Cleaning up my blog

It's approx 16 days to new year 2015. Time to do check in in my whereabout and also clean up some blogs.

Here's what I posted with respect to 2013, 2014 "achievements":

So, in 2013, I didn't go to Egypt, Latin America, nor Switzerland. However, I resolved to do my sabbatical and I got a healthy outcome. In year 2013 I was also promoted and became the regional lead in my job. And had 2 almost relationships that broke my hearts but help me grow.

Year 2013 "Heartbreak Year"

Year 2014 "Sabbatical and Balance year"

Year 2014 is best reset year from mental and spiritual balance. I regain my natural self and learned so much about life and balance.

Family holiday to bandung

Here is my super-long guide based on my last trip just for you guys. 

Quite useful and comprehensive guide about the city here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Bandung

Famous restaurants:

• Kampung Daun - means Leaf Village. Best time to go is Friday night. Service can be slow, but ask for Pondokan that is. Very taste bbq fish, and local food. The weather is cool and nice.
• 
  
• Rumah Strawberry - pick your own straberry, but the highlight is the local nasi liwet package. Very fragrant with friend or bbq chicken, etc.
• The Valley, is a restaurant in a hotel that is the top of the cliff. At lunch, you can see the cliff overseeing the Bandung city. At night should be pretty romantic :) the price is steep though, means like Singapore level pricing. The way there is also very scary and steep, an interesting experience, as you follow narrow road among the villas. #2 The Valley
  
• And then Warung Bu Tris, Braga Permai, Rm Ampera, are a couple of wellknown quality and name.

For Shopping Cihampelas, I feel by staying there at night you’ll be able to find some interesting things. Other than Cihampelas:- there are some unique factory outlets along Jalan Riau with better quality clothing and shirts. Heritage is the most famous one, it's housed within an historical building. And there is a couple others side by side along the walking distance. Conveniently, there are snacks pop-up stores just outside to do some local snack shopping. Check out the “branded bags” section and let me know what you think hoo hoo

Learning Chinese

Based on my (layman) theory, facial expression and language spoken have strong influences on people's face due muscle development. So to my surprise, I am now known as looking like "Filipino" due to my non-Chinese face, and thought to be "Indonesian" due to my non-Chinese surname.

To uncover back my heritage route, I decided to learn Chinese, or rather continue my lessons on the long-lost language (to me). There are a couple of options for learning Chinese for professionals in Singapore. My preference and feedbacks:

NUS Extension, the arm for continuous education organized by NUS (National University of Singapore). The class is generally well attended by foreign professionals, taught by native speaker, and have a good curriculum and class progression from beginners. Generally each module is 4-5 months long, twice a week at weekday nights.
(now this has program has been discontinued).

Some online courses or tuition classes. You can try searching here for language courses.

I also found some interesting courses, organized in China/Beijing.

• Language courses organized by Beijing Cultural and Learning Centre: 2weeks summer class every day 8am-12pm. http://school.cucas.edu.cn/course/detail?sid=17&courseid=41422.
• Website to learn a character everyday http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com/

Work, Work, then Something exciting

I am getting a new PC build, diy from a computer shop at Sim Lim Square (SLS). How it started is I was wanting to retrieve data, quite innocently, from my old harddisk that has been buried in the box. Most of the older harddisk is of IDE type, which means that current standard SATA, could no longer read the harddisk. I went to SLS to get a reader - and Video Pro was the only shop online that stocks the Sabrent. I called the shop at 720pm, to check for opening hour the day after, and was informed that they are open until 8pm everyday.

I visited the shop, and was interested in the build. After 1hr consultation, where the shop is closed, but the lads are very happily obliged and I put $200 deposit for an AMD configuration within, or rather close to my original budget of $1500 SGD.

After a night of research, my system is capable of producing this quality in Final Fantasy XIV ARR - woohoo. I have to compare this High Desktop setting with the miserable specs  of my laptop (note: it is a decent 3-year old laptop) under Extremely Low Laptop setting. The graphic, the texture of cloths, dirts, roads, the weapons, the special effects of spells and fire - are all beautifully rendered.

tomorrow I'm going to be back to work (almost)

pooof, my sabbatical goes so quickly. I enjoy them so much.

Tomorrow is Sunday, the day before I am scheduled to be back to work. My holiday has been fulfilling, enriching experience in my life. I went with the purpose of trying to get a sense of my worklife. I concluded, with the result of having a broad perspective to my life. My whole life, into the real accurate, non-delusional, as well as balanced view. What a life fulfilling time.

I treasure the time, and I thank God for giving me directions and tips. Did I miss those when I was busy, or simply that I was too busy I didn't have the peace and patience to listen. My twenties blur past me with a blindingly quick pace, where I achieved so much in my career and wealth, but my personal fulfillment has been standing still, or crawl at snail pace.

Thank you for enabling this Sabbatical, and I am glad I had the courage and foresight to take this.

I am going to miss having this time.

As my last Saturday in mid sept2014, I was watching this vegan chocolate cake. with link here.

Whatcha doing D minus 6

I am reading, doing lots of relaxation with the hope to jolt my vacation plan to life.... >_>

Reading about saga seed yesterday, after helping mom pick up some of these hard little red seeds that are common in the singapore's tropical weather. do you know that it's popular and some people use it for its association with love?

today reading about evernote vs OneNote my favorite note taking app. While getting ready my laptop (Surface RT) for the first time for my travel. I downloaded all the books that I have in kindle account (it has Kindle app) and install a couple of games and toolkits (like Music and offline Photo sharing with note taking and some online storage accounts). So I am set.

Why People are Selfish

I am sitting here, working overnight on what I believe to be my last Fiscal Year closing as my role. I am committed and dedicated, and feeling increasingly naïve.

I felt so foolish for wanting to dedicate my effort and thought I will be happy to "support" my colleagues in ramping them up to be doing well in the role. I am foolishly thought that I would be rewarded with recognition, gratitude, and thankfulness.

It turned out after all the hardwork, my personal time, efforts, thoughts, and energy put into building the people, what I got is nothing but a generic, thank you everyone in the team (including those that barely contributed to your onboarding!) by the person whom I onboarded the most, and plus I spent all my thoughts planning about her 6-months maternity leave. I'm feeling disappointed and a bit bitter. I suppose I was naïve, I thought it would turn out not as what I expected. I don't know what I expect, but certainly I am vindicated and again proven that people are selfish. The level of immaturity and flattery that go around certainly continue to astound me. When shall you ever learn, dear? I can't help but to hope.

I suppose I am insecure myself but at least I am mature enough to feel and know that the world doesn't resolve just around me.

I just felt I'm discriminated against. Just because I'm the youngest in the team, and I am few years younger than my teammate, I truly feel that she treat me differently ever since she discovered that I am years younger than her even though I have more seniority. Some people are just shallow and self-serving.

Why am I so sad. Don't I know this already. It still hurts. Very much like a betrayal.

I am glad I have my summer plan sorted out.

Nepali Visa

From :http://www.kopanmonastery.com/about_info.html

Nepali Visas

You will need a valid visa to enter Nepal. This is now available at the airport for a stay of up to three months for most nationalities (Please check with the nearest Nepal Embassy for special regulations applicable for your country of origin). It can be extended for up to five months within one calendar year. The visa needs to be paid in cash US$ on arrival at the airport. Bring US$ in cash for this purpose. Also needed is a passport size photo.
The cost of the visa:
15 days = 20 US$
1 month = 40 US$
3 months = 100 US$

Preparation for my 6-week Break

I have been asked often, what's my prep for the break.

I am feeling luxuriously and blessed to have the opportunity to take this break. I have no clue what and where I am going but I am trying to shake away the feeling of being forced to pack stuff on my agenda.

I am thinking of Nepal. some sort of meditation week. Also some vigorous activity.
So toying with ideas of taking 1 week quiet meditation thru Nepal or Bhutan - then head over to Europe/Peru for backpacking, simple and bare stuff of travel. So no 5-star, going back to basic.

My initial research for a place brought me to Nepal, searching Buddhist meditation classes brought some link:

• http://lawudo.com/retreat.html = a simple place that is family place where you are supposed to sleep in sleeping bag in winter, and fetch your own water from the spring.Charges 1500Nepal rupees- per day / around US20
• http://www.buddhist.ca/kopan_monastery_tibetan_buddhist_meditation_retreat.html = staying in dormitary offering beginner intro class to meditation. Charges 120USD for 10 day, US80 for 7 days.
• http://www.kopanmonastery.com/about_info.html = Monastery that accept one-month and three-month programme. USD460 for 1-month program.

Fortune for Taurus in 2014

2014 Yearly Horoscope for Taurus

Overview

2014 is the year of expansion, fulfilling work and stellar wellbeing, Taurus! If you've fallen prey to the typical Taurus legacy of neglecting your own needs and taking care of everyone else's problems, this is the year to take your power and your life force back so that you can invest in a brand-new life. No, this does not make you selfish or uncaring, this makes you true yourself and with a greater capacity to give to your loved ones because you will no longer be running on empty -- which is probably how you've felt over the past few years. You've certainly learned the art of releasing control in 2013. The good news is that the fog is finally about to lift as the South Node finally moves out of your stars this March. You've been letting go of so many things -- from material possessions to antiquated concepts around values and security. In fact, you've relinquished so much that you may barely recognize your life at this point, Taurus. You've certainly learned to simplify your world in 2013, and now you're getting ready to go rebuild towards greater beauty and harmony. The focus of 2014 is all about communication, work and daily ritual. If you've been promising yourself for eons that you'll get your daily routine into better balance as in: more exercise, better sleep and less work, this is the year to make that happen.

Hakone Hot Spring

My 2 favourite items in Hakone are the sulphur egg and Hot Spring.

Black egg look a bit like this. The website said that it's available for 500yen at the Owakudani egg steaming hut. Alternative is I got it at the Souvenir shop at the opposite of Hakone Yumoto station, level 2, in the cold section for a little over 200yen and it's cool and refreshing to eat (I like).!

And about the hot spring:

How to Make Japanese green tea

I just came back from Osaka, holiday from Japan looking fit and slim.Small wonder since the holiday involves 7-8 hours sightseeing and walking every day.

Then I read the article about the secret of Japanese food, to longetivy. Its common knowledge that the Japanese enjoys one of the longest life expectancy in the world. According to article, the key is control of the quantity food consumed, which makes a lot of sense. The diet also made up on unusually high number of seaweed, raw fish, veggie, tofu and green tea.

Speaking about greentea, I am inspired to as I recall a particularly beautiful green tea cup served in sturdy-but-light wooden bowl (non-heat transmitting so you can drink your matcha in comfort) that was full of light bubbles but delightfully light and pure. It was served with a nice pinkish bean-mochi. I think I had it at one of the traditional teahouse near Shinjuku-Gyoen, or Kyoto or Kamakura. In any case, I just viewed a youtube video to recall proper way those cup of greentea is served.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2doEhQaynLs

Another weekend is over

I had been travelling heavily in the past 2 months or so. For example, in the last Feb, I was in Singapore for 1 week, the rest - Jakarta, Perth, Tokyo, and Seattle.


A nice jet-setting life but pretty disruptive to my non-existent private social life now. This can't go on forever. I go on with this thought that I need to do things differently but the inertia is a hardest thing to break.


At least I have the following achievements to crow for:
1. I am very close to attaining my driving license.
2. I read very touching story about Mimi an 8-year old Aussie girl who realllly want a Surface 2.
3. I collected my miles.
4. I took care of all my credit cards.
5. I am very happy with my savings stat.
6. I blew up my marathon training.


Sigh... I really really Really need to do something.


Meanwhile, went to do night-cap stroll with mom throughout iLight at Marina Bay. While went to complete documents for Taiwan visa applications....


Logging out.

Archive: 2013 Target List

• Reach about Egypt
• 1 hr 10KM
• Increase a Life skill
• Improve a Skill
• Love More!
• Plan to Latin America
• Climb Kinabalu - Done Jan7
• Switzerland or Skiing