2016 in a glance

Will be spending my last day of 2016 at work today, after which, I will go hang out with my best friends for some drinks and countdown. Just a quick reflection on my year while in transit. I believe in reflections a lot 'cos what's experiences without any lessons right?

2016 for me was..... well, let's put a word to it after I'm done reflecting.

Things I'm thankful for this year:

Multiple travel opportunities!

- Thailand trip which was my first ever overseas trip I went without my family. It's also the first holiday that I paid using my own hard earned money so that's a personal accomplishment for me. From this trip, I also learnt more about my own temperament and personality.

- Langkawi with my JC friends which really bonded us together more

- Australia trip which really opened my eyes to a different culture and made me realize how much more I can do to grow out of my comfort zone.

- KL trip with my family this month which I really spent quality time with. Thankful to mum who insisted that I go along in face of me being an emotional crying mess earlier this month.

Academically, I'm thankful that I did pretty decent for my first finals in university, which was actually much more better than I had expected. Of course, this wouldn't have been possible with the support of study buddies and loved ones who saw me through.

In the scope of career, I'm thankful that I grew more and learnt more, both in technical skills and interpersonal relationships. I was also given more learning opportunities and tasks that I'm more than eager to grab for.

In the aspect of family, I'm thankful that we grew stronger and closer despite adversities. I'm really glad that our family structure is one that we can just talk and sort out through mismatched opinions. And towards my mum, I'm especially thankful for having such a great mum whom I can tell almost everything to. She was there for me through my emotional wreck moments and any other times, really.

In the aspect of friends, I'm glad that this year, I made more friends / acquaintances and at the same time, grew closer with friends that I treasure. My good friends were there through my ups and downs (you know who you are). Especially thankful to Huishi who stuck with me throughout everything. She was the first one I went to and cried to during my downs. She's the one I would turn to these days to tell almost everything to. She's really the one with the rare same frequency and thoughts that I have, which I cannot be more than grateful for.

Relationship wise, well. This is a sensitive topic to talk about but I'm no longer together with M. I have decided not to delete any posts with him here because after all, this space is one where I express the rawest of feelings I'm willing to online. And I would say, he was a great part of my life that I would hate to erase. He taught me a lot about love and more importantly about myself. I suppose he will always hold a significant place in my heart for life because after all, he's someone that I really loved with all my heart and shared so many firsts with. Shouldn't dwell on it further because I would want to respect his privacy too. But for now,we have decided to go separate ways and I wish him happiness and all the best in whatever he pursue, from the bottom of my heart. All in all, this year, I'm thankful for the life lessons that I learnt from this relationship and for the realizations I made about myself from the experiences we shared.

These are some main broad aspects that I can think about for now.

Moving forward, this is the tough part (I will set more along the way), here are some main broad lessons / goals that I would love to accomplish:

- Learning to love myself more. I have been saying this for ages, but I really shouldn't discount myself and believe in myself more. I hope I learn to really put my interests and well-being first and find validity within/from myself.

- Focus on what's priority in life. I guess there are really some things / people in life that's worth investing and some that are not.

- Learn to say "no" more often

- Be more embracing of negative incidents. Last night, I made a realization about myself. I was so eager to blanket the unhappiness and move on with life that at the end of the day, I felt more strained and drained from all the distractions I threw myself into. I guess it is after all, okay to allow myself to be in pain and wallow in despair for awhile longer. I'm human after all.

- Be more discerning and less trusting

- Do more reading and researching to enhance myself as a person intellectually

With that, the word I would put to this year would be enriching. I, after all, learnt so much lessons and grew so much as a person, be it from the good or bad experiences.

On this note, have a great year ahead guys! I sincerely wish y'all, the best, in whatever you choose to pursue or embark on in the new year, x.

These few days, I met up with different groups of people for catch up. Many a times, we ended up having heart to heart talk for some reason.  All these conversations made me felt a bit overwhelmed and emotionally drained I don't know why. I feel overwhelmed by things I learnt about myself and my deepest thoughts that I might not have realised myself, coupled with several life lessons. I think overwhelmed would be the right word because now I feel so confused about everything I used to believe in. I feel like throughout the past month, I start to see things differently and what I used to believe in starts to shatter. Perhaps this is all part and parcel of growing up. I mean, change is the only constant after all I suppose. Not sure if these changes in mindset is for good or bad. Time will tell and heal I hope.

"你还是住在我的回忆里 不出来
让我们微笑离开 让故事留下来
放手后 爱依然在
雪融了 就应该花开
缘若尽了 就不该再重来

你依旧住在我的回忆里 不出来
我离开将你的手交给 下个最爱
纠缠与固执等待 反而是另一种伤害
彼此紧握的手松开 去拥抱更多未来"

"I'm not even a whisper in your thoughts but you are the screaming in mine"

Today's mood - in between a wanting to be completely alone and wanting to be surrounded by a lot of people. Meh.

Hey! Omg it has been so long since I have updated this space. Ever seen holidays started, I have really just spent most of my time working. And with every rest time I have, I just spent my time sleeping (yes I'm boring), catching up with friends etc. It has been so long since I updated that my side box description is no longer applicable to me because yes, I'm 21 now! Hehe let's just hope I find it in me to update this space about my 21st birthday soon.

Anyway, tomorrow is the start of Year 2 in school! This week is going to be a tiring week up ahead of either school or work but come Friday, I will be scooting off to Brisbane to reunite with bf for a week! Yes I know... I really shouldn't have. I'm feeling super guilty about missing school for a week but this ldr is killing me haha. And since bf kindly paid for my flight as my birthday gift, this is no less a perfect opportunity to reunite with him. 

Life recently has been pretty... I don't know how to put it haha. I would say life has been rather.. stagnant that leaves me unsatisfied at this current state. The stagnation puts me in a situation where I yearn to experience excitement. Sigh... Ren jiu shi fan jian, when life is too exciting (with extreme highs and lows), you complain. When life is too consistent and stagnant, you complain too. 

Ok suddenly can't think of anything else to type out haha what a lame update this is. Year 2, be kind to me, puh-lease.

Hey world. Feeling so conflicted these days I don't really know what to do. After M left for Brisbane,  I felt so lost for the past 2 weeks trying to adapt to this change. From now on, I really hope I'm able to change my focus in life to myself instead of being so fixated on other people and putting them above me. & Is it weird that I feel like chopping off my hair to have short hair? I know it won't look good on me but I feel like I need a clean, new, refreshed state. Needing more distractions (positive ones) more than anything else right now..

Thailand Trip (Part 1) - Bangkok Highlights

Aside from finals, working and dealing with fucked up problems, one of the highlights this period was spending 6 days at Thailand with my dearest boyfriend!

Even though it burned a big hole in my pockets, it was every cent well spent. Amongst everything I was going through, it was a much needed and timely escape from the world, even for just a bit. What more, it's our first overseas trip together, which is of course extremely precious to me.

Instead of staying in just Bangkok the whole time, we got out of the main city and explored Ratchaburi and Suan Pheung all thanks to the adventurous boyfriend who suggested we drove out of the city to do that. And I'm really glad that he suggested that and that I took a great leap of faith in him to agree to this because I actually enjoyed it a lot more out of the city! This post is a a part 1 to our trip with some highlights of the first 3 days in Bangkok! Will share more about Ratchaburi and Suan Pheung in another post!

Anyway, bf bought SJ cam, which is a cheaper version of GoPro and I took so so much videos the whole trip with it, because I wanted to compile a video of our beautiful memories.

BUT, to my extreme annoyance and disappointment, the sad thing is that the micro SD card we used for the SJ cam bought from a shop at MBK failed and died on us. Super duper disappointed when I found out the card was not working anymore nearing the end of the trip because there were so many videos stored on it! And I kind of prioritised taking videos on it that I didn't take much photos. ): We figured the micro SD card is probably a fake too...

The fact that it is more expensive than one that bf later bought at Singapore IT fair sucks even more.The seller at MBK even assured us that it was an authentic one, wasted our effort bargaining for it even, thinking we got a good deal.

 Just our luck.......... Was really excited to compile a video with the videos I took on it ):

Oh well..enough of ranting, no point crying over spilled milk eh?

Follow us on our first 3 days in Bangkok now!! Hehe, x.

Day 1

Siam Paragon -> Erawan Shrine -> Check in -> Platinum Mall 

Our flight was pretty early at 6.40am so I pretty much had less than an hour sleep and went to meet bf! It's actually my first time travelling without my family (apart from school trips) so it was needless to say exciting hehe.

For the first 3 days spent in Bangkok, I was the one in charge of the itinerary whereas bf was in charge of the itinerary at Ratchaburi / Suan Pheung. Felt pretty pressurised on where to go, what to do etc because I really wanted to give bf a good memory of our first trip together. I felt like I didn't really planned it as well as I imagined though, definitely could do better. ):

P.S. Don't judge me for the itinerary you see in this post ok lol.

Is it we pig?! Eating breakfast at 4am haha

So cute though all these angry bird packaging

My qt 3.142

Some selfies took in the plane!

So annoyed with my fringe the whole trip

Really wished I cut my fringe before I flew, it's so ugly boohoo

Pleasure of viewing the beautiful sunrise from the aircraft

Nature, y u so beautiful

After we touched down, we went to get our SIM card and took the airport railway to the stop nearest to our hotel! After we reached, we pretty much navigated ourselves by foot to the hotel using GPS. Pretty proud of ourselves for doing that instead of taking taxi everywhere! Thank buddha I have a bf that has way better sense of direction than me or we would still be stranded in Thailand right now

Since we reached the hotel pretty early at around 10am, the room wasn't ready for check-in just yet.

 Left our luggage with the hotel staff and off we went to do some light shopping and eating at Siam Paragon!

The famous must-try "After you" toast!

My second visit there and I totally understand the hype over it! It's really good! But I definitely wouldn't enjoy it as much if I have to finish the whole thing by myself, it's way too jelat after awhile

The teddy bear fanatic with this huge Harrods bear.

Went into the Harrods shop to walk one round and can't believe how costly these are?!

Bought this from outside Siam.

I tell you, I love this A LOT! It's another must-drink in bkk every time I'm there. Super sweet and rich-tasting, look at that tangerine/ orange juice in all its orange glory. Marry me orange juice. 

Having major cravings for it right now.... Someone DHL it over for me and I will love you for life.

After Siam Paragon,  we managed to visit Erawan Shrine to offer our prayers, a must-do personally in BKK!

 After which, it's finally time for check in!

Went back to check in and here's our hotel.

Opted to stay at Budacco Hotel this trip. Reason why I chose it is mainly for its budget and student-friendly rates. Think I booked it for around SGD 50 a night and that's with breakfast buffet for 2, mind you! It's pretty worth it and decent. Not too shabby for a 3-stars hotel I would say. Cons being that it's quite a distance from the nearest BTS station. But for those who shops at Pratunam morning market, you will be delighted to hear that it's just downstairs the hotel.

After a short nap, we went to shop again!

Shopped at Platinum mall before we went for dinner and back to sleep again!

Anyway, ask my bf how to pronounce "Platinum mall" and he probably has problems pronouncing it right until now...... HAHA

Anyway, I think I'm one of the rare girls who didn't buy much from Bangkok shopping.I probably only got 5 tops and 2 shorts from my whole trip.I guess I'm just that kind of person who thinks twice before I purchase something even if it might be cheap. Hahaha my shopping of clothes probably spent me less than SGD 50 the whole trip. I didn't really see much clothing that attracted my eyes also. Would much prefer shopping at Singapore blogshops or Editor's market even though its more pricey. Maybe it's just me

What's for dinner - Basil Chicken with rice + Tom Yum Goong

Guessed who ate until he has teary eyes

No point for guessing it right hahahaha

Went to walk around at the stretch of night market outside Platinum mall and bought more of my favourite juice hahahaha

Bought it mainly for the cute bottle but I think I left it in the fridge after that because I went to sleep before I could drink it haha

Mango for snack before we head to bed

I think we had mango everyday when we were in Bangkok hahaha 

It's so good?!

DAY 2

Wat Pho -> Wat Arun -> Pak Klong Talad Flower Market -> Went back to hotel and nap cos we pig -> Asiatique -> Artbox

My parents will be surprised at how early I woke up for breakfast this trip hahaha

They will probably be like "go with bf thats why so gu luck" 

(gu luck being slang for hardworking / putting in effort)

When I'm overseas with my family, I usually wake up after 10am and skip hotel breakfast pretty often hehe. Don't know why I'm such a early riser with this boy

Our OOTD for Day 2 heh

Funny story from the morning is that we kind of got scammed.

We took a taxi to Wat Pho and the cab fare was negotiated at 150 baht I think.

Bf gave the taxi driver 500 baht because we didn't had any smaller change and based on simple Maths, we are suppose to get back 350 baht right?

 BUT for some reason we only got back 150 baht and we didn't realise it until we went out of the taxi because (a) we didn't really checked (b) we weren't really certain which colour each denomination is in Thai baht. 

The funniest thing is the over-friendly and over-enthu bf was all like "Sawadeeka" to the taxi driver before we got off HAHAHA. 

Saying thanks to the uncle for cheating our money is it hahahahaha

A place for prayers and be mesmerised by the beautiful architecture

In a robe provided by the temple to ensure that ladies are properly covered.

And here's me filming with bf's SJ cam.

Seeing this makes me a little bit more angry for the death of the micro SD card sigh

After the visit to Wat Pho, we took a short ferry ride across to Wat Arun! 

But it seems like it was under construction so we didn't really explore much

Selfies on the ferry on route to Wat Arun

Pardon my ugly wide forehead cos too hot to be bothered about looking glam

Mama say wide forehead equals intelligence

Don't be jealous you guys *smirks*

Yup, shameless is me

Wanted to visit the flower market too but the ferry to take us there was taking quite some time to arrive so the bf suggested we walked there. 

How did such a couch potato like me got together with such an active bf hahaha

 By the time I walked there and explored the market, I was dead beat 

Seasoned guava is love

Bangkok is like another fruits paradise to me yo

Saw this while walking to the flower market

Hashtag Singaporean pride

Sudden sense of patriotism haha

Sorry no much photos of the flower market simply because I took everything with the SJ cam there and like I mentioned, the SD card is pretty much spoilt. Grr so annoyed.

Anyway, there wasn't really much to explore because the flower market is actually most active after midnight if I didn't recall wrongly where everyone will start trading. Quite a number of stalls were closed when we visited in the afternoon even though the market operates 24/7

Rested at Starbucks after exploring the wet markets there.

Seeing how I tired I was since I didn't sleep well the first night (probably cos I wasn't quite used to the new sleeping environment), bf made the call for us to head back the hotel to have a rest before we continue with the later part of the day hehe

After a nap, I was refreshed and ready to go!

 Took BTS to the nearest BTS station to Asiatique and took the shuttle boat service over!

Photobombed haha so cute

Seeing these pictures makes me feel like I need braces ):

Yo mei yo a bit artistic these shots?

All credits to my boo

For photography enquiries, please email to mymanageriscrystalbecausegfistryingtomakeacommissionoutofme@hotmail.com

This picture makes me realise how short I am..... Didn't really notice it until now damn

Is this a discovery time for all my flaws lol lol lol what's wrong with me

Looking derp. there are countless of photos of me with closed eyes, let me tell you 

This photographer need to up his game

See what I meant?!

Or do I blink too much

Dinner was at this chill restaurant called "Checkmate" with the restaurant theme being chess.

Food was pretty yummy!

Hehe and the step photographer strikes again

I would like to think these improvement in photos taken of me is all attributed to his newly bought Olympus Pen and has nothing to do with his skills

Haha ok just kidding, don't kill me, love

Your photog skills did improve a fair bit haha

Watermelon slushie is love, especially in this hot country

How great that they had a one for one for this

Yup, now you know my secret.......

I have been trying my best to hide this secret from you guys for a long time...

I guess it's time to reveal the secret...

Yes. I have a mineral water line under my name...

Yes. I'm that fabulous

And no, you can't have my signature

HAHA ok lame bye

Ugly photo is ugly but yay photo of us

Walked around Asiatique after dinner and I have always quite like Asiatique. 

Like what I have mentioned in an old post,  the place gives off a nice chill vibe like Singapore's Clarke Quey except coupled with a lot of shops to shop at. We find the things that the shops are selling to be pretty repetitive though.

My biggest dilemma at Asiatique is whether to go or not to go for the fish foot spa and let them fishes nibble on my dead skin.

To go because bf was really adamant that I try it out, chanting "fish spa" like a broken recorder beside me non stop in his attempt to convince me to go give it a try. 

Not to go because I scaredy cat HAHA. Legit fear though... It's pretty unpredictable to me to let countless of small little fishes nibble on my dead skin and it really does seems pretty gross.

 Ok no excuse, I am a scaredy cat even though I hate to admit that, oh well.

After the dilemma which I opted to not go in the end, we took a cab to Artbox!

Seeing all the interesting food choices on websites and IG, it was definitely part of my itinerary.

Sad to say, it was much smaller than I anticipated though...

But it was still worth seeing, if not, I would have went back to sg regretting I didn't made time for it

Do I not have the cutest drink?!

When it comes to cute drinks like that, girl, let jie jie tell you, you don't care whether it taste good or not, you just buy it and worry about that later.

Satisfy your inner bimbotic desires and worry later. HAHAHA 

FYI, I did finish the drink. 

It doesn't tastes too bad la hahaha plus its so cute?!

Brought the keychain and bottle back to sg too

But the cap of the bottle was rusting so it was a wasted effort sigh

Xia dao ni bu hao yi shi 

Wo nen peng you zai gao yi shu

Translation from my horrible hanyu pinyin:

I am sorry that I scared you

My boyfriend is trying to be artistic

DAY 3 

Chatuchak -> Union Mall -> JJ Green -> Siam Paragon

And finally my most awaited day in bkk has arrived!

I know some people who don't really fancy Chatuchak but personally I'm a big fan of it

I just love walking through the crowded streets and be immersed in Bangkok shopping culture haha

Even though it's super hot, I feel that I have to visit there every time I'm in Bangkok simply because nothing else screams Bangkok as much as Chatuchak haha

That's for me personally la!

C R A V I N G S 

Actually I don't really find it tasty even though I tried it twice haha

It really doesn't taste like coconut

I guess everyone just buy it for photo taking sake and because you are in need of something cooling in the sweltering weather

But it's really nothing fantastic leh haha

There, to buy and take photo only lor

Aka photo bragging rights

Bf with his new backpack

I think I have a new found respect for his aunty bargaining skills after he managed to bargain his backpack for half of the original price

Shifu ni hao

The boy with the weird twist and his garlic bread

Poor boy didn't really get to try much street food because his stomach is pretty weak

If not, we are pretty sure he would have enjoy Thailand much more!

Kopi break after shopping around

And off we went to our next stop, Union Mall!

Decided to go there since it was well recommended by my colleague and by some websites.

Hahaha but it didn't really faze me though..

I pretty much just eat there and briefly glanced through the clothes haha

Oh! And we went on some lame 4D experience thingy too which was pretty lame, come to think of it now. The lamest thing is probably that I was kinda scared going on the ride but the ride is really lame max lol

Dessert time at Kyo Roll En

 Tale of the sleeping beauty and the irritating gf 

HAHA

Trying on his backpack makes me feel between being a cool backpacker and being a ninja turtle

TMNT ft yours truly coming to a cinema near you

And we decided to eat again!

Went to walk around JJ Green night market for a bit and went to Siam paragon!

Had dinner and did grocery shopping!

Dinner at Hokkai-don.

Overpriced and tastes meh.

Bought quite a lot from the supermarket!

Bought some food and drinks to prepare for the road trip (look forward to part two!)

And also got a lot of food to bring back for my family.

& Saw this cute bottle haha

& This marks the end of our first 3 days in Bangkok!

//

Alright, don't be sad. 

I have come to the end of this post. 

You survived through the photo vomit and this long post!

Give yourself a pat on the back woohoo hahahaha omg I'm getting more and more lame.

Don't judge me, its nearing 3am in the morning. I'm not feeling the sanest right now.

Thank you for being so obsessed with me to read through this post or a more plausible reason, you must be really bored hahaha

Ending off with my fav photo of us from this post.

Good night world, work in 8 hours time calls for me to sleep!

x

Have a great week!