Reminiscing the year past...

The thing hanging on my mind now, is that if you've been doing things mostly right, providence will have it that things will happen right for you.

As much as I've played too hard this Christmas, probably need to work harder next year, I'm reminded very much how my priority is to take care of my health and my family's health foremost. Next comes my friends, my dearest, keeping the relationships healthy.

Well, its been a great year, having learnt so much in school, fell so deeply in love and then becoming a part of my husband's family. Not to mention the many challenges at work, which in my previous posts I have put secondary priority to life. Of course, I will do my best still, but health, family, friends, always first in my heart.

I'm so glad for the great year, it wasn't easy, but all I managed to overcome. I seek to become a better me as I face challenges ahead, I pray for providence to show me what's right as always.

I shall live life to what I believe is right: the fullest.

Will be travelling to Hiroshima for the new year, therefore, putting these thoughts down before 2015 catches up with me. ;)

Happy New Year!!!!

Married Life

So, the all too interesting question, that interestingly doesn't return an all too interesting answer.

Married life is, natural. Normal. Like yourself. Being with yourself.

Life isn't about what you want to do, where you want to go anymore. All your plans is a plural singularity. We. Let's go! Shall we eat ramen? Can we get up in time? Do we have sufficient time to prepare?

Taking turns shower, takes double the time to plonk into bed.

Doing shopping together means time in both men's and women's section.

Buying breakfast no longer entails what I like to eat. More of what shall I get for my family?

Having dinner is always eating with your double. He's mimicking my mood, my expressions, my actions.

So yea, all fun and loving in return for your personal space. ;)

exchange rates

Recently, the exchange market has been rather exciting. Partly due to the drop in oil prices and then there's the economy reverberations. The interesting thing yet, is not the fluctuations.

I've went around Chinatown, parkway, marina Square, vivo City, Orchard ion money changers attempting to change Japanese yen. All didn't give me the good 90 I was looking for. All except two.

And the funny thing was, both the shops were running out of yen! Yet this goes against the economics of supply and demand where limited supply inflates the value of objects.

Wonders why. ...

Office clouds are looming overhead...

As the days breeze past, I'm getting closer and closer to the date I return to office.

This school year, I have learnt to discipline, focus and eventually, most importantly, learnt to distance from school all together. I learnt how focus and discipline helped me learn better but more importantly, I learnt that focusing and discipline are not important after all. School, is not important. Life is. I knew that, and had to be reminded again. I practiced that, but lost that. Yet, I am now better able to understand all those friends who neglect their friends because of school/work. They were not as lucky as I to get a knock in the head and learn the importance of life over school.

So, a gentle reminder to the future Princess, no matter what happens, office nor school is never more important than life itself.

Enjoy life!

Ensemble's Twentieth

I recall the last time I returned to NUSCO after a short break, I was walking jitteringly into the new practice room at Yong Siew Toh. And an even longer break a while ago, I joined NUSCO after a three year break from playing the cello.

This time, it is different. I didn't realise it could be so different. I didn't get a cello till a week before performance. Not to mention the cello wasn't even a decent one to help keep me in tune. This time, it was five years since I've last been in close contact with a cello. Picking one up and getting back on stage in one week was quite a feat.

As I had previously stopped before, there was no longer the fear that I didn't know where to place my fingers anymore. It was more of getting used to the soreness of the vibration of the strings, the strength needed to do the vibrato, and the bow, the very unused muscles to bounce the bow, to cross-strings. Vivaldi may be easy but it isn't without its own set of challenges.

L'estro de Armonico Concerto X turned out to be a crowd winner. With Angeline commenting it being the best of the first half, Junhao summed it well with "the confidence exuded by the alumni" did the trick. Leng added that it was encouraging for parents watching the concert, thinking that THIS could just be what their children will look like in future!

Keeping music alive, I bet that was Ms Ku's hope in us.

What a significant twentieth, seeing the two chairpersons on stage, Junior high's chair being so excited he literally screamed into the mic, breaking down halfway to recover his emotions.

I recall the first time we called back our alumni, I was the one looking up each and every senior from 1994 onwards, that of Kaileng, Grace, Chenjie et. al. It was for a BBQ event. That was ensemble's first BBQ and a very bonding one indeed. Looking forward to our next reunion, with ensemble, the music, the people and the memories.

Trust is..

Easier said than done.
When one loses her rationale,
How can trust keep her afloat?

The truth of yesteryears,
Seem too far and faded.
To trust the fact, the logic,
By a heart so jaded.

Trust can be so strong,
Yet so fragile at the same time.
Trust can keep one alive,
Yet break one's heart so deeply.

How does one retain her trust,
In a moment so sadly tainted?

7 Days as a Butterfly

Wings Colourful, Widely spread;
It breezes along, the flower bed.

Pretty flowers, Natural scent;
Alongside it, beautifully unkempt.

Graceful sun, Embracing warmth;
Flower to flower, Fluttering along.

Wings float, Drifted by the wind;
Higher and higher, mid-air its in.

Scent is lost, flowers gone;
Missing in the air and beyond.

Flutter weakens, wind missed;
Downward spiral, and it spins.

Lost and paralysed, in its state;
Whirlwind of events belies its fate.

Love more, Generate Global Health

And so, it has emerged that I suffer as a young adult a mild-severe loss in hearing, an unexpected onset of eczema last year, and haemoglobins found in lab tests to be further verified. A friend joked, there's something wrong with my brain, not knowing how close to the truth he was. My best friend is more worried about my not being able to hear than myself. While both my dermatologist and ent specialists say - reduce stress, knowing themselves it being impossible in this metropolitan.

This metropolitan, can we really blame? I questioned my sub-department head if he thought it was only his department that was too stressed. This was on the basis that we're the only department in the company who lost 3 lives - 2 + 0.5 + 0.5. Maybe more, that I am not aware. 2 foetueses and 1 succumbed to schizophrenia another to diabetes and depression. I count the latter two as 0.5 each. How controversial for him to think that all these are mere coincidences! How is it such a mere coincidence that the staff he hired happened to bore such illnesses? Why did he not think that probably all humans are not perfect, no staff in any department are perfectly healthy? When I told another sub-department head about my predicament, his view was, by hook or crook, LEAVE.

Our health, is the only gift we have. Health, brought on by happiness, a healthy lifestyle of sports and balanced-diet, a healthy environment.The number one risk to this health happens to be stress. Not the virals, nor the genes, but really stress. We are born imperfect. We are born susceptible to viruses and our genes probably hiding millions of diseases. But everybody is healthy around us, or so it seems. Its really, how you take care of yourself? How do you protect yourself from stress?

We exercise, eat fruits and vegetables, drink alot of water and walk in parks for a fresh breath of air. However, these are all external. Internally, to prevent the build up of negative energies from emotional stress especially, our antibodies need a healthy dose of happiness, relaxation and a healthy emotional state to stay strong. Internally, the antibodies once weak, become susceptible in spite of external support.

Even stress, there are two main kinds. I group them as emotional stress and mental stress. Emotional stress is, in my opinion, the worst form of torture. If we could mete this out as a punishment to prisoners... but I digress. Emotional stress stems from being 'bullied'. Mental stress is plainly out of high expectations, stems from the need to perform. Humans when bullied are psychologically under duress, they may choose to voice it out or keep their grievances in within, both are bad. Voicing it out results in life with the bully being unbearable. Keeping it within makes it more bearable but the internal build up of injustice will break the skin. Mental stress, IMO, is easier to escape. Lower expectations, mindset shifts can help adjust such stress.

We can do something about mental stress. But, besides leaving, there's nothing much to be done with emotional stress. Unless one identifies the bully and provides counselling for her. So let's learn from this and not be bullies ourselves. Life is challenging as it is, why make it harder for your fellow human?

I propose here a universally effective solution - LOVE. I think humans, especially Asians, are very restrictive about loving. They condemn themselves to only love blood related relatives besides their life partner. What's there not to love about your comrade, your friend, your colleague or even the aunty who helps to clean your school's toilet?

Let's love more, and generate global health.