Had a bad night of sleep last night. I was exhausted, but I kept waking up in the middle of the night. And for some strange reason, the term “MgCl2″ kept coming to my head.

In case you were wondering, MgCl2 is the chemical symbol for Magnesium Chloride. I’ve been in the lab all week doing experiments with the students.

Oh. And some idiot has given me some missed calls (I was not there to pick up the phone), so I when I finally called him back, he demanded, “Who are you looking for?” in Cantonese. When I tried to explain that he called me and I was merely returning the call, he hung up on me instead. What an idiot! And it’s not like he called me only once. He called twice today and once yesterday. Bodoh, kan? His number is 016-2228790. I’m putting this here as a reminder to me.

So, Teacher’s Day is next week.

1. I love dark chocolate. The darker the better. I prefer those with AT LEAST 70% dark chocolate. Anything less doesn’t qualify as dark. But, NO FERRERRO ROCHER, PLEASE!! That’s my least favourite chocolate brand. Seriously!
2. If you think I deserve something more intellectual, book vouchers would be great!
3. Have I mentioned how I like photography? I could do with some new lenses to go with my Nikon D60. Or one of those LED flashes.
4. My videocamera is dying on me. It’s been having problems for a while, and now the lens holder at the camera is getting loose (as in, it seems like it’s going to fall off my videocamera). I actually sent it in to fix a while back, and obviously it wasn’t a good job. Sigh… what to do, it’s a Sony. I really could do with one of those new HDD HD videocameras.
5. I’ve never been to Club Med before, would love to go there…

*Hint hint*

I got tagged in Facebook for this. It’s really cute. I took liberties with some of the real/middle/first name thing though to get a “cooler” name… hahaha.

1. YOUR REAL NAME:
Hoo Sze Yen

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle).
Szeizzle [gosh, how do you pronounce this?]

3. YOUR SPY NAME: (favorite colour and favourite animal).
Purple Dolphin [now THIS is cool!!]

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name and street you live on/or neighborhood if it’s a number).
Sze Taman Megah [how unglamorous!!!]

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, and first 2 letters of your first name).
HooYe or YeHoo. Take your pick.

6. YOUR SUPERHERO/CRIMINAL NAME: (your 2nd favorite colour, and favourite drink).
Blue Milo

7. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, 1st letter of your last name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, and 3rd letter of your dads).
Zohwk [If I add the "!" in front, will it sound cooler? !Zohwk!]

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents middle names).
Hokswee [still sounds Chinese]

9 . YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets).
Black Kimoputih

10 . YOUR HOOD NAME: (first 3 of your first name, and add -iqua).
Yeniqua

[This was taken from my Notes in Facebook. Too good not to share on my blog ]

Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s supposedly because I want to know more about you, but I don’t really mind if you don’t do this note; so it’s more like I’m tagging you because I want you to know these 25 random things. Anyway, most of you’d already know most of these 25 not-entirely-random things about me.

And the main reason I’m doing this is because I got tagged by 2 people (curse you, Lyn Li and Sean. Ok not really, I love you two too) and this note is way overdue. I was supposed to complete it before the Internet became obsolete. It?s not obsolete yet (at least, I hope not) so I?m still early. In a manner of speaking.

If you do decide to this list too, remember to tag me!

1. I am an adrenaline junkie. I’ve tried bungee jumping, tandem skydiving, Zorbing, surfing, skiing and snowboarding. Dying to try paragliding, hanggliding, and those crazy roller-coasters in Disneyland. Name me an insane adrenaline-kicking activity, and I’ll be the first to sign up.

2. I love dancing. Really, really love dancing. I would like to try every dance form just once, if possible – with the exception of breakdancing and the Melbourne shuffle. But I can’t really dance to save my life.

3. …. and yet I like going for dance competitions. As in competing in them, not just watching them. It’s that adrenaline rush, I suppose.

4. I love dark chocolate. The darker the yummier. Other chocolates (milk choc, white choc) are also good, but I LOVE dark chocolate.

5. …. but I can’t stand cheapo chocolates, especially those horrible cheap fake-tasting things they sell to kids. And I don’t like Ferrerro Rocher.

6. I’m always late. I have to make a conscious effort if I ever want to be early. Tardiness seems to be part of my DNA.

7. I hate it when people try to tell me what to do, in the everyday sense. Oh, I can take instructions from my superiors and clients; that’s different. But I mean when people tell me, “You should do this…” as if they know so much more than me. There’s only one person I can take this from, and it’s not my mom, and it’s certainly not you. [The one who is, well you know who you are :-* <3 ]

8. I always like to finish what I start, in a very complete sense. If I?m taking up a course, I would try if possible to go through the entire course from beginner all the way to advanced.

9. I can?t speak any Chinese language or dialect. Enough maybe to order food, but not enough to carry on a meaningful conversation.

10. I have a civil engineering degree. But right now I?m a Science teacher in a private high school, and on the side I do website design. And prior to teaching, I was working in the IT line for a few years.

11. I?m a very technical person. I usually drive a lot of people nuts by talking about angles and parallel lines, and relate everything back to Physics as much as possible. In fact, I even look at dancing as one big Math problem (which is why I remember dance steps so well. Weird but true).

12. I?m a gadget geek!!! I love computers and the Internet. And other things with bits of electronics in them. I spend most of my money on things like computers, cameras, and the like. And I don?t like going into IT shops because I?ll be seeing too many things I want to buy but can?t afford to

13. And unlike most girls, I don?t like shopping or window shopping. I don?t like going into store after store to look for pretty clothes or just to try things on. Whenever I go shopping, I typically have a shopping list or know exactly what I need to buy, and I make a beeline for those items.

14. I don?t like my hair because it?s frizzy and wild and so hard to manage. But yet I wouldn?t trade it for anything else. I would never straighten my hair or go for a permanent perm.

15. Bad spelling drives me nuts. Bad grammar I can live with (provided I understand what’s trying to be said), and typos are forgiveable but I can’t stand bad spelling. I’ll be itching to circle the misspelt words with a thick red marker pen.

17. I love reading!! I like curling up in bed or on the couch with a really good book. Some of my favourite authors include Terry Pratchett, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Roald Dahl. And yes I also read Harry Potter.

18. … but I DON?T like reading romance novels and chick lits. And I?m proud to say that I?ve never read any. *pats self on back*

19. I?ve got scoliosis. Yeah, that was random (it IS supposed to be 25 random things). If you don?t know what that is, look it up. And I?ve also got flat feet, which is a killer when I try to walk for a long time, plus it makes dancing much harder.

20. I don?t watch much TV. But I do have a few favourite series, including Bones and Heroes. But I don?t watch them on the telly. I erm, have other sources (not stating them in case the Internet police clamp down on me).

21. I actually don?t like dressing up. I?m most comfortable in a T-shirt, sweat pants, and sports shoes.

22. I?m not the type who can sit still. I like to be doing something all the time. Idleness drives me nuts.

23. I don?t believe in ?dieting?. I have never dieted or starved myself in a bid to achieve ?beauty?. When I put on weight, I usually go, ?Oh well.? And somehow that extra weight usually goes off by itself eventually.

24. I can say the alphabet backward. And no, I never practised. It’s just that I know the position of each letter in the alphabet without much effort; name me a letter and I can tell you which letters come before and after it without much thought. One day I decided to test myself and found that I could rattle the alphabet from Z to A without pausing much. I think it’s because I saw the alphabet as a big Math problem. Yeah yeah, I’m weird that way.

25. By the way, did anyone notice I skipped #16? Waahaahaa….

I’ve been dancing almost every night since Tuesday. Come Sunday, I’d have danced for 6 days straight. If I danced on Monday, it’d be a full week.

Tuesday : I went for Bronya’s Freestyle-in-Line CD1 class (yes, I’m starting from beginner again!!!) after school from 5 to 6.30pm. We’ve finished learning her choreography to Lady Marmalade. Then I went for the swing dance session at Aliyaa from 8pm-11+pm.

Erm. Nearly died on Wednesday. By Wednesday evening, I could barely concentrate on teaching my class. Hahaha.

Wednesday: Was supposed to go for salsa at Aliyaa with my sister, but at the last minute she decided against it because she said she had work the next day. Sigh! I already made Adam promise to go there, so I went alone. But first I joined Bronya’s line dance class until 10pm, before going over to Aliyaa to check out the salsa scene. Was there till just before midnight.

Thursday: Had dance classes in the morning with Bronya again. Joined her Freestyle-in-line CD3 and CD4. Good God, having slept late the night before, I had to force myself to wake up early. Actually when I woke up early, I felt fine. But as the morning wore on, I got sleepier and sleepier

Thursday night saw me at Shall We Dance studio for a swing dance workshop and practice session, again until 11+pm!

Friday: Salsa night! Was at the Salsa Cruise Asia event at Salsa Havana, Federal Hotel with my sister and Adam. I must say that the bartenders were terrible. We ordered 3 drinks, and were supposed to get 3 drinks free. Adam ordered a lime juice, I ordered a virgin lemonade, and my sister ordered a Mojito. Our free drinks could only be alcoholic, but Adam couldn’t take alcohol, so we ordered 2 more Mojitos (for my sister) and I ordered a rum and coke.

The bartender took forever to prepare our drinks, and although I kept going there to ask for our drinks, he kept telling me to wait. I finally got so fed up and a waitress saw me, and she kinda scolded the bartender. And it turns out he ONLY prepared the Mojitos, because it was the common drink of the night. He took a while to prepare the rum and coke, and the virgin lemonade, and promised to send the last drink over later.

Well when we finished all the other 5 drinks, the drink still wasn’t ready. I went over at least 3 times, and each time he asks for “2 minutes”… “5 minutes”… in the end i just stood there and waited because otherwise I’d be a year older and it still wouldn’t arrive. And when he mixed up the drink, it wasn’t even what I ordered. I don’t know what it was (I’m not a fan of alcohol or cocktails) but it was definitely an alcoholic cocktail.

We were so disappointed about the whole thing that we decided to go to Little Havana. Sorry, Tim. Would have liked to stay but we were there for the dancing which didn’t start even though it was already 11pm. (Everyone was initially just standing around even though there was music, and then there were games)

Little Havana had a bit more dancing which was good.

Saturday: I slept the whole day and yet I was still tired by night. Saturday night was Havana Estudio’s studio party. And when I got there, I am shocked to say this, but… I was tired of dancing. I did enjoy the few rounds of salsa I had. But I can’t believe I’m already getting tired of salsa.

OK, I’m not a very good salsa dancer. Largely because I never took lessons. This salsa party is only my 4th salsa night (in two weeks!), and so far I’ve just been picking up steps on the floor, mostly by Adam who goes for lessons. Good thing is I’m able to follow most of the leads, and whatever I don’t know, I… bluff my way through. Convincingly. Some people don’t even believe that I never took classes. Hahahahahahaha!!! But after a while I guess I’m tired of doing the same steps again and again, even though I’m dancing with different male leads. I think this is largely due to (1) my being a level zero (not even beginner!!!) so they don’t try steps that are too advanced with me, and (2) they all learn from the same teachers (Sam & Aisha at Havana Estudio) so they all know the same steps.

Perhaps I ought to take lessons. That might challenge me and make me improve and maybe make me like salsa a bit more.

On the other hand, I’m kinda picking up salsa on the floor so rather reluctant to pay for classes. Yes yes I’m a cheapskate but can’t afford that many dance classes on my poor pitiful teacher’s salary, OK.

And one thing I observed. In open social parties like at Little Havana, guys are more willing to dance with girls that they don’t know, whether or not the girls are good dancers. But at the studio party, well, the guys tend to just ask the girls they do know, especially their classmates. Me being an outsider meant that I didn’t get to dance much. Which was fine because I was “a bit sick of salsa” anyway. But the studio party showed me how clique-ish people could get. I guess it’s because they only want to dance with good dancers or people who know the steps. I don’t know why. To show off to their other classmates? To show off to their teachers?

Ooh one thing to add. During the dance, when we were supposed to do “shines”, I don’t know any of the shines that everyone else learnt, so I usually make up my own stuff. Hahaha. Interestingly a few people said, “I noticed your hiphop moves!” Erm. I never thought they were hiphop moves. I don’t even hiphop. I’d call them “freestyling attempt at salsa to cover up the fact I don’t know how to do shines”. Hahahahahaha!!!

If I’m gonna continue salsa, I’d probably just stick to the open socials for now.

I must say. I’m looking forward to my morning freestyle class on Sunday. At least it’s different from swing or salsa!!!