salsa high

We got second place and I’m sooo proud of lizzie right now!? She’s been such an amazing partner and it’s just such a joy dancing with her.? I hope we continue dancing for years!

Amidst the hectic work and dance schedule which tien yew and myself have been juggling for the past 2-3 weeks, I woke up this morning with a realization that we’ve been together for 6 months! So there you go dearie: Happy 6 months! I’ve had so much fun with you and its still amazing how we got together. 🙂 We can unwind a bit after the comp tomorrow. 🙂

I’m tired, really tired; so is lizzie, and we’ve just come back from Bintan!? It’s only been one day of dance training at Xenbar and we’re already beat, and we’ve got another one coming up this evening.? I’m looking forward to it for obvious reasons, yet dreading it because I don’t know what time it’d end tonight and what time I can get home and most of all, I dread waking up tomorrow because it’s just going to be so hard.? And tomorrow’s the competition!?

Well I just hope that all the suffering pays off because dreading to wake up the next day just reeks of something being absolutely wrong.

Well, I’ve essentially become quite a beta tester for Microsoft.? I’ve downloaded the betas of both Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Media Player 11.? Other than their version numbers being prime numbers, I thought they looked classy and that maybe I’d give them a try.?

I’ll probably be posting about my experiences with these useful software soon.? But in the meantime, go check them out!

Windows Media Player 11:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx
Internet Explorer 7:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

I’ve posted my previous article about the clave in the articles section of this blog together with lizzie’s article about choreography?for easier reference.? You can find it here.

DAY 1

I woke up in a panic at 6am on Sunday morning. I had set my alarm for 5.15am and somehow I must have set it in the pm mode. I was supposed to meet tien yew at Tanah Merah Ferry terminal at 6.30am. Thanks to my bro and his speeding ways, I got there on the dot…but tien yew was late. Bleah. Haha and when he came, he was lugging this HUGE trolley bag…like those u lug to Europe on a 2-week holiday, but he explained that it was half full and he brought his whole DVD player (wires and remote control and all) along. Well we got stopped at the baggage check anyway. Nevertheless we made it across to Bintan and it was one hour behind Singapore there. We reached our resort, Mayang Sari at about 9.15am Bintan Time and was greeted by this entourage of dancers and musicians, all decked out in their traditional finery. However, my spirits took a nosedive when we were informed that we could only check in at 3pm…that was like a void period of almost 6 hours. With that in mind, we took a stroll at the beach but the heat was sweltering and i came down with a slight fever. Yup and tien yew manage to bug the lady at the reception to let us have an early check in, so by 1.30pm we were happily in our air-con suite, which was called Lobster Emsemble Suite 4.??After a well deserving nap, we headed for?a stroll along the beach and ended the day with a romantic dinner at a restaurant,?Belle Ile,?by the sea.

?DAY 2

Well rested and with breakfast sitting happily in our bellies, we decided to hit the sea and go kayaking. We took 2 singles and ended up racing each other most of the time. Well, I think tien yew put up a pretty good fight but…I still won in the end!! All thanks to those years of dragonboating training in Uni…:P Still, my arms were aching at the end of it but man, do I love the sun and the sea. After a hearty lunch, Tien yew started our?Salsa boot camp.??Yup, we started on basics, to our shines to some of the variations and the stunts. Tien Yew was more concerned about our shines but I was more concerned about finishing the entire choreo on time and without mistakes. And cos of?those different focal points, we ended up in snapping quite a bit at each other. But we managed to smoothen things out and I’m really amazed that he can bring his dvd player along (with the remote control) and plug it into the television in our chalet. We practiced till 5 plus and then at six, headed to this kelong for a sunset dinner. And what a glorious sunset it was! The sky was awashed with hues of pink and yellow; it was indeed breathtaking. Dinner was such an amusing affair, since it’s the first time that Tien yew ate crabs and it’s so funny just watching him struggling to crack the shells. But after the 7 course dinner, I’m sure his voracious appetite had been appeased…for a while. However, I think we were both craving some alcohol, so our next destination was Calypso Bar, this little bar ajoining our kelong, separated by this long bridge. It was so cosy and relaxing at Calypso bar, with the sea breeze blowing and slow music playing. Probbaly the alcohol helped too. 😛 We hit the bed at about 11pm, exhausted after the day’s activities and lulled by the night’s food and alcohol….

?DAY 3

We’re probably mad but yeah we headed for another hour of kayaking in the early morning. And this time, it was disastrous. Silly me wanted to catch the waves (and they were huge ones) and I happily paddled towards the rolling waves. After the first wave hit my kayak, I knew I was in trouble. These were big, mean waves and I underestimated their force. I tried to face the kayak towards the waves instead of catching them at my side and I managed to survive another round of waves. But they kept coming, bigger and faster that the last and before I could even paddle out of the way or?right the kayak for another impact, one hit me at the side and I went over. The whole kayak flipped and just when I surfaced to gasp?for air, another wave slammed the kayak into my face. I realized that the water was pretty shallow and tried to stand but to my dismay, there were reefs below and they were sharp like knives. Having spent years in water sports, I normally don’t panic?when I capsize but at that moment, I was actually scared stiff. The waves just kept coming, breaking over my head and the reefs cut my feet below. I was trying my best to hang onto my overturned kayak and oar while keeping my head above the water. Even when Tien Yew came over to help me, he had difficulty because the waves were just too big. Thankfully one of the life guards speeded over in a jet ski and managed to get me out of this mess. Phew…that incident left me pretty shaken, along with some cuts on my feet and one on my lip. After that rush of adrenaline, we decided to take it slow for the rest of the morning, so we did some leisure swimming (close to the shore) and headed back to the room for a nice hot bath and some quiet relaxation. We checked out at 12pm and did some last minute photo shots. After lunch, the shuttle bus came to fetch us to the Ferry terminal. I couldnt help but feel that the 3 days flew by in a flash and the notion of having to go to work the next day did not seem appealing at all. Nevertheless, it was a great weekend, spent with someone special. 🙂

Here’s something I chanced upon and I thought I’d do some good by passing it on.? If you want to slow down music, there’s an option in windows media player under “view -> enhancements -> play speed settings” where you can alter the speed at which your music is played.? You can slow it down to half the speed and speed it up all the way to twice the original bpm.? The interesting thing is that, unlike many other programs, the pitch doesn’t change, which might be a boon to many nitpickers like me.

Oh woe is me, we’re back but we’ve to work tomorrow and I’m now 20!? Yes, I’ve hit the big 2-0 and I’m just bummed.? Bah.? That’s like 1/4 of my life gone!? I feel so old.?

Oh yeah, thanks everyone who smsed me or wished me in anyway a happy birthday!

sidenote:? lizzie will be uploading the pictures and stuff soon!? I’m a bit too tired to post much now.

lizzie and I will be headed for Bintan in the morning, so you won’t see any posts for the next few days.? However, we’ll be back with a vengeance as we’ll be posting all the photos we’ll be taking there!? Yeap, so enjoy your long weekend too!? Haha…

Last night was the second time that Tien Yew and I did our choreograph at Xen, in front of an audience. The first time was utterly horrific. We were very unprepared and I was a bundle of nerves. I was stumbling left and right and Tien Yew forgot the choreo halfway through. Anyway, putting together the choreo was quite a tedious process, so I’ve written an article about our experience. Hopefully there are some useful tips which may shorten the process. 🙂