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layout: detonatedlove♥
pictures: ohhspontaneityy
stocks: _excentric_
hits:

It feels almost like something possessed me yesterday, and drove me to my dear ole blog which has faithfully accompanied through my teenage years, and now stands abandoned and sad in the cyberworld. Does anybody even visit this place anymore? I checked my site tracker (also still standing!) and well............I'm surprised that there is actually still some semblance of readership drifting around.

So, it's been a /really/ long while hasn't it? More than a year has flown by since the last post - and oh wow, how much has changed since. I don't quite know how or where to begin!

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1. Work
I've been working at TLL for over 2 years now! There are days where I can't believe that it has already been 2 years, it seems like time just flies by in a jiffy. Many have told me that they are actually surprised that I've managed to stay put in a place for this long - testimony to my perceived poor attention span and general commitment phobia, I suppose. But I guess we all grow up someday. So here I am still, with two feet solidly planted in the working world still.

2. Boyfriend
As I'm sure all of you know, yes I'm still with Zee. :) SEE it's true - I'm no longer commitment phobic, ha!

3. Dance
Drastic changes on this front. No longer a dancer with Attitude Dance Studio but now, with Mosaic Dance. No longer a pure Salsa dancer but now, a West Coast Swing dancer. And I'm teaching too! Shocking news, innit? I'd never have dreamt that I would ever be part of any studio except for ADS, choose any other main dance over Salsa, or teach. But now I've done all three at a go!

...that being said, it's not like I no longer have ties with ADS or that I no longer dance Salsa - I suppose I just like dramatizing things as usual. ;) Mosaic Dance is centered around 4 social dance pillars - West Coast Swing, Salsa (helmed by ADS), Zouk (Two Left Feet) and Tango (Wai Chung). So ADS is a separate studio that offers Salsa classes under the giant umbrella called Mosaic dance.

But yes, check out the Mosaic Dance site anyway if you're wondering on earth I happen to be talking about, or if you just feel like you would like to take up some dancing or fitness activities, and agree with me that Bugis is seriously an awesome location for a dance studio to be at. Think of all the food! The shopping! The convenience! Enough said.

--

Alright, that's enough updating for today.

Labels: life, salsa, wcs, work mania

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As promised, let me just briefly run you all through my life in the last 1.5 months.

30 Oct 09 - It was my last day at BarterXchange. I had really mixed feelings about leaving the company because I had the most wonderful colleagues there (especially Emi and Felita!) who really brightened even the dreariest work days up by simply being around and being themselves.



The other TCs (trade consultants) bought me some random farewell presents and held a mini farewell dinner for me at some Thai place at Temasek Tower. I can't remember its name for the life of me, but the place had pretty interesting decor and the food was decent. After that it was drinks @ Harry's bar for us to close the day\



1 Nov 09 - Zee's birthday! We celebrated the whole weekend, and the lucky boy had 5 cakes this year. Brought him to Dozo for dinner - and I must say the food did live up to its excellent reviews online. We were both quite pleased, yes. :)



13-15 Nov 09 - SISF 2009 rolls around! This year, we performed on Saturday night (thank goodness), and all went pretty okay I suppose. According to the audience, it was probably our cleanest performance to date (for the pro team, at least). Good to hear, especially since we were all super nervous since the choreography was so much more technically challenging than what we normally are used to.





Do you like our costume? See what I meant by a skanky costume coming up...we had so many wardrobe mishaps during practices, but it was worth it in the end because everyone looked so hawt and sexy on stage in this. ;)



You can watch the video below and view the pictures, and tell me what you think!



Then a month of bumming passed by...until:

15 Dec 09 - First day at my new job! Took a Management Associate position up at The Learning Lab, which is essentially a very premium private enrichment centre. No, I'm not teaching (God forbid) - in the management/operations side of things.

So far, it's been pretty good. My colleagues are generally friendly and accepting and nice, but it was quite a culture shock for me initially since the office is located at United Square, away from the crazy pace of the CBD. I suppose I've been so used to running for work all the time in Shenton Way/Raffles Place. Over here we start work at 9-11am depending on your allocated shifts, being in a shopping centre means that the crowd only really comes in after lunch. The relaxed pace and atmosphere still feels foreign to me, but I'm certain it's all a matter of getting used to.

Anyway I'm blogging from work now so unable to upload too many pictures - you can check them out on Facebook if you really want to see them!

And yes, I promise to /try/ to update more regularly...

Labels: random, salsa, work mania

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Ah, I just realised that I'd forgotten to include the link to the performance video up in my last post.

Here you go guys!



Enjoy. :)

Labels: salsa

(3 Comments)


Belated update on...the opening of Jitterbugs' new studio at The Cathay's basement! A huge congratulations to them - the spanking new facilities and awesome flooring totally were making me bleed with envy.

So it was a black & gold themed salsa party, but almost nobody dressed up to theme. Not even the hosts themselves (who performed in white and gold)! Gasp. We were no exception to the rule - ADS put together a cha cha performance to Azu Ki Ki...clad in funky/random/eclectic black and white.



We did quite a bit of mirror-whoring too, thanks to Miche. I like the mirror pictures though!





The performers for the night: Attitude Dance Studio in black and white, Dance Unlimited in neon orange and of course, Grupo Invicta themselves!





And of course, how can any performance be complete without the standard performers' photo-whoring that comes after? Yay for the people who came down to support us. :)





And...my costume!



I've decided that I probably quite prefer wearing pants to dance and perform, but unfortunately nobody else does (on the girls' end, that is) - that, coupled with the nature of salsa, means we always end up prancing around in tiny skirts and virtually nothing past the vital bits are covered very much.

Like, *cough our next costume cough*.

You'll see what I mean in, hmm, about a month.

Labels: party time, salsa

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Vamos Bailar takes a break for the month of September as we head on down to Jitterbugs' BLACK AND GOLD SALSA PARTY, #B1-08 The Cathay, Fri 25 Sep 2009, 21:00 – 23:00.

Hit the dance floor with your grooves and moves, dressed in Black and Gold, Fame-style (think 80s). Fee: S$10 per attendee (Includes 2 cans soft drinks or bottled water)

Also, catch a jazzy, snazzy, cheeky, fun CHA CHA CHA SHINES performance by Attitude Dance Studio. Choreographed by Jared; catch Crystal, Dalena, Michelle, Rebekah, Glenn, Jared and Amit (debut performance of our newest team member) heating up the dance floor.

--

Come support us @ Jitterbugs tonight! :)

Labels: advert, salsa

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Hoo boy, it's been a good and long weekend, I must say!

The last few days have been the same old story over and over again - dance prac, dance prac, and more dance prac. We'll be showcasing our new chacha choreography at Jitterbugs' official studio opening this Friday night at the Jitterbugs Studio at the basement floor of The Cathay! So come on down to watch and support if you'll be free and around the area.

Also, Moses has somehow acquired an electronic keyboard and a box drum (whatever its proper name is - the one that looks like a drum and when you hit different parts of it, it produces different types of sounds) and so he's got me hooked onto jamming at his house! We have Mo the drummer, Ming the lead guitarist, Zee the singer/guitarist, and me the singer/keyboardist...and of course, E-Wan the band manager! So far the jamming results have been so-so - we've got poor band chemistry I tell you! But I suppose t's all in the name of good fun though and I'm sure it'll get better with more practice too. :P

That aside, we're getting a new car now that yours truly has her driving license. Discussion still in the works with the parents (budget issues, must be a small car so I won't bang it around too much, etc etc) but will keep you all updated once we've decided.

Shall keep my fingers crossed for getting what I want, hopefully!

Labels: salsa, yay

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Last Saturday was Po Hai and Vendela's wedding at the Orchard Hotel! They allocated three tables especially to the salsa people, and as to be expected, our three tables were the noisiest and craziest in the entire ballroom too.



Zee and Alicia were the emcees for the night, English and Mandarin respectively. Alicia is a superb Chinese emcee - her voice has such calming tones in a late-night radio deejay way, she was really nice to listen to! Zee was, well, just being typical Zee on stage. :P



Random picture of a decorated fish head (courtesy of Mengwei and I) - Zee asked us to keep some food for him while he was on stage, and he specifically requested for the fish head, so...! We're how kind right. Hahaha.



I like this picture because we're how matching!



Apparently blue was quite the popular color for the night - blue and black, to be exact. Quite ironic, because I opted not to wear black thinking every other person would be in black. Well, well, well, how wrong I was. I guess we salsa people like our vibrant colors more than most.





Check out Gupson in his three-piece suit! Okay, well, the jacket isn't on in this picture but you get the idea. I actually thought I would be vaguely over-dressed, especially when I saw the rest of the crowd on the way up to the ballroom, but I suppose we can always count on the salsa crowd to dress up for important occasions. A good thing, really, because I think it's rude to not bother for wedding dinners - in fact, I have a good mind to deny entry or kick out anyone who tries to attend mine in jeans and t-shirt or something along those lines. Even a polo tee wouldn't cut it by my standards!



See how happy the groom is! He was smiling like mad the whole night. :)



I'm too lazy to have to resize and post so many pictures up here in this entry, so if you guys wanna see more, hop onto my facebook album for a look.

Congratulations to the both of you once again, and may you have many years of bliss ahead. :)



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YMCA Salsa Night is on tomorrow at YMCA @ Orchard, opposite the SMU School of Social Science. Just $15 cover charge for a whole night of great music, free-flow of soft drinks, and exciting performances! Both the ADS Student Team and Exotic Team are performing, and Grupo Invicta will also be showcasing their New York Congress choreography. I'm doing exotic for the very first time ever tomorrow also, so do come and support! :)

Click here for more event details.

See you there!

Labels: salsa, yay

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Hola from the team at Attitude Dance Studio!!!

It's here again - Vamos Bailar (pronounced as Vah-moh Bye-La), Attitude Dance Studio's Social Night, and it simply means Let's Dance!!!

On the last Friday of every month, we throw open the studio just for you so you can practise your moves. This is a great opportunity for you to meet up with one another, indulge in lots of social dancing (salsa is all about practice and it doesn't matter if you're just a beginner) and get to know your instructors on a more personal level.

Lots of students have benefitted from this social as it allows you to dance in a very conducive environment and practice what you have learnt in class. And of course, it's FREE and you can also bring your friends along!!!!

And exclusively this Friday: Catch La Ballroom En Masse - Nanyang Polytechnic's social and ballroom dance club putting up a performance for your viewing pleasure!!! Artistic Director Gupson Pierre has been training the 50 odd members of this club a little over half a year and they have wowed audiences with their performance during the schools Open House and Club Crawl 2009. Come and show your support for the these buddding talents!! Showtime at 10pm sharp!!!

SO DON'T BE LEFT OUT - SEE YOU AT ATTITUDE DANCE STUDIO ON FRIDAY 29TH May 2009, 9PM ONWARDS & VAMOS BAILAR!!

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Attitude Dance Studio
70 Palmer Road #02-01/02
Palmer House (off Shenton Way)
Singapore 079427
ADS Hot Line: (65) 6226 2381
Email : Info@asiasalsa.com
Website: www.asiasalsa.com

Labels: advert, salsa

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Sharon dropped in last week for a short visit and I must say that Union Square suddenly seemed a lot more attractive then with her around! I swear everytime she comes back she gets better and hotter. I wish I functioned like that, too. :P But now that she's gone, tonight was rather dull - to the point that Sarah, Kelly and I decided to have a go at learning how to lead towards the end of the night to entertain ourselves!

I've decided that Kelly would probably make a fantastic female lead because her frame is awesome. She's also super fun and easy to lead around though, I have to say.

That all aside, the days are just passing one after another, after another...with nothing very much in between. For someone with absolutely nothing to do, time certainly seems to be escaping at an extremely rapid pace.

Oh, check out this cool photo that I took awhile back (ahem, stole Gavin's camera to fool around with in Amici restaurant, to be exact) - NICE RIGHT?



Okay, okay, I'll admit it now - it only looks this nice because he went to photoshop it nicely for me. Someone must've been feeling really kind and/or bored, huh.

Then again, I really ought to speak for myself too. I actually think having too much free time on my hands makes me not just an idle person but also one that is way too nosy and meddling, because I suddenly have all this time and energy to think/overthink, analyze/overanalyze, discuss/overdiscuss things that I honestly would love to figure out and resolve. Somehow, though, it seems like the more I think and the more I try to talk it over and out, the worse I'm making it all be and so it's not like I'm completely blameless either. Anyhow, I have decided as of tonight to just extract myself from the picture altogether - for the good of all (I think). After all, it's one of those scenarios where maybe less effort = better results so I guess my aim for the near future is to: i) be nicer and more tolerant, ii) learn to keep my mouth shut when appropriate, iii) just let things be and not feel compelled to meddle so much.

Boo. I can't wait to get out of Singapore already. I need a break from my break!

Labels: random, salsa

(1 Comments)


Yeah, yeah - been awhile since the last update, I must admit.

Still, eventful term/year for me so far - or should I say, busy? School, learning driving and French, dancing as usual...on the bright side, our Bailamos performance went pretty alright! We spent about 5 practices on it (18 hours in all?) so decided to call ourselves Mambo 24 - as we spent less than 24 hours on it!



I guess this is our first and last Bailamos together since 5/6 of the Mambo 24 team is graduating this term (well actually Zee was already done with school in December!). I must was more fun than anything though.



Meanwhile, happy CNY 2009 to all of you guys! May we all prosper and stay healthy. :)

Labels: salsa, yay

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One last entry before I fly off - about the SalsaSingapore Awards at The Dancefloor, Safra @ Mount Faber last Sunday! I just have to blog about it because I had the most awesome night out at salsa for the longest time! The location is absolutely fabulous with the nicest dancefloor ever - comparable or even better than the one at Upper Club. The layout was beautiful too, with colorful lights on the band stand and the place was dim but not too dim. Perfect for dancing. ;)





The theme for the night was SalsaSingapore's logo color - red. So there were red-clad people walking around everywhere, which really was quite entertaining since it looked like Chinese New Year had arrived early or something.



Instead of wearing a red top like everyone else, I decided to go with a red bottom instead because...well just because I felt like being different, I guess? :P



Attitude rocked the night that day - we took 3 awards in all! Well, or rather, Gupson took 3 awards - he had to go up thrice to receive them: 1. Best school for learning beginner On1 salsa, 2. Best school for learning intermediate/advanced On1 salsa, 3. Gupson was voted favorite male salsa instructor. Yay!



Also, best newcomer in the salsa scene of 2008 was...S.O.S. (Save Our Salsa) held every month at Azzucar by Jean and Meling! A well-deserved win, I must say. :)



Also, Samantha and Barry (of Grupo Invicta) showcased their qualifying piece for the World Salsa Championships 2008 for the very first time in Singapore. It was SUPERB. They were supposed to fly to Orlando for the WSC 2008 semi-finals a week or two ago, but the WSC 2008 was postponed indefinitely because of the financial crisis or a lack of sponsorship or something along those lines. What a waste.



Basically...we had a lot of fun that night. Unfortunately, the turnout wasn't that good for some strange reason or another - but ah well, too bad for the guys who missed out! That was also probably why there was ample space to dance and shine and do all sorts of crazy stuff, so perhaps that was a good thing and not a bad one, but I'm just a little concerned that the poor turnout possibly means fewer such events. Seriously, the scene needs to be more supportive of events.











I shall end this post with what I thought was the funniest picture ever...



Just look at Gupson! HAHAHAHA. He's been reduced to two little torches as his eyes because he's so dark that he blended into the dark background. As Kelly put it, he looks exactly like a cute little raccoon stuck in the tree here where nothing else of his face can be seen but his glowing eyes. :P

You can read more about the event at the SalsaSingapore website.

Also, much thanks to SalsaSg and Kelly for the pictures because I was too lazy to whip my camera out that night! :)

Labels: salsa

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Oh boy, I do seem to be perpetually in costumes for the last few days running! Been working loads since the boyfriend flew off on Friday and half the friends are away on holiday or just plain busy with their lives - leaving me with more free time than usual, especially since there's no school at the moment. Makes sense for me to up the working factor a little and just earn that much more money for the next term right? :)

Thursday - some mingling event at Franklin Offshore's D&D. Twenty of us sailor girls were hired to run around, eat, drink and party with the guests. The costumes were super cute I tell you!





I also made two new fun friends at work: Lynn (who happens to be from SMU too, year 2, but we've never seen each other in our lives somehow) and Tourmaline. I swear it's been ages since I've found people at work that I can click with and talk to so easily. The best part is - we found out that we were going to be working together quite a bit for the next few days, which means good company is guaranteed.





Friday - Jack Daniel's event at Cafe del Mar, where my job was to...mind the Nintendo Wii where they had a Guitar Hero World Tour station set up! Super fun huh. ;) I even got to play with the customers who (foolishly) decided to challenge me. HAHA. Okay I really should not brag about my GH skills since I actually rank as one of the worst players in Rock Band guitar/bass when I'm at Mark's with the rest, but seriously, compared to the rest of the normal world...!!!

Then there was Saturday - the Harry's bus party tour where six of us girls had to dress up as Santarinas to take pictures with the guests and all. They rented a topless Hippo bus to take the guests (and us) from one Harry's bar to another around town, from Marina Bay to Dempsey to Chijmes and so on to end at the Esplanade branch. There were two buses so we were split three Santarinas per bus, so Lynn, June and I were grouped together the whole night.





Everyone was super high and all especially on the bus, waving to random strangers, screaming like mad and throwing water all around. Santa even made an appearance halfway through the night!







So yes well, three days straight of partying and boozing led to a partial voice loss on Sunday when I woke up. :(

But no, Sunday was not exactly a break, because there was still En Motion's Shanghai Rouge event to attend at night. Compulsory event to attend because the sister was performing! Yay! Her first big performance for the salsa scene. Rushed out in the evening to find a cheongsam for the event so that I would be at least vaguely dressed in theme...which was post WWII Old Shanghai (I think) when the people were making a slow transition in culture, from east to west.

I was very pleased with the cheongsam I bought - but look, isn't her performance outfit cute? She was dressed as one of the more Westernized ladies of that era - with their frilly tops and high-waisted skirts, lady-like brollies and immaculate coiffures, being all dainty and elegant.



Cheryl was also performing (for the first time too, I believe) for En Motion's student performance team!




The whole place was really like, whoa, cheongsam overdose all around! A surprising number of people were sporting enough to dress up more-or-less in theme so we had many cheongsam-clad ladies, some gentlemen in Western clothing, rickshaw pullers/trishaw riders, and even a Japanese soldier. It was fun!























The sister then changed to her cheongsam after she eventually got bored of dancing around in her performance costume...we're so gonna wear these for Chinese New Year in 2009! Might as well, right? :P



Now that the whole flurry of activity is over, today was a good rest day for me. I'm actually utterly sick of putting on makeup because I've had to do it for the past four days running, and oh trust me, as vain as I may seem, it's not something that I particularly am used to OR enjoy. The skin on my face feels like it's going to suffocate to death, and I feel so restricted half the time because I can't just carelessly rub my eyes anytime I feel like it. Hmmph.

Ah well, I suppose that's the price to pay if you want to look good (or at least, better than usual). Now off to bed I go because a shoot awaits tomorrow!

Labels: party time, salsa, work mania

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