blogging gobbledygook and such

a year of ups and downs

i started the year off with a trip up north to penang. had a wonderful time eating the tastiest food, seeing sights and enjoying a new experience – parasailing!

for the rest of the months up till now, it’s been quiet travel-wise. but next month, i shall be heading down south to malacca for a day trip with the travel buddy. again, i expect to devour more good food and enjoy some shopping, as i always do when i go down there. jonker street, chicken rice balls, fried ice cream, here i come!

then, in september i’ll be heading up north again to visit langkawi. it’s the most famous island of all the islands in malaysia, and this will be my first visit there. yes, i’m over 20 years old and have yet to visit langkawi. but that won’t be the case soon – i’ll be going there with some colleagues after we scored a good deal for a four-star hotel there. another beach holiday after penang this year and bali last year, but i’m still very much looking forward to it!

finally, in november, i’ll be going down south… all the way to singapore! it’s gonna be just me, myself and i for this solo trip. well, not quite. lovelyloey, one of my first blogging buddies, has so kindly agreed to travel around the island with me. what better way to explore singapore than with a singaporean? i’m gonna be so broke with all the shopping and sight-seeing i plan to do. but hey, i want to have a good time, so if that’s what it takes, i’ll just have to work harder to earn money, right?

and so, that’s how my year in travel will be – full of ups and downs. hopefully, next year it will be equally as exciting, if not more!

i’m feeling quite chuffed at the moment.

i just found out that i won an award that’s given out monthly at work. it’s a real boost to my confidence and i’m really pleased to have this piece of good luck. (i say luck because there are better headlines which went unrecognised in the past sadly because they were not nominated. silly, right?)

the real icing on the cake has to be the news that some of the staff will be getting a salary adjustment – for the better, of course, and i happen to be part of the lucky people. i’ll be getting an increment, an allowance and they will both be paid in arrears from the day i started this job. yes, how awesome is that?

i’m planning to pay off my student loan with this little bonus. if it’s not enough, i will wait for the year-end bonus then. i can’t wait to put up a status on facebook and twitter saying something like, "I’VE PAID MY STUDENT LOAN DEBTS! ONE BURDEN LIFTED OFF MY SHOULDERS!" yes, i really don’t like the idea of being in debt. so much so that i’m hoping that the day i move out of my parents’ home, it will be to a house i bought (with loans but at least the name on the deed will be mine) and not a rented place. but that dream remains very far away.

right now, i just want to bask in a little self pride, happiness and that feeling you get when you feel you’re getting too much money and you’re not really sure why. 🙂

oops, i missed last month’s update. oh well.

while there are many things in my life i wish could be better, i have to say that i’m really quite happy with the way the path of my life turns out. i like my chosen profession, i like my small circle of friends and one fact that stands out to me about my life that i like… is the fact that i’m not a housewife.

don’t get me wrong, i don’t think being a housewife or a homemaker is something one shouldn’t be proud about. it’s just that i think i would have made a terrible housewife. i can’t cook, i hate and rarely do house chores, and i’m awful at tending to people. i imagine that if i ever have kids, they would grow up learning how to tend to me, rather than the other way round.

when i think about it, being a housewife does have its perks. you get to set your own schedule and best of all, you probably get to decorate the house the way you want it. now that i like the sound of, and i wish the day would come sooner when i could truly own a home i call my own. my house. mine.

maybe then, i’ll learn how to cook in my kitchen, have a special room for laundry, scrub the bath tub frequently so that i get to soak in a clean tub…

hmm, i still don’t think i will be a housewife, but i will probably end up doing most of the chores a housewife does one day. until then… i get away from not doing chores by working overtime more. to earn more to own that dream house someday… so that i can do my own chores. oh the irony!

I feel like apologising cos i don’t feel like i write here often enough. Some things happened since the last post but nothing too life-changing, so i don’t feel like i have much to tell you.

Yes, that means the change i was hinting about did not happen. I am relieved, because i didn’t want it to happen. If it did, i would have gone on a different adventure, one i would probably come to appreciate in time after the initial difficulties, but truth is i’m not ready to give up the adventure i am on right now.

Life is still the same old. Go to work, hanging out with the family, hanging out with the same friends, reading books, watching dvds. I want to more things than that sometimes but i’m too lazy and too chicken to pursue something new. I am letting life happen, instead of going out to seek life. I don’t think that’s good for me.

For instance, i had my heart set on travelling overseas at the end of the year with my travel buddy, but she decided she didn’t want to because of work and financial commitments. Any other person would not let this be an obstacle – she’d find another friend to travel with.

And someone even offered to go with me on holiday. But i don’t feel comfortable going to another country with someone i don’t know for very long. If it’s with a group i wouldn’t have such hesitations. So it looks like i’ll stuck with my routine for the rest of the year.

I hate that i won’t compromise to get what i want, simply because i’m either too lazy or too scared. I remember the feeling when i decided to go on a job hunt. I felt empowered, i felt like i was taking charge of my destiny, i felt like i could have the dream job i wanted as long as i had the patience and a little bit of luck.

Now why can’t i put the same spirit into making my annual overseas holiday happen? I don’t know. Well, i think i do know yet it baffles me and frustrates me.

(i am also rather sad that i seem to be writing here only when i need to whine or rant. It is good for my emotional health somewhat, but i still remember a time when this blog gave me happiness. When i would be proud of myself when i wrote something meaningful and eloquent and positive.)

Sent from my Nokia 6760 slide

thank you

the other day, i was thinking about how this place is so useful for me to rant and vent. but then, doesn’t it give a one-sided perspective of my life? it makes it seem as if my life has nothing good in it of late. there are good things in my life, one of them being the readers of this blog who take the time to leave me comments.

i don’t expect responses to my posts because i’ve not reciprocated in that sense. so when i see old friends commenting here, it’s a nice thing to have. so, thank you. 🙂 thank you for saying something about whatever i’ve said. thank you for caring enough to want to leave a comment. thank you for visiting my blog even though i don’t visit yours. thank you for touching my life in the smallest of ways but in the biggest of intentions.

i’ll write more soon, because there might be something going on that could change my life. it’s not a terribly big change if it happened, but it’s a change nonetheless. and you know how bad i am with changes. i may have gone through 4 jobs in 3 years but trust me, those were for many reasons but not because i embrace change. i hate change but like shit, it happens.

anyway, wish me luck. whether the change happens or not, i hope the ending of this story will be the best kind for me.

Killing myself softly

It’s 3am and i’ve just got home from another bad day at work. I’ve been having days like these far too often for my liking. It’s not anybody now, it’s just me and how i always seem to screw up at work.

I don’t know how to be perfect at my job because i’m practically a walking mistake most of the time. I bump into table ends, i suck my stomach in to unsuccessfully give the illusion i have curves instead of lumps, i quietly and secretly fart in public. In short, i could never be anywhere near perfect.

It’s not like my bosses are giving me shit about my work, not me in particular at least. But it’s my guilt that’s killing me. I feel like i’m disappointing them. The more they don’t scold or punish me, the more my guilt does those things for me.

It’s 3am and i’m crying in my bed, wishing that i have more esteem than i do now that i won’t beat myself up like this because in the end i’m only killing myself softly this way.

(maybe the next time i read this post i’d think how ridiculously melodramatic i was. But right now, these fleeting feelings are so real.)

Sent from my Nokia 6760 slide