Post-Christmas

I spent too much time for church stuff this December that I cannot wait for 2023 to cut things back down. Few people from my group are coming for the weekly Landings sessions. Thus I have been coming so that they do not feel alone. It is not that I dislike attending sessions. Just that normally, I will not attend every sessions religiously. In fact, I usually skip sessions during Advent. I honestly don't understand why Advent has to be in a rather somber mood. After all we are waiting for the coming of Jesus or to celebrate His birthday. Even the secular world is celebrating Christmas in a happy and festive mood. I just feel it is a disconnect to have a contemplative posture for such a joyous occasion. Not to mention that the songs usually used for Advent are so difficult to sing.

Other than the usual weekly sessions, each community took turns each week to host the others for their community sessions. I attended some to give face since after all, I am working with the coordinators to get updates for the quarterly bulletin. I also had to return the 'favour' to those who have been been very helpful so as not to burn any bridge and that they will continue to remain helpful. On top of these, there were penitential service, meeting, Saturday Novena and of course the usual Sunday mass.

Anyway I did not make it for this Advent confession. I thought it would be the usual one-to-one so I deliberately did not come on time. It turned out to be the one with the priest leading the whole congregation for some liturgy first. Sian.. It already started when I reached 10 minutes after the starting time and I decided not to enter. Perhaps now all the penitential service is like this? I cannot remember anymore since the last time I went for this type was before COVID. I was not too upset since I just had confession about a month ago during Landings retreat. In fact, I was more irritated with the fact that I wasted the effort to travel for it but did not make it. Some more I already deliberately wore a church-appropriate attire to the gym prior to it. Wasted.

Perhaps God also knew that I went to church too often. Hence, He wanted me to rest instead of coming for the penitential service. Some thing similar happened again on the following Saturday. I was so eager to make it for 2pm Novena after my volunteering session only to find out that that timing had been changed to Mandarin Novena! I swear that 2pm session was the last one to be resumed and originally it was not for Mandarin. I tried to see if I could tahan but after 5 minutes, I decided to leave. Hey, at least I gave a chance for the opening song and the initial prayer in Mandarin. With that, I suppose I can no longer attend Saturday Novena physically. I would be late for my volunteering session if I come for 8am Novena and I have to wait for too long to make it for 4pm Novena. I guess at least I am still keeping my promise to devote my Saturday to thank God since I pick Saturday morning as my regular volunteering time slots.

So thanks to COVID, I finally restarted my gym. Now I no longer need to wonder if gym is useful. After stopping for almost a year, I can feel a LOT of difference now. Previously I only hate pull-ups but now I cannot even do the push-ups. Haiz.. I also needed 3-4 days to recover in between sessions while I was able to do on alternate days previously. It is gonna be a looong way to return to my previous level before stopping. That is if I can ever return since my body is also aging.

My year-end period was rather slack this year since most of the appraisals were done by the team leads. Yay! All the grooming effort for the past years finally bore its fruits. Ironically, my throat was sore just after one day even though I did not have to talk as much as previously. Unfortunately, someone had to always spoil the party. I am never a supporter of a peer-review thingy because either some people are too nice that they would not want to criticise others or some will just bitch on any certain thing. I am the former as usually I am quite chill as long as they do their work and in return, of course I will get others bitching over me.

Someone commented that I never volunteered for some of the monthly tasks. Firstly, those who are 'freer' are supposed to volunteer for them and I am not free. Most of my tasks have deadlines and I sacrifice myself that the deadlines for myself are so tight simply to accommodate others who are usually late or taking their time to complete the step before me. Secondly, if you volunteer for something but are unhappy that others are not volunteering and hence you have to volunteer, that speaks A LOT about your volunteering.

Of course my initial reaction was anger and I wanted to bitch-hunt (not a pun because I am sure the writer is a bitch, not a witch). I was also thinking to retaliate by action: volunteering myself when those tasks came to prove this bitch wrong. After a few days, I calmed down and decided to just chill. If I got riled up, that means I prove to the bitch that I have been slacking all along and her comment is successful to make me take up those tasks. Hell no! Hahaha.. I am already busy as I am and I am not going to 'kill' myself just to prove someone wrong. Another thought was that perhaps I am lenient by giving 4s as long as someone is okay but perhaps the bitch's standard for okay may actually be 3s. Clearly I have aged a bit to be able to zen this episode out, though it still took me a few days to recover.

The best thing about this Christmas was that I won a lottery from an NFT project: 500 USD and few others NFTs. It has not covered the amount I invested but at least I started seeing some return of investment. It was my first time winning and usually I am not lucky for lottery, lucky draws and such so I was happy. With that, I also won a $20 Fairprice voucher during Christmas party at the place I am volunteering which I gave it away to one of the team leads. I knew they were not participating for the lucky draw so why not share some Christmas joy. Anyway I had already planned to give away if I won something since I knew I would not want to bring home some of prizes such as electric fan, electric pot, CNY hampers. Though in the end I won voucher, I did not let greed to overcome hehe..

After so long, the stupid me only learnt about the meaning of Boxing Day (which is the day after Christmas) this year. I have always thought it has got something to do with the boxing sports. The box actually refers to gift box. Lol. So it is supposed to be day when gift boxes are given out and opened by the recipients.

I did not go home this Christmas because the airfare was too expensive. Honestly it kinda sucked not to be home for Christmas. I went for my usual 7am mass since it was the first normal Christmas mass after COVID. Last year we still had to book our slots so as not to exceed the social distancing requirements. So I did not know if it would be crowded. More importantly, usually sleeping late after that would just ruin the following day. Have to accept that my body is not young anymore to tolerate that kind of hours. Haha.. I still had to complete my quarterly bulletin which basically took up my Christmas and Boxing Day evenings. At the end, I think it is ironic that with all the huff and puff during Advent and with me being active for church activities, I did not actually feel spiritually lifted up during this Christmas. Sigh.. or maybe it is just my emo self as usual

Long COVID

Dang it! It seems that I am long COVIDed since I am still having some phlegm. Although it is not the irritating kind that keeps triggering cough or needing medicine, it is still not something normal. Prior to this, I normally do not have phlegm. Sian. Another side effect is that I cannot seem to last beyond 12am every night. Haha.. That means earlier and longer sleep but I am still tired as usual in the following morning.

Perhaps the only good thing from this COVID is that I start going to gym again since I have no more excuse that what if they will implement trace together again. After having my first session again, it is gonna be a long journey to regain back my endurance, stamina and strength to where I was this January. Haiz.. At least I can still fit into the L-size gym attire.

After gym, I decided to check out Orchard since now there is a direct Thomson Line from Orchard to where I stay. Hehe.. Although it was barely over one month since the last time I went to Orchard, today was the first time in 3 years that I really felt like I went for window shopping at leisurely pace. Previously, it was always trying to be as quick as possible to do whatever I need to do or find whatever I need to find to minimise COVID risk.

I had to keep reminding myself that I already run out of space to stop myself from losing control and splurging. At Takashimaya B2, I saw Gundam Universe figure of Deathscythe being discounted at $20 which reminded me of it as well as Wing Gundam at $18 at Donki previously. Thanks to the gloomy sky, I decided not to cross the road and not to go to Donki although at that point of time I already made up my mind to get the discounted ones as Christmas presents haha... Honestly the main reason I was not *that* eager to buy because Heavyarms, Sandrock and Shenlong are newer releases to the Gundam Universe and not discounted yet. If I could get the whole set at the same time, no doubt I would get them all. I saw another line called Gundam Infinity which has Wing and Deathscythe. They are easy skip at discounted $15 price point since they look much worse than Gundam Universe. I don't mind getting them for $5 each though haha...

At Kinokuniya, I was tempted for Haikyuu! 10th Chronicle. As usual, I checked online for details and I found out that there is a complete version which contains goods such as acrylic character stands and character cards. Luckily there are some unboxing videos online and I saw that the book is not really an illustration book. With that much of writings which I cannot read, I decide not to buy and wait for the English version if there will ever be any. I learnt the hard lessons since I saw that Dark Horse has released Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive which is the English version of Final Fantasy 25h Anniversary Ultimania. The English version came out 6 years after the Japanese version. I was still tempted to get because the content has so much writing and I thought it would be nice to be able to read. But yeah, again I had to remind myself that there is no point having 2 copies.

Yesterday I randomly checked if there was any update on the manga based on the Bible since the last one (Manga Genesis 3) only covered until Abraham's story. Suprisingly, there is a new one based on the Book of Apocalypse and I am 3 years late! Gosh. I was emo because it is out of stock at Kinokuniya but thank goodness it is still available in some Christian bookshops here. I bought it from Cru Media Ministry since it is 20% off there and I hope I can get it delivered within this coming week. I am still hoping for continuation of the Manga Genesis though.

I am back to my rental room now and I am impressed with the new shower. It has the rainshower, normal shower head and the handheld bidet. Even more impressive is that there is thermostat to see the temperature of the warm water as well as a timer to see how long I have been wasting water. Haha.. I always think that I spend too long time to shower but now I know I usually only take 5 to 7 minutes. 7 minutes is already the longest with washing hair or emoing under the rainshower. The biggest change is that the new window seems to be lower, bigger and less opaque now. Previously I never bothered about the window but now I have to remember when to open or to close it. The new toilet bowl is white now and that increases my OCD even more since any urine drop, water drop, or water stains are more obvious.

Clearly toilet is more important to me than my room. I am so glad that I stayed out during the renovation. I cannot imagine the dusty condition because even after sealing my door, dust still entered my room. Thank God I bought plastic sheet to cover my bed so my bedsheet was safe, although I still washed them immediately. Sadly, I did not cover anything else and now all my toys and display cabinets are covered with dust. Sigh... Perhaps it is a reminder to really clean them since I have not done so since I returned to Singapore in June.

COVIDed

After more than 2 years and after 3 jabs, I am finally COVIDed. Perhaps the most upsetting thing is that I definitely got it from someone in Landings, either during the retreat or during the last session on Monday. I woke up with a bit of phlegm on Tuesday morning. By late afternoon, my throat started to get sore from the ehem ehem throughout the day to clear the throat. I did the tele-consult and was given 3 days MC which I thought was an overkill, which turned out not to be an overkill because I had headache and fever on Wednesday. The phlegm and sore throat sort of disappeared and my ART was negative. Thus I thought it was due to me adjusting to my aunt's place: windy and hot 13th floor. In the afternoon, two people sent in the group that they had COVID. I was not that worried since I was negative in the morning.

I started to suspect the worst on Thursday. My headache and fever just disappeared but now the phlegm and sore throat returned. It is not an exaggeration to say it as the worst sore throat I have had in my life. It felt as if my whole throat was drowned in phlegm when I slept. However, the contradiction was that the actual phlegm was not as copious or as thick as the usual flu-kind of phlegm. Thus the widespread and severe throat pain was not correlated to the phlegm. Coughing out the phlegm felt like coughing out a ball of needle for my throat. To make it worst, two more people reported that they were down with COVID. Gg...

Since my symptoms did not improve on Friday, I did ART again and yeah it was positive. Previously I always worry if the result would turn positive after waiting for 15-20 minutes. Next time I don't have to worry anymore because when the result is positive, the line at T will appear very quickly the first time the liquid travels down the test strip. I did the tele-consult again to get new sets of medicines since I already ran out my fluimucil and MAC lozenges. I was given referral for supervised ART if I wanted to have my result recorded officially.

Since there is no nearby clinic which is under my company's insurance coverage, I decided to go to the nearest which is thankfully only one block away. Apparently since I had the referral letter, the test was free. Yay. With that, I will be officially exempted from any vaccination nonsense for the next 6 months. Haha.. Yeah.. even after kena COVID, I am still an anti-vaxxer. In fact, this just shows how useless the vaccination is. I already had my 3 jabs and I still get it.

Now my biggest worry is if I would spread it to my aunt. Haiz.. I don't care if I am suffering or I am dead. But currently I am staying at my aunt's place and if I trouble her more by spreading the virus, I think that is even worst than dead for me. Please, God, don't ever let that happen. I am already currently feel quite angry because I feel that this is the reward I get from serving you. After all, if I never participate in the retreat or the Run, I would definitely not going out and I would not catch the virus. Nevertheless, another part of me feels that since I get this from Church, it definitely is God's plan. It is better to get it that way and at least I can die a martyr instead of let's say just getting it from random person on the bus or MRT on my way to work or something. That would even be more lame.

Tomorrow is past 72 hours since my positive test which means I am suppose to test again. I doubt it would be negative yet. Although the phlegm and sore throat are gone now, the problems are now with runny nose and dry cough. Sigh..

Facilitator

Another Landings Run just concluded and finally I was not able to taichi the facilitator role. With it being a physical run, there is no way to get cover from the other parishes. This is the first time my baby face is actually useful since the people in my group are in late 20s to early 30s. Being the youngest, youngest looking and the laziest person who does not have other responsibilities, I have no other excuse to siam.

As cliche as it sounds: God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called. I am bad with saying prayers and affirmations and I am not even a good Catholic role model. I basically do not have the qualifications for being a facilitator. All I have is only my age being closer to the group. I was worried that I projected my own stress to the group and I am glad that overall, everything went well and everyone had a good Run.

While the first few weeks were surprisingly well for me, the last few weeks were getting tougher and tougher. I was not well during week 8 but another person was already down with COVID. I needed another group photo to be used for the retreat booklet since the previous photo taken at home session was missing one person. I had no choice but to force myself to attend that session just to take a photo. At least having two incomplete photos of the group is better than than a random Google image for the retreat booklet.

The next stress was to find a personalised Bible verse for everyone in my group. For someone who does not read the Bible, it was a search from the scratch. Writing paper affirmations for the group was also not as easy as expected because I was too perfectionist. I was worried about the positioning of the writings, if I made any spelling errors etc.

I was too premature to be thankful that renovation plan was just nice to not interfere with retreat. My original plan was to go home after the retreat, do laundry, do some packing and transfer some stuff to my aunt's place. Only after the last session tonight then I would bring my working laptop and start staying at my aunt's place and the renovation starts tomorrow. Unfortunately on last Tuesday, they said not to use the toilet anymore from today because they are starting to work at the unit upstairs and they worry if it would affect the water in my unit. Bleah... There is no way I do not use the toilet for one day. That totally ruins my original plan. I had to concurrently pack for retreat and for the luggage to bring to my aunt's place. I transferred my luggage and laptops to my aunt's place on Friday and I would just go there after the retreat.

I was annoyed when someone told me he had to work on Saturday of the retreat. The retreat dates were already made known since 2 months ago and he told me about his work few days just before the retreat. Sheesh.. It made me worrying over most of the Saturday if he would turn up or not. I was already stressed over the group prayer session and if he arrived in the middle of it, I would have to leave halfway to explain to him. In the end, he arrived only after the group prayer. Perhaps I was the only one who was overly worried about the group prayer. Everyone else seemed to be okay with saying their prayers and I was the one stuttering.

We did not go to RedDot for drinks last night since it closed rather early. Some people brought drinks and we drank at the canteen instead. I regretted wanting to kaypoh that one can of Asahi beer. Haha.. I know I could not hold my alcohol well and it got me tipsy. Thank goodness that unlike the previous retreat, there were fewer people staying over. This time, we could use the shower room with the heater rather early. Although I did not have any nightmare like previously, I still did not sleep well because a pipe in the toilet was making a constant whistling noise throughout the night.

It was raining so heavily after lunch that I wasted 2 hours just to wait for the rain to stop. I did not want to take risk with Grab because everyone who took Grab on Saturday was dropped off at the wrong place. I just realised that when the default address in Grab when FMM House is selected is 49D Holland Road, instead of 49 Holland Road. I could try inputting 49 Holland Road directly but if the Grab could not find me, I also could not help with the rain. Anyway in the end I waited and went back together with a group mate so consider it as a bonding ba.

Honestly, I was too pre-occupied with my tasks as a facilitator that I did not really enjoy or benefit from the retreat. Well, I suppose that is part of my service and offering for this Ministry. Now that everything is concluded, I am thankful to God for this Run and for this group. The main takeaway for me is the realisation that I start to lose the 'joy' and to grow tired because I start to treat Landings as a ministry. I need to re-orientate myself again to think that this is a community first so that I do not lose my way again. I hope the new people will join the community since having more people around my age and whom I know maybe the fresh breath of air that I need.

Trip down the memory lane

Two weeks ago I attended a training for a new volunteering role that I signed up. Of all possible places for the training, it was at TPY South CC. Yep, just next to my old workplace for me to re-live the journey there on a Saturday morning by taking 238 and all that. Because of the timing of the training, the only Mass I could attend was the evening Sunday Mass at Risen Christ. I felt that Risen Christ is very run down now: the building is, looks and feels old and I thought the audio/acoustic in the church was bad with the echo. The priest's accent also made it difficult to hear. Anyway the church building is already past 50 years old. It is time for a massive renovation or rebuilding since just re-painting is not going to help the age. I was baptised there and I used to consider it as my parish. I thought the trip there after so many years would rekindle some positive feelings. Nope, I am glad that I am currently at the Holy Spirit. Hahaha... The RCIY coordinators during my time are no longer around so really there is nothing for me to have any sense of belonging anymore.

The training is interesting and an eye opener for me. As a healthcare professional, I was taught not to use the word 'suicide', even when discussing or counselling patients on medical conditions or possible side effects from drugs. I was taught to re-phrase it to 'thoughts of self-harm'. In contrast, in the field of suicidology (yes there is such word) or basically among people dealing with people at actual high risk of suicide, we are supposed to be direct to ask if someone has the thoughts of suicide. In this area, suicide carries the meaning of having death as the intention while self-harm may only be intended to cause injury but not death. As an example, self-harm may mean only cutting the skin to leave marks/scars as opposed to suicide may mean cutting vital veins to bleed to death. It is definitely a new knowledge and humbling experience for me.

Interestingly, a few people asked if I was a brother of a priest because they thought I look and speak similarly. Woah.. Since these few people are not related and know the priest not exactly from the same occassion, I got curious. Usually I would brush it off but this time, I honestly can see some resemblance and I am not surprised that they thought I was related. Lucky I know my father never came to Singapore before the 1990s so there is no way I have a brother from another mother hahaha...

I had intermittent fever since Friday. I was negative for COVID so I went to see doctor yesterday to check if it was dengue. My sister had dengue previously and her symptoms were kinda similar to mine. The doctor doubted it was dengue since my intermittent fever was low-grade, but in the end he agreed to do the dengue test. The most surprising part was that he gave me 2 days MC hohoho... I thought I would only get 1 day since he doubted it was anything serious. I suppose the 2 days MC is the cure I need since the dengue is negative and I am okay now. Hehe...

Since I am still on MC today, I could go for 12pm All Saints' Day mass at Novena Church. All Saints' Day always holds a special memory for me since it was the very first mass I practised and played organ for when I was in CJC Hostel ages ago. Ironically, it was kinda meh and did not lift my spirit up like what I expected. Since it was a lunch time mass, there was no music so it felt like a mass during COVID all over again which is not something I would like to remember. After mass, the bookshop was just as crowded as it usually is after Novena sessions on Saturdays. Anyway since I had nothing on to do and I had to get some cards for written affirmations for my Landings group, I decided to wait until the crowd left.

And God really works in miraculous way. Despite it being the middle of the day, the weather was cloudy and comfortable even for me to sit and wait at the non-covered area. I waited for around half an hour and just that waiting recovered my drooping spirit. It also made me reflect that while music really makes a difference during mass, I still have remember that essence of the mass is not only the music. Thus I should appreciate music during mass but at the same time should not be upset with a mass which is at its bare essential. I should remember the feeling during the first few weeks when physical masses were allowed again after relaxation of the COVID rules. Back then, even without the music, just being able to be attend a mass at church and to receive communion were already fulfil my spirit. So yeah perhaps today's All Saints' Day mass is not all that wasted.

Gratitude

With the vaccination discrimination measures finally lifted up tomorrow, I suppose it is time for me to start living life just like before COVID happened. One of the things being regularly penning down my thoughts in this blog as a form of diary. While I am happy that I can return to attending Novena, Mass (more choices of time) and gym, I will definitely miss the time I can just laze around or not feeling guilty to join online Mass when I had to skip physical Mass because of rain like in the past 2 Sundays. Certainly the number one thing I am not looking forward to is normalcy when it comes to working at the office. It is inevitable but it has been a nice 2 over years.

I attended the wedding of my ex-colleague yesterday. Initially I declined with an excuse that my booster status is not recognised so I am technically not under the fully vaccinated category. She assured me that she would not check so I had no excuse. It turned out to be a blessing since I got the chance to catch up with my ex-colleagues. I tried to let go and forget whatever happened with my old workplace and I no longer bothered to kaypoh what was happening basically since COVID begun. So whatever I heard was really a news. In fact, how I received the news was also unexpected. Basically there was almost no seat during the solemnisation. Since I was no longer part of the workplace, I felt too paiseh to excuse myself to ask if any seat was available. Thus I decided to just wait outside. I met my ex-preceptee who was helping as one of the organiser and he gave me the updates without me asking.

My successor resigned earlier this year because about half of the staff tendered resignation. Thus she decided to be the one resigning and the staff ended up staying. My ex-preceptor was transferred back to stabilise the branch. That must be a very good news for the everyone at the branch since we all love her.

Honestly I have no beef with my successor since she was also forced into the shit because I left. What makes me happy is seeing my ex-colleagues and ex-bosses going through the shit. For my ex-colleagues who last time complained about me so much, I hope you all realise now that none of you wanted to leave even when we were in the same boat to survive with only 75-80% of the headcount but now many of you wanted to leave even with full headcount. I was that bad, weren't I? Lol... To my ex-bosses, I hope you realise that time has changed and your outdated leadership ways are no longer compatible with today's working generations. I was being negative for speaking out for my staff, weren't I? None of them resigned under my watch even with 75-80% headcount yeah. Now they even allowed the managers to step down. Perhaps they are worried if there will be more who would throw letter like me if not allowed. No wonder only the two of them appeared older and more stressed while the rest, surprisingly, seem to be frozen in time that they just looked as they were when I left 4 years ago.

Not gonna lie that I am still hurt. After all, I was there for 7 years and a part of me was there. Some doctors, nurses and even the operation executive still remembered me and we still could converse with one another just like the old days. This kind of work relationship is really rare and a treasure. However, attending this wedding is like an affirmation for me that I made the correct decision to leave one year ago. I was actually the third or fourth person from the 'older' days when things were stable who left and many others left after me. So it was not just me who felt that the ex-bosses were really out of touch with the ground reality. I supposed I did good and paved the way for the other managers who subsequently were allowed to step down so that they did not have to leave like me.

At the end of the day, I think the wedding is another way that God is convincing and affirming me that everything which happened 4 years ago is part of His plan. Considering all the pros and cons whether I left or I stayed (since nothing is perfect), it has been made clear now that leaving is the better option and I thank God for that. What is left now is for God to really heal me of all the past misgivings so that I can wrap up and conclude that the polyclinic episode of my life is a sweet one, not bittersweet.

Bali Trip Day 5

I could not really concentrate in the morning since all I thought about was getting a swab first which would determine whether I could fly back. Although I was feeling alright, I could not help to worry if I had the virus and only happened to be asymptomatic. We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant before we left Ubud. As usual, I ordered set containing food which I do not encounter normally: turmeric herb juice and bubur injin. I never heard bubur injin before and it seems more like a dessert based on the description (black rice pudding with coconut milk and dice jack fruits). Yep, I was right. It was like a hot dessert to me, not a breakfast. I had sugar overdose since the set still came with a dessert which was caramelised banana crepe.

I left it to the driver to decide the best place for me to get the swab and that was the first we did when we reached Kuta region. I found it very amusing seeing how widely available and cheap COVID swab test has become: any random person in any random building or even tent could just set up a COVID test center.

After the swab, we went souvenir shopping at Krisna. I only started to get into the shopping mood after I received the notification that my COVID test was negative. This Krisna shop really blew my mind away. I have never been to any tourist souvenir shop more impressive than this. Not only the size is huge, the range of items includes every souvenir ideas that people can think about. Most importantly, this is not a typical souvenir shop intended to scalp tourists. This shop is intended for tourists to really buy loads of souvenirs and the prices are normal.

The first floor has mostly food. Not only the food choices are crazy (from peanuts, dried fruit chips, various traditional chips/crackers, dodol, chocolates, cookies, etc), the range of flavours include those not commonly found in supermarkets. For example, there are fruit chips made of papaya and mango as well as peanut flavours such cheese, barbeque and even seafood. I only bought those I never tried before. At the end, I think all the dried fruit chips taster similar regardless of what fruit they come from. However, papaya chips still stink like the fruit. There is also section for souvenir apparels on the first floor. However, they are more branded and expensive than the apparels at the higher floors.

The non-edible souvenirs are on the higher floors. There are clothes, jewellery, handicrafts, as well as the typical souvenirs you can think of: keychains, soaps, scented candles, etc. The range of clothes are amazing. My advice when planning a trip to Bali is not to think about clothes and just come to Krisna. There are beach wears, casual wears and even sleep wears. They are also not priced as typical souvenirs and are even cheaper than the two beach shirts I bought in Jakarta.

We went to Hog Wild for lunch since pork ribs is another Balinese specialty. Normally I would not eat ribs because I was too lazy with the bones but I let my sister chose since this trip was paid by her lol. I would usually get the steak but I ordered grilled chicken instead because I did not feel like eating too full. The weather was hot and the restaurant was stingy with the aircon. To minimise COVID risk, I chose the section where there was nobody dining and the restaurant did not switch on the aircon for that section. Even the toilet was cooler than where we had our lunch.

After lunch, we still had some time before our flight but we had no idea how to kill time anymore. Since my sister had no idea from her influencers and the driver had no cafe recommendations, I suggested to go to any shopping mall. We went to Mal Bali Galeria which has a huge open area in the middle of the mall. I suggested to sit at a cafe and that cafe was also hot. Basically I could not cool myself down and was annoyed throughout. I ended up buying two berms at Uniqlo because they were on sale. Hahaha.. So ironic to buy berms at the end of the trip. I regretted going to this mall instead of going to the airport directly because it was much more cooling inside the airport. Hahaha... I would not mind waiting there longer and forgoing the berms.

That wraps up the trip. I think Bali is a fantastic place to visit. I count myself really lucky to be able to experience Bali minus the crowd. Under normal circumstances, I do not think I would enjoy Bali with the crowd, traffic jam and the expensive hotel rates. My regret is that I could only do this one trip. If only I stay in Indonesia throughout COVID, I would have been there more than once.

Bali Trip Day 4: Ubud (mostly staying in the resort)

Before describing what I did today, let me describe about this resort first. This Sankara Resort is few levels above the previous resort I stayed in Bintan few years ago or in Kuta few days ago. I would say this was my first time experiencing a true resort atmosphere. From the location, the front desk, as well as the environment and decoration from the reception until the room, everything just screams Ubud. There is even paddy field between the rooms in the front side of the resort and the rooms at the back. It is just not for show since there are farmers working on the field. It really felt like being away from the modern world and reality.

We stayed in Deluxe Pool Villa so that we had a private pool. They are not playing with the word 'villa' because the unit feels like a villa within the resort. It is not a room but is more of a house. The entrance even feels like gate minus the actual gate. Unfortunately, the private pool is in the front instead of the back side of the room which means that passersby as well as guests at opposite rooms can see. As if people wanted to see but I could not help to feel self-conscious considering I am fat and I cannot swim.

The room and the toilet are very spacious. The crazy thing, however, is that there is no freaking door to the toilet. The bathtub and the shower are actually visible from the room itself, lets say when someone is on the bed or from the mirror at the table. The bathtub is just next to this gigantic window panel with some view of the greeneries. Although it is a nice atmosphere, this is facing the outside so it is crazy to soak with the window blind up and risking people seeing from outside. Thank goodness the toilet bowl is further in and is next to cupboard. Leaving the cupboard door open gives a bit more privacy.

Further inside just next to the toilet bowl and separated by a glass wall and door is the outdoor shower area which I would say is badly designed. I expect people will usually use the outdoor shower after they swim. If we are going to that here, we will already wet the bathtub, dressing area and the toilet bowl just to reach the outdoor shower. Worse, there is nowhere to put clothes or soap in the outdoor shower area. Anyway I showered here the day before, not because I wanted to experience outdoor showering, but because I did not want my sister to be uncomfortable if I was using the shower inside. I showered before her and when she was soaking in the bathtub, I hid myself under the blanket like a fool.

Okay enough about the room. Ultimately the main reason that my sister chose this place was because of the free floating breakfast. After experiencing it, I think it is something nice only for photo op because the eating part is very troublesome: gotta make sure the floater does not sink, gotta make sure not dropping things and dirty the pool. The swimming pool is deeper than at the Kuta resort. Although I still could reach the bottom by tiptoe-ing, I could not breathe normally. Surprisingly I found myself able to swim better. Not sure because I was forced to swim since my feet could not touch the bottom or because my practice in the past 2 days paid off. Lol. There are 2 wall water fountains which were not switched on. I thought we got a room with spoilt fountains. I asked the staff who packed up the breakfast about it and it seemed that they were deliberately switched off because of our floating breakfast. Otherwise, everything would just be wet.

My sister booked a Grab to visit one of her Instagram cafe at Ubud Center and we had our lunch there. After that we returned to the resort since she wanted to do spa while I just spent the rest of the day sleeping. I was too tired the day before to take night photos at the swimming pool. I was unlucky because when I wanted to do that in the evening, it rained heavily. Sigh.. Oh well, we just left for dinner at the hotel restaurant which was our plan all along. My unlucky strike continued since the satay set which I was aiming for since morning was not available. Huhuhu... The rain did not stop even after dinner which meant it was really a goodbye to night photo at this swimming pool.

Bali Trip Day 3: Kintamani, Ubud

Today's plan was drastically changed due to the driver's availability. Since we were okay with the driver yesterday, we decided to continue booking him. Initially, we just wanted to travel to the resort in Ubud and spend the rest of the day relaxing. Only on the second day in Ubud then we wanted to travel around. Unfortunately, the driver was only available today and not on the following day so we just had to switch the schedule. The hotel remembered to prepare the breakfast today and we departed after that.

The journey to Ubud reminds me of the journey from Jakarta to Puncak since Ubud is also in a mountainous region. The lack of tourist was a blessing since there was no traffic jam and we did not waste time on the road. We went to Kintamani which is the current 'in' thing with a street lined with instagrammable cafes. I knew this from a friend who recently visited Bali and posted some photos. I would be happy just to visit El Lago, which is the cafe that my friend visited. Too bad my sister trusted random recommendations online and decided to go to Akasa first.

It was a regret not because Akasa is bad but because El Lago is better. It was still rather quiet when we reached but by the time we went to El Lago after Akasa, it was already too crowded to take nice photos. Sian.. Anyway the mountain views from the various cafes are actually comparable since they are all lined along the same road. The main differentiation is the interior design from each cafe. Unfortunately, there is one thing that instagram pictures cannot tell: some views may be obstructed by other buildings. Basically with all the cafes are competing to provide unobstructed view, the newer buildings will be jutting out more and more from the slope. The views from other cafes may be blocked by these buildings. Ultimately, that is my main gripe with Akasa since the view on its left and right are obstructed by the nearby buildings. Another thing to take note is to pray hard for foggy weather to get nice photos. Otherwise, it is just boring like any other mountain :( Our plan to cafe-hop also failed because we were already full after 2 cafes although we only ordered the bare minimum so that it was not too obvious that we were visiting just for the views lol.

Another must-see destination in Ubud is the Tegalalang rice terrace. I learnt that there are more than one places where we can see the rice terrace. Similarly with the Bali Swing which I thought there was only one. Although there is only one place which is called Bali Swing, a swing over rice terrace is actually available in several places. The driver brought us to Uma Ceking Resto and Swing for our lunch and our rice terrace experience.

I was not enjoying myself initially because it was kinda late for lunch. I was feeling sleepy, the weather was sunny and my special Balinese fried rice was unexpectedly spicy. I was not looking forward to getting on the swings but my mood changed after the short rest while eating lunch. Hahaha... The lovely thing here is that there are several swings, not just the one most commonly found online when googling Bali Swing. This place is definitely meant more for couples as the other swings are heart-shaped, bed, ship, etc. Anyway since it is outdoor and there was no other tourist group, it was nice to be mask-less while getting on the swings. The staff helped with the photos and videos as well. Another thing to be grateful for since I doubt we would get that kind of attention and help under non-COVID situation.

The rice terrace was rather dry and not as pretty green as the google photos

We still had plan to go for ATV adventure which the driver recommended to us. Last registration was supposed to be 430pm and we were late. Thus we checked in to Sankara Resort by Pramana first while the driver called the place if we still could go. Luckily he knew the owner and we still could play. Yay.. I knew about ATV from one Thai variety show which I watched last year. I find it really exciting since I cannot drive normal car hehe.. Usually I would stay away from anything that would get me dirty, I did not mind this time since I would throw away the pants with the holey pocket which caused my phone to drop at Tanah Lot the day before.

Driving ATV is easier than expected. I thought there would be some pedal control and coordination like driving a car but it actually only has start, speed and brake switches controlled by the fingers. So it is very easy. The downside is that body strength is required with the turning and the manouvering of the terrain, so it is not like just controlling the car steering wheel. At the end of the day, I felt very tired and my back aching.

I enjoyed that we had to drive through town area before reaching the ATV track. It gave a nice feel of driving a car. Haha.. I also enjoyed the touch with nature as we passed through rice fields. The ATV track itself was alright but was too mild for my expectations. Haha.. The thing that ruined the whole experience was that we caught up with a group of tourist ahead of us who sucked at controlling the ATV. They kept getting stuck and jammed and we wasted more time waiting for them instead of actually driving. Sigh.. It was a blessings that we went late and the sun was not as scorching anymore. Otherwise I definitely would feel more irritated. Anyway since overall the track was not that extreme, I did not get dirty as expected. There was no visible dirt on my clothes and I just had to rinse my leg. I paid around $30 but I saw on the paper at the counter that the usual price is $120+. Not sure if that is truthful or it is just a marketing ploy since $120+ for that experience is definitely not worth it.

I did not know that they would take photos along the way. If I knew, I would choose a top which at least looks better in photos. Anyway I always look ugly with a helmet on so it does not really matter. I did not think twice about paying $15 for the full set of the photos since I was too lazy to choose on the spot. After all $15 will only get me ONE piece of photo in Disneyland so $15 for a full set is a no brainer.

Since we planned to just rest in the hotel on the following day, I asked to stop at a mini mart to get bread for dinner and water. Since this is already a looong post, I will write about the hotel itself in the next post.

Bali Trip Day 2: Tanah Lot, Garuda Wisnu Kencana, Uluwatu, Pantai Melasti

I started the day by playing in the swimming pool again. After all, that was the main purpose of having a private pool mah. Having eaten anything, my tummy was more flat than the day before but that still does not change the fact that I am fat. Bleah. The hotel somehow did not send the breakfast but lucky I bought some bread to standby from the supermarket the previous day.

We rented a car today since we would be travelling to Tanah Lot, Uluwatu and Nusa Dua Beach. There is no nice way to plan the journey since all three are basically away from one another. If Kuta is considered at the "center", Tanah Lot is at the north west, Uluwatu is at the south west and Nusa Dua is at the south east. Each is around 1 to 2 hours journey from the "center".  We discussed with the driver and it was possible to cover all three within a day since there was hardly traffic jam due to COVID. Under normal condition and usual traffic jam, it would not be possible.

We went to Tanah Lot first since that is the furthest one by distance. Thanks to COVID, I was able take photos without other photobombers. That is something unthinkable under normal circumstances at such an iconic tourist destination. There were very few tourists and I felt quite poor thing with all the souvenir stalls which remained open. My sister felt quite poor thing to the people offering photo service and decided to support one.

We asked the driver for recommendation to eat Babi Guling which is one of the popular food in Bali which I have been very curious about. Unfortunately since I am not a foodie, it did not blow my mind and it is just like any other pork haha.. The driver offered if we would like to visit Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) since it is along the way that we have to pass by when we go towards Uluwatu. My sister and I are not the arty-farty type so we never considered going there. We took up the suggestion since it did not cause any detour to our journey. Anyway, GWK is one of the most recent tourist destination in Bali so it would be nice to take some photos without other tourists while we had the opportunity.

We had to pass by Udayana University which reminded me of NUS but in a much grander scale in terms of the hilliness of the terrain as well as the size. Unlike in NUS, it is not practical to walk from one faculty to the next one. Since it is not in the city, each faculty has its own plot of land: with its own gate, signage and security just to enter. The distance from the entrance to the building is also not near. Anyway I find it interesting since I never experience university life in Indonesia.

It was really a hot day and I did not really enjoy the GWK trip. Luckily we were in a free and easy travel and we decided to pay for the coach to bring us from the ticket lockets to the statue. Otherwise, it was a torture to walk and climb to the statue on such a hot day. The statue is indeed gargantuan, so gargantuan that it was impossible to take a nice picture when you are physically there. The human will look so tiny in the picture if you want to capture the whole statue. Otherwise, we are too small to take photo of the statue to look like those google images taken with a drone. While I am not a cultured person to appreciate statues, I have to admit that the size and details are really majestic and is not a marketing hype. It is possible to pay and go up to the top of the statue to appreciate sky view of Bali but we did not do that.

Not only the statue is already gigantic, it is mounted on top of  a building

Since GWK is a culture park, there are still other attractions which are part of the journey on the way to exit the park. There is a festival park which had several ogoh-ogoh on display when we were there. There are plazas housing statues of Garuda and Wisnu, separately. There is an amphitheatre which holds some performance. There is a museum where people can don on traditional Balinese wear and take photos as if they time travelled to various Indonesian traditional houses. While I find the museum to have its charm, its position is quite bad. Visitors will already feel so hot, tired and sweaty by the time they reach the museum. I do not think many will still have the mood to get changed and take photos anymore.

Plaza Wisnu

Next we went to Uluwatu which I thought was very stressful trip. There are wild monkeys there so instead of enjoyment, I felt more stress since the monkeys could even snatch spectacles. With that, I did not even want to risk my phone to take photos. The good thing was that we could rent a guide who would help to look out and chase away the monkeys as well as bringing us around so that we did not have to fiddle with maps to find where to go. I still prefer Tanah Lot, which also looks nicer to take photos. The view in Uluwatu can only be appreciated with eyes when we are there but difficult to capture its beauty in photos since it is a cliffy area. But seriously, the monkeys are the main deal breakers.

With that, we were already too tired and decided to cancel the plan to Nusa Dua. The guide was very nice and offer us an alternative: Pantai Melasti, which would not really cause a detour for our journey back to Kuta. It is considered one of the newer developed beach and hence is still more popular for the locals than for tourists. It is also a popular spot for prewedding photos. The beach is surrounded by cliffs so it gives a different view from the stretch of Jimbaran - Kuta - Seminyak beaches.

We went to Kuta Beach Walk for dinner at Johnny Rockets. We basically just needed a place to sit down to discuss the plan for the next day. Yeah, thanks to my sister's planning, she had not decided on  whether we should just book another car or we should inform our current driver that we wanted to continue with him. Either way, we also had to decide the actual plan in Ubud. We did not go to Kuta Beach since it was already almost sunset and we heard that there were more peddlers there than lets say Seminyak Beach which we visited the day before. Although I was already very tired, I still played in the pool in the evening just to maximise our stay with a private pool. Hehe.. After all, I could not do that on the following morning since I did not want to carry wet swimming trunks.

And that was my modest and kind of pathetic birthday. I thought I could have a nice fancy meal in Bali but who would knew that many places were not open because of lack of tourist. My back up plan was to have a relaxing meal in the hotel restaurant but this current resort is just not giving that vibe. Ultimately, my whole birthday mood was ruined by my dropped phone. I suppose my birthday gift was the opportunity to take photos at popular tourist places without strangers on the background, which definitely is a once-in-a-lifetime.