My 1 week of no-work-no-tuition holiday!:D

Room RevampED. Yeah! I always love to clean up and reorganize my room every holiday, even those 1 week kind of holidays. It sort of marks the end and also the start of a sem/year/period.

It’s like cleansing for the soul. I always find peace when I am cleaning up my room alone. It’s just me and myself alone.

Going through the different piles of notes, clothes, letters and books brings me back to the different period of times. Always have lots of flashbacks and thoughts to every item.

Gone with the old items and here comes the new member to my bedroom! My “DIY” dressing table!

I actually converted the space above my cupboard filled with bags to a mini dressing table.

The idea first came when I was nearing the end of internship and I have more or less completed my work and even completed my PTS report. I started to sketch out plans on how to make use of the given space.

Then came the actualization part – Daiso and Ikea trips! :D

I officially declare (actually long ago) Daiso as my favourite place! Cheap and good! The one at IMM is the best – having the widest variety of products!

Wai Kei dropped me there and met up with his professor while I started to shop first. He has his own shopping list, which is so much shorter than mine! So it was settled very quickly – mainly stationery.

As for me, I bought things ranging from beauty to decorative to dustbin and to whatever products that promise organized and quality life.

I especially love the decorative adhesive from Daiso! Now my old and new mirrors have matching themes:D
Both our bill added up to around $90+ ($60+ for me, $30 for him).

Then we went to Ikea the next day for some window shopping and also to get my high chair, mini drawers, mirror, baskets, table lamp and what not. I also ended up bringing curtains home:)

Oh! My first time eating at the dining area - the cheesecake and the peach juice are really nice!:D

I just love to beautify my room. :)

This time round, my daddy and didi helped me to fix up the chair and drawers. *naked man and boy at work:P*
Then I spent the rest of the week packing and throwing and donating. It’s a major cleaning and revamp! It’s been quite some time since I did a major one, usually I just packed them into their original positions while this time really involved major REorganization.

Ta-dah! A neat space and a new dressing table!:D *claps for myself!* :D And I must say the actual thing does resemble my sketch!

Now I have enough space for my accessories and beauty products!:D

In comparison, his is a minor revamp. Just to highlight part of the revamp that includes the changing of his drawer skin.

His mum thought that he bought a new drawer - meaning we did a good job!:D It definitely wasn't as easy as it seemed. *claps for us!*

Revamping is tiring and brain draining to a certain extent too. But it's definitely worth the effort:D

Still left with a few things to settle but for now, it’s fully functional:D Yippie!

Love all my lovely guys – Daddy, Didi, ShaX2:)

Marcus 22nd bday. Celebrated his bday at his house! Marcus is so nice to invite us over to have a sumptuous lunch prepared by his mum. Really nice and feels like fine-dining lah – have appetizer, main course and dessert somemore.:D

Of course, I love the awfully chocolate cake! YummyX3!:D

Oh we bought him what he wanted - an expensive mouse! Although I still don’t really know what’s with the price, I guess he knows the difference and most importantly he really need it as his precious mouse died already. So happy mousing!:)Then we went to B-box at TPY Safra for singing! Umm.. Ignoring the relatively poor environment, we had great fun!:D We really sang our hearts out lah! While Lin Yi, the rich guy, just paid to listen to us scream. He could even nap loh.

When Olivia left, we discussed her bday “surprise” celebration plan on the cab.

Olivia 22nd bday. We celebrated it at my house! It was a heartwarming steamboat session as promised the other time. We met in the afternoon for grocery shopping and even though we didn’t say what it was for, it was pretty obvious we were preparing for steamboat. Since it’s for her bday, we thought it would be better to have her around to choose the food.

Actually, PohX2 already came over to my house before grocery shopping to refrigerate the ultimate durian cake and to keep the presents:D

Shopping together was fantastic! I think it was our first time doing this for steamboat:) So we practically just buy what we like:)

Lin Yi joined us later as he was in camp. Actually he joined us much later if not for his speed reading sms skill. He alighted at the first bus stop and just happily walked beyond the second bus stop. Arhhh~

Wearing uniform somemore loh, I even joked that he was parading around in his uniform lah hehe:D But really appreciate that he came to join us despite the distance and his army commitment. :D
All in all, I have a wonderful time with them! I seldom have the time to join their gatherings, not including those that Marcus forgotten to ask me along:P But I do appreciate that they still remember me and make me feel involved:D Times with them are really fun, all the silly laughing and joking, it’s just like back to secondary school days:D
We have plans to go on a graduation trip tog! Really looking forward to it:D

Green.

After meeting Chaos to work on our baby, Wai Kei came to fetch me over to Green Café for a quick dinner before we met up with his TPJC friends for singing:)

Since Green Café was closed for closed event, we went over to the Canopy which also serves the Green Café menu. However, the ambience and environment over at Green Café are quieter and greener, so hopefully next time we can revisit Green Café again:)

The Green Café menu serves vegetarian food that doesn’t taste vegetarian at all! It’s super delicious! He had a mushroom burger and I had laksa made with soy milk, “abalone” and “prawns”. Oh! And we both love the apply crumble w a scope of vanilla ice cream!:DPartyworld with TPJC Arts friends. Got to know another new friend from his JC, she sings super well! And she’s getting married soon! Sept 09! :D Got to interact more with Xue Zhen and Dezhi, especially since we only met once last year. Dezhi is back for holiday from his overseas study in architecture while Xue Zhen is moving on to study in NIE after her teaching stint ends in mid-Aug. All the best!:D
Impromptu job assignment. Thanks Gary for entrusting his students to me! Despite the last minute notification and training, Gary was really encouraging about letting me be the support trainer for one of his classes as his trainer couldn’t make it that day.

Although initially I was abit reluctant to step out of my comfort zone (and holidaying mood), I am glad that I did:) It was indeed a fruitful and great learning opportunity. Sharing with the students my personal experiences in public speaking also helps me see how much I have grown and improved. Hope they will remember my little P friend whom I introduced them to. :D

Jogging on wheels. Yeah! One more item off our to-do list! Hehe..Skating! After Wai Kei brought me on a torturing cycling trip around Pasir Ris for don’t know how many kilometers, I swore that I’m going to make him skate with me since he is quite new to it!
Although I know how to skate, I am already rusty. I couldn’t skate as smoothly as I imagined I could haha.. Luckily I got the hang of it after some time, but still not as agile as when I was much younger (during pri school hahahaha).

I would have expected him to fall loh. Chey! He almost fell once only. But could really see that he was really focusing very hard. :) Even though he wasn’t as fast as wanted to be, he didn’t complain or “vent” his anger on me.

His effort is definitely worth 100%! Esp when a cyclist zoom passed and over took him, and he said, “Usually, I’m the one overtaking people loh,” I really appreciate that he tried something new for me:D We made a pact. We shall alternate between cycling and skating:D So it’s cycling the next time!:D

So now, it's back to the usual 4 tuitions per week:) Left less than 2 weeks of holidays before year 4 officially starts! Lots of things happening, lots of things to learn and lots of things to do!:D

Make the most out of our holidays!:D

18th May 2009 - 17th July 2009

PTS. Finally the long awaited PTS is finally over! I am grateful to have such thoughtful colleagues to treat me to a simple yet meaningful farewell lunch:)

Lots of heartfelt gratitude to them and I have expressed them in the form of letters:) Hope they like it:) It's handwritten and customized - not the standardized form okie:)
During this internship period, I also had a number of small yet meaningful accomplishments during this period.

Scholarship. Gone through rounds and rounds of interviews and gotten the BCA Industry Scholarship with CPG.

The giant awakes. Completed reading “Awaken The Giant Within” by Anthony Robbins – a very inspiring and surprisingly practical and insightful personal development book. It’s definitely worth the time spent reading it on my journey to and fro work. Trust me – it’s not like any other personal development book.

Contribution. As inspired by the book, I have also signed up as a member of SG Cares under NVPC. Heeding the advice: “Decisions to be followed by actions”, I have attended the Volunteer Orientation on Thurs. I applaud myself for taking this small but crucial beginning step. Next step is to sign up and attend volunteering activities.

Tuitions. First time attempting to juggle work with tuitions and 4 tuitions to be exact. Tuition after a long day of work is really physically draining. It not only robs away my leisure and rest time, my proper dinnertime is also compromised.

However, it’s such a joy to see my students learning well. Knowing that all the time and effort I have put in directly equates to them learning more and being better prepared for exams – this is one of the main motivations that keep me going.

Teaching secondary school students have also allowed me to build a stronger bond with them without worrying about instilling discipline. So it’s more friend-friend relationship rather than tutor-student.

Big Plan. And what’s more fun than working on A BIG PLAN with CHAOS! It’s going to be our BIG baby, mothered by 5 ladies. After so many years, CHAOS is finally geared up once more to put up a performance, a performance off stage but online.

879. Our 1-year anniversary! We celebrated twice. A homely Saturday carrying out our celebration protocol. And another one on the actual day, it’s actually our usual weekly after-work dinner but with greater significance (and budget too!).

Specially (cum randomly) prepared a healthy lunch for him @ my house!:D

Menu for the day was only confirmed when the shopping was done. So it's a shop and get inspired kind of menu but with one criteria - healthy:)

So presenting chicket fillet salad, egg cum black pepper ham cum salmon spread sandwich and my proudest "invention" - watermelon cum nata de coco yogurt! :D

After lunch, we went to collect our huge collection of photos! We have much difficult selecting them as we really took alot of photos!:) But the process was really nice as we get to browse through what we have gone through for the past 1 year:D

Then off we went to his house to start on our 878-879 photo album :D Anyway, it's still in the process of making as there are really alot of photos and I have to admit I am really busy with other activities since internship ended. But will definitely work on it as I can't wait to admire the final produce:)

Our actual 879! ShaX2 bought me to buy a really pretty necklace. It's customized, so it's still in the process of making. Can't wait can't wait:D

And the best way to deal with my cup-corn craving is to have it homemade, by ShaX2 of course!:D

Happy 1 year!:D May we have many many more 87- years to come:D

Javelin. Or BB Curve which I personally prefer. If there’s only one application that I can keep, it will be my Pocket Informant (PI). It’s now my portable 24/7 organizer which allows me to plan my schedule whenever I want to without having to sit down and note it down manually.

This is especially important for me, as I don’t usually record down trivial tasks and tentative events in my book organizer. Hence these tasks (though small but as important) tend to slip my mind. And it makes changing of tuitions and appointments so much faster and liquid paper-free.

Anyway, for the purpose of showing my BB again haha, here's photos taken when we had Swensens 1-for-1 at United Square during ShaX2's lunchtime as I was at CPG for deed signing. Love taking photos of him:D

On a side note: I have actually almost stopped using “as such” totally, even in my PTS report! That’s so scary. I must have linked much pain towards using this phrase that I’m actually avoiding it altogether. I’m sure my facilities planning group will be so glad.

Deeper thoughts. 2 of my recent tweets are the results of observations I got during this internship period.

“What we cannot really see tends to be of greater importance. Love vs Money. Life vs Body. Character vs Looks.” Seeing many people, especially working adults, they don on nice suits and trendy formal wear with branded bags, pens, handheld set and even a glittery bluetooth. Inevitably, they must have certain career positions and financial status. At first instance, I thought how I wish I could be like them.

However, on deeper thoughts and closer observations, do they look happy? I may not know, but apparently they don’t appear to be. To me, most of them, if not all of them, portray signs of weariness, dullness and boredom. Why is it so?

Can it be due to the pursue of nothingness? People work hard to earn better income and to gain better status. But many a times, when this goal is met, they don’t feel much happiness. Even if there is, more often than not this source of happiness is never permanent. Of course, nothing is permanent. So maybe that is why humans are never satisfied, they keep chasing. Keep chasing for that permanent thing known as nothing.

Then is it because people have the misconception about money and status? It appears that with money, we can achieve much material luxury, so people sub-consciously equate them to happiness.

I guess it’s actually not the physical coins and cash that make us happy, rather it’s what they can do for us that create happiness. More money means we can pamper ourselves, eat what we crave for and get anything that we can exchange money for happiness. So it’s the things that we derive from money that make us happy – money itself can be a source of happiness but it’s definitely not happiness. But somehow, there are people who thought otherwise.

Happiness is not just about we earning more. Happiness is about feeling loved and having the ability to love others. Essentially, I think that happiness is about you feeling good right from your heart.

Money is not the only thing that can make us feel good. Knowing that we have self worth, knowing that we can make a difference to people around us, knowing that you have truly live your life and knowing that your presence on Earth is significant make us feel good, for a very long time. Not permanent still, but definitely much more long lasting effect I supposed.

So don’t just work for the money. Don’t just focus on work. And don’t just study for the career. “There is so much more to life than work and study.” I believe the world will be a better place to live in or at the very least, you yourself will feel better, if people focus more on doing good and spreading love. We are humans with emotions but are we working ourselves too hard as though we are robots? And are we so task-oriented that we treat each other as working robots as well?

I’m definitely guilty of working like a robot, especially with all the deadlines. However, we are different from robots as we have the ability to make the right decisions and choose how we want to live our life. So make everyday a happy day knowing that you have truly live your life. I’m really glad that this year I have decided to focus on things other than study and work.

I re-ignite my passion for dance and my desire to perform on stage as a different person.

I devote more time to reading personal development books and reading on the dharma.

I dare to believe that CHAOS Big Plan will work and am committed to making it a reality and not just one of my daydreams.

I focus more on the strengths of others instead of picking on their weaknesses.

I have decided to contribute.

I have decided to love, learn and live my life as a legacy.

It is definitely easier to go with the flow and be stuck in the cycle of everyday life. However, I know that the fact that I am becoming more aware and that I have made the decisions to change for the better, I am on good ground to level up.

To end off, “Nobody is perfect, there are bound to be hits and misses. Just don’t let any misses negate your hits.” Be fair. So be kind to yourself and be even kinder to your loved ones for they are the ones who will enrich you.

Wow! I didn’t expect myself to have such a long write-up on my deep thoughts. Perhaps my head is bigger for a reason. Just trying to capture what’s in my mind. I rarely have the opportunity to find the time to note down my deep thoughts, so I’m glad I did this time. My head somehow feels lighter now. Or maybe, it’s me who is feeling lighter!

Anyway, this post was typed a few days ago:) More to come with lots of photos!:D Hope everyone is enjoying this holidays as much as I do, esp for those who just ended internship!:D