A Little Reflection

Are you wasting your time???

It has been a while since my last post. How are you doing guys? Hope everyone is doing good and blessed with good health. Covid has changed so many things in us but hope that it will not let us being defeated by it

I have heard many bad news for the past 2 months of who have had it and who could not manage to survive. The death happened to anyone, be it young or old. I can not imagine how the related person have to face it and go on with their life.

This will only be a short post as when I looked at the quote above, I had a sudden inspiration to write this. 

Ok, alright. Because of Covid, we can not travel. And well, I can not travel. So I have plenty of time to spend. Naturally, I should spend it doing something like working, back to workforce life. 

I can choose to go back doing the office job, fully use the qualification I attained years ago and get the salary I deserve, or doing something else, something I love doing, something my passionate call me for, but the return may not be high or enough. Well, for some people, money is never be enough right?

Since a year ago, I had chosen to work part time, a job that many people generally are capable to do, whether you have experience or not. And fate brought me to land to another place, which is more suitable for my liking and personality. 

And starting February, apart from my part time job, I had started to pursue my interest related to something I used to love, but not die-hard loving, which was crystal. 

I was mesmerised by the beauty of the nature. They were nature too, built in over million and billion years naturally. And they were believed to carry many positive benefits with them. 

When I started my second part time job, I often felt unease. It might be due to a new place, and also the nature of the job that needed me to deal with items that could harm me, such as: knife, cans, slicing machine, hot pots and pans, hot water, oven, and so on. 

Bruises and cut wounds took turn tattooing my parts of body every week. Actually, it was something that I could avoid, but somehow, it happened. So I started wearing crystal to work: a pair of earrings, necklace (that I hid inside my shirt), and 2 bracelets (one left and one right - they were put in my pockets when working).

Somehow I could feel the energy from it. They might not prevent me from getting wound and blisters, but they helped me in keeping myself calm when it happened. 

It was somehow giving me calm effect, believed that they were there to protect me, give me strength and confidence, calm me down when it was busy or angry, and they too, helped me in clearing the misunderstanding, encouraging me to speak up what my heart was saying, and at the end, won the heart of my colleagues. 

You may or may not believe, but I personally feel it inside me and what change it has brought me into.

Both part time job and crystal interest may not give me enough money to live by. In fact, every month I spent most of my salary to purchase the crystal. But anyhow, I still feel that it is better than taking the full time office job that would not make me happy because the motivation would be to earn bigger money, but not because I like the nature of my job. 

So since it is part time, I do not work every day. One week, I may work 2 to 4 days only. The rest of the time, I spend it to engage myself in buying crystal (physical and online), getting design inspiration, learning how to do it, making it, and so on. This way, I can use my creative side in making DIY crystal bracelet too upon the buyer request.

For now, my sisters are my greatest supporters. Few close friends are also supporting me too. To be frank, I do not earn much from it. Because I am happy enough that they too believe in the goodness from it. Just as long it can cover the cost, that is enough. 

So going back to the quote above, I just want to tell myself, and to confirm it, that there is no rules that I must work office job, earn lots of money, in order to call myself living my life in decent way. There are still many other choices that I can make (while I am still given that choice), and still call it living my life according to my wish, my passion, my love, and then work out with the little money that I earn. 

Most important, keep my health (both physically and mentally) in good state by developing positive thought as much as possible, spread good things around to people surrounding me, live stress-free life (the more you earn, the more you attach your life style with it), learn how to balance (when to buy and when to stop), use my other talent in good way (in this case, my creative side), and just be myself. Be happy and content with everything, and never compare my life with other people. 

With this post, I hope you can reflect into what you are currently doing in your life too. Whether you are living your life according to what you want, whether you can fulfil your dreams or on the way into it, and so on. Always remember, there is no right and no wrong, but it is better if you can give yourself a chance to follow what your heart is saying. Wish you all a great day ahead!!! Stay safe and take care!!!

Activities update - last month of year 2018

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 Anniversary as 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.

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu 

2XU Compression Run 2017

It's been some time since my last blog post. March was filled with lots of books reading (thanks to the opening of the new Sengkang library :P), and morning walks exercise either with friend or alone.

Having fun at MacRitchie Reservoir Park :)

This Wednesday, when I was just about to start my morning walk at MacRitchie Reservoir Park, I received a message from my brother. He was asking me if I was interested to join him to run half-marathon this Sunday. It was free since someone had registered for the run, however, the person could not come to Singapore due to the expensive flight ticket (thanks to the this weekend's Coldplay's concert in Singapore ^^).

Hmmm.... half-marathon. Means, the distance was gonna be 21.1 km. In my life, I'd never tried running that long before. In fact, I knew myself that I could only walk and still manage to hike (although only to certain extent), but definitely not to run. My usual yearly run distance was only 3.5 km. When my friend was asking me to join the 10 km one, I declined almost immediately as I believed that my stamina was not good. I often lost my breath after running for certain distance and easily got tired. My heart would beat too fast until I could not take it. I held that believe since I was very young. So it was quite difficult to break that fear, and barrier that I set upon it into my own self.

I went for cycling in that distance before, but never for running. Even for walking, I was not quite sure. So I was curious how far 21.1 km would be, on foot.

In a crowd before starting :)

My brother was very active in joining this kind of run. He just went for midnight Sundown full marathon last Saturday here in Singapore and finished it in 5 hours and 50 mins. He even went overseas, like to Beijing, Bali, Bandung, etc. to participate in the running events and collected various medals. So I asked him further, if I could not run, and only walk, would I feel shame to be the last one? Haha.... He said, it should be alright as we would be given 4 hours to complete. He then gave me the link of the run for further information.

So last night I went to his house and slept there overnight. The run was scheduled to start at 4.30 am at F1 Pit. I went to bed at 10.30 pm but my brain could not stop thinking about what would happen and what had already happened. Plus the clock's tik-tak sound made me difficult to sleep. Only after doing short period mediation, I was then able to fall asleep (maybe about 30-40 minutes later). And at 3.15 am, I was awoken and got ready.

Three of us took the Uber cab to the nearest stop towards F1 pit and my brother immediately found his friends and colleagues who were also joining. There were so many people lining up towards the Start line and we were the seventh wave in the group and started our run only at 5.22 am.

Became a tourist too :P

Slowly I was separated from my the rest. I ran and walked in my own pace. I realized I learned few things from this run. First, everyone was just doing their best. They ran as they could. It was not really about who was the fastest, but everyone was trying to balance their energy with the distance, the intake (water, sport drink, and banana provided by the organiser), the output (if you chose to visit toilet in the middle of your journey), the strength of their legs, knees, ankles, and so on. Second, fun was definitely a must. I mean, yes we had a goal to achieve, but in order to reach, we should put in some fun and took a necessary rest in between (many stopped for taking photos of the beautiful Singapore sites and keeping the memories with people who they went for the run with).

Quote by Haruki Murakami from 'What I talk about when I talk about running'

Third, the only person you had to defeat in this, was yourself. Because everyone started at different timing, at different wave groups. So you wouldn't know how much they had achieved by the time you saw them. And I guessed it wasn't necessarily important to compete that way, unless you're into a competition that you were aiming to win. Instead, you might want to defeat your own previous record (if you joined such run before), defeat your own barrier that you set upon yourself (just like my own self who only dared to run at 3.5 km distance yearly), and so on.

And when you were in the group, you saw people around you running. You were automatically getting such motivation to run as well. And concentration was required as you had to decide when to continue run and when to just walk while catching your breath. I counted my own pace when walking and running.

The distance should be around 21.1 km :)

Overall, I found that my first experience in half-marathon was pretty good. Thanks to the morning walk exercise that I had during the past few weeks. The breath, the heart beat, the legs works, were in good balance. I finished it in 3 hours and 9 minutes (The photo above was using my phone Apps which might not give a very accurate result. The distance should be around 21.1 km and the timing as I just mentioned). From the 2XU race result, my rank was 3786 out of 6966).

With my sis-in-law and brother. Thank you!!! :)

It was really great experience and thank you for the person who could not attend the run, my brother, and sis-in-law for the opportunity, for the advise given before the run, for answering my doubts and fear before the run started, for accompanying me, and so on. I was glad and never expected to join such run in my whole life, but I finally did. Thank you, thank you, and thank you so much for everything!!!

Glad that I made it! :) Thank you!

Also thank you for the above for listening to our prayers that we had gone through it safely, in good health, great weather (it was almost rain but suddenly stopped), enough energy intake along the way, and the priceless experience and memories in our lives. And the moral support from my beloved one. At least when I died, I knew that I had lived my life to the fullest each and every day, experiencing many things that I wished to do while I was alive. Thank you, thank you, and thank you... May all sentient beings be healthy and happy, free from suffering, and life filled with peace and joy. Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu.