👓

And so, the inevitable...

She was very looking forward to it.

What is joke?

YE: "Papa, what is 'joke'?"

Me: "It's a funny thing."

YE (grinning): "I am a joke."

😂 哭笑不得!

I'm scared to turn old. 

Sticker cupboard

I found the usually restless Ye quietly sitting in front of the "sticker cupboard" one morning, peeling off new stickers and adding them onto the display, which was started by her sister many years ago. Now the decorative cupboard looks out of place, it's messy, it's untidy, the stickers may turn yellow; I know for sure I wouldn't be able to return the cupboard back to its original condition, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Busy Books play with Yx Ye

Been awhile since I played Busy Books with my children, now Ye is at an age which she can also participate constructively (instead of destructively 🤣). The story yesterday was 3 teams comprising members of the same colour defending the city against two baddies (Charizard and Pingu). Pitting magic powers against magic powers, using whish whoosh flying carpet and lightning shots, neutralising typhoon wind and flamethrower, the united city defense stood strong and successfully chased the baddies away! But it won't be for long...

The overseas shirt

I'm not sure about you, but I have a few tops that I categorised as "overseas shirts". That means I wear them only when I go for holidays. Usually, they are thicker / long sleeve which are more suitable for cooler climates.

Exhibit A: The striped long sleeve.

Taipei, April 2005

Virginia, USA, 2007

Mt. Kinabalu, Aug 2011

London, 2014

Perth, 2018

More recently pictured also in Taipei, March 2024 (19 years later!!!)

Hawhawhawhaw. Call me a hoarder, but I will disagree! Considering the number of times I've worn it overseas, it's relatively still "new". And the design looks evergreen, doesn't it =P

I ❤️ TAIPEI

drawing from a fashion magazine

She drew this unassisted! The female even has got eye shadow! Ye drew the noses nicer than me!

I love you in the whole universe

A few days ago Ye suddenly quipped, "Papa/Mama, I love you in the whole universe!" while wearing a cheeky grin. My heart melted. 

This is the same sweetheart who dashes to the door to greet me when I return home from work; this is the dearie who pops her head into the study room and says "parps!" when she comes home from sch (100% of the time even if she's super high tide) on my WFH days. Love you back and more, my girl! 😘

CNY 2024 - Welcoming the Dragon

It's the end of CNY day 4 (technically start of 5, as it's past midnight), it was a school holiday today (as of the PH fell on a Saturday) and I took leave as well, so we've had 4 consecutive days of CNY celebration. Today we took it slow and attempted to revert to routine, for the benefit of the kids who have school tomorrow. The last few days were packed with visiting, the kids were spoilt with junk food e.g. chocolate coins, plenty of time with their cousins, had cat naps in the car and very late nights (which thankfully they're quite adaptable to); on the other hand us adults were highly fortunate to enjoy very sumptuous home-cooked food, catching up with relatives and were afforded considerable time at the gambling table too (for the kids+cousins are finally of age to do so together!). Despite that I do not visit my parental and materal relatives up north during this period anymore, I find huge joy and comfort in mingling with the large extended families of wifey's, the boisterious laughter, familiar chatter and galore of food add to the festivity - and these make me very happy and always looking forward to Chinese New Year every year.

While CNY this year was as enjoyable as I would have liked it to be, strangely I felt something different about it. Different not in a negative way, but different in my reflections of the celebrations. Let me try to articulate... Last times, I would be feeling extremely happy to see old faces and hearing CNY songs over the radio, excited to be placing bets, slight reluctance when leaving a house. On the contrary, this year, I found myself in a considerable state of calmness: 

- Not feeling time-rushed and having to be at where by when;

- Not worried that my kids need to nap / not having a place to do so;

- Didn't feel thrill when betting or drawing cards? Only did slightly when I upped my bet to $10 and even so, winning or losing that game felt of little significance to me.

Why ah?

In addition, I found myself to feel more thankful and appreciative of those who contributed noticeably all in the name and spirit of the festival and for family, they are (not in any particular order):

- My magic mom, who whipped up (with my sister's help) a plethora of festive dishes which turned out more than what we had expected. I don't think mom was ever not capable of this, but I don't think she needed to do so, still. I mean, just look at this spread:

And the night before:

A month ago we were planning for reunion meal and mom suggested that each of us siblings contribute a dish, for she did not have energy to prepare to the extent of previous years. I know that during food prep she accidentally cut her left hand but that did not stop her from washing, more cutting; she did not wince nor did she whine. My mom has a very high self-proclaimed threshold of pain and I believe she has an even higher level of selfless love for her family. Thank you, mama. And thank you sis for helping mom out. Next times, it's perfectly alright to not have so much on the table. 

- The other aunties (er kim, si kim, er gu) who hosted and churned up so much good food to feed the village. God knows how much dishes there were to wash (grateful for the helpers 🙏) , and how much more preparatory work prior, and the cleaning up after!!! And they do this, every single year without fail, without falling behind, without failing expectations, without drop in food quality. What are the men gonna do without them, these under appreciated heroes who toil so hard in the kitchen with untidy hair and aching calves. They deserve a picture with their creation:

Legendary oyster omelette!

Perhaps one of the reasons I feel CNY feels different this year is because of recency effect (that we gathered during Christmas) and technology/social media has decreased the gap; seeing one another's updates, pics and comments on our phones makes us feel that we haven't been apart for long. That said, take nothing away from my relief and nothing for granted that we were able to congregate with nary a worry, it wasn't too long ago there were COVID and the max visitor restrictions...

Wishing all a healthy and happy lunar Dragon new year! 

Sights of home

Above pic: non conspicuous, ubiquitous street view but something nostalgic about it. 

Simple fare of tossed noodles in soya sauce and niang tofu paired with green chilli.

Deja vu: Ky and Jason

In 2013, I made a decision to write down my vivid dreams so that they could one day be used to prove my deja vus.

I didn't realise I have all but a grand total of ONE post since then 😂

Okay so here goes my second post:

Some day in 2015 or 2016 or 2017 I dreamt I was seated in the rear right seat of a car when it started to move off. I asked Kaiyu, "eh where's Jason?" 

When I woke up my hypothesis was that Jason is someone v close to her.

There. Future event to be proven!!!

Ye goes to Beary Gym

YE putting on jiejie's uniform and attended her first official Beary Gym lesson. She enjoyed it! Teacher D was surprised to learn it was her first lesson, said Ye did well and has strong legs.

All this rain is bringing me to Bahrain!!!

3rd PRIZE!!!?

Couldn't believe my ears when I heard my name got called... I'm still reeling in disbelief and shock haha but today I just learnt Gulf Air flies to Bahrain! ✈️😂  This should be my most expensive lucky draw win EVER!!! 

 And a good bro told me it is like the "Jeju of Abu Dhabi"! Excited!!! 

So I guess... this was it. =(

Officially moved out of my Executive Apartment-sized cubicle, as part of the HQ-wide office transformation...😢

So much memories... say bye to high partitions and luxurious amount of storage space...

Behind these partitions I found solace and privacy to focus hard on my work. After a discussion I would plonk into my chair and start typing furiously. When I needed mental space I would lean back and gaze at the ceiling. My cubby and I also shared plenty of private moments such as:

- Completion of my 'Eiffel Tower' artwork

- Research of overseas travel itineraries 😉

- After lunch siesta

- Played the ukulele

- Polished my work shoes

- Changed into and out of gym attire

- Experimented and perfected soft boiled eggs, complete with pepper and soya

- Backed up photos onto my HDD

- It was simply a quiet space for me to do my own things without the worry and/or pressure of being 'watched'.

Felt so reluctant to shift out, knowing that firstly I lose the privacy I enjoyed for the past 9 years and secondly I don't find the new office that ideal as a working environment. But no choice right... just have to adapt lor haiz...

Review of 2023 - boo!

...And I thought 2022 was bad and 2023 could only be better...!? How naive! 😂

On a few occasions of 2023 I felt low. I felt depressed and unmotivated, on the work front. The primary issue was that site work was only BUDGING. Seriously affected my mood and mental well-being. I often find myself, at times just before I fall asleep, asking whether I have done all that I can. And the answer is, yes. The situation was just due to circumstances beyond my control. The predicament ultimately led to us, the project team, bashing through and achieving firsts the organisation has ever done before in the procurement aspect:

- Direct payment to sub contractors

- Novation of contract to another party. A total of 3 agreements were drafted, reviewed multiple times and negotiated. We worked within a compressed timeline. Huge pats on our backs, we really accomplished the unprecedented and unimaginable (admittedly I sniggered when my supervisor asked us to press for this option)! If not for all our persistent and incessant nudging of the supporting business units, it seriously would not have been possible. We finally emerged from the tunnel in November.

Who say I not engineer?

There were also conflicts with my co-worker. It's come to a point when I have to be extremely careful about what I say/write/text, because she would find faults with what I say off the cuff. It's not the most ideal situation, but we're co-project owners and we do need to maintain close working contact, so I try to keep our r/s professional and at arms length. A consolation is that I believe she takes work objectively so we still lunch sometimes. 

Other than work, other aspects of my life were pretty good, I think. More on that after a review of the goals set:

======================

Goals for 2023!

1) Obtain my GMAP certification!

>>> YESSSSSSSSS!!!!! ^_^ Have been working on this since 2018! It wouldn't been possible if I were stuck in my previous section, hence my request to transfer and to work on this project since 2020... Covid hit, work stalled, a few years later the pre-requisites were achieved and now I boast a Green Mark Accredited Professional certificate to add on to my CV.

2) A holiday with my family that involves taking the plane!

>>> Nope. Ticket prices were extremely high??! SIAO. Instead, we went on a cruise (Mar) in addition to road trips up north and discovered Malaysia is a very wallet friendly destination whilst also full of entertainment! We did Desaru (Jun), Legoland (Dec), and a couple of short staycays both locally and in JB.

3) Gain 2kg weight. Been receiving comments that I seem to have slimmed down. I'm currently hovering at 59-60kg. I saw from a dated FB/blog entry that I used to be 68kg?? (during $mrt days I think?) I don't recall being so heavy at all but I can imagine how tardy I'd have felt!!? How did I ?!

>>> I increased my food intake deliberately and had supper /snacks at night even though I was mindful it wasn't good to my health. I failed to put on measurable weight, weighing about 60.2kg in December but that was because I was training/jogging quite a bit in Nov.

=============================

Was reflecting with RMJ on the year that zoomed past and Busy Roys asked what were our top 3 achievements of the year. I think it is a very good question. Nothing beats listing achievements down as words. Real accomplishments. Tangibles. For me, they were:

1) Obtaining that project approval of $xxx million that I sure put in hella hard work over a couple of years. It is a personal accomplishment because it is the largest project sum undertaken by BP section, and I was the project leader.  

2) I was at arguably my fittest of the decade. I kept up my regime of push-ups every alternate day. 2 months leading up to my IPPT, I trained (relatively) harder. Weekly jogs. Daily sit ups. I got Silver for IPPT, and I didn't feel like I had to stretch. That's the outcome of regular training! 

Furthermore, in December, I went for my first Standard Chartered 10km run and came in at a respectable timing of 1:08. During the run I contemplated to myself why I signed up for torture, it got more unbearable at the 7km when I suffered a stitch but I didn't stop; I just jogged very slowly. Finally, I was overcome with euphoria crossing the finishing line. Strangely after the run, I entertained thoughts of repeating this next year. What ever happened to regretting it during? No, I want to do it again. Because I know I can do better! 😃 And can I also say I have maaad respect for my FIL? At 69 he came in only 10 mins behind me and his timing last year was 1:10! He's my role model when it comes to "active ageing" man. I don't think I lose to him in terms of enthusiasm, it's my creaking knees I'm worried about lol.

3) Obtaining my GMAP certification. It's a professional certification and recognised by the industry. 

Yup... I think the above are achievements I strived for and I am proud of. ✌😊

In addition, something memorable this year was our family photoshoot! I intended to capture moments of our family during this chapter during which the kids are still very close to us and that we relish and are very comfortable with the physical intimacy. The photos turned out very natural and extremely nice :)

=============================

Goals for 2024!

- GAIN 2KG

- DO SOMETHING OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE

- CELEBRATE 10 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY (by celebrate I mean like spend the day special and memorable)

- CELEBRATE MY TURNING 40 WTFFFFFFFF

Have got quite a few vacations planned this year already. So excited!!! 😁

random drawing

She said this is 爸爸妈妈结婚

心算

I just did mental abacus addition of the numbers from 1 to 20.

To my horror, I got the answer correct 😱