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!!! :)

Just another day

Dark clouds

It was just like another weekday afternoon. The weather was hot outside, and yet, dark clouds were seen from afar. Melancholy feeling came and overwhelmed me once again.

Kiss 92 played one of my historical favourite songs by Boyzone, oh really historic, indeed!!! Some of the good memories was suddenly playing at the back of my mind. 

I decided to make myself a cup of coffee using the atas Starbucks origami coffee bag. As I poured the hot water into it, hmmmm..... the smell was awaking me up, reminding me a little bit that I was sitting at the office working table, and not on vacation at the bar on top of five-star hotel with amazing view! Ha!

I took out Cannolo Cioccolato from my shopping bag (as usual, I grabbed something during my after lunch walk that would be a perfect company of my coffee or tea), and hmmmm...... perfecto!!! Just ignored the calories that it contained in that piece of sweet pastry, and as I bit the top part, the Cioccolato burst inside my mouth, I closed my both eyes and focused more on the intense flavour that filled my whole mouth!!! Yum!!!

Next song was sung by Firehouse. What a nostalgia feeling they tried to lead us into! 

Outside the leaves were moving along with the wind. And the rain seemed like coming in soon. I turned the radio volume up after both coffee and cannoli filled my belly.

It was time to work again!!! Focus, and concentrate!!! Read and reread! Understand and remember! Yeah... three more hours to go. Let the time fly and enjoy the ride before it was over!!!

With every kiss, our love is like brand-new
And every star up in the sky was made for me and you
Still we both know that the road is long
We know that we will be together
Because our love is strong

I finally found the love of a lifetime
A love to last my whole life through
I finally found the love of a lifetime
Forever in my heart
I finally found the love of a lifetime

Lunch pack

Lunch pack (Pic source: Google.com)

When I went to Australia, I always saw people bringing lunch pack to school and/ or to work as it was not only healthier, but also most importantly, more affordable. The price of buying lunch outside was pretty expensive, especially in city area. It was wiser to save the money by bringing the leftover food from the day before and reheated it at the office pantry upon consumption. 

In Bhutan, it was a normal thing for people to bring lunch pack from home. They even exchanged their food so that they could taste different dishes every day. These days, the cost of living in city area had increased tremendously too, and it was only wiser to bring the homecooked food from home. They had the taste of love of their spouse, siblings, and parents too.

I really loved the idea of bringing lunch pack to work and/ or to school.

So this time, as I went back to workforce, I decided to prepare my lunch pack too! I was quite exciting with the idea actually! 

There was a fridge, kettle, and a toaster in my office. However, there was no microwave. So, if I brought food to work, I would have to eat it in cold condition (heated food was better for the stomach and the taste).

At my first week to work, I made a-week portion of potato salad (so I could keep it inside the fridge before consumption). I had it for four days in a row, but later on, I realised that it was not a good choice to bring salad to work because the air-coonditioner in my office was super cold!!! I even had to wear a thick sweater every day hahaha...

Pumpkin soup :)

My brain thought hard and later on, I got a better idea. The next weeks onwards, I made soup to bring to work :) because I had the thermal pot that could keep my soup hot upon consumption time. I could eat it with bread too in case it was a thin soup. 

I loved soup, especially when eaten in cold environment. And I loved making and eating the Western soup, not the Chinese style. 

So I made different soup each week and got the recipes from Google. So far, I have made and brought the potato soup, tomato soup, pumpkin soup, mushroom soup, white bean plus vegetable and tomato soup. It really suited my taste bud hahahaha.... Sometimes I even wondered how good I was in making soup, although there was no experience in making one before :P

Only buy fresh ingredients :)

Every Saturday after finishing my walk, I would stop by at the supermarkets in the area and bought the ingredients. Either at the same day or the day before, I would prepare a week portion soup, divided it into 5 containers, and freezed it so that it could last longer. 

I moved the container out from freezer to normal fridge the day before and reheated it the next morning and kept it inside the thermal pot. I had it during lunch time at my desk, sometimes with bread, sometimes with fried rice, then had walk afterwards.

Tomato soup with bread or fried rice :)

Once a week I would buy the food from outside, so I would not get bored from eating the same food every day. So far, I chose vegetable soup over meat. But next time I might try making soup with seafood or chicken :)

It kept my body warm, full, and happy :) I felt grateful and happy with the arrangement. I was not sure about the health impact from it, but I always used natural ingredients and never used any MSG into it. So I would not feel thirsty after having it. 

I did not know how this habit would last but I hoped this could continue for a long long time :)

Gratitude beyond measure

Gratitude Quote (Pic source: Google.com)

Good morning!!! It is Friday!!! Yayyy!!! 

First week of August is here and four more to go! August is such a very long month (with 31 days in it), just like July! But if I can survive this, I am sure I can survive the rest of the year! :)

Many people asked me, "How is your work so far?" 

I said, "It is so far so good. I feel comfortable."

I mean, I feel like I am building my nest here, feeling secure and comfortable. This feeling is just like when I met my hubby for the first time. Like I knew that he was going to be the anchor of my life - someone who was able to provide me with emotional support, guidance, stability, and hope of my life; someone who was going to be a good father for my child.

This job, my Boss, and the office environment, are exactly the same thing. I feel that this is going to be something for the rest of my life.

So I am going to learn slowly, read more, know more about how it works, what the company dealing with, and slowly master it.

To be frank, I have never been so passionate about a job like this before. This is my first time when I could hug and embrace my job as if it is my lover. I could say that I love what I am doing here. 

I used to wonder a lot of how my other friends loved their job so much, by dedicating their time (many even sacrificing their family time), to embrace themselves with their jobs. Some, even after taking a break from it, were missing to go back and be part of it again. 

I kind of understand their feelings now. 

I even can put all the travel desires on hold, until I know what I am supposed to be doing with my role here, know well when is the best time to be away or when is the busiest time of the months or year, before I start planning on the next vacation.

I do not mind missing many aspects or things or even moments, temporarily in life (of traveling) - and as long as I still put a priority to spend time with my family at home and life here in Singapore - because I always believe that everything happens only for good reasons. That some day, when the time comes (for me to travel), if I have to be there, I would be there. And if the time would not come (for me to travel), it is ok, and I will be fine because I know what I am doing, enjoying it, and would never regret it.

It is mostly happy feeling and mood. As promised, no work during weekends; not much phone calls to receive and to make; not much stress at work; and not much emails - compared to other companies I had worked before; and those things means a lot for me.

Inside the lift at our office building, I often hear people gossiping around their bosses and colleagues. I felt truly grateful that I did not have to experience it since it is only two of us in the office. Instead, my jolly boss often talk about her Zumba, Pilate, and her passion in catching Pokemon with her fellow friends, also about how she spent her time with her children and grandchildren back home.

And yes, I am grateful, and will forever grateful for everything that happened to me in my life.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you SB!!! May all beings be happy and health, free from suffering and the cause of suffering, life full of peace and joy! Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu

Growing Old

"Change that no one can avoid."

"When working, I felt as strong as a bull. I could ignore the pain on my right elbow, as my hand kept moving up and down when getting the takeaway bowls, heavy plates and bowls from the top shelf or carrying trays loaded with stuffs; also the ache from both legs, as I had to stand up most days. But before and after slept, the pain started striking my whole body like a nightmare."

I continued confided to my hubby while chewing my fried rice, "The good things about having SLE though, was that, all those pains that I got, were completely temporary in existence. Meaning, once I got myself active, the pain would be gone."

"Dear, I think it was not because of you having SLE. But it was because we are getting old now," he replied calmly. 

As someone who used his physical strength a lot on his job, he understood the situation fully, as he too was experiencing the same. Not completely same though. His suffering was much much much more than mine. Every night he kept the pain himself. He used to stick the join pain patches on his body but getting fed up as it did not help much in easing his pain. 

Few years ago, I went to Hong Kong with mom, visiting my sister and holidaying together. Every night my Mom had to paste the patches on her legs, especially on her knees, as she felt pain after walking a lot throughout the days. Our room smelt spicy, really smelt of "old people smell". And that was too, one of the reasons why my hubby stopped pasting those stuffs into his body. 

Pic source: Google.com

Back to when I was entering secondary school, my Mom started her 40s, and that time, we already regarded her under category of 'mature adults, a.k.a. old people.' And now we had both reached that age!!!

I started feeling old when white hair started appearing on my head. It was visible when I looked myself into the mirror, around few months ago. It was not only 1 or 2, but more like 4 or 5 now??? It was irritating that I decided to pluck them off. But after few months, it appeared again. Haiz... I guess I would just have to accept the fact that I was getting old. 

But comparing myself with some others who were much younger than me, they grew older much earlier than me. Their white hair was not just few strands, but almost half of the head. Well, that might be due to genetic factor too.

I could not stand a day without afternoon nap either. Especially after lunch. A quick power nap would help me a lot during my working days. 

I realised that stress level, lifestyle, food intake, amount of exercise and sun exposure were playing big parts on our aging level process. And it differs from one person to another. 

Many times I felt of giving up my current job, because my body seemed could not catch up with it. Not about the speed, but the tiredness. Many nights, just hour before the shift ended, I felt the battery in my body was flat to almost 0. Haha.... 

No taking dinner was one of the causes, as we did not have time to get dinner during work. Over working was actually the main reason. The level of staffs employed have now reduced and it forced me to sometimes doing 2 roles at the same time, making me running here and there to ensure both sides were doing properly and in right order. 

But when work was over, I felt grateful that I was still having the ability and strength to work at this job. 

I remembered a conversation with hubby and sister-in-law talking about the doctors we attended to were majority young, mostly in their 30s. Hahaha.... In the past, when we consulted doctors, we considered majority of them as 'old'. So I guessed, the world had turned around. Lol!!!

Losing weight had become major problem with me too!!! Twenty years ago, I could easily lose 3-4 kg. Now, even after reducing snacks, sugary drinks and rice, or sometimes even skipping dinner, the one kilo that I managed to reduce, would easily bounce back and add another 2 kg in return after a dinner and drink event. Hahaha..... I did not know if I should be happy or sad, but I guessed I had to accept the change as part of growing old. 

"It is just getting old, not the end of life."

Perhaps I had spent two-third of my life and leave with another one-third. While I was still alive and kicking, I still had the urge to make my dreams coming true. Not to be successful, not to be rich, but to be happy with simple way of living, plus fulfilling my travelling dreams - backpacking - to countries I had in my head. 

It was just 40s, and not the end of the world yet. The more we should treasure the remaining of our life days, filling it with happiness and laughter despite misery changes with our physical body. 

My parents are in their 70s now. I could not imagine how they could maintain their physical body up to now. Really salute them in taking care their own wellbeing. 

Anyway, just keep moving forward, until the day I breath my last breathe. Fill mind with positivity, that everything is going to be alright. That everything will go accordingly, leaving nature to take its course. Let it be, let it be....

Cuts and bruises

Please, go away (IG: rimareyka.writes)

 

In our everyday life, it is not always rainbow and butterfly. It is full of ups and downs. Some days it is filled with happiness, but some days, it is simply misery, hurt, deep wounds that you do not intend to reveal, or even share with anyone around you. 

Unlike those visible cuts and wounds that oozes blood, this is kept within, dug, and buried way inside, with a big hope to disappear over time. 

Sometimes if we know someone is experiencing it, we try to talk with him or her, so that it can ease their feelings. But it may not something that the person willing to share. 

In that case, let them feel the grief, let them feel the sorrow. But do not let them fall and succumb to it for a long period of time. 

Distract them with things that make them smile, and even laugh, with other beauty things in life that they may forget temporarily. Show them hope, show them that what they feel is just temporary, because nothing will last, be it good, and bad. 

Just like those wounds I got when I perform my job. What left is just scars, but over time, it will fade and disappear. Just give it time, give it time, and be brave enough to accept the reality and pain that I have to go through. We will all make it. Yeah, I am sure, we will all make it. 

Easy Snack Recipe to Share :)

Easy and yummy :)

As some of you have already known, I work part time inside the kitchen these days to fill my free days since the beginning of the year. I treated it as if I am doing the internship like any school students, just like during my school time around two decades ago. 

To tell you the truth, ssshhhhh..... it was not a difficult job to do. However, thanks to my high initiative level, I could learn many things from my two Senior Chefs, whom both are much younger than me (in fact, I am usually the oldest in the team, although not always, hahahaha....)

We are entitled with free staff meals given by the company during our working day (lunch, dinner, or both). And I feel very fortunate for being able to taste so many delicious food from various kitchens surrounding us without having to pay a single cent. Most of them are made with good quality of food and prepared by many experienced chefs. 

Usually I will take heavy meal for my lunch break (pasta, rice, soba, with meat and/ or vegetables). So usually at night, I will take lighter and fast one like yoghurt, bread, soup, and sometimes, I have to take nothing during busy nights - as we did not even have time to rest.

The company where I work sells Italian food. And they too sell simple side dishes like small-cut pizza bread, some with salami, mushroom, garlic bread and so on. The ingredients used are very simple, but they taste very nice!!!

Before that, not many people realised it. But lately, these side dishes have become significantly famous and the sales increases a lot!!! These days we have to prepare the batch almost daily compared to once per two or three days from the past. 

Here in my blog post, I want to share with you the trick in preparing such easy snack dish that can comfort you, especially when you do no feel like having a heavy meal. 

As you can see the photo above, I will share with you the recipe to make a simple snack bites using baguette (or whatever bread that is available at your side), butter, egg, mayonnaise, fresh avocado, tomatoes, salt and pepper. 

If you use baguette, you can cut it into any length that you want. I cut it shorter so that it can be shared with many people at home. After that, cut it open into half so that you can put the ingredients easily on top and bite them easily. 

If you use normal bread that has already been so thin, you can cut them into two triangle or two squares, according to your wish. 

FYI, you can store the unused baguette inside the fridge for few days. Do not afraid that it will become hard because after heating it with butter, it will become soft and nice. 

For the bread, you can heat up your pan with little butter (medium heat) and put both sides of the bread until a bit brown (too much butter will make it soft and oily). You can use your fingers to press on the bread to ensure all surface is heated instead only at the sides. 

Next, boil the egg. Many of you may boil the egg before but using "agaration" to judge the timing and all. Sometimes the egg is not fully cooked. Sometimes the skin is hard to peel or stick to it. Sometimes the egg is broken and cannot be used. So here, let me share your the tips and tricks :)

First, boil the water. While waiting for it to boil, you can prepare a bowl with water and fill it with ice cubes (to ensure water to turn cold). I chose this way over running water to save water. 

Second, after water boils, add salt into the pot. Then put the number of eggs you want. Set the timer to 12 minutes. If you do not have a timer you can set it on your mobile phone. When time is up, take a spoon, scoop the eggs out from the pot and put it into the ice cold water that you prepared earlier. Only the eggs are in, not the hot water. Mix it and leave it around 5-10 minutes, and you are ready to peel it. Before peel, first knock the egg surface all over. This way, you will peel them very easy and fast. You will notice that the egg is firm and hard too!!!

Chop the eggs into smaller pieces, and put into another bowl. Add mayonnaise, salt and coarse black pepper. Mix them well and voila! One filling is done!!!

Last one, the avocado and tomato mixture. Here in Singapore we have accessed mostly with small avocados and the price is quite expensive. So I do not use it much, only one or two, but if you want, you can put as many as you like. I need to learn from my Chef on how to remove the avocado meat in tact, as recently we have to serve one of the dishes to our customers. Hahaha....

Use small knife, cut it into two (the longer side), and when the two lines meet (as the seed is in the middle), move the two half to left and right so that it will move out from the seed. Use the knife to remove the seed, but please be careful not to slice your finger!!!

After that, take out a spoon. Hold the half avocado with one hand, and use the spoon to go underneath from the right to left side, make sure all meat is scooped well with it, then remove from the skin. Put the meat into the chopping board and remove the meat from another half. Cut them into smaller pieces and put it into another bowl. 

Take out a tomato and cut it into small pieces, mix it together with the avocado. Add a salt and black pepper, and olive oil too, if you want. 

Then it is all ready!!!

It is fun, trust me! :)

Put them all on the dining table. Take the bread, spread the egg mayo first before the avocado, and you can bite out right away!!! It is great when sharing it with family and friends at any time. You can have them with wine, champagne, tea, or even beer and chips.

To be honest, even this sounds simple, I was too lazy or too stupid to make it before. Now since I have learnt it through my experience at work, it really makes me confident and feel that even simple, this skill can benefit many people, especially my loved ones whom I share my food and recipes with. Hahahaha.....

So, wish you all good luck in trying this, and give me feedback on this blog comments if you too benefit from it ;) Happy trying!!!

Unwanted incident

Accident happened!!! (IG: rimareyka.writes)

It has been more than 2 months since my last post here. Last month my time was occupied mostly with my new part time job. Even though it was only on part time basis, I usually worked at least 4 days per week. Besides enjoying what I do, I enjoy working with my colleagues. So far we could work well together as a team.

Lack of manpower has always been the main problem they face due to the inconvenience location and lack of transportation during night time. That was why I would try to work whenever I could in order to lighten up their job. 

For the past 2 weeks I have been resting at home due to the accident that happened just minutes before going back time. One food order required me to slice the meat using the slice machine and it took only a second to make me staying at home for weeks. 

That night it was supposed to be a happy night because one of the full time staff was going to take long leave (finally after 9 months of work!) and I had already planned to work when he was not around. It was also the night when another part timer was working on her last day too!

That was why it was called accident when unwanted thing happened. And yes, my hand was slipping from the meat and the left corner of my point finger was sliced by the machine. Haiz....

I know that there were many threats or safety issues would happen while working inside the kitchen, such as: burning (from hot oil, hot water, oven, pan, etc.), cutting fingers, falling due to slippery floor, and many more. It happened to all of us due to the nature of our work.

Within 2 months, I had experienced fingers burning from hot tray that came out from oven, cut on my finger and nail while cutting vegetable, skin scratched from sharp things, and so on. But usually it recovered in just few days. 

Just weeks before, my full time staff cut his finger while slicing meat using the machine. That time I saw the fresh wound right after the incident and I told myself to be extra careful when handling the machine. Who knew my turn came not long after that. But my cut was much more serious than his, which required me to see the A&E department right after work and made me unable to work for more than 2 weeks. 

First dressing

The first 2 nights I felt like living in hell. I was awaken from my sleep by the pain from my hand. The nurse wrapped my hand tightly (and not only the finger) in order to stop the bleeding, which caused me not able to fold my fingers onto my palm. My next dressing appointment was in two days time due to the public holiday in between. So I had to keep my whole hand straight and immovable at whole time. It was really really really suffering!!!

And I was not aware that other parts of the finger were affected too by the incident. The pain that I felt was really unbearable. Even after taking painkiller, it required more than an hour until I could feel the ease of the pain. 

At the whole moment I was crying with no sound (it was 5.30 am in the morning and I had only slept for 2 hours, and my hubby was sleeping soundly, feeling very tired after accompanying me from the hospital until 2.30am). 

I chanted, as if I was haunted by unwanted soul. I was asking for forgiveness to anyone whom I made suffered before as I believed that the pain that I felt was the result of my bad karma from the past (be it this life and from past life). I thanked SB too for this to happen because I deserved it and it would be a good reminder for me not to harm anyone (be it purposely and accidentally) by words, thought, and actions. 

I had to go to polyclinics few times for the dressing which was better done by the nurse and at the same time, could help me checking the wound condition. Blisters appeared on the other side of the same finger few days later, which I had no idea how come it appeared. 

I had to protect my finger from my movements (could not carry heavy thing), keeping it dry (could not do anything that involved washing), and keeping it straight most of the time. Water retention was there too making my finger looked giant and swollen. I had to depend on my other fingers to write and do things. It was suffering not being able to fold the finger into clench for long time. It made my point finger turning into numb. I could not imagine the pain that people had to suffer when they were bedridden for long period of time. 

Love you dear Laogong and thank you :)

Fortunately I have my dear hubby who helped me for almost everything during this period of time. It included helping me to wash my hair once every 2 days. He is so sweet and lovely, isn't he???

I could not do any housework too. Therefore I spent my time watching Korean drama and other things that did not require me using much of my hand. 

I felt bad for my full time staffs as I could not come to work when they needed me. The accident was really happening at the wrong time. Luckily the full time staff still managed to take his long leave and his partner managed to handle with whatever staffs they had. 

It really takes some time for this finger to recover. It took me more than 10 days for the wound to become dry. I only dared to let it unwrapped today. Even after it has turned dry, I still need time to let the finger to adjust so it can work like before.

First, the numbness. I have to move it more often by starting doing light job like cutting, writing, pressing, holding, opening thing, etc. Only after that, I will start to carry thing and gain some strength as my job required me to have a strong hands and fingers. Hopefully it will get back to normal by the end of this week. Let it be a lesson so that other staffs and I could be much more careful next time during our work. 

Nothing lasts forever, be it good and bad (Pic source: Google.com)

And from this incident, I want to thank everyone, especially to the Manager, colleagues, and family members at home for their care and understanding, but most of all to my dear hubby who has taken care of me during my bad times and being there when I needed him. Thank you, thank you, and thank you everyone!!! Hope it will never happen again to anyone and I can go back to workplace soon! Take care everyone and I hope all of you are in good health and life full of love, luck, wealth, and happiness!!! :)

Change Amidst the Rough Time

Change is a way of life (Pic source: Google.com)

"When I  did no go to work, I had a walk from my home to the TV Station in the morning. The wind was big, so nice and comfortable."

One of the elder workers from my previous job kept uttering the same sentences over and over again after she came back from her medical leave. I guessed, that was the syndrome that happened to human once we got old.

As I walked out from my new working place last night, the place was really windy that required me to put on my wind breaker.

It happened that my new working place was located just around that local TV Station area (what a coincidence!). It was very far from my house (it took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach there one way).

"Since you walked there, did you see any (local) movie stars?" 

That was another question raised by another auntie to that elder worker. And she said, unfortunately no. 

However, in the morning on my first day to work, as I passed by the campus (I did not even know there was such campus available for acting!), I saw one famous local actor walking on my opposite direction. With his white hair, he greeted the Chinese New Year wishes to the man who walked in front of me. He even removed his mask a while to ensure the person knew who he was. 

Some of Mark Lee movies (Pic source: Google.com)

I knew him, but forgot his name. Therefore I was keeping quiet as I walked and did not do anything (like waving hands or asking to take photo etc.) Then I quickly searched for his name in Google and found out. He was Mark Lee (known as Lee Kwok Huang), a Singaporean comedian, actor, television host and film director. He had produced and starred many local movies in Singapore and I has watched many of them too. 

Wow!!! What a day! The Aunty walked for so many days and did not see any stars even once, but I met one on my first working day! Hahaha... Maybe it was a good sign for a new beginning *grin *grin

So yes, I had started yet another chapter of working life since yesterday. The kueh lapis job had just over last Friday and was ended with dinner. I felt getting better at doing it by now (maybe the increasing number of years and experiences made my confidence level grew higher).

As I mentioned before, I wanted to share with you about my new working place. First, the location was in One-North area. It was a subzone and business park, developed by JTC Corporation for the R&D and high technology cluster, comprising biomedical sciences, infocomm technology (ICT) and media industries (Source: Wikipedia).

Info on Mediapolis (Pic source: Wikipedia)

And the exact location of my working place was at building called Alice@Mediapolis. 

"Right in the heart of Mediapolis, ALICE@MEDIAPOLIS is a business park created for startups and as a base for established organisations. It offers startup spaces, shared media facilities, flexible work-live-play-learn spaces, a childcare centre, and retail outlets. 

The Deliveroo Food Market is also housed in the building, featuring 10 kitchens and a 40-seater dining space, all based on a fully automated ordering system."

(Source: Wikipedia)

Deliveroo Food Market at Alice@Mediapolis

This was how the 40-seater dining place looked like. And the 10 kitchens mentioned was located just behind the area. 

"Deliveroo (legally incorporated as Roofoods Ltd.) is an online food delivery company founded by William Shu in 2013 in London, England.

It operates in over two hundred locations across the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Its subsidiary operation, Deliveroo Editions, focuses on growing a network of ghost kitchens—kitchens located off-site from restaurants for the preparation of delivery-only meals."

(Source: Wikipedia)

So, I worked in one of those 10 ghost kitchens located behind. 

List of kitchens and brands participating at Deliveroo Food Market

As mentioned above, the ghost kitchen was there to prepare food for delivery only meals. And ordering system was all fully automated, meaning that it was ordered through online (Deliveroo website or apps). No service staff taking order at the counter and to serve the food for you. It would be delivered by the Deliveroo food delivery rider to your home or office, or you can pick up at Deliveroo Food Market like the place above. 

Where you pick up your meals :)

When Covid-19 struck in Singapore since March last year, many F&B establishments were suffering as less people dined in. They were struggling with the restaurant's high rent cost, high labour cost, and so on. 

Food delivery had become trends as it encouraged less interaction between humans (as ordering, payment etc. were fully automated). People would not mind to pay more to get the taste of food that they wanted without having to move their butts and queue up. 

The GM of the restaurant that I worked saw this as a very good opportunity and time to strike this type of business. What they needed was to rent a small kitchen and hired few kitchen staffs (3 full-time staffs and 3 to 4 part-time staffs) to operate in their daily basis. 

They showed their food menu on the Deliveroo apps and to widen the market, he was creating the business Instagram accounts to introduce, show, and market what they sold. 

With premium ingredients used, well cooking skills and creativity, it could produce a delicious, healthy, and eye-catching food and many people who were health-conscious and loved high quality food, would not mind paying a high price to get the products. 

I was sometimes amazed with it because even in difficult times like this, people were still buying and spending their money on these types of food unhesitatingly.

Well, Covid or not Covid, people would still have to eat. You just had to change the way you run your business to maximise your profit. I loved this idea though. 

Delivery wise, you did not have to headache because Deliveroo would manage. You just had to focus on your food and beverage operations. 

All the prepared food was just put on the kitchen window and the staffs from Deliveroo would transfer it to the collection point, ready to be picked up by the rider or customer. 

The food had to be prepared in short time (as short as 7 minutes) so that it could preserve the heat, quality, and freshness by the time it reached the recipient's hands. So we had to work fast and good teamwork was necessary. 

Well, that was only the beginning. I hope it would go well and smoothly. I did not say it was easy but I would do my best to learn and be a good team player. Wish me all the best!!! :D

Way back to follow my passion (Part 4)

Rich at heart (IG: rimareyka.writes)

In 2 days time, it will mark my third month working here. Wow, time flies right? It just goes by in a blink of eye. 

I do not even have much time to update my blog, try whipping new recipe, or engage myself in more reading (at most I can only read a maximum of 2 books a month - that too is only done during my trip to and from work, on my bus ride).

Day off is spent mostly to rest at home, shop grocery at supermarket, window shopping at department store, or have some exercise like morning walk (depending on the weather), and so on.

I try my best to make time to gather with friends and family members too, plus once-a-month family of three eat-out lunch or dinner (I think we need to have this treat as all of us are busy with work and school, so family bonding is much required where we can chit chat and share our love and thoughts towards each other).

With this post, I think I have reached the stage where I have familiarised my work much better compared with my last post. I have conquered the stage where fear dominated most of my feeling. I am into the stage where the confidence level is getting much better despite the speed and skills may not reach the mastery level yet (not sure if the day will come also hahahaha... :P)

But at least, at some area, I dare my own self to give it a go (no more excuses saying that I have not learned or done it before). Because after all, each of us have to do it soon or later. 

I have worked where the staff figures are at the lowest (as many students have gone back to school). One person is forced to do one-man show, juggling multi-task works, finishing one order to another, especially at peak times (lunch and dinner). Manager needs to go around to check if any back up help is required but he or she can not be there all the time. 

Sometimes when the staff figures are more than enough, the Manager also puts you in one-man show. In this scenario, I just tell myself that they just want to train me so that I can work faster and better. Lol.

Whatever it is, Positive energy is very much required. That too not yet including additional request (sometimes ridiculous one) from the guests (when your area is directly serving them). To remind myself to be positive is not enough. I also have to remind myself to be patient. Sometimes, I feel grateful that all of us have to wear mask due to this pandemic. It is indeed very useful to hide our annoyed face behind :D

Never too old to make friends (IG: rimareyka.writes)

With time, the relationship with colleagues are getting better too, especially after they find out that I am my son's mother. Some have even changed their attitudes after knowing that :D

Team work is very much required in this fast paced job. Some colleagues are very friendly, polite and helpful, while some think highly of themselves, rude, and try to act blur. When facing them (to appease myself), I just tell myself that they may not learn well about karma yet in their lives. No matter how strong or skilful you are, one day you will still need help from other people. So, I just treat them the same, not to remember how they treat me, with the hope that they will change their attitude someday. This will do good to them :)

Well, will give you more updates again next time. Hope everyone of you is in good health (both body and mind), and keep your spirit up in positive ways. Jia you!!! :)

Way back to follow my passion (Part 3)

The same result (IG: rimareyka.writes)

It had been more than 16 years since the last time I worked in Food and Beverage company on the operational side (excluding the once-a-year part-time kueh lapis though).

In the beginning, I was not sure if I still had the energy (standing up all the time; long and shift working hours), speed (that was very much needed in a fast-moving operation), and the ability to work with the young and energetic people and environment.

I have the passion and love though, and that what keeps me motivated to get myself ready for each shift to start.

It was just I did not know that all the staffs here (both full and part time) were required to have many different skills as we were expected to work in many different areas each day, and the tasks given were changed all the time in every few hours depending on the demand in the operation side.

It was really not easy to have the skill set for doing each job. But surprisingly, my son did not feel having any difficulties in doing any tasks given. I never heard him complaining except that it was tiring. 

Unlike me.

Overcome fear (IG: rimareyka.writes)

Every time I was given a new task, I was filled myself first with "FEAR". Fear of doing wrong, fear of not doing good enough, fear of being too clumsy, fear of getting complained, fear of not doing fast enough, fear of missing the items or ingredients, fear of the items not looking presentable, and so on.

I had to tell myself over and over not to be afraid. The fear naturally came to me as I had not worked for so long, plus this company served the premium selling items using only premium ingredients, and sold it at a very high price (the Management too, had a high expectation from each of their staffs to do their jobs well and fast).

With fear that appeared first with me on every first task I learned, there were always things I did wrong, too slow, not satisfactory, and so on as I was not used of doing it before. 

Of course they would not expect someone who just worked in that area for few times to compare their abilities with those who had worked there for some time. Yes, they were lenient and understanding. 

But sometimes, even after doing it for several times, there were always comments given by others - e.g. "you cannot do it like this," "cannot put it like that," "this is too small," "it was not done right, do it again," and so on.

Some staffs were good. After telling me where my mistakes were, they taught me on how to make it right. This led me to do things better. It was okay for me for them to tell me my mistake because it meant that they cared. And I had to remember it so that I would not make the same mistake in the future.

Sometimes, it brought other staff with frustration when having me as their partner (I even made them crying for help from the Manager) :D

After all, we are just a human being (IG: rimareyka.writes)

Personally, I too had high expectation from my own self. For example, I believed that "LOVE" was the most important ingredients in the dishes  that I usually prepared. Therefore at work, I wanted to treat every food that I handled, with love, e.g. cutting only the best parts of the leaf (those broken one, yellowish, discolouration, would not be used), handling each part of the ingredients gently (so that it would not break, look ugly, not presentable with finger pressing mark), using both hands to take the food instead of one, etc. And with those things in mind, it made me working slower (plus not long enough practise as I believe in practise makes perfect - or at least, better).

Many times, I put myself on the customer's shoes. "If I were the customer, by queuing for so long to get here and paying so much for the food ordered, I would have such expectation for the good and services received from the company." Therefore, I tried doing my best to deliver the best to them.

And with Internet and social media, people could write review about good things and disappointments easily these days that would affect the company's reputation. Instagram users would also post many of the company's food and beverage items on their accounts. Therefore, food presentation was definitely important.

Both visual (presentation) and non-visual (services rendered by staffs during their dining experience) were equally important and highly demanded by our customers.

Looking at how each full-timer and old part- timer staff worked, it made me wonder if would there be a day when I could reach their standard (of speed, quality, accuracy, and so on).

Be stone sometimes (IG: rimareyka.writes)

As for now, I could only say that my day-to-day working experience was like a rollercoaster ride - full of ups and downs. Sometimes good, sometimes not good.

Not all was bad though. Sometimes I worked well too and was even praised when doing good job. 

Some nights I could not sleep thinking of what had happened before or would happen at working place and all those forced me to remind myself to always put myself back to the present moment (as what happened, had already happened, I could not go back to the past to undo those mistakes. And what would happen, hadn't happened yet, so why should I worry about it??)

I could only tell myself to do the best each day. If my ability was not up to it, let them decide on it. We were given probation time before they confirmed us to be their staffs. So by then, just keep doing and practising, making it better. Whatever the results would be, que sera sera....

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 :)

Way back to follow my passion (Part 1)

Singapore - In times of Covid-19

It has been 1.5 months since the last time I posted my blog post. Covid-19 is still around all over the world, including here in Singapore. Travelling abroad for leisure purposes is still not possible yet. Until when? Nobody knows.

Due to this pandemic many people have lost their jobs. Many shops and food stalls are seen closing down for good. Travel agents do not open for business for more than half a year now. Many hotels are quiet like ghost-infected buildings.  My heart is very sad when passing by those places.

Fortunately things still go well with my family members; all are in good health (thank Buddha), and at least everyone still holds their jobs safely.

3 Hobbies you need (Pic source: Google.com)

My days were filled with so much unproductive things, mostly at home. I had watched over 15 series of mostly Korean dramas (with an average of 16 episodes per each series) and 50 over movies for the period of five and a half months. Crazy, weren't I? 

Cooking and trying to whip up new dishes were other activities I loved doing for my family at home. Walking, cycling, and hiking once in a while were done to keep myself fit, active, and healthy.

Cycling in the evening and watching sunset (Punggol Waterway - Singapore)

The future of Covid-free life is still far unknown. At least, it is controlled well with less cases within the community. 

Being tired of spending time unproductively, I thought of doing something - that according to my passion, and at the same time, could earn some income. Anyway, I can not travel to anywhere until at least next year when vaccine has been found and given to most people all around the world.

To find the real job is kinda challenging at this point of time, although Singaporean and PR would be given priorities to the job vacancy. And for company that hire them, it would be given the subsidy of their employees' monthly salary by the Singapore government.

"For eligible employees under the age of 40, the subsidy will be 20% of the monthly salary of those employees for 6 months, capped at S$6,000 in aggregate. For eligible employees who are 40 and over, the subsidy will be 40% of the monthly salary of those employees for 6 months, capped at S$12,000 in aggregate."

(Source: https://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/ - May 28, 2020)

Office job will be less tired physically, but can give lots of stress mentally. Higher pay or not will depend on the type of job because these days, many company try to cut their labor cost as much as they can by employing lesser staffs. Therefore, 1 person may have to do 2 or more people's job (bad times or less business quantity will be the usual reasons given).

Usually office workers will get their days off on weekends. However, after staying at home for some time, I realize that weekends are never good times to go out as too many people will also be going to the same places - to shop, exercise, dine, etc. I will rather stay at home and have a peaceful days off during weekdays.

Power of passion (Pic source: Google.com)

I wanted to find something that I like doing (my passion) at this period of time. I had been through few types of jobs before and I knew well what I liked doing and what I did not like. Of course, there were many pros and contras regarding the thing that I wanted to do.

Physical job would be more tiring but depending on the nature of the job. I preferred doing a low-rank job where I would use my brain only when I work, but not after working time is over - no need to headache to plan about tomorrow, next week, and so on.

Full time job would give me less freedom (Monday to Friday or Saturday job is quite dull, wasn't it?) There were more crowd too during office hours - when taking public transport and having lunch.

Part time job would give me more freedom (as I could choose which day I want to work, which day I want to rest), although the pay that I might get would be much lesser (price for freedom).

And most importantly, when you do something according to your passion, you will not feel that you do it as a job or is solely done painstakingly only to earn money. Of course at the end of the day, money is still the motivator or the drive for getting the job. It is just how our mind set it in separately. 

When working with money as the main motivator, no matter how horrible the job is, people will stay put at the job only because the money is rewarding or attractive enough (even when the job scopes are suck, colleagues are crap, and workload is crazy). 

However, life is too short to be filled with unhappy things in life. And I want to do something I love doing this time.

Therefore, one day, I finally decided to do the part time job, and it is where my son works.

The post to be continued :)

Third Year with the Family

Thousand Layer Cake (Indonesian Kue Lapis)

Yayyyy!!! Finally!!! Today is the last day of working my part time job!!! It is my third year helping the family baking the thousand layer cake (known as Indonesian kue Lapis). Read here for the post I wrote when working there on my first year :)

Unfortunately due to an incident, our Lady Boss passed away last year on a Good Friday. And this year, her daughter, son, and husband, continue running the shop and selling the Chinese New Year goodies to cater to the needs of their customers (many are very loyal customers who have been shopping here since the shop was opened, and otherwise were a very good friend of the Lady Boss). P.S. Although she is no longer here, I still called her my 'Lady Boss'.

Baking kue lapis

Her daughter was messaging me somewhere in mid December and asking me if I would be available to help up to bake for this CNY. After confirming that I would not go anywhere this time round, I told her about my availability and started work on December 23. So it was exactly a month since I started it (with many holidays in between). And the pain from my previous post was caused by doing this job.

That is why I am so happy that finally the work is over and it is time for all of us to take a good rest and celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year together with dear families and friends :)

Without the Lady Boss around, her daughter was taking in charge and managing the operations to ensure that they had enough stock to make the goodies, enough supplies to sell, delivery of goods to come on time, enough manpower to do the necessary work, and so on. And she was very lucky as she had handful of trusted workers who knew their roles and responsibilities, who were reliable for doing the given tasks, honest in handling the money and doing the job well, etc.

Many of the employees were in retired ages (above 60s) - were working there for so many years (more than a decade), hired by the Lady Boss.

The eldest one on her last day of work (See her happy face??? :D)

The oldest one is 87 years old this year and she works only during this period helping up with shaping the pineapple tarts. Second oldest is 75 years old and she is still very strong like a bull!!! :D

Despite the Lady Boss was no longer there, the workers were still working very hard and supporting the business as much as they could. But of course the daughter has continued treating us very well too!!!

Yum yum.... Tasty right??? :D

She was treating us a sumptuous dinner on one of the day after we finished working, as her and her families appreciation towards our dedication and hard work. Sometimes she also bought dinner for staffs who worked until very late. On our last day we were given the CNY goodies to be shared with our families and friends at home.

I am very thankful for being given the trust and opportunity to work here again this time round. Even though this was only a once a year task and causing many body pains, I enjoyed the baking process very much. Perhaps it is the passion that motivated me to be there every morning. No doubt it was a very tiring job although it was only 8 hours a day. But at the end of the day, by baking the cakes well and making enough quantity to sell was satisfying.

The memory of the Lady Boss was always around especially when I was baking, as she, was the one who taught me personally on how to do it.

I do not know yet if next year I will still have the chance to work like this again (who knows I will return back to full time employment again right?)

But if I am free and available, I will be happy to help up again. For now, I have done enough and it is a time to have a good rest and let me preparing the upcoming Rat Year!!!

Everyone as a team :)

As a closure let me share the group photo above, taken during the staff dinner. No Lo Hei shouting was done though to respect the departure of the Lady Boss (still less than a year's time), but the food ordered was all delicious. We enjoyed a lot.

Thank you again to you know who you are for everything!!! May the business continues doing well and everything goes smoothly. Most important everyone is blessed with good health, peace, joy, luck and happiness in their lifetime!!! Huat ahhh!!!!!! :)