After reading Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns)“, and reading her chapter on this topic, I thought I’d make my own list. Yep, totally stealing her idea.

There are certain obvious non-traumatic things that make me cry like, for example, movies like The Notebook and The Help, songs like Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven and those commercials with the sad abused animals and the Sarah McLachlan song playing in the background. Let’s ignore those because those are just givens (unless you are a robot and have robot emotions).

Apologies for quoting a lyric from Fergalicious.

For the past year or so, I have had lofty fitness goals. In these lofty fitness goals, I liked to imagine myself as a fitness guru who was awesome at everything. Could I be a yogini (female equivalent of a yogi)? HELL YA! Could I zumba like nobody’s business? You betcha! Could I go to spinning class and not want to collapse and die at the end of it? For sure!

Sadly, none of this is really true but I still have these lofty fitness goals and in 2012, I am determined to keep at it.

As you may have read in my previous posts, I travelled by myself for the first time to somewhere foreign. I’ve been to New York City solo before, once for a business trip and once to take advantage of a really great Expedia deal. But this was the first time I’ve gone an extended period of time and to somewhere far away, and quite different, from home. It was something I had my anxieties about but at the same time, knew it was something I wanted to try. Maybe blame it on Eat Pray Love.

Saying you’re going to travel by yourself, I find, carries a lot of stigmatism. The general reaction from people finding out you’re going somewhere by yourself is generally pity and some form of the following questions: good lord, do you not have any friends? Is there something socially wrong with you to not be able to find travel partners? Are you that pathetic of a person to not be able to find ANYONE to go with you? Aren’t you scared something is going to happen to you going by yourself? Etc. In fact, my own mother had this reaction.

And that’s kind of a shame because from meeting other solo travelers on the tour, this is hardly the case for why we choose to go on our own.

Continued from Part I and Part II

Continuing on the adventure, where I check out a fire dancing show on Koh Phi Phi island, have my feet nibbled by tiny fish at “Doctor Fish”, ride an elephant in Krabi and end off the trip in Hong Kong in a slight whimper!

Continued from Part I

December 17th was our last day in Phuket. Last day of seeing ladyboys everywhere (though apparently I am oblivious to them and had to have them pointed out to me), seeing scantily-clad women dancing on poles outside, being bombarded by people trying to get me to a PING PONG SHOW or asking if I wanted a tuk tuk. We were going to a more low-key place, Koh Phi Phi island!

Day Four: Off to Koh Phi Phi Island!

We boarded a ferry to Koh Phi Phi island, an hour and half from Phuket. An hour and a half of sea sickness fun! By the time we got there, the sky was dark and cloudy and it looked like it was going to pour. And it did, as we were walking across the island to our hotel.

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I made a post in this blog! In 2012, I plan to (or hope to) be more diligent with posting in here. I’ve just been so accustomed to microblogging and tweeting and, well, lazy.

So I begin 2012 with a post about my trip to Thailand in December 2011 – Thailand mainly, but with a few days bookending the trip in Hong Kong (mainly to shop, hence the Eat Shop Tan). This trip would last almost a month, leaving December 8th and getting back the evening of December 26th. A whole month away from work, a much needed break!

To say this was a trip I had planned meticulously for and thought a lot about would be a lie. It kind of came as a surprise. I was just frustrated with things in my life and wanted a change.

The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee has a new book out, a kind memoir of her childhood memories of growing up in Toronto. I’ll be updating this post as soon as I’ve finished reading the book and have coherently written out my thoughts of it (so far, it’s been an entertaining read with many literal “laugh out loud” moments) but for now, I’ll post my meet and greet story as well as some pictures taken from her book signing in Toronto on June 10th.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire had its gala screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and in attendance was director Lee Daniels, actors Paula Patton, Sherri Shepherd, Mariah Carey and newcomer Gabby Sidibe, and of course, executive producers Tyler Perry and Oprah. Mary J. Blige, who wrote the song “I Can See In Color” on the movie’s soundtrack, and Sapphire, author of Push, were also in attendance for the screening. Lucky for me, I had the opportunity to not only see them on stage to introduce the film, but also watch this incredibly powerful movie before it was released into theatres nationwide. Now the winner of TIFF’s People’s Choice Award!

It’s hard to believe how fast time flies by. I can still remember the days of being a scrawny 7th grader, belting out the lyrics to “Don’t Speak” in the school’s corridor during recess with my friends. It was pretty much the only thing we could do to keep ourselves from freezing in the cold and entertained, as we had no playground and the schoolyard was bare. More than a decade later, I find myself, perhaps just as scrawny and off-tune as back then, singing loudly and happily along to “Don’t Speak” in unison with the rest of the crowd at the Air Canada Centre. And for those few moments, it was like I was 13 years old again.

March 18, 2009 — I went to the Britney Spears “Circus” concert at the Air Canada Centre. It was a visual spectacle. The production value was way up there, with elaborate sets and side-show acts to keep the audience entertained between costume changes. The stage was set as a three ring circus, with a larger middle ring above which numerous aerial acts involving wires and suspension were performed for certain numbers. For example, during the “Everytime” number, Britney sat on the handle of a giant umbrella as it was suspended above the arena. Due to the layout of the stage, any location within the arena provided a decent view of the show. However, and perhaps to the benefit of Britney, there was no jumbotron to show up-close shots of the stage. While there was a jumbotron there, that was circular and wrapped above the middle ring, it mostly served to show intro videos to performances, which were actually rather well done and reminiscent of an actual music video. One video shown right before “Freakshow” was played to the track of Marilyn Manson’s “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” from his 1995 Smells Like Children album — which seemed somewhat out of place but fitting nonetheless. The side-show acts with circus folk (or carnies?), though sometimes drawn on for a bit too long, provided entertainment between the lulls and really made it a circus atmosphere. Could’ve done without the clowns though, not a fan of clowns.