.<". Told him bout my results, thankfully he didn't lecture me or anything. Well.. come to think of it i never get any lectures from him when i do badly.. or any praises when i get good results. He always sound neutral when i told him my results. Not that i mind.. think it's just the way my Dad is la ^^. It's good in a way i guess.. i never really felt any pressure from my parents to do well in exams. It's all up to me all the time. Still.. guess i have to put in more effort in the coming exams.. i only have myself to answer to for my exams results ^^"

self thought - wonder if Jacky's group going to join us.. they are really good. But i doubt it la sigh.. (me and Esther won't be in the centre of everyone's attention if they are there..). Wonder what's really going on.. maybe there's more than what we were told? =/

PS - my family might be coming up a day earlier than i expect.. on the 1st day of CNY ^^. But i'll be out from morning till evening on that day.. will be dead tired during our "tuan yan fan" ^^"