Today is the day...

Wherever and whatever you wanna be (IG: rimareyka.writes)

It is one of the days that many people might have been dreaming of... Where I sit at the bench, in the middle of the busy town, the CBD (Central Business District) area, in one of the costliest countries in the world. 

Instead of getting myself busy like the rest of the honey bees, I am sitting down here sipping my Iced Coffee (bought from local business shop - actually my colleague's shop).

Dressing casually, I am sitting with legs akimbo, occasionally lift down my mask, so that I can sip my coffee. 

Support local business (IG: localcoffeepeople)

Today the weather is really nice. It is a sunny day, but the wind blow constantly messing my hair, from time to time blocking my sight from typing this blog from the convenience of my mobile phone. 

It is one of the me-alone times, among many others. It is almost 12pm. I see more and more people walking in a group - at least in two - discussing what to eat for lunch, or talking about what happened in their working place earlier, or otherwise, their personal lives' matters. 

They are dressing smartly, with the shoes polished shiningly. Hair combed with gel or sprayed and looked tough. Ladies are walking with high heel, with the working pass card hung onto their neck. It is not as crowded as before (before Covid-19), but still, the crowd is slowly back (with 50% of the manpower is allowed to be back to work at the working place).

For them, time is money. For me, time is something I am splurging with right now, as there is no limit, as I have nothing planned inside my head. I just want to be, be here, enjoying my solitary within the busy life that many people have. 

Because it is time for me to rest now. So I am here focusing myself to just be, be here, be alone, be mindful, breath, write, express everything I feel right now. 

No one bothers me too. They walk and treat me as transparent, as if they do not see me, as if I do not exist here. It feels good, really!!! 

Some people came and went sitting at the empty seats beside me. But all was only sitting for a while. No one sit as long as I do, because they have things to do, they have agenda in their day.

Have you ever done thing like this before? Have you ever had the luxury to do this kind of thing before? To do nothing, and not to worry about anything else. 

Because I believe in one thing, that there is always time for every thing. 

There is always time for everything (IG: rimareyka.writes)

And everything happens for a good reason!!! Try it sometimes and you will feel better.

Books read in the year 2021

Book Quote (Pic source: Google.com)

Below please find the list of the book I read for the whole year 2021:

January 2021

January 2021

1.The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa

2. The Christmas Swap - Sandy Barker

July 2021

July 2021

1. Burn You Twice - Mary Burton

2. If I Had Your Face - Frances Cha

3. Crazy Stupid Bromance - Lyssa Kay Adams

August 2021

August 2021

1. Somebody I Used to Know - Wendy Mitchell

2. The Last Thing He Told Me - Laura Dave

3. Her Last Flight - Beatriz Williams

September 2021

September 2021

1. A Sweet Mess - Jayce Lee

2. Arsenic and Adobo - Mia P. Manassas

3. Recipe for Persuasion - Sonali Dev

October 2021

October 2021

1. First Singular Person - Haruki Murakami

November 2021

November 2021

1. The Woman in the Purple Skirt - Natsuko Imamura

2. Whereabouts - Jhumpa Lahiri

December 2021

December 2021

1. The Stranger in the Lifeboat - Mitch Albom

2. Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney

As you could see above, last year I have read quite less number of books (only 17 per year), a major decrease comparing to the previous years.

It was mainly due to the rising of the new passion towards crystals in the first half of the year - spent my time watching "Facebook live" most of the time (February to June).

Other than that, the part time job had also taken parts of my time. And when I was tired and wanted to distress, I was watching many Korean dramas. Hahahahaha.... :P

Anyway, just take it easy lah!!! Just do what I love doing, I think that is more important ;) ;P (another excuse!!!) Lol!!!

The pattern seems like going to follow the same this year. Just hope that I would not lose this passion! See how! 

For now, I hope you still keep passionately reading books and wish you all have a wonderful year of 2022!!!

Turning Back Time

Happy Blessed New Year 2022!!!

It had been almost a week since we went through the year 2022. No celebration on the Eve, only stayed at home like the other night and had myself a good sleep.

Lately there were many things happened. How to say? Big change? Or not much change? Or back to square one?

What I wanted to say was, unexpected thing happened related to my working place, which forced me to end my part-time working life at the ghost kitchen. 

Fortunately Chinese New Year would be coming in very soon and I was offered to do another part time job, baking kueh lapis at the old working place. So, at least I had things to do and earned some money at the same time.

Resolutions were made to be broken lol... :"D

This New Year, I managed to meet up with my working mates for lunch though, and after that we continued with drinking session. Despite we had been worked together only for few months (not even a year) and I was the only lady there (the rest were 4 guys), we had worked together really well.

It made me thinking into changing my occupation to become the full-time staff, at their newly opened outlet. It happened that the area was nearby where I worked around 2 decades ago, when I first joined my workforce in Singapore.

I visited the area twice recently. I used to work both at Joo Chiat area (main office) and Parkway Parade (one of the outlets). After quitting the job, I seldom went there because the location was quite far away from where I stayed. 

In the past, I could only take bus to reach there. But now, thanks for the MRT development in Singapore, I could reach the place by taking both MRT and bus with lesser time (compared if I solely took only the bus). At least I could arrange the time better (imagine traffic jam when taking bus during busy periods both morning and night).

It was not like this 20 years ago ^^

On my first visit, my hubby and I browsed the Joo Chiat area. We had already married by then and he often went there to fetch me home since he was driving the company van last time. It brought us so much nostalgic and made us amazed on how much the places had been developed and turned into what it was now. 

And on my second visit, I went to Parkway Parade and again, many things had changed there too!!! You could find anything there without having to go elsewhere. It was just, the place could be very crowded when it came to weekends, public holidays, and school holidays. 

20 years ago, my first job, was also related to Food and Beverage. I had to cope with shift time, off days on weekdays (but changed after I got pregnant), and handling the hectic and high demand operations.

And 20 years after, I had this possibility of going back to Food and Beverage company, working as kitchen staff, and again, I had to handle a fast working environment. 

It seemed like a dream to me. I mean, in between, I worked inside the office, working from Monday to Friday (first few years Monday to Saturday), following office hours, wearing suits and heels, and finally I got sick and tired of it after doing it for many years.

Starting from passion, and now it might be a full time job - more responsibility, more demand, and so on. I hoped not much stress added in the process, because I tried my best not to live life stressfully, which at the end, might affect the physical and mental health. 

Anyway, let us just hope for the best. The surrounding area was used to be my playground, so at least I did not feel so alien and knew where to go or how, all sorts of things. 

The rest, let us just leave it to nature, whether I would be accepted and joining the company, or not. Whatever it would be, I believed everything happened only for good reasons. So, what about your life in this 2022 year???

2022 Resolutions ;D

Chinese New Year would be coming very soon, and changed in luck would happen all over again. Just pray that everything would go well and smoothly, and most importantly, all of us could maintain our good health and have more joy and happiness in our lives.

Stay safe, take care, and wish you all, the very best in everything that you do!!

The first step

Punggol

Yeah, I was late to catch the sunset. It was a last minute decision to just go cycling and catch the orangey sky from afar, because I just ate too much. Not that being ungrateful for the food I had eaten, it was just it had exceeded what it should be for the day. Hahaha.... 

You should have heard this proverb before, "The first step is always the hardest. But once you take your first step, things will get easier from then on."

I had just overcome my first step to go back to the evening cycling. My last was too long for me to remember. Perhaps after finally cutting my long hair, I had become lighten, and eager to fly again, as if removing stack of stones from my head. 

My accompany (the bike, not the guy in the photo hehehe....)

The weather was good. It was not a windy night, but as I cycled, the wind blew gently towards my face, so yes, it was still good and enjoyable. 

I did not put earpiece this time as I expected the road to be crowded with people. It would be dangerous not to hear what was surrounding me as I cycled. So it was such a good time to listen to many sounds - people's conversation in many different languages, parent's warning their kids when they were on the road, ringing bell sound, car's engine, cicada, frogs, dogs, and so on. 

My nose too smelt so many different smells as I went by. The smelly public toilet, grilled chicken, perfume or deodorants, sweat, and so on. 

My mind was running too. I just let it running wild, to explore whatever it wanted to recall, remember and imagine. Sometimes I smiled as I remembered something; sometimes I felt sour when recalled another. 

Waterway Point at night

But most importantly, my energy was still there, even after so long. Perhaps the enjoyment of doing what I loved doing had given me those energy to keep going. That was why when a friend of mine wanted to start exercising, I suggested him to just doing what he loved doing rather than signing up in something that he doubtfully had motivation to do. 

Well, at least it worked in me. I loved cycling and I just loved doing it :)

Time for the day

It was simply satisfying and I really hoped that I could do it more often in the near future. My weight had increased lately and I seriously had to do something about it hahahahaha..... Wish me luck please!!! I hope everyone is in good health and happy inside out!!! Cheers and keep up what you are doing!!! Jia you!!! 

Nothing much

Make more memories while still can (Source: Google.com)

No updates for more than 2 months. Where has the time flown into??? In less than 2 months time, we are going into another year.... Crazy, really crazy, isn't it???

September was great. I worked like only few days, and spent most of my time doing what I loved doing. Hubby, son and I went for a short trip - taking Royal Caribbean 3-night cruise to nowhere - despite the pandemic and the increasing of Covid cases. It was a good break for all of us where we spent most of our time eating and relaxing (little walk, sleep more, jacuzzi, watching full moon, sun and stars).

The procedure before departing was a bit long, as we had to do a final ART test and wait for its result. We felt safe this way though because they had to make sure that everyone had the negative results. 

Once coming back, I had many memorable days to spend with families and friends over lunches and dinners. It felt good to meet up with people we cared and loved more often as we never know when the next time we could ever meet again. Just wanted to feel the warmth of our togetherness. 

October was a busy month where I was given more days to work. The Covid cases had increased tremendously during this period too. Since I worked in Food and Beverage related job, my colleagues and I had to do swab test once a week, to ensure that everyone was fit and safe to work. Thank Buddha we were all so far so good, so with families back home. 

But it did not mean that we would be safe forever. Just my feeling that one of the days, we all just had to get it at least once. And if we were lucky, we would be able to overcome it and life would go on. If we were not, then nothing could stop us from leaving. 

It was sad to hear people that I knew passed away due to Covid. Not only that. Many had lost their jobs and minds because of it too... Life was really challenging and it really tested our capabilities in managing stress and anxiety due to uncertainty of the future. 

The situation gave us so many question marks on what life would be. Many had resort to get the answers from the fortune teller and bagua readers, as they were wondering what life lines and roads they had in this lifetime. 

Why? And yet, we do (IG: rimareyka.writes)

People like me, just think of going with the flow. Live life one day at a time. I do not think much about future as I did not even think much about tomorrow. Try to live more of the present moment, and be aware with my own conducts. That had already made me busy enough. 

Hehe... I do not know what I am bubbling about right now. Just want to post as it had just been too long to let this blog vacant. Just want to say that I am fine, still kicking and alive. Grateful and thankful for so many good things that happened to my families and friends. I hope they will always be.