Happy new year! It's the 2nd of January today as I'm writing this. Although I'm not taking any leave in between Christmas and new year, these past two weeks have felt like a long, relaxing, well deserved holiday. I have been feeling quite grateful for many things that happened this year. I am in a good shape, I have a job that I like, have new found interest on topics like personal finance, world economics, and start to enjoy more active lifestyle involving long distance walking and swimming.
Just this afternoon, I have thought a little bit about my new year resolutions. It has been a ritual that I'll do every year (started since junior high school, I think) and tomorrow I'm going to define the resolutions to be more specific. But apart from that, my partner suggested something that I haven't considered before: doing reflection of the past year. Well, I might have thought about it unconsciously before, but writing it down is going to be different yeah?
And oh.. now I remember that recently I did something similar. You know how when you're starting on a new job, you'll be placed on probation for 3 months before you become confirmed staff? So 2 months into my probation, I took a day off to think about stuffs like what I'm doing well, what I want to do more of, how can I contribute more, etc. I'm quite happy doing that because it sorts of gives me a sense of "what's next".
(definitely trailing off from the post's intended purpose...)
(... let's jump back)
p.s. it's now afternoon, 3 January 2021.
Ok so last April, things started to get serious with covid. Singapore was entering something called Circuit Breaker and initially almost everything deemed non-essential were closed and basically the only places we could go was to buy take away food, groceries, and clinics. I was going to be stuck at home even more haha.
I remember the days before CB, I went to shopping malls to do the usual things I like to do, before parting with them for at least a few months. Carls junior, library, pepper lunch. And I was quite lucky because a few days before CB officially started, I met my partner quite a lot because we're preparing the Facebook interview thing.
One of thing that I started to do immediately after CB was trying to prepare my own food. I have been trying to eat healthier since the past month, so that was quite the natural progression. As someone who don't usually cook, most of the things I made initially were just variations of bread and eggs. I also tried to make my own grape jam once lol. It tasted good tbh, but nowhere near what a jam is supposed to be 😂
And around this time, I decided to make the most out of the situation. I started to be seriously on diet. My daily routine was quite consistent because every day was almost the same.. I woke up quite late because work started at 11 AM, then I would go to buy some food from the nearest kopitiam, which kept me full almost till evening. And then I stocked up yoghurt, cheese, chocolate, oats, and fruits. Came dinner time, I would pick two items out of those.
The key to my diet was to make it sustainable. Meaning, I still eat what I like. For example, my lunch menu is very flexible as there's no restriction on the type of food. It can be mala, laksa, burger, prate, rice and fish bento, prawn curry, etc. Some days I would order delivery for healthy rice bowl. And of course, I try to limit fast food, soda, snacks, and sugary drink.
I also developed a new habit that's quite brilliant (using past tense because I don't do this anymore..). So around 6 PM after I was done with work, I would take a walk to this shop located a few blocks away from my place. Normally it will take around ten minutes to reach there, but to be more healthy, I picked a longer path which is like double the usual distance. And this shop actually sells fruits and juices, so I would buy one and enjoy it on my way back. It's making me healthy + getting some physical activity at the same time.
Talking about physical activity.. I don't think I've done a lot of it haha. Apart from the walking to buy juice regularly, I only did some lifting to strengthen my arm and some core exercise. Meanwhile, almost all of my housemates were being fitspo, exercising every day by following YouTube videos.
👇The portion below is written on 18 October 2021. Yes, that's right... 2021
Ok this is definitely not in the plan haha. Recently there are a few memorable milestones that I would like to record down, which reminds me of this year review that I'm supposed to do. So really, I'm trying very hard right now to do a 2020 recap without spoiling anything from 2021. Stay tuned for that one.
Now it kinda feels weird.. cause I'm realising how my perspective might have been altered, given what I have experienced this year and knowing how things would unfold. But ok, I'll just play dumb and talk about 2020 as if I don't know what will happen in 2021.
So about the diet, basically it is a very successful one! Most of the good things I started during circuit breaker time has become a habit. I'm so proud of myself for being able to pull it off and again it reminds me how important my physical condition is to me. Feeling lean is like one of the most amazing feelings ever. And it's such a joy to just rediscover my old clothes or those that previously didn't fit very nicely, try them out, look at the mirror and be like wowwww. Hahaha. One thing bothers me tho, so you know I occasionally send my pics to my family chat group.. and they have been commenting that I look different, in a good way. But then, I have not been able to go back to my hometown for the longest time. So I really hope I can maintain this level of fitness in the long run. Otherwise they're gonna be so convinced that all these time I'm just using app to catfish them lol.
I guess another lesson here is to take things one step at a time. Cause when I first started the diet, I was quite far from my normal (not even ideal) weight. So on some days you'll look at the numbers and find that cool cool I lost 1kg, rightly so cause I had very light dinner the day before And then you hope that the same pattern is gonna happen the next day, but nope. Longer timeline is to be expected for crucial things in life. Well, it is not as disheartening at it sounds.. there are some milestones that will make you excited, but yup looking back it was quite a journey. Just for the record, the whole thing started around April and it was by September that I reached my ideal weight (losing 10kg in total). In between there were moments where I felt stuck, but introduced different things such as new recipes to try out to keep the motivation up. I have never been a good cook, but I gotta give myself a pat on the back for the dishes I came up with lol (pics will be included).
Apart from this, the whole May and June I was simply obsessed with my newly bought watch. A vintage one. Long story short, I got into this whole vintage watch thing cause work was quite chill at that time. So I did a lot of research into the general topic, narrow it down to one brand, and ultimately further down to one model of the brand. Omega Geneve. It is so special to me because I come to appreciate the history of the brand and model, put a lot of effort into learning how to tell a good vintage watch from bad ones, but most importantly I'm simply amazed by the level of design details that goes into this watch. It is really not the best, but it is perfect to me.
🤯Believe it or not, today is already 18 Dec 2021. Honestly at this rate I'm not even sure I can finish this before the upcoming new year.. but let's try. Maybe I'll switch to bullet points style.
- July. Thanks to the lockdown and gathering restrictions, I picked up another hobby, leather crafting. I've always loved the feeling of learning something new, like it makes me realise there are just so many things to try out in the world. And also the sense of achievement when you progressively get better at something. My partner at that time had just started their first job, so the first ever thing I made was an access card holder. It's nowhere near good looking but served it's purpose for almost a year!
- Most of my August was pretty chill. I think I'd already given my resignation letter so work didn't occupy me as much.. as I look through my gallery, it seems like I experimented a lot with the leather craft stuffs (made some for my mom and sis too!), went to some cafe and new food places, and of course, read some books.
- Someday around early September 2021 was my last at Titansoft. As you know from my previous post, I've been looking for a change since maybe around March. Tbh I'm so thankful of the WFH arrangement because interviews are now much more convenient. Also on my last day, my team mates all came to the office and it's nice that we can have a little gathering. At that time we had a newcomer who joined in the middle of pandemic, so it's good that she's got to meet some people too.
- So I was quite productive during my break. Met up with friends, did some mini spring cleaning for my room and wardrobe, bought clothes to wear to my new office (covid was getting better at that time), and went outdoor several times. Also important to note that I finally purchased a small legit table for me to do work on. I'm not sure if I mentioned it somewhere, but since the beginning of WFH till then, I had been using folding table and work from my bed. Not the most ergonomic arrangement, but oh wells.
- And woohoo! New job season's here. My company at that time is an AI powered health tech startup and I joined in such an exciting time cause people are warming up quickly to the idea of remote healthcare and how to make the whole process more effective. I was so pumped up partly because of that, and also because I felt good knowing that what I do might help people. --Spoiler alert: I've resigned from this job quite recently, but let me just recap whatever was my feeling then-- But yeah, I really learnt a lot of new things there. The challenge is because it's a B2B product, the whole thing is quite technical and I needed to know how to work with people from data and medical fields, and somehow translate all these into an experience that's easy to use for the end user.
- Maybe something else to note here, since I think it's quite an important learning. During my first few month at that company, I felt quite lonely. Here's the thing.. in my day to day I work very closely with my colleagues from the UX team. But since we had flexible arrangement, they chose to work from home. Meanwhile for me, I prefer to come to office like maybe 3 days a week. So sometimes there were events like birthday or milestone celebration, and I remember very clearly how out of place I felt at that time. Like imagine knowing no one, people having fun and chatting with each other, and there you are. But in moments like these, there are a few magical people who reach out (through different means) and basically try to include me into the conversation. And I'll always be thankful of them and hopefully in other situations, I could be like them for other people :)
- I think around November, I was quite obsessed about going to the library and borrowing books (I still am!). Like honestly, libraries are national treasures. Sometimes I go there and it warms my heart how people from all walks of life can just be there and enjoy their time. It's almost like a sanctuary. Very hard pivot here haha, but at the end of Nov we had a company outing. I had a good time throughout, but the most meaningful part was that they made the arrangement to have 2-3 people as roommates for the one night staycation and I ended up chatting quite a lot and got to know my roommate better.
- Mannn December was just sweet. And perfect. And sweet hahaha. Yes it's traditionally time for a celebration but last year, it turned out I really had a lot to celebrate. First of all I passed my probation with flying colours and got a pay raise as a result hehe. The job was not easy and I was the only content strategist there, so to be frank I had my moments of doubts and you know, impostor syndrome. So yeah that felt good in the end. I also had pre-Christmas gathering with some of my ex colleagues and it's nice to catch up with everyone. So actually, now it's the moment where I'm supposed to talk about my staycay haha. But I'm just here pondering how much details should I write down.. on one hand I want to remember stuffs and it makes sense to recall as much as possible. But knowing that I have now broken up with my then partner, it feels kinda weird too..
- Ok since actually I have lots of pictures of the staycay and our holiday in general, I decided not to talk much about it here. It was my first staycay and things were amazing. I loved every minute of it. Looking back, I know I have some minor regrets tho. I remember my ex wanted to buy Christmas decorations and I was just being the stingy one lol. Maybe I shouldn't be too strict about spendings and know when to splurge a bit more on celebrating stuffs in general too. But anyway, I was really happy last Christmas.
And yup, that's all! Sorry if the last few parts feel rushed. It's because.. well, I was rushing hahaha. I first started this habit a few years ago so that I can just look back anytime and have a good ol' nostalgic moment. But I realise as my life gets busier and my mind more occupied, it is not so easy to find the time and determination to write all these down. It might be a good thing tho, cause it may mean that my life gets more interesting and there are more stuffs to say too haha.
Soon it will be a good time to start reflecting on the year 2021. It's another roller coaster year I should say. With lots of learning. But as a conclusion, if I could go back in time and tell my younger self a thing, this would be it: "Cherish the good time, the people around you, have a good sense of balance."
See ya soon ✌️
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