I am an Eco-Warrior!

Presenting...  our Eco-Warrior finalists under Individual Category:

An event organised by NLB, I was proud to be 1 of the 5 finalists shortlisted to share about my 'green' journey. The finals was streamed live via FB but thankfully the reach-out wasn't that great (only 9-11 viewers?) because I didn't prepare much for this at all and just spoke off the cuff mainly. As wifey said, this is a topic close to my heart so I could somewhat afford the complacency. Anyway, I started my presentation by quoting Ant-Man from Avengers, cringy maybe, but it went down well with the panel of judges/advisors haha. There was a Q&A segment as well which I blabbered to, I gestured uncomfortably and used lots of fillers (that I dislike) but okay lah, every finalist walked away with $300 vouchers at the end!

Saving the earth by saving 1 disposable cup a day!

Hit me up if you are like-minded and/or if you are interested in green sustainable activities but not sure where to start! =D

CNY 2022

 新年来咯！！！

But but but... only 5 pax social gathering/visitors allowed this year =( Last CNY, we were at 8 pax. DAMN OMICRON!

Nonetheless, hope for really quality family time!

My stage presence at Company Excellence Day

From performing on stage in 2016:

To having a poster in 2021, and receiving an award on stage (but held in 2022):

Thanks to myself for paving my rotation to Projects team!

Fengshui Prediction 2022 - and my 6 months forecast (*gulp*)

Company's directive is for officers to WFO once a week in Jan 2022, and I chose mine (quite randomly) to be on a Tuesday. Just nice CARC organised a physical lunchtime talk on fengshui today, which was free, so I jioed a couple of colleagues and attended together.

This talk was by 缘中秀 Yuanzhongsiu, an established local brand with an office at Fortune Centre, presented by Jacelyn Phang, daughter of the founder, who happens to be the first runner-up at Miss Singapore International 2016 or something like that and has acted in small parts in a few Mediacorpse shows. 

It was a pretty engaging and informative sharing. Jacelyn was a very effective and confident speaker, probably picked up some skills from her acting experiences. Anyway, here's the TL:DR hahaha.

Jacelyn said above only counts for 20-25% accuracy, the rest contributed by an individual's name, birth date and birth time. Recommended to sign up for their service (sell koyok lai liao) at $138 to determine one's lucky stars, understand pitfalls and identify strengths. 

At the end of the hour session, there was a complimentary 3-6 months individual forecast by their service consultants. So we were asked to clear our mind, hold onto a bag of different coloured crystals, pick them out one by one with our left hand and place them on a mat sequentially (I believe left for males, right for females). The service consultant, Ann, explained that crystals bear energy and they can 'feel' us.

The result of my cherry crystal picking:

A closer look at what the different crystals represent, as explained by Ann:

Ann's intepretation:

- Bottom right (Career): Red means fire which is not auspicious. Briefly, there will not be any promotion or increment in the next 3-6 months. I accept that, for I was just promoted last year, confirm get default grade this year anyway. It also meant that my main source of income comes from my job.

- External: Fire and water are buay gum. That all my external stones around the 'body' in the pic are fire and/or water mean that money comes and goes very quickly. So I should not do any investment or 4D/Toto in the near term. If the money is not directed at investment, it could mean that a significant sum of money is headed elsewhere e.g. renovation. 

- Bottom half of body: All dark coloured i.e. there are existing/future health problems in the lower half of my body. 

- Bottom half of the pic: All dark coloured. Inside body = means my hands and legs are tied. External stones are dark coloured = external factors. Means I will face obstacles at work and progress will be slow. In Ann's words, "confirm delay!" Then I thought about my DPC paper and Phase 2 construction plan. Dammmmmnnn very right. :( All dark coloured also means I won't meet any 贵人...

- Red stone (fire!) in throat: Means I am very direct with my words. Have to watch what I say otherwise may risk offending subordinates and/or bosses.

- Above head (Romance): Pink supposedly is a plus for romance. After I clarified that I am married, Ann she didn't elaborate further.

- Head (Intelligence): Finally, some positives 😓. Green is good. It means I not blur, able to think logically and come up with my own analysis/conclusion. I said my work involves planning, Ann assured that this green stone here is a positive sign.

- Centre of body (heart): Green is good. Means I am responsible and care for my work. Ann added that usually people only have 1 green in either head or heart; that I have green for both means I am intelligent.

------------

Interesting analysis! Not sure how accurate it will be. But definitely some good advice there e.g. to be more mindful of how I communicate to my working counterparts. Will do a review 6 months later? Ahaha.

Zombified

Quite apt that I binged on The Walking Dead the last few months which resulted in my poorer sleep and causing me to resemble a walking dead lol. 

So it began after I was done with I-forgot-what series. I texted my bro "should I start TWD or Lost" to which he replied the former. lol.

First few seasons (s1-8) - very addictive I found myself attracted to the development and unravelling of the plot, whereas I fast forwarded all the talking lol (which was very substantial!).

It started to be quite shitty after that and quality was slip shod I'd say, like trying too hard to churn a story with lousy plot and cheesy conversations and car chase scenes.

The latest S11 which was released in 2021 turned the tide and I conclude that overall, TWD is worth the bingeing (provided it's on playback and u have control over the remote)!

And I thought I was done with zombies for awhile. then Netflix recommended me to watch "Y- the last man" and nowadays I'm fast forwarding through it 🤪

Review of 2021

2021 was a very immobile year. =( WFH was the default from May to December. No futsal in the same period. I indulged in supper on many occasions. All these resulted in a flabby tummy, love handles and very poor stamina. Oh, and I am office worker in the day, couch potato every dam night.

But but but, highlight of this year: I won a number of FB lucky draw contests, heh! I didn't use to believe in my chances before, but when I accidentally won the first (Pokka), then the second, participating soon became a 'hobby' hahaha! My biggest hoot has to be the Secret Lab chair, followed by an opulent $200 dining experience at Opio! A couple of my friends joked that if I conducted "How to win lucky draw" classes, they would sign up! Lol. Ok I'm no guru and no blessed soul but if you want to know - THERE ARE NO SECRETS. If the draw is asking for creative posts, effort has to be invested to create a creative entry. Right? Can't expect to win with 1 or 2 simple lines or cooking up some cringy sob story.  Second tip? Just spam, just cast your net, since commenting/liking/ sharing/following takes almost nothing at all! Like throwing a dice lor, the more throws you get, it's just a matter of time before you tio. So, good luck! Hahaha.

Being stuck at home most of the days also made my mind and body quite restless. I turned to simple hobbies in gardening and weight lighting. The corridor space outside of our house increased from a couple of pots to 10, then 20...? Haha. I even bought a wooden rack to increase vertical space. Gardening is not as simple as it seemed. After seeing some of my plants die, I followed a FB hobbiest group to pick up tips and from there I also learnt that gardening is full of science! Moreover, plants are like humans la, they behave and respond differently to external factors and their survivability depends on "mood" too. Well, but I don't have green fingers and neither am I a hardworking gardener, but I hope to keep up the passion and continue to enjoy upkeeping and admiring the little green space outside my home.

In 2021, we went for not one staycation, but THREE! Prior to Covid, I was strongly against paying a few hundred bucks just to stay in a local hotel. With overseas travels no longer viable, staycays became vv popular among citizens, especially the families with young children. Gahmen also gave $100 SG Rediscover Vouchers (SRV) per citizen to spend la! We did Shangri-La Orchard in March, Equarius (Sentosa) in Sep and Fairmont in Nov. My kids lurvvve staycay. All kids do!

Lastly, I finally learnt how to juggle 3 balls. Haha. Not at clown level of course, but comfortable enough? Does even count as an achievement???? LoL... 

Alright, moving on to a review of the hopes I made for 2021:

1) Stay healthy. 

- Big yes? I needed an outlet for the pent up frustration and energy for all the wfh, so I bought two 7kg dumbbells. Quite proud that I used them averaging twice a week, and I can feel and see the muscle growth! Well, that sounds mean but no haha sorry to disappoint, I am still a lean thin, far from being associated as "muscular", but my arms and upper torso are certainly more toned than before! Furthermore, I was proud to have put in more effort to train for IPPT. I did sit ups, ran once a week (how pathetic lol) on top of my regular weight lighting exercises. For the record, I did 47 push ups for IPPT! 

2) Help more people in need.

I signed up as a Friend for Aviation (FFA) and was the lead to distribute goodies to the frontline workers, who suffered the most when Changi Airport closed to public in May. Donated $56 to SG Hearts organisation (on 31 Dec lol) for 7 packs of rice.

-------------

Jan - NA

Feb - NA

Mar - NA

Fully vaccinated after receiving 2 doses of Pfizer. Staycay at Shangri-La Orchard. Enjoyed it extremely. Resort-like!

Apr - NA

May - NA

Went through my first PCR. It was mandatory for all airport community, after it became a cluster whose numbers spread exponentially. It was a tad uncomfortable, then nose swab felt like someone stuck a wallop of wasabi up your nose and twirled it 10 times inside your nostril. Tip is to close your eyes and breathe normally. To sneeze during and immediately after is normal. Anyway, PCR came back negative. As I tucked into my noodles after the swab, I read news that measures would be tightened, dining in would be prohibited, and social gatherings reduced from 5 to 2 pax. FML!

Futsal ceased. My life ceased, too.

Jun - NA

Jul - NA

Promoted to Principal Engr, status sounds like a big deal but my merit increment was a pathetic $300. Ryan switched teams so I was designated as Project Officer for 5GS building expansion.

Aug -NA

Sep - Staycay at Equarius Sentosa 2D1N. Very shiok. Because it's away from mainland SG, the tourist attractions felt indeed like a getaway. Noticed I have love handles and bigger tummy accumulated from very frequent supper. Began my "detox" of not eating after dinner, as well as more disciplined situp/pushup training, so as to be in peak form for IPPT scheduled in Nov.

Oct - NA

Nov - Staycay at Fairmont. Took mandatory block leave and didnt touch work for a week. So when I returned to work, it really did feel like I came back from an overseas holiday haha.

Dec - NA

Ended the year on a high! December's always awesome, isn't it!?

My birthday. Christmas. Year end feel. Cool weather. MAC was increased by $500. Civil servant bonus 1.0 month (compared to 0 and 0.1 the previous years?). Announcement of further relaxation of Covid measures! Wfh to be 50% wef 1 Jan 2022. Plus plus, I received my booster vaccine, did Modena and escaped unscathed phew!

(But Omicron variant has taken over many countries, with many announcing lockdown and closing down of international borders... Singapore has had a few isolated cases and no community spread (yet??)) [Post edit: This para was written in early/mid Dec. Spoke too soon. Now Omicron 438 cases, of which 347 are imported and 91 are local. Community infection rate has just risen above 1.0 since Nov 12. SIGHHHHHHHHHHH]

=========

Barring the impact that Omicron will potentially have on Sg, I feel that recent news hint that 2022 will be a better year! From 3000+ cases a day to 200+ in mid Dec, I sincerely hope the worst has passed. Air traffic has also somewhat picked up the last few months with VTL and global optimism. There are forecasts that salaries are expected to increase next year.

Goals for myself in 2022:

1) Achieve silver for IPPT - after a near miss this year, I realised silver is achievable, only if I put in more effort. The monetary increment is only $100 which is no big deal, so achieving this will be more of a personal challenge for myself.

1) Help more people in need - I've been lucky. Even during the brink of a economy recession in 2020/2021, my pay was not negatively impacted. My family and I are also lucky to be living comfortably without debts, and occasionally indulging in a good meal, upgrading IT gadgets etc. I believe I can contribute more towards the less privileged.

2) Nil??

Don't really have other exceptional goals because don't feel like there'll be much to aim for. Having to do well at work is fundamental, can't list it as a target. Health wise just continue to maintain my keep fit regime, choice of healthier food etc. Don't intend to further studies and/or pick up a new skill. Life is boring.

<Update 27 Jan 2022>

2) Obtain my Green Mark Accredited Professional (GMAP) certification. It's my personal achievement and then I can add a title behind my name, if I BHB! Hawhawhaw. Planned for this since 3 years ago (attended the BCA course in Feb 2019), and finally this year it will be bearing fruit!