We should be dancing .... Yeah!

Was supposed to go to Shangri-La tonight but was feeling a bit tired and felt like staying home. We enjoy listening to the band, U.R.B., who is playing at the Lobby Lounge and go there often enough till we have become friends with the members; Sarita, Marlou and Brice. Well, they will be playing till end of this month and move on to their next gig in Cebu for 5 months.

In this aspect, my playground has changed over the years. I still remember my younger years where I first went to discos, slightly more than 20 years ago. Discos like Hollywood East (I think, or was it North/South/West???) located in Sg. Wang Plaza, Limelight in Ceylon Hill, 11 L.A (Lebuh Ampang!) where we would we go to catch Joanne Kam Po Po (I think that was her first place of debut) doing her raunchy show. There was also Picadilly, 1 Kia Peng and Fire where all night karaoke was first introduced. We would go there and start off with karaoke at about 9, sing a couple of hours, then go dancing, then karaoke again, dance and karaoke again. At the end of the outing, my friends and I would be singing "sleepily", mumbling into the mic while lying on the sofa, still refusing to go home! Ha ha...We would usually leave at about 3 am. New discos would pop up overnight and close just as fast too. And how can I ever forget dancing with the guys. We would always use the "famous hands on his shoulder, elbows pushing against his chest" to prevent him from smothering us!!!!!!! This is still a tried and tested technique that works and is still being practised today by girls/women around the world when it comes to fending them off. But of course, for those that we do like, we dance to a whole different tune altogether!

Euro, me & Jen (21 years ago!!!!)
Just before we went out to boogie woogie

Now, I am more content to sit down and listen to a band and hit the dance floor whenever the mood strikes. Now, where do I go? Shangri-La, Concorde, La Vida in Holiday Villa, Pan Pac Glenmarie (now Holiday Inn), RP (Rumah Peranakan) at Hyatt. Not that this means that I'm "feeling" old, my choice of venue has changed, that's all. Oh, I do karaoke now at Redbox, The Curve, no more marathon sessions, I'll gladly go back to my home to sleep! Yup, some things have changed but one of the things that hasn't is that I still like to wear black! It makes me look slimmer, an optical illusion of some sort. Hee hee....

Do you think dyslexic people have difficulty dancing to "Y.M.C.A."? ~ Dave Sokolowski

B.A.N.A.N.A.S

Another night of meeting. Aside from the heavy topics, there was one about improving our mental attitude. I found out why monkeys are a happy lot, it seems that eating bananas can make one happy apart from providing us with many other benefits. To start us off, the speaker brought a few bunches of bananas for us to eat after the meeting ended! I couldn't tell whether it worked on me cos I feel upbeat most of the time. I offered one to Soo and she said "It's okay, I'm happy enough". Standing arms akimbo, I asked her how can anyone have enough of happiness. If there is something that we can never have enough of, happiness would be it. Soo then ate the banana ;0)

http://www.nilludesign.com/img/editorial/monkey.jpg

Maybe the real reason why monkeys are happy is because they hear, see and speak no evil!

The three of us then headed for a late dinner in Bayou. I enjoy times like these as it allows us to get to know each other better. Usually, people would just turn up for meetings and off they go when it ends. So, it's more of a Hello and Goodbye session most of the time. Oh, we also get a chance to grow closer during our incentive trips. We'll be in planes, trains and automobiles, having meals, sightseeing together for almost a week. During times like these, we grow to like certain people and at the same time find out that we should avoid certain people too! Ha Ha... On trips like these, I usually dread one thing, I'm usually asked to walk up the aisle of the tour bus and belt out a tune to entertain the "troops". This year I will be ready with my iPod in hand as I have stored lyrics in it. Ahhh...The wonders of technology.

We sat in Bayou till they told us that we have to leave (we weren't the only ones there), not because we were being a nuisance but they were closing, just in case some of you were wondering why! I rushed home as I wanted to catch the repeat of American Idol. My fave is Elliott Yamin, he doesn't look like THE American Idol but he really has a good voice. So, I'm rooting for him. Looks aren't everything but of course Mr Simon Cowell begs to differ. Oh well, here's to us simple folks! Hear! Hear!

Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad. ~ Norm Papernick

Brylcreem

During last night's teleconversation with Mrs Pitt, she told me that she cried reading my Guinness Stout post. You see, my dad is her dad too. We both talked about Dad and said that he did leave too early. That's why I'm posting about my dad again because I started recalling my younger days and the happy times with him.

The flat I used to stay in faced a lane and each evening, from the 5th floor, I would sit there and wait for him to come back. Just in case I missed him, he would whistle loudly and I would then run towards the balcony to wave at him. He would always have treats for us, buying the 2 litre A&W root beer (from the Pudu outlet which is no longer around) and of course on Tuesdays, we'll have our Coney Dogs. Once in a while, he brought back a box of Kit Kat or Kandos Crispies or Wrigley's chewing gum from the wholesale shop in Petaling Street. Once home, he would sit in his favourite chair, I still remember the patch of oil on the wall where he leaned his head against. That's because he used Brylcreem a lot! Ha ha.... Sitting in the chair, he would always play this trick where his eyes would be wide opened and he would pretend to stop breathing. Ha ha....come to think of it, that was a rather mean trick to play on a kid, wasn't it? Pretending to be dead. Ah, my dad, always a joker.

He was also very meticulous about the way he looked and dressed. Always making sure his hair had just the right amount of Brylcreem, that every strand was in place (indeed, that was his crowning glory and he took care of it well, he still had a full head of hair till his last day here). Shirt tucked, he would go thru the ritual of primping himself in front of the mirror. He loved wearing belts with big buckles, he was a big man. The whole ensemble did look nice on him. Hee hee......I used to sit there and just watch him go thru this routine time and time again and I will still be just as fascinated as I was seeing it for the first time.

Life is funny, till one really loses someone, we don't know how it actually feels like or begin to even fathom what has happened and how to deal with the loss. We feel sad and time will lessen the pain but it will never erase the memories that will forever live in our hearts.

It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness. ~ Cicero