Baby Bump & Good News (Not)

Life, That Time When, Thoughts, ,

Nobody prepared me for this. This, being the period from when you’re married and yet to deliver good news.

No, good news isn’t when you accomplish things at work and get recognitions. Good news has nothing to do with enjoying yourself on long-planned dream trip with your best-friend cum halal-husband. It’s also not good-enough-news when Red Devils won a Derby match, which you paid for heftily to watch in Old Trafford. GGMU – yay, nevertheless.

So, I’m writing this as a wedding gift to all new and not-so-new brides; inspired by very true stories. Oh yes, this is a click-bait. 😛

Baby Bump

On a very rare occasion that I did wear a dress to work – I chose to style it up a little, with a belt around my not-so-flat tummy. I was at a celebration with my friends & colleagues from my former plant. For context, I’ve not met anyone since my wedding since I relocated to across the Causeway.

Mr Hong Kong Man (in a very sweet tone) : Awwww, Thara – is that a baby bump, I see?

Me : Ermmm, hi Mr Hong Kong Man! Very nice to see you! Noooooooooo. I just found lots of places to eat in Singapore. (wide grin, high pitch laugh)

Mr Hong Kong Man : ………… Oh no! I’m so sorry! …. *more awkward silence – until I ran away to someplace I was not needed*

Poor Mr Hong Kong Man, I’m pretty sure he’s now traumatized for life. This was so hilarious because it really did seem to scar him more than me. This is someone that I really like & look up to. I’m thinking that I should meet him when I do get pregnant, just when I’m about to pop so that we can try the aforementioned conversation again – you know, for redemption.

Lesson #1 : Gain weight at your own risk post wedding – as it’s trickier to navigate. I’m also obliged to say, as a responsible writer-wannabe, take care of your health. I’m a hypocrite – work in progress.

Notes to self, 1) Either stick to my workout plan or get pregnant this year, whichever attainable. 2) Look in the mirror & ask myself, ‘Do I look pregnant in this?’.

Good News

On a not-so-fine day at work, I was getting bad refluxes which then exponentially got worse throughout the day making me puke multiple times. My engineer-turned-doctor work friends were troubleshooting me like any good professional would. They deduced as a matter of fact, that it can’t be food poisoning as I had same meals as The Mister, and he seemed fine.

Colleague L : You sure it’s not any good news?

Colleague A : I was about to say the same! Which is why I was asking the questions to be sure first.

To be honest, at this point, even I was like – is this it? It was as if Tsunami hit my brain. TMI – I know, but I checked, not once but twice.

Days later, my in-house Sherlock solved the case. I had greedily eaten a day’s old Roti Boy that I got from Ipoh without sharing with The Mister. Apparently, I ate the bun in two big bites as The Mister watched me from the other room, while I evil laughed at him. While I believe there may be some exaggeration to how I consumed the Roti Boy – it was crystal clear, what it was just that, a food poisoning.

Lesson #2 : If you’re about to eat old food, share it with someone (preferably your husband if you have one) for scientific reasons. Make sure you are able to recount all your meals for better data in case you need to be diagnosed for food poisoning – to avoid false alerts.

Good News (MVP)

While many people have asked me about good news in different tones, I have a notable winner who’s worth the honorable mention, from my temple visit last week.

Mr Kooky : Eppo pethu poda pore, un Appaku vilayada? (Translation : When are you giving birth, for your father to play with (the grandchild)?)

Me : Uhmmmmmm. Coming soon, Uncle.

Mr Kooky : It’s the circle of life. Finish it this year. Then continue, go for Number 2,3,4,5.

Me : *very very very awkward laugh, while the brain is hit with another Tsunami* Ok Uncle. Take care.

Lesson #3 : If you know the question is coming, like a responsible adult – run away!

Disclaimer :

This was written in humour & not to hurt anyone. Good news has been somehow theme of many of the conversations that I’ve been having in recent times. Please, do ask me about the good news – I’ll even send my Excel for better reference (seriously).

Status : Just Married

Life, Thoughts, , ,

Almost 90% of my conversations in the past 49 days have started with, ended with or has had hints of ‘How is married life?’. Yes, naturally so, I guess – but it’s such a mind-boggling question to answer to.

I am usually rather quick to put words together, but this question really catches me off guard, every single time. I change my answers in an attempt to find one that really would put it rightly – and am yet to find any satisfactory reply.

Thank goodness for this rainy chilly weather, and The Mister’s forty minutes of futile attempt to connect a laptop to his precious-oversized Samsung TV wirelessly – I finally gave it a thought, on how married life has been.

So far, married life with The Mister has comprised of :

Curious Case of the Comforter

For context, I’m a grumpy sleep-person.

On warm nights, when I break free – The Mister dutifully (and sweetly?) pulls over the comforter for me. I grumble.

On cold nights, he wraps himself with the comforter, I get cold – and yes, I grumble and struggle to steal it back. Also, for context, he’s a giant.

We discuss this matter in length, for days. *face palm* The Mister even went on to conduct an experiment, unknown to me. One time, he wrapped me in comforter when he woke up to watch a match and came back to find me ninja-ed out of the comforter. Next morning, he gleefully presented photographic evidence.

Adulting

I have lived alone in different cities away from family for some time now – but interdependency is a whole new level. Our ideas and preferences clash – so it’s been lots of discussion, Excels and timelines.

We make lots of plans for weekly market visits, what-to-eats, weekend to-dos and date nights. We then (sometimes) sit on our couch, ask ourselves what’s the plan, all over again. Some days are super-productive, some days we transfigure into sloths.

Like all twenty-somethings who are adulting, we do ‘happy’ things – like rewarding ourselves trip to theme park, and buying things that keep the child in us alive.

Damages (read : happy things) so far include a Shrek cap that comes with ogre-ears, two Jurassic Park mugs, a paper Christmas tree, miniature of 1970 Dodge Charge which Dom Toretto drove in Fast franchise, real-plants (mint, curry leaves and Japanese roses), matching Bumblebee T-shirts, large dew-shaped (faced) pillow, flower pot shaped with dangling string legs and … and by this point, I’m questioning the adulting.

So, to answer the question : How is married life?

It has been awesome – filled with conversations over nothings and every-things. I appreciate presence of The Mister (on most days) – and it’s been like living with my best friend with some obvious additional perks *cough cough*.

My phone time has reduced so much that I have left more and more messages unread. I have my own Volta Futsal team on FIFA 22. I have a patient partner to watch our wedding trailer for the n-th time, just because it makes me all giddy.

I know life’s no bed of roses, but these past forty-nine days have been – so I’m just going to archive it here as a pick-me-up (if required).

Here, I think I have a better answer now for the dreaded question. But it comes to mind, maybe this is far more answerable question than ‘Any good news?’. 😑

Newly married, still just-kids ourselves. 😛

From Bad to Worse

Life, Politics, ,

Disclaimer : This is a rant, which voices out lots of my frustration with the pandemic management in Malaysia – so you might not end reading this feeling better than when you started.

July last year had The Mister and I cancelling our engagement ceremony. To be honest, it wasn’t all misery because we understood how serious the pandemic situation was. People were facing far bigger problems than rescheduling an event.

Since then, I had sent both invitation+cancellation cards twice for our wedding (once in Dec 2020 and another time in June 2021). Even then, I was not really bummed by the situation. It was, yes, a pandemic. People had it worse, losing their family members, jobs. I felt for those who have not been able to travel to meet their families and loved ones for a year. Many basically have put their life on hold.

When nations worldwide ramped up their vaccinations, all we received were statements of ‘what we expect’ rather than ‘what we are doing’. The vaccination rate, while recently is commendable, was far too low from February to about mid-June. We’re basically the sloth in the vaccine race globally. Registration had Malaysians going on what felt like Hunger Games, only to be frustrated at how poorly the website works.

These past month, however, has been absolutely exhausting and dreary. One cannot plan beyond the weekend. Personally and professionally, I felt as I was stucked in what seemed like an unending tunnel. All thanks to the incompetent, overpaid idiots in a very large, yet most useless cabinet worldwide.

Our Prime Minister (and his advisors) think it’s imperative to change his official name AND let the rakyat know of his diarrhoea situation in so much detail BUT refuses to resume Parliament sessions. Meetings about pandemic management often has to wait for tomorrow or the day after; but 1 am gatherings can happen when a supporting party of coalition withdraws. Power crazed old men, who care about nothing but staying in power.

Senior politicians and political appointees (poor old high risk, privileged clowns) go on to make fool of themselves. From suggestions to drink warm water as cure to COVID-19, to high-school like bickering and blame games of what industries can operate during lockdown. Number of cases keep increasing, and the man who has failed to manage the situation gets promotion and clocks in with a shameless, guilt-free smile on his first day as a Deputy Prime Minister.

I am not usually very opinionated about politics in general – but these past year has triggered a very bitter-youth in me, who’s appalled at the state of her nation. What’s more frustrating is that those are supposed to care and resolve the matter are playing deaf and dumb. Even if the PN coalition were to lose majority, there isn’t much hope our PH took over – because the race sentiment always will triumph competency.

Some glimmer of hope, we see, when Young MPs are doing more good for the rakyat in their constituents than the ‘seasoned’ bunch. Commoners have gone all out to lend a helping hand in whichever way possible. Rakyat are more vocal these days when it comes to calling out any failures (read: stupidity) of the governing gang of politicians.

But…. I find it difficult to wholeheartedly believe that Malaysia will heal, and regain her former glory. The future does seem bleak, in all areas, be it politics, economy, education, unity or development. It’s like we have literally gone backwards. It’s very difficult to feel patriotic about a nation that’s broken the mandate of its people.

To not end this so bleakly (just like my future is, oops), I should say – hang in there! Like really, talk to your loved ones, find a hobby, and try to keep your spirits up. The ride might be rough, and a little longer than we would have expected.

What I Learned from Losing My Car

Life, That Time When, ,

I was on the phone with The Mister when my heart skipped multiple beats as I saw the empty parking lot where my car supposed to be parked. I exclaimed, ‘The car’s not here!’.

I was borderline frantic – ‘I couldn’t have parked anywhere else! This is where I park day in and out!’, I said in annoyance and anger when The Mister suggested if I had parked elsewhere. I walked rather clumsily down the slope to a lower level, and still no car.

The Mister probably thought, here we go, another Thara-moment but he calmly and courteously told me to try look in the level above my designated parking spot.

There, it was – clamped, because I had parked at another resident’s spot for three full days. After burning a RM200 hole in my pocket, unclamping and moving back the car where it belonged, I gave this incident a long thought.

A colleague turned friend pointed out, ‘Really, you thought it was stolen? Like what are the chances, considering the security and downright better options for cars to be hijacked at your place!’. Right – my logic reasoning must’ve shut-off involuntarily. Why was I even annoyed at The Mister for trying to suggest I look at a different level.

The great Master Oogway is absolutely right – ‘The mind is like water. When agitated, it becomes difficult to see. But if you allow it to settle, the answer becomes clear.’ Someone quoted this to me several months back, and suddenly it clicked to me. This has been the evil root to most of my tribulations, especially professionally, in the past year.

I got worked up unnecessarily. And man, was it exhaustive to live a life (read: work life) constantly in anger, dissatisfaction and having to be defensive. Although it was generally situations worth frowning upon, in some instances, there were simpler solutions and things were not that big of a deal as I’d thought.

I looked at it all as a big mountain to conquer, and lost myself in a massive plane crash of To-Do lists in my brain with emotional thunderstorms. These days I’m more (trying to be) calm and I look at things rather objectively.

This write up may not be one that you expected, a funny anecdote of how I lost my car. This is simply a reminder to myself (and others) who need to hear this : When it seems like the sky is falling on you, just take a step back, calm the shit down and look at the bigger picture. Don’t bark at people who’re simply trying to be of help. You’ll figure it out.

Also looking for career alternatives – you think I got what it takes to be a new age therapist. Hit me up for unsolicited advices and hard truths about life, Asian style.

Signed & Sealed

The Mister, , , ,

Public Service Announcement : If you are not so into long winded ranting and are looking to read something related to the title, please proceed to Paragraph 8 onwards.

I think I’m a genius for getting us this gift feat. ROM flowers.

Almost exactly a year ago, we had the date set for our wedding. It felt as if this auspicious date, given by a prominent priest from India, was tattooed in my mind and heart. 5th December 2020 – a just-nice date to still meet Vision 2020 which used to be an inside joke on our wedding deadline.

Like a true millennial bride-to-be, I was on the most reliable wedding research platform (God bless Instagram!). Our family and friends were eagerly on board the wedding planning. I must say we were extra efficient.

Circa mid-February, we had all the booking done – the hall, make up artists, caterers, decoration, flight tickets for shopping in India and 10-day itinerary for the honeymoon of my dreams in Land of Pasta with a detour to feed the Red Devils in us. I had my first choice of all vendors, and I was a happy girl.

It all came crashing down with the big C, least did we expect it. Then, around end of September, when MCO ended, there were glimmers of hope. In that time of sunshine and all season of glass-half-full, we shopped for wedding attires, with The Mister on video call. And then, it was again a downhill ride with CMCO announcement, which was to last until a day after THE day.

My emotions were haywire, one moment I was indifferent, and in another I was crushed. It was nothing short of roller coaster in a haunted house, with work partially burying me alive one side. The Mister was supposed to be back in the country from the land of bland food, and a whole lot of background work that had to go with that with quarantine and what not.

One day, we had a family meeting on WhatsApp, and both set of parents echoed the same thought – that we should have something on the supposed wedding date. We decided to go ahead with Registration of Marriage.

My super efficient father managed to find a registrar of marriage and venue. I picked out one of my sarees gifted by MIL for a pre-wedding ritual. The Mister arrived a week before, with pink bracelet on his hand. We shopped for his clothes after he was a free elf. My sister got the cake, my SIL helped with my accessories. Our go-to Jobest Studio spared us a cameraman in the eleventh & half hour. Everything was last minute, and I barely had time to stop and reflect.

Our ROM happened in a small hall, in presence of our closest family members (unfortunately, many missing with the Big C curse). It was not AT ALL like what we had in mind. The registrar made The Mister propose to me (I’m pretty sure his voice choked) and pose for awkward pictures, with the crowd watching. As it is, The Mister and I are always in the running for The Most Socially Awkward Duo award, and you can only underestimate how we grinned the whole time.

We cringed watching videos from the day. Despite it all, I would not have it otherwise. Our parents, siblings and loved ones were all smiles. I can’t pinpoint a favourite moment from the day. Whether it was receiving the hand bouquet which The Mister picked for me (my favourite thus far!), our ride in the car after the ROM to lunch reception at Taj Garden (yummmm food!) or when the registrar told us to be best friends and crowd murmured ‘They are!’ – it all still makes me giddy (like girly, giggly giddy).

It does not matter that it wasn’t a 1000 pax affair, with grandeur. I got married to my best friend. After 2221 days of being my boyfriend, The Mister is legally my former boyfriend, now husband.

Signed and sealed, for a lifetime of quirky games, inside jokes, petty fights, gossiping, TLC and being us.

Signed & Sealed #SarVishForThara

For memory record sake : This was blogged from The Mister’s gift to me on our ROM, after a grilled salmon with asparagus dinner, while The Mister is losing a FIFA21 game on his PS4.

Antidote(s) at The Door

Life, That Time When, ,

I woke up, grateful for a mundane day. Amma called to check on me. I just rolled in bed, for an hour or so after that– meaningless morning blabbers with my e-boyfriend (hassle free subscription service, and premium members get surprise gifts!). It felt like ages since I had the luxury to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of the day.

I watched 2 episodes each of Totally Spies and HTGAWM on Netflix, with breaks to talk to my e-BF, grandparents, Papa & Cherima, and Keshie. Around 4pm, I ordered Chee Cheong Fun (because I was craving for haram food, but, Popiah Bunga Raya was sold out). When I came back in the house, the piling dishes in my kitchen sink guilt tripped me.

Amma called me again, casually asking what I was doing, and kept saying, ‘Ok, bye!’. It lowkey annoyed me, so I told her to keep talking to me. She mumbled something about being tired, and not napping that evening? She was clearly distracted, divided attention between her favourite daughter (hahaa!) and TV. Then the call ended abruptly. I grunted and continued washing my oats-stained mugs.

The doorbell rang… and there they stood! Amma, Acca and Ceci. I did not cry (my sister only took the video expecting tears, but pffftttt!) I just grinned, and really, my heart jumped in joy and grinned wide too.

For context, I should add this next paragraph.

The past four weeks were the toughest times I have endured in my life. I struggled more than I have ever had. I probably never worked as hard, or even had to be that resilient. Like ever. My spirits were not that beaten but trust me when I say that my circadian rhythm was so off-beat that even the world’s best choreographers couldn’t fix it. I barely slept 25 hours a week and came home just to shower after 36-40 hours workday only to return back.

My parents and e-BF were concerned, and behind my back, they discussed how I’m this little monster who gets angry when they don’t wake me up in time after my 2-hour naps, or sometimes, just-angry.

Having gone through that, truly, this was exactly what I needed. People sometimes overly-romanticize about being self-sufficient and independent – but sometimes, all you need is just Ohana. I even went to bed with a grin, knowing my parents were just 10 steps away in the next room.

It dawned upon me – I’m still that shamelessly needy child who told her parents to call her ‘Baby’ as a toddler and asked them to send me birthday cards while in university because it was always Final Exam week.

 I have now rebooted. I have a sparkling clean house and heart full of joy and strength to take on the coming week! *sings Here We Go, Here We Go*

Until Further Notice

That Time When, Wedding,

I woke up this morning to see the screen of my phone with a pop up from my Countdown app.

‘50 Days till Engagement Day’, it read.

My heart sank a little. Almost in autopilot, I showered, got dressed and turned on my louder than average blender to make breakfast. It was an unsuccessful attempt to drown the gloomy, mehhhhness (I’m pretty sure this is a legit emotion that’s on the List of Human Emotions).

I started scrolling my phone, and the thought just dismissed (if I have to be specific, I watched this video, and got distracted!) 😛

While I was at work, the thought of my now-postponed-engagement crept back to mind, and I sent a screenshot of the countdown to my Free Therapist a.k.a The Mister. His reply was, ‘I want birthday’. The date of our planned engagement coincides with his birthday – and I wasn’t even really thinking about his birthday. Oppsss? Typically, I planned months ahead on lame games, puns and funs for the big baby.

It clicked me how this wasn’t even something worth fretting upon. It wasn’t like I was prohibited to get married to this guy! Our wedding might just happen on the planned date *fingers crossed*.

I mean there are bigger problems in the world – like a pandemic with no vaccine, not-so-great economy, Trump and an incompetent cabinet of ministers in a certain southeast Asia country ruining, sorry, running a government.

I have bigger problems. Piling up workload with urgent deadlines. Or, the fact that I can’t just go home to see my parents whenever I want. Or, that it’s been over 60 days since I had seen my groom.

So, I chose to just write a blog post about this unnecessary emotion– and then, let it go!

I’m going to end this post with a reminder how we used to be a decent looking duo in traditional outfits – and truth be told, now we’re both *coughs* very far from looking half as good. I guess the postponement is somewhat a blessing in disguise, eh?

Once Upon a Time in Ipoh ❤

The Wedding Nightmare

Wedding,

We were all seated around the dining table at my parents’ house. Some extended family members were there as well. I think it was teatime, because there were mugs of hot masala chaya on the table.

I was unwrapping one of the many packages that were on the floor. It’s finally here – our wedding invitations! Excitedly, I tore open the wrapping to see the invitations for the first time. Since I was not in KL at the time of finalizing the design – I had no idea how it’ll look. I took out the one of the invitations – and my hands trembled.

My heart sank – and I was almost on verge of tears! I kept quiet for a long time. My parents asked me what was wrong – and I got (embarrassingly) hysterical at this point.

This invitation looked so bad! It had those glossy printed wording – the font was all off. The colour scheme was so unflattering. And THAT wasn’t the biggest issue at all. One of the sentences said, .. Brides residence… and there were whole lot of grammatical errors and wrong use of apostrophes.

I told my mother, ‘I go around correcting people’s grammar, and look at my wedding invitation! It’s so bad! We cannot use this!’. My father was reassuring me that we can redo the invitations if I thought that it’s really that bad.

Someone made a snarky comment about how I was being petty, and this wasn’t even a problem – and how will I handle should problems arise in our marriage later.

Someone else said I was being an ungrateful. It added to fuel to the this whole fire of anger, confusion & disappointment. I felt helpless. I just knew that I DID NOT WANT to give out these invitations.

Almost exact representation of how I was feeling..

In distance, I heard the alarm ring on my phone.

No joke, I’m telling you – this dream was so vivid that my heart beats were going crazy when I woke up and sat on my bed. And to think that THAT is my biggest fear of what can go wrong, I really don’t know what’s wrong with my priorities in life.

Another point to note – the sentence that triggered me so much (…Brides residence…) is totally irrelevant to our ceremony – at least that should’ve triggered me – that it was a dream?

Dream Analysis:

I was bookmarking some wedding card designs before I went to bed. I also recall watching one of those videos on Facebook where the groom picks outrageously hideous dress for their bride – which almost always make the bride cry. A mix of these somehow manifested in the dream nightmare, I guess.

5 Ideas on How to Spend Your Social Distancing Days

Living, People

If I could actually break into a song and dance right now, it’d be a favourite from my teen days. *sings ‘We’re all in this together’ from High School Musical* Globally, we are all coming together against a common enemy – the COVID-19, with social distancing as our powerful weapon.

In trying times like this, especially having to stay indoors, and some of us undesirably away from family and our loved ones – the mood can be dull and frustrating . Here are some ideas on how to keep you out of boredom coma, and find a silver lining whilst you feel deprived of content for your social media accounts.

1) Take Up Challenge(s)

There’s a plenty of things you can attempt as a challenge – and it doesn’t have to be very complicated. Think about some of the habits that you’d like to make or break, and use this time to work on it. Staying home gives you more control and less distraction (relative to your day-to-day life). I, for example, have taken the challenge 1) To drink at least 1.5 L of water, 2) Eat all home-prepped meals & no junk food and 3) Write 3 blog posts , in the course of these 14 days. Keep track of your progress, and reward yourself at the end (only if you stayed on track, baru halal ah).

3 days of meals that I’ve been preparing at home #alonelife

Tips : Keep the challenges to a max. of 5; and choose what really matters & is meaningful to you.

2) Learn New Things

Lucky for us, there’s whole lot of FREE courses available online to enroll in. Some sites available are Udemy, Coursera & EdX. Some of the courses require payment – but mostly it’s for the certificate & grading. The course materials are almost always free. The next best thing about these sites is that they have pretty structured syllabus from renowned universities -so you can learn systematically. If you’d like to invest in better courses, try FranklinCovey-OnDemand, which costs about RM1000 – has various impactful softskills 1-hour programs. I finished 2 courses on the site which I found very useful. (Disclaimer : My access to Franklin-Covey was paid for by the organisation I work for; you can request your HR/Training &Development too!).

Other simpler alternatives are CrashCourse on YouTube which offers a wide range of topics, or Explained series on Netflix. I used to watch these while running on treadmill (when once upon a time I went to gym). If you want to learn a new language, then use the Duolingo app – and you really can progress. I didn’t know that I knew that much French until I watch an ad recently and could more or less make out what they were saying!

3. Declutter

We all have that space or drawer in our house that’s a ‘Everything Corner’. I have a storage box which contains my stationary, some souvenirs, random notebooks, stuffed toys, certificates, paper bags, vases, candles and what-not. I’ve been adding more to this said-container, especially because I hoard at every city I’ve been relocating to. Whenever I move, I don’t really unpack this container, which really questions the essentiality (is this even a word?) of these items. This is a good time to Marie Kondo similar spaces and clear that mess you keep hidden.

You can try this for your online clutter as well. That email address that you use to sign up for EVERYTHING, and now you have 3705 unread emails in your Inbox. Spend some time unsubscribing to the newsletters that are irrelevant to you. You can do this on your social media accounts as well – unfollow the pages you followed a decade ago but find no longer your cup of tea, or the ones that are no longer active. This way, you get more control of what you see online.

4. Catch Up

While it’s relaxing that some of our critical tasks at work have been postponed; and it’s a breather to work from home – it is easy to get distracted and impact our productivity. Working from home can so easily be counter-productive. This is a good time review your To-Dos and work on what’s important. It can be that improvement idea that you have, or a proposal for a potential saving – the kind of things you never got around to doing because there were always more urgent things that needed your attention.

I’m almost grateful that I have this breather – to resurface from the pile I’ve been under – because at least 60% of the urgent items have been pushed; giving me time to refocus and catch up on work that add more value.

Tips : Use the Urgent-Important Matrix, and reevaluate your To-Do list; so when you return to office, you can focus on Q2 instead of burning out with Q1 and Q3 tasks.

5. Reconnect with Your Loved Ones

Other than the stories of hardships of how they struggled during commute to school and struggling childhood (most Brown parents tell these stories?), we rarely know our parents for who they are as individuals. Years ago, I sat both my parents (separately) for an ‘interview’ session and asked them a set of questions. I found out that my father wanted to be a teacher if he’ve had the resources back then, and finds it difficult that his girls have grown up and that my mother told me that she thought I could’ve been smarter – but still proud of me! There’s so many parts of their younger lives that we don’t know – maybe you could sit & interview them to find out more.

The same applies to your partner or spouse. Give a call and catch up with that friend that you’ve spoken to in months or years.

BONUS: Try Social Media Detox

Truth be told – this is a tough one. Being cooped indoors can already be frustrating – and scrolling up social media keeps us occupied. That being said, social media can also be a source of frustration – what with the bad news, increasing number of cases, fake news, repeated tweets about the same things and videos of our clown of a Health Minister. We all need a break from this constant feed of negativity. Thanks to the RMO, there’s no need for FOMO – because everyone’s home (at least they should be!). I am yet to try this one out myself – so I’m curious if I remain sane, especially because I’ll have to remain home alone.

That sums up my ideas for now. Do let me know in the comments if there’s anything else that you’re doing; would love to know. 🙂

Till the next post, stay home, stay safe and most importantly, stay sane! ❤

Where Did 2019 Go?

Life,

Since I started blogging in 2008, for 11 years now, I’ve been consistent at these TWO things; 1) Not be consistent at writing, and 2) Writing a blogpost in the month of December.

I realized that most, if not all my December blogs were about how the year went.  So, I’m going to keep that tradition going this year too, because only then, I’ll credibly add ‘Writing Year-End Reflections’ in my list of consistencies. Amidst moving across three cities in 12 months – I felt 2019 flew by in a blink (also still certain somebody tweaked Time Machine).

This year was as eventful as 2018 – albeit the lack of awesomeness on my Instagram feed. The reason for that is my ‘digital detox’ endeavor in 2019. My attempt to stay away from social media did not last long enough though. But one good outcome from unistalling some apps and setting screen time limit is that now I feel lesser need to take pictures for Gram. Like a true millennial, I have a long way to go to strike a balance – let’s hope I work my way around it in 2020.

Professionally, it has been one hella packing-unpacking deal. I completed my first rotation down south in Johor in March. Then, I made a move further down south to Singapore for my ‘overseas’ rotation for 9 months. I saw and experienced things – at a much grander scale. Now, I’ve moved to Malacca – it’s been two weeks. In all of this, I’m glad that I met (have gotten to know more, this year) people my age from various backgrounds – how we are all different, but still the same. ASEAN curse word conventions, discussing brown parenting, learning new recipes, eating tasty home-cooked food (big hearty thanks to Uncle Manu and Mrs Manu) and and debating on random topics. I miss all this now that I’m in a place with only TWO other people.

Love life progressing on a steep gradient on our 5th Year of Woofness, as we call it. We finally lived in the same city since graduating in 2016, though for only 9 months. We had lots of fun gaining calories, exploring and failing to consistently go to gym. LDR sucks even if it’s just over 300 km yo! Our families met for the first time, and now warming up to each other’s family more. And…… we *cough* are *cough* getting *cough* married.

Personally, I could’ve done better with my New Year’s resolutions. I actually did read more this year (thanks to my book sponsor a.k.a The Mister!). I tried to limit single-use plastics – and jumped at every opportunity where I can spread the word among family members and colleagues. I saved more money than I have had since starting work. So that’s all good – I well deserve a Cheesy Wedges.

But…. I need to up my game in writing, healthy living, emotional intelligence and some other personal projects. To a more productive year in 2020. Looking forward to all the adventures that 2020 has in store.

May the poser-skills improved too in 2020!