1. For generation Lady Gaga, I still if not only listen to mellow rock music from 1996 to 2002. Lotsa Radiohead pre-Kid A, Silverchair, Alanis, Bush, Third Eye Blind, Travis, Lifehouse..
2. For fun, I actually play a lot of a little bit of guitar.
3. For a new-age housewife, I actually cook EVERY lunch and dinner for my husband on weekdays. How else can I make sure the food that is going to be our flesh and blood is prepared using organic if not the freshest of ingredients, made with love and cruelty-free?
4. For English as my second language, I kickass at Scrabble. Okkk, I actually memorize all two-letter words and errr, most pages of Official Scrabble Dictionary.
5. For a small girl, I drive a pretty mean machine.
6. For an Asian, I don’t condone whitening anything. My sporty tan is a hit in North America!
7. For a Malay, I don’t eat any type of meat / poultry. For that matter, I have also long stopped wearing leather handbags / footwear.
8. For the betterment of my integrity and yoga practice, I don’t endorse and wear three-stripes anymore.
9. For a tiny person, I am stronger than you can ever imagine. (Although) for a yoga teacher, I am not as flexible as you think I am and I’d like to be.. But I take strength and balance over flexibility any day!
10. For what it’s worth, I don’t believe in (going to the) doctors. Our body is built to heal ourselves when we reflect, acknowledge and meditate. Everytime. Everyday.

Now, tell me what should I know about you

Sorry girls ..

• either leave all my material possesions and emotional baggage behind to live in Shanghai for a year
• OR, live my ultimate dream of working for my idol, my teacher and my mentor – Rainbeau Mars in LA

to fulfil an unfinished family duty I should have gotten my hands on a long time ago.

.   .   .   .   .   .

With all that I am allowed want to share,

I now

• have a 9 to 5 job as well
• am madly in love

AND just surprised that with the expected routine (and town driving!) I am starting to enjoy, I now have more time for my personal Ashtanga practice every evening and to pick up old hobbies i.e painting and playing guitar (promise you wouldn’t boo if I uploaded my video?) and to try my hands on new hobbies such as tennis and cooking.

With my head clear and the free time I have at night and on weekends (who would have thought, eh?), I plan to take up

• martial arts
• ballroom dancing (if Petrovsky succumbs)
• and Mandarin lessons – anyway!

and at least have mastered the basics before 2010 ends.

Oh – and maybe make a cute Eurasian baby i-n-b-e-t-w-e-e-n should the world decide to end in two years , I’d have fulfilled what I am brought in this life for.

‘Go down to go up, in to go out, back to go forward’

To another seven days of delicious surprises.

As much as I feel good about my body and loving (almost) everything I see in the mirror – I have insecurities about my body too, trust me!

While I think I look better without clothes (who else will say that about my body, right ?), I can’t help but to feel like giving up TOO whenever I come across this beautiful set of low-key studio photos of LA yoga teacher / arm balancing rockstar  Kathryn Budig by photographer Jasper Johal for Toesox.

Heck I’d pose with nothing but engineered socks too if I looked like THAT!

And so to regain my confidence (you know how it feels like when people say you look so fit but you feel sooooo fat), I checked back my Asana studio photoshoots done with a couple of photographers some time ago posing almost unintendedly similar poses!

1st & 2nd photo by Napie Moksin, top & pants by adidas for Stella McCartney;
3rd photo by Joe Low, top by adiShe & pants by adidas Techfit Powerweb

Ok ok, I take that back.

I forgot that I love my body and what I can do with it but I (like, really) hate my STRETCHMARKS!

..outside of a coffee shop,

.. and everything around me screams orange,

With tulips and..

funny-looking chocolate everywhere,

and asked myself, how in the world did I end up in..

Amsterdam today!

My infamous blog before this, The Yoga Instructor Diaries gained quite a number of daily visitors back then especially during the yoga fatwa fiasco and I cashed in lotsa money from high traffic & advertorials from Nuffnang.

Not this much money though.

So when Nuffnang’s David Wong broke the news “Ninie, how would you like to be one of the bloggers for Project Alpha Season 2?”, I went, “Eh, do I even have anyone reading my new blog at all?”

Sweet David replied, “Of course, we shortlist only our highest rated bloggers for Project Alpha, you know!”

ME? In the same league with Kenny Sia and Cheesie? And Shaolin Tiger? And KY Speaks? And Red Mummy? And XIAXUE?

Yoga-ta be kidding me!

.   .   .   .   .   .

So if you asked me last year, does Ninie Ahmad prefer to be known as The Blogger Who Teaches Yoga or The Yoga Instructor That Blogs,

I am positive I would have answered the latter (with a smirk).

“I’m still, I’m still Ninie from the blog.. Used to have a little now I have a lot (visitors, thank you ALL OF YOU!)”

But if you ask me again now – after the whole Project Alpha experience, I have to say I really don’t mind am honoured being known as a (known?) blogger.

I might be teaching yoga to 3 or 30 students in one yoga class, but I am pleased to know that – I might be teaching yoga to 300 if not 3000 (on really good days ) through this cyberspace.

My endless gratitude to sponsors of Project Alpha

Main Sponsor : Adidas Action 3
Official Broadband Sponsor : P1
Official Flight Sponsor : Malaysia Airlines
Official Cosmetics Sponsor : Rimmel
Official Hair & Make Up Sponsor : A Cut Above
Official Media Partner : Hitz FM & Era FM
Official Social Networking Site : Ruumz
Hotel Sponsors : 360Kuching & Millennium Hotel Group
Online News Portal : The Daily Chilli

for the experience of a lifetime and to Nuffnang especially for seeing it in me.

.   .   .   .   .   .

Stay tuned for my episodes of Project Alpha (which might have Henry Golding in them!) in my next entries.