A Mind of My Own

I have been doing some stuff at home that can’t be seen by anyone including my parents. Everyone in my family thinks that I’m doing nothing except surfing the net for games and just shaking legs. When I do help with the housework when my mum was out at work and hospital, nobody saw me doing it because I have no CCTV installed.

When I blog, nobody can see because they don’t know how to use the computers. I get paid online for the things I have done so far but I haven’t withdrawn the money due to the hosting fees and the USD being low in value at this moment.

I haven’t earned in tens of thousands or even thousands monthly just by blogging. It isn’t easy doing things online even with the global market available. I don’t even get any review units even when I love to play with gadgets because I am a faceless blogger online and companies want faces instead of some nameless coward blogging.

Sometimes, it’s because my traffic isn’t that high as XX and DY. Maybe I need to show more cleavages around here? Whenever my dad is reminded of me being at home, he will ask why I don’t look for a job. When I look at the current economy, I ask myself if I want to join in the crowd. I asked myself what is my life’s purpose.

Do I work in some recession-proof jobs and be a robot doing it weekly or work out the passion and bulldoze my way until the efforts are paid off? When I go through the mill daily, will I be missing out on life in my attempts to pay off the bills?

What if I may get to earn lots of money but I don’t have a life to enjoy it because if I stop working, the money isn’t coming? Why do I have to work so hard for money? Why can’t the money just grow without me needing to be so physical for it to grow?

I am not a realty agent. I am not an investor with a good eye. I am not a famous author whose books are selling like hot cakes. I am just someone trying to find out alternatives that will still work when one day, one day I am physically unable to work.

Life is unpredictable. I don’t know if I may end up being unable to work because of some illness that will take my health away. I just want to find ways that will let the money come in even when I am sleeping. That’s all.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I am utterly bored by Chinese wedding dinner styles but won’t have a say in mine although it is mine. Because of face. Just that one word. I don’t think there is a need to show off the wealth since I can jolly well put all that money into better use such as good renovations and a further honeymoon place to have fun.

Unfortunately, the elders won’t be that easily convinced especially when the son is the eldest in the family. ARGH! Another reason why I dislike Chinese wedding dinners is because they always start late. As in 1.5 hours after the stated time on the wedding card.

Last night was the first time I saw people arriving only at 7pm. The card stated dinner would be starting at 7pm. DD and I arrived at the place only to see his tired friends resting at the sofas just outside the Grand Ballroom of Orchid Country Club.

They had been helping the groom in the morning and were busted for the rest of the day. The dinner eventually started at around 8.30pm. For my wedding, I will not care about late comers if I am forced to hold the traditional wedding dinner style. You jolly arrive on time.

The wedding album was another thing altogether. I liked the outdoor shoots as they were taken in China. I like the forest-like shots and the stream shots. Unfortunately, Singapore doesn’t have that kind of nature except for that Bukit Timah hill stream that is too tiny. I don’t want lalang shots for sure. I don’t want fake backgrounds of forests and stream shots either.

I don’t even know when I’m getting married either.

With a computer training session for kids, you will expect them playing games immediately. As long as they had the login ID and password, they will search for games like Adventure Quest, Y8, etc for games. Even when they are supposed to be learning.

Basically, the parents have paid for the courses so that their children could play in the school’s computer lab. They will fight and mess up other classmate’s work. Fighting is a norm since they love to push each other. Shouting at them to keep quiet won’t work for long since they start talking with each other after 5 seconds.

Since my job was to help those who didn’t know, I tried what I could and more. Since this session for 4 days, I have a slight sore throat from shouting at them for talking too much, fighting and arguing. Threatening to throw them out of the class worked for 10 minutes and they would be at it again.

They would drink water, request for toilet breaks, shout, scream and argued with another one for copying their work. Others would ask for the next set of instructions to be given out. Yet others often request for play since they had completed their work.

Some were experienced enough to bring their thumbdrives while others left theirs at home. There were a few who brought toys and games in CDs to class. In their excitement to go home, some have left their art pieces in the lab.

I did enjoy my time as it showed that some of the kids had the talent for designing PowerPoint slides while some needed guidance. Each kid learned at different paces and there were simply too many of them for those who learned slower to catch up.

Often, the ones who didn’t play in the lab were the ones who had the best slides. Unfortunately, they took too long and not all managed to present their slides to the rest.

My only wish is that the kids won’t be so hyperactive and keep quiet when necessary. This reminds me of my younger days. No wonder the teachers all screamed at us and eventually used loudspeakers

This is madness! I thought that November would be a good month for me to start on National Novel Writing Month and that was why I finally decided to join. However, I didn’t anticipate that I would be taking up a part time job, attending a Korean Fiesta, visiting Night Safari and attending a wedding dinner within the first week of November.

I make it sound as it they take up a lot of my time. Actually, traveling will take up most of the time since the buses can’t be trusted despite what the newspaper said. I have waited for buses as long as 30 minutes for a feeder bus.

I got this part time job all thanks to The Young Businessman. Frankly speaking, I like how flexible my time is now provided I remember to check and key in my appointments into my trusty Samsung Omnia.

8.30am: Wake up.

9am: Type NaNoWriMo

9.45am: Chop ingredients for soup.

10am: Type NaNoWriMo

10.25am: Keep the dried clothes.

10.40am: Give up trying to complete NaNoWriMo

11am: Prepare to go VivoCity for Korean Fiesta.

12.05pm: Reach VivoCity and unsure which organiser to look for to retrieve the tickets.

12.20pm: Just sit at the benches at the amphitheatre without the tickets.

12.30pm: Korean ambassador gave a speech.

12.45pm: Singapore Minister George Yeo gave a speech.

12.50pm: Show started with excellent drumming from the girls.

1.20pm: Show ended with great breakdancing and drumming from the girls.

1.25pm: Sat at Coffee Bean with HF while she lamented the lost of her mobile.

1.30pm: HF’s younger siblings arrived.

1.45pm: Went to the family car to check if the mobile was stuck between the seats. No success.

1.50pm: Walked around VivoCity to check out the mobile phones.

2.15pm: Went to IMM to look for someone familiar working at Singtel.

2.45pm: The girl was on a break. Thus, went to Burger King for a lat lunch.

3.15pm: Looked for the girl again.

3.45pm: Finally settled on a new mobile.

4.15pm: Finally settled on the payment after checking the details.

4.45pm: Arrived home.

5pm: Bathed.

6pm: Prepared for meeting HF and RK to visit Night Safari for the Halloween special.

7.05pm: Arrived at the MRT to wait for HF.

7.10pm: HF arrived.

7.20pm: Reached Chua Chu Kang MRT.

7.22pm: Checked the bus going to zoo.

7.30pm: Went to Wang to have some light meal.

7.50pm: RK finally arrived.

7.55pm: RK bought some mineral water.

8pm: Waited for the bus.

8.30pm: Arrived at the zoo and walked towards the Night Safari’s entrance.

8.35pm: Squeezed through the crowd taking photos of the ghosts, draculas, vampires hanging near the entrance.

8.45pm: Queued for buying the tickets.

9.15pm: Finally bought the tickets.

9.20pm: Queued for boarding the Halloween horror tram.

10.15pm: Finally boarded the tram with The Joker.

10.30 - 10.45pm: Got scared by all the horrors.

10.50pm: Alighted the tram and started walking around.

11.45pm: Got reminded by the staff they were going to close.

12mn: Took a few more photos before leaving.

12.15am: Queued for the taxi.

12.45am: Reached home.

12.50am: Bathed.

1.20am: Sleep.

I saw a bird gliding into the A & E of Alexandra Hospital and literally hit the glass window hard. I was going outside when I saw the bird flying and attempting to fly straight and a loud ‘thunk’ was heard the next second. I was wondering if the bird giddy but it angled to its left and tried to fly towards another glass window except, this time, it had learned its lesson.

After a few seconds, it managed to fly under the window where it wasn’t covered towards its destination wherever that was. Now, what on earth was I doing on a Sunday morning at the A & E? My mother. She started having rashes last night and it got worse by this morning.

Worried, my dad promptly decided that the hospital was the best option since the polyclinic doctors and private doctors are never opened on Sundays. The wait was short for the consultation. However, the blood test would have to take longer.

That meant my mother would have to stay at the hospital under observation until the results are released. A week of aching joints is a serious case since Dengue is known to cause that symptom. I hope it isn’t Dengue since it’s going to be troublesome in future.

That’s why I hate mosquitoes.

10 Promises to My Dog is a family movie that teaches about a dog’s unconditional love and support to his owner. Socks, the Golden Retriever, wandered into Akari’s house as a young puppy when she was 14 years old. His presence in the family brought about some relief when Akari’s mother passed away due to an illness.

I like this touching movie because of its simple message. Animals have only us for companionship when they are our pets. Be it dogs, cats or guinea pigs. They depend on us for food as they can’t hunt on their own. They remember what was done to them even if they can talk.

Dogs have a lifespan of 10 to 15 years and neglecting them over the years or even abusing them will make them be afraid of you and even hate you. Don’t forget, dogs are natural hunters and their sharp teeth do hurt. 10 Promises teaches about Socks being a therapy dog; there is a few scenes about how he does it simply by being there and playing the “See There” game.

I feel this is a touching movie as it reminds me of my lost pet. The tears refused to stop! I feel that it is a pity that people adopt just any pet thinking it’s cute or “KAWAII” and then abandon them on the streets after a few years. When a pet has been domesticated for a few years, the hunting skills don’t just magically appear so that they will survive in the cold streets.

Just like if you have been used to being served with food at home without cooking, you can’t just magically cook a great meal when you are living on your own, do you?

Image via Wikipedia

Freelance can be a torture. That’s when you don’t plan the schedule. Your family members keep calling for you thinking that just because you are home, you are free. You try to let them know but they fail to see the logic when working in the office means you are busy (can’t see you so they assume you are busy). Eh?

I need the Harry Potter’s Invisible Cloak. Or even a jumper’s ability to just jump to a quiet place to do work. I won’t say that I am fully freelancing since I’m not exactly doing that. It’s like I’m more in dabbling in a pet project at this moment with too many other mini projects that need the brain cells to be active at the same time.

I am still wondering if I can do freelance. I’ve always wanted to do professional writing. I know it doesn’t pay that well since I’m not Stephen King, J. K. Rowling (Did I spell the author’s name correctly? I have this problem with initials) or Dan Brown.

Maybe I should just give myself a name with writing credits to that name so that I do get some exposure. I read that some authors use different names for their books, like Mark Twain and the author of Alice in Wonderland. Here I am, digressing in 3 paragraphs about doing freelance.

Anyway, freelancing means discipline and not everyone is able to do it. There’s a way to make one self-disciplined too. By blogging the deadlines so that readers will pester you for results.

Nobody will understand the feelings of a freelancer except another who had gone through the same situation. Everyone needs a little tender loving care at times and support. Freelance may not bring in stable income but it does bring the flexibility of time schedules. You don’t have to tell anyone why you are submitting that leave form.

However, you get calls from clients who call you in their day time while you are at night because they are on the other side of the world and forget the time difference. And you get calls from frantic clients on Saturdays because they think that by paying you, they can call you at any time without considering the fact that you may be spending some family time.

I like to travel. To visit as many places as possible while I’m still able to run, climb and walk. I have visited Bangkok, Bali, Batam, Brisbane and Genting Highlands. Ah ha! Finally a place where it doesn’t start with the letter B. Sounds like Sesame Street to me.

Living in Singapore, we may be exposed to various cultures but the atmosphere is different when you attend the Songkrat in Thailand, Mardi Gras in Brazil or buffalo fighting in Vietnam. Experiencing the festivals is a way to see how they live and enjoy life.

Watching buildings and sceneries is another reason why I like to travel. The skies seem to be bluer than in Singapore. The animals seem to have more land space to roam in the zoo. Trying to understand the language can be tricky as some of the places I have been to, the people may not understand English but it’s part of the fun.

I have yet to see the pink blossoms in Japan, swim with the dolphins, touch the Great Barrier Reef (unfortunately, it’s out of bounds due to pollution) and many more. Planning for holidays is half the fun. It’s the visiting and looking at the structures and experiencing festivals that completes it.

If traveling with tour guides isn’t your cup of tea, why not try Tiger Airways after you have planned your itinerary?

Tiger Airways is currently celebrating its 4th anniversary by having a special birthday fares starting from S$0.04 to various destinations.

Tiger Airways is Asia Pacific’s true low fare airline. It offers passengers not only one of the lowest possible airfares in the market, but safe, reliable and convenient point-to-point air travel as well. Tiger Airways now flies to more than 27 destinations across 9 countries in Asia-Pacific on a fleet of brand new Airbus A320 aircraft.

Image via Wikipedia

Friday nights are for partying. Thus, ES called for a last minute night out. We had dinner at Sakae Sushi. My craving, apologies. After dinner, the four of us went to Ink Bar but it was closed off for a private function till 9.30pm. Since it was just an hour’s wait, we made ourselves comfortably at the entrance.

The lady serving the drinks didn’t even give us a menu or asked if we would like to drink anything. Within 2 minutes after JC had returned from the restroom, we went to Introbar. Goodbye to poor service. We made ourselves comfortable at one corner of the club, the door where ES attempted to open but failed to try the other unlocked door. A really face palm moment.

We ordered our drinks and enjoyed the ambiance at the place. Poured our work woes and about the cruel world of why working and looking for jobs can be horrible for women at certain ages. The obnoxious people who refused to understand a problem at work and people who sing different tunes in meetings when a problem is still unresolved and why budget seems to be bugging everyone.

Mainly, we shared our stories of how to overcome them and releasing the stress. CD arrived nearly 10pm. This was where the fun started because she was all raring to go dancing her heart out. She spoke of her dancing experience in Boat Quay or was it Clarke Quay; this guy is a dancing instructor and asked her for a dance. She agreed after the bar owner said he is a dancing instructor. She twirled around in Salsa style half the night. Getting giddy was the end result.

Since she wanted to dance her stress away, HF accompanied her and they went to Equinox. At 12.30am, they returned to the table and spoke of this guy dancing near CD and unbuttoning his jeans. He was dancing very close and was really excited about CD. His friend started to dance in front of CD and got pushed away.

I didn’t realise that guys just got hot under while dancing and needed to strip. I would have crushed the balls so that he can’t use them to bang any more. CD said her hands would have been dirtied. How unfortunate, it would have been good to crush those balls.

It is unfortunate that discos and dance clubs can’t screen people for stripping-compulsive-disorders-in-public. If anyone can come up with a clamp device for crushing balls, do share.