Life back with glasses

Life back with glasses (Pic source: Google.com)

I started wearing glasses since I was in Primary 5. During teenager time, I found wearing the glasses so troublesome and inconvenient. I had broken many of it due to the lack of my gentleness. Especially when I used to practise Tae Kwon Do during my secondary school time. I found it hindering my practise and when I had to remove it during competition, I could not see my opponent well and was at a losing side.

My eldest sister was the first who wore it and I had hard time to convince my mother to get one pair for myself because it was expensive. Beside purchasing the lens, I also had to purchase its solution to wash it before sleep every night.

After having it, I was having hard time when I tried putting it into my eyes. My eyes were not used to accepting the new object to stick onto it. Many times I ended up losing it into the drain as I usually tried wearing it at the sink, looking myself in front of the mirror that was located on top of it. My mother was angry but had no choice to purchase the replacement for me. 

It has been more than 8 months now that I gave up using the contact lens. I had been seeing the world with the help of it for more than 2 decades. Whenever I travelled, I had to bring a pair or two spare lens, in case I lose it accidentally, together with bottles of solutions water. 

It really helped me a lot and brought me with convenience until last year, when I felt my eyes could not see clearly even after wearing it. At first, I thought I was having 'old people's eyes' as I could not read small letter with my lens on. Then because of Covid, I could not purchase it from my hometown (as it was much cheaper than to get it here in Singapore). 

But even with the balance of lens that I had, I just could not read well while wearing it. So I decided to make a new pair of glasses last August. It turned out that it was not because of 'old people's eyes', but the measurement of the lens I purchased might not working well for eyes with high level of astigmatism.

I got you!!! (Pic source: Google.com)

When I worked at my first part-time job, I was telling myself to wear glasses despite the inconvenience because my job was dealing with reading the orders through the computerised ordering sheet and monitor too. It was a fast pace job so I could not risk myself from making wrong order or preparing it slow just because I could not read clearly. 

Fortunately, I found out that most of the part timer there (who mostly were students), more than 80% was wearing glasses too (as a result of studying, looking at mobile phone, and/ or looking at computer screen too much). So I felt that I was in the same category, and I suddenly felt young too, just like them!!! (that was why too that I kept my hair long :P long hair and spectacle = student look) Hahahahaha.... XD

It has been 8 months now my life back with glasses. Yes, it still feels inconvenient for having to wear it wherever I go, but I do not have to remove lens and wash it every night before sleeping, after having such a long day. I could just put the glasses on my side table, turn off the light, and fall asleep right away. 

I do not have to feel dryness on my eyes too while staying long inside the air-conditioned room, or inside the plane. I save money from buying bottles of solution water. I can change different style of glasses with cheaper cost and lighter lens with the increase of competitors and advanced technology. 

Glasses could also protect my eyes from the splash of oil and/or hot water while working in the kitchen, from dust while cycling and walking on the road. 

Yes, I need these glasses too :P

Well, I guess everything happens for a good reason, if only you want to find those heaps of good reasons. So, I finally let my eyes to rest from the lens and hope it gets healthier as I grow older :)

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

Life update - Jan 2021

Hello January

Time indeed flies. January is going to be over soon, in few days time. Many things have happened, be it in my own personal life, and also in everyone else's life. 

First of all, Chinese New Year is coming (on 12th February 2021). It is in two and half weeks more. Many people are preparing it diligently now - from cutting their hair (to ward off the bad luck), buying new clothes, shopping food for CNY Eve's family gathering, changing new notes for the red packets, buying CNY goodies and decoration, and so on. 

However, 4 days ago, the authorities came out with new rules on visiting and tossing Yusheng (related to the upcoming CNY celebration). More details can be found here. It is summarized in the picture below:

Covid-19 Safeguards (Pic source: CNA)

With it, the CNY is expected to be quiet this year, very different from years before. Haiz.... I know. But when Covid-19 is still rampant everywhere, I think precautions are better than sorry and we just have to bear with it.

Anyway, many people are happy with the new rules though. Because they will get excuse for no-visiting this year. No need to prepare CNY goodies or delicacies, no need to distribute hong bao or red packet (although e-hongbao is recommended these days), no need to answer unnecessary (or sometimes stupid) questions - e.g. to those single - when have boyfriend or girlfriend; to couple - when to get married; to married couple - when to have kid; to married couple with kid - when to have a second one; and so on. No visiting means, no need to wear new clothes, shoes, bag, too.. Imagine how much money will be saved this year!!! Lol!!!

Second, I have quit from my part-time job. My last day of work was 17th January. It lasted for five months. It was short, but I experienced the busiest and quietest moments altogether. Have found friendship in it as well. Thank you for the opportunity and experience given to you know who you are! I am glad I was there in the team!! :)

From 11th itself, I started the other part-time job - baking kueh lapis . It is my fourth year doing this with the company. Yesterday, the kueh lapis from the company where I work was featured by 8 days (a weekly Singaporean magazine published by Mediacorp). 

Lina Confectionery Backstory Coverage (Pic source: 8 days.com)

They bought 17 kueh lapis from all different shops in Singapore - undercover - meaning: no ads, affiliations or insidious under-the-table hand-shaking involved. They placed it all side by side and compared the taste. Amazingly, they ranked it fourth best!!! With the coverage, personally, I am very happy with the news. 

And the comment! (Pic source: 8 days.com)

If only the Lady Boss (Tante Lina) - the founder - were still alive, she must be very proud and happy too!!! The kueh lapis recipe was created by her and it was her sweat and hard work for the product to be recognized by many people. She must be smiling from heaven now.

Third, once the kueh lapis job is over (first week of February), I have accepted another part time job. It is still F&B related job, still related to my passion, but handling different food. I will post it next time once I have started and familiar with it. There is something interesting about it, and that was why I chose to try :)

Yeah, it is funny right? When everyone was busy with their works, I was jobless and did nothing (other than travelling). And when Covid came, many people lose their jobs and do nothing, I was the other way around, busied myself with the part-time job I took. Hahaha.... 

I feel blessed though. Because even when the time was tough, we are all blessed with good health, safe environment, have job to do, and so on.

So, that's it for now. January is a busy month for me. Work, work, and work. Hope to have more rest. Til then. Hope everyone is in good health! Take care! :)

Books read for the second half of the year 2020

Quote by Lloyd Alexander (Pic source: Google.com)

Hi hi, how have you been readers? Have you managed to read much for the second half of the year 2020?

I read lesser than the first half as since August, I had started working. With more hours spent at work plus the Korean drama I had binged to run myself away from reality,  the lesser time I had spent on reading.

Nevertheless, it was not too bad. 

Below please find the lists of books I had read for the second half of the year 2020:

July 2020

July 2020:

1. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi
2. My True Love Gave To Me (Twelve Winter Romance)
3. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down - Haemin Sunim

August 2020

August 2020:

1. 1984 - George Owell
2. Sex and Vanity - Kevin Kwan
3. Last Tang Standing - Lauren Ho

September 2020

September 2020:

1. The Two Lives of Lydia Bird - Josie Silver
2. Love In No Man's Land - Duo Ji Zhuo Ga

October 2020

October 2020:

1. Hidden Bhutan - Martin Urlz

2. The Hating Game - Sally Thorne

November 2020

November 2020:

1. The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida - Clarissa Goenawan

2. The Other Mrs - Mary Kubica 

3. The Good Girl - Mary Kubica 

December 2020

December 2020:

1. The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel

2. Sleeping on Jupiter - Anuradha Roy

3. What Lies Between Us - John Marrs

4. Never Look Back - Mary Burton

Quote by Margaret Atwood (Pic source: Google.com)

Btw. how was 2020 treating you? It was not a easy year to pass through right? And yet, it flew so fast. It was a transformation year which affected so many people around us. It was tough but we all went through it. 

Year 2021 did not promise a better life either. Perhaps, it could get worse as apart from the pandemic (more countries around the world had to be locked down), many calamities had happened too at some parts of the world (the missing plane and earthquakes in Indonesia).

The vaccines has come but the bad news is, not everyone is able to get it (especially those who have immune-related problems, allergy problems, and so on). Haiz... Even then, it was not proven to protect human from the virus 100% yet, especially when the new variant had also appeared lately in Europe. 

Nevertheless, I am thankful for what have happened into my life so far, and will continue to be thankful more what we have so far. My prayers and wishes that we all can survive and go through it all with positive mind, one step at a time. I believe everything happens for good reasons and whatever reasons, it always teaches us something and makes ourselves stronger each and every day. 

In the end, I hope book writers can publish more books at this point of time so that we can continue reading despite the pandemic. Fighting!!!