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