零食怪物

妹妹送的爱心点心，让郁闷的办公日下午过得轻松许多。^_^

啃在嘴里，“咸”在心底。呵呵。

My 6-week immersion begins

The extent of my "crafty"ness.

AB's parents are visiting for a good six weeks, so I'm considering it as an immersion programme of sorts for me, to get more familiar with their culture, language and personalities.

While we got along fine while I was there over the passing of the year, that was a much bigger group and our one-to-one exchanges were more limited especially with the little niece commanding most of their attention. I was perfectly happy with that, as it allowed me plenty of opportunities to observe their interactions and learn more about them via that. While we have basic command of each other's main language, it didn't bother me that I couldn't participate in nor understand fully their heavy and passionate debates on politics and family affairs - in fact, these were conversations I was glad to sit out of as a guest.

However, with them here for double the duration of our visit there, it will also mean much more exchanges and time together. Despite it being my "home ground" this time, I can't help but feel some trepidation about how we might get along. They do generally seem very independent and chill, and I pride myself on being civil and polite, so hopefully we won't want to tear each other's faces off by the end of their stay. :p

I'd asked AB if he intended to take some time off from work to show them around, but he just shrugged, "I'd already taken two weeks off and shown them around when they first visited a couple of years ago. They will be fine this time - they just want to relax and take their time visiting."

And that was that. Knowing that they are well seasoned travellers, and confident enough to navigate our public transport system, I prepared some handy maps and tips of places they might want to visit in their first weeks here, to hopefully ease their initial orientation around to occupy themselves while we are both at work in the day. Printed these out and stuck them onto some hardy pretty paper with labels so it's easy to chuck into their bags and bring around.

AB also installed their phones with duplicates of his data sim so they are connected throughout their stay, and got them each an EZ-Link card.

With these, we start the six weeks of time together. Fingers crossed.

Information that will hopefully come in handy

A light in my life

This is dedicated to a dear girlfriend whose birthday falls on the date of this post.

A darling friend who brings me lightness and clarity, while also keeping me grounded, with her amazing rationality and compassion.

A dear one who's so ridiculously thoughtful and supportive in all my ventures that I often wonder what I have done to deserve such love and friendship.

A scarily intelligent and overachieving individual who inspires me all the time, to be better, and to do my best.

A person who has seen me at my saddest, angriest, angsty-est, bimbo-est. and stayed throughout, offering strength, and often just company, not even words, because she knows that's what I needed.

So much love.

Happy Birthday Impy! Hope you like your birthday present this year - ie my compliance with your request for no gifts. Muahahaha.

To many more decades of friendship to come. :)

xoxo

She brings light to my life and the most thoughtful gifts

Catching up with the galfriend

Another date I promptly locked in even before touching down back in Singapore was with the galfriend. We had both been away for the better part of December and I wasn't used to not seeing her face for more than a month. Heh. #needygalfriend Sure we text back and forth, and emails work well too if longer rants are desired, but it's just different to be able to chat with her face to face (says this introvert). A proper catch up was definitely in order.

Meals with this woman are always super easy - we have very similar preferences on what we like to eat (and drink), so often we end up ordering a few items to share, which works out awesomely where we get to eat what we like without overstraining our poor tummies. 

Over sips of sake and a simple but delicious dinner at Marusaya, we yabbled on about our respective holidays - exclusive uncensored content that you won't get to see on my blog (or hers). That's one of the reasons we get along so well - that shared love of reading and writing, but also a very clear divide on what we put on public space, especially those deeper thoughts and words that could easily be misconstrued. We both have a hearty dislike of drama, no desire to entertain nosy parkers either. On the other hand, with her and many of my closest, we sometimes don't even need words to communicate - a simple shrug, raised brow or smirk can relay exactly what can't be explained in a whole chunk paragraph of text.  

The darling also passed me some lovely gifts she had picked out for me - a beautiful notebook for me to sketch in, and a bracelet that's a perfect trinket for weekends and casual days. It was a lovely nod to my aspiration to be more mindful over the past year, amazingly thoughtful as usual. Me? I didn't get her anything for Christmas, except to make a quiet contribution to her beloved sharks via WildAid again, our yearly tradition, or rather my yearly gift to her over the past five years. :)

Pretty packages for me!

Loves: lost and found

Disclaimers: 
1. This post is probably not what you may think it is, based on the title.
2. Technically, it's not "found", more like "given". But it flows better when I phrase it like that. :D

On my flight up to Luxembourg, I had absentmindedly misplaced my trusty bluetooth headphones, and only realised it while I was on my second leg of the flight (ie on another plane to my destination). I was rather dismayed to say the least, when I found out. Those earphones had been one of my trusty companions for the gym sessions that I had been really getting back into, and made the greatest difference in keeping those workouts fun and focused. Needless to say, I was pretty gutted, but since there was nothing I could do about it, I tried to brush it off. I can always get another pair of those. I also consoled myself that I probably wouldn't feel the loss too much for now, since the chances of me needing them during my stay is quite low.

Love lost. :( 

Then at Christmas, AB surprised me with an iPod Touch, which I had offhandedly mentioned to him months ago that I was contemplating on getting to serve some of the non-essential functions on my memory-space-challenged phone, just to save some of the usage on that gadget - things like music, Youtube, instagram and other apps which have nothing to do with calls and messages. I wasn't keen on changing phone since it still works well and I do like it beyond the annoyance with space. Because this was such a frivolous want, I had put it on my wishlist to be fulfilled some time this coming year, but I had completely not expected AB to quietly take note and get it for me. Bonus? He got it in that cheery shade of pink that I love, too. : )

Three weeks on, I am really enjoying this new toy - I have forgotten how much more of a breeze it is to acquire and load music on Apple gadgets (I use a Mac laptop and previously had an iPhone, before I jumped ship to Android for my current phone). It's so much easier and quicker, which I'd admit has motivated me to update my song collections so much more. It's rather nifty for running and the gym as well, being very lightweight and compact. I've really enjoyed using all those apps while setting my phone aside too - it keeps me more focused on whatever I was doing, without the distractions of calls and more importantly, messages. Pretty amazing how small things like these can make a significant difference in helping one to stay mindful and just.. present.

Love found - Ok fine, given. It doesn't replace what's lost but comes bearing joy and beauty of its own. :)

New love ^^