My office held a Halloween lunch party today. I don't know why my teammates were so excited to dress up. There was no instruction to dress up so they really wanted to do it for fun. Luckily they wanted to become minions so I could just pretend to be Gru. It is quite a coincidence that my scarf has a grey-black pattern. It is not quite the same as Gru's but the same colour scheme is sufficient.
There was a photobooth too and what got me really excited was Maleficent horns. Hahaha.. Gru was a blessing in disguise since I only wore black shirt and pants which fit into Maleficent horns. Yeah I took photos for fun with the horns. Haha.. I was not entirely comfortable since I do not know majority of my office people so I had to be reserved and 'anyhow' in taking the photo :( In my head, I was hoping to have a decent one for my facebook profile photo. I ended up with slanted horn and rubbish photo basically. Oh well =x
I am not a fan of alcoholic drinks but I am open to try drinks I have never tried before. I took this opportunity to try Somersby apple (4.5% alcohol). Sigh.. That was my second drink in the past week. Will I try again? Haha no.. I guess I am just weak to alcohol and I could not really tell the difference of the apple flavour. Nevertheless I kept one can of Asahi beer to drink this weekend since I have never tasted Asahi before.
Yesterday I met up with 2 friends at Timbre+. It was initiated by the friend that I met during our common friend's wedding 2 weeks ago. I kept hearing about Timbre+ and actually I had been there before for lunch few years ago. Hahaha.. I don't really see the hype with it as many of the stalls were not open at dinner time. I was interested in one Taiwanese food stall but the cashier was unmanned and I only saw one person preparing the food. Since he did not see me after I stood there for quite sometime, I decided to leave. I did not even know if the stall was ready for business yet or not. I ended up buying from the Thai stall. Nothing fantastic but special mention to the milk tea that comes in a Hello Kitty shaped glass. So random. Lol.
It was nice catching up with friends after almost a decade. The side effect, however, is the reminder of what the hell I want to do with my life. People dream of raising a family, buying a house, changing citizenship, investment, etc. None of this interests me anymore. It reminds me of the vocation retreat again. I had 2 dreams that I sent the email and it made me actually drafted an email on Monday. It is still in my draft folder since I really don't know if the dreams are the signs that I have been praying for if it is just a figment of my imagination since I have been troubled with the decision to go or not to go. I have been praying that if there is a third dream, I will take it as yes I need to go. Until now there is no third dream but I still keep thinking about it. Life is tough :'(
I wanted to watch on last Tuesday but I reached the cinema late. Even after buffering 15 minutes for the advertisements, the queue for the ticket purchase was too long. Fast forward a week later, I sort of feeling disinterested since it is not based on Disney's story anymore and there is a high chance that this original story is going to suck.
Maleficent Mistress of Evil (let's call it Maleficent 2 to make it easier) is a very confused genre and is a proof that Disney elements and believable real story elements just do not work together. Other than the characters, the whole movie feels more like an action fantasy rather than a Disney princess. There is nothing original about the plot as it revolves about a war between 2 races masterminded by a genocidal antagonist. However, when Disney elements are thrown into the mix, the end product is an incoherent mess: it is too realistic and grim as a Disney movie but it is too childish for a fantasy movie.
Disney will definitely not allow any blood or killing on screen, especially since the characters are still related to the Sleeping Beauty franchise. The final battle is a joke. Just imagine a fantasy war movie but instead of arrows, swords, guns, and magic, the weapons are replaced with fireworks made of flower essence (let's call it flowerwork) which dust the faeries, just like how Thanos dusted half of the universe in the Avengers. I personally think this movie is teaching kids bad things since the antagonists do not get the 'punishment' they deserved. The main antagonist (Queen Ingrith) is only turned into a goat while the mass murderer (Greda) is only hinted to die from a fall from a height -realistically she will not die just from falling from level 2 or 3 of the cathedral. It will be better if the goat is slaughtered and eaten and if Greda is really shown dead.
Another obvious problem is regarding how 'stand alone' or how 'connected' Maleficent 2 is intended in relation to the first movie. Maleficent 2 works just as well as a stand alone movie since the only common thing from the first movie is just the characters. The plot is actually ruined when connection to the first movie is attempted. At the end of Maleficent, Aurora is made queen of her kingdom and the Moors but in this movie her kingdom is just conveniently forgotten. In Maleficent, we know nothing about King Stefan's conflict with Maleficent. Now suddenly we have Queen Ingrith who has always been planning to have a war with the Moors. She has been building her war preparation and yet not doing anything if not because of her son falling in love with Aurora who happens to be in the Moors. How convenient! That is a bad writing..
Angelina Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer did awesome job. Honestly other than the two of them, the other characters are quite rubbish, useless, and inconsequential. It feels that the story is written based on the two of them and then they put in the others simply as plot points. Other than them, the others are flat in their acting. In fact, overall the movie is lacking in emotion. It is already revealed that Maleficent is descendent of phoenix so her death does not carry any emotional weight since everyone knows phoenix's power is resurrection. The so-called massacre in the chapel or those dusted by the 'flowerwork' is also not sad since it is all CGI creatures that we do not identify with. They just feel like collateral damage. The attempt at comedy is also getting tiring since it is just repeating the same style: Maleficent asking normal chit chat questions but in her scary self that everything sounds like a threat.
After everything I type above, I do not actually hate Maleficent Mistress of Evil and I still sort of enjoyed it. Call it Disney magic :p Everything is quite shitty but if I just lower my expectations since it is a Disney movie, everything becomes acceptable. Hahaha.. I guess this is why those reviews can be completely opposite. Those with expectations of a Disney princess movie will still find the movie a fun ride but those more critical about the plot and characters will find this quite trashy.
I went to church 4 days this week. It could have been 5 times but I skipped Landings session because I went to visit the pasar malam at Bishan North Shopping Mall. Gosh! Haha.. Thursday was final rehearsal for the Communi-tea session on Friday in which I participated in a prayer mime. Having to do it 'on the stage' made it feel like a dance or a performance and there was a pressure not to commit mistake. It was not the biggest concern for me since I know noone at the church so I would not need to be embarrassed. My biggest concern was the testimony part. In the middle of the song, each of us had to describe our 'before' and 'after' state to testify how our lives have changed after knowing Jesus.
This is the song used as the prayer mime
I chose 'self-centered' and 'God-myself-others' as my testimony. I am still having the thought that I would like to die as soon as possible because I think I am quite happy and satisfied with my life and I do not have anything to look forward to. However, after changing job and allowing myself to spend more time taking care of my spiritual life, the emo-ness is not as bad as last time when I just thought of everything in this life is about myself. Now when the going gets tough, I remind myself that this life is for God and perhaps I still have a purpose in this life (that I have yet to find yet).
To 'celebrate' the completion of the session, we went to have drink at Starker Bistro. I do not normally drink but I decided to follow the crowd to experience new things -as if I knew the new things are since I do not even know what beer I drank. Lol.. I only knew the first glass had normal beer colour while the second (half) glass was a cola-coloured beer. My face was already red even before the first glass although surprisingly I only felt the 'heat' rising until my neck only. Usually I could feel when my face was flushing. Alcohol is indeed a drug since the drowsiness (or the CNS depressant effect) is like when I am taking drowsy drugs. It is quite different from normal sleepiness since stimulations such as pinching myself, tapping my foot, etc do not help to combat the drowsiness.
I ended up sleeping at 3am and I was so sleepy for my physiotherapy yesterday morning. The root cause of my back pain seems to be clearer now: posterior oblique sling and that is why my right shoulder and my lower left back are the problematic ones. I did not see the 'correlation' previously because my right shoulder pain is usually triggered by sleeping side-ways or exercising while the lower back pain is random and without trigger. With this identified, 2 more exercises are added and I am not sure if I will have the time. Sigh..
Saturday Novena homily was touching and I had to hold my tears. Earlier this week I watched a video about mental health which was quite an eye opener to see these people who usually make happy videos on youtube to have mental issues. It made me google to find out if it is normal to keep thinking about wanting to die but not thinking of suicide. I always think that it may be because I have no purpose in life. I am wrong and it turns to be a condition called passive suicidal ideation. It seems that no stress and better work life balance (after changing job) and spending more time in prayers still do not get rid of my negativity. That brings back to what I typed above: if it is just about myself, nothing is going ever satisfy. I almost cried when hearing that there are people with more difficult circumstances who do not lose faith or losing the drive to live.
Today was ministry fair at the church which I had some hesitation because I am shy and do not like to approach strangers. It has been more than a decade since I did flag day or that sort of thing. Actually flag day is more difficult because it is to approach people to ASK for something while for this outreach, I am just giving out postcard so that people are more aware of this ministry. Sometimes I can't help but feel how the devil would tempt and prevent me from doing God's work. Firstly, I felt discouraged because on Friday someone asked me about Landings and I felt that I could not provide a satisfactory answer. This was for someone who was interested and asked. If I could not do that, how can I now be the one taking the initiative to give information. I woke up on time this morning but I was held up by a lizard in the bathroom. I am not scared of lizard but I just do not want it to slip from the wet wall or door when I shower so I have to make sure the coast is clear. Then after showering, my right eye was red. I knew it was because over-rubbing rather than irritation like previously. I usually want to minimise medicine use but I had no 1 hour to wait for redness to subside and I just used the eye drop again.
Volunteering for 7am mass was a blessing. People were generally calmer and not in a hurry so I did not have any blunt or rude rejection. The crowd was smaller so it was nice to still able to recognise some of those I had interaction before the mass at the end of the mass. My time slot ended at 830am and I went to gym. Miraculously I was still able to reach gym on time to go for 900am instead of 930am. With that I actually had the time to go back to volunteer again for the third timeslot. There was a huge battle inside my head: I did not sign up for this slot because I am not sure if I can make it and earlier I already said bye. Will I be so extra if suddenly I appear again? vs 1130am would be the most crowded but it had shorter list of volunteers compared to 700am so I should help especially since I already wore the T-shirt and would wash it, I might as well make it more worthwhile. Hilariously, the final decision came from the night market again. I wanted to buy food for lunch but it did not open so early hahaha..
God is merciful and kind. I decided to just be thick skin and returned. I went to 7-11 near the church and I found the ghost pepper cup noodle that I had been trying to get for my friend. The best part, however, was that I bumped in Br Michael Broughton (who is now is based in the Philippines and he would be flying back tonight). Although we only interacted for 2 minutes at most, it was as if I was transported back to those nostalgic days when I was still in SJI. I am not sure if he remembers me by name but I am sure that he definitely remembers that I am one ex-student because after the initial eye contact, he walked nearer to strike the conversation. I don't think people will do that to a complete stranger. Coincidentally, tomorrow (28 October) marks the 17th year of my arrival here and usually it makes me overwhelmed with regrets and emoness. I really think that this encounter is a blessing and I did not regret coming back for the third session. Come to think about it now, I should have taken a photo with him haha... Oh well, I am shy and even asking friends for a photo is also quite embarrassing. Perhaps another time if we still cross path again.
God, I hope I have not disappointed You to fulfil my promise to use some of my free time for You in exchange of the work life balance that I enjoy with my current work. Meanwhile, I am still waiting for a divine affirmation if I should sign up for the vocation retreat :(
This post was intended for last Sunday but I did not manage to complete it. Fast forward a week later, I shall add on what happened in the past week as well.
I officially give up on any dream of spending new year in the hotels nearer to the Tokyo Disney Resort. One day I saw an available slot for Vacation Package at Disney Hotel Ambassador and the price was 294400 JPY. OMFGWTF... That is 1.5x of my current package at the Disney Celebration and 1.5x of the package that I bought in 2017 (it was not new year but it was also at Disney Hotel Ambassador). With this new year plan finally comes to a conclusion, I decided to change the hotel for Christmas to Hilton Tokyo Bay. It costs almost 3x of what Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel but I cannot be bothered anymore. I want to maximise Christmas at Disneyland. Money can be earned back but I don't know when I can spend Christmas there again.
I went for physiotherapy last Saturday and it was a relief. My back pain is a different problem from the one earlier this year. The problem is more with the smaller accessory muscles and that is why the pain seems random and is not triggered by movement. That means I can return to gym as usual and it is not gym's fault. Yay. Apparently my issue this time is the imbalance between my left and right muscles. My left side seems to be working harder and that is why the discomfort is always on the left. Even when I am standing upright, my body has a slight rotation towards the right. The most embarrassing thing is that there is no mirror in the consultation room so I had to go outside to look at this. There was another patient so it was super paiseh for me to show my fat shirtless body sia..
The jialat part is that I am having difficulties to do the physio exercises at home. So far I only managed to do 2 times in the past week. I even bought an exercise mat since I think my bed is not sturdy enough and floor will be better. The floor turns out to be too hard even with the mat. The mat is not completely useless since one exercise (the one that I must be sideways) is better on the bed but the other exercise (the one I need to lie down and support my back with a towel or blanket) is better on the floor. I feel there is improvement despite only doing twice so I can do more, it will be better.
My left eye is having problem lately. Since the Wednesday two weeks ago, I woke up a few times with red eye. Last Monday was the worst as the redness persisted until close to noon. On Tuesday it was red again but it was alright by the time I reached office. Still, I decided that it was time to see doctor. I only received tetrahydrozoline as doctor did not see any sign of infection and I was told to return this coming week if the symptoms persisted. It continued and yesterday I decided to change my pillow sheet since it tends to get red after I sleep. Initially I was doubting if the pillow case was the culprit as it has not been 2 weeks yet and usually I change my bedsheet every 2 weekly. Today I am okay so I hope it is really because of the pillow case. If tomorrow it is red again, I will see doctor again.
I went for my biannual dental cleaning yesterday and I received a bad news: the crack lines on one of my right tooth seems to be worsen. Honestly I am not aware if I am clenching or I am grinding. I am not sure if I subconsciously use my right side more to bite to avoid the left side which has a filling at an awkward position that tends to have food to get stuck there. My goodness... The tip of my hair to the bottom of my feet are having health problems and this is why I keep saying I prefer dead to growing old. FML.
I managed to collect my completers kit from National Steps Challenge (NSC). It is going to be the 5th year and yet the perennial problem with the mass collection of the trackers etc is always happening. Last year collection process at the post office was okay so I don't know why this year they change it to 7-11. The appointment booking system was not ready on the day that it was supposed to be up. Once the system was ready, all the available slots were already not available. Geez..
Since I collected a new tracker last year, I am not able to get a new one this year which is super lame considering how shitty the quality of the tracker for last year. The battery could not even last 3 days. With last year NSC also began in October, obviously the one year warranty of the last year's tracker would be over too. Really lame.
I think the money goes to the completers kit which is Pokemon-themed. I would not care if the completers kit contains t-shirt and notebook like last year but umbrella will definitely be useful. Having Pokemon cuteness is a bonus. As usual, the exchange at the first few venues were madness and I chose to wait. Luckily one friend at facebook collected on Friday and that was how I came to know that the wait time at Vivocity for this weekend roadshow was not bad. The official time is from 11am but when I reached around 1015am, they were already operating. Overall, it took me about 10 minutes. Nice! I think if I wait until 11am, there would be many people and it would be longer. The funny thing is that the announcement banner still says it starts at 11am. Thank God for the person who approached me to say that I could start going in. Hehe.. God bless you, boy :)
At the exit, someone asked me for feedback so I told him it was 5/5 rating since since I got it in 10 minutes. He also asked my opinion on the completers kit and I found it more useful than completers kit from previous season.
I just returned from the third and the last wedding for this year. It is a wedding of my JC friend. I would say he is the first Singaporean friend I made. It is quite interesting that we knew each other just from orientation group, had quite limited interaction at school (no common lectures and only had one common CCA for once a week), separated by 2 years in uni because of his army, and yet we are still alright with the on and off random messages without any awkwardness. Anyway congratulations to him :D
We only have one common friend and it was nice to catch up with him too. I thought he is already back in Indonesia but apparently he has been moving few times because of his work but currently he is based in Singapore. The last time I had contact with him was in JC so that was almost 13 years ago. Wow.. So I am going to have a meet up again with him and another friend next next week.
I start to feel that perhaps I am not destined to have a married life. Previously when I attended friends' weddings, I used to imagine how I wanted mine to be like to wear emerald green suit set and to have green themes etc. Surprisingly today I feel that I cannot imagine myself in a wedding. Haiz I am stressed.. This morning during Novena, there was an announcement about a vocation retreat and I felt the tugging if I should give it a try. I have reservation because I also cannot imagine myself in a religious life. Sigh.. I don't know.. I only imagine myself dying and being in Heaven. Nevertheless, I pray to ask God for another sign to confirm the tugging in my heart and I will sign up for the retreat, perhaps for someone to ask me to go or something. It is quite ironic considering the homily is about the correct spirit of praying and we should not be like the guy in the flood story (he prays for God to help, he refuses the boat and helicopter because he belives that God will help him directly, and when he dies, God tells him that He sent help repeatedly but the guy refused them).
Today was also the first time I attended a non-religious wedding solemnisation. Now I sort of appreciate the idea that God is the third person in a marriage. Haha.. Somehow attending a church wedding and a secular one evoke quite a different feeling. It was also my first time visiting Haji Lane in almost 17 years of my stay here. Surprise!! There was a one hour gap between the solemnisation and the dinner so I decided to walk around first.
I am a picky eater so I have to give a shout out to Parkroyal on Beach Road. The pork thingy was amazing: it was huge and thick but yet easy to cut, juicy, and not hard to chew. I usually avoid the fish dish because of the bones but tonight the fish was already cut into several pieces (one piece for one person). Each piece was huge and boneless. One more amazing thing is the door gift from the hotel. It is a vanity kit containing a nail clipper, a tweezer, and something I am not too sure of (I am guessing it is a thingy to sculpt the nails or to remove the sharp edges after cutting) in a box with a mirror inside. I think it is really nice and useful travel kit.
Meanwhile I shall return to my miserable life and jealousy because I am jealous of how some people do not seem to get fat and still have a nice skin even after 13 years. I am referring to some of my friends' classmates that I saw before in JC but I did not know them. Sigh.. I am so fat with bad skin and ugly face now. Darn... Anyway I asked my friend to take a photo together because the both of us actually never took any photos together. Haha.. Camera phone was non-existent yet in 2005. And guess what? I look damn fugly in the photo T_T Either 'fucking ugly' or 'fat and ugly' is also apt.
I am not a fan on chili and I am consciously trying to avoid them. This Ghost Pepper Spicy Chicken noodle is currently making waves online with the level of spiciness of ghost pepper at 1 million Scoville Heat Unit (SHU). In comparison, normal chili padi is 50000 to 100000 SHU. I am not sure the actual spiciness of the noodle sauce since surprisingly the Samyang spicy noodle, which I already find very spicy and I don't usually pour the whole sauce, is only 4000+ SHU.
One thing I can assure is that those people are not exaggerating their responses on screen. I was initially skeptical since the smell and the colour of the sauce are unassuming and comparable to any other spicy food. I tried to lick a bit of the noodle and ooh la la... I could feel the tingling from my mouth to my stomach immediately. I felt like kissing the devil in hell. 'Spicy' is not enough to describe the sensation. Painful is more apt. I could not control my eyes from tearing and my nose from dripping. Only after 2 bottles of cold tea, 2 sips of soya bean milk, and eating red dragon fruit that I could bear with the sensation. In less than 30 minutes, my stomach was already stimulated to shit. Hahaha... Until now more than 2 hours later, my stomach is still grumbling.
This is supposed to be available in 7-11 for only 2 months (since September) and last Sunday I had difficulty finding this. After checking several stores (Holland Village, ION, Ngee Ann City, Cathay Cineleisure, 313), in the end I only found it at Somerset MRT. Since it was so difficult to find, I ended up buying two. Now I am going to give away the other one to a friend since I do not want to subject myself to the same torture again. I am happy enough to be able to experience the taste of ghost pepper. Haha..
Another interesting food this week is KFC boba egg tart. The bubble tea fad does not seem to be ending anytime soon. Well for $1.80, I think it is more worth it to buy the bottled mass produced Taiwanese bubble tea drinks in the supermarket. I am not saying that it is bad. The taste is still like an egg tart while the boba is just adding something sweet and chewy on top of it. It just does not have the same shiok-ness as drinking bubble tea.
That title goes to Tokyo Disney Resort for the New Year. The booking for New Year's Eve at the official Disney hotels only started today. I tried calling 45 times in 2 hours and by the time my call went through, there was no available room anymore. I called one minute before the official opening time and I hung up to re-call because of the bad connection (which I thought to be caused by me using a cheaper 021 IDD). I thought I heard the person from the other side saying "Hello!". For the next 2 hours, whether I used normal or 021 IDD, I kept getting Japanese message which I could not understand and the call kept getting disconnected or redialed after every one minute. The Japanese message was definitely not the automated kind from the Disney Resort. There were 2 times I ended up with some radio programme. In my successful call, I was connected to the automated message that finally said Tokyo Disney Resort and to press something for English. I can't help but wonder if my very first call was successful and I should have just pressed on despite the bad connection or it was a wrong call since I did not hear the automated message like the one I heard at the end.
During the 2 hours of agony, I found out that the website for the balloting of the New Year's Eve ticket is already out since last month. Sadly it does not allow me to ballot since my account is registered 'Outside Japan' T_T. There goes my final plan. I know I should not be complaining since I have already a booking for the vacation package which was definitely a miracle. My main gripe is not the price but with the Celebration Hotel which is about 20 minutes bus ride away from the resort. Sigh.. At least I get to experience the YOLO New Year's Eve as I do not think I will ever subject myself to this kind of stressful holiday planning anymore.
Lessons learnt: plan early next time and quickly book at one of the 6 partner hotels since people who stay at partner hotels have guaranteed entry to the parks. Unlike the Disney hotels, the 6 partner hotels are selling tickets in online travel agencies just like any other hotel so there is no headache with 'limited booking period' or having to book through phone.
To cater the time for me to make the call, I had to take MC :p It was a chance for me to might as well check the lump I am feeling on my left lower hip. Well, it turns out that it is just 'not my feeling' but really there is something. I declined x-ray for now since doctor felt it was not related to the bones and I may do it for merely peace of mind. Sigh.. I will try physiotherapy first and only x-ray. I do not want to subject myself to unnecessary radiation.
As this is something pretty serious, I went to consult with doctor whom I know from my previous work. It always feels bitter sweet to return to the clinic as I have plenty of good memories (which are ruined by fewer bad memories by the assholes). Having said that, I know I made the right decision to leave because I do not feel any regret of leaving or the pull to return after all. Hahaha.. It is confirmed that I am gaining weight although on the bright side, I am still happy to hear that I look happier and younger compared to when I was still working there. Hehe.. It is an affirmation that I made the correct move.
Yesterday (7 October) is the Feast of Our Lady of Rosary. The session at Landings introduced me to virtues of each mystery. I have never heard these before and it is a timely boost for myself who feels that I am just reciting my daily rosary in 'auto-pilot' mode. These virtues will help me with a short meditation or prayer at each mystery. Hopefully this will slow me down and to put more thoughts into the prayer instead of simply going auto-pilot with the Hail Marys.
This video was shared and it is comforting to know that I am not being abnormal that I find it difficult to pray the rosary when I am stationary. I find it better to pray when I am walking around although since the past week, I find it difficult to focus and keep track of the mysteries I am at or which number of Hail Mary I am at. In fact, this is something that keeps bothering me since last week with October is the month of the rosary. Since I usually pray it everyday, I was hoping to have it more special this month but what I have been experiencing is the complete opposite: continuous distraction. I consider this perhaps a trial from the evil one to prevent me from making this October special. In return, perhaps knowing about virtues now is a blessing to enable me to see the rosary from a different angle this time and hopefully help me to focus better despite the distractions. I googled the virtues but I seem to find slight variations so I am not sure if there is actually an official one.
One more interesting I learnt from this video is the last part about the guardian angels finishing the rosary in case I fall asleep. I have never heard of this before. I googled it and I read an article that suggests perhaps I can do that if I express this will to my guardian angels. Hahaha...
15 promises of the rosary is not something I have never heard before but I never remember them since I am praying not for these promises. I checked them out again yesterday and one thing that really caught my attention this time is the last one: a great sign of predestination, which seems to contradict the concept of free will. I still believe that God intends everyone to be saved but humans have the free will to reject salvation. My interpretation for this last promise is it is talking about the predestination to love the rosary. Looking at myself, it is actually quite peculiar for someone very lazy with own prayer life or spiritual life to somehow got interested in the rosary since many years even before my baptism. It is difficult for me to spend few minutes for morning and evening daily prayers and yet I am okay with rosary.
I shall end this post with a song that I just came to know from Landings yesterday. Yes I promise (to try) a rosary each day.
I am glad that I felt better this week. It looks like the lightheadedness last week was indeed my body adapting to my new diet. I managed to my fruits for breakfast and dinner although I 'failed' with 3 packs of potato chips this week. Bleah! I am still going for gym 4 times a week though I feel a slight improvement in getting back to my habit since I went for 2 consecutive days this week.
Work has not been really kind this week as my team in Manila is on the brink of having another drama. Sigh.. While I am able to rein my emotion, I still have to visualise my mental barrier and tell myself not to be too emotionally affected. After all it is not my problem and my role is to help them overcome this. I am not sure if this is one of funny ways in which God speaks to me. On Monday, my Landings coordinator jokingly asked me "What is my secret talent?" as he was trying to delegate duties. Haha.. I told him I had no secret talent although deep in my heart I was saying that my talent is scolding people. Hmm.. Then the following day this drama at work happened so it seems that indeed God wants me to be the 'evil' one in the midst of problematic people.
As part of my promise that in exchange of a better work-life balance I am enjoying now, I will spend more time for God as a sign of my gratitude. Thus I did not try my best to siam when I was asked to participate in the mime for the upcoming CommuniTea session. I am not an arty person and miming/dancing is not my thing. I don't think anybody in the attendees will know me since I have no friend at the church, so at least I don't need to feel too self-conscious.
Last Thursday was supposed to be the first practice but it turned out only to prepare the testimony board. In the middle of the mime, each of us will carry a board to testify how our life has changed before and after knowing God. Again the first thing that went to my head was about how to impress. But once I remembered that this was not about me, it was much easier to accept that my art skills (i.e. drawing on the board) as sucky as they are. Hahaha... The blessing in disguise for me is to look back and realise that yes life has indeed changed for the better now that I pay more attention to my faith. I have changed from being self-centered to paying more attention to God and to others. I still cannot stop from being self-centered but at least I can be honest with myself that the frequency of the thoughts of dying and I am already quite happy with this life is lower now.
I was tempted to buy discounted Uniqlo t-shirt but I did not because I did not have my OCBC Titanium card with me for 4 miles/$ spend. I remember to have my card with me this week but I ended up not buying anything. Hahaha.. I was hoping for discounted Conan t-shirts but it looks like I have missed the boat since they are completely gone. Winter clothes are out and I have to remind myself to check first how many winter clothes I bought previously to make sure I am not over-stocking.
I checked skiing base layers from Decathlon and I sort of regretting that I was not aware of this 2 years ago. The price is actually cheaper than Uniqlo's heat tech and the material feels more promising. After checking all the winter clothes I have, it seems that I should get 2 tops and bottoms from Decathlon at most. Sigh.. I should travel during spring or autumn or winter more so that these do not become useless investment.
Currently there is Japanese Food Matsuri ongoing at Takashimaya B2. I am supposed to avoid chili but in the end I ate 175 Deno Tan Tan Men. Supposedly it is an award winning and famous ramen from Hokkaido. I was not too keen because of the chili but in the end I tried it because I felt quite paiseh to the cashier who was introducing it to me. Well he is quite cute and there were empty seats at the counters so I guess why not. The Tan Tan Men is a different from Chinese version as this one comes with minced pork, prawn, and cashew nuts. The chili is not that spicy (compared to what usual spiciness in South East Asian countries) but has numbing sensation. Is this something similar to Mala? Lol haha... The curious thing about the spiciness and numbness is that they eventually dissipated without triggering me to quickly drink something. I did not drink anything until I reached home few hours later and I was alright. I also tried $5.50 mochi filled with Mao Shan Wang and was tempted to get some oyaki. Since the matsuri is still going on for another 2 weeks, I decided not to be too greedy and leave the oyaki for next week.
My sister went to Hong Kong on Thursday and returned safely today. I am never interested with Hong Kong Disneyland but after knowing that it is quite empty because of what currently is ongoing in Hong Kong, I am tempted to go leh T_T Empty means good opportunity to take photos. In addition, plane tickets and hotels are rather cheap now. I don't mind going there for a weekend and to stay in the Disneyland hotel. But after the news that the MTR was shut down yesterday, I was wondering how to travel to and from the airport.
