On the up: Rinpoche!
On the down: His illness

We all went out to play on Friday night with the Buddhas!

I had just finished eating my very healthy dinner of roast chicken and steamed fish when I got a phone call from Beng. "Rinpoche would like to invite you out to eat Mexican. We're going to town!"

Two things always happen when I'm invited to go out with Rinpoche:
1) I am on a diet and am trying not to eat, but we will, always, inevitably, end up going out for really evil, nasty, DELICIOUS fatty food
2) My hair is an oil bomb because I hadn''t washed it that day

That day, I was
1) on a diet but would not be able to get out of eating delicious Mexican food
2) very very oily

But never mind, the Buddhas are compassionate!

Then BK told me that I'm supposed to drive Rinpoche that night which of course is totally scary because I keep bashing up my car and I'm the worst driver in KL and when you're driving around someone-no-quite-so-ordinary, you sure as hell better not go anywhere near bashing up anything. Also, my car was starting to look like the insides of Joe's old Kelisa, what with the piles of snotty tissues, old water bottles and enough supplies to keep me alive for a month.

We traipsed into town and I didn't get a single scratch. Rinpoche, the rest of the troop and I arrived unscathed and healthy!

We went into Times, where David, JJ and I crowded around the Buddhist book section and talked very, very loudly about JUST HOW GREAT Tsem Tulku Rinpoche's books were. There was a lady who was trying to browse books there and we stood all over here, passing KMP's books back and forth and making lots of noise.

Then, Rinpoche came up to us when the lady left and told us how crap our acting actually was. Oops.

It was still early, so we raided Parkson and looked at very beautiful work satchels. Rinpoche got JJ and I modelling lots of very lovely leather work bags and we looked HOT, baby!

Eventually, he told us that he wanted to buy those bags for us (and for Sharon), as a gift for our work for the Coffee Table Book. I CONFESS! I totally had my heart set on the bag already because I knew knew knew it would just look so so so perfect with my brand new shoes and my new grown up, working wardrobe. So when he offered the bag to me, I just sort of stood there and looked dumb and ridiculous, and totally unshocked, like I had expected it, which is partly true, but very embarrassing. And as the Buddhas are always perceptive, he knew straight away that all my shock was all feigned. EXPOSEE - I really am a materialistic, greedy monster.

As we went to pay for the bags though, Rinpoche reminded us again of this totally wonderful meditation to do where all beautiful things are visualised as offerings to the Buddhas - to cut our material attachments, and to generate the motivation that all we use may be to benefit others through our spiritual work.

See, even a beautiful leather bag can be Dharma!

To celebrate all things weird and wonderful, and the VERY FANTASTIC COFFEE TABLE BOOK, we went off to eat at the crazy new Mexican place down at Pavilion. Poor old Rinpoche got harrassed and picked up on again by some strange bald dude who started telling him his whole great philosophy of life. JJ and I were thinking, Well at least he gets picked up! We try everything also cannot! hah!

At some point, we realised just how obvious David's nipples were showing through his very transparent Transformers tshirt. It was like roadkill, you couldn't HELP BUT NOTICE. I had to tell him eventually, "David, you know you can REALLY see your nipples." Aiyo Poor David lah, he can be SO CUTE when he wants to be, currently is not quite so.

At some other point, Rinpoche pointed out how JJ and I looked like a couple, at which point we looked at each other and screamed quitely in our heads. I pulled a face and said, "But but but that's so INCESTROUS, Rinpoche!"

He said, "No! I'm not asking you to sleep with him! I'm just saying you look like you could be a couple."

JJ and I still silently screamed.

We were all bouncy bouncy fun fun fun, so after gobbling, we squeezed in a movie. Maaaan, this would not be such a big deal if not for the fact that the last time I went to see a movie was Superman (when?! what? Yes my dears, it was that long ago). How exciting it is to go watch a PROPER movie, especially one with the gorgeous Cate Blanchett who is ethereal and beautiful even when she is caked in a million layers of white powder.

After all the glitz and glamour of Pavilion and 17th century Elizabethan extravagance, we went down to schmooze at Jalan Alor - nothing like drinking fizzy artificially flavoured drinks in a greasy oily KFC in the middle of the greasiest, oiliest street in the world. Everyone there looked horribly drunk, or like they were about to snatch your handbag and run away. We also spotted a very pink Russian-ish peroxide-blonde who looked exactly like Paris Hilton.

And before we knew it, adventures with the Buddha were over. It went by *snap* in a flash, and soon it was time to take our inspiration-filled heads home and sleep on our aspirations: because all really feels totally possible after a few hours with Rinpoche, the Buddhas, and all the lights in the world.

No matter how silly, or samsara fun, or crazy it seems, it's all like a little piece of Enlightenment that you take home with you.