A Life Less Ordinary
"Live as if your were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Okie, I've been bad again, not writing for more than a week. Anyone who knows me will understand though, I think.. am rather preoccupied atm. :) Have been showing F as much stuff as possible, got things better planned this time somehow.
Performed two shows at Mont Kiara last Saturday afternoon, one at 12:30 and the other at around 3pm. It was blisteringly hot, and the henna 'tattoos' we got before the second show started blotting and smearing onto everything as we sweated in the heat.. we suspect the henna mixture contained mostly poster colour to make it look impressively black, instantly. No wonder the henna lady (who had a booth there) offered to paint us for free..
Fortunately for us though, the henna mixture applied on our skins didn't seem to contain para-phenylenediamine (PPD), an industrial-strength chemical used to colour black hair dye and used in the textile industry to dye black clothes - definitely not meant to be applied directly on to skin or mixed with other substances. PPD is a transdermal toxin and a potential carcinogen, which can cause blistering and permanent scarring. Apparently, unscrupulous 'henna tattoo artists' add PPD to natural henna paste in order to make the tattoo stain the skin black and make it last longer. Read more about it here.
Anyway. They were very fun performances, in spite of the heat and sweat and melting tattoos. I'm glad F got a chance at last to see me dance. :)
Sunday to Tuesday we were in Penang, where I dragged him all over Georgetown. He got to see the Goddess of Mercy temple, beggars and all, as well as the Masjid Kapitan Keling. Also brought him on part of the Penang Heritage Trust's endangered trade and traditional foods trails; he got see some of these trades in action and the preparation of some foods as well. He has sampled ais tingkap (Indian sherbert) and fabulous coconut tarts, seen traditional coffee roasting (he bought like 4kgs of the stuff to bring home..) and the preparation of yau char gwai (Chinese crullers), bought handmade sandalwood incense and Him Heang tau sar pneah (bean biscuits), got driven in a trishaw (by a really old dude), got a haircut at an authentic Indian barber (complete with neck massage/twist, cologne dousing, etc - the cut made him look very German), and eaten copious amounts of famous Penang food: char kway teow, assam laksa, fruit rojak, ikan bakar, chendol and ais kacang (can't be described with a few words - check my photo albums after I update them :P). He did quite a bit of shopping in Gurney Plaza as well!
The hotel we stayed in was quite nice - a heritage hotel which was a bit away from Georgetown. Not very convenient in terms of walking distance to the places we wanted to go to, so we got into and out of town by taxi. The only thing that should be changed is the water heater in the bathroom.. there was no way to regulate the heat so it was either damn hot or cold.. the best time to bathe was late afternoon, with the heater off, because the water would have been warmed gradually by the blazing sun. All in all however I'd say we had a great time. :)
Tonight we're taking the latest bus to Mersing, where we will languish for a few hours in the extremely early a.m. in some coffee shop and the jetty before heading to our paradise chalet in Tioman by ferry/speedboat. Can't wait. :) Whee!! Hectic, but hey, we only live once. :) On a similar vein, we are only young once, and thus only have energy to rush around madly like this in our youth...
P/S: I almost forgot to mention!! S is training WY and I to be teachers! *very thrilled* We'll be replacing 2 of her basic classes next week; I'm currently compiling a list of music I want included on my CD.. :) A bit nervous about it, but I think it will be very interesting! I just hope I don't panic midway through class.. :P Stay tuned..
P/P/S: The trip to Gemia island was cancelled. Still disappointed and don't want to talk about it, but I guess if I went I wouldn't have been able to make it to S's teacher training briefing on Thurs... everything happens for a reason, it seems.
Performed two shows at Mont Kiara last Saturday afternoon, one at 12:30 and the other at around 3pm. It was blisteringly hot, and the henna 'tattoos' we got before the second show started blotting and smearing onto everything as we sweated in the heat.. we suspect the henna mixture contained mostly poster colour to make it look impressively black, instantly. No wonder the henna lady (who had a booth there) offered to paint us for free..
Fortunately for us though, the henna mixture applied on our skins didn't seem to contain para-phenylenediamine (PPD), an industrial-strength chemical used to colour black hair dye and used in the textile industry to dye black clothes - definitely not meant to be applied directly on to skin or mixed with other substances. PPD is a transdermal toxin and a potential carcinogen, which can cause blistering and permanent scarring. Apparently, unscrupulous 'henna tattoo artists' add PPD to natural henna paste in order to make the tattoo stain the skin black and make it last longer. Read more about it here.
Anyway. They were very fun performances, in spite of the heat and sweat and melting tattoos. I'm glad F got a chance at last to see me dance. :)
Sunday to Tuesday we were in Penang, where I dragged him all over Georgetown. He got to see the Goddess of Mercy temple, beggars and all, as well as the Masjid Kapitan Keling. Also brought him on part of the Penang Heritage Trust's endangered trade and traditional foods trails; he got see some of these trades in action and the preparation of some foods as well. He has sampled ais tingkap (Indian sherbert) and fabulous coconut tarts, seen traditional coffee roasting (he bought like 4kgs of the stuff to bring home..) and the preparation of yau char gwai (Chinese crullers), bought handmade sandalwood incense and Him Heang tau sar pneah (bean biscuits), got driven in a trishaw (by a really old dude), got a haircut at an authentic Indian barber (complete with neck massage/twist, cologne dousing, etc - the cut made him look very German), and eaten copious amounts of famous Penang food: char kway teow, assam laksa, fruit rojak, ikan bakar, chendol and ais kacang (can't be described with a few words - check my photo albums after I update them :P). He did quite a bit of shopping in Gurney Plaza as well!
The hotel we stayed in was quite nice - a heritage hotel which was a bit away from Georgetown. Not very convenient in terms of walking distance to the places we wanted to go to, so we got into and out of town by taxi. The only thing that should be changed is the water heater in the bathroom.. there was no way to regulate the heat so it was either damn hot or cold.. the best time to bathe was late afternoon, with the heater off, because the water would have been warmed gradually by the blazing sun. All in all however I'd say we had a great time. :)
Tonight we're taking the latest bus to Mersing, where we will languish for a few hours in the extremely early a.m. in some coffee shop and the jetty before heading to our paradise chalet in Tioman by ferry/speedboat. Can't wait. :) Whee!! Hectic, but hey, we only live once. :) On a similar vein, we are only young once, and thus only have energy to rush around madly like this in our youth...
P/S: I almost forgot to mention!! S is training WY and I to be teachers! *very thrilled* We'll be replacing 2 of her basic classes next week; I'm currently compiling a list of music I want included on my CD.. :) A bit nervous about it, but I think it will be very interesting! I just hope I don't panic midway through class.. :P Stay tuned..
P/P/S: The trip to Gemia island was cancelled. Still disappointed and don't want to talk about it, but I guess if I went I wouldn't have been able to make it to S's teacher training briefing on Thurs... everything happens for a reason, it seems.
posted by Siryn @ 7:22:00 am
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