My Random Daily Life

Good morning! I know that soon it will be noon but now it's still 11AM so I can still say good morning. So, what have you done so far? I will enjoy the rest of these few hours (at least until church volunteering time) to replenish my energy which is totally drained yesterday.

1. Blame in on the personality

I guess this is where extrovert-introvert character plays out. Some people may have a different tolerance level toward socialising and networking. For instance those who have more extrovert genes in their trait would relatively last longer socialising because they don't get drained from talking to people. In fact, some of them even got energised talking to different people. Whereby, those who lean toward the introvert characteristic would behave the other way around as they tend to get energised from spending time along with their thoughts and interests.

2. Different level of experience

Socialising is after all, a skill for survival. If you are born in a family which is not very social (e.g. not very interested to come to neighbour's kids birthday party or big family social gathering), you will be more likely to have a lower level of experience in socialising.  This experience does not have to cater to a socialising in general. The people who you will socialise with matters too. For example, someone may have no problem hanging out with their close buddies but get fatigues really quickly at a hectic office party as they are not as used to the latter.

3. Anxiety in social situations

Being nervous is physically and mentally draining too just by itself. People who force themselves to be in situations where their anxiety appears, will obviously get pretty much drained after the whole affair. It's like being forced out of your comfort zone. I don't mean that it's bad literally. I mean we are human which is social creature, by nature, so it's good to face our fear once in a while, I guess? I would probably do this to myself once every quarter. 4x a year is more than enough for my tolerance level. XD

Hello all! Let's continue our journey in Sanrio Robotics Institute, shall we? To recap, we have gotten our pass, learned the basic skill of robotic (yeah, right) and checking out the map of the institute. In order to make a Robot Kitty, we need to get the components made. So let's continue to the section where the components are made. The one in-charge for the creation of the components is none other than or friends, Bad Badzt Maru, which happens to be my favourite Sanrio character. <3

School holiday has finally started and it is the time for parents to think of activities or holidays for their kids. If you have booked your flight outside Singapore, well, good for you I suppose. If you decided to stay in Singapore, no worries because apparently the city is pretty much happening in June. One of the main attraction for kids is the Robot Kitty event happening in Suntec from 11 June to 21 June. If you are still considering of whether to bring your kids here or not, I guess I can share a few things since I happened to visit the same event in Taipei three years ago (aww, how nostalgic!). Let's be a Robot Kitty engineer, people!

1. Go get your ticket

Tickets are priced at $28 for adults and $14 for children age 3 to 11/ senior citizens. The ticket is super duper cute and it is a must to keep as Hello Kitty fans. <3

2. Wait for your turn at Sanrio Robotics Institute

"Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning." 

- Psalm 30: 5

I don't know why but I tend to get pretty creative at two times a day, late at night and early morning. The problem with being creative late at night, my creativity does not last long because I get so sleepy after a while. Thanks to you, daily job (uhm yeah, I don't really like my job but it pays so..). It's kinda different in the morning because you tend to be fresher (thanks, morning air and morning coffee) and you can produce so much more inspiration in the morning (especially early morning). 

3. New day, new decision

Since morning is supposed to be the brightest time for our well-rested brain, it can be a good time to make decision (or at least, thinking about it) for those unresolved matters that keep circling around our life. We may not have the decision immediately but thinking about it in the morning may bring some fresh insight and new progress. Don't forget your breakfast while thinking about this. A happy day starts with happy breakfast, after all. 

"A dream is only a dream unless you do something about it."

Everybody dreams. Kids tend to have a lot of unlimited imagination in their dream but that does not mean that adults stop dreaming all together. If that is the case, what are the reasons that we have to dream big even when we are already an adult?

1. Dream leads to innovation

The latest technology is created from an idea. An idea is inspired by someone's dream to do something faster, more efficient, in a better way, easier, etc. Your latest gadget may have been created by someone's dream.

2. Dream gives you the drive to try something new

Which can lead to you finding your passion, the job that you love to do. If you don't dream about doing something, you won't even think about it and you will not try it to see if you like doing it.

3. Dream provides flavour in life

Life without a dream kinda sounds void, doesn't it? If you don't have any dream, you don't have any goal in life, and hence, why are you working so hard for? Everyday will seem like it's just another mundane day. You wake up, going to office, work until late at night, come back, sleep and repeat. You only live once so why don't we dream and work hard to make our dream come true?

Despite all of the above reasons, dream can be a bad excuse to keep on delaying though. I guess the idea is the perfect time to start may not ever come so if you feel peaceful enough about starting (with the grace and wisdom from God), just trust Jesus and go for it. After all, a dream without an action will always be a dream.

Everyday we are facing a lot of choices to make in life. Which clothes should I wear? What should I eat today? Which task should I tackle first? Should I stay back in the office today? Should I meet up with him? Should I wait for her? 

I can't help but wonder why making a choice is so difficult. I guess from my life experience so far, hard choices are made when the consequences are big. For instances:

1. Which degree should I take?

A degree course is not cheap and it can rope you into a debt, which ideally should be cleared by the time you enter workforce after graduating. Problem is, there is no room for regret here as the financial consequence is too big. So yeah, money makes difficult choices, especially when your budget is limited. How to afford making another choice if you chose the wrong one at the beginning?

2. Should I marry him/ her?

This is a choice which lead to a consequence of a life time, choosing your life partner. You may be in lovey-dovey stage now but will your love be enough to carry both you through thick and thin until the end? A choice which lead to a consequence that you have to bear for a lifetime is by all means, not an easy feat. 

3. How many people will be affected?

Depends on your position and situation, your choice may not only affect yourself but other people as well. Let's say you are the father of the family and you want to move to another city as you need to relocate your career there. Your family is still young and of course, they will follow your decision if you ever decide to relocate.  If the new city turns out to be a nice warm friendly city, good for you and your family. Otherwise, life for your family will be somewhat challenging from then on. 

With these kind of consequences, sometimes you also end up making a choice which may or may not be right. But, after all, that's the flavour of life, I suppose. With this kind of life, I think I really need God. Even the Bible quotes "for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again..."

May God be with you when you need to choose. 

There are times whereby life seems crappy and you are stuck in it. If today feels like those kind of days, at least there are only two days left in this week before we say hello to another weekend. 

(2) Invest time in free courses for a start

It's like a trial and tester for something new. The great part is, you don't have to pay for it. There are free courses which you can try in the internet like Coursera or MIT OpenCourseWare. 

(3) Don't stay too late in the meh-job

I did not encourage to quit especially because you may need a lot of money to "invest" in your interest once you have found them. But if your job is totally not your passion (and only act as a mean to earn ka-ching), there is no point to invest time and energy more than necessary. This may not be the model attitude encouraged by the management but, you can't go that far if you are not happy anyway (my two-cents only). Remember, with 8-9 hours spent in the office everyday, you only have at most five hours to pursue your interest before you need to go to bed for another working day. 

I wonder if life is easier to live by when you are not so serious about it all the time. This may sound hard especially for us who are working full time in serious business like financial institution, education, military service, etc. But, then again, being silly just seems to be more difficult to do when you have to adult. I have to even try to being silly sometimes. 

Even though there are views saying that the benefits of laughter are pretty dubious, I guess the main thing here is you have to find things that you enjoy doing the most up to the point you can't help but feeling happy (and not sulky or all serious) when you are doing it.  

After watching Game of Thrones for the 6th year (time surely flies), I should have been immune to the writer's habit to kill off characters. After all, Valar Morghulis, right?

But the latest episode really brings a serious impact because they killed Hodor, the loyal innocent man who serves the house of Stark since childhood. RIP, Hodor. 

Hmm, wait. In the first place, they are not even real. And yet, I'm so affected when Hodor get killed. Why do we care so much about TV characters, after all?

1. A mean to get out of real world

The fiction world seems like a good escape from the reality of life which kinda pressure our brain to keep on thinking rationally. Zombies, monsters, heroic characters, they make the "other world" seems so real and transport us, the viewers, to the same dimension. While we are enjoying the exploration of these "other world" via the characters' interaction, before we know it, we start to care from them. 

2. Getting caught up in the narrative

Everyone loves a good story. The reason I grow up playing an Role-Playing-Game (RPG) is because I love the game storyline especially the one with the setting that you-are-ordinary-at-the-beginning-but-you-eventually-can-save-the-world (by levelling up, I guess) or you-just-try-to-survive-actually. The narrative at some TV series (e.g. Game of Thrones, Walking Dead) works pretty similar to these games and if in the game, you do all things to level up your favourite character, in the TV, you do all things to research on the background story of your favourite character and get emotional when the character got killed. Yes, all of these irrational actions despite our logic. I do that too, I admit. 

3. Against the moral

Why do some people pursue the matter further until they lodge a protest when their favourite character receives unfavorable treatment or even ending? A strong reaction is expected, even in real life, when something does seem to be injustice. We demand a fair outcome even though we know that in reality, life's never fair. I guess that's a good thing? At least, our moral is still intact in this crazy world. 

Loneliness is a feeling that we feel now and then depends on our circumstances. Based on personal experience, the worst case of loneliness happens when we lost a dear someone who used to be near to us in our life and when we cannot find anyone who stand by us in times of needs. In my case, it's even worse because I stay alone, apart from my family who reside in different country. Based on what I read over the internet, loneliness is pretty common in this modern generation. I think the greatest solution for us the loner is to join forces and create Baymax, a cute healthcare companion from Big Heroes 6. Even though his main purpose is for healthcare companion, he can be your companion in basically everything. #iamquiteimaginativeatimes

But, at the moment, Baymax has not been created yet in real life. So what are our quick-fixes against loneliness?

1. Get busy

I hate to say it because this is not really a long-term help but getting busy is the easiest way against loneliness. It works like you are taking a drug to beat your boredom but better (at least it is not illegal and it has less damage to health, depends on what you are getting busy at, I guess). I don't really endorse working overtime for a pointless goal though. Get busy in learning new skill-set can be a quite useful way to distract yourself from loneliness. How about getting busy of thinking of a way to create Baymax? #stillatit

2. Snacking

Another unhelpful solution but snacks (especially sweet stuff like chocolates) create a make-the-world-seem-better effect. Omg, whatever I am suggesting start to sound like an alternative to drugs, really. Just make sure not to snack excessively or if you really went overboard, you should offset the calorie by exercise (see point 1, a useful get busy action. XD). 

3. Tone down the anti-social lifestyle

Okay, maybe it's time to really go out and engage people. The easiest will be to engage your own family in a probably an easy conversation or easy get-together activity (like watching TV?). If your family stay pretty far away from you, you may want to use the modern technology to communicate like Whatsapp or LINE. If you have problems talking to your families, let's hope you have at least made and maintain a good relationship with several friends. My social circle nowadays seem to come from high school. Life happened and thus, social circle becomes smaller and smaller but at least, I still have few people that I can contact whenever I feel like I am so alone in this world. Mind you, I only have two friends which I speak on daily basis. Oh my gawd. XD 

If all of the above fail, probably I will end up meditating on the bible's verse to encourage myself with verses like "God never leaves you nor forsakes you" for a countless number of times until I find something else to do or fall asleep. #whattodo

There is something addictive about the past. If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, you would have known that Bran Stark seems to enjoy coming back to the past (which we, as the viewers, enjoy too because who doesn't want to get a glimpse of the past of Stark family). But, I guess no matter how enjoyable it is to dwell on the past, you have to move on eventually, forcefully or not. 

Even though we all know that we have to move forward, is there anything that we can do not to keep dwelling on the past? Three ideas from my own experience: 

1. Stop looking at items which remind you on the past

Pictures and photographs are the worst culprit at reenacting memories of the past. So if you are at the most melancholic hour in your day, I suggest not do look at pictures and photographs. Since most of these items are now shared digitally via social media platform, you may as well avoid those social media apps as well. 

2. Distract yourself

Do something new. Read books or watch movies which storyline totally unrelated to whatever feeling from the past that you feel the most at the moment. The best activity that I find out can distract myself the most is (1) go to a class in the gym (you are forced to focus to the instructor's movement) or (2) shopping (too busy checking out clothes or yourself in the mirror). Guys probably prefer to distract themselves over the weight machines in the gym? Whatever works for us! 

3. Meditating

People has so many interpretation of the word "meditating". I tried the one who go by emptying our mind and it didn't work because my mind tend to wander everywhere, including the past. I find "meditating" via listening to God's words is easier because it kinda helps to listen to the preached words that God loves you so much, especially when the past is not that fun. You have to be careful not listening to the wrong things though. Rule-of-thumb: If what you hear does not make you peaceful inside, stop listening to it. 

Let's face it. Not all of us love our jobs, especially if we treat is as a mean to pay the bills and not because we do our job because we love it. If Monday has to come and has to be miserable, are there at least something that we can do to make it bearable?

1. Remember your #lifegoal

If you have not found one, don't give up. Keep an open mind to find a new thing to try or a new skill to learn. You may still have not found what you are looking for but trying on new stuff may lead you to your dream. A #lifegoal may need some steps to learn before you can achieve them and these steps may not come free so remembering your #lifegoal will motivate you to come to office on Monday morning. 

2. Plan fun things for the week

Life is too short to be spent on working in the office more than 12 hours per day. Personally, 8 hours is barely bearable and it is already a third of our life within a day. Fun things for the week can be anything from the new episode of Game of Thrones season 6 (yeay!) or fun classes at the gym or a nice rendezvous with friends. Mid-week shopping works well too if you just receive your salary.

3. Take it easy

Since you know you still have 5 days to go in this week, why don't give yourself a break on Monday? After all, all of us can do with an energy-conservation by not running out of steam so fast on the first day of the week. Let's learn to work like the Sloth from Zootopia. After all, don't forget that he's able to afford a Ferrari despite his work pace. 

The biggest nightmare in my life would be the day my best friend get a boyfriend, or worse, get married. This sounds very selfish but let's face it, you will have more time to spend with your best friend when you are single. This is simply because you don't have to split your time between your best friend and your boyfriend/ husband/ wife. So, while both of us are still single, I will enjoy this best friend talk moment while it lasts. Since it is so addictive, one start to wonder what things that you can only tell your best friend (which usually lead to more than two hours conversation)?

1. Shits that you have experienced during the weekdays

Boss who makes your working life miserable. Bitches who try to step on your toes. Bastards who try to bully you. Or simply other annoying office stuff. All these things can happen in your weekdays and who are the best person to rant about these shits? Your best friend. Because he or she may have experienced the same and cannot wait to unleash his or her ranting at the same time. 

2. That unexplainable feeling that you have for your crush

We have both moved on from Song Joong Ki because after all, our first love has always been Eddie Peng, the handsome Canadian-Taiwanese who manages to look handsome in whatever movies that he does for a living. We hope he posted more pictures of himself in his social media so that we can spend quite a long time swooning together at his face. 

3. The latest food craze in town 

Thankfully in Singapore, new restaurants are popping up like mushrooms (even in a faster frequency I suppose) so there are always new things to talk about food. The queue for that Hokkaido cheese tarts in ION Orchard is still long as we speak. 

4. The grand master plan that you have for your future

Becoming a barista. A website maker. A baker. A makeup-artist. The sky is the limit when we talk about what we want to do other than working 9 to 6++ everyday. We even talk about investment at some point. Crazy, we never talk about investing 10 years ago. I guess this topic changes from time to time as we grow up. 

5. The bizarre hatred that you have toward someone

...which can randomly be your next-cubicle colleague to a total stranger. Best friend doesn't judge this weird behaviour and even help you in finding more reasons to hate that particular someone. LOL. 

Let's face it. Life is tough especially when you are stuck in a predicament with a clear way out. You just have to ride the storm in order to see a better weather. However, this does not mean that all things related to life are bad. There are some simple pleasures that I may have secretly enjoyed despite the challenges in life. You too, may have subconsciously celebrate life's simple pleasures in your own unique way.

Even if you have no lover, you can be your own lover. But, sometimes, we end up hurting ourselves the most in order to please other people. We drain ourselves by ended up doing things that we do not feel like doing. Myself included, of course. I can't help but start to wonder in what ways I can start loving myself. Hmm...

3. Don't try to please everybody

The most dangerous lifestyle that one can choose is to be a people pleaser. You can't please everybody because everybody has their own like/dislike/preference/taste, etc. If you try to please them all, you have to sacrifice something or someone. Yourself is the first, your family may be next. Life is short, makes yourself happy and the rest (which matter to you) will feel your happy vibe and be happy for you. 

It has been three years since the last time I visited Taipei. I can say that I miss the city but I totally don't miss its bad weather during summer though. The hot scorching sun with the frequent typhoon. The thing is, my bae and I have not really gone anywhere this year and she was thinking of going to Taipei again toward the later part of the year. I can't decide yet so let's see what our friends from LINE say about Taipei. From one glance, they seem to be pretty enthusiastic about the city though.

So, guys, why should we go to Taipei?

Cony: Of course, I can imagine the yummy food in the night market and what I love the most, the bubble teas. 

Brown: ... (he probably just follows Cony wherever she goes)

Choco: Don't forget about the amount of shopping that you can do in Ximending, Taipei Main Station and of course, the glorious Taipei 101. 

Sally: We can do some cafe-hopping too. Taipei has a lot of themed cafes that you can visit like Hello Kitty Cafe, Barbie Cafe, Modern Toilet Restaurant, etc. 

James: I can take a lot of nice pictures of myself at a lot of places in Taipei, after all, I look handsome with any background, including Taipei 101 (uhh, okay).

Moon: You can go for KTV (i.e. karaoke) session too. It's gonna be so fun. 

Seems like the LINE Friends folks love Taipei so much. Are you gonna listening to their suggestion and just book the next flight ticket to Taipei? =P

...ugh. agh. ugh...

I don't know why but I feel so tired whenever I have to start my usual office-stint. Maybe it's the work, maybe it's my lifestyle. Well, I don't really have the time to think of why I feel so tired all the time, to be honest with you. Do you guys feel like this too? You can't help but thinking to change our job, right? 

I'm pooped.

Congratz on going through Monday.

But, I don't feel like I have made the best of my Monday. For goodness sake, I stayed until 7.40PM. Geez. 

Well, it's a choice. 

It didn't feel like a choice back then. Especially when your boss is still around.

Boss will be boss. And one thing for sure...

...yea, he or she will not really care at the end. Talk about not being paid handsomely enough.

This talk is seriously going toward a depressing end. Did you at least eat something good today?

Talk about lunch, I did not know where to go as a lot of places in Milenia Walk are pretty much crowded by the time I reached there around 12-ish. I managed to find a seat for myself in The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

Oh, a cafe. An easy challenge for us.

Indeed. But, I have enough challenges in the office. So, a place where I can eat by myself in peace is greatly appreciated.

Agreed. How's the food?

I did not know that The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf sells pasta. The funny thing is, they only have one type of pasta, Prawn Aglio Olio. The good thing is, it taste so lovely and comforting. Worth the calorie intake.

Great, finally something's good about today. 

That and episode 4 of Game of Thrones season 6. The ladies are really kicking-ass. #betterwatchitfast

Can't believe that tomorrow is Monday again.

Well, there are bills to pay...

I know that I have to adult at certain point my life.

You mean, when you start applying for a credit card...

Mind you, credit card is one of the 5 Cs that the people of Singapore are aspiring to have in their adult life. Although to be honest, I seem to fail seeing credit card as a #lifegoal because it does not take a lot of challenges to apply for one. Okay, enough talk about my credit life.

Chill, chill, after all we are eating. Where are we?

I have a craving for a curry katsu rice so I came all the way to ION Orchard to have a go at Tonkatsu restaurant, Ginza Bairin. The chicken katsu curry taste so good here. Although I have to say, this kinda goes over my solo-eating's budget by a lot (usually, my budget is $10 max). Hehe.

What? Ginza Bairin? That sounds like a family diner. 

I thought so too but I guess it depends on when you come here to eat. The art to eat at a family diner by yourself is to come during the odd period. For example, right when it just opens on 11AM-ish on a Sunday. The crowd is not that bad yet and hence, nobody will stare at you for occupying a table of two (or four) by yourself.

So, no cold stares from other diners?

Since there are not many other diners and I was busy staring at my S7 bae, I could say that I was eating in peace.

How is the food?

The curry sauce taste great and on par with Coco Ichibanya I think. If you'd like your katsu to be lean, make sure to pick the leaner option on the menu (with extra $ to pay though). The waiter and waitresses are too busy to pester me, the solo diner, too.

Btw, do you think you can stop taking out your S7 bae while solo-dining?

Huh?? I will be bored, right? #longwaytogo

...

*sigh*

...why are you sighing?

I don't know. I am kinda confused in life.

Ah the usual, so where are we now?

At a nice little cafe which used to be located at Ann Siang Hill. Kki has now relocated to SOTA, right beside the Cathay at Dhoby Ghaut.

How's the place?

The cafe is pretty small but it is so cozy. I have to make sure to reach here not toward the end of business hours to avoid disappointment though. The cakes are sold like crazy.

...you manage to get a cake, I hope?

Geez, of course. I managed to get a slice of Fromage Melon to console my heavy heart. It is a cheese mousse with rock melon filling. So yummy!