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)