Life is full of sorrow and happiness, ups and downs. I create it as some kind of day-to-day life into words. Just to release what I feel.. although not completely what I really feel :)
As usual, let me update the list of the book I read for the second half of the year 2018. I started it with August since I had no time to read in the month of July :)
August 2018
August 2018:
1. The Perfect Nanny - Leila Slimani
2. Sadness Love Openness - Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
3. The Sound of the Mountain - Yasunari Kawabata
4. She Regrets Nothing - Andrea Dunlop
5. Do This For Me - Eliza Kennedy
September 2018
September 2018:
1. The Woman in the Window - A. J. Finn
2. Those Other Woman - Nicola Moriarty
3. Beautiful Liars - Isabel Ashdown
4. When Life Gives You Lululemons - Lauren Weisberger
5. The Light Between Us - Kathie Khan
6. My Book of Life by Angel - Martine Leavitt
7. Sea Prayers - Khaled Hosseini
8. See All the Stars - Kit Frick
October 2018
October 2018:
1. Chronicles of Love and Death - Norma Levine
November 2018
November 2018:
1. Hot Tea Across India - Rishad Saam Mehta
December 2018
December 2018:
1. Three Little Lies - Laura Marshall
2. The Wild Woman's Guide to Travelling the World - Kristin Rockaway
3. The Next Person You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
4. Killing Commendatore - Haruki Murakami
5. The Sadness of Beautiful Things - Simon Van Booy
6. All the Lives We Never Lived - Anuradha Roy
I love books quote (Pic source: Google.com)
With it, I managed to read total of 40 books, as per my goal I set earlier this year. Yayyy!!! But this time I read mostly novels instead of Buddhism related books. Hehehe.... Perhaps I just wanted to get away for real life and sunk myself into other people's world, to see how others could generate such idea into writings, and so on.
My wish for you for the upcoming New Year 2019 :)
Just one more day, it will be the end of year 2018. Hope all of you are doing great in this year, have filled your life with so much beautiful memories (be it good and/or bad), lived your life to the fullest, realized so many dreams that once it looked so hard and far to reach, and welcoming 2019 with open arms, full of positive energy, good feelings that everything that you do will be good and great, realize more and more dreams of yours, and most importantly, be happy!!! :)
Last running event (10-km Standard Chartered Marathon) of the year - 8th December 2018
Time was indeed running, just like the Standard Chartered10-km marathon I had last Saturday, 8th December 2018. I often heard about it before, but first time finally joined it. I had it together with PY and also with my brother, sis-in-law, their relatives and friends.
10-km Run For Hope at the beginning of the year 2018 - 21st January 2018
Finished it slightly faster (1h20m) than the one I had beginning of the year - Run For Hope on 21st January 2019 (1h28m). It still felt just like yesterday though.
This month I had no travel planning to anywhere as I had so many doctors' appointments, purely landed my butt at my home sweet home, doing things I loved doing, spending quality time with my families, keeping in touch with many friends who stayed all over the world, and so on.
Christmas gift from the heart - Home-baked lemon cake :)
With the latest purchase of new toy, I kept practicing and made the better version of marble cake. Also, I learned the second cake that I loved eating, from YouTube, which was lemon cake :) It turned out quite well. Made small versions and gave it as presents for my dear friends, while the big one - as my dear son's Birthday cake :) Btw, my friend liked it so much and suggested me to sell it :D She would be my first buyer of the bigger version of lemon cake!!! Thank you la for your support and encouragement!!! :)
Baobei turned 16th today!!! Yayyy!!! 12.12.2018
Did I mention Birthday??? Yeah.. today is my Baobei's Birthday!!! He's been living for 16 years now since he came out from my belly hehehe... And the cake that you saw at the above photo, was the large version of the lemon cake that I made :) Looked not bad right??? :D (Baking cake - sweeten's people's lives - and staying at home as a housewife was my dreams since the initial days of my life :) Thank Buddha for giving me a chance to realize these dreams although I am not sure how long this will last!)
Oh, I also made video compilation above today, the continuation from his 11th Birthday to the present time. Pardon me for the poor quality video and the watermark that appeared, as it was a free trial version :P (Earlier on, I made his 0 to 10 years video compilation, which you can watch it here :))
Started wearing reading glass - oh man... getting old now... sighhhh.....
I spent my time reading sometimes. The above was among few books I had been reading this month. And I guessed I had the old people eyes now. I needed the help of the reading glass in order to read now. Sighhhh..... our body could not lie the age I was holding now. It kept deteriorating one way and another. Hope it would not get worse in near future.
P.S. This book showed you how you should give your miserable job up (of which you hung unto it because of it's so highly remunerated) and instead, follow your passions and dreams doing what you love doing to have a happier life, plus follow your heart to love and let yourself be loved by someone who loved you. You deserved happiness in life after all!!! Nice read, believe me!!! ;)
Not forgetting to spend time watching the latest famous K-drama - Encounter or Boyfriend from TVN every Thursday and Friday at 9.45pm. Hahahaha... My Myanmar ex-colleague introduced me this drama and I had been hooked since its first episode. Watch it if you find the access at anywhere you stay guys!!! The main stars - both guy and girl - were very good looking. But the guy's characters that attracted me most - traveler, photographer, reader, and so on... ;)
Walk and move up!!!
Well, raining season was here again!!! I hardly got any chance to cycle in evening time due to the rain. Lucky my friend gave me the watch that could track my steps every day. With it, I could find out how much steps I had made each day and tried to walk at least 10,000 steps every day. So far, I could only make it on alternate days instead of every day though, but better than just sleeping whole day in my room :)
Baobei's part time job as a waiter!!! Jia you!!!
Since Baobei reached 16 this year, he was legally allowed to work part-time. This holiday time he started utilizing his time to work and try various jobs before settling to this one. He felt that this suited him best since he received staff meal allowance (delicious meal) daily.
Both hubby and I were very proud of him since he had shown initiative in finding the job, going for interview himself, and saving his money to buy the thing he had been wanting to have (in this case, his dream was to build-in his own PC and put it in his room. Looks like he would have it pretty soon... :D) Although tired, he managed to appear to work on time and never once he found excuse not to go or to quit, yet. Well done Baobei!!! Keep up your good work and positive spirit!!! :)
Christmas trees decoration at Orchard Road :)
And yes, Christmas was coming to town!!! If you were here in Singapore, never miss walking along the Orchard Road at night time. It was the best time to see the lighting and Christmas decorations along the famous shopping belt area in the country. I too, did not miss it this year, had a sweet date with dear hubby ;)
Well, this coming 17th, I will be celebrating the 10th year survival Anniversaryas the SLE patient (Lupus). It has been with me perhaps much longer than 10 years though before I was detected and confirmed of having it. All I could say was that all my worry that I had 10 years ago whether I could still be alive 5 or 10 years later was really useless.
There were ups and downs in between but thank Buddha it was nothing much. Just like the recent low blood count was detected (anemia came attacking me again!!!), but after taking the medicine regularly everyday (instead of 5 days a week), my blood count had gone back to normal. Phewww!!!
Health and Happiness Quote (Pic source: Google.com)
If you were wondered how I could manage to live this long, well, the above quote might help answering your question. Peace of mind, heart and soul was the key, so did laughter and love. No matter how much possession you had, if you could not make peace with yourself, it would only bring you worry and stress, and make you unable to sleep.
The past has already gone and the future has yet to come. Live at the present moment. Seize your days doing what you love, and love what you are doing. Realize your dream when you can no matter how difficult it might sound or be. Because no one can guarantee that you can still live tomorrow.
I read it from somewhere the beautiful messages below:
- Don't wait until you happy, then you smile. Smile, then you will be happy :)
- Don't wait until you become rich, then you donate. Donate, and you will be richer!
- Don't wait until people notice or care about you, then you notice or care about them. Do care about them first, then people will care you back.
- Don't wait until you get an inspiration, then you write. Write first, then the inspiration will come accordingly!
- Don't wait for people to love you, then you start to love them. Learn to love them first, then they will love you back :)
- Don't wait until you are rich then you will live in peace. But first, live in peace then there will not be only money that comes to you, but also many other kind of luck in you life!!!
- Don't wait until you become successful then only feeling grateful. But be grateful first and you will have more success in life.
And last but not least, don't wait until you free then you pray or learn the Dhamma. But spare your time to pray and learn the Dhamma first before everything else!
Well, hope after practicing it, you too could live a happier and healthier life, with peace of mind, heart and soul everyday :)
Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukkhitatta
May all sentient beings be happy and healty, free from suffering, life full of peace and joy.
