6th Year, Baby!!!

At the Baan Chaang Elephant Park June 2015

25th August 2015 : Today, we celebrate our 6th year wedding anniversary. 6 years! Well, actually if counting the official marriage certification which all the old folks insisted upon, it's 7 years. That plus the dating period, it's 9 years together. Wowza. And it still feels like we got married last year :)

What's new? Nothing very much actually. Aside from both of us being really crazy busy with work and the fact with MOH being in the mobile industry and me spearheading the digital stuff in the company, we have our faces stuck to our phones half the time. With the digital invasion, we never stop working :( And yes, very funny, sometimes, we communicate that way too. Of course we have times where we force ourselves to disconnect, you know. Just for a bit of sanity.

In my last trip home to see Ah Por, I told her I worried about her when I'm away. She retorted by saying she worried about me even more. Apparently, my frequent trips back home alone had caused her much worry as she thought that it meant "trouble was brewing" because I am so "samseng" all the time or we were "growing apart" and also that "your husband not happy because you don't know how to cook." (whaaaat?? where did that come from?? Who's been telling her tales??) Worse - we don't have kids yo! I just LMAO. But to thwart her worries, I went about regaling her with tales of our relationship.

Our relationship had been really easy and I thank God for that always. Whilst we've both gotten really busy since the start of 2015 - like, I don't even know how or why I got this busy at work!! We make it a point to spend the weekends doing something together that is not work or Youth Centre-related. Grocery shopping or checking out a new restaurant in town or simply swimming. Grocery shopping is by far the most real for any couples. Never in my younger days would I have imagined asking this : "So, which toilet roll shall we get? This one is expensive but it's got floral prints." :P Friday date nights and Sunday brunches, we try to keep it exclusive to ourselves. But on some occasions, we do socialize and meet up with some friends. Me - I'm the anti-social one. Actually, we're both pretty anti-social. But he's got no choice sometimes. Work-needs. My work doesn't require me to socialize so it's awesome. Plus, I never have anything to wear :P 

You know, it was MOH who actually debunked my fairy-tale notion of "you jump, I jump". Truth is - understanding each other is important. And when I'm thanking God, I'm thankful for the fact that this understanding developed and grew with ease and no drama :) We just know that we've got our shit to do and we need to get it done because that's the type of people we are. We committed to our employers or projects or the children so we need to do the best that we can. On top of that, we also have our own hobbies and passion that we pursue and just the same as I still can't understand why 22 grown men would run around after a bloody ball, he can't understand why I would torture myself by signing up for an intensive fitness boot camp! So, if I was home late and dinner meant instant noodles or some bread with canned curry, he doesn't complain. (Because if he does, I'll ask him to make his own dinner LMAO!!) Or if I've cooked a nice and "proper" meal as Ah Por would say and he called to say he's got dinner with Miss Myanmar, I say "Oh, ok. You'll be having leftovers tomorrow." Speaking of food, the funniest conversation would be him checking out what food I had packed for him for his lunch. When I asked him why, he said "I need to know how much energy I have to use because you will say use the power of my imagination." Like, seriously ROFL - for me. Yes, he would have some annoying 'meal-order' like Loh Mai Kai or Hokkien Mee or whatever and I would say "Sure. It's all in your mind....... If you think it's Hokkien Mee, then it'll be Hokkien Mee." :P 

Our one daily passion is the fact that we love annoying each other! LOL! I was telling Ah Por how we would hide behind doors to scare the bejesus out of each other (I actually have a celebratory dance when I am successful in scaring the shit out of him!!) or take photo evidence of how our sleeping positions disturb the other person - him, especially him and his elbows.. aargh which he then denies and instead tells me I'm lethwei kicking him in my sleep.... or how I would pour cold water over the shower door at him or him switching off the water heater when I'm showering in the middle of winter....or how he loves trying to poke my tongue when I am yawning.....  and if all else fails, it's just plain ol' monkey-faces and witty sarcasms. This happens a lot especially when he's upset that I've gotten his white shirt pink - AGAIN! "Real men wear pink!" or "I told you not to wear anymore whites!" and again, if all else fails, I just mock him behind his back while he's mumbling and scrubbing out his stained favourite WHITE shirt :P You know, he also ain't Da Tiger for nothing. Sometimes, he'd go "WEIIIII!!!!" like really loud and I would jump out of my skin. And then he would say "Huh. Must be did something wrong that's why scared of my roar." What an idiot! Anyway, in all of these, Ah Por said "So, still like children! Why not give birth to one??!" #slapforehead

I think any DINK couple would agree - when living together, there always seem to be a fairy or a gnome in the house too because you get these conversations ALOT.

"You took all my loose change!"
"No I didn't." 

"You idiot. You left the door opened again!"
"It wasn't me!" 

"Where did you hide my phone??"
"I didn't take your phone." 

"You didn't close the refrigerator door properly!"
"I didn't open the fridge!" 

You get the drift. And honestly, there are only TWO people in the house! :/ 

To say the least, we're both actually quite anal in our own ways. I'm not OCD ok :P I just like things in their correct position, compartmentalized and organized properly. I can still remember back in Cambodia when we didn't have help with the chores, my poor hubby would be standing outside the balcony trying to determine the floor mat colour to make sure he got the right ones placed where it was supposed to be placed. (You see, the floor mats were all of the same colour, except there's the older ones, thus colour is not as bright and I know exactly which one goes where... he on the other hand, #slapforehead!) When things are not in the correct 'compartments', it disturbs my chi :P Just the same as him being really anal about his car!! I actually never really knew this about him until once when I ate my sandwich in his car (then still 2 month-new) and dropped a teeny morsel of chicken somewhere and he spent every red light stop looking for that stupid piece of chicken! And then one day, I opened his boot and looking back at me was one box labeled "Dirty Stuff", one box labeled "Clean Stuff". God forbid things in the car to be scattered in disarray!! And don't you even dare "drop tears in my car." Yes - that's what he told a friend's kid! They were visiting and she was crying in the car and that was what he said! Truly! It stopped the crying like in a nanosecond!! Till this day, we all still joked about it. Sorry, I think I got a bit carried away writing about all our stick-up-our-butt stuff. What I'm saying is that, being in a relationship means learning to deal with all these crazies about each other. In sickness and in health y'all. "And this is my sickness," as Monica would say :)

The boys,... I hadn't realized how we affected them. True that MOH is always in the newspapers and the kids go "oh, so cool." When we were asking the boys which field they're interested in after they "graduate" from #SoyAi, all of them said 'marketing'. Ummm... Houston, we have a problem. I realized that it could be because of the two of us being in the marketing field and they just decided that marketing was the way to go for their choice of career. That was when I called in reinforcements to introduce them to stuff like plannogram, physical packaging, other stuff, not marketing. I never had someone present options like these to me when I was younger. I could've been on the BAU team if I had known more options :P Anyway, the serious shocker for me was in one chit-chat session I had with the boys and we spoke about girlfriends and marriage (you know, they're all 18 and I have to make sure they don't go making babies outside!!), one of them said this : "Ma Eileen, how Ko Richard find you? Because girl same-same like you, cannot find. I want to find." My heart broke a little for him. I wish to tell him, my dear boy, there are plenty of girls who are awesome out there with golden hearts and would be deserving of your love and attention. Instead, I said "If you work hard now, you have a better future, when you are 30 years old, you will find same-same girl like me because Ko Richard also found me when he was 30 years old." Silence..... LMAO.

In one of our deep-meaningful conversations, we spoke about the future. I mean, it's obvious that we will never have kids (I'm sorry to say, but THANK GOD!!!) And to be honest, we don't expect any of the children we help to look after us. We were initially considering some "assisted living" homes in Thailand or something like that.... But we've got a new plan. Here's what we plan to do : we will both continue working our asses off for another 6 more years. After which, we intend to quit, sell whatever we have, and we would go travel to adventure zones doing voluntary work for underprivileged communities. I think we would still be fit and able then (I'm picturing us dodging bullets right now and I'm going "Faster la Fatty!!" LMAO!!)  and we'd try to save the world one community at a time. We still champion the fact that education is the best weapon against poverty.

To the world's most awesome husband a girl could ever ask for........

Thank You for letting me be as "samseng" as I like. 

Thank You for the daily laughs. Every second of it is enjoyable. Especially when I'm pranking you.
Thank You for letting me drive your car even though I constantly "drop sweat in your car."

Thank You for letting me eat you poor :) But you're still the fatter one :P
Thank You for loving me in your own way, the way you know best.
Thank You for letting me love you in my own way, the way I know best.

It's still you and me, just us two :) #4eva 

p/s : font-size changed for the reading pleasure of my Mama & Papa :) 

Me & Fight Camp

Fight Camp 2 - Day 1.... so many campers! 

"Will you join Fight Camp with me?" I asked MOH. His response? "You want me to die izzit??!" :P

So, I signed up anyway. I don't usually train in a group and haven't done a "group" fitness activity like in years! Even at Saya Lone Chaw's place, I don't train in a group. I dunno, call me anti-social? Considering my training regime every mornings, MOH went like "Are you crazy??" Well, I am. I am crazy about training. And when I read about Fight Camp, I just thought - ok - why the hell not. It could be fun.

So, 6 weeks ago, I attended my first ever group fitness boot camp and 6 weeks later, I've survived the last class. How was it? Here's how I described it to my Mama & Papa - in the first week of class, everyone was excited and full of energy, it was hello, hello! how are you! The 3rd week saw us (me included), crawling up the stairs to the boot camp room, too tired to go hello! hello! how are you! Just a simple nod will do - that is if my neck wasn't stiff :P By the 5th week, we saw many drop-outs and that's always shitty because the less people in the class meant more eyes on you!! Noooooo!!!

In the 6 weeks of Fight Camp, my entire body had remained sore constantly. Problem was, I didn't stop my normal training and I was still chasing for that personal best in my sprints, in my 25km runs, in my swims, in my bike every time I'm training and with the additional ten million squats and infinity push-ups I had to do, my recovery time was very much shortened. Don't. Even. Get. Me. Started. On. The. Bloody. Burpees. I. HATE. BURPEES. I detest! I detest! I detest them vehemently.

But you know what? Fight Camp made me realize that many a limits are usually in da head. Many, many years ago, when I started being active, I could never do a full push-up nor a pull-up. As such, up till recently, I had never bothered attempting to do so. And that was me, being "pretty fit". When the coaches said "full push-ups" no "knees"... I was like shit. And then I did like 50 that first class (it was the bloody 10 kicks left, 10 kicks right, 10 FULL push-ups and repeat for what felt like ten million minutes!) And the pull-ups. God, I never knew! I could even "hold" it right up there. Yeah, it was much easier with the coach standing below you going "Hold it! Hold it! C'mon!!!!! Hold it!!" In the first pull-up attempt, I managed to complete 30 pull-ups in a circuit. I was literally quite impressed with myself. LOL! Who knew???

Then came the Death By Burpees. Aaargh. As many of those darn things you can do in 1 minute for 15 minutes. You see, in my head, I don't know why, but only 15 burpees registered. But then a fellow camper pointed out that if you worked out the math, it was 105 burpees in the 15 minutes (105 for me, more than that for those who were much fitter!). I was like - whoa!! What??? 105? I've never done that before!!! I. Still. HATE. Burpees. :P But you see, I'm now forcing myself to do them even in my own morning training. Sometimes, what you hate could actually be good for you :/

Needless to say, Fight Camp was awesome! It was good just to see how fit I really was - and I realized I'm not all that fit. It was good to challenge myself that much more - try 30 pull-ups and then going for Saya Lone Chaw's class the next day, taking it 6 rounds in the ring and another 12 rounds on the punching bag. And telling yourself, it's all in the damn mind.

I love training and I love pushing myself all the time. And I also love seeing really strong people. I like to see determination in people. And there were some serious campers who were awesomely fit. Best part was, we all go there and whilst we trained, we also had a good time laughing. Because by the 3rd class, we're exchanging understanding smiles. We saw each other's legs shaking while doing the Hell Squats, and we're like "yeah, I feel your pain, but I can't even really laugh now cos I if I did that, I would keel over!" And by the way, the coaches just have some seriously fancy names for torture. Who names 1,000 punches "Sweet Sixteen"???? Death by Burpees though, speaks for itself :P

Somedays, I went in to class, willing myself to try. God forbid if I embarrassed Saya Lone Chaw's good name! Then, there were days where I went into class and it's some crazy circuit (Hell Everything :P) and I'm hungry and I'm telling myself, "F***, Saya Lone Chaw can disown me for all I care!!!" :P

Who knew, despite not really going all the way out in Fight Camp because I've serious knee issues and a yet-to-heal sprained ankle, I would still come out gaining yet another level of fitness. I'm kicking harder, I think I've more strength in my upper body and best part of all - I am now able to cause Saya Lone Chaw some pain when we spar. And I think he realized that I've grown stronger because I no longer get a 1 minute rest after 4 minutes. I get a 1 minute rest after 9 minutes in the ring. By the way, I also managed to put on some weight cos I thought Fight Camp was an excuse to eat more... Wooots!!

I'm gearing up for my first triathlon race after a 4 year hiatus this coming October. It's not possible for a podium win but I'll die trying to keep my record clean at least :)

To the coaches (L & L) who brought Fight Camp to Yangon (who knew such professional training could be found in Yangon?? 3 years ago, there were only gyms with equipment from the 1980s!!), awesome classes. You can tell how much I hated burpees because not once was I ever late for class (every minute = 5 bloody burpees as punishment). I will never ever forget Death By Burpees and Buns of Steel. Sadly, I'll be missing the next Fight Camp as I'm gearing up to push all the way for my October race. Hope to be back next Fight Camp!

Meanwhile - to all the other Fight Campers - Fight On !!! And thanks for the laughs and thanks for those who held the pads for me. I truly sucked at holding them!

With the national Lethwei champ - Saya Lone Chaw