Categories: Friendship, Personal life, Rants
I had a catch up with one of my colleagues after a long time over lunch on Friday and she was sharing about renovation for her current place as well as properties in general. I went to Ashley’s place for dinner catchup on Friday evening and we were talking about property investment in Indonesia, India and Singapore. I went to Lynn’s housewarming on Saturday afternoon and again, the topic on properties came up again.
Wow, have I reached the age whereby it is normal and very common to talk about properties or am I just attracting the same topic again and again? Hmm…
I guess… Welcome to the new era where every social gathering will cover the topic of property and asset accumulation? Lololol.
That’s also when you know you really is becoming older… I also noticed that I enjoyed just chit chatting with friends over a simple meal at their homes or just one of the homes. No need to go fancy cafe or anything to chat unlike in the past…
Categories: Insights, Personal life, Rants, Work
I’m counting my blessings at the work related opportunities that I receive.
Not everyone has a job and not worry about impending layoffs.
Not everyone gets to travel on business trips to other countries.
Not everyone gets budget to study/upskill themselves.
However, as much as I can get these opportunities, there will always be people who are jealous at what I get. I mean… If you don’t ask, you won’t get it, right? If you don’t deliver results, you won’t get it, right? This is a reminder to myself that there will always be jealous, negative and toxic people around.
“Yeah. We are our own person. If people are negative best to limit the interaction.
Cuz we are influenced by the top 5 people we hang out with.”
This is something that one of my mentors, Marie, told me. Not exactly linked to the jealousy I received from my colleagues but something where I asked for advice on.
Obviously people love to see and gossip about the good stuff that others receive, including myself. What others did not realise is the difficult times people have to go through. They also did not realise and did not want to see the amount of hard work people put in to receive these “good opportunities”.
As I grow older, I realised it is even harder to have people around you who truly appreciate what you have and are happy for your accomplishments.
I realised that as I become more self aware and mature, I am gaining more empathy and awareness on the effect of my words and actions. The world of the empathetic is tough.
You know you are becoming old when you go Comex tech and exhibition to look at curtains, power tracks and water purifiers. It is no longer looking at laptops or gadgets or cameras or monitors anymore…
Where did my youth go? Omg lah… I wish I can go back to looking at the gadgets/toys instead of actual house/adulting stuff. :/ For someone who is quite decisive, that is a bit too many decisions to make.
Categories: Friendship, Personal life, Pictures, Rants, With my NEX
I went with Alex and Jin Quan to take photos for National Day Parade (NDP) yesterday. Well, it has been like the tradition for many years with them. I’m very glad that I still have friends who are still into camping for taking photos on the NDP day. Last year I joined them at a later time because I don’t want to fall sick just before my surgery. It was my first surgery and also my first time having GA so I want to make sure that my body can handle GA. So I joined them at a later time. This year I planned to join them earlier but I ended up taking more time to pack my luggage. I also started using my hand carry luggage to put mostly my camping essentials rather than the camera. Haha. Should have packed the night before since I am quite a slow packer. Anyway, shortly after I joined them, I saw the rain clouds coming and it started raining heavily. I quickly put in my jacket and started looking for my umbrella in my luggage. I did not expect the rain. One of the rare times the weather forecast is accurate omg.
Anyway, I took some time to set up my tripod to “chope” (reserved) the place then stood there for a while to see if I can find Alex after knowing. I ended up standing in the rain for a few mins before I decided to just seek shelter. Then I forgot to take my Koi black tea latte. Sigh, I only drank 2 sips and it is a large cup. Sighhhhh. I was feeling really irritated by myself when I realised I forgot about it when I reached shelter. Luckily Alex and Jin Quan shouted at me when I walked past them so we managed to reunite at the shelter. Haha.
After the rain somewhat stopped, we went back to the place we “choped” and I had to look for my orange tripod before. So glad that my tripod is bright orange so it is easy to spot it in the sea of black tripods.
I had to throw away my black tea latte even after reuniting with it because it probably got lots of rain water. Oh well. Wasted S$5.60. I also noticed that I am losing the data connectivity on my phone but luckily I didn’t really use my phone much. We watched the NDP show on my iPad using Alex’s data plan. Somehow his phone network is not impacted. Low key irritated that mine was impacted though. I should have paid the S$5 enhanced data connectivity instead for my black tea latte. Lol. Alex didn’t pay for the enhanced data connectivity and is using the same telco as me but was not impacted. So weird…
Alex’s SD card stopped working when he was checking his camera. Luckily he realised it before we need to use our cameras to take photos.
We also met Jin Quan’s photography friend, Ethan, along with some other folks who are like below 20 years old. Happy to meet new people with the same love for photography. Alex and Jin Quan were exchanging Instagram handlers with them but none of them asked me. Lol. Probably quite awkward because I am literally the only lady in the area. Lololol.
While on my way back home, I met this extremely rude and irresponsible for her own safety lady in the train. She fell down and grabbed my hand to break her fall. In the end, she broke 1 of my bracelets and did not offer to compensate. In fact, her stop is the next stop and she just alighted after apologising. Lol. Such a rude lady and now I am a broken bracelet. Luckily it is costume jewellery and not my diamond tennis bracelet. I almost planned to wear that today. Thank goodness I decided not to. So now I have to bring my heated ruby with freshwater pearl bracelet back to ACrysty Co to repair and have to pay for the repairs out of my own pocket. Oh well.
Maybe the bracelet is broken to block some bad/unlucky energy for me? Shrugs. Luckily she didn’t break my rainbow tourmaline bracelet. I will demand for compensation if that’s the case because that is quite expensive even though it is costume jewellery (because it is not using real gold hardware but gold plated hardware).
I came home with tired legs and very tired arms and shoulders. Well, 2 days of gym on 7 and 8 August 2024 is really draining. Lololol. I don’t think I can hit 3 days of exercise this week sadly. Oh well.
Update: Sharing some of the photos I took during NDP this year.
I also uploaded the photos I took in last year NDP events too.
Categories: Insights, Love, New stuff, Personal life, Rants, Shopping, Wants, Work
It had been a tough week this week. I had to study for my CISSP exam, then work pressures from trying to get promotion and sudden increase in workload. Then I attended 2 days of FS-ISAC conference on Tuesday and Wednesday as well.
The conference has pretty good food but I only took 2 photos of the food. I took the photo of my snacks on the first day and wow, the sushi is very, very nice.
Then I took photo of the lunch on the second day.
It was great to meet my ex-colleagues at Grab and PayPal. I even saw my interviewer for SAP and six group. It’s the same guy and he remembered me. He even came over to say hello to me on the second day when he saw me eating at one of the tables. I was shocked that he remembered me and he was like, “Of course I will remember you.” Haha, did I do that well in the interviews? But then again I didn’t make it to the next round for six group leh… Shrugs. I went to add him on LinkedIn and he accepted it. Woohoo to a new LinkedIn connection. Haha.
Then I went to Singapore International Jewelry Expo 2024 at Marina Bay Sands on Thursday and Friday. I got myself a string of rainbow tourmaline beads and a pair of Akoya pearl earrings in set in 18K gold. 😀 It’s my first ever Akoya or saltwater pearl jewellery and wow, the lustre is very impressive. I really love it and it looks so much better than my freshwater pearls jewellery. I actually dropped 1 of it on the floor and then it kept bouncing because it is so round. Yes, it’s quite expensive since it is Japanese Akoya and also it is quite round. I really love it though and have been wearing ever since I got it. Not supposed to wear it daily though so I guess I will rotate it with my blue sapphire earrings for now. Haha.
I looked so pretty with the new Akoya pearl earrings though. Its shine and lustre makes my face looks even fairer and prettier lah. 🙂 Love it so much now!
I’m quite glad that I did not get any tanzanite or blue sapphire gems since I didn’t manage to find one that I am truly satisfied. It’s either the colour is nice but cut is meh or the other way round. I think I will just send my current tanzanite gem for certification to confirm that it is really tanzanite before getting it set into my jewellery piece. At least the cut is really nice on that gem even though the colour could have been better. I might consider getting pink diamonds some day but let’s see how it goes.
I also presented a patent idea to my Patent Legal team on Friday and I think it went well. Hopefully I get another patent approved soon. 🙂 It was my first presentation with the legal team ever since I took over the entire innovation4good program. Yes, I’m now a program lead for it. I was also invited to present in 1 of the company events (India Innovation Forum) next, next week. It’s my first presentation whereby I was invited and going to present it by myself. Whee! I’m going to start to prepare the slides after my CISSP exam. It’s really different when you are invited because the organisers will send you the list of stuff to cover as per your request. It’s like you don’t really need to push or market yourself hard. I told the good news to 1 of my mentors who has been focusing on improving my own presentation and marketing myself better. Maybe I will get his help to help me review my slides. Hehe.
I had some health issue at the moment and I hope it clears up soon. If it doesn’t clear up by end of this month then I will have to be referred to a specialist and potentially take a biopsy. Sigh. I already had 2 cancer scares last year and really don’t want to go through it again. Please let it recover soon.
I was studying for CISSP at night last weekend (not this weekend) and I felt I was seeing stars. Felt quite dizzy and stuff. I think I have been too stressed recently and I just kept pushing on (which I am very good at) so my body is like pressing all the alarm bells to force me to rest. 🙁
It certainly doesn’t help that for the past week, I am like going out everyday and rushing here and there – be it work or personal life. Mostly due to work though. It’s tough to earn money these days, especially with the widespread layoffs in tech industry.
I met one of my mentors at the FS-ISAC conference and she commented that I should drop the part of finding love/husband. “Dun spread yourself thin.” is what she texted me on WhatsApp. I’m shocked to hear it from her because I didn’t say much about my personal life recently. I also didn’t tell her about my health issues recently. It’s interesting how Gulabi is also saying something along the same lines but that’s because she knew I have been sick for the past few months. She’s like… I know you can push and stretch yourself and will continue to do it but please take breaks.
My mentor also commented that she is happy that I have improved. I asked if I wore better and more suitable clothing for the conference and she said, it is not just the clothing that you have improved. You also improved in your demeanour and how you present yourself in a work setting. It’s impressive because I did it in 3 months and she told me that I need to spend time alone to be my true self. Everyone has different sides and I need to rest more and spend more alone time to recover. It’s going to be very tiring for me to keep up to the work demeanour. This reminded me of what my manager had told me before. Everyone has a different sides to show at work, at personal life and with their spouses.
I did a lot to reach to this stage. Reading lots of audio books, having multiple mentors, had therapy (to recover from my toxic relationship and face my own giants), researching on the dressing sense and how I can carry myself better. I’m also getting better at makeup and I definitely look way better now haha. Alex was commenting that 1 of my outfit of the day photos how I look like 28 years old and the clothes are like 18 years old so average is 23 years old. Wow, for a guy who always suan/disturb/bring me down to say that I look younger than my age (33 years old), it was quite an achievement. Makeup and dressing really can make one looks younger. Gulabi also commented how I look like same age or just a bit older than the new intern in 1 of the photos. Mind you, the intern is like 24 years old? Now the question is whether I can sustain this stage without pushing myself to my limits.
I guess I have to pick the right balls to manage now. Cannot drop the glass balls in my life and that includes health. I probably will stop swiping on the dating apps a few months to refocus my life in some important aspects that are coming up.
But I’m still curious to see if my fengshui master is right that I will have peach blossom luck in August. He specifically told me to look out in June and July this year. Well, I think I already rejected 2 men so far after having a few dates with them. Cause…. cannot make it lah. Sometimes good looks can only bring you so far. I had enough of mummy’s boy and indecisive dudes. All these rotten peach blossom luck arh… 😐 Then there’s 1 that seems quite high potential but not sure if we will actually end up meeting given that the conversation is slowly fading/dying after I told him I am not free to meet this weekend and said will prefer to meet after my exam next Wednesday. Lol. Maybe he is not meant to be or just one of the dudes who is either married or attached but still swiping to find ladies to spend time on weekends. Shrugs.
The next time I see my fengshui master, I must definitely bring this up. How come he is so accurate about being May 2024 will be a very tough time for me but in terms of the peach blossom part, he isn’t very accurate. 🙁 However, I did reject 2 men within the same month so hmmm…
Dear God, please just send my future husband to me. Stop sending men to teach me stuff that I need to know. Have I not learn enough? :'(
Anyway, just 3 more days to my CISSP exam. I really hope I can pass and get my ISC2 membership. If I pass it, then maybe I will consider learning driving so that if I relocate to US for work, I can still drive myself around. Oh well, a girl got to do what she needed to. I’m not going to be able to be a passenger princess sadly. 🙁
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