Au Revoir 2011! Bonjour 2012!

Hello readers

2011 is finally saying farewell to us. 2012 will enter in few hours time.

How has 2011 been to you?

What have you learned?
What will you leave behind?
And what will you bring with you to 2012?

I have learned that not until you love yourself, the world won't love you the way you think. I have learned that those that really matters tend to be the simple intangible things in life such as relationships. I have learned that what you feed your mind affects how you view the world.

I will leave behind the thought that the elements outside me need to change before I can be happy and contented. I will leave behind that I have no control and not responsible for all aspects of my life. I will leave behind the naive concept that there are somethings can be forever.

I will bring with me into 2012 the "me" that is slowly evolving and revealing to its truest expression of self. I will bring with me my intuition, my gut feel, to listen to them more after listening to kind advices from others. I will bring with me my blessings and feeling of constant gratitude to things / experiences I have already had and those that will come my way at their own time.

I am saying goodbye to 2011 with a great smile on my face knowing I have lived an awesome and colorful life and I am looking forward to 2012 for more awesome experiences that I believe will come. Good and bad are really relative. I wish everyone a life well lived, a lesson well learned and laughters well shared.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

11 Dec 2011 - With Models of Abercrombie & Fitch.
See! Told you my 2011 was awesome and "colorful"! *wink*

The 3 Letters that Live After Death

De-clutter: to simplify or get rid of mess, disorder, complications, etc
(Taken from www.dictionary.com).

Thanks to my "big forehead" bff, this time I welcome X'mas and New Year by de-cluttering my living space. I threw quite a bit of stuff and organized the others that I would like to keep. Though I am not a hoarder (Thank God), I can be a keeper of stuffs! It's a bad habit that I am slowly unlearning.

While embarking the journey of de-cluttering, as I squatted on my floor, opening boxes after boxes, I discovered 3 envelopes that I received from Tante Gunawan. Tante in Bahasa Indonesia means aunt - just like in French too.


Tante, that's how I love to call her, was my childhood friend's mom. My age gap with my friend is big. She was already in secondary school when I was still learning to read her magazines - Bobo. Some of her magazines were dated even before I was born. Tante and Om (her husband) doted on me. They were like another set of parents who stayed in a big classic house and spoke Dutch occasionally. In the early 90s, or so I think, we were separated. Tante and her entire family moved to Jakarta. I hardly met them since then. Almost never, even until Om passed away.

In 2006, I met Tante in Jakarta when I went back for Chinese New Year reunion with my entire big family. I insisted to meet her and I was so glad that I couldn't hold my tears and hugged her. I didn't know why. She teared too. I also didn't know why. There was just this raw emotion in us that we couldn't contain. We really didn't know why.

Then, as the busy-ness of life caught me again, I didn't keep in touch much until I received a packet of cards from MFPA (Mouth and Food Painting Artists), an organization that my parents and I have been supporting on regular basis. So I have bunch of cards but didn't know who to write them too. I thought of Tante. I wrote to her again in 2008.

I received my first reply on the 6th of August 2008. She expressed how delighted and surprised she was to receive a letter from me. I was equally delighted to receive a reply from her. Until the day she passed away in 2010, there were only 3 letters being exchanged. But these 3 precious letters, never fail to bring me to tears every time I re-read them.

What started out as a tradition of sending cards during festive seasons, turned out to be an avenue to reconnect with people from my past. What started out as cleaning out my space, turned out to to be a way to enrich my soul.

De-clutter, my new definition is to get rid of things that don't matter and to be connected to those that really do.

Wishing all of you an enriching festive season ahead. Try going back to a time in your life when someone or something has brought you joy and love. You will be surprised, they were there in our memories, just buried beneath all the recent noises of our lives. They are very much still alive.

The World of Scrubs

When someone gave me this link - http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/ I thought there exists a special type of low shrubs for women. Dang! I really need to improve my vocabularies. Once I clicked on the link, I realized it refers to a type of uniforms.

The word "scrub" always reminds me to the once popular song by TLC - No Scrubs, that up until this day I still don't know what it's all about; like most songs that passed through my ears. But the melody still lingers.

Then I heard this term very often in Grey's Anatomy when those surgeons yelled,"Scrub in!" and the next thing you will see all of them rushing to save a life on the operating table. Who knows from all these medical themed TV shows, the once just a uniform, can be a fashion item to the mass. That will make quite a handsome costume and you may call yourself McDreamy, McSteamy, Doctor Yang, etc. I feel like having one too but I guess it will just become my pajama.

Jakarta - Penang - Yogyakarta - Bali - Kuala Lumpur

WOW!

DD is mad! Or, was mad.
Listing those cities out as the title of this post made me realize I might have been out of my mind.

For those of you who don't know what I have been doing recently, well, those are the cities I visited in October and November! I flew so much in those 2 months than I have ever done in past 2 years!

Most of them were on impulse. I didn't use much of my brain when I decided them (hmm, I don't think I use it a lot anyway :p). Let's just say, I have been living at the safe and boring side of life that suddenly I needed to wiggle myself and do some mad travel stunts like that.

So what was I doing there? In summary (and more to come next time) I was:
- visiting my bestie and hunting for my favourite childhood food @ Jakarta
- accompanying my parents and learning about my ancestor who was an awesome man @ Penang
- learning about Buddha's teaching through artifacts and stories + made aware that my country is super awesome @ Yogyakarta
- spending my birthday with besties and finally visiting the island of non-smelling dead bodies (yup, you read it right) @ Bali
- reminding myself that I have great friends and forever grateful for such wonderful souls in my life @ Kuala Lumpur

I am not a travelling sort, normally. Very comfortable where I am. I do occasionally getaway by myself to reset my mind, thought my Bali trip is going to be that way.

But what I learn preciously on all my trips is that people (and not places and things) make travelling more meaningful. You may have seen the most beautiful thing and eaten the most delicious thing on earth, that is wonderful, but to have another living being witnesses or shares that experience with you, make it more exquisite.

I am really grateful that in all my trips, I have never once lacked of the people element. From great friends, to great tour guide. From the daughter of friend's friend to the mother of a friend. They all have made me feel enriched in a way that money can't buy.

Now I really understand fully when Suze Orman says,"People first, them money, then things." Without people, money and things will simply resemble a body without mind and soul.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Even though I don't normally celebrate it but this year, 2 besties of mine are and we have a list of items we are thankful for.

Here are my list of things that I am thankful for:
1. Having a healthy body, mind and soul
2. Having a wonderful roof over my head
3. Having awesome parents who are knowledgeable and have great sense of humour
4. Having great friends that I can turn to and there are more than 10 for sure
5. Having the chance to learn and discover a lot of my country this year
6. Being able to use the French language and strike basic conversation with strangers
7. Having a job and great bosses to work with
8. Having many blog tasks to support my charities
9. Having the ability to give tips to people who provide awesome service
10. Having the access to information online and offline
11. Living in a country that is safe, well organised and resourceful
12. Friends who love me even though I'm so selfish (One of them is still nagging about how selfish I am as I am keying this in into my Blackberry)

I believe there are more things that I am really grateful for. I would love to list them all but alas, I need to pack for my KL trip. Can't wait to meet my super wise friend who just got her own "castle" in KL. See her in few hours time.

Once again I would like to wish everyone (in French) - Bonne Action de grâce.

Never stop counting your blessings no matter how small they may appear. Sometimes, those small things have the biggest impact in life. Don't take anything for granted, start with the roof on top of your head.

If I Can Only

If I can only speak two words
Let them be "Thank You"
To all the souls who have taught me how to live

If I can only move one part of my face
Let them be my lips
To smile upon the blessings which have chanced upon me

If I can only give one thing
Let them be my question
To realize that answers are there all along

If I can only feel one emotion
Let them be love
To let me know that all is supreme

Risk and Traveling

Recently I have been traveling quite a lot, mostly is to discover my own country. It's so big, I guess it may take a lifetime to discover into details. With my short-term memory, it doesn't really help much either. I guess I need to make multiple trips to one place. Hah! I will write more on the experiences and realizations in the few more posts to come.

To prepare for the trip, I have purchased travel insurance quite a few times. I used to see it as a taboo product but since it has helped me last time, I will never take it for granted anymore. I will not go anywhere without my travel insurance. The amount may be quite insignificant compared to the risks one may be exposed to when one's overseas.

To me, the most crucial point when one can decide an insurance policy is useful is when one finally makes a claim on it. So far I have been very happy with the company I have been using all these while. I just learned recently that one can claim if one's flight is delayed by 6 hours. My flight back to Singapore from Yogyakarta was delayed 4 hours -_-" .... 2 more hours to be able to disturb my agent :p ... but it is not a laughing matter. I believe as long as one has arrived at the destination healthily and safely, you can't really put a price on those things.

The holiday season will soon be here, wish my dearest readers a safe and jolly holiday if you do travel somewhere. If not, still be safe and happy always! See you at the next post!

Tim Ferriss

Have you heard of Tim Ferriss?

I believe some of you do. I first heard of him from my friend, Stuart Tan, who was reading Tim's best selling book - The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich. I went to buy the book, unfortunately, I didn't finish it. :p

Then, I didn't recall who he is until my friend shared an awesome post from his blog that's titled 8 Steps to Getting What You Want Without Formal Credentials. I believe everyone should read that post at least once. You may or may not agree with what he said, but I would say 80% of what he said makes sense.

Basically, in this blog post, he shared about an alternative way to combat our own laziness into thinking just because we do not have a degree in certain subject, doesn't mean we can't be a master of some sorts. He also shared about how people tend to find jobs through informal job market than formal job market and in order to do that you need to start build your credential from somewhere.

His 8 steps, which he covered really in details basically comprises of - choose something you want to learn, document/share your journey of learning, start applying what you have learned through networking and offering to work for free, find mentors, learn sales and ultimately you will be independent enough to sell and deliver your knowledge/skill to the people that you have come to know along the way.

No more excuse for saying, "but I can't do this or I can't do that" because everything is indeed learn-able. Unfortunately, even after reading this article, I still can't help but have so much angst towards Excel and Vlookup from 8 different charts. -__-"

Guess the next skill I should be learning is to meditate and calm my mind or how to be peaceful with too many excel charts. We'll see.

Oh ya, before I forget, do check out his bio page. What he has tried and what he is doing now is simply amazing. Truly, your mind and how you choose to spend your time are your only limits.

Mary's Best

I appreciate the guest post, Emerson Moses

My sister has always been the more responsible one but ever since she picked up and moved to New York a few years back everyone’s been asking me if she lost her mind. I don’t really know what to tell them because she didn’t listen to me when I tried to talk her out of it but to be honest, I was a little jealous of her get up and go attitude and didn’t think it was that bad. Now she’s back home and all anyone ever wants to talk about anymore is what she did and where she’s been and I’m kind of sick of it! She asked me to help her with tvbydirect in Wayneseboro and it turned into a big fight about how I never do anything for her but to be honest, I’m just kind of tired of everything being about Mary all the time…and I told her so! We haven’t spoken since but I’m sure it will all blow over soon since we really can’t stand to be mad at each other for long.

Thank You, Readers.

Dear readers

Remember when I wrote "Who Wrote Those?"

Recently I have been pretty blessed. Since then more opportunities have come by. I believe you may be able to tell the difference. :) (As I am typing this, there are more to come and I need to get to it asap. Need to lock Procrastinator D.D. for a while.)

Ever since, I was able to give back this blessings to some of the organization that's close to my heart.

• Support a small business owner in Nicaragua - Candida Rosa Navarrete Rodriguez
• Renewing my support in fostering Elephant Dida and Rhino Maxwell
• Supporting another sister through Women for Women International name Alice Nyirabahetsi. She's my 3rd sister now.
  

Thank you so much for supporting me by reading my blog through whatever way you choose. Thanks for dropping by once in a while and ultimately thanks for enabling me to give back to the charity that's dear to my heart. Hope in the future I will be able to reach out to more organizations and souls.

Saving Extra Money

When it comes to saving extra money, I remember a conversation I had with my boss. He taught me that there are 2 ways to do that:
1. To cut down your expenses
2. To increase your income
Common sense, isn't it?

Option #1, you can do that by budgeting, living within your means, cutting down the unnecessary spendings. But there's a limit on how much you can cut in the end. You can't keep cutting down the expenses and expect the money in the banks will grow exponentially. You can't keep sacrificing your lifestyle just because you want to save more. If you need $1k to leave comfortably, with inflation that never ends, you can expect your $1k will become $2k in times to come.

Hence, Option #2, is definitely limitless. The more you increase your income, the more you are able to save and the more you are able to spend. The trick is, how do you increase your income? Are you going to take on more jobs? Are you going to start up your own business? Are you going to invest? Are you going to freelance by doing something you are skillful in? The choices are limitless.

In this journey of life I am still walking on, I am still figuring things out for Option #2. What will you do, besides looking for job and asking for pay raise, should you want to increase your income? I am still wondering. The first step is always the most difficult but once the momentum kicks in, it should get easier like most things.

Feel free to share if you have any interesting suggestions. :)

Full Circle Moment & What Would You Do If You Have 3 Days and 3 Nights in Singapore?

Life has its funny way of unfolding itself. In December 2008, I was planning a trip to Europe in 3 weeks (including 2 weeks of Visa application with lots of hope and prayers). It was all planned last minute and I seriously didn't know what to do as I am simply not an average traveler.

Luckily, I was active in Plurk and just by posting it amongst the European plurkers, one very nice French lady responded and rescued me from being deserted in Bordeaux all alone during Christmas. She invited me to be with her family in Toulouse and to spend Christmas together. 2 strangers who hardly chatted online but crazy enough to say "YES" to the experience. The rest is history and I blogged about how much I missed Paris and how I will be confident to converse with French kids! To accompany that, 1 couple from Geneva (Swiss) welcomed me to their humble home with fantastic cheese and coffee, then 1 artistic kind soul from Liège (Belgium) showered me with great food and great booze for New Year's Eve party!

Time has passed and it's now November 2011, 3 years have passed just like that! The full circle moment has arrived for one of my saviour. This time, I am able to play host to my French friend! The one who was crazy enough to invite one stranger from Asia, finally came to Singapore! It's her first trip to Asia and she made sure she would stop by Singapore. (She demanded that to the travel agent). She has 3 days and 3 nights in Little Red Dot and I am glad she maximized it to the max.

So what did my friends manage to do in such a short period of time?

Day 1
Places she attacked:
- Botanic Garden
- Tanglin Mall for lunch
- Orchard Road
- Little India
- Chinatown
- Lao Pa Sat for dinner
- Customs House for drinks

Bear in mind she walks from Orchard to Little India in a rainy day. Pretty impressive, I should say.

Food and drinks she conquered:
- Char kway teow
- Satay (chicken and beef) + Rice
- Oyster omelet
- Prata
- Tiger beer
- Ume

Day 2
Places she attacked:
- Holland Village
- Wet market (woke up too late, so it did look like dry market instead)
- Hawker center
- Arab Street
- Peranakan Museum
- Raffles City
- Raffles Hotel
- Suntec City
- Esplanade
- Merlion
- Fullerton Hotel
- Colonial District
- National Museum
- Plaza Singapura
- Newton Circus

Food and drinks she conquered:
- Chicken rice
- Nasi lemak
- Grass jelly drink
- Ice teh limau (Ice lime tea)
- Kue lupis
- Breadtalk's chicken floss
- Yakun's kaya toast, half boiled egg, kopi-o and teh-o
- Stingray
- Rojak
- Hokkien Mee
- Soursop juice

Day 3
Places she attacked:
- Singapore zoo
- Orchard road again as the weather didn't permit her to go to Sentosa (*pout*) and ended up she made Steve Jobs happy. *ehem*
- Clarke Quay
- Geylang

Food and drinks she conquered:
- Starbucks coffee that put her to sleep (oops, I'm not sure on this :p I am just imagining)
- Chili crab
- Mantou
- Turkish ice cream
- Durian

Overall, I think she has done a great job. She conquered a lot and experienced the main attractions of Singapore. What more, she has a very "authentic" Singaporean guide too besides the "fake-made-in-Indonesia" one. I hope she enjoyed her stay with my passable planning and guiding and story telling ... or more like blabbering. I am glad she enjoyed durian with its stench still lingers on our fingers as I am typing this. I am glad I am able to return the favour that her family and she have done to me in 2008. I hope one day her family too will come and let me have the privilege to show them how awesome Singapore can be (in the rain). I hope my other Internet friends who have shown me how great people are just few clicks away, will be here too one day. I am so grateful for this full circle moment that keeps expanding in its own amazing way.

Life becomes more awesome when one is able to share a piece of themselves with others.

17 December 2008 - First photo taken after our dinner on the first night I arrived in Paris

31 October 2011 - First photo taken after our dinner on her first night in Singapore
(Image courtesy of my friend's FB. Approval is pending as she's busy with her novel at the moment of this blogging)

Truth is Crap

As much as people around you ask you for the truth, especially women, I, personally think they are crap.

I am a woman. I know but I think the demand for "truth" is really crap.

Tell me, honestly, have you ever told the REAL TRUTH without someone:

leaving the room
asking you to rephrase what you have just said, or
simply ignore what you were rambling about, or ultimately
after you have said (really the truth), they shut you off cause they just can't take it.

Let's be really honest.

People who want the truth are people who can't face the truth.
They think they can.
They think they bow down to the truth, but they are just living in the illusion of it.

They think the truth is all that is in this world, but seriously ... they just want to hear the truth according to their own sweet world.

Ultimately .... remember this quote ... "

Love people enough to tell them the truth and respect them enough to trust that they can handle it. - Iyanla Vanzant

More than Walls

Walls.
To some, they exist to create a sense of boundaries.
To some, they can be blank pieces of canvas to be filled with works of arts.

Just 15 years ago, I used to decorate my walls in my bedroom with super tacky posters. Alright, I know "15 years" is not "just" anymore! But it does feel like yesterday .. OK. I lied. It feels like donkey years ago. The years in between must have been too awesome that the past seems so far away.

I can't believe I used to have posters of artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Thinking about it now makes me cringe. Hmm ... what else did I have? After I came to Singapore, I think there were some movie posters. Then, my choices evolved to some motivational pieces. One of them stuck on the common fridge now. Oops. And now I downgraded to simply a post card. This one. (And it will be so obvious why it is there once you noticed whose words they belong to .....)


Now, wall art is not just limited to wall paper and posters anymore. They are not just to decorate but it can also use to make a statement such as the following one that I adore. Spotted at Salvador Dali - Mind of A Genius Exhibition at ArtScience Museum, Singapore. Imagine putting that on your front door! :p


I wonder if I have the choice, what will I do with my wall? I think I will get one super big painting that bamboozle the mind. Frida? Too depressive. Dali? Too exciting. Or better still, I will get a very big screen then when I feel like it, I will change what is being shown. (But that's so not "green". I may die from all the invisible emissions) -_-" Bleah ...

Enough of dreaming about walls. I wonder why there's even a need for a wall. No walls. Just a splendid view of something like this will be awesome. Merci.


How about you? What will you choose to be on your wall?



PS. Images are courtesy of my not so awesome Blackberry camera.

That One Voice

Hi back, blog. I have been missing for quite sometimes. What's new. The procrastination bug hits me again. The last post, not counted, as it was a homework given to me and I have to churn out something in a limited time period. So now, I am back.

I am compelled to write about voices, being a very auditory creature, I am easily influenced by anything that produce sounds. No wonder I used to score perfectly in my ABRSM aural test for level 5. It's one of the category of the test for people who learn piano and to be specific, they are testing your listening skill. The examiner will play something and you are supposed to carbon copy of what he/she is playing. This was the easiest for me (a little boastful, but true). But other than that, I simply passed cause I didn't find any excitement in learning them. To put it bluntly, I sucked at the rest! HAHA! (Note: That doesn't mean I am very good at listening. Sometimes, friends need to repeat 2-3x of what they have just said and they called m deaf too ... sigh)

Back to the present, I realized we are exposed to so many voices in a day. Phone calls, parents nags, friends' gossips, colleagues bickers, TV shows, radios, news, etc. You can't deny words that were spoken to you directly may just influence you without you knowing.

"Why can't you do things the right way?"
"Gosh, you are dumb!"
"You always spoil every single things you touch!"
"Are you sure?"
"You never think!"
"You are just not good enough."
"Geez. Don't you know?"

I believe some of them may sound familiar to you as they are too to me. As I live longer and get younger inside (:p), I realize, there's only one voice that matters - your own internal voice. That One Voice, ultimately will make you feel the way you feel, do the things you do and respond to the things you are perceiving. The whole world may tell you that you are wasting your time doing arts, but if that one voice says "NO. I LOVE THIS." guess who will win?

No matter how loud the external voices are, ultimately the voice that is inside you has the most power. What is yours saying right now? Do you like hearing it? If not, why are you letting it control your life? Wouldn't it be silly for a smart human being like us to say - "Erm, I don't know, my head voice tell me to do so." It sounds like we are the puppet and the master is the ... voice. I believe we can do better than that. I believe we can choose and select the things we want that voice to say. Though it seems like the voice may have his/her own automatic mode, ultimately, we are the controller of this gadget. May be we just need to be aware of what it's saying before we can "TSST" the voice (Cesar Milan's way) and by using our calm and assertive energy, claim back our own enriching voice.

We'd better be the one and only master of our own voice. Don't lose that right.

Image source: A funny banner that promotes crime prevention in Singapore.

Those Plastics Cards

Do you remember how you felt when you first got your credit card? How did you choose your first credit card? Was it based on the perks, points, credibility of the banks? I remember clearly my very first credit card was HSBC. Why? Because at that point of time, they gave the best perks in terms of grocery shopping. HAHA! I am like a typical “aunty”. I am still not sure if I got the best deal for my grocery shopping, but I am still happy with my HSBC cards. Don’t know why. That time, we didn’t have the convenience of CreditCard Surplus where one can simply apply online and organize the cards by interest rates, best deals, gas rewards, etc. Now you can even transfer your balance to other cards simply by few clicks of the mouse. See what technology can do to our lives. The danger of such convenience though, people can simply put off their payments, let it roll over and accumulate it as one big chunk of debt. The banks love such customers, of course. The interests in late payments part of their bonus.

When it comes to credit card debts, I still strongly believe in the traditional way of dealing with it. Have none at all. Do you know the interest rate can be up to 24%? For every $10 you owe, you need to pay $2.40 in interest. That’s just madness. If you can’t afford the thing in the first place, don’t buy it. You don’t need to depend on the bank’s money to show the world you own something. Ultimately, it’s still not yours unless it’s fully paid. No matter what credit card you are using, ultimately you should be the ultimate master of your spending. Never ever let your financial well being to be controlled by those plastics. No wonder there’s a saying that “Cash is King” and we will never hear about credit card in the same way.

Staying at Home

Guest post written by Kevin Beach

Being a stay at home mom is tough work but one of the things I find hardest is that I feel like my husband gets to make all the big life decisions. For example, when his company offered him a transfer to Texas he took it even though it wasn’t the best for me and the kids at the moment but I guess that’s how it goes when you’re not the breadwinner. On the flip side, we really like Texas and the kids are having a great time getting to know all the new people so that’s an unexpected bonus. I went to http://TEXASELECTRICITYPROVIDERS.com when we first got here to find out more about deregulated energy which I knew nothing about and it’s been a big change getting used to all the tax laws here. The weather is hot and the people are loud but other than that I can see us in Texas for a really long time, that is, if my husband doesn’t up and move us again anytime soon!

Thank You for Letting be Your "Anyhow" Teacher

This post may come a little bit too late but I would like to wish Happy Teachers' Day to those who teach in the traditional manners and to those who don't. I dedicate this post instead to my ex-students who still bother to see me as a teacher!

I used to be a teacher for a super duper short time ... so short that even with one hand, you can count the number of months I really taught. And if you scrutinize further the hours I did teach ... it was so measly that I wonder did I really deserve to be called a teacher?

Nevertheless, until today, I keep in touch with 2 precious students of mine. Both, cutely, used to be childhood best friends. One (Ms. Ding Dong) wished me over FB - an award winning media student, the other one (Aunty Cheng) sent me a Whatsapp message and currently is pursuing her career as a teacher, she's quite a sought-after tuition teacher herself.

Though honestly, academically I taught them NOTHING as I myself didn't know what I was teaching about. Don't ask me anything about Chemistry and Mathematics. There's a reason why I scored only A in the subject called - Tao of Action Learning. I am grateful enough to have their friendships. One helps me update all kind of perks, deals and latest gossips in town. One helps me to hunt down things from Paris then wrote me a postcard and said "Paris nice meh?". Geez ... tell me who's the lucky one here? I am.

Thank you, for letting me be your "teacher". Even 7 years have passed, you both are no longer in that yellow/blue uniforms, it's a miracle we still maintain our friendships. Here's to more years to come and by then I believe I will still look as young as you both! HUMF!

Love you all!

17th October 2005 - Celebrating Lonceng Ding Dong's birthday

8th December 2008 - Catching Up with Aunty Cheng @ Ya Kun

First Completed Fiction Homework

Finally, after weeks of taking a course in fiction writing, I am able to complete and show something!!!!!!! Fiction is so not my cup of tea, but thanks to this course, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and just whipped something up.

This particular exercise was to write in the "you" form. Meaning, the reader must become one of the character of the story. Not as first person, not as the observer either. The reader, you, will need to participate in it, sort of.

I hope you will enjoy my first and more worthy attempt into the world of fiction writing. Not sure if there will be more to come or not, we will see. No title has been given as I don't know what go name it. Any suggestion? Hmmm.....

........

Hello. You are new around here, aren't you? So, I heard. I will be your guide until you are ready to be on your own. Let's start your journey.

You see, we lead a very interesting life. Not too long but not too short either. Make use of what you can, okay?

First we need to look for food. That's quite easy nowadays. Especially at Mrs. Deneuve. Turn to your right! There! The house in green with picket fences. She always holds great parties. At least twice a week. Sometimes i wonder who she's trying to impress. Her husband has a mistress, at the other side of the city, who's so much younger and hotter than her. How do I know? Mr. Deneuve does bring her home when the madame is not around.

Yes, she knows. She knows it all. But she still lives with him, feeds him, clothes him, takes care of his children, knowing his heart is no longer there. I will never understand such relationship, will you? Thank God we are much simpler creatures with less dramas and demands. Maybe that's also why The One Up There didn't give us much to live for too. Hmm ...

Oh! Sorry. My thought was drifting away.

Thanks for the reminder. You can find food every Thursday and Sunday. Normally, it's in the morning. The helper will come out with a few trash bags of really good treasures. Lots of meat and eggs. Our favourites! They always waste lots of food. Good for us.

Next, you choose. Which one do you want to know?

The grey house? Bad choice! Haha. It's okay. You are still new. You will learn in few hours. Not much time to waste.

A single lady lives by herself in that house. As far as I know, she doesnt hold any party like Mrs. Deneuve. She lives a very quiet and disciplined life. I wonder what she does for a living. She wakes up really early, 5AM sometimes. Then she drives off at 6 to who knows where. She comes back around 9-10PM and she will have her dinner with almost zero waste. Hence, it's no fun to go to her house unless you want to meditate. Feel free to hover but I think you will be noticed pretty quickly and life will not be fun.

Let's take a break!

Here, under the shade. Nobody will notice us, I hope. We blend quite well with the colour of the wall, don't we? How are you feeling so far? Are you ready to be on your own? Don't worry. You will survive. All of us do too, eventually. We need to live and to survive at every moment. Be alert. You wouldn't know what hits you. I mean it. I have escaped a few whacks here and there. Look at me. I'm still here with you. My wings may not be pretty as before but they serve me well.

I wish I could show you more, my new friend. But I think my time has come. May be yours too in few weeks time. We will never know. Just keep flying and remain alert at all times. Be observant and enjoy all the human dramas that we won't see much in our world. We are too busy searching for waste those humans leave behind. I bet they secretly envy what we can do too. We are not just pests but observers of lives.

Image courtesy of my own album taken in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 08 April 2011

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Most Memorable Corporate Gift

Long gone the time when you want to a personalize gifts, you have to crack your head, look through yellow pages and meet up with the sales person to choose what you want. With internet now, everything has become so easy and efficient. It's amazing.

You are so spoilt for choices that you can choose what kind of categories you are interested in. To name a few:
- Apparels
- Bags and Totes
- Calendars
- Drinkware
- Pen and Writing
- Tradeshows and Events
- Keychains
- Sports
- Etc

Now, there are even companies who dare to claim that they are the lowest price with satisfaction guaranteed. They do all kind of custom notepads, I don't even know there's such term as top note pads. Geez. Then again, you can always use a very "green" type of notepad on your mobile phone or iPad.

Speaking of corporate gift. What was one of your best or most creative experience you have ever received from an event or a company? I am scratching my head now to think. And looking around me, I realize, not many of the corporate gifts are being utilized by me. Not even a mug!

But recently I went to an event called - Hubalicious Food Adventures with Dan Segall. It's a live cooking and eating event with celebrity chef Dan Segall, organized by Starhub Cable TV / Food Network Asia and Beringer Wine. You can view some of the photos from this event here. At the end of the night, each of us has a goodie bag. That was a nice surprised. We get a set of black and white kitchen wares such as salt and pepper, oil and vinegar set in black and transparent colour. That was awesome. By far it's one of the nicely presented gift ever. Though I have no use of them now, but I will sure remember them :)

Wonder what kind of corporate gift do leave an impact with all of you? Hmm ...

(Sorry for the bad quality photo. It's taken with my Blackberry. One of the lousiest phone camera ever.)

I Think I Can Die Now

HA!

You think it's going to be a morbid post? It's not. Don't worry. I'm not depressive or anything.

Just that at this moment of my life, I feel like a ball of happiness. So happy. So contented. So fulfilled that I can just die now.

Sometimes I really wonder why am I not dead yet? Why can't I just go happy like this? What's there for me to do ah ....? I wonder and I wonder ...

Let's see how long the wondering will go.

Guess there's something really not finished for me yet here ... Hmm ... I hope I will find it and finish it and still leave this world as one chunky ball of pure happiness.

On verra. (We'll see)

I hope you will have a chunky ball of happiness inside you too.

I greet each day with optimism and joy. I am a bundle of joy, and people love to see me. It is such an exciting time to be alive! - Louise L. Hay

Have You Seen Blue Rice Before?

Look at it.
It's so beautiful, isn't it?
Well to some, it may be a scary sight.
Blue/purplish rice?
Hell yeah!
It smells of lemon grass too.
Heavenly!

Don't ask me what it's made of but I know for sure it's all natural :)


It was supposed to be a business meeting but it turned out to be one of the best, authentic and non-MSG-ish peranakan food I have ever tasted. Plus a few life lessons shared. The whole experience was simply awesome.

The owner, Mr. Philip Khoo, is one of the rare passionate man I've ever seen. Passionate about his food, his culture, his heritage, his history, his recipes, his customers and his life. He lives with total and utmost passion. I have never really seen someone who is like him, except on TV or movies. He really breathes, lives and speaks Peranakan.

I love his sharing of each and every dish where each and every ingredients seem to play a very important part. I love his story on the very rich Peranakan culture, being and living as one, his mission in life is really to make sure the Peranakan food will not be forgotten and will be accessible to everyone. He said, Peranakan is not as subtle as French food, may be because their taste buds are numb (jokingly). Hence, Peranakan food is so rich and full of flavour that when you eat it, you simply can't miss the richness in its culture.

One of the most memorable story he shared is about 2 types of wealthy customers:
1. The one who are comfortable being who they are
2. The one who are not and whose egos demand for every attention they can get

Type 1, surprisingly he said, can be one of the best customer ever. Even if they have constructive criticism, they will try to let you know in a sensitive manner that will not hurt your feeling. Then when they reveal who they are, you will be shocked to death that they either hold a very high position in a company. Or the owner of some super famous establishments.

Type 2, however, to prove that they have all the power, to shout for attention, validation and acknowledgment; will make the biggest noise when something is not right. They are trying to match how they act with what they drive sometimes. "See, I am the boss. I drive a BMW. Treat me like a boss."

Being comfortable with who we are and not attached to any titles, material possessions, status, are not something that is easy to do especially in this ego-driven world. His sharing really reminded me of a phrase in Bahasa Indonesia:

"Seperti buah padi, makin berisi, makin berunduk."
Just like grains of rice, the more full they are, the lower they will bow.
Be humble.

Being a 1/4 Peranakan myself (I think! My grandma told me. So, I will take it that I have a little bittttttt of the Peranakan blood), I feel honoured to be in the presence of Mr. Khoo. Really hope his mission in life can be realized.

If you have the chance, and you love the robust and vibrant flavours in each and every ingredient, try the Peranakan food at address below. I swear I will be there again. :)

Baba King Nonya Deli
@ Changi Business Park
1 Changi Business Park Crescent
#01-22 Plaza 8
Singapore 486025

Tel. (65) 6587 3128
Website. www.BabaKing.com.sg

What Are You Allowing?

“Whatever you focus on expands.” – Christopher M. Knight

I believe somehow, somewhere, you must have heard about the quote before. It's one of the most common passing remarks. If you haven't heard it yet, that means you are not into self-help books or you haven't been surrounded by personal development junkies (like I used to be. Yes, I'm and "secretly" quite geeky that way).

In the self-help world, that quote is like a mantra. It's so common that people know it but they tend to take it for granted. Just like me. I know the phrase. I understand it. But so what? I don't really "apply" it. The realization comes so much later.

You see, the quote is simple it simply means whatever you focus on, will be bigger and more. For example, if you think you are ugly, you most probably will be and the more you look at yourself in the mirror in the future, the more you will feel ugly no matter what the whole world say. Because that's your focus. Your choice. It will expand.

The same thing applies on a more positive thought, such as,"I think I will meet nice people because I am nice." As naive as this sound, it works for me. I met nice uncles, aunties, contractors, students, strangers, etc. And it expanded by showing me even in other countries such as France, Belgium and Swiss, I found very nice people. I found them through the internet and voila ... I spent X'mas and New Year with them. Is it magic?

Hope you get the gist of this quote. If you don't believe, it's okay. It's your choice. It's not a theory that has to be proven right. I'm not here to do so too. But why I bring this up is because recently I notice something more interesting from this "theory" that allows me to modify the quote a little bit. My realization taught me the following:

"Whatever you allow to be focused on, expands."

Not much different, I know. And I am not trying to be funny to create a quote of my own. (Though a kind friend of mine on FB, Miss. I.S. did manifest that for me, but sorry, not yet :p). What I realize is from a conversation I had with my friend - or more like - a non-conversation. Let me know if I stray but this was my experience.

I was chatting with a friend and at one point I was ranting about a negative event that happened on that day. Normally, if someone did that to me, won't it be natural to ask,"what happened?" But this friend of mine, didn't. If there were cicadas, you should be able to hear them in the background. Mine was an imaginary cicadas serenading this gap in my non-conversational conversation.

"That was odd", I thought.
"Will I get a new question to deflect the awkwardness?"
"Should I ask the next question?"
"Should I demand for attention?"
"What should I do?"
"This feels weird."

Then my mind went silent.
Really silent for a few minutes.
A few minutes in my noisy mind felt like an eternity.

That's when I realize. Whether my friend did it on purpose or not, she taught me one of the most powerful lesson to be learned - whatever you allow to be focused on, will expand.

The words "whatever you focus on" never specify on the "who". It can be the speaker/the doer or the listener/the observer. Both sides have the power to choose on what to focus on next. By not allowing the negative conversation to progress further, the negative sentences will not breed into a full blown fairy tale. That realization, woke me up. I carry it with me all the time and pledge to be more aware of what I allow to be focused on.

So, what are you allowing now?

For now, I shall allow this cute cow - a photo I took when I was in Reims, France (28 December 2008) to penetrate my mind with a little bit of yummy silliness. *Slurping my cereal drink and smiling away*

Donna, What About Your Purpose in Life?

Recently, I posted something stupid on my facebook? Eh hold on -_-" I posted my previous blog post on my facebook. That's not too silly, isn't it? Anyway, I posted it and a friend of mine who had a great memory of my "silly questions" asked me,"What about your purpose in life?"

I used to "irritate" most of my close friends with the question - What is your purpose in life? If money is not a problem, what would you do? They will give me a stare, pondered a little then answer. This friend of mine, however, was in a same boat as me. We are both still searching, I guess. The conversation went something like this:

DD: What is your purpose in life?
My funny friend: Don't know yet.
(Few days later)
My funny friend: I know how you can know your purpose in life already.
DD: Really? How?
My funny friend: Google it!
DD: -_____________________________​_____-"

Though I almost fell of my chair when I read that, I did google it! Haha. I found Steve Pavlina's article is insightful as usual. I didn't read it. But the tab has always been open on my browser ever since and I continued living my life.

Can't believe one month has passed since then and apparently, I have not been losing sleep thinking about my purpose in life. I was too busy living my life. Literally. (Though some of my close friends don't agree with this statement.)

Believe it or not, I have one of the best 1 month ever. I have many new friends, many new experiences, connected with many old friends and even went to Beer Fest with one though we haven't met since university time, signed up to a new course, loving French even more, etc. For the first time I remember how it feels to truly live and breathe again. 90% of my breathing and non-sleeping moment, I feel alive. I feel grateful and blessed in every way.

Did anything change? Hmm ... not really but if I have to pinpoint on two things:
- I am more grateful with what I have
- I keep asking questions even though answers may not come immediately

You see, I still don't know what my purpose in life. And shitty events still pop out of no where. At times I could just flaunt my "French" in Hokkien that I didn't even accompany it with
"pardon my _______" to end the sentence. But one of the question I used to ask, I know how to answer it now. That feels really good. That makes a difference.

Question:
If money is not a problem, what would you do?

Answer:
If money is in abundance, I will spend as much quality time as possible with my friends. As I am someone who loves 1-to-1 interaction with people, that's when the quality of the conversation heightened, I will meet 2-3 different people a day and have a super quality time with them. I will travel if I need to and do this 5x a week. The last 2 days of the way, I reserve it for myself and my family.

I will learn from my friends and listen attentively as each words they say may be the next wisdom yet to be discovered. But I do have friends that function well as a group, we will go to a country of our dream and simply have a great "bitching with quality" time.

If money is not a problem, I would really love to visit the following countries on a regular basis just because my friends who live there easily triumph all the monuments that has ever been built.
- USA
- France
- Germany
- Belgium
- Switzerland
- UK
- Australia
- Canada
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- China
- Hong Kong

However, back to my friend's question - Donna, What about your purpose in life?
My answer to her was,"Still googling."

When I know it, my friend, my mouth that moves like that of goldfish, will definitely tell you about it. Meanwhile, I am going to choose to breathe as one wise man used to say:

"Choose to inhale; do not breathe simply to exist. That's not always easy but it is always worthy." - Final sentences of Mattie Stepanek on his dying bed.

Image courtesy of my own album taken in Toulouse, France 24th December 2008

What Would You Do When You Feel Helpless?

I have been very happy and upbeat these few weeks. Lots of ideas on what to write, just didn't manage to continue with it. Then suddenly, a sudden storm struck without warning to someone who's very dear to me. That's when I realize, damn, I am an emotional person. I am wrecked. I am not as cool as I think! -____-"

Suddenly a surge of helplessness takes over my body and mind, but my soul knows this too shall pass even though the battle seems really ugly. I am slowly back to a more neutral ground and hope the Universe will somehow work this one out.

Helplessness to such degree, I have never felt before. It feels awful. I wish I could do more. But I know, I can't do much.

Instead, I can BE more. I can choose:

• to be stronger
• to be calmer
• to be more objective
• to be wiser
• to be fearless
• to be positive, and finally
  
• to be free
  

I allow myself to sulk and sigh for one day and it is enough. It is draining and I wouldn't want it to has its own ripple effects. Life has to go on and lessons have to be learned and one needs to let go of one has no control of. I choose to be more than what the circumstances present and I hope, no matter how helpless your situation may seem, you will always have one thing to do - to choose who you want to be next.

Image courtesy of my own album taken in Paris, France 19th December 2008 @ Musée Rodin

This month, I celebrate my own independence. I choose to be free of all negativity, anger, fear, insecurities, jealousies--and any thought that makes me feel "less than." I no longer choose to live in the prison of my mind. I choose thoughts of love, joy, prosperity, and unlimited creativity and opportunities. - Louise L. Hay

Who Wrote Those?

Dear Readers

Dropping you a short note to clarify certain posts that you have seen or may see in the future. Sometimes, I do accept tasks and reviews to be posted on my blog. They can be reviews or simply a blog post to be parked on my blog. Unfortunately, due to the requirements from the provider, some of the posts look like it's written by me even though it's 100% a guest's post. So, don't be shocked if you see something that's suddenly so out-of-nowhere and wondering what's happening to me. That's probably, not mine :p But I gotta do it. It supports me in donating to a few charitable organizations :) One elephant and one rhino and possible to support another girl somewhere in other parts of the world. Will write more about them if I have the chance.

Hope you don't mind the occasional "visits" from others.

Thanks for still staying tune to my humble blog. :)

How Was "THE" French Class? - L'atelier des vins et de la gastronomie française

So ... she asked.
"Any feedback?"
"What do you think of the class?"
"Anything we can add and change?"

*Silence*

Seriously, I don't know how to answer those questions in French. Compared to most of my classmates, I am not only the youngest but the poorest with French vocabularies ever. Most of them either speak fluent French or have at least taken French course for minimum of 5 years. Me ... not even 2 years and even DARED to take a break for 1+ years. -__-"

I could understand 60-70% of the words but to respond to them, that's another realm.

"L'atelier des vins et de la gastronomie française" means French wines and food workshop. I registered myself to the class simply because there's the word WINE in it! I was even willing to pay a premium for it.

You think I'm a miser, right? Sometimes I am .... I brought my voucher to the counter and the aunty said,"you cannot use this voucher for this class ler ..." Then I replied,"Oh! Issit?" (Thinking for a few seconds and ...) "Ok lah ... I want this class.", I decided. The rest is history.

First day of the class was so intimidating! "WTF!" I was shouting so loud in my mind. Not only I was the youngest, littlest and lousiest with my speaking French! Most of them know their terroir, food, wines, Michelin chefs, map of France, .... I know RIEN (nothing)! Some can even recite the experience they have had with the Louis Vuitton of desserts, restaurants, etc .... I stared in amazement accompanied with my fit flop and chewing gum.

That was exactly 7 weeks ago :) Nothing changes, of course. I am still the youngest, smallest, and lousiest with my speaking French. I love Hokkien when combined with French and I still love to wear my FitFlops despite how horrendous the fashionista may think.

However, the invisible networks of friendships have evolved. One decision that I made 7 weeks ago has opened me up to a beautiful perspective towards world that I will never imagine I will be a witness of. Edith Piaf will say,"Je ne regrette rien (I regret nothing)."

What a wonderful classmates I have! To name a few:

• A perfectionist baker
• A happy and resourceful chef
• The "nose"
• The rescuer of the furry ones
• The one who shields us all
• The wine expert
  
• The "enlightened" Frenchie
  

"What do you think of the class?"
I think, it's fantastic.

Not because of the syllabus, the materials. But the passion of the teacher and fellow students. The moments they have weaved together through sharing their stories. And ultimately, the stories they will tell when they are asked by others.

"What do you think of the class?"
I think the class is like life. You may pay an expensive price for something that you don't even know what to expect. You went in with an open mind and open heart. You have no calculative ROI (Return of Investment). And you get out with an everlasting experience. It is something that words can't decipher and money can't really comprehend.

Ultimately, I am thankful for the experience. I am thankful for the kind souls I have encountered that I will be in touch dearly (provided they feed me with food, desserts and wines!). I learn so much from all of you that I would want to learn more. I have been fortunate and honoured to be at the presence of all of you. Hope these friendships, intertwined with the love of food, wines and desserts, will form a beautiful chapters in our lives.

Merci beaucoup, tout le monde! :)


PS. Photos of all the wines have been chosen because I respect the privacy of my classmates and let them be eternalized by these bottles always! HAHA (*what a crap I am writing, man*!)