Changes that took my breath away

Just a signature above the dotted line, a couple of security clearance... and I'm all set.. to start the new year afresh...

Or maybe it's not that easy... in this fight to find back myself... to put things right, locate the environment that I can see myself grow, learn and succeed... At that juncture of breaking away, tears have flown like a broken string of pearls... a part of me yearning to stop the change that is going to affect not just myself but those have been kind around me... But I must stay strong...

And I survived, that emotional ordeal that I did not expect...
Like a newborn, I open my eyes, startled to find the world outside looking rosier than I dreamt it to be... A new chapter of my life shall now begin... With high hopes, I make my first baby step into this tantalizing world of the unknown challenges and unexpected surprises...

I will survive, yet again...

Merry Christmas and Happy new year my friends!

An Arduous path to Real Run Race

On the 8 November 2009, my team members of Triathlon and Distance Running (TDR), an interest group of the SMRT Sports & Recreation Club, participated in the New Balance 15km Real Run Corporate Relay, at Changi Aviation Centre. My team emerged victorious, achieving 4th position in the corporate category, ahead of other strong teams from LTA, SAF MP and Temasek Polytechnic.

I was one of the TDR team members who participated in the relay, and was thrilled to achieve my personal best of 1 hour and 19 mins at the competition. It was a relief when I finally crossed the finishing line, as long distance running has never been my forte. Back in the school days, I would usually compete in events that involved five or less kilometres of running.

My trainings for the race began officially ten weeks prior to the race date. With a tight work schedule, it was definitely challenging to stick to the plan, which comprised of one day of long run and two other days of short, fast runs as well as gym sessions. I have adapted the training from the Hal Higdon’s plan that I found online.

However, no matter of training would have aptly prepared me for the race itself. After 5km of smooth sailing running, my hamstrings started to protest. I just couldn’t go as fast as I willed myself to. Other runners were simply passing me by in flocks. Things did not look good then. I told myself that there was no way I could turn back, the only way is to go forward, which I did. After what seemed like eternity, I finally reached the finishing line and it all seemed not so difficult after all. Life’s like a long distance run, you just got to take the pain in your stride when the going gets tough. The finishing line is just in front of you. Don’t give up.

My Xmas wish list!

For my loved ones who are cracking their heads on what to get me for xmas, here's a help list hehe:

1. A new branded work watch
2. demologica daily microexfoliant
3. A book like 'journey to the east' and 'have a little faith'
4. sports waterbottle 500ml
5. Good earphones
6. Nokia E63 handphone pouch
7. nice and couchy netbook sleeve

Will update the list when I remember what else I want. Merry Xmas everyone!

Sleepless night

Not insomnia this time.. it's work again

So I risked 6h of my beauty sleep, fighting zee monsters from 1am to 7am on thur morning, watching people go about their work, trying to pick up bits and pieces. secret codes, telling glances... not something easy to pick up in the wee hours of the morning... I just shrugged and sat, then stood and walked around... feeling out of place and unwanted.. when it was time to go, I could tell all heaved a sigh of relief... that all will go back to normal for them.. wat a morning..

I went back to sleep and it was an undisturbed one till noon... ate fruits to fill myself, an act to counter the sinful indulgences that I allowed myself at 7am-- mac sausage muffin... Went to bt panjang, only to get dua and then came home to do misc stuff, before succumbing to sleep again..

perhaps the most meaningful thing I have done today is to drag my lazy feet to amore for an hr of fat blasting workout of kardio sculpt =) had duck rice for dinner(with my darling mum and sis) and I sincerely hope it's not 600 calories as the nutritionist says..

We passed by the neighbourhood shops and realized that a pet shop is opening soon! My sis and I started discussing about the dog we would buy, childhood dreams flooding our minds again? Would I get one? Can I be a good owner? I'm a little afraid of more responsibilities right now... gonna hit the sack!

Sick at Home

Finally an MC since Sept, I'm so proud of myself. I had it bad this time, sore throat, blocked nose, itchy throat and not to mention fever since Fri, when I had to stand 2 hrs for flag day donations and then another 2hrs for counting people at my company's public event.

After the prize giving ceremony for the Global Entrepreneurship Week, I was deadbeat. Just concussed on the bus whenever my butt hit the seat...dun be fooled by my healthy look in the pic.. Gosh... I almost couldn't get off the bus. It was like I went into hibernation mode.
For the next 2 days, the flu virus just raged on in my body... On Sat, I simply slipped in and out of consciousness. Ate bland porridge for lunch and green healthy yong tau foo for dinner... Sunday's menu was no better, bland fish porridge for dinner... maybe the good thing that comes out of it is that I would have lost weight hahah though I haven't weigh myself lately... should be la...

By Sun night, I dun feel well enuff for work and took an Mc... It turned out to be a restful yet fruitful day. Got the plumber in to fix the washing machine tap.. It turned out that the washing machine is fine, just that the tap is wrong... hehe v happy... and start planning for the new year... 2010 here I come!

French!

Le 9 Decembre, je vais prendre l'examen de francais donc je vais écrire mon blog en francaise tous les jours. Il y auras une translation de blog en anglais aussi. Alors, premièrement, je absolutement deteste Dimarche parce que je vais travailler demain. Il n'y a pas jamais assez de temps pour les choses que je voudrais faire, comme aller au cinema et faire un promenade à la plage.  Peut-etre, la raison pour les sentiments est que je n'aime pas le travail que je fais. Mais si je ne travail pas, je n'ai pas l'argent. C'est la vie.

Je ne sais pas quoi mais hier, je suis tres fatiguee parce que j'ai me couche pendant 11 heures! Quand je se levé,  j'ai seulment pris ma petite dejeuner et apres, arrangé la chambre. J'ai une class de yoga à 2:30 apres-midi pour une duree d'une heure et demie. Apres la classe, j'ai une rendez-vous à Somerset à 6:30 pour le diner avec les amis. Nous avons les cuisines Thaï pour le plat principal et les gateux aux fruits pour le dessert. Tous été tres bien!

On the 9th of Dec, I'm going to take my french exam so I will always be writing my blog in french from now on. There will also be a translation in english, like what I am doing for this entry. So firstly, I hate Sunday, cos tmr I need to go work! There is never enough time for doing the things that I like, such as going to the cinema and strolling on the beach. Perhaps, the reasons for the feelings that I am having is that I simply don't like the work I am doing... But if I don't work, I don't have the money! That's life.

I also dunno why but I was just so tired yesterday that I slept for 11 h! When I woke up, I only had time to take my breakfast and tidy up my room. After that, I have a yoga class at 2:30 pm for a duration of one and a half hours. After class, I have an appointment in Somerset at 6:30 pm for dinner with my supper club friends. We had Thai cuisine for the main course and fruit tarts for dessert. All were very good!

Love is...

Got inspired over the weekend...

Love is...
Knowing that someone will always look after you
Fetch you from where you are when it rains
Naturally thinking in your shoes
Waiting for you no matter how late it is into the night
tells you that you smell great though you last showered hours ago

I just watched Gossip Girl and I crossed my fingers... that I will never betray love for it's never worth it..

Just came back from a dinner with my best sports pals, Aileen and Charlene. it's Charlene's 23rd birthday today and it's amazing how long we have known each other! 7 yrs! I'm feel blessed by the special friendship we share =) I was so hungry after my 3.5km run at Amore that I just gobbled down dinner at Noodle House without taking photos with them =( haha but we enjoyed the
1. Special Congee, huge and favored just right
2. Wonton noodles,the noodles is alright but the fried wantons are gigantic and the steamed ones are succulent with juicy prawns
3. Beef Horfun is not so good though cos the horfun were stuck together. Nevertheless, the prawns and all were good =)
yummy dinner... we went shopping around Centrepoint, absorbed in our world, as the passerbys flowed from different directions, all around us. There is nothing more lovely or precious as friendship.

I had a more sinful round of dinner yesterday, with my darling, for passing his driving test on the first try! Hear this, he only got 8 demerit points! super zai la... We went to celebrate at Intercontinental, Olive tree cos they are having promotion right now. 1 for 1 and we only paid about 55 in all... the spread was superb, to say the least. We swallowed down:

1. about 10 oysters each, fresh and juicy
2. 5 fresh tasting salmon sushi
3. crispy salmon pizza
4. fried tempura prawns, done golden and delightful
5. sausage in small cute dishes
6. creamy cod fish, smooth and good
7. dhal and chicken curry, these dishes are a bit dry
8. fragrant butter rice
9. strawberries with chocolate fondue
10. oozing chocolat fondant, tiramisu, chocolate alcohol cake, sorbet...
11. everything else that I can't name or recall but it's a truly unforgettable dinner buffet =)

catch the promotion before it ends oct 31!

Cyst woes

No that this topic is really important but I must declare my battle with cysts these few years. Not sure if it has been a result of my obsession with eye cream earlier, using Mac eye recovery cream and Estee Lauder rich eye repair too near the eyes, thus causing overactive oil glands. But come to think of it, it could be true... to make the eye area more moist, it will make sense to make the oil glands secrete more oil right? sheesh... major mistake

right now, I have undergone 4 eyelids surgery before, 2 on left and 2 on right. each time the swell was huge and the pus was imaginably overflowing... I wonder if I can finally say goodbye to cysts!
a few changes I am introducing to ensure that history doesn't repeat itself

1. eat more fruits and drink more water
2. avoid fried foods! some forum writers said that oil from those stuff can accumulate in the lids.. yuck
3. clean my eyelids with eyelid products daily
4. avoid eye makeup (so sad, no more mascara...)
5. sleep early ( really hard to accomplish)

wish me luck!

Updates updates!

Just sent my sister back to her hostel... it's funny being on the other end now, no longer the one going back to hall n facing the books... Now I finally taste what it is like to send someone away, to make time for her/him out of my busy schedule-- much like a parent.. There was an article about parents suing their children for not supplementing their retirement and to issues like this, I always wonder, "what happened to filial Piety?" Sure everyone for his own, it's one's responsibility to provide and fend for himself. But someone who is mature, and particularly someone who has experienced adulthood and parenthood will realize, how difficult it is to care for someone, to bring up him/her to maturity. If I were to be just responsible for myself, I certainly wouldn't demand so much of myself. But I want to not just give myself, but also my parents a better life, one that they have never been able to experience.

Work has been going along quite well but I certainly welcome more challenges, as long as they are not concerning overzealous perfection and insane meticulousness. The best thing that has come from work would be the triathlon team which I have recently become a part of. We got 6th in the corporate relay, I ran 5km, while the other two guys swim 750m and biked 20 km! wheee... here's some photos

2nd of work at new posting!

The last two days have been pretty 'thrilling' notice the inverted commas... afterall it's a new environment now, down to KPI, tasks, deadlines and all...stress and eyerings creeping back to my life... but I'll be ready to take on the challenges as they come

been meeting lots of friends recently and it's a joy to see all well and happy at their jobs. Sometimes it hit me that our worries were unfounded after all, not being able to find our calling in life, not finding a job that pays decently... But I must constantly remind myself not to slip into an employee life pattern, I want to be a biz owner one day. back to reading the book "never eat alone' =)

The most nerve wrecking lunch

With a sigh of relief, I'm glad to have survived my first ever self introduction in front of the big shots at work.. had to talk about my D I S C profile, my greatest achievement and my future aspirations. what is seemingly easy to accomplish face to face with another person has become ten times harder with successful individuals scrutinizing you the entire 3 mins, breathing down your neck, trying to dissert your personality.

I'm glad to be a survivor and my mentor rox! He's formerly from the SAF but has made a huge transition into the corporate world now... hope to interact more with him in the future.

Something wrong

There is something wrong with my blog... can't view it correctly.. damn weird...

Deja vu

Shagged, braindead and smelly from a two shifts work day, I suddenly shuddered at a fleeting thought that went through my mind. This job is like an army one! with the exception of assisting an operation where the outcome that matters a lot more, the rest seems the same for both jobs. In terms of the level of discomfort, requirement to work over time AND overnight, use of jargons like (mess, officer, book in/out etc) I am going to go crazy at this rate soon...

Updates on my work life!

Time sure passes by quickly... one time I was slogging away for FYP and now I've entered a new phase of my life-- working life! it's scary to realize that fact at times-- after all the 16 years of studying... responsibilities have changed and my attitude has to changed too... new people in my life... what a great deal to handle each day...

Other than my close friends, I feel that the bonds between my Uni friends are fading... trying hard to hold on to them, I tried to meet up whenever I'm free but it seems so tiring at times... my eyerings get darker and the situation seemed nonetheless better. maybe I need to accept the fact that things have changed, people have moved on and so must I.

sound quite pessimistic isn't it? But all is not lost.. somehow Zj and I had more time to meet than ever and the situation might even improve if I work at the HQ =) but nothing is confirmed as of now =(

It's only 2 weeks into my work and my colleagues and i are performing at the LSA talentine competition tomorrow! The girls will be dancing the HOT wondergirls and I hope I wun make any mistake as I did today during the rehearsal.. it's tough catching up with them after missing the first session. ANd why did I miss it? Cos of my Hong Kong trip.. and it is sure memorable, the first trip Zj and I made tog... It was very eventful for sure and we certainly shopped till we dropped... my bank is super wiped out now =( hahaha but we've memories that will now last for life... will post up the photos on my facebook soon hehe

i couldnt help but realize that I am making more time for my friends than my family... it's like when I'm home, they ain't and when I reached home, my sis will be at her computer, my dad at work and my mum sleeping... even weekends are not spared. hope to improve this part of my life soon, gonna spend more time with my family, my beloved ones =)

A day before work life begins

The last entry was so outdated! In these 2 months since my last entry, I had another exam, in which I also did not score well and had scoreless of interviews. Maybe the consolation is that the dust has settled and I have landed myself in an OK job. =) But I'm quite sad that I'm leaving my friend's start up... learnt quite a lot there. here're my colleagues =) Pretty fun loving crowd...



















Tomorrow will be a significant day, where the 'practicals' end and the real test begins. After 16 years of education, my work life is going to begin. It feels strange and I have this constant feeling of denial. Yet, that wouldn't come as a surprise for someone who has yet to graduate, with the final year project report and presentation in the toll, due for submission less than 2 weeks later. I hope it will start off well tomorrow and by the time I depart for Hong Kong on 16 Jul, a few hours after my last school presentation, I'll be leaving with a contented smile.

Friends would question: why do you start work so early? Not taking a break? It's not a matter of choice to me, though the inertia in me would happily assume status quo in my life. But I'm too eager and impatient, to join the working world outside, to be viewed as an adult, someone capable of putting food on the table. It has been a torture for too long to see my parents toil and struggle to make ends meet. I'm too, tired of holding 3 or 4 part time job all while juggling my studies to support myself. Anyway, since this management trainee program longs only 15 months, it'll be great if I realise that it is where I want to be and continue on the fast track. Else, hopefully, I would have gained enough skills and experience that makes me more marketable for my next career. By then, I should have found out for myself the direction I should head into.

last day of exam!

as usual, I lie here, eyes wide open, unable to go to lalaland no matter how hard I try :( something that excites me is sleeping me up- the last exam that's chemical engine related for my entire life is tmr! I really can't wait. The tortuous 3 yrs, it's been so long. at least now I know how to appreciate chem engine and even understand my notes. Hope that's enough for tmr. Wish me luck!

Disturbing news these days

I can't help but grinch in dismay as I flip the papers these days... Red shirts chaos in Thailand, countless people dying cos of Tamil Tigers, the ever gloomy economy, deaths from food poisoning, monk cheating money, even suicide rates on the high... I wonder if these are all bad signs for the world but maybe these kinda news have always been exaggerated and sensitised by the media... I shall just take one piece of news to comment or share my ideas... good for detering my brain from becoming senile i guess haha

Same Name, different lives

Was googling on my name cos i was so bored and I found this... Go read it!
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20071029-32858.html

Finally readjusted my body clock

I feel a sense of euphoria, as I awoke to see glistening rays of the morning sun streaming through the window this morning at 7am. I made it! Finally readjusted my body clock to what I would call normal... Mum has cooked a fab breakfast and I simply gobbled them down, hungry from the 7h of 'fasting'...

Just so coincidentally, on the zen habits blog, there is a post about being a late riser. The blogger talked about, how like me, he equated rising early to being productive-- exactly how I thought! But he realized that it's not really relevant, the link between rising early and being productive, cos you can wake up late and sleep late rite? But I just like the smell and coolness of the morning air, cos it's really uplifting to my spirits... and I have to stop all the sleeping at 4am routine, which is taking a toll on my eyebags( they're bad enough)

And being going to bed and rising early, I am going to blog either online or in my book regularly, all through my summer term... It'll be great to reflect daily and hopefully I'll come out as a better person! To think I used to submit a weekly report to my boss last year, I should be more disciplined now! It really helped in thinking through what I have done for the week, allowing myself to quickly rein in on the 'bad habits' and congratulate myself for the new breakthrough I have made in life.

And you might ask, isn't this your reading week? Time to study! Why are you blogging... But I only have 2 exams to mug for, both 3 MCs, so it's like just a 1.5 regular module. Yup, I still prefer to do things last min to keep my productivity high haha... oh I remembered that I dreamt that I was late in handing in a report... gosh... all the reports writing must be getting to me haha

I realize that my blog has been pictureless so far... let me add some recent photos like those my friends and i took at the Pump Room, clarke Quay-- it's certainly a night of harvoc!

New resoltutions

I need to...

Stop caring about things that don’t matter. This advice seems so simple, but it bears repeating. It’s easy to get caught up in obsessing about little tasks and trivialities that aren’t really important. The best way to overcome this habit is to start thinking in terms of long term impact. Every time you start obsessing over the little details, ask yourself how long the results of those tasks will last. If you’re always spending the majority of your time doing tasks that will have little impact after a week or month, you’re always going to be stuck in the same position. Be ruthless about not caring about all the stuff that’s not important. Your life depends on it.

from http://zenhabits.net/2009/04/seven-productivity-tips-for-people-that-hate-gtd/#more-2999

Ready to close a chapter in life

In a few months' time, I will be closing an important chapter in life -- my education and embarking on a new journey of adulthood. No more concessions, no more forgiveness for mistakes, no more fun! But I won't go for further studies at the moment, I need a breather from my 16 years of studying...

I feel like a spinning compass sometimes, its needle has found its true north. Hope I will be shown the way soon before I get lost for good...

Back in Sunny Singapore!

Finally I could confess that I am back in Singapore, after my friend's birthday celebration, as my friend and I are supposed to give her a surprise by coming back earlier than she expected.

So besides the horribly hot and humid weather and the reverse cultural shock, I am adapting well back in Singapore. Not too well I hope, as I don't hope to lose what I have learnt in the States. Will explain about it more in another post. In fact, I will probably put some photos up here as picture speaks a thousand words. And update my new year resolutions =)