Wrap Up the 2023 and Welcome the 2024

 

:) (Pic source: wonder_doodles)

Today is the last day of the year 2023. It has been a great year for me. A year filled with time enjoyed with my dear families and friends. A year filled with so many travel and to many new places. A year filled with so many beautiful moments, especially it marks a transformation of my dear son entering the adulthood. I could see how people surrounded me changed too, many for the better and some for the worse. 

This is a year when I join the work life back. Not just any work, but relates to what I have learned and experienced before. Fate plays a big part of it because I work back with my Boss from my first job here in Singapore.

The job and environment are still felt like a dream for me. Not many people are having this kind of job. Back to office hours and five-days a week. Strategic and good location. With one very good and understanding Boss to report to. 

Somehow, it changes me. With most of the time working alone, it has transformed me to enjoy my own accompany more. It gives me room to learn and do what I love doing. 

Never stop being grateful :)

In less than 24 hours, we will embrace to another year. There are so many things I feel thankful and grateful for - all the time that has transformed me to where I am now. 

I want to thank everyone who ever been part of my life journey, for their love, friendships, time spent, and things to learn from them.

I want to thank those who choose to leave too, because from them, I also learn many things in life - impermanence, human nature, and so on. 

On friendships (Pic source: innergrowthreset)

With the experience, it teaches me that not everyone is treating friendship the same way I do. For those who knows me well or long enough, I was the type who try my best to maintain friendship by keeping in touch often (no matter where my friends are - near or far), because I feel grateful for their presence in my life. 

I am no longer treating it the same way now. I take this matter easily now. If people do not wish to part of my life, I will be happily let them go. Why make life difficult? I will treasure those who stay and who treasure the friendship back.

Earlier on, I planned to travel only to new places and less to those I often travel to. However, my priority changes now. Time keeps going. We are getting older every seconds every minutes. My parents and siblings are getting older each day. I myself am getting older too. I just think that I want to spend more time with them, especially we live in different countries and my time to travel is limited. I hope we will spend good time together.

Law of attraction - money affirmation for 2024
(Pic source: financial_wanderlust)

I know it seems a bit late for me to start thinking about retirement. Many of my friends had started it much earlier. But I believe that everyone has their own time for what they do. And I have positive thought about this. At least it gives me motivation and short-term goals at least for the next 5 years :D Hope the above money affirmations, will help me to achieve my goals, and yours too :)

2024 Resolutions

My goals in life is still the same: to be healthy and happy, in peace, and blessed with loving people throughout my life. 

Life, no matter how rich you are, how you are able to travel to many new and wonderful places, but if you do not take care of your health, you will lose the joy. As I get older, I learn more from people surrounded me. And I learn from myself too.

When I was sick, even just a mere fever, flu  and cough - not a life threatening disease - it made my life miserable enough. Everything felt cold. I had to wear winter sweater in such a tropical country like Singapore. 

Non-stop cough disturbed my sleep all through the night. Packets of tissues were used to clear my mucus and made my nose red and dry. Tasteless bud and not being able to smell ruined even the most delicious dishes in front of you. 

Weigh loss that in the beginning seemed to be a happy thing, became something that I got worried of. 

With more variants of Covid and lung infections spreading, I pray that everyone will be free from it.

I wish for more exercises and eat a balance and healthy food intake in order to maintain a good healthy. 

Don't worry, be happy :)
(Pic source: doodlesndreams)

And as I grow older, I realised that mental health is very important too!!! I truly wish and hope that everyone could be free themselves from such suffering and rest their mind in peace, so that they can focus on their life goals - mainly for their happiness and health being. 

Find your happy place :)
(Pic source: doodlesndreams)

I always see my life like a book. I imagine my past as the chapters that has been written and flipped. And I keep writing with a new fresh of paper, the empty and blank one, with the ongoing life that I will live through. 

It consists of good and bad memories. Some chapters are worth to read through again, while some, I never wish to remember. Always remember: we are the author of our own book. Write the way we want it to be. Live from your own heart, not by the expectation of others. Keep it in balance: not too extreme at each side. Most important, fill it with happy memory that one day, you may want to look back and smile reading it. And never give up, when life gives you a hardship to overcome. You are not alone. Share your sadness with anyone near you. Do not keep it to yourself. 

Well, I wish everyone for a wonderful year ahead. For your new beginning in life, and for the continuation of it. All the very best!!! :)

Way back to follow my passion (Part 2)

Quote by Steve Jobs (Pic source: Google.com)

I have an independent teenager son at home. Once he reached legal age to work (in Singapore - 16 years old), he immediately found a part time job on his own and started working during his school holiday to earn some extra income. He applied the job and went to interview all by himself (not even his friend accompanied him). 

He prefers working at restaurant (F&B related business) as some establishment provide meal to their employee and some gives huge discount for purchasing the meal there (as part of employee benefits).

With the money that he earns, he is able to purchase all things that he wants and to eat all his favorite meals with his friends, without asking us (the parents) any single cent. Even when we give him, he often rejects it as he says that he has enough money on his bank account. Thank you Baobei for being such an understanding and growing up son. We are very proud of you on this matter. 

He joined this current company last year during school holiday. He still works even when school has started (with a much lesser hours to clock in). When he just started, he often shared with us about new things that he had learnt.

I happened bumping into the company's website one day and read about the referral incentives (when new staff is able to work there, the current staff who introduce the new staff will be given incentives as the company has saved the effort to get new staff on their part - be it advertisement fee, agent fee, and so on). With that, I casually told my son to check with his superior if they were still hiring for part-time staff. 

I found out from the Manager later on, on how my son checked this with him (after I started the job). Initially, my son told him that his friend wanted to work. After some time (when I became more serious about it), my son told him that his Aunty wanted to work (hahaha..... perhaps he was testing if the company was going to employ elderly staff into the company because majority of the part-time staffs there were students). And later on, when I got impatient because no news received after so long, he then confessed to his Manager that actually it was his Mom who wanted to work. Hahaha....

It took him some time to digest this, I guessed, as which teenager would want to work at the same place with his mother or father? I mean, his colleagues' parents might be someone who work in office, bank, school, hospital etc., but not here. In addition, he might not be able to imagine what his colleagues said when they found out that his mother working together there. That was what I thought considering to put him on my shoes.

Nevertheless, he still got me the application form, let me fill it up, and submitted it to his Manager. After some time, the GM asked me to come for an interview. He might want to see for himself how suitable me for joining the workforce there (as I mentioned, most of the staffs there were youngsters in their teenagers, 20s, or 30s; not included the Managers though).

So, as per agreed timing, I went there for the interview. It went well. Soon they sent me for orientation and training for hygiene - refreshment course - as I attended the basic course many years ago.

And as for today, I managed to complete one month working there. Will share with you more about what I felt during my work there. To be continued :)

Laid Back Lifestyle

Welcome to Indonesia!!!

If someone asked you what type of life you would like to have in this lifetime disregard the current place that you lived in, what would be your answer??? Well, apparently many people would answer the opposite from where they stayed right now. For example: people who stayed in villages, they would dream to live in metropolitan city; people who stayed in mountain areas, they would dream to stay near the beach, and so on.

For me, who was born and grown up in metropolitan city, once I stayed in mountain and village for about 3 years. That time I did not understand much yet about happiness, neither thought about it. Therefore, I found the place was terribly boring!!! But you know, I guessed millions people would dream of living in such place at least once!!! And yes, if you asked me now, I would still hope to go back there and stay there one more time. But forever? Perhaps not, because I still preferred to stay in tropical rather than four-season countries.

Horas - traditional greeting of Batak Toba

For the past 4 years I was lucky enough being able to visit and stay at the place of my dream. Recently I visited it for the fifth time. It took about 1.5 hours direct flight from Singapore to Kualanamu Airport in Medan. From Medan I still needed to take about two-hour car ride to Pematang Siantar. If went to Prapat (where the boat was docked to transfer to the Samosir Island), I would need another hour of car ride, plus about an hour boat ride to cross over the Lake Toba (the biggest lake in Indonesia). Yes, that beautiful place was called Samosir Island.

Samosir Island - Indonesia

Last year my relatives with families and friend built a place there to stay and I was very lucky being able to stay there for free and comfortably. The location was really good, about 15minutes walk from where we were dropped by the boat. It faced the lake (although not directly - you could go there in five-minutes walk), and at the back, it faced the paddy plantations. Depending on the season, sometimes it could be greenish and lovely. Sometimes it could be so dried. And sometimes you could see the plowing process using machine done by the farmer during plantation time.

Fresh and cooling mountain air :)

The air was cooling and fresh. There was no need to install air-condition inside the building. Just opened the door, it already felt like air-condition being installed (despite hot sun was shining above in afternoon time).

Front and back view :)

The rooms were simple and cleaned. Each was equipped with indoor toilet. If I were lucky, the room was even having balcony facing the paddy plantation at the back or big windows on higher floors that facing the beautiful lake. The highest floor was third floor. There was wifi as well although it didn't reach the back of the building. But it was good too so I could sleep early at night and having enough hours before the roosters started singing as early as 5 to 6 am in the morning.

Tell you, OMG!! At first I wasn't get used to it. When I visited Indonesia, many factors forced me to get up early in the morning. If city area like Jakarta, the sun started to rise at 6 am and by 7 am, the sky had turned bright and made the temperature warm. If the place that you stayed near the mosque (as majority of Indonesia population were Muslim), the prayers sound could be heard as early as 4.30 am. And another one was roosters sound.

It wasn't only one or two roosters around, mind you. Their numbers were enough to play orchestra from left to right. Hahaha... I felt like crying on my first night sleeping in Pematang Siantar, and started feeling regret of not sleeping earlier the night before. So when I reached Samosir, I told myself to sleep early - as early as 10 pm every night - to fulfill the minimum of 8-hour sleep, so I wouldn't get annoyed by the roosters sound, and instead, appreciated them more (no need to turn my alarm clock on).

Mango season now

Every morning when weather was good (luckily it was all good when I was there), I went for a morning walk at 6.30 am. I made a big round walking around the lakeside, with its ups and downs, passing by many guest houses, resorts, restaurants, shops, and so on. Not only that. There were abundance of fruit and vegetables trees too!!

Learn various fruit trees here (dragon fruit)

Durian, mango, avocado, passionfruit, candlenut, dragon fruits, winged beans, chilli, lemon, and so on. One of the motivation to walk that early was to find the fallen fruits from the trees. Hahaha.... You could always find a free one! :D But don't anyhow pluck the fruits of someone's trees. The owner would be unhappy with it!

Huge lemon - gift by the house owner :)

If you would love to have or even buy, you could ask politely to them. Sometimes they might just give it freely to you. But honesty was something that the local people there practise! Fyi, majority of people who stayed in the island was Batak Toba tribe and majority (93% of them) was Christian. It was generally safe to stay there. You could even leave your building wide open with vehicles being parked outside as no body would enter without permission, would never even think of stealing and robbing. They were friendly too. So it was another plus point to stay in the area.

Pork steak and beer Bintang from New Tomok Restaurant

The living cost was still very low (a plate of breakfast noodle cost IDR 8,000 (USD$0.60), a plate of pork steak cost IDR 40,000  (USD$2.90), and a big bottle of local beer (Beer Bintang) cost IDR 35,000 (USD$2.50). Batak people ate a lot of pork. Lomak - a local restaurant name - sold a very delicious babi goreng or fried pork - traditional Batak dish. Grilled fish and lobsters were also famous in the island. The main catch was their chili. It was spicy and delicious!!! So next time when you went there, please do not order "nasi goreng" or the famous Indonesian fried rice all the time!!! Instead, try any of their pork dishes and seafood!!! :)

Weekend market at Tomok

On Sunday morning I went down to the weekend market - near Tomok. You could find many fresh vegetables, fruits, fishes, even coffee powder there. Nearby there were rows of shops in traditional Batak house roof style selling shirts, souvenirs, sarong, Batik patterns clothes, shawl, etc. Just make sure to bargain and compare from one shop to another as they would open the price quite high and targeted much higher price to outsider and tourists.

Souvenir shops at Tomok

Motorcycle were available for rent. Not necessary to wear the helmet and it was not a very crowded place (except for the major holiday time such as: Chinese New Year period, Christmas, and Lebaran - Eid al-fitr). Just had to be careful as it was mountainous road that was full of ups and downs, some of you might not get used to it. You could explore the areas with it, or even on foot. Many beautiful spots in the islands and not forgetting the lake water sports like banana boat (when you're in a big group), speedboat, and so on.

Laid back lifestyle :)

For myself I would prefer to just relax in the building, reading books, and having cold beer. It was perfect for me :D

Banana boat - Lake Toba 

At night it was very quiet except for the animal orchestras sound. Hehe... When the sky was clear, you could see many stars above. Drop of rainwater sound was soothing too. But the lightning was too much only. Hahaha.... scary.... :P

Stone chair of King Siallagan

There was traditional Batak cultural performance too in the dancing show Sigale Gale, Stone Chair of King Siallagan, etc. You could even learn the dance there. Nearby the area you could also visit the Batak Museum, to learn more about their history, culture, lifestyle and so on.

Beautiful scenery from Hotel Silintong

Well, I might not be able to purchase a land there, build the house and spend the rest my olden days there but I had already been feeling very grateful for the opportunity to go there and spend many valuable times over there. Could not thank enough for everyone who made this possible (you know who you were!!!).

With this post hopefully you know where to go next time to experience such a laid back life that was not so far from Singapore!!! :)

New life's learning - Baking Kueh Lapis :)

Pic source: Channels News Asia

Bbbrrrrrrr......... It was so cold this morning!!! Most Singaporean chose to have their window opened last night to let the cooling air entering their house and bedroom. The air-conditioner was retired for the day. The rain had poured for sometime, and even some days. But only yesterday night I could feel the drastic temperature change. It felt so cold at the Outram Park when I walked to the four-star hotel in the area to meet two new Bhutanese friends to pick my parcel up from Bhutan. My other friends felt the same too and I could see many people walking on the road wearing additional layer of cloth to keep themselves warmed.

The new Instagram account - rimareyka.writes - for the love of thinking and writing. Add me there if you have not yet done so! ;)

Before leaving the house, I saw my in-law lying down in the sofa with blanket covering from her neck all the way to the feet while playing the Pokemon games from her mobile phone. So enviable!!!! In this kind of weather, I would have snugged inside my blanket with a book on hand and a cup of hot coffee at the side table next to me. Or otherwise I would have just browsed the Facebook, gone through the Instagram photos and stories, checked new posts on We Chat Moments, or thought deeply on what poem to post at the new installed Apps - Yourquote.in. (In case you have joined, you can follow me there - Rima Reyka) or add me on Instagram - Rimareyka.writes.

Unfortunately I had to leave the house at 8.30 am with small umbrella on one hand (to save me from the drizzling rain that had poured continuously since the night before) and the batik patterned bag slung on my right shoulder.  I had to reduce my walking speed as my purple flip flop had grown old and slippery (to prevent myself from getting blue mark on the butt and unlimited embarrassment if I really fell down hahaha.. :P).

I finally started doing my first part-time job since last Saturday. My Indonesian bestie recommended me a job to bake the Indonesian Kueh Lapis (Thousand Layer Cake) since the lady boss needed someone to do it as the Chinese New Year was coming soon. If you have no idea what am I talking about, please watch the following Youtube video to explain what the Kueh Lapis is and why people usually order, buy, and eat it during Chinese New Year.

By watching the above video, hopefully you can have a better idea now about what Kueh Lapis is, using what ingredients (a very sinful cake using lots of egg yolk, butter, sugar, condensed milk, etc.), how to make it layer by layer (spread the mix dough into one layer, put it into oven until the color turns brownish, and continue to do so until it is at certain height), and what's the meaning behind it or on why people eating them during Chinese New Year (it is believed that each layer of cake represents each layer of prosperity in the upcoming year).

Both my besties had done it in previous years and asked me to do it as well before. But since the location of the working place was very far from my house (it required more than an hour to reach the place by MRT and bus), I never thought of doing it. But this time, since I had free time before pursuing another thing at the month-end, so I thought, why not??? At the same time I could earn some pocket money to buy stuffs for the upcoming Chinese New Year :)

One oven fits 4 moulds of cakes inside

So last Saturday I tried it together with my bestie. The lady boss trained me personally. One person was in charge of one oven that could place 4 mould of cakes at one time. We did not have to worry about the mixed ingredients as it had been prepared by the lady boss' son. We just had to bake the ready made dough.

This is how the sliced Prune Kueh Lapis looks like - Sold at $2 each

She taught us how to bake the Prune Kueh Lapis - same process with the Original Kueh Lapis, but we added preserved dried prune in between the layers, and there were steps to follow. E.g. Baked 3 layers of cake. On 4th layer, added the prune. Topped it another 2 layers and on the 3rd, added the prune. Topped it with other 2 layers, and on the 3rd added the prune again (meaning added the prune 3 times), and end it with 2-3 layers. Something like that. The ending product would be just like the above photo (I made that! :D)

Record down the number of steps I had done :P

It sounded easy but I had poor memory. Hahahahaha.... In the middle of baking it, suddenly I lost count on how many times I had put the prune in it. OMG!!! Or I lost count how many layers I had put in the first few layers - 3 or 4?? Since I had to multi task doing other things like taking the cake out from the mould, transferring it to the tray, spreading the butter into the mould, and so on. I felt very bad if I accidentally made it not as expected as the cake was sold at a very expensive price. The price for the Original Kueh Lapis is SGD $58 while the Prune is SGD $61!!! (Imagine how many hours should I work to be able to buy one??? ^^"). Luckily the lady boss and her son were very kind and understanding. They said they would use the wrong one as the tasting sample to prevent waste. Therefore, to prevent the miscalculation, I had to write down the no. of steps on the paper each day now and put more attention on the timing to produce a good cake :)

Me caught in the action (Pardon me for the blurred picture as my friend took candid shot when I was working) :D

I had to stand up most of the time and faced the heat from the oven. My left arm and hand were aching as I had to take the mould in and out (each layer) and rotated them (to distribute even heat inside the oven) for hundred over times - daily. My right hand was paining from opening and spreading the dried prune one by one, also from spreading the mix dough into the mould layer by layer.

To finish two batches of the 8 cakes required two and half hours. On my first day, I managed to do 20 cakes (5 batch) from 10 am to 6 pm. In between I had about half an hour lunch break. So at least I had to stand up for 7.5 hours each day. We were allowed to sit down but we could not sit for long as we had to put our attention to the cake all the time to prevent over and under cooked.

My working table - Dough container, dried prune (some had been separated to make the process faster, water to clean the hand, wooden thing to press the layer and stick to pop the bubble out :)

On the second day, the speed increased as I found some ways to reduce the time in making it without affecting the quality of the cake. E.g. Separated the dried prune one by one so I could place it faster into the dough layer, prepared the cleaned and butter spread mould filled with dough when the current ones were almost done, and so on. In the end, I managed to make 27 cakes. So much improvement on the speed, but I felt very tired after that as it finished around 6.30 pm, and reached home almost 8 pm. The day after that I told the lady boss that I had to finish before 6 pm and instead, I would reach the place earlier (around 9.40 am). With this timing, usually I made 6 batches or 24 pcs of cakes daily - 2 batches before lunch and 4 batches after lunch.

Trays filled with the fully done Kueh Lapis!!! :)

Well, one week has gone and two more weeks to go. I hope I am blessed with good health (with raining days many people gets fever, cough, and cold), so that I can fulfill my duty as I had agreed to the lady boss. And although tiring, it was all worth doing as I learned something new in my life (added on knowledge and experience as I only knew how to eat and had zero idea on the making it before).

My Doraemon Piggy Bank! :P

Plus, at the end of the day when I reached home and entered to my room, it felt so good to slip the earning of each day into my Doraemon piggy bank that I hung on my room's door. I already planned in my head to open and calculate it on my last working day, purchase few necessary items, treat some good food to family members, and enjoy my upcoming holiday!!! So, let's pray that all my wishes come true!!! :D

ITC Mangga Dua - shopping heaven in Jakarta

"Pur, find a place to park OK? And get your handphone ready! I'll call you later once I'm done and we will be waiting in front of the lobby," instructed Mom to Pur, our driver, who sent us to ITC Mangga Dua. "Yes Nyah (from word 'Nyonya' - which means 'Mam')," replied Pur as we both got down from the vehicle.

ITC Mangga Dua is a shopping heaven for everyone especially for local Indonesian women. It's a big shopping complex next to the wholesale shops of Mangga Dua in the heart of Jakarta city. Why I said especially for local Indonesian? Because at there, bargain the price is a MUST otherwise you'd have to pay more. And usually when you buy more, you can slash bigger price from the original stated by the seller :)

Entrance of ITC Mangga Dua approaching Chinese New Year

There was a big fake blossomed cherry tree outside the main door as Mom and I entered into the building. Chinese New Year is coming soon, in fact, is only two weeks away from today. At the front part, you could find shops selling luggage from many different sizes plus China's made rectangular shopping bag made of plastic materials, some were decorated with cartoon pictures like Doraemon, Hello Kitty, etc., which could be very useful to keep the shopped items inside.

Colourful sandals comes with so many varieties, colours, and sizes were fitted by many ladies surrounding the open concept shop. The price was reasonable too, which many were hard to resist from buying. As I passed them by, I heard one lady uttered this to her friend, "The last time I bought that kind of sandal here, I used it only 2 months and couldn't wait to throw it out!" Well, I was not very sure why she said that but perhaps the quality followed the price she paid, exactly like the following Chinese quote said, "一份钱一分货，" read: "Yi fen qian, yi fen huo."

Soon after you could find varieties of accessories like necklaces, brooches, bracelet, rabbit fur kind of key hanger or usually attached with the handbag, etc. displayed fully in a limited space of rented shop. Next to it, many beautiful imitation branded bags were displayed and hung. All the well known brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Long Champ, Burberry, Issey, etc. were made so looked alike that those who did not want or could not afford such original expensive bags, still could show off with the imitation types.

Glimpse view of ITC Mangga Dua - Jakarta, Indonesia 

There were so many things sold in the building. It consists of six levels full of stuffs and people. From wearing stuffs like clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, make up, baby items, underwear or sexy dress, watches, measured spectacles and sunglasses, and many more to DVDs, food and drink stalls to quench your thirst after bargaining and to fill your hungry stomach after tired walking and shopping.

The sellers were skilful in talking and offering other stuffs sold in the same shop saying that the items were good (in quality), made in Korea, etc., which of course would come with a much higher price than the local produced ones. Like when Mom visited a shop to buy a lotion, the seller managed to offer other make up products to her (by looking at Mom's face on what kind of cosmetics she was using), and managed to sell eyeliner, eye brow pencil, and lipstick, while almost selling eye shadow set, face powder, and so on. Haha... They would also offer the latest or trendy items that looked very interesting and made people hard to resist not to buy.

Money would go out from the purse so easily just like a running stream if you couldn't hold your desire. Like from the initial purpose to collect sunglasses that she made to order yesterday, she ended up buying few other stuffs on hand. Lol!!! And me? I'd lost interest on buying these kind of stuffs. I'd changed my behaviour to only buy what I need rather than what I want or otherwise the things would be gifts given to others. In the past it might be different story as I would not only buy what I need but also buy what looked nice and cool. Hehehe... :P

Anyway, it was still a great thing to do to visit the place. You could see the real Indonesian way of selling and bargaining, the vast variety of things available, and taste many local food, drink, and snack available. Just hold on to your purse a little bit tighter, maybe wear one eye patch so you wouldn't see too much hahaha..., and visit few more shops to check the price and bargain more to get the most reasonable price for the things you want to buy. All the best and hope you enjoy the experience there!!! :)

Appreciate life itself

"Why people must work?" - This question was raised by my ex-colleague this morning and yes, many people like him and me would also raise the same question, especially those who live here, in the world's most expensive country.

I replied, not giving him answers though, "Great question! I also think that. Why don't we strike Toto then rest for the rest of our lives?"

"Yalo... rest and play," he added.

"Rest and travel," I corrected according to my wish :P

Hmm.... it's dilemma isn't it?

Those who are working wish not to work and those who are jobless, wish to get employed. And since we know that emptiness is form, and form is emptiness, so why we still have to drag ourselves down to our working place every single morning and face any kind of challenges everyday?

At the end, most suitable answer will be - for money. If we can survive without money, I don't think people will drag themselves to work, won't they? There are only few percentage of people would work because they love to work, because they love their job, or because they love challenges and it's never enough to face challenges in their lives.

Hahaha... I'm not trying to demotivate you by saying all this guys! It's just somehow that kind of thought will pop up in our brain, especially when we are too tired and facing too much challenges in life.

Every day I always find reasons on why I should go on and I can easily find hundreds reasons to keep going, even to feel very much grateful that I have one. Although it's not really the kind of ideal job, it's still acceptable. And don't just look at the job itself. There are many other more things that I should be grateful with.

Appreciate life quote (Photo background: river life and sunset in Hoi An, central Vietnam)

For example: start my day early so I can have a daily dose of sunrise from my bus window while sitting down comfortably, instead of standing up and fighting for a space inside the over crowded MRT, shorter working hour so I can reach home early and get more time to do things I love doing (including sleep), spend traveling time on bus reading my books and writing my morning journal and sometimes typing my blog post like this, with air-con blowing comfortably ;)

And the most motivating factor is when the payslip email notification popping up from my monitor. It means it's paying day again and a sum of money will be transferred into my bank account ^^

Well, you'll know the rest of the story... hahaha... Anyway, in any moment you feel tired, fed up, angry, take some time to cool down. You can also vent your frustration out just to release and not to create trouble. After a while, find reasons why you should be grateful with all you have and you'll get back on your feet again almost immediately!

So, I wish everyone out there a great day and week ahead! Remember, life is not always a bed of roses. Thorns help you to appreciate the flowers. And hardship helps one to appreciate the beauty of life. Remember to take good care of your health too and aware on what enters into your mouth. Eat daily dose of fruits and vegetables and drink more water. Have a great life ahead! :)

Happy Chinese Goat New Year 2015

Source: Google.com

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Chinese "Goat" New Year and Losar Tashi Delek for all my Bhutanese friends!!!

Wish all of you are blessed with good health, wealth, luck, life filled with lots of love, joy, peace, and happiness all through your life!!!

Enjoy this special day with your loved ones and happy holiday!!!! Take care!!! :)

Li Chun (立春) 2015

A gentle reminder for those who believe in banking in the money on Li Chun (立春) day and wearing red top, the day will fall tomorrow, 4 February 2015!!! For those who don't know what it is about, please read my previous year's post here.

Managed to get the lucky timing table below based on your Chinese Horoscope from my bestie! Tq ET! ;)

Best time to Bank-in Money - Li Chun 4 February 2015

So don't forget wear red top tomorrow and bank-in money to your nearest ATM ;) Huat ahhhh!!!! :D

Singapore - expensive city

Usually I wasn’t really paying attention into what they mentioned in the budget review every beginning of the year. But this year, I had to know about the following changes made as it affected not only related to my work, but also to my personal interest.

Picture source: telegraph.co.uk

“The so-called "sin" taxes on tobacco, alcohol and gambling are going up, with alcohol taking the biggest hit. Excise duties for all types of liquor will rise by 25 per cent, while cigarette and manufactured tobacco levies will go up by 10 per cent.” – Straits Times – dated on 21st Feb 2014

I’m not smoker and not an alcoholic either, but I do drink alcohol occasionally and my hubby smokes. When I first knew about the increased in the duty revision of the alcohol and tobacco, I was maddened and infuriated. I called up my friends who were a smoker and drinker, asking his opinion about it.

He said, “It’s ok. Why?”

“You didn’t get mad for the increase?” I asked him.

“No lah. It’s ok what.”

“But you are a smoker, you know?” I asked him again, kind of unbelievable with his answer, seemed like nothing affected him at all, “and a drinker too,” I continued.

“If the increase was done to bring down the alcoholic and smoking problem, it was ok. But when they increase the price of the transport, like bus and MRT, which will be coming soon in April, then it’s not ok,” explained him.

Hm…. He was true lah. But no matter what, those increments were still upsetting me, apart that I would have to do more costing job – an overall beverage cost changes and selling price that have to be adjusted due to it. 

In fact, I realized that when the price of the alcohol was too cheap, it would make people wanting to drink more, as they thought they could get it so easily. It would affect their health problem too in the future. Not yet accident cases related to drink-driving that killed many people at all ages?? Same thing applies with tobacco products. However, as a smoker, no matter how much the price went up, they would still buy it and perhaps it would affect only few who decided to smoke less.

Fyi, a can of local beer 330ml is sold at S$2.70 each while the 500 ml can is sold at $4.40 (at local supermarket). So, convert it to your currency and imagine how expensive it is. And a pack of cigarette is sold over S$12.50 per packet of 20 pcs. Go and figure out why I found it ridiculous with such a high price for those items sold here.

Seeing me so furious, my colleague asked me to go back to Bhutan so that I could enjoy a cheap beer over there. Another one even advised me to migrate there hahaha…

With the duty revision on the price of the alcohol, it also meant that alcohol beverages would be sold with higher selling price everywhere, e.g. restaurant, bar, coffee shop, or even supermarket. I guess it’s time for me to reduce the intake to the max and would only enjoy more while traveling to other countries. Haiz… But it’s good too, because the money saved here can be used to buy more in another country lolx….

Picture source: Birmingham Public Library

And just a day ago, BBC News announced that “Singapore was named the world’s most expensive city”. 

“Singapore has topped 131 cities globally to become the world's most expensive city to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The city's strong currency combined with the high cost of running a car and soaring utility bills contributed to Singapore topping the list. It is also the most expensive place in the world to buy clothes.”

It wasn’t surprising for us as just five days ago, government announced that 8 town councils to increase Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC) – the maintenance fee to upkeep the facilities for flats, shops/offices and market/cooked food stalls with effect of 1st April. It affected us too as we stayed in HDB flat.  On that announcement day, we received letter that our current S&CC charges of S$56.50, would be increased to $59 this April, then to $61.50 next year April.

So, with everything increased and became the world’s costliest country to live in, I could only hope that our salary would increase much too this year…. Hope for the best a.k.a. resigned to fate!!!