Renovations (Part 3)

So yest, we settled choosing the curtains for the fourth level and also the laminate used for the cupboard (carpentry work). And this time round, we also made a trip to his new house to take a look at the almost-finished product. 

Since there was no one in the house, we took a much longer time to tour the place. Looking at the flooring, the cabinets in the kitchen (which I am looking forward to cooking in there) and even the bathroom. Well, the bathroom uses a much lighter colour and so basically, it looks bright and hotel-ish. And I think I finally decided on which is my favourite part of the house- the study room!

Here is a reason why...

LOL I know right. A pool view which we won't have access to! Better than nothing. We stood there for a while looking at the view and it just made us feel so calm. And I really like these condos behind des's house. Very resort style.

Since we spent the afternoon at the furniture mall, we also went to see a few furniture shops. They have the zen style, the country style (white wooden furniture), the laura ashley style (floral) and also the more traditional asian style (with rose wood and a lot of gold). It was fun and an eye-opener for me!

Definitely looking forward to seeing more renovation work taking form. ;)

Doubts, Gratitude, Optimism (A lengthy post)

I have been planning to write this post for the longest time. But, each time when I was this close to clicking 'publish', I stopped. I was afraid that whatever happy things about to come true that I typed in this blog will end up being a empty wish of mine or that it will turn out to be bad. However, today I woke up reading the latest post of Xiaxue on The Secret and affirmations (you can read more about it from her blog), it made me even more determined to change my school of thought and practise gratitude.

To be exact, I have been living rather happy lately. Maybe not just happy but EXCITED, EXHILARATED AND EVERYDAY IN GOOD SPIRITS. It could be due to my three-month break where I have no worries and could travel to places that I have never been to in the company of my loved ones. Most importantly, I feel that I have been surrounded by many good news lately. In her post, Xiaxue mentioned about the law of attraction where you should always have positive energy and then more of such energy will come to you and naturally good things or things that you have been wishing for will automatically appear right in front of you. I always believe in optimism and what the book teaches is not foreign to me for I have a mother who taught us from young that we should not be pessimistic or all the benefactors in our lives will not appear. In fact, as I continued reading her post, I start to wonder if my mum is the author itself. HAHA


Let me give you some examples.
Since young, my mum has been telling us that we should be optimistic. Sometimes when my life was met with obstacles such as a bad cooperating teacher, heavy workload, major stress, nasty colleagues, she will tell me  that I shouldn't keep frowning and sighing. Instead, I should think of how I can face it and take things one at a time. In other words, she was asking me to be optimistic. Soon enough, the problems will be solved thanks to benefactors who turned up in my life and helped me along the way! 

And trust me, this is not a one-time experience! This thing happened so many times:
1) Secondary school when my best friend, Jolene helped me as I struggled with my work after my father's passing
2) Mr Poh who knew that I was stressed about my final year attachment and that I needed allowance and so arranged me to work in RH
3) Working in RH where I hoped that my boss will recognise my hard work and give me better salary and was willing to train me for higher position
4) Working in SJI alone without much assistance yet received praise from other teachers, principal, parents and an ex-student who still sends me emails to update me about his life
4) A CT from hell who turned out to be much nicer and really taught me a valuable lesson

I'm not trying to boast about how successful I am for I still have a long way to go but what I'm trying to prove is, those are times when I have been in my lowest points of my life and I practised what my mum taught me and conversely, these problems turned out to be a blessing in disguise and sooner or later, eventually disappeared! In fact, I gained  a lot from them!


Besides this, I remembered how my mum used to chide me for pulling a long face during those low periods. She said, "How to attract benefactors (GUI REN) if you keep on showing a black face. It's like the whole universe owes you like that." How true is that?! In Xiaxue's post, she mentioned that we should not pull a long face or be in a lousy mood for this will attract bad energy. The more you think of something, the more the thing will happen.

Like the time when I was working in RH and was grumbling to my mum about how she took such a big portion of my salary and then I was only left with a meagre amount to spend and it wasn't enough for me to save. Every month, I saw how my salary could only afford to tide me through the month but not sufficient for me to save or travel or make big purchase. She will scold me, "Money can be earned one. You every month complain about money woes and cry and cry. How to make big bucks. Like this huh, you won't earn a lot of money in future because even if the god of fortune wants to pay you a visit, he sees you crying and your long face, he will get frightened away!" Eventually, I stopped complaining about that matter and soon enough, I received a letter from MOE and the salary I got then was sufficient to give my mum allowance, spend on myself and SAVE! I can travel, I can buy things I like, I can eat.
HOW TRUE IS THAT?!

I wouldn't say the god of fortune visited me but I am sure that her teaching has made me a more open person. I changed my school of thought with regards to money. If money can be earned, then I shouldn't be worried about giving it to my mum or spending it for I can always earn them back.

Honestly, my mum can be a philosopher!

Still not convinced?

Last semester, I mentioned in my blog that I had to work in a group with a few people that I can't work along with. It was tough and I had felt lousy whenever we had to meet for project discussion. Our ways of working clashed and I confided in mum that I had a feeling that the project will not turn out great. She told me to be positive and take things one at a time. I did and even tried to change my friend's mentality and guess what? During our last meetings, everything turned out smoother and even though we didn't get a very good grade for our proj, it was still satisfactory.

Oh, and my mum has this weird mindset, she believes that the more you think about something, the more it will happen. For example, last semester during my exam period, the train always broke down in the morning. So on the day of my exam, I set off really early for I had the fear that the train will break down. See, I thought about the negative. So, as I was travelling in the train, I kept praying that the train will not break down and guess what again, the train broke down at Clementi station! And that was the only line that travelled to Boon Lay. I was lucky that I was taking the circle line at that time when my friend called me about it and I just kept praying that I will be able to grab a cab at Buona Vista. Indeed, I did and made it in time for my exam. I kept thinking about a bad thing and the train really broke down. Then when I hoped for something good, I managed to get a cab while another friend couldn't.

Our family has this habit of driving to Bukit Timah and Botanic Garden and admired the landed properties there. Then, sometimes, it got so frequent that I will ask mum why she won't get sick of seeing the same thing and wows each time. She will tell us, "It's free to see so why shouldn't we see more. Who knows, the more you see, maybe next time you get to live in this kind of house." So from then on, whenever we goes to those areas with a lot of landed properties, sis and I would say that we want to see more so living in them one day will come true. I hope this is really becoming true for me.

And recently I went on a cruise to KL and it was quite enjoyable. During the trip, I kept telling des how fun it would be if my family can join us next time and how much they will enjoy themselves. So after the trip, we called so many times to Starcruises, planning for another holiday using our points where we can bring my family along. There were so many obstacles along the way and we sort of give up. Then, I began wishing that the cruise trip will eventually work out and on the morning of our family photoshoot, des called to say that his parents can join us for the National Day weekend and they were intending to use their points to help us book more rooms for our family! So, the trip was finalised and during the weekend of National Day, our whole family together with des's will be on board Star Virgo to Redang, Malaysia! YAY!!!!!

So, my point for this post is that, I do not need The Secret for I already have a real one living with me and constantly reminds me to be grateful for what I have and stay positive. However, I think I have one more thing that I still need to practise and that is removing all doubts. Sometimes I lack determination. When I waited too long for something good to happen, I started to have doubts about whether I have been doing the right thing or wasted too much time thinking positive. Then, the thing I wish for will never happen.

Therefore, from now onwards, I am going to practise optimism and gratitude. Then, more good things will happen to me! Hopefully, you guys will start to!

I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
I want to have more money to last me till I graduate.
:)

Yunnan May 2012 (Day 7)

This is the last post on Yunnan! YAY! I'm getting tired posting pictures on Yunnan and I'm pretty sure you guys are sick of them too. So, this shall put an end to it!

When I mentioned that the weather was very hot in Yunnan, not many people believed me. They thought I was exaggerating wearing all those sunglasses, hat, taking cover under a shawl and wearing long sleeved shirt BUT the truth is, it was really really that HOT!

We couldn't take pictures without squirming and feeling sunburnt all over exposed skin. So, knowing that we were going to visit many parks on Day 7 and that there will be a lot of walking under the hot sun, I came prepared!

That morning, we set off from our Kunming hotel to the first attraction, Jiuxiang which is located at the outskirts of Kunming. This place is famous for their natural cave formations and used as a filming site for many of China's movies and drama.

Then, we took a short boat ride to tour the area.

This is only the beginning of the trekking! 

We had to climb up and down so many steps! 300 over of DOWN steps almost killed me! And I remembered my legs trembling as I continued walking.

Mum hired two guys who carried her throughout the journey on a sedan! She heard from her friends who had been to Yunnan that this part of the journey was the most energy-draining and that she was afraid her legs couldn't take it. So, with just 200RMB, she got someone to carry her around. LOL

I also tried the sedan at the last stretch of the journey as I refused to climb up those steep stairs. So I paid 50RMB for that. Wonder how it feels like? Well, one of the two guys will give an introduction of the sights as we walked along. Then in between, they will pant really loudly for you to hear and explained how they only earned 20RMB for each trip and they had to support their family. They will continue telling you how a previous tourist gave them a big tip! You get the hint? haha

This place is also used for the filming of Journey to the West airing on Channel 8 now!

 A waterfall within a cave is actually a rare sight.

This is the Shui Lian Dong of Sun Wukong.

AND WE MADE IT!

No, you are not seeing the same person in these two pics LOL!

White rabbit sighting at the exit of Jiuxiang.

Off to a nice restaurant for lunch...

Just when the our stomachs started digesting our lunch and we were feeling sleepy, we were brought to the next location- The famous Shilin.

These rocks are natural formations and they are distributed in all shapes and sizes around the area. Some of these rocks resemble certain animals. I can only see one thing over there and that is the crowd of the local tourists swarming the iconic Shilin to take pictures. 

Here comes the farmer LOL...

We were no longer in the mood to take pictures as the weather was really hot! Just take for the sake of taking since we had photobreak. In my opinion, even though these two attractions were famous and a must-see, I feel that they have become too commercialised in the sense that the government has changed much of the place. Either add in some neon lights or grasses or whatever. It no longer feels and looks natural unlike in Lijiang or in Shangri-la where most have been left untouched.

Now when I looked at these pictures, the rocks actually looked quite nice. 

Gorgeous bougainvillea! SO PINK that you don't see many green leaves!

Oh hi!

Wanted to take a pic in their costume but was too hot and lazy to change.

Free performance and some of us even joined them in their dancing.

FINALLY!

The place was too packed so we just found any spot and quickly took a pic each.

Bro and his lame T-shirt which I can't stop teasing him about! LOL

We were so glad that the day was over and when we reached our hotel, we quickly made appointments for full body massage! It was sooooooooooooo shiok! The local ladies had really strong arms and when they kneaded and pressed, I felt 'jelly' all over. And it was cheap too!

This marks the end of my Yunnan travelogue. I was glad that I booked this trip and learned a lot about the different cultures. I got to climb up to the peak of a snow mountain and see snow for the first time. I got some pretty pictures taken and this made me realise how terrible my current camera was. So, for people who really wants to experience a more 'colourful' and culturally-rich part of China, try Yunnan and you will like it.If you actually prefer a more subtle and poetic part of China (like me), you may want to try Beijing and Jiangnan (can see my previous posts on them in 2009). :)