Hi people!

I'm back in writing business again! I guess my kay pohness has risen due to work demotivation.

However, I haven't much to blab about this weekend as all I did was swimming - Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Some of you may not understand why I'm nuts about this activity and so I've taken the task of exposing the stories behind this passion of mine.

Firstly, it never did cross my mine that I would enjoy this activity so much. The truth is - the major reason why I enjoy swimming is because it was a difficulty I had overcomed.

When I was in Form Four, my cousin sister Lee May urged me to join her to take swimming lessons. So, what the heck, it seems my brother enjoys swimming and I thought it would be fun too. I can't remember how long our lessons went but we stopped in Form Five. And the ugly truth was, I could only swim breastroke after so many lessons. Wasn't natural - at times I feel like a cat caught in water. For freestyle, I feel like I'm struggling to keep afloat and so, I wasn't really too keen on it.

There was a time when I went to one of the public swimming pools (Form Four/Five?) with some friends. At that time, I couldn't do any kick-stand yet in the water but took the challenge of swimming the full length of the pool. But came to a point when I suddenly panicked and I think I sprained my ankle, thus causing more panick, ended up drinking the pool water and I thought I was going to drown! But luckily, a friend saw my difficulty and he pulled me away from the deep area.

And from that day onwards, I developed a fear of deep end pools.

I practically did not swim for a long time after that until I reached my 2nd year in university, thanks to a highly energetic roomate of mine, Gui. Of course, my fear still made me hesitant of going to the other end of the pool but a need for improvement made me want to go ahead. So, I compromised. I decided to swim the full length of the pool by sticking very near to the side of the swimming pool. Due to encouragement from Gui, I guess I tried to learn kick-stand. However, I always felt exhausted and still lack of confidence.

My love for swimming grew as my breastroke improved. I did not pursue the idea of learning other styles as I thought I could never master the others. I like it to the point that I once travelled by bus and walked to the pool at Fifth College in UM to go swimming alone. (Actually, I got psycho problem during my 2nd year due to a developed sense of not minding to do anything alone).

Then when I started working in Seremban, I did not pursue to love of mine for quite some time until the new public Olympic size swimming pool caught my immediate attention. So naturally, I went to try it out and walla, I'm in heaven again! Yeah, I'm truly nuts.

The best part here is that I am improving on my freestyle whereby I could actually "move", thanks to my brother. My breastroke has tremendously improved. I look forward to do 20 laps on it. And I'm trying something new - backstroke which is pretty relaxing unless I don't coordinate well and end up drinking the tasteful water again. I need to improve on my strokes because I'm not swimming in a straight line. I've got much to improve on which is why I look forward for this activity each weekend and when I have the opportunity. There are other long term goals as well like I really need to improve on kick-stand - who knows I might have the time to learn scuba-diving?! Ah, I'm getting dreamy again! Hey, who knows - what about butterfly, huh?!

For those who have read up till this point, here's some reward as I'll just "expose" a little bit more of some juicy news. Bukan pasal nak menonjol diri or want to brag, just want to share with you some fun!

Ever since having regular swims at Seremban 2 public pool, I think I've caught the attention of a few guys. What? Me? But don't be so teasing yet 'coz I caught the attention of an old guy (hah hah - gotcha!), a young guy (probably secondary school) and a guy my age. Caught attention means got noticed lah not until these people want to flirt with me okay (gotcha again!). I think I get noticed pretty easily 'coz I'm the only gal who practically swims 20 laps non-stop alone and I think I do a pretty good breastroke (ahem, this is bragging...). Pretty mysterious because there hasn't been other serious solo women and pretty cocky 'coz I never smile. Okay, so I don't have the looks, who knows I have a great bod or what! There I go again, bragging.... (please excuse me today as I'm in the mood to spill all). Also, please note that all this could just stem from my imagination when the guys could actually be treating me just like any other person of whom you'll like to make friends with.

So, what's the story, huh? Well, I'm a very cruel and mean person. As you all know, I hardly really get interested in the opposite sex. So, I did not extend my friendliness far - just politely answering questions and having those normal chats. For the old guy (I think he's going 40!), I really like to get a distance from him (you see how bad I am). It is because he likes to talk and all I wanna do is swim. But if I'm like really nuts into getting married - I might be a little bit nicer. Hah. 'Coz he's rich - quality manager at some factory and he's from Turkey (quite handsome for his age). Oops. He's a Muslim.

So, whatever it is, I think one of the reasons why I swim non-stop is because I want to avoid him. But I'm glad that I haven't bump into him for quite some time (I avoid afternoon swims and try to switch to morning).

Mmm... I thought I must be getting pretty old to only strike an interest in an old guy and this did affect my self esteem. But luckily someone else neutralize the feeling. Thanks to a young man or "boy". He's those Chinese minded teenage guys (quite good looking) and I found a difficulty talking to him as he couldn't understand the mixed rojak language I use - Cantonese plus a dash of English. Asking me to teach him how to swim and which school I'm studying at. Wah, now that's a great compliment. And I saved him a great deal of effort because I killed his "flirt" right away because I didn't want him to waste his time. Told him I was pretty old - already working plus sudah keluar dari university and let his mind calculate how old I am. It worked coz after that he already pergi "kacau" perempuan lain! Anyhow, I hope to see him again 'coz he's a nice chap and I admire his courage in striking up a conversation with me.

As for the guy my age, well it was yesterday case when I was practicing backstroke and he practically bumped into me (not me bump into him because I memang tak dapat nampaklah). This one, I dunno whether good-looking or not because only in goggles. He says sorry and mentions I come to the pool often. For me, like I said, I'm pretty mean, I just say no problem it's alright, yeah I do visit the pool often and mentions I need to continue swimming. And that was it.

Hah. Gotcha right? You thought it was big juicy story but it turned out quite watery. But it's still a story which I want to kay poh to you - maybe it will put a smile on your face.

Actually, the moral of my story here today is never give up something you like and don't think you can't do it when you haven't tried hard enough. Maybe most of you already have a similar story like mine. If that's so, great!

Regards,
Li Li