#1384.

Rightttt I was down with 38.3 degrees fever last night and not in the best shape right now either ):

Boos must be the contagious virus that Ja passed to Ann and I. Ja was out for a whole week cos she presumably had the weakest body? Hehe. No la kidding. Ann was having fever yesterday too. Poor us.

Anyway, I had 2 cups of liang teh (herbal tea) and 11 hours of good sleep so I'm recovering fast. Thanks daddy! Also, my dearest boyf keeps checking in on me via Whatsapp to make sure I'm ok. Thank you darling (:

Butttt my very idiotic colleague raised his voice at me today. Knn you abnn. I was pretty upset because it was not my fault at all. But I let it go because I know men have their ego and they often like to prove that they are all high and mighty. Oh well bullshit. I don't wanna stress my body further.

Also, I came across this very good read which I thought I'd like to share. It really irks me to see/hear/read bad grammar especially minor ones like "I'm scare".

Read the article here!

#1383.

So you might have heard...

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I booked my tickets to the States!!! *happy dance*


The reason why I wanted to keep a hush-hush was because I was doubtful about the trip. Ever since that fateful day when I mentioned this to my dad, and he didn't object, I'd been thinking about this trip day & night. It was so unreal to me because my dad's never been okay with me going overseas. Especially after my mum passed on and he had to assume full responsibility of me till the day I'm married.

I know it's super tough to be a single parent and raise 2 children so I don't really blame my dad for being so harsh on me.

But sometimes I get super duper stressed up till I cry or get nightmares.

The boyf will never understand the kind of "pressure" I'm going through but I'm glad he tries to listen and sympathizes with me (: Thanks baby.

So... yes I've booked the tickets! So that means the trip is somewhat confirmed. No?

*fist pump!!!* :D

Haven't talked to my dad yet. Just wondering why he didn't see the huge luggage and Natas bag that I brought home. Mhmmm. Ok hope all of you have a good week ahead! X

#1382.

Okay, so I've briefly mentioned (here) that I finally mustered the courage to do something and I really wanna share the good news! Those whom I've met up with recently would have probably heard about it. Tomorrow is THE day. The day for me to confirm it and I'm pretty nervous. I'm just so afraid things don't work out well. Or at the last minute something crops up. It's damn nerve-wrecking like that ):

Boyf says I'm thinking too much.

Oh well, wish me luck! Will update soon!

#1381.

Hello! I'm here to tell you that I've managed to change the whole "open in new browser" / "pop up window" / "bring to another screen" comment box! :D

Because my lazy boyf told me that I've not done much by changing the pop up window into a new page. It still means it will deviate away from the original blog post. He says "can you just put a text box for me to type?"


-___________________-"


Seriously?!


So, being the good girlf that I am, I went to search for html codes that would do what he wants. It's not easy at all lor!!! I finally managed to find a code which is somewhat similar to his request but I have yet to explored the nitty-gritty. Like changing fonts, changing style, changing position, etc.

Shall work on it later! Good night. X

#1380.

Had a good Skype date with the boyf yesterday but it started on a weird note. I'm not sure how to begin but I've been asking myself some questions lately. I don't know how these questions came to mind; probably because we're both busy and when I settle down to reflect at the end of each day, he's not there to talk to me. Somehow I can feel the distance and somehow this distance doesn't affect me as much as before.

It used to be soooo tough because missing the boyf is such a painful thing. Tears never fail to flow down my cheeks every weekend (yes I'm a very emotional person). I still miss him but it's easier now. Maybe these 7 months have got me being used to the physical distance.

Of late, I thought to myself "what if I haven't met Dennis?"

How different would my life be?

I know it's not possible to stop loving a person overnight because love comprises of so much more. It's a really complicated feeling/emotion. But I'm scared my love will diminish ): I seriously don't know why I'm feeling this way. Perhaps it's been smooth-sailing? When I have good or bad news to share, I want him to be the first to know but this is rarely the case now.

Ahhh I think I'm in need of companionship that's why I'm feeling this way. Bad girlf I know.

BUT we've talked through everything and I know I still love my baby lots (: Can't wait for July!!!

P/s. By boyf's request, comments won't open in a new pop up now!

#1379.

Summing up my week with pictures. Yellow nails // masks from Korea // cracked nails. Happy weekend people! X


P.S. Looking forward to Skype date because we didn't get to talk for almost 2 weeks! /:

#1378.

Hello there. Quick updates about the boyf's life because he just updated his blog and I thought I should briefly explain my tweet today. This morning, the boyf told me that he got a towing ticket and illegal parking fine. Honestly, I was pretty upset because I've tried to remind him umpteen times to be careful but he's always getting into "trouble".

After a while, I calmed down because I knew that monetary losses was better than injuries or anything that would hurt him.

Cannot believe his super bad luck with cars ))):

Anyhow, his latest blog post explains everything and I felt that I'd probably wronged the innocent. Maybe it's just his way of arguing his case. Hehe. That sneaky boy is good at negotiations!!!

You can read his blog here: CLICK!

Tomorrow is Friday!! Yay!! Toodles. X

#1377.

Happy Valentine's Day all! May those in love stay blissful and loving always & may those single people get up and mingle! :D

I know a lot of people (single or otherwise) are anti-Valentine these days because of how commercialized this occasion has become. I'm not gonna write about how "you should show your love every day, not just on Valentine's day" blah blah blah.

Going by this logic, there's a lot of other occasions like Teacher's Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day, etc which you should not only wait till that say to show your appreciation.

So. I'm just gonna write in point form my definitions of love (: Enjoy!

Love is,

• Looking at the canvas art (which boyf painted) every night before I sleep and smiling to myself as I do so,
• Respecting and accepting my family even though I may not agree with everything they say,
• Feeling the joy whenever a friend shares a good news,
• In the middle of a Skype session, boyf stops talking and stares and me and says "baby I love you",
• Being a filial daughter; despite how the definition of filial piety has evolved over the years but I'm still stuck in the past,
• A simple text message to show my concern whenever I miss a friend,
• Reminiscing about our first date, first kiss, first overseas trip, and how it all started,
• Empathizing and trying to understand whatever he & he are going through,
• Catching up with old friends over coffee,
• Acting silly and crazy with the boyf & laugh at ourselves afterwards,
• Unconditional care and protection for the family,
• Friends are friends forever.

Scrapped a page for my darling & I hope he likes it! (:

#1376.

I've been sneezing all day - must've caught the flu bug from my baby. Hahaha I don't know how though. Anyway here's a little cute conversation we had today.

Boyf's been away over the weekend for some retreat so we hadn't really talk much. He called me this evening (his Sunday midnight).

B: "Hello baby! I miss you!"

Me: "Hee hello baby. You sound like you have flu."

B: "Ya a little.. sore throat still not well. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day baby!!"

Me: "Oh ya!"

B: "But I didn't buy any gift for you. I also didn't buy flowers for you because they are expensive..." *sheepish laughter*

Hee. I have a silly baby (': Love you lots!

#1375.

Hello Sunday! You've been awesome because I'm in a crazy scrapping mood and I did so much stuff over the weekends! Both digital and actual :D

I've also came across a cool challenge and it seems easy for starters! I've seen many challenges which requires too much technique. I'm still a newbie. Hehe. So here goes, my entry for Digi Dare #263. Hope I get picked!

#1374.

Today's entry shall be on my mini getaway with the boyf to Cameron Highlands! I know it's uber late (9 months overdue *gasp!*) but better late than never. And to make up for the tardiness, I've scrapped them into digital scrap pages for your viewing pleasure! :D

Sadly, I accidentally deleted (almost) all the photos from my SD card, and forgot to do a back-up. Dumb dumb me. I was so devastated; I just sat in front of my camera and cried. Boyf was busy at that moment when it happened so I couldn't call him to whine about it. I just told myself over and over again "the memories stay the memories stay the memories stay". I guess it helped a lot because I calmed down and told myself we'll have plenty more pictures taken together. I'm just upset that we can't look at our beautiful sunrise photos again ):

Anyhow, here's a brief intro:

It was a last minute trip and we bought the coach tickets barely a month before departure. Hence we got lousy coach (no entertainment, wi-fi, nor spacious leg room). It was a terrible 10-hour journey. Thankfully we departed late at night, so most of the time was spent snoozing on the coach.


We departed on Friday the 13th (one day before our first anniversary). At 11.55PM, I turned to the boyf and said "let's countdown to our anni!!" and so we did. I love you dear!

Finally, arrival at Cameron Highlands! The temperature was so low that it felt cooler than the air-con on the coach!

(I can't upload this pic on photobucket and I have no idea why!!!)

After breakfast, the boyf's parents check-in to the hotel and got some rest while the both of us were busy signing up for tour packages. Hehe. First up, the tea plantations and factory visit!

Hahaha pardon my dressing with the head band :P Boyf says I look like a cheena woman ):

I guess since this was a last minute thing and I didn't know how the weather would be like and what we would be doing, hence the shabby attire. Also, I didn't know we wouldn't be checking-in to the hotel upon arrival! I felt like I was touring in my PJs + didn't brush teeth. Hahahaha!!

The tour ended in the late afternoon and we were dead beat! Imagine not getting proper rest overnight in the coach. Had a quick wash up before we headed for early dinner.

His parents recommended the steamboat which was indeed cheap & good! Just when we stepped out, it began pouring. All the better for hot soup! :D

After dinner, we went to the bazaar which spanned across the entire road! It was very much like the pasar malam in Singapore. Boyf bought me a super kawaii strawberry scarf! :D The stalls sell mainly food and strawberry stuff. Cameron Highlands is like a strawberry heaven!!

We bought snacks back to the hotel (omg a vacation is non-stop eating!) and watched Armageddon on tv! I was so tired that I fell asleep and the boyf woke me up at midnight to open our anniversary gifts! Lol he's so cute sometimes.

I was so touched by his gift because he really put in effort to make something! (': OTOH, I just made him a simple card.

The next day, we woke up for breakfast, followed by tea, followed by lunch. Wahahahahaha!! :D

Sadly, photos after this were gone ): Damn sad because we went to pluck strawberries together & visited the cactus farm! And we also went to join the sunrise tour and managed to cuddle on top of a mountain (cos it was freezing cold!!!) and waited for the sunrise.

This is my first sunrise and I must say it was awesome! The sun is literally like an egg yolk and the speed it changes colour and moves up the horizon is amazing! I've never seen anything like that in my life (:

That about sums up my mini getaway! :D

#1373.

Sometimes I wonder what tests God has had for me. I'm not pushing the blame or saying that I'm punished; but rather, I take these obstacles as life challenges. I will learn from them and grow into a better person. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.

Many a times I complain to the boyf that "I don't deserve this" or that "I don't understand why I'm always sticking out like a sore thumb". But today, I finally broke down in front of the one I'm so afraid of. I'm always very cautious about how I behave, what I say, the things I do, in front of him. Mainly because I don't want to let my defense down. I want to put on a front because whenever I try to let loose and be myself, I get negative repercussions.

Today, I cried and sobbed and choked on my words. I finally said what I meant to say all along. I guess the emotions were bottled inside for so long that it felt so easy to let it all out. The words gushed out even before I had time to think.

Surprisingly, he didn't argue with what I said; he simply nodded in agreement. We all know these things take time. We cannot expect changes overnight. It's just that sometimes, I feel that after so much effort I've put into convincing, I cannot get the message across. Or rather, the other party doesn't seem to get it in. It upsets me so much because I cannot get the person I love and care about to agree with me.

I'm glad help is on it's way and we'll see some good in the near future. Slowly but surely. I know we'll all make it some day, somehow.

#1372.

Happy Sunday! :D I'm in a light-hearted mood even though I didn't sleep well. These days I find it hard to fall asleep. Often I'd roll around in my bed thinking of random stuff. Anyhow, a little update about my life.

1. I've met up with my very close friend / IFA and gotten superb financial advice from her. I've also suggested friends to her because I know you would definitely benefit from hearing her out. I'm not liking the social stigma of financial advisors. They are NOT hard-selling insurance agents. But, I've decided it's not worth my effort trying to convince someone otherwise (:

2. I'm trying to re-consider my career choice and would probably move on soon (i.e. later part of this year). There has been an increasing number of young people taking the leap of faith to follow their passion. Do what they like to do, quit their day job, start something, and not regret it ever. I do admire their courage! Unfortunately, I'm not one of those who dare to make the move. But I keep having this strange intuition for the boyf and I. Time will tell (:

Here's sharing an article which sis Noi shared on her blog. Good read!

Why I Told My Daughter to Quit Her Job
Holly Robinson

My daughter called me last night to celebrate her news. "I got the job!" she said. "I'm going to be decorating cupcakes!"

I cheered. My daughter earned an honors degree in Natural Resources from a major university this past May. This is the happiest I've heard her sound in months.

You think that you know where this blog post is going: oh, no, another parent bemoaning the fact that our nation's newly minted college graduates can't find decent jobs! And why wouldn't you think that? New books like Slouching Toward Adulthood: Observations from the Not-So-Empty Nest are rolling off the presses daily to explain the "shocking truth" behind the fact that 5.9 million people between the ages of 25 and 35 are now living with their parents.

But you would be wrong. This is a very different rant.

My daughter is the poster child for why college matters. She went to a decent suburban high school, finished in the top quarter of her class, played varsity sports. Attending a state university allowed her to continue expanding her intellectual and social horizons. She worked closely with researchers in Natural Resources, learned Spanish, studied and worked abroad, explored electives that enriched her perspective. She continually added to her resume, too, always building toward her post-graduation dream of working as a scientist.

She did everything right, and lo and behold, the system worked. She landed a job with a West Coast environmental engineering company that paid her more money than she had ever dreamed of making right out of college. Hurray!

Slowly, though, things unraveled. My daughter loved living near San Francisco, but even on her hefty salary, she could only afford an apartment in a dire section of Oakland, which led to her being caught in the middle of a mini gang shootout. (She has a nasty bullet wound on her car to prove it.) Meanwhile, her spiffy new job bored her, and her bosses were often negative, even mean-spirited.

For months, she stuck it out. Her student loans were about to kick in and this job paid double what any of her friends were making, plus benefits. As time passed, though, my sunny girl grew more despondent. Every day, she dragged herself into work. And, every day, things didn't get better.

She started looking for work. In California, the unemployment rate is dire -- 11.3 percent, compared to 8.6 percent nationwide as of November 2011. One of her job interviews for a coffee company required four different interviews, plus test taking. My daughter got the job and was thrilled, especially because the position includes health benefits. But the pay was abysmal: minimum wage.

Did she really want to leave her posh job for minimum wage? How could she -- a driven student, a hard worker, a young woman who had always set goals and reached them -- possibly justify making that leap?

There wasn't any rational reason for her to quit. But there was every emotional reason to do so.

"Life is too short to be miserable for money," I told her finally. "Just quit. Take the barista job and figure out something else while you're making lattes."

I can hear the gasps of horror from most parents out there. How could I advise my daughter to join the ranks of the marginally employed, after our family invested so much into her college degree?

Easily. College, you see, is not really about preparing you for the job market. It's about gaining the knowledge and skills you need to seize opportunities -- and that includes knowing when to walk away from something that makes you unhappy.

There's a lot of talk these days -- well, all days, I suppose -- about what good it is to get a liberal arts degree, what majors are most likely to lead to the best-paid and most stable careers, and the importance of building your resume while you're in school so that you have an edge when it's time to enter the almighty job race.

That's all true, mostly. Obviously, you have to eat. But maybe the goal of college shouldn't be so closely linked to employment. Actual life isn't that different from the game of Life, in the sense that there's a point where at the start we all have to choose the college path or the career path. You can earn the same money either way, and the same good (or bad) spins on the dial can send you into a tailspin of debt or misery: illness, accidents, divorce, tornadoes taking your house. College is no guarantee that you'll be rich, or even middle class. In fact, there are some arguments that suggest technical training is a better bang for the buck.

(A handy example: my younger brother never finished his four-year college degree, yet he makes ten times more money than my other brother and I do, and we both have master's degrees.)

College, if you're lucky enough to get there, is really about figuring out your friends and your values as well as your dreams for the future. Nobody -- well, almost nobody -- finds a top-paying position right out of college. Most of us have to pay our dues and climb a dozen different career ladders before we find one that has rungs we can reach -- and a place at the top with a view that suits us. If you land that seemingly "perfect" job with a salary worth boasting about, but then you hate it and are afraid to quit, your wings are clipped. That "safe" job will kill your creativity, drown your enthusiasm, and smother your ability to get up in the morning with a bounce in your step. Why stay?

The answer most people give is "fear." We've all heard the unemployment statistics.

But let's turn those around. The unemployment rate is high -- even upwards of 12 percent in certain U.S. cities. But that means that 88 percent of people have jobs. Can they make a living on their wages? That depends on how you define a "living." Maybe you don't need a new car, or a car at all. Maybe you can find a seasonal rental or roommates.

Jobs are like college courses. Each one you take teaches you a set of new skills and offers a fresh perspective on life. They aren't meant to be permanent, most of them. They are only stepping stones.

In my daughter's case, the barista job led her to have enough free hours to do what she really loves: draw comics. She's thinking about publishing her comics online. In her free time, she also happened to stop by a new gourmet cupcake store, where she chatted with the enthusiastic owner and was hired to decorate cupcakes and work the counter. Again, it's not much money, but combined with the coffee place, it's enough for her to scrape by. Meanwhile, she has moved out of Oakland and into an affordable room in a house near the beach in Santa Cruz. She's happily experimenting with cupcake flavors and thinking about helping this new business owner with social media and marketing. She is learning something new every day. Life is good.

When you quit a job, any job, it can be terrifying. But it's also exhilarating, as you open yourself to new possibilities. So go ahead. Take the risk. Quit that job, if you hate it. You might surprise yourself.

**Truly inspiring!

3. Met up with Shingzers last evening for some catching up. Sha's engaged and her wedding is set for end of the year! The twists and turns in life is always unexpected and you never know what might happen tomorrow, the day after, next month, next year, you get the drift. I'm super happy for you girlf. Can't wait to meet him soon (: May you both be happy & blissful always (:

I'm loving the song in this video. Watch & hope you have a good Sunday too!

Alison and Chris from Kate Headley on Vimeo.

4. What you cannot see doesn't mean it's not there. Similarly, denial only makes you feel comforted but it doesn't change the fact. Things are happening whether you believe it or not. Maybe a woman is better at picking up evidences or perhaps you've noticed but choose to ignore them. I respect you and your philosophies. Even though I don't subscribe to them, I won't hate you for imposing them on me. But sometimes I just wish I could be more direct so I can tell you what I feel and I can share my thoughts and opinions with you. Le sigh.

P/s. personal random jibberish, don't ask (:

#1371.

Hello there! January felt like the shortest month ever because I didn't even realize it flew past just like that. My CNY was so-so as with every year. The usual house visiting which was really boring. Thankfully boyf's on whatsapp most of the time so I could rant to him. Next year's gonna be better!

Boyf and I also passed the halfway mark already! It's awesome news or what. Cannot believe we're 50% there - it's so amazing. I'm missing him lesser each day, in fact I'm looking forward to meeting him again! This half a year has taught me to be less dependent on him & to spend more me-time. I used to think that boyf is the busy one so I should always fit into his schedule. Now I know I was so silly. I've always been the one sitting at the train station, walking through the malls, depriving myself of weekends sleep-in, just to spend time with him. Now I know better! :D

Also, boyf's been asked to join an SF crew. Super happy news!!! I was literally jumping for joy when I saw his whatsapp. Jiayou baby! Will blog more about it when I get updates from him.

Work appraisal is coming soon. Wish me luck! X