Long locks

I am being ridiculous, I know, as I embark, yet again, on trying to grow my hair out.

When I told my charming housemate of my new great life ambition, he said, matter-of-factly, "You'll look like Ting Tong."

Ting Tong is a short, bald, overweight British man dressed as a Thai mail-order bride, off the hugely acclaimed Little Britain series. Ting Tong looks like this:


Pish. I won't look like Ting Tong. I won't even be growing my hair out that long!

The reason(s) for this deep and profound, life-changing decision is only because
1) I'm tired of waking up every morning and finding my short hair in a total state of disarray.
2) I fancy a boy who told me, in passing, that I should grow my hair out. "It'll be nice!" he said, smilingly.

Actually, it's mostly the second reason and yes, yes, I know how juvenile it all sounds. The very feminist part of me has given a nasty glare, crossly folded her arms and stormed, cursing, out of the room.

But the boy is a special one and I'm going to give this long-locks thing a go for the sake of Harlequin romance and true-love-forever-and-ever. The worse that could happen is I look crap and get mistaken for Ting Tong's twin - nothing that a pair of sharp scissors and wonderful Emil The Stylist at The Met couldn't fix.

Back to reality

I am back in KL now and, in spite of the heat and the jetlag, find myself typing furiously to meet a tomorrow-deadline for an article. There's nothing quite like adrenaline and deadlines to keep the mind and heart alert. I shall rest when I'm dead, as Rinpoche often cites!

There is plenty to catch up on, including a fabulous launch and tremendously glamourous photographs of me looking like a strawberry meringue. I am ashamed that I turned Bill Keith's wondrous creation into looking nothing less of a pavlova. Those photos will be up shortly, once I finish this other article.

I miss London already. There's this funny thing where every time I have ever gone to London, it has been sunny. Even the photos of me as a baby in London were always sunny. I have this magical impression that London is always picnic-weather and people-in-the-park afternoons.

Over the last fortnight, I have imagined myself many times living in a house with big bay windows and Tricia Guild curtains and felt sad that I wouldn't be staying there for more than two weeks.

Isn't it odd how we allow ourselves to dream up grass-is-greener pictures in our heads. I had wash over my nice mental canvas with the reality of rain, damn weather and having to trek through public transport in the middle of dreariness. That made me feel much better.

I think it is also because London contains within it, all the beautiful people that I spent my most fun-filled days with. The gorgeous gay boys that I clubbed with until ridiculous hours of the morning, the silly frilly girls that I swapped boy stories with and everyone in between that I spent only happy moments with (most of it alcohol induced, but happy, nevertheless). When I think of London, I think of everything dizzy and entertaining - the kind of hedonistic, decadent lifestyle that would beckon any girl away from the Responsibilities Of Life and into the very throes of fun and fancy.

Back to reality, now. Snap.

I have to remind myself that no, you shan't find ever-lasting happiness in a vodka bottle. And you know what, all those university pals have also grown up and got a life now. They're not still living in some funny faraway past of student club nights and discount cards. London may have stayed still for you, my dear, but it has moved on for them: they have proper jobs now, and commitments and such.

I hate growing up. Really I do.

But we must trundle on, musn't we? And I still have this article to plough through.

London: The most gorgeous book launch of the year

Oh my! Well, did you know a book launch could be so splendid!

Thanks to the super kindness and support of Joan and Terry Mahony, who so kindly hosted the evening, KMP held it's first international book launch today. We brought the revised edition of Gurus for Hire, Enlightenment for Sale to the world today at the very beautiful, cosmopolitan heart of the exclusive Cadogan Gardens, just off Sloane Square.


The event saw almost 80 people at the lovely venue all of whom lent great support to our newest title. The launch was well received by a broad section of society, ranging from corporate heads to philantropists to students and international journalists.

Among the vast and varied guest list were Martin Barrow, Francois de Witt and France Berveiller Choa, who so kindly gave endorsements for the book and had flown into London especially for the launch; shoe god Dato' Jimmy Choo; the Malaysian High Commissioner's press officer, Revi Pillai; Mr and Mrs MacKay from the Kensington Palace and The Star's London correspondent Choi Tuck Wo, who also interviewed members of KMP and Tsem Ladrang for a feature that he will be doing about the book and launch.


The venue was all filled with gorgeousness. It was like Alice in Wonderland grew up, got sophisticated and decorated this little space with everything beautiful she'd ever seen. Our very own Bill Keith turned every corner into something magical, marrying candles, flowers and Buddha statues with the uber-luxe, rich, candle-lit interiors of the rooms. Tsongkhapa, Tara, Heruka - they were all there with us to celebrate this new wave of blessings in Londontown, and beyond!

And the icing on the cake? As if the room wasn't filled with enough splendidness, KMP girls and our most fashionable, most darling Liaison Ruby Khong charmed every person in the room when they showed up in Bill's stunning, award-winning creations - traditional kebayas with cute, modern twists and lots and lots of cheeky sheerness. Sexy, subtle, professional, beautiful - what's not to love about Kechara's daring twists in their Dharma work hehe!


We all turned heads, and almost all the guests came up to tell us how absolutely-fabulous-darling, we looked!.One of the guests of the party even commented to Susan that she was very surprised to see how "normal" we looked. She was amazed that we were so well-dressed yet so spiritual at the same time. (I especially love the word "normal", as if spiritual people are supposed to be odd and dress hideously).


Our-Kindest-Most-Fabulous-Ever adviser Joan gave Just-As-Fabulous speech which introduced Rinpoche, Dharma and her work with KMP to all her friends. Though the speech was short, Joan was full of laughter and that special energy that can come only from her deep and wonderful commitment to bringing the joy of Rinpoche's teachings to others. Her concluding line - "Never say you can't, because that isn't the real you speaking" - brought everyone in the room back to the heart of Rinpoche's teachings: to be the best person you can be.

Head Ladrang Liaison, JP Thong, then also delivered a speech to give a brief introduction to Rinpoche and his teachings. Drawing on personal experiences, JP especially shared how he and Ladrang Associate Liaison/ Director of Fundraising May Phng were both inspired to commit to working with Rinpoche, to bring Dharma to the world.

Nobody left the evening without a giant smile, plenty of happy hugs and a "Gurus for Hire" goodie bag that contained within a biography of Rinpoche and a beautifully-framed quotation, extracted from the book. Little pieces of Enlightenment are now flying around London and, we hope, uplifting hearts. Here's to many more book launches to go global!

In line with the global launch in London, Gurus for Hire, Enlightenment for Sale is now available at all Kechara outlets in KL, kechara.com/eShop, amazon.com, gardners.com and barnesandnoble.com amongst others so do get your copy now now now now now! If you do, I'll give you a kiss for free.

PS Many more photos-full-of-loveliness to come soon. Our very lovely photographer for the day, Pete Biggs (the bestest friend a girl could have at university!) so so so kindly offered to photographer the event pro bono, and even stayed back extra late to take as many photos as possible. He'll prepare and pass over the photos for me soon.

London vs Kathmandu?

There's this funny thing, see, because I think I've decided that I'd actually rather be live in Kathmandu than I would in London.

It's funny because

there is no such thing as central heating in Kathmandu
there's only about 8 hours of electricity a day
it is ridiculously dusty and there are mountains of rubbish on the streets
you can't find anything you need there
there's this big obvious communication problem
I have two friends in Nepal

On the other hand,

there is always central heating in London
there's 24 hours of electricity
there are proper bins and rubbish clearing systems
you can find EVERYTHING you need here, plus more
everybody speaks English (and so do I), yay
I have a million friends in London

But places like London - for all its shinyness and fun - take you away from yourself. All the beautiful things, the splendid bars and their delicious drinks, the gorgeous, immaculate people never make you happy because once you have some of all that, you want more, and then more, and then more, and then more... and when you can't get it, you just make yourself bloody miserable.

In places like Kathmandu, there is nothing. The most exciting thing you could do for yourself for the week is to buy yourself a tub of Pond's face cream. But when there is nothing and you're back to the basics, you suddenly feel happy about everything.

London: Setting up the KMP Booth

Finally, we're here!!!!! The LONDON BOOK FAIR 2009 at Earl's Court!


The whole team popped by the venue on Saturday afternoon to set up our booth. After many, many months of preparing, blood, sweat, tears and almost-but-not-quite wanting to cry, we are here! It's certainly a far way we've come from the tiny local book fairs we used to do back at home.....

KMP Liaisons Susan and Sharon, and KMP Adviser Joan sure are relieved and glad that we're FINALLY HERE! Woot!

While we're here, I'd like to note that Joan and her husband Terry Mahony very, very kindly sponsored our booth and expenses for the fair and launch in London. They are also hosting the team at their home for the whole duration of the fair and Joan has been exceedingly generous. We are here with the big boys, in the heart of one of the world's greatest publishing capitals thanks to the incredible generosity and kindness of the Mahonys. Thank you Joan and Terry for this wonderful contribution to bringing Dharma to the world!

Setting up the booth. Yes, it's not that big... but that's all the more reason for making sure it looks fab!

Bills kicks all of us disaster-stylists out and does his magic...

... and how cosy and magical it looks! This isn't the finished job. We'll be back tomorrow to put up posters and images to beauty it up!

For now, our book display looks super. Aren't we unique and cute!

The team with our booth (we're all bigger than the booth but we're mighty, mighty proud to even be here). Watch us grow - one day, we'll take up half the hall!

London: The very efficient workshop and warehouse in King's Road

Days and nights in Joan's very splendid flat in Chelsea have been well used for creating everything beautiful for our upcoming launch on the 21st.

Honestly, if you left any of the KMP goblins to this, the best we'd probably be able to come up with is some very ugly papier mache. Bill Keith to the rescue! Everything that looks good on this entire two-week trip is thanks to Bill who has been extra, extra creative in helping us get things done and making things look even more beautiful than they already are!!!

Here's the team preparing goodie bag gifts - a gorgeous mahogany-coloured frame, encasing selected, inspirational quotes from the book Gurus for Hire, Enlightenment for Sale. We do NOT look like grotty sweatshop coolies.

Bill has also helped to creating gorgeous frames of stunning photos of Rinpoche to be put up on the day of the launch. Artist friend of Joan's, Julian Barrow, very kindly lent us antique frames to put everything up and it looks just so so so so so so soooo amazing.

No job to little or too big: Everyone pitches in, in some way to help with preparings. Even Joan takes time off her busy schedule to help with preparing hanging wires for the frames! (and Sio Chian looks extremely happy about something or other)

Bill and Yek Yee do very complicated errr measurements and stuff to get everything just right.

Okay, well, maybe not quite the beautiful artwork we were looking for, Bill.....

Done! A splendid masterpiece!

London: A Chelsea Dinner Party

Joan - our very splendid KMP adviser and extremely generous and super super kind host for our trip - very kindly organised and hosted a super dinner party for all the KL-Kechara group, the London-Kechara folk and a very, extra special guest, Jimmy Choo!

Poor Joan and Bill spent all afternoon slaving away in the kitchen to cook up a gigantic feast. Joan shared that they wished to dedicate all the effort in the kitchen towards the success of KSK - that the soup kitchen back home will feed many, many hundreds more people in the future! See, even a dinner party can be done out of a pure and lovely wish to really benefit others. Everything begins with a thought, after all.

Preparing all the deliciousssshhhh food hand-prepared by Joan

Meeting the ever-respected and God of Shoe Jimmy Choo was especially exciting for every woman (and fashionable man) in the room! And he's as lovely as the boootiful shoes he creates! Liaisons had the opportunity to talk to him a bit about Kechara and what we're doing in London. Having come from a Taoist/Buddhist background, Jimmy was interested to hear of our Dharma work.

KMP Liaison Susan Lim shares Gurus for Hire, Enlightenment for Sale with Dato Jimmy Choo

Of course, no party is ever complete with our lovely Apprentice Liaison Bill Keith!

Ladrang Liaisons JP and May arrived today, as fresh and bright-eyed as you can be after a 14hour flight! Lily and Keng Nam of the London Group were here with their London ducklings Jean Ai and Kelly and his girlfriend, Souad. They've all be super helpful to us throughout this trip and many things would not have been possible without them!...

Hence the occasion to toast their contribution and thank everyone involved!

Chillin' with the London Group

London: KMP visits the Thames Buddhist Vihara

Really, you do find the loveliest surprises in London! There is plenty of the glitz, glamour and the shinest of samsara here in London, but there are also pockets of spirituality and smiles from the Three Jewels.



On Day 4 here (Friday), Susan, Han and I made our way down to the Thames Buddhist Vihara. My parents have been friends with this Sri Lankan monk, Venerable Somaratana, for 31 years and KMP decided to pay him a visit to say hello, make some offerings and donate some of our books to his centre.


We traipsed our way on buses, trains and more buses on the dreariest of English mornings to East Croydon where we received a very warm welcome from Venerable in his small suburban centre. After making offerings of flowers, lots and lots of delicious M&S goodies and Rinpoche's books (Gurus for Hires, Face of Enlightenment and If Not Now, When?), Venerable spent some time talking with us in the main gompa of their centre. The centre even prepared a wonderful vegetarian lunch for us which we gobbled like attached and greedy girls.


Venerable shared a lot about his experiences in setting up and maintaining a centre in London and what he had to go through in the past 30+ years. It was very touching to hear what he had to go through. In short, dear lovely everyone, it is exactly the same struggles and difficulties that Rinpoche has been recounting to us for years. The same monster students exist everywhere in the world! Venerable has been a monk since he was 10 years old and has been in London since the late 1970s. He has also set up an orphanage, library and temple in Sri Lanka - the funds he manages to raise from his centre London go back towards supporting all this in Sri Lanka. He shared with us that although it is difficult, we "must sacrifice our lives for others."


Gurus for Hire, Enlightenment for Sale was the perfect book to share with their centre. The experiences and struggles of teachers and Dharma centres which Rinpoche has often explained to us is experienced everywhere in the world, whatever tradition they are from. Truly, how kind the Lamas are for never giving up on any of us and putting up with all this for others everywhere!

We left with big boxes of Ceylon tea that Venerable packed us off with, warmth in our hearts and the knowledge that the only way we can make the work of kind teachers like Venerable "easier" is to commit as much of our work and life to the Dharma as he had. And how lucky we are to have a Lama back home to show us how.