Pink Tuesdays

Maybe things are changing, for the past few weeks I have been catching myself checking out, you know, girls. Females. Ladies. Women. You know, the opposite gender. Perhaps I’ve always had that and just started noticing - the same past few weeks, I have been trying to stop checking out Martians. You know, men are from Mars, women don’t know - they couldn’t read the map to point it out.

I shared that at RLM yesterday and the coordinator claimed today she was blessed by it. But speaking of RLM, I don’t know, the whole vocab is getting on my nerves with the inventions of new words like “fetrosexual” (”metrosexual”, “fetrosexual” - geddit?), and “pro-gays” (people who live the gay lifestyle - the annoyingly wrong use for the prefix pro-) or the rampant stereotyping involved (I’m not metrosexual, I hate shopping, I could not look fashionable to save my life, I have *one* hair product (3-in-1 shampoo), *one* facial product and that’s only for my zits, I use disposable raxors, I like patterned boxers, I don’t match my accessories - if I wear any at all, I’m into rugby, my room looks ugly, I thought light blue, white and pinkish brown goes well, I get bored at most chick-flick movies, I would enjoy replays of any Rambo movie - the Fab 5 would be soooo displeased)

What annoys me the most is Edmund’s long talk at the first part of the meeting. For n00bs, its informative. For those who have been there for a few months and have been to a RLM Talk, it’s repetitive. But Edmund did say something that struck me - “don’t go to Singapore if you’re a recovering homosexual”.

That’s like a nail in the metaphorical coffin for me. My entire experience of applying to local university have been a downright frustrating one - like waiting 8 hours at immigration because the computer system was down, finding out my results and then finding out that the probability of me getting a scholarship is as likely as the French adopting English as their national language.

I would probably get accepted at Singapore’s universities *but* I have no idea how to pay for it. The tuition - after the 80% tuition grant subsidy - is doable but the cost of living isn’t. Especially now with limited passports abolished (as of last Friday), living in JB and commuting on SBS Bus 170 to Singapore daily would be an expensive affair (I would have to renew by passport every 4-6 months).

Which makes my decisions a whole lot easier: University of London External Program. I could do local universities, but Malaya University’s economics program is hard to get in and the rest are barely recognized within Malaysia itself, no less overseas for postgrad studies.

Plus, I can take out a loan on my studies from PTPTN - no interest so it is more like a deferred payment that decreases when you factor in inflation 3% “administration fee” - lower than the inflation rate, anyway. My father quit his old job effective last Saturday, it would be unfair demanding to go to Singapore.

This is my first day on Body-for-LIFE - it is hard. The program is essentially a diet of six meals (a portion of protein, a portion of carbs, and for at least two meals, a portion of vegs) and exercise alternating between aerobics and weight training. I’m putting my money on this program because I tried it out two years ago - for a month, stopped, lost 5-6kg’s, received dividends for more than a year after. This time I intend on making it permanent for that reason.

But the exercises are harder than it seemed - I guess I hit the fitness nadir some time in the past two years. Though I have my daily walks, the 20-minute aerobic workout (walking/brisk jogging) was a killer this morning. I struggle to reach my planned peak points throughout the 20-minutes.

The diet is another matter - it advertises itself as the eat-more diet, but when you are used to eating 6 full meals a day, 6 B4L meals seems rather small. I’m personally waiting for 12:30 where it would be 2 hours before my last. I can’t wait to eat…

I’m pathetic.

But I can imagine myself living like this. It isn’t that hard. I mean, it’s not like I’m eating grapefruits and apples only for 12 weeks. And it’s only 6 days of exercise and diet with one day of rest every week - yeepie! And this time, unlike all my other attempts, I actually planned it out. So I’m more optimistic.

Oh, this morning, besides studying half a chapter of History (4 parts, all divided into 8 chapters, you pick any two chapters you like that follows the same theme - I’m picking Economics and I haven’t decided on the second theme), I made mozzarella! From skim milk!