My Humble Abode – One Year On

Last month, in July 06, is my official first anniversary in this place that I call `home’. My rented apartment in Kota Damansara.

Flashback to 1 year ago…when after a frantic 3 weeks search, I finally found a place that I could call `home’. I was so excited to finally be moving on, from the little room that I had rented for close to 6 years to this brand new apartment. My new apartment comes at a cost of RM800 per month, not inclusive of the utilities bills. However, with this amount, it heralded in a new chapter of my life, whereby I could at long last, live `freely’ as a single young executive working and living in KL.


Fast forward, 1 year on… whats the difference in my life now? For one thing, for the past one year, I really enjoyed having a place that I could call my own, even though it is just a rented premise. I no longer have to put up with eccentric behaviour of my then landlord who was prone to anxiety attacks and was on medication chronically. I do not have to clean the shared common toilet, whom I shared with some KDU students who did not even have the good sense to flush the toilet after use (gross!).

I have found peace and tranquility at home, and I am also finding it soothing to just simply hang out at home, instead of in the shopping malls, or gyms, or pubs. I can cook as and when I like, and the fridge is loaded with my stuffs, and no one is throwing them out like before.

Going to work is a breeze… I can wake up only at 8am, and can still make it the office, on the dot at 9am, if I were to leave my place at 845am. Hahah… this goes well for people like me, who are more nocturnal by nature.

Well, I guess, in the very nutshell, its all `me, me, me’!!

Lest I sound like a contrite, self centred person (which I hope I am not), I still love company of good friends and family. I have also set up my apartment with a 6-seat dining table, and got cutleries in sets of 6’s, in anticipation of my hosting dining parties for friends. I have found that I have a good colleague who happens to be my neighbour (same block, same floor!) and when sometimes her good hubby is outstation ,will pop in to say hi, chat, and when I am stressed out, was even kind enough to bring me a box of green tea.

Finally I can sometimes just lay back and say `yeah, life is good’… as I enjoy the serenity of my apartment, and admire the minimalist furniture that I have in place, of which gives me all the furniture comfort of a home I need, yet not overwhelming and still appears spacious, which I like. It gives me a sense a pride also to sit back and admire the few things I have brought back/preserve from my travels or past events, that now adorns the empty spaces my living room, making it more homely and habitable.

My humble abode. My peace haven. On my one year ‘s anniversary here, two good friends also moved into another adjacent block. And nowadays, we hang out like before, but it is either in my humble abode, or theirs.
Life, as they say, is as good as its gets…. :D

Year to Date (YTD) updates

Can't believe it had been aeons since my last entry. alright, even that was a pitiful attempt at blogging when my overall entries year-to-date was only standing at 2 !

The months had not been easy on me, mainly with my escalating workload, and constant travelling. A lot of my nights were spent on clearing my backlog of emails etc as my day is spent going out to meet my clients and working with my team to ensure that our product launch, coming up soon will be well received and the product will just fly off the racks!

Next week, i will be travelling again, going on a roadshow hopping from Kuching to KK, to Penang and Ipoh. following week, Singapore again!

Need to put effort in order to juggle the fine lines between working for a living, for living for work. The positive side if things is that I still try to `live' a life away from office, trying to weave some activities into the web of never-ending work and work-related travelling.
This weekend, met up with my regular kaki for movie and our usual supper and drinks. Only reached back home in the wee hours of the morning, at 3ish; of course, after we hang around Soul Out watching the Ghanians thrash the Czechs at 2-0. Yeah ! (but hey, am not a football fan at all...heheh..just let myself follow the flow, and everyone was just so `in' into football these days. I must keep up also with the masses , even if my interest is not even there.)

Dragged myself out of bed at 10ish this morning, so that i can meet up with 2 girlfriends for an early morning movie (again!). "X-Men 3" was good and entertaining. Never loved Wolverine more than this movie. In the past, he seemed like a immature and hot tempered anti-hero. At least in this one, he has mellowed and hmm... seemed more appealing. hahah...maybe I am getting old, and older men are more attractive these days?

A `Hole' To Make One Whole

Last Friday night, I had an event. It was just one of those events that is part of my official duties but as usual, the days before the event was full of frenzied last minute touch-ups, and a few sleepless nights for me, as my brain raced at checklists even in the wee hours of the morning. Talk about work-related insomnia, this was certainly a classic example!

On the way to the hotel downtown, I felt that my ears (specifically my pierced earholes) were getting quite painful, maybe I tossed and turned and pressed down on the earlobe too heavily the night before (?). Hence, I removed my right earring from my ear. The relief was felt immediately. So, happily I went about with the event etc.

The next day, I found that my ears were still swollen, and hence no earrings could actually make it through my right ear hole. Thankfully, the other side, which is not swollen, everything was fine. I consoled myself that its was just `one of those days’, and that I would try again the next day. By Sunday evening, when I still couldn’t get in any earring into that earhole, I was really panicking. Tried using the `S’ shaped dangling earring, no, can’t get through. Then changed my strategy to using the white gold ring, alas, same result! Finally, tried using my pure gold rings, still unsuccessful. In the midst of all these trysts, my ears started hurting more and more. Alas, it was time for me to surrender and admit defeat – my `hole’ has closed on me.

Spent the next couple of days in distress and bemoaning my “loss”. Smsed a friend about it, and he sent his `condolonces’ and tried to get me to think of not wearing earrings as akin to girls cutting their long hair short after a long time, and that “it’s all a matter of looking at things from a different perspective”, and of course, that I would also have to just get used to the new way of things (ie cannot wear earrings).

However, I was beyond consoling. Guess in a way, this `loss’ invoked in me emotions that I have never thought I would ever have, in association to something as simple as, a `hole’. Brings back memories of those younger days when I was too afraid to have my ears pierced and my grandma used to admonished me that “if you don’t pierce your ears, you won’t look pretty on your wedding day coz you won’t get to wear earrings”. That sent me to the goldsmith when I was 12, gritting my teeth and bored the onslaught of the sharp (but short) pain that pierced a hole each through my thick earlobes.

For the next few years, I happily wore my gold rings until one day, an accident brought an end to all this. Was knocked down by a car and hit my head hard on the ground. At the hospital, when they were prepping me for x-raying my head (with the bump), my earrings were literally torn away from my ears. No kidding, the pain then was so awful that I could have sworn it felt like they were pulling off my skin with pliers. Hence the end of my `hole’ story, part 1.

My 2nd attempt happened just a couple of years ago. In a rare showcase of camaraderie and bravado, went together with a good friend to have our ears pierced one Chap Goh Meh night, since this is supposedly a good day for doing so. Hence started my second era of wearing earrings.

Coming back to present day, with this `hole’ closure, suddenly, it seems that all that drama is all for nothing. Suddenly am faced with issues even bigger than the words of my grandma, and the physical pain of ear piercing. Suddenly, I realized that this loss somewhat, somehow affected me in terms of my feminity.

Moping my loss, I simply could not imagine not having ear holes to wear all the pretty earrings that I have in my possession. Makes me feel less female in comparison with the girls about town, and I try to make up by covering my ears with my long hair. A friend even joked that since I still have the other good ear with the hole, I could actually start a new fashion trend of just wearing one earring! Funny as that may sound, still it didn’t appeal to me. I still felt that I have lost a part of me that is very female. A thought did creep it that maybe since it was so difficult for me to keep my `hole’, perhaps it was just meant to be?

Finally, four nights after the first realization of the `closure’, I found that my ears were no longer swollen, and decided, oh well, maybe, just maybe, with the swelling gone, I might be able to find my `hole’ back? With the remotest of hope, I sterilized my earrings, lubed on plenty of Johnson baby oil, and tried, and tried…walluup..what did you know? It just went through!!

Wah! Am estatic with joy!! Finally, I feel `whole” again. :D
What a difference a `hole’ can make!

Smsed my friend again that night, “Ahem..I have reclaimed my `hole’ tonight… poked right through”...
Guess what he answered? ‘wah.. that prose sounds so porno…..luckily I understood the context..” haha !!!

Hello WORLD....here I come!!

Have been inspired to start my own blog by a friend whose blog am a loyal fan of. Guess been reading too much of other people's posts and since then have been itching to start typing away but alas, have always been bitten by the lazy bug, and nothing ever ventured..

So, why start tonight, finally? reason is I have been following a very exciting Hong Kong series on DVD (20 episodes condensed into 1 DVD) for the last few nights and thought that I would have that pleasure of continuing the `chase'. Ah ! but what have I done? I actually left the DVD in the office! so, suddenly am at a loss of what else to do..might as well stop procrastinating and start my blog, a new start to a new year, yea!

Although the first week of the new year has already slipped by, i believe it is still a good time to start thinking of what I want to get out of the year, i.e. make new year resolutions! So, here goes my humble list, hopefully, my string of resolutions will be practical enough to still be in force when we reach later part of the year...

1) Live a more healthy lifestyle
By having that subheading, am I currently living an unhealthy lifestyle? well..not exactly... but i do think I can actually improve further by making some changes, such as `early to bed, early to rise" (2am bed time on working nights has to go!!), more frequent visits to the gym (esp hotel gyms when am travelling), more diligent in taking my supplements, must remember to brew my monthly bird's nest for complexion, drink more h2o, less coffee !

2) Keep a healthy balance between work and personal life
This is a mighty tough one!! but i think i am already seeing progress...at the very least, I have stopped working on weekends, unlike some time ago, when I was practically working 7 days a week. However, with a very tight travelling schedules, and work plan in view for this year, I believe I would need to put in more `effort" in order to keep this balance, and not let it slide and skew more towards the work arena. After all, am not getting any younger and hence, must really live life and not just let life pass me by, without enjoying it more.

3) Revamp my personal finances for better management
Whenever someone asks me about my personal finances, I always skidded the subject. My excuse had always been, "Finance was my least fav subject back in biz school...!!". anyhow, late last year, I finally took a long hard look and made some critical conclusions of my current status. Hence, it is time for action and a call for revamp! will need to spend some time in this area and be more diligent too in studying investment options and hopefully by mid year, I would have a better level of knowledge to start investment.

With only 3 resolutions, will try hard to stay on track. Hopefully by end of the year, will have one posting, to reflect on how the year's been. Belated Happy New Year to all !!