2012 Birthday Wish

On Oct 2, my birthday, I wish myself a pleasant day ahead and may I have a good year ahead with just the right pinch of trials and challenges as well as the sweet satisfaction of a job well done, be it a job/task in career, family or any of the roles I need to play in life.

May my loved ones and friends be blessed with good health, peace and happiness. May nothing hinder them from good, and everything negative is overcome with ease. May your days be filled with laughter and joy, may your footsteps be light and may you all eat, sleep and live happily with the lightest heart filled with joy and gratitude. I wish you all the very best.

May those who dislike (or even hate me), my 'frenemies' or 'enemies' or those who are hostile towards me, I wish you peace of mind and may your hearts find peace in the coming year. I do not condone what you say/think/do but I respect your rights as an individual. By bashing me or talking and thinking negatively you can never find peace within. I just wish to wish you inner peace from the bottom of my heart.

With each year that I age, I resolve to only better myself and practice kindness and positivity in my life. May I have the strength and perseverance to achieve success with minimal harm or damage/inconvenience to others and may I have the resolve to overcome all things negative which I hope will turn into something positive at the end of the day.

May 2012 (the last quarter) be a good one for everyone and 2013 be an even better year. As corny as it sounds, I wish for world peace. Peace begins at home. Peace - That is my fervent peace.

I just blogged to say... I love you all (radiating the love/'metta' to all). Happy birthday, Sue. Happy birthday to me. *Peace*

Photos copyright reserved, Taken 3 days before my 2012 birthday. I am blessed to be so loved by my own mom and hubby's mom.

The first year I did not wish for a baby, I got one the following year.

In the Fog and Mist

I feel like I am in the thick fog and mist right now. I made an essential trip recently, full of hope and desperation, for the sake of a loved one.

Will blog more about it when the time is right. Time is precious now. I need to rethink my mid-year resolution on my Blogging frequency and make it once a week instead of three times a week as something more pressing is way more urgent to attend to in life right now. Prayers for speedy recovery appreciated. I love this person too much to lose so early.

Till next week, may all be well and happy, free from pain and suffering and mental anguish and anxiety. Pix taken from the plane to reflect my feelings -End-

Spending each precious moment together

End of mid-year resolution

Having followed through with my mid-year resolution to blog at least once daily up till Sept 7, 2012, I missed Sept 8, 2012.

I shall hereby make an amendment to my resolution by taking 3 days off a week from blogging and only blog 4 times a week. Quality better than quantity.

Things are getting more packed in real life hence the need for adjustment, gotta be realistic now.

End of Week-Long Resolution

My week-long resolution's deadline is over. Seven days have passed and with the end of Tuesday for me, I am pleased to say that I've managed to clear a fair bit of my wardrobe.

My wardrobe can finally breathe now but I admit I can discard of more clothes.

I did resolve to clear out half my wardrobe. I failed. I only cleared out maybe a third or even less. I already gave away 3 bags and put aside a big bag to be sold as preloved clothing.

So mission is 75% completed. My in laws are coming down again next month so I resolve to further trim my wardrobe by next month. At least I've made some progress!!!

All three bags in the pix were given away and dropped into the charity collection bin already!

Fourth Quarter 2012 Resolution

I have not been able to fit into my 2006 clothes for the past six years.

One favorite dress of mine was worn once for our official engagement announcement photoshoot (pix below) and the beautiful tailor-made dress hung there in one of my cupboards without a chance to see daylight and has survived many spring cleaning exercises.

I am sticking to my one-week-resolution to halve my wardrobe. I am filling up the big plastic bags with mostly unworn tops.

I hope to fill up at least two big bags with clothes to be given away to charity by today (Sunday) and maybe another big bag by the end of my deadline in two dad (Tuesday).

Anyway, I have another resolution to top up and complement my mid-year resolution to exercise more. I give myself three months to lose some weight, and hope to fit loosely into my 2006 dress by 2013, anytime next year.

I find that by putting my resolution in writing and going a step further by publishing it on my blog, my resolutions have somewhat worked so far!

Keeping fingers crossed.

Now hubby and I will go for an early swim before dinner. Both of us have plumped up at lot after our China trip!!! Rice, rice and more rice, similar to potato and more potato - carbs turn to fat when you are sedentary!

I cut off hubby's face in the pix as the collage doesn't allow full view, all the more to protect his identity anyway hahaha. The Chinese words beside me under the 'Engagement' words are our names in Chinese. :) 2006, seems so long ago!

August - Decluttering Resolution

This is my 7-day resolution to declutter my home and specifically my own belongings.

I have about 7 days of relatively free work days starting tomorrow afternoon after the final exam invigilation at work. Aug 23, 2012, Thursday.

My in-laws are coming down to stay with us for a week starting today, Aug 22, 2012, Wednesday. Arriving in about 3 hours from now.

If you have been following my blog, you would have read about how blessed me and hubby are, my parents-in-law, hubby's parents are both in their 60s, and having not been idle for a single day in their life, they always keep themselves busy anywhere they go, including their sons' homes. My mother-in-law (MIL) shall take over the kitchen, usually much to the delight of her daughters-in-law, and my father-in-law (FIL) shall take over the other household chores like sweeping and mopping the floor, keeping the floor spick and span clean! He mops at least twice a day!

So with the daily mundane stuff being taken care of starting today, and my in-laws are leaving for their home again on Aug 29, 2012, Wednesday, I have exactly 7 days to do something 'productive' besides blogging and relaxing (if you can call relaxing being productive). I won't count the accompanying my in-laws to run errands and visiting government offices with them as they live in a small town and need to do their official stuff in our city, etc., shopping for groceries trips, I still have at least two hours to myself with their help, which I greatly appreciate.

You see, it's like this. Usually my time is taken up by preparing meals and cooking in the kitchen. Since at least two hours a day is taken away from my must-do-list, I resolve to spring clean my stuff and give them away to the recycling bin/charity bin which accepts used stuff which are still in good condition. I have thought about selling them off online at a fraction of the original price, that would need some effort and more time, maybe I'll save about 10 items which are still in pristine condition to 'sell' and the rest shall be given away.

My wardrobe is bursting at its seams!

So this is Sue's resolution starting tomorrow. I vow to halve my wardrobe and only keep for sale, 10 items from each category if the condition permits, and give away the rest. Once halved, my wardrobe shall have more space and I shall wear each item more frequently because with more space created, it will be easier to view just how many items I have in my wardrobe. As of now, I have two wardrobes with another double rack outside as both my wardrobes are too full, no kidding. I shall skip taking pix of my two wardrobes as it is difficult to close back the doors once open, he ce here is the pix of my make-shift-rack-turned-exposed wardrobe. I am in dire need to declutter my wardrobe (my store room is another story altogether, let's start with my wardrobe first. :)

On the upper right side of the pix below you can see a glimpse of the white steel bar, there are two white steel bars and both bars are hung fully with hangers and clothes, and this is only the outer wardrobe, not including my two proper wardrobes! I know I am messy person, guilty as charged.

I am actually humbled at the thought that with only one body, how many clothes can I actually wear in a year? How about some other women in the more unfortunate places in this world who only have two sets of clothes, one to wear and one to wash?

With this decluttering exercise, I shall also resolve to 'reduce' shopping for more clothes unnecessarily. I have made a huge achievement by NOT buying any blouse or tops or shirts from my recent trip to China! Let's see if I can keep this up this Christmas and New Year!

Up next shall be a resolution to curb my 'hoarding nature'. Let's leave my hoarder habits for another blog post. Happy Hump Day!

(P/S - Wednesday is called a Hump Day as it is the Middle of the week).

Note: I find blogging strangely therapeutic and resolutions made via blogging seems to be working so far, hence I am sharing my really messy self especially my wardrobe to 'motivate' myself to kick this messy habit of mine. The challenge is to keep it UN-messy after this resolution has been achieved! Wish me luck! Oh, don't mind the pix, hope I didn't scare anyone there! And yes, my bedroom walls are painted pink! Never too old for pink *wink*

Review on Mid-year resolution

I have stated on July 31st that I will be taking a break in daily updating of my blog as I needed to get out of town to attend a funeral but I still managed to update my blog daily up till Aug 1, and then fatigue got the better of me and I finally missed Aug 2nd update.

One day lapse in more than a month. I give myself a pat on the back for sticking to my mid-year resolution to blog daily since June 2012. :)

FAMILY - The nucleus of every society

I love the photograph above which I have grabbed online, author/photographer unknown. The fingers/palm of the mother are similar to mine, chubby and stubby. :-) This is part of my visualisation in my daily reflection and hope that one day, our family of two will be three. Gotta keep the positive thoughts/feelings flowing!

This, and many other things and support I am grateful for in life at the moment kept me going in this journey of TTC (trying to conceive).

F- Father
A- and
M- Mother
I- I
L- Love
Y- You

We are not parents ourselves yet but hubby and I are lucky in the sense that we both have loving parents, complete sets, still alive and well. Not many have that privilege of having both sets of parents alive, and that is indeed a blessing.

We have to keep reminding ourselves not to lose sight of what we have in front of/beside us in pursuit of something we hope to gain but do not have yet. I guess 'letting go' is the start of a new beginning. My resolution is I shall resolve to not hold on too tightly to my 'goal' and live more in the present moment.

Come what may. Take a deep breath and have faith that everything will be alright in the end. Baby dust to all TTC couples.

Mid-Year Resolution - Blogging

About two blogposts back, I mentioned something about a mid-year resolution to exercise more. The weather has set me back by a whole week as I was robbed of my good health and my resolution came to naught, will pick it up again once I finished my meds. Two rounds of antibiotics and I hope I won't be needing the third round.

Anyway - I figured I can have another mid-year resolution on a more manageable nature - sick or healthy, which I have been putting off since 2005-2007 (back when I was more active on my old blog) - I resolve to try to blog at least once a day, pictorial or otherwise.

I guess since I can tweet daily, lately, and it's gotten into a pattern of habit for me to always remember to check twitter on a daily basis, and on certain days, easily several times a day, I figured I could blog on a daily basis too. The only thing is, iPhone pix cannot be uploaded directly onto blogger. Apple developers, please do something about it! Grrrrr

Writing comes naturally to me anyway, so this won't be a mean feat.

I shall end this blogpost with a pix (and a plug for 8TV)

I'm gonna be joining my students to watch the 8TV Ultimate Power Star Grand Finals this Saturday (30th June 2012) and it is open to all as long as you reserve your tix, for FREE! Follow me on twitter @suetiong to find out more. Alternatively, if you are a Mass Comm student of TARC, check out the TARC Mass Communication Society fb page http://www.facebook.com/groups/masscommtarc/

Post Script - This mid-year resolution is done in memory of my grandpapa's 5th year of passing - his funeral was on June 28, 2007. You are dearly missed, Grandpapa.

It Does Not Help to Discount Others' Feelings

Every human being wants to have his/her feelings recognised and acknowledged. Somehow we have this innate urge to be the 'most' in everything, like the happiest, saddest, proudest, worst, most terrible, most painful, etc.

If one person says oh, the surgery hurt, and you said mine did too, the doc cut me 3 more inches deeper than yours, or my job is bad, you'll say - no, your job isn't that bad, my job is the worst!

Example: I feel so bad, my job is okay, but I find myself dragging my feet to work every morning, I wish I can enjoy my work but I hate my current job.
It doesn't make that person feel better by saying: "You are ungrateful/should count your blessing/do you know how many unemployed people are out there in this economic uncertainty".. and you launch into a lecture or worse, a personal attack on the already stressed out individual.

Yeah, you have many more 'worse' stories but just because you are comparing does not mean that individual will feel any less worse or even feel better about his/her current job!

Acknowledge the feelings first, give that reassurance that you are recognising the feelings, and then slowly, see if you can offer some help or advice, usually people take the short cut and force-feed such individuals that caused them to feel worse about themselves or even worse, shut down altogether and will not attempt to reach out to anyone anymore. This is very sad, especially in cases where a simply word of concern can make one feel better. This is where we get : 'No one understands me' phrases cos too often, humans jump the line and offer their 'better or worse stories' and give a piece of their mind that shut the individual up and retreat into his/her own cave.

Yeah, I understand the need for comparison for a certain level of motivation to improve and for the advancement of 'humankind', that kinda idealism. Despite that, we should remember that our quest to feel the 'most' does not mean we could discount others' feelings too.

When people are sharing their negative feelings, it simply means they are ranting/complaining/need reassurance - Since they need acknowledgment of their feelings, give it to them and keep your advice or 'greater stories' to yourself unless asked/requested. Be kind to yourself and be kind to others by acknowledging their feelings and the world will be a more peaceful place.

October 2009 to June 2010

That's how long it took to get myself sick again.. that's actually a record-long.. sick as in fever, cough/cold/flu.

Not bad, not bad. Here's to a healthier 2010!

WHEN LIFE GETS TOO MUCH.. time to let some things go

I seriously think it's time to let go of some of the things on my plate to fully live my life.

Who matters most in your life? For some, your career, for others, your family, love, children, parents, spouse, philantrophic activities, your belief, a cause you've pledged to, for each individual they vary. But I do know what is most important to me: MY FAMILIES.. why the plural?

1. My in-laws, my husband's siblings, my husband's clan - they are considered a separate family. And I do love them, after two years of marriage, I have embraced them as my family, not integrated with my own, the family I was born into is totally different from them, but when I'm with them I feel at home, and I am comfortable enough.

2. My own family, the family who gave life to me and raised me and the whole clan who cared about me up to my wedding day in 2007. Heck, my clan on my mother's side even flew all the way across the miles and over the South China Sea out of their own expenses to 'accompany the bride' into her 'new family' - Asian Chinese are like that, very closely-knitted, especially the traditional families.

3. My own unit cell- my family - my husband. We've been trying to make our nuclear family into three or maybe four for two years now. Taking one day at a time, and trying to adopt the come-what-may-approach. I love him in a way I have never loved anyone before, and there are times when I look at him and still pause in wonder at how love works in life. He's not my first love, but I would say he's my first MATURE love, and I find myself loving him more and more everyday, corny yeah.. but true love is overrated. Each love at each stage of your life, they are Real, true love, cos you believe it was true at that point in life, just the level of maturity could be different?

4. My friends - who are as close as you can get, to your real family. My god-daughters, they belong to my good friend whom I have known since I started primary (elementary) school. Audrey's girls look a bit like me that when I post their pix up on facebook or previously on friendster, people thought I have two girls of my own! :-D I have good girlfriends too and I love catching up with them.. but catching up is a luxury I can hardly afford nowadays.. too pressed for time!

REACHED THE LIMIT

I knew I've pushed the limit when I had to postpone a 'catching-up' session with a girl friend not ONCE but TWICE due to other commitments, the commitment you call work and other after work activities.

I reflected and seriously think I'm trying to spread myself too thin and enough is enough. Cramming too many things into 24 hours certainly has worked up to this point but I am actually at the tipping point.. I can see I'm slowly losing the balance and I need to remove many things in the form of commitment from my life.

Simple is good. Simplicity can NEVER be overrated. So I have made up my mind, clear and simple. I'm good, and I'm loving life.

Here's to a final month reflection of my whole 2009 before my birthday in October. Happy early birthday to me.

July is a Beautiful Month - at least for memories

July is a beautiful month

I got married in July.
My receptions were both in July.. and my first honeymoon was in July and I first moved in with my husband after our wedding in July.. so all is good. Oh.. April is a good month for me too. Heck, the only month that I don't have any memories of any small anniversary is in May. Only my dad's birthday falls on that month. So every month is a good month.

And it was also in July so long ago that I had my heart broken, and now one bitter incident is replaced by so many beautiful events and sweet memories they'll remain. Life is great.

When you lose the little things in life, you'll get them replaced by bigger things. So hang in there! :-D

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the Lunar New Year celebration - first day of the Lunar calendar for the year of Ox fell on Jan 26th, Monday.

To all who are celebrating, Happy Lunar New Year and may the year of the Ox bring you many auspicious events, lots of blessings and a wonderful year ahead!

Year End Resolution or Rather, Reflection

I hope I have been a good wife

This pix was taken when we solemnised our marriage after we were legally registered as husband and wife, the temple wedding is similar to a church wedding, only it was done Buddhist style.

It has been over a year and at the end of 2008, I reflect of the ups and downs all newly weds must have gone through, and I must say both my husband and me has grown and improved a lot.

With that reflection, my new year resolution will be to further improve myself and hope to be a better person as each day goes by.

Hope all will be well.

I hope I have been a good godmother to my girls, Rachel and Genevie and a good friend to their mother Audrey, who is also my childhood friend.
I miss my girls so much. Rachel is already 7 going on 8 next year.

Time really flies!

Genevie will be 5 next year.

It has been 3 months since I last hugged them and slept in with them.

I miss them to bits.

This was taken last year, November, as I missed both their birthdays this year as they're 2 hours flight away from where I am staying right now.

Married life do impose limitation on my mobility somewhat, to a certain extent.
I hope to be a better mommy and a better friend to their mama, my childhood friend, Audrey.

And I miss my quirky friend who's old enough to be my mom, Doreena.

Oh, I miss our silly soap-opera-like conversation, Do Do!

I'm glad our paths crossed at one point and we made it a point to keep in touch.

I have not missed your birthdays for the past few years and I'll make a point not to forget in years to come! Hugs to you, Do!
She's also in my hometown which is 2 hours flight away.

I also hope I've been a good sister to my siblings.

We spent at least 16 full years together growing up, taking in consideration youngest sis' age when our brother left home for studies.

Glad they gel just nicely with my husband, whom they refuse to call 'older brother' and called him by name instead. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

I hope to be a better sister in years to come. Hugs.

And to my parents and my parents-in-laws, I hope to be a better daughter and daughter-in-law.
To my extended family, I hope you're proud to have me as your relative.

To my other friends and acquaintances, hope knowing me has at least 'enriched' your life a little.

If there are strangers or random visitors to this blog, I hope you'll have a good 2009 ahead too!