Moving Out

I am moving out officially!

It's been a long while since I updated my blog. To me, blog is the only omnipresent-available, rather secure and permanent online diary where every milestones of my life are recorded. It marks one's history, allows self-reflections and thoughts. A nostalgia and intriguer when you look back to what you used to amazingly do.

Back to the topic, and yes, I'm unmistakably gaining full-pledged independence. Seems kind of late for in my 20s. Caucasians start their new life at the age of 18. 

Rented a shared room near my workplace (upper changi)! Which was terribly far from my home, and I meant horror. Estimated 2 hours+ MRT + bus ride each time. Which rounds up to 4 hours reluctantly spent on solely commuting and squeezing among the million population in the cramp jam cabin. You know how painful is that. Having to stand throughout the whole journey is something I could never imagine and given that it was already the fastest route.

Well, money is the common factor taken into consideration by many. In my opinion, there are intangible factors that weigh far more than money - that is, TIME. The second ticks, waiting for no one. The far most important thing money can't buy.

2 hours standing on the ride strained us out. Given the cramped condition, it is hard to getting your phone out to read given how time-efficient you want to. Not only that, each day I would have to wake up at least an hour earlier (5.30 a.m.) to put on full makeup and hairdo. Madness. Moving out, I gained 3 hours/day and can utilize it to the fullest.

Next, SLEEP. Quality rest is crucial for good physical status. An hour less of sleep than the standard duration means one less unit of energy and alertness to strive in your workplace. Moreover, getting the most out of the 4 months of intensive training is paramount to the foundation of your working performance later. Something I couldn't afford to neglect.

Of course, while lightening my burden of fatigue and unnecessary time consumption, there are trade-offs. My family, good friends who dwell in the west, and my queen size bed, my lavender room that I love like gem.

Nevertheless, I will always return on weekends! So then... :)

Laziness kills

... YOLO!

Book Review 1: Teach Yourself: Successful Marketing In A Week! By Eric Davies

A basic guide to marketing for any interested individuals; whether you are thirsting for extra knowledge, bored, or an start-up entrepreneur-to-be. This will provide a basic outlook of the marketing world, in terms of relationship with customer, competitors through marketing research and analysis, and most crucially, the packaging of product, price, place as well as promotion or pull-string techniques.

A pocket-sized book, it is small, light and convenient to slot into your handbag and carry with everywhere you go! The content is neatly organized and disparaged into different chapter, these are substituted by the days (Sunday-Saturday) for readers to stick on their daily reading habit and spending around 15 minutes to absorb each lesson. It appears to be a good method of igniting that motivation  with simple plan like this, killing laziness that might hit and give ways to excuses.

However, as a relatively new reader who is into business learning, it doesn’t keep my reading interest burning. It was rather painstakingly reading, and tormenting to have chunks and big paragraphs of words hitting onto your face. It is okay to be wordy, in fact, many books are especially novels. However, the writing style of the author lacks the element of keeping one interested in the long-run and makes the whole thing tiring.

Mistake me not. I, as a typical school-goer Singapore for the past decades, have been trained to study deadpan-ly and read long hours and was never defeated.

Some of the reasons could be, the font style which makes one dizzy. Second, there is no attention grabber – e.g. case study, anecdote or sharing of author’s experiences except a 2-pages 10 dry MCQs at the end of each chapter. Third, interlink between each paragraph section is rather weak. There is a deficiency of intriguing factors that maintains your curiosity towards the very end of the chapter.

One word conclusion, dry.

Will I recommend?
Even as a usual read-it-all and somehow technical-learning person, I find it a mental pain to continue reading. Probably there are better books out there! 

8 most regrettable things of an old man

Broke off a habit and be active! After attending a physiological talk by Dr Arlene Taylor, also an influential speaker and Adventist Christian, I decided to make a positive change for the sake of my 'active aging'.

Not only did I crunched my toes (same logic to your car's ignition key) before I rolled off my bed, one of the first few things I did was switching to FM100.3 from my angmoh-inclined ears of FM92.

"8 most regrettable things of an elderly", absolutely turned my curious button on!

You might have already guessed one - travelling. Surprisingly NO! Look on!

1) Not taking care of HEALTH
This includes regular exercising and healthy diet. Young and middle-aged individuals may find themselves physically passable and continue to eat whatever they like (ignoring how sinful the food is) and giving all sorts of excuses that feed to their laziness.

Some may claim, "Life is short, just do it!". Or, "If not, when?" It surely holds some truth in it. However, life with zero self-control is akin to a piece of shit. Chaos.

Many elderly ended up having a lack of pride, low self-esteem and worthless, having to greatly or fully depend on others. They could not handle simple daily tasks and instill an internal distress.

2) SMOKING
Needless for elaboration, it damages your brain, lungs, teeth blahx3 and uglifies your image.

Many elderly who used to smoke heavily suffered from breathing difficulty. The thirst of, one breath of fresh air, can never ever come true.

3) Unacquisition of making NEW FRIENDS
Like me and you, there tend to be introvert and extrovert. No matter who you are, as long as you can read this, you are a human being and destined to be social animal.

No individualist can live. And yes, I meant LIVE!

As you grew older and your mindset began to set in, it will be increasingly hard to change. When you get older, more morale and physical supports are required. Learn to open up now, throw yourself out there, or else you will find it even harder later.

So, don't be shy! :p

4) No HOBBY
Many elderly found themselves lost. Their lives meaningless.

It is said that "a hobby requires 5 years to cultivate." Hobby = Happiness.

Yes, you got it.

5) Lack of INDEPENDENCY
Are you someone who could not tolerate 'self-accompany'? Then you are in great trouble.

As one gets older, hearing ability deteriorates. The world could get eventually softer, and then silent. Loneliness and anxiety may plunge, beware!

6) Lack of ACCOMODATION PLAN
Stay WHERE With WHO? 

Uh huh!

7) Lack of an ENERGETIC LIFESTYLE
This includes your perspectives of life at different stages - acceptance and indulgence. Having unfulfilled wishes and etc.

Many elderly are lost due to the lack of directions in life. Therefore engaging in events that provide a light of hope e.g.  religion can help.

8) Lack of POST-MORTEM PLAN
Never will you want to see your descendents slitting one another's throats.

And coffin, if you care.

Hit a Job!

Good news: I have finally gotten the job! The one which made me bit my teeth, panted, sweated, wiped, and 'bleed' for  the intensive workout! Commercing in Jan, there will be another long month to pull through before my covenant signing slipped under my shivering hand (rather touched, that I won't have to nua anymore).

So happy! The experience of being selected is brain-squeezing and hard-earned, plus majority of luck. Thanks God for working miracle. Especially when I barely slept the night before hee.

Preparation? Nothing but connecting with, focusing on Christ on my hour-ride there. :)

In layman terms, chillax.

Throughout the past 1.5 mth, I'd become healthier and more energetic than before. Exercising is great! It is never about slimming. Never about diet. It is, in fact, about strengthening your physical and mental states. Stronger torso, less susceptible to injury and disease, greater immune system, greater perservance, higher generating of endorphins - happiness.

First self-promise: I will continue to exercise and keep fit. At least twice a week.

Because, it makes me feel lighter and confident.

Keep track, friends! I'm gonna make a long list of promises to myself before immersing into the working class.

Reason being: I want to keep good traits of mine and never want to end up another unhappy working class.

Keep positive at all times. Oops! Another promise. Haha

~~~

Today was beautifully with my visit to my church's chinese cell group. We had dinner together and had a worry quiz which precedes sharing.

As expected, I am an irritating optimist. Neither hopeless nor self-denial. Just optimistic.

I believe, at least, solvable matters are not worth a headache. Be it confrontation, workplace stress, relationship issue. They all have a way out.

It is only a matter whether you have the courage to admit, confront and act.

During sharing session, we talked about peace. A counteract against worry in life.

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Although worldly matter may plague our well-being, we can have a freedom of choice - to let worry comes in, or block it out.

It mainly relies on us if we want to be affected. It is up to us if we want to let external factors affect our inner state.

And let us always remember, only in God is perfect love found.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

In God's love, we have no fear. Perfect love has no fear. It triumphs.

As the human race, we are weak by nature. We are unconsciously tempted by many plots of Satan - desires of success defined by fame, social status, wealth, workplace performance, recognition and relationships. Continuous pursuit of these make us restless, stress and worrisome. Peace is casted away.

This clause also side-trackingly reminded me of a life philosophy, "You can only love others when you love yourself." Similarly, by abiding and receiving the gracious love from Him, our love is only then perfected. And there, we become courageous, secure and can love others.

God has given us an everlasting promise, a genuine one. Peace comes with faith in God. Faith is a divine gift from Him, so as peace. To obtain inner peace, we need to trust Him. And with peace, you are resilient, you have no fear.

We achieve everlasting victory and Satan defeated.

These I wrote in abstract. If you have any enquiry and comments, please feel free to contribute.

God bless and goodnight! :)

ITD 19 - Happy Bakery!

Before my Intensive Training Day moves on to the 20th 24 hours, which I probably won't work out much since it's the Lord's Day, let me carry out my regular duty by updating about my health progress for the past week! :)

ITD 16 - Revigorating
Joints stinged after 5 km the night before.

ITD 17 - Aerobic Dance 
Fun and effective as usual. Waist stabilises at 26 inches as usual. (Reminded me while I was sharing this 'victorious' result of losing 2 inches of mine last night. Felt awkward when I think back now as if I'm trying to hao lian or what but well... wasn't that intention. Haha)

ITD 18 - Challenge of 5.5 kilometers!
A friend of mine was supposed to join me in the healthy run but backed out last minute due to some appointment. It was quite a let-down. Nevertheless, since I was already there at Liang Court after my job interview, I might as well took the good opportunity to train up and appreciate the great scenery myself!

Luckily enough, my old old friend Tucky jio-ed  and recommended me to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner! Compensated for my minor disappointment earlier. It was called Zi You Zai near Boon Keng MRT. We ordered Hor Fun and Yi Mian.

Yi Mian @ $4

The place is convenient to locate. Food is decent, edible, being average is sufficient. The best thing about this restaurant is that it is valuable and not pricey like most others. Particularly salad stall where you can never understand why can they be so costly and overrated when there are more options to a healthy diet by our Eastern way.

It is undeniable that our society is too much blinded by westernization - be it lifestyle or diet - that we are starting to copy in every footsteps of theirs and determining the boring way (salad, like grass eating) as the healthy meal.

In fact, look at our Asian counterparts, were we ever obese compared to the West? Standing in a neutral point of view. In fact, our food may not be anywhere low in cholesterol or fats, but we definitely have a less fattening diet (on an average person) compared to theirs. 

It may not be righteous to say that we are more health-conscious than them. Surely everyone loves their body, just compare our diets in general.

At the end of the day, it all boils down on oneself to nourish your body system with the right variety of food necessary for healthy growth and lifestyle!

ITD 19 - Baking experiments!

 Bold attempts. Washed the baking tools and utensils like mad. It's all worth it! ;)

Chocolate Lava - drives you mental!

I only did it successfully after 3 attempts, with slight alternations each time, temperature and ingredients step-by-step. Fully utilized the existing resources at home - soon-expiring cocoa and hardly-used powder sugar. 

Patience is highly appreciated and returned in the process. The chocolate lava turns out great! It drove me crazy when the liquid of chocolate lava in the hot oven was oozing out! I immediately turned crazy and that was where you know you did it!

Gave it to my cocoa-maniac father. He absolutely loves chocolate! And worth mentioning, the culprit of all existences of different brands of chocolate bars at every corners of our home fridge. Apparently he liked it alot! :p

Fed my poor mommy some, even though she had enough of the kueh-like 'lava' beforehand. Keke...

Remembering my old old friend's belated birthday! Soooo... I baked a simple cake for him!

 Japanese cotton cheesecake - Took me one whole morning to bake this. Oven baking by itself took an hour plus excluding time for preparation and cooling down.

 That explains the relatively high-cost of this beautiful invention. Time is precious. 

I was glad to know that my church friends still missed my cotton cheesecake. M actually came telling me that she tried a cheesecake outside recently but immediately thought of my bakery which is deemed much nicer! I was so flattered but happy! Although the fact there was still room for improvement! :)

Other than my eye-candy baking fairytales,

we finally installed air-con!

Well, I'm considerably an environmentalist. At least, this identity is quite confirmed since my active participation and initiative in such advocates in my colorful uni days. It is time for my parents to enjoy a small luxury like this - especially given to the increasingly humid and warm weather, my mother was complaining about headaches and uncomfy and etc.

My parents were very excited and anticipated towards the arrival of 'air-con man'. Haha.. Weird enough, as I grow older I find them cuter. It is unexplainable.

How I wish I was the one who bought this mini luxury for them, instead of them spending their money of their own.

By this time, they were already happily enjoying being blown at by the newly-installed air-con.

I still remember when I was young, I kept pestering them the questions, "Why didn't we have air-conditioner?", "Why do we only have fans?". I was told we were poor to afford the seemingly-conventional materials, which in fact it was.

Although they may not be as highly-educated, they invested much efforts in nurturing us and teaching us the importance of education which they couldn't afford to enjoy during their eras.

To be a little thick-skinned, they are getting luckier each year as we each grew up to be capable children who did relatively well in their studies and career individually. 

There are many things I want to give them. That is why I want to have my job commerce soon and start being financially independent and capable. That is also why I set my visions towards aviation industry.

The other part of the reason is because of my intuition.. I feel that there is a compelling force telling me to head towards tourism-customer service-related industry, and next relating to business. I am not certain how it will turn out for me, frankly speaking. I am afraid that this decision of mine is somehow steered by superstitious factors.

However, one thing for sure, no matter where I go, He is watching and He will guide me along the way. I am sure every near-future journey of mine will benefit me in my further-future walking path.

I even thought of devoting my life into the ministry in my later age (since I may stay single forever), which my pastor and I incidentally discussed. He was quite surprised, since it was considerably rare for people to think towards this direction and let alone women. Nevertheless, he generously volunteered in giving me advices and links to more research into this area.

One thing he said is very true, "If God wants you, there is no way you can escape."

"That's why I'm here." I replied. :)

ITD 15 - 5km jog from Raffles Place - Esplanade - MBS

Summary of my MIA-ness:

ITD 12 - Aerobic Dance

ITD 13 - Sabbath Day! The seventh day, the rest day, the Lord's Day, the sign between He and us. Chilled out with my church friends and had an unexpected, luxurious meal.

Very sinful indeed. :(

I was too phobic to have my figure rebound. Upon returning home, I came across this interesting aerobic dance video and acted it out for an hour. It was sooo fun and effective! Sweated like crazy and really stamina-challenging!

After all the conventional exercises that you had repeatedly done for a period of time, there is an urge for you to make variations and add some spice into your routines! Or even for improv and try out something new!

ITD 14 - Rest day from ITD! (Recommended to rest or do only light exercise a day before a heavy one.)

ITD 15 - 5 kilometers JOG from Raffles Place - Esplanade - MBS. This marks a milestone in not only my sports arena, but also my life! I never try jogging this distance before, let alone finishing it in 35 minutes!

I usually jogged at 7.5 km/hr in gym, over a distance of 3km. If you calculate the speed, I have vastly improved to a speed of 8.57 km/hr! 

Partly owed to my encouraging sporty mates along the process! :D

Three take-homes my sporty mates and I picked up after the jog:

1. You jog better & smoother if you avoid intensive & heavy exercises a day or two before! (physically tested)
2. Jog constantly and at a slightly faster pace! The slower you jog, the easier you get exhausted.
3. Divert your attention. Talk to your sport mate along the way. This can keep you active and distract you from the exhaustion building up below. Alternatively, you can focus on the details of the surrounding and scenery! (Change location to jog once in a while. Surprisingly, you will start to find how beautiful Singapore can be!) 

One of my sport mates actually sighed happily, praising about the beautiful scenery around Singapore River. He was 150 kg and now 85 kg after merely 10 weeks of continuous exercise and healthy diet.

He felt much more lighter after shedding half of his weight! Moreover, he is also very inspiring and determined that he would never want to rebound back to what he was in the past. Really happy for him! 

Good news: My waist had trimmed down to only 26 inches! As of last week's 27 inches. Everyone around me started to notice the difference in me - not my waist, but sharper chin! ;)

I am not underweight. It still remains the same. Wonder where my fats went to! :D

As mentioned a few times before, it all boils down to your diet. Do you know? Your body shapes in the way that 80% is based on your diet and only 20% is based on your physical exercise and calorie-burning activity!

Seriously I ate as usual everyday. Nothing changes except the exclusion of supper! It really makes a big difference. Ask every slim and tummy-flat people. 

I know eliminating supper from your regular diet can be a tough one. However, you must understand the utmost fact that if you keep having this bad habit, you will NEVER IMPROVE!

In fact, it is common for people to mistake 'thirsty' for 'hungry'.

I have pulled it through and felt much healthier now! Keep drinking water after 7 p.m.. Alternatively, you can have a piece of non-sweetened seaweed if you are really hungry. 

Remember to accompany it with early turn-in. 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. is the golden period of resting where your body is repairing itself sweetly. 

Share enough. Leave a comment at my post if you have any questions. I'll be happy to help! 

JIAYOU!