Disneyland Hong Kong

I was so excited about visiting Hong Kong Disneyland. Growing up on Mickey, Donald and Goofy certainly contributed to the huge expectation that kept on growing through the years of feeding on them. Cinderella, Snow White....to the latest princesses Jasmine, Belle... etc.

The train ride to Disneyland was great... the train has miniature statues of the characters, the window were mickey shaped and other disney character on the train. The walk to Disneyland was quite spectacular.. kinda reminded me of the summer palace of Louis XIV in Paris. Once we purchased the HKD 295 tickets, we were off for a day of adventure. It was a Monday and we *Charlotte and I* were shocked to see the huge throng of people. Sigh! Surely, this means long queues at the rides.

We only took a short while to finish walking round Disneyland. It really was very small. Thank goodness they have more land to built more rides. Lottie and I really only went on 2 rides.. Space mountain and the Tarzan Tree house. We queued up for 45 mins on Space Mountain. The ride actually stopped halfway for 5 mins as there was a failure of some sort and it ruined the excitement of the ride for us.

Tarzan Tree House was cool. It was high on a fake tree with rather real looking leaves and branches and elephants. I could peep at Jane and Tarzan, spot the gorilla that took care of Tarzan and peer through the windows to see how they (the humans) lived.

We really did not have much time left after waiting for those 2 rides. We proceeded to just walk around, view the parade and spent another hour plus waiting for the fabulous The Lion King show. I was so impressed with that show, they had beautiful music, dancing, people (foreigners and locals) and fire!

The night ended with the wonderful fireworks display over Sleeping Beauty Castle. Lottie and I were camping for 1 hour in the front of the line and seated on the cold winter ground... but it was worth the wait. I was spellbound for 10 mins... so was everyone else with me. But it seems quite a waste to have 10 mins of beautiful lights that polluted the place... 5 mins will do.

All in all, the Gold Coast Australia Movieworld is still loads better but Asia's Disneyland is still affordable and easier to get to from Malaysia.

Exams are done.. for this semester anyway!

Gosh, I have had such a hectic time studying.. I am sure that my eyesight has deteriorated since then. I find it hard to drive at night now! The car number plates are not recognisable from a decent distance. Dang!

But I really enjoyed studying for the exam.. I felt so strangely fulfilled. Mind you.. it was not easy.. British exams are all about memory work unfortunately but then again.. reading all the stuff sure feeds my brains.

But honestly, I doubt I could have lasted more than 2 weeks of exams.. it's really tiring and I felt as though I was falling sick at the end of it all cos of the pressure. I was so worried that I would fail Strategic Management... too difficult but thankfully "Stuck in the middle" came out and also "Porter's 5 forces". I prepared for those!

There is no way one can do this part time with 6 modules. Most of the part-timers take 2 subjects per semester. And they take 7-10 days off to study too. So that is doable. Well, I was thinking that it's really a blessing to be able to do this fulltime though I would not recommend doing this unless you have got loads of discipline and don't mind loneliness. It was really a lonely period but I guess that it's only for a season and sides.. I get a break in between to visit my in-laws in Australia too!

My sharpener

Tonight a dear friend told me something about a side of me that I was not aware off. It hurt of course but what good thing does not. Although I am not really sure how to deal with it but I was just glad that our friendship is important enough to her.

Told her not to give up on me. Told her to keep nudging me if she sees me slipping. Told her how much I appreciated that our friendship has climbed another level of openess and love. We had tears in our eyes whilst sitting in a hawker store with bright lights.. everyone must have thought us strange.

As iron sharpens iron, so shall friends sharpen each other.... so she is my sharpener... what an honour it is that she counts me worthy of her time to do some sharpening for.

Here's to you dear friend.. I only hope I am as good a friend to you as you are to me.

Passion...do I have it?

I have been wondering about the passions of my life. But do I even know what it means? Let's start at the very beginning.

The Passion is the technical term for the suffering and Agony of Jesus that led directly to the Crucifixion, his death by hanging on a cross. The origins of this meaning of the word lie in the Latin "passio" precisely to describe the travails and suffering of Jesus in this present context. All the other meanings of "passion" have been derived from this one.

It blows my mind to think that one man was passionate about something to die for it. I think about soldiers, terrorists, mothers, people in history who has done so for the love of someone or something. What tremendous power that death gives to transform the future.

I think of my one life here on earth. Of what my destiny is... of how far or not I have walked on this earth. I know that I have yet to fulfill my destiny.. cos if I had, I would not be here any longer. There it is, what is it? To find that one passion in life.. I pray for understanding and for perseverance to find it!

Who people think I am

I recently went out to dinner with one of Marido's newly found mate. David brought his wife Ani (both were in 50's). At first, Ani thought I was a Chindian (mixed Indian and Chinese)(I think it's got to do with my wearing a dress made from some sort of Indian cloth), then she got even more confused when I started speaking. She said that I had a distinct Malay accent. This is new to me. No one has ever said that I look like a Chindian nor sound like a Malay. Normally people mistake me for a Malay... esp when I am wearing the baju kurung.

Why, just last week, when I was at campus (wearing the baju kurung), 3 security guards started talking to me. At first they taught that I was Malay.. and then they looked at my ID tag and wondered aloud "Awak bukan Melayu??"

I don't think that I look particularly strange but it must be the combination of the darker skin with the clothes. Well.. that's good, I get to blend in... my next aim is to learn Tamil or Hindi. Who am I kidding... I can't even speak decent Cantonese... har har!!

How he became younger...

His hair is all white. He told me that he is nearing 60 and he enjoys the senior citizen discounts when he dines out and other perks like that. He is an old man!

But as I get to know him and listen to his charismatic talks and the way he challenges me about stuff, the white hair turns darker and darker. His strong and clear voice with his hawk like eyes and his arched inquisitive brows seems to morph and moved in a strange way that made him look 20 years younger. I get such a thrill when he signals me out of the many people that he is talking to.

I now understand the power of charisma and the effect it has on minds. It changes your initial judgement of the person when you then had only looked at the physical. What an interesting man he is. And to think that I am priviledged to have known him!

Midnight Malaysians

The time is coming close to midnight. It's supposed to be quiet. However, since 10pm, there is a blaring noise from below my 12th floor apartment of people singing/screeching Happy Birthday to you at least 10 times in different voices. THere must be a party going on.. however I could not trace where the voices are from. It's definitely something on a loudspeaker.

Now, I hear Indian music... very happy and happening. But but... it's close to midnight and I want to get some stuff into my brains on the "security market line" and the "Efficient Frontier" .. sigh!

THere is an end to this.. soon!

Sleeping on Westin's Bed

Westin invited me to stay with him this weekend. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my night with Westin. And sleeping on his bed... such a heavenly bed! Groan.... It was a king sized bed with goose feathered pillows and down comforter. I was quite sure that I did not want to get out of bed. It was delicious.. wonderfully titillating the senses.

You've got to see the breakfast he prepares for you. Waffles, pancake, eggs any way you want it, freshly squeezed juices and my favourite- Chinese porridge with century eggs, fermented beans and pickled lettuce. Divine!

Westin did not ask anything in return except to ask my friends to check him out. He is more than delighted to accomodate anyone. As long as they can afford him of course. He is not that cheap... he cost about RM329 per night. If you are looking at having him as a long term companion, you can negotiate the price. Honestly, you should check him out.. he is first class at serving you!

Babies Born

Birthday bashes

On the 18th October, I was moping around in my room wondering if I had any friends left. It was my birthday after all and I had not received any phone call to wish me happy birthday. In fact I had to point it out to Marido. Cis! I was wondering why no one wrote me any email too. I was sitting down and wondering if I had been a recluse lately. Well I certainly was not exactly sociable this past few months since I started studying.

After returning from class, I noticed that my email was flooded with lovely wishes from all my old pals from school (they are not all here in Malaysia). That was nice.

Then on Friday, my cell group were going to celebrate my birthday with a cake however I did not finish a meeting with Nestle until 9.30pm and therefore was quite reluctant to take the taxi out to Ara Damansara (had no car cos Marido took it instead). At 10.30pm, they called and sang the birthday song to me over the phone.

On Sat, my 3 girl friends- WL, Debz and Golden Moon took me out for a meal in COncorde hotel Xin restaurant only to discover that it was fully booked by a bridal party. We landed in The Bodhi tree instead - western food was quite good but the dessert was like 3 days old! The blue cheese pasta was most interesting.

But what crowned the birthday occasion was dinner at Snowie's place. Spot and Snowie slaved over the afternoon (of course FS helped too) to prepare me the most exquisite Spanish meal. We had gazpacho served in cool cucumber cups, portobello mushrooms topped with parsley and other herbs (licking my lips), chicken wrapped in lettuce and doused with special sauce and sumptious seafood paella. For dessert I think it's called creme brulee. And the lovely orange spiced cake that was so cute and tasted great! I had missed eating spanish food and it was really a lovely treat. To think that my friend cared enough to do this for me... I am blessed.

Marido promised me that he would take me out this weekend for a treat... here's looking to spending the beginning of my 31st year with glee!

MBA Woes

To all the fellow MBA who told me that MBA was easy.. are you nuts?? How can it possibly be. I am only in my 2nd week of class and my knees have started to knock. This is what I typically do in a day :
1) Read - 2 hours
2) Travel - 2.5 hours
3) Attend lecture - 6 hours
4) Discussion - 1 hour
5) Assigment - 0.5 hour
5) Eat (3 meals) -1.5 hours

Maybe it does not look hard but for me.... this is scary... cos it's only the 2nd week!!

To top that, my classmates are totally smart people who can talk the behind off a horse! I am not kidding you.. the last presentation, one of the girls had to be stopped by the lecturer for exceeding the time limit. And they all read the required text before the class commences. And when we cover a particular topic, you need to read at least from 2 books and it's not just one chapter... sometimes it ranges 5 chaps. When do I have time for all this? I must relax... or my pimples which I have been trying really hard to keep them down will flare up again.

Go.. I need to go to the toilet to relax... but am going to read my Market Based Management book while I am on the throne.. maybe I get some ideas ;)

Distilled Water anyone?

Sud I buy a Monark? A Rain Maker? Or Nu Life?

WHy distilled water?


"Tap water today is like chemical soup...

Distilled water is active-- It is the universal solvent. Clean water helps the kidneys function optimally by removing poisons from the body, increasing metabolism and cleansing all of the body.

Distilled water is chemical and mineral free. If distillation does not remove it-- nothing will.

Water carries only inorganic minerals-- now linked to many long term health problems.
Organic minerals are the only minerals the human body can use. These minerals are provided to the body in the foods we eat. Water only carries inorganic minerals which cause more harm than good to the human body.

Chlorine (a poison) is the main purification method used in municipal water systems. Recent studies link chlorine to colon and rectal cancer.
"Cancer risk among the people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine." from the Council for Environmental Quality.
An EPA official has pronounced bottled water as the "Real Russian Roulette" with cleanliness of bottles and the processes as the biggest problem.
"In one recent EPA check of 25 bottling plants, serious problems with cleanliness was found at every one." from 8 Weeks to Optimum Health, Andrew Weil, M.D., 1997

Man is adding more than 500 new chemicals to the environment each and every year. Nature purifies water by distillation (hydrology) but with so many unknown chemicals in the environment this process is no longer effective.

Need for a new foot!

I have had pronated feet all my life. Meaning.. where there are supposed to be arches in the sole of my feet, there aren't. Kinda like flat feet. Fortunately, it is not as bad as the really bad cases like my BIL (bro in law) where his students teased him cos he walks like a duck.

I had my feet checked by the pakar tapak kaki (podiatrist) in Twin Tower Medical Centre (gosh! Did not know that there was a doctor there) Mr Brendan Bergin who hails from Brisbane Australia.

I started feeling some pain during my month long trip to Europe.. all that walking. I thought it was normal pain but the pain was at my supposed arches. So I checked with Brendan and yup.. if I want to prevent further damage to my tendons and prevent further internal scarring that leads to inelastic tendons later... I needed to have orthodics done.

So I had my feet in plaster of paris for the shape to be sent to Melbourne and will be getting my 'new feet' in a month. As long as I wear the orthodics about 50-60% of time, I sud be fine.

Thank God.. I detected this earlier and not when my feet have been 'damaged' irreversably.

My Fair Lady

Actors' Studio is staging the "Pygmalion" at KLpac in Sentul next month. This show follows the thread of My Fair Lady/Pygmalion of George Bernard Shaw in which a common flower seller is miraculously transformed to pass herself off as upper class. Manglist would be a common feature in this production!! The music will be totally original, composed especially for this production. Starring Harith Iskander as the irascible Professor Higgins, Indi Nadarajah as his bumbling friend from India, and introducing Michelle Quah as the flower girl Lisa who speaks like a market girl and sings like an angel.

This brings to mind ... my own little show of My Fair Lady in which I was the Fair Lady in question - Eliza Doolittle- staged during my 6th Form in Malacca High School. My leading man Prof Higgins was one of the boys I greatly admired for his literary strength.... Lee Ooi Kok and Simon Chen was Colonel Pickering. Sanjay Nadarajah played my spineless father whilst the gorgeous Preety Shah played Prof Higgin's mother. And not forgetting the adorable Jeffrey Low played Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Those people above in their current lives: Ooi Kok is a pilot with SIA and married to a lovely woman who works in Merrill Lynch, Simon Chen was last known to be on board the Doulos, Sanjay has disappeared from the face of the earth, Preety married a German guy and got disowned by her parents in the process (but she has 2 cute sons...), And Jeffrey (whom all the girls were swooning about...) married and settled in Melaka.

I loved being on stage. I loved singing and entertaining the audience. I felt such a thrill when the curtains opened to present me. Maybe I am an exhibitionist at heart. It was addictive... and for the next 4 years after that.. I was on stage.. portraying either an angel, a demon or the devil himself! It was really exhilarating... sometimes I wonder what I am doing now... staying away from the stage... maybe I think that I am over the hill or not good enough anymore.

Maybe someday, I might go back... some day....

Mature Student

My uni (NUM)had an opening ceremony on Monday 26th Sept where our Prime Minister was supposed to officiate the ceremony.

Little info about PM : Dato’ Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi became the 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia on 31st October 2003. Born on 26 November 1939 in Kampung Perlis, Bayan Lepas, Pulau Pinang, Dato’ Seri Abdullah received his early education at Sekolah Kebangsaan Pematang Bertam. He later attended Bukit Mertajam High School, Penang Methodist Boys’ School and a religious school started by his family. Dato’ Seri Abdullah pursued his tertiary education at the University of Malaya where he graduated with B.A.(Hons) in Islamic studies in 1964. (more can be read at http://www.pmo.gov.my/website/webdb.nsf/vf_Front_PM?OpenForm

Unfortunately, PM did not come but he sent our Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak instead. But perhaps DPM wanted to come... he actually graduated from Nottingham Uni 30 years ago... so it's also quite an honour.

NUM had beautiful tentage with flowing white cloth and plenty of fans with water sprinklers that greatly cooled the already overcast day. The men staff was wearing batik shirts and the women in batik shirt and skirts but all the important people were trying their best not to perspire underneath the coats and ties. Gamelan music and students' voices filled the air lending it a Malaysian festive cheer. I was sitting solo amongst all the young and fresh looking students .. I felt old and aloof. Thankfully Choon Lai (a friend from my old uni days who is now a foundation lecturer here) who was in doing his student control rounds could chat with me intermittently.

When the ceremony was over, I rushed with the other students to the Administrative building for my free meal. When I got there and saw all the people round the small table..I thought to myself "what am I doing... go home or go to the library ... do not join the horde!"

I drove out of Uni and proceeded to queue for 10 mins at an intersection along with all the datuks and datins. I believe at some point.. one of the datuks called the police to complain and immediately, 2 police bikes were in front of us stopping traffic for us to allow us to turn right. Impressed! By the time I got to KL for dinner with Marido.. it was an hour and a half since I drove out the gates of NUM. Sigh! I must try to stay in campus!

RM75 for 5 mins

I had to see Dr Lee (he's Sieg's doctor for her pains and body trauma). I was having knee pain since climbing Franz Josef's glacier last year. And my wrists have been clicking and shout to me to stop when I twist them to wash my back during bathing.

According to the doc, my problem in the knee is not too bad but I should stop or minimise motions that cause pain.. ie climbing Mt Kinabalu... dang! I was gonna climb it next year.

My wrist pain is not RSI (repetitive stress injury).. at least not yet as there is no swelling. However, he recommends that I wear a wrist brace when I type or use the computer. Apparently this degeneration of cartilage of the knees and wrist is very common among women especially so among the working white collar ones with the high heels and computer usage.

Ok.. I have to be careful with my body these days. Not as young anymore

University of Nottingham, Semenyih

My mind kept of thinking of Semen... Yeh!! I have a Sad existence huh??

Semenyih is the new campus site of the Uni of Nottingham. When I enrolled in Uni Nottingham for my MBA, they told me that I would be studying in the KL campus due to the fact that the part timers will find it hard to commute to Semenyih. However, just one week before my classes start, they tell me that it will be in Semenyih. Semenyih is located on the eastern side of the Klang Valley.

I decided to drive there for a look see. It took me 50 freaking kilometres and 60 minutes just to get there. And that is only one way and minimum time. What if there is a jam... I believe my journey could stretch to 2 hours one way. It is much further than my old Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Bangi. Sigh! I wonder what I am supposed to do. Driving there everyday for one year is going to greatly increase my traffic accident potential.

Marido suggested moving closer to campus. I tried renting the Halls of Residences (hostel) but those were already fully booked from ages ago. Since we are renting our current place... moving is no big deal ... but move to where? Marido needs to be near the train station as we only have one car. We are looking around now... but how do I move away from something I am so familiar with. All my makan stalls are here, my doctors are here, my exercise classes are here, my church is here, my cell is here.... I have grown roots and sunk them far down the earth ...and it's hard to uproot! Sigh!

Better to be in the house of mourning....

Golden Moon told me about her going for a casual friend's wake a week ago. This girl Jackie was killed in a freak accident in New York. Apparently she fell down the subway and was crushed by the on coming train. Police ruled out foul play or suicide. That investigation has no conclusion yet.

The body was flown home a week after her death. She was laid out in the coffin in FGA where people peering at her commented how 'barbie' like the US embalmers have done her up. She was beautiful even in her death.

Everyone who was 'doing' the service of the wake knew her. Even in such a big church, they knew her. And what moved Golden Moon much was that she has never been in a wake where everyone attending were wanting to go on stage to say their eulogies. Jacky was only in New York for one year and yet her church in NY sent their eulogies too -- words that show how much she has shared in their lives. She was posted to StanChart NY and before that she was attached to StanCHart here. Her former employers and colleagues from StanChart went up to say that they have renamed the Kuala Lumpur room in their office as "Kuala Lumpur Room in memory of Jackie X X X "

There was a powerpoint show about her life and her achievements. All this brought so much tears to Golden Moon's eyes. She was glad that she sat alone .. able to sob and feel the pain and loss of the people whose lives have been touched by Jackie.

We wondered about our own wakes.. would we have even touched anyone's life let alone have many people care if we died.... we are still wondering. Family does not count... if they have not even felt the pain of our death... we might as well die now.. we have not been much use on this earth! Here is to thinking how our lives may have impacted others!

Finally becoming a man

Axel is getting married! He called me just last week to tell me. I was away in Europe before that and so he waited until I returned to tell me.

I was thrilled. Axel was finally taking this brave step into the unknown (at least unknown to him). I was strangely happy. Here is one person whom I had become firm friends with when we were still in our school uniforms. He was worshipping my best friend then (Willow really was a gorgeous girl with unbelievably straight, flowy hair, porcelain complexion with sexy moles that accentuate her beauty and endless legs). And while he was admiring her.... and confiding in me ..I was doing what girls my age (even now they do) do when a guy spends a lot of time with them even though they were talking about someone else.... I fell for him!

He was the cutest thing then. Tall and gangly... uncertain about himself and what it all means - hormones raging and people hating. He used to proudly proclaimed that he 'killed' a cat by drowning it. I was very upset with him and refused to talk to him for days. But he would not give up yakking to me. I guess he found a safe friend whom he could confide in about stuff.... his love for heavy metal music, his scary parents, his too handsome younger brother that the girls his peer admire instead of him, his decision to study in another country... all this without the fear of me falling in love with him.

I was a thin, colourless looking kid then. Not to mention that I had a huge blob of greeny blue birthmark on the left of my face that span from the tip of my eye (at the bottom) to the apple of my cheeks and finally ending on the side of the forehead near the slit of my cat like eye. In the words of one of my friends over last weekend "Who would want her?". I guess when you talk to a person like that you would think that she does not have feelings or rather you conveniently forget that she does have those sort of feelings.

Axel left at 16 to continue his high school at another country. We still corresponded but since he did not really enjoy writing, the letters dwindled to nil and we lost track of each other. Sometimes he would call when he came home to visit his family but the fast friendship was lost. He furthered his studies to yet another country. And in the midst of that, he managed to snare the affection of Willow.. I had no idea how he managed to do that but Willow confided that he really was so sweet that she just relented.. ah! Sweet love.

Axel finally returned home to work and one Chinese New Year, we bumped into each other at a mutual friend's place. We just hit it off again like old times. We talked about the gaps in between then and now and laughed about how he went away across the globe and yet ended here picking up where we left off.

We both sat next to each other at Willow's wedding. She did not end up marrying him! He said that it was a great loss but the relationship was not meant to be. And so the friendship went thru his hook up and break up with his girlfriend, my break up with my previous boyfriend and the hook up of Novio. When Novio proposed, I was thrilled to inform Axel.

Axel then ruminated about US. I guess when the friendship is so good.. we think about "could it be more?" He thought about that and told me in an email confessing how he fell for me all those years when we were walking back from the crocodile farm, walking back from tuition classes, when we were quarrelling about his 'diseased mind', his silly obsession with the dark side..... He said that the time was never right to tell me. AND I never showed any inclination to have him as more than a friend, never closer than a brother.

I wondered why he told me... I think that again, he was hiding in the safety of my impending marriage. Here is a man who did not want to risk it. Or maybe he just wanted me to know... to make me feel good?? But I did feel good. I felt glad that the friendship has grown beyond a certain level. And yet I know that in that day, it died a little death. We would never speak of this matter again. Never to bring up the past or the young/childish unrequited love.

I was the only one that he invited amongst the people of our hometown. And I think that he added another girlfriend to accompany me..so that I would not be lonesome. As a joke.. I threatened to bring Willow... he was so horrified!!

And so.. Axel.. is finally becoming a man.

Cirque du Soleil

Quidam was the name of the most recent Cirque du Soleil production. I went to watch it in Spore together with Marido. He was planning to surprise me but I was not surprised.. much to his disappointment.

For the uninitiated, in the early 1980s, a group of young street performers, dreamers and self-taught entrepreneurs had the vision and drive to create Cirque du Soleil. Long before the days when they would stimulate the imaginations of audiences, the first Cirque du Soleil Artists performed their shows in the street. If their dream eventually came true—a dream built on boldness, risk and imagination—it was partly because there were older people who believed in them, regardless of their age, image or status as street performers.

Quidam: a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past. It could be anyone, anybody. Someone coming, going, living in our anonymous society. A member of the crowd, one of the silent majority. The one who cries out, sings and dreams within us all. This is the "quidam" that Cirque du Soleil is celebrating. A young girl fumes; she has already seen everything there is to see, and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her little world, and she finds herself in the universe of Quidam. She is joined by a joyful companion as well as another character, more mysterious, who will attempt to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling, and the terrifying.

The movements of the performers were reverting! I could not take my eyes of them and yet I feel somewhat uneasy watching the manipulations of the body and the different contortions that seems so unachievable. And the wonderful synergy between circus and theatre.

There were a few highlights:
1) A man spinning in a large wheel making it go faster and faster
2) 4 little asian women doing the spinning gasing like things and acrobatics whilst at it
3) A woman lifting a rather large man by him holding on to her ankle while she was supported only by her waist on a thin rod. Brrr... so scary
4) a man and a woman doing the most incredible contortions and yet making it look so graceful and looking like plants growing...

My Detox programme

Marido was looking sluggish.. and stressed and sooo not interested in anything. We both thought that we ought to try a detox-- been talking about it for a year. And so I called up Pure Health in Plaza Damas (had the address in my palm for 2 years- saw their editorial in The Star that long ago). We booked 5 days of colon hydrotherapy starting from Wednesday.

We had to have 2 days of pre-detox where we ate only vegetables and NO meat. Then the diet was thereafter liquid (made up of half glass of water with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, half glass of water with 2 tablespoon of wheat grass powder, 2 tablespoon of Psyllium husk, 2 tablespoon of UDO's Essential fatty Acid oil, 2 capsules of Pro biotics - friendly bacteria and a glass of vege and fruit juices for breakfast, lunch and dinner). Strangely I felt not much hunger pangs.

Then it was the colon hydrotherapy done in the facility. They give you a small tube-smaller than your pinky- where you stick that in your anus (by yourself) and cover your front with a cloth. They will then come to check on your and assist you to feel comfortable and start the water flow. Water will go into your colon and clean up the garbage that has been accumulating for years. You will be very satisfied to note that gunk actually come out.

Actually, I thought it was a breeze... oklah.. not that breezy but it was not terrible at all. And messy it is not. It's so well done that I was thanking the staff for making it so comfortable for me. Leak.. leak out where.. on to the floor? Nope... if you keep your bum where it is supposed to be.. you will be fine. Everything is done by you! When the water bathes the colon and detaches the fecal matter from the walls.. you will feel like poo pooing and then you push... voila... 45 mins of this and you are done for the day. Very easy if Marido .. who faints at the sight of blood can tahan this, I am sure that anyone can. We both lost weight and felt good. I actually feel the same cos I think that I am already rather 'healthy' from my fussy eating. But all the gunk that come out... wow! Amazing. And they are not the usual poo. The tummy is a tad flatter.. And my complexion cleared up a little too... still have loads of oil on my face but that sud keep wrinkles at bay.

If you are relatively unhealthy before the detox, you will suffer what we call Healing Crisis.. headache, nausea, dizziness... etc.. Marido had it quite bad.

We also did a skin caretonoid test where the machine scans the skin for level of antioxidants. it measures your skin activity for 30 days past. There are 5 zones, starting from the worse..to better - red, orange, yellow, green and blue. I scored in the green section with 45K and Marido a poor 16K in the red. The results is a combination of diet (not enough leafy greens and fruits), stress and body fat. Marido was not happy with his scores and is now taking Life Pak to supplement his diet (but only took a little at first like 2 tablets (not packets) a day as the body will react to the overload of nutrients by making you feel sick.

3 of my friends are signing up for this programme already.. a testament to the new me!

Dunnottar castle in the Stonehaven countryside where Mel Gibson once acted in a movie Hamlet

Relaxing by the beach on a hill in gorgeous Scotland

The famous St Andrew's ground (GOLF)

Stirling Castle in Scotland stirs my heart! Too cold tho... it's 12 degrees and it's SUMMER!

Marido at Brighton Beach- note the pebbles and not sand on the beach

London EYE- Believe me when I say that it takes 30 mins to do a loop.. i was soooo trapped!

The splendour of Versailles- unfortunately I do not have a bird's eye view

Pretty French Postcards

The stained glass of Notre Dame