Before either distance or proximity mean nothing.

In 2021, I found myself experiencing many of my "first times". The simplest one would be the first time not posting anything on this blog (oops!) while the major one would be first time working overseas. Of course not everything was a shining shimmering splendid first time experience. Trust me I had my share of ups and downs too! Still I would say 2021 was not as bad as I thought it will be. Things were not back to normal, but we got a "new normal". It could have been better, but it could have been worse as well.

We're now in a new page of 2022 and we have 365 days to brace ourself before another hello to a new year. I wish us wonderful days ahead! May we all be able to put closure on the unfulfilled 2021 resolutions and stick to the list we made for 2022 (lol). For the 2022 me, I hope she would be a kinder and more generous human being, not take people/moment/things for granted, create and live a meaningful day everyday, and put balanced focus on both life's content and context. To have more confidence in herself, faith in the process, and trust in the progress. 

Before we proceed further to 2022, let me do the recaps of my 2021!

I have always stayed within Asia for study, work, or travel. Until in 2021, I got the opportunity to go beyond Asia for the first time and even to live there for a year. This was truly a life milestone for me! The travel/relocation preparation during pandemic was exhausting with the paperworks handling, travel restrictions checking, and Covid PCR test result waiting (the last one was the most dreadful one, as it determines my eligibility to board the flight). Yet it was all paid off at the moment I board the SQ plane and here I am today 10 months later, feeling comfortable, safe and happy to have a new home.

It's a no brainer to say that I am 100% lucky to came to Switzerland and 1000% fortunate to travel around Europe. Within Switzerland, it was very convenient and reliable to travel thanks to the solid train-rail infrastructure. With the train it's just 1 hour to admire the beautiful Geneva lake, 2 hours to be mesmerized by the medieval architecture of Luzern, or 3 hours to get chilly in the snowy Grindelwald. Cross border traveling was also easy and safe. I board on 1.5 hours flight to see the canals in Amsterdam city, book a 2.5 hours flight to get my dose of sun in Santorini, and jump on 3 hours train ride to enjoy my Parisienne baguette under Eiffel Tower.

Call me exaggerating but I have always declared myself as a city girl. Take me under the sun and I will walk under the umbrella. Invite me to an outdoor activities and I will laugh at you. However for the past 10 months, apparently I spent most of my weekends outdoor, under the sun, close to the nature. Now I laugh at my self :D

I could hardly picture myself go hiking for straight 8 hours, nailing a peak of 3,257 m elevation; but I did it! 

Recently this year a friend introduced me to a philosophy called Stoicism (hey you, if you read this, thank you!). One of the principle in the philosophy is about identifying between what we can control and what we can’t. Everyday in life we have various battles to handle. For some battles, we can win it because we have full control over it (mostly are for battles with ourself). Yet there are battles that we may not win, as to win it will depend on factors outside our control; that's why here we don't have the guarantee in winning.

I have to admit that sometimes I can be quite hard to myself when things don't go like how I projected it to be. I can be upset, disappointed with myself, or lost confidence to put in effort. Correlating the Stoicism principle to my situation, apparently I fail to acknowledge that there are things outside my control which I can never influence. Let's say I want someone to treat me well; no matter how nice I treat him/her, there is no guarantee that he/she will reciprocate my effort. Perhaps I achieve something that I am proud of; regardless how important is that milestone for me, other people might have different opinion about it.

So this year, I learnt to give myself a break. I started to learn to pick my battle wisely and put my focus on ones that I can influence. This allow me to be more relax and also be more resourceful. As the less things I need to control, is the more I can pour my energy over things that matter. 

Haha how contradicting it is with the previous point? Indeed at the same time, I'm learning to be more in charge of my self. I'm trying to understand what I want, speak up my mind, make my call, and own my decision. It isn't an easy process for me as I usually try to accommodate others and keep my thoughts/emotions to my self. It never too late to realize that as much as it is important to be kind and respect others, it's also important to be kind with ourself!

Recently I scrolled through my phone gallery and found some pictures from Starbucks Master Class session I attended back in 2019. The class gave us the basic knowledge and techniques of manual coffee brewing; like how to brew coffee with French Press technique, how is it different from the popular V60 Pour Over technique, and how the same pour over technique produces different distinct taste when we use different tools i.e. the Chemex glass flask. For every techniques explained, we got to brew and taste the produces. I was well caffeinated that Friday!

One of remarkable key take away from the session was the explanation that coffee is subjective to personal preference, so there's no superior technique over another to brew a good cup of coffee. What matters most is the presence of 4 basic factors in every brewing: correct beans grind size, excellent water quality, balanced proportions, and freshness.

What was so remarkable about those 4 factors, that I could remember it all the way from 2019? It's because I found myself applying those fundamentals of brewing coffee as the simple fundamentals of living. If you think I'm exaggerating, continue to read below to know the basics to brew a good cup of coffee and how my mind correlate it to brew a good cup of life. Let me know your thoughts afterwards!

One more sleep and we will be waking up in a leap year: year 2020!

As much as I'm excited for 2020, I am utterly grateful for the past 365 days. For me, 2019 was the year of changes almost in every aspect of my life: with development in my personal growth, changes in my professional career, progress in my physical (and psychological) health, and so on. Despite of the good and the bad changes, I am gratified at the way I have evolved.

I believe in no time we will be buried in the hectic days of 2020 and forget what we have done in 2019. Thus, while we still breathing in the air of 2019, let's take a moment to recap and appreciate the highs and lows of 2019 before we move on to 2020, shall we? 

During the first 3 months, numbers of decision that impacting myself in the long run were made. This was the period when I empowered myself to focus on things that really matters to me. I started new habits and let go of things that I should've done way earlier, but never had the courage to do so. From this first quarter, I figured out that all I need was only to be courageous to take the very first step in everything.

At the beginning of the second quarter, I was exposed to many new unknown circumstances; in both workplace and personal life. On one hand it was thrilling and exciting, but on the other hand also very… ambiguous and challenging. I wish to pause the time and observe my surroundings, but I need to make quick moves or I might miss chances. Taking risk was not my cup of tea, yet I was pushed to get out of my comfort zone. There was no other way to do it, so I did it anyway to figure out how things turn out.

I was fully committed and persistent to nail all the challenges thrown to me. I made lots of sacrifices that I've shared to you in this post. You could basically observed my scattered mind and emotion during these periods in that post haha.

By the third quarter, the results of all the efforts that I made started to be visible. I accomplished things that I initially thought I could not and would not be able to make it. I was proud of myself for being able to overcome the ambiguity, confusion, and insecurity that I encounter at the beginning.

Yet of course, not everything went well as how I expected it to be. I met failures along the way and became sad (and angry) to my self. During this time, I did quite lots of reflection. I consoled myself that it's OK to be sad, but to chin up, take the lesson and move on afterward. Failure might left me heart broken; but in the same time also left me with precious lesson to learn and grow.

The changes that I experienced this year have taught me a lot and would be a great learnings to conquer the coming year.

In 2020, I would constantly encourage myself to have faith, take chances and not be afraid of failure; because the biggest failure is only when I'm not trying at all.

I also would remind my self to be persistent and consistent; cause you know... with the distraction here and there, it's easy to stop in the middle and left things undone.

Last but not least, to appreciate both the joy of glory and disappointment of defeat. At the end, we never lose; it's either we win the battle or we learn the lesson.

So, that's my 2019. How was yours?

Happy New Year everyone! See you in 2020!

Hello everyone! Apologize for being away for too long. I myself also didn't realize that I've been MIA for almost half year. My last post was on March!

In the past 6 months (and up til today), my time, energy and mind were very occupied. To free up some space in my brilliant mind, I decided to go back to this beloved blog and type down this post. Not a travelling post (while I should be posting about my last trip to Japan!), but a personal post. This post will be very subjective as I will briefly share my two cents about the etiquette in criticizing others. I only want to make it as a reminder for myself (and hopefully for you too if we're on the same page). If you feel like you will not enjoy this kind of post, please scroll through my other post in this blog as I have a lot for you to enjoy!

If you’re in, let me start by summing up my life in the past 6 months before I start my mumble.

So 6 months ago, I landed to a new work position. Remember back then to my internship days, I saw some staff stay until late at the office and I told myself I won't fancy overtime work... but here I am now spending fifty percent of the precious 24 hrs a day making calls and scrolling through Excel files at the office lol. I think it's normal though to be overwhelmed with new responsibility that we don't have before. Surely by keep on progressing to the better, it will be only matter of time until we cope up, catch up, and be friend with new responsibility.

Then to ensure I stay sane, I wanted to prepare my own meal (just so I can cook; one of my deepest passion) and go on proper workouts (just so I can fit into my uniform). Yet to find time to do that is another challenge, so I need to go the extra mile to achieve that. I decided to sleep 1-2 hours less to wake up early to chop my carrots in the morning before go for work and go home a bit later so I can run my 5K on the treadmill after work.

Adulthood is really about trying to balance out and be excel with every aspect of life, isn't it? Big applause and pat on the back to every adult out there because we all know it's not an easy task. I never say I enjoy waking up super early in the morning and going home pretty late; but if that's the sacrifice that I need to take to get what I want, there's no other way to do that.

Then as if the struggle within myself is not enough, people try to ignite fire by throwing opinions and comments. One of the recent comments that I heard a lot and repetitively, directed to anything that I do is:

Actually there's nothing wrong with the you-are-trying-too-hard statement. It shows that people pay attention to us and they have the vision that something can be improved from our current situation. It only becomes wrong when people throw that opinion and just left it hanging.

What's the purpose of saying “you’re trying too hard” if we can't offer options to ease out other's life? Without us emphasizing, they might already aware of the situation and been fighting battles in their mind, struggling to find ways to escape from their current circumstances. Us being so nosy and recklessly throwing comments without any solid solution will do them no good. It will just create more burden to their mind.

Whenever people starts to criticize me, I actually wait and anticipate for their next sentences, hoping they continue with some ideas, even the silly but rationale one, to make me stop trying hard. However, most of the times they just stop. Leaving me questioning myself, questioning my effort, questioning everything... and it could kill the fire and confidence that I previously had.

So I guess, unless we have better alternative that might help others to stop 'trying too hard', or some constructive critiques with solid reasoning and feedback, or at the very least some points of discussion worth to mention, I think it is much wiser to just keep the urge to preach to ourself.

Because we know people are already trying hard. You're already trying super hard. I'm also already trying so hard.
Let's not make it any harder for everyone 😉

Did I just type Adios 2018 as the title of this post?

Time flies fast might sound too cliche, but seriously don't you think we just started 2018 and tomorrow is the start of another blank-365-days?

Speaking of new year, it's inevitable to mention new year resolutions. I had three resolutions to be fulfilled in 2018 and frankly speaking, not all resolutions are achieved. Yet, it feel quite good for me to look back and realize that throughout the year I've done number of things to achieve my resolutions.

For 2019, part of unfulfilled 2018 goals will still be there along with some new additions. I am sharing these resolutions here in my blog as a reminder for me that I have resolutions/goals/debts to be paid hahaha. Let's pray for our complete resolutions fulfillment in 2019!

This is the continuation of my 2018 resolution. In 2018 I started to exercise as a movement towards healthier self. However, I guess I need more than exercise to have good health (and body). I will need to also control what I eat and my lifestyle.

There are several things that I need to pursue further for my study (which have been due since foreveeeer). Logically speaking I may not be able to finish everything at once, but I hope I can at least make progress with one step at a time. Finger crossed!

In the past months, I met many considered successful people in their fields and when they were asked for their key of success, they had one similar answer: read lots of books. This motivates me to seek for high-quality books for self development and business mindset. I believe this will be quite tough since I mostly read novels and unconsciously always run to YouTube or movies streaming platforms in my leisure time. There is nothing wrong with the netflix-and-chill-thingy, but I just think I need to invest more time to do things that will give me more fruitful returns. For a starter, one book a month would be the humblest target. With that said, any books recommendation?

This one is also an extended resolution from 2018. In 2018 I planned to release three seasonal hampers for Ladybug Hampers, but I just able to launch two. This year I also aim to have at least 3 seasonal hampers. From the lessons learned from Ladybug in 2018, I really hope I can have better execution in 2019 and bring this little baby of mine to become more recognizable.

So those are my 2019 resolutions. Re-read it again makes me realize I need a really really strong motivation and excellent time management which are very challenging TT^TT However, let's try! Let's just go for it and put our best effort! Hope we all can tick all of our 2019 resolutions!

Alright, this will be my last post in 2018. Thank you everyone for the supports given to this blog! Truly grateful for every one of you who sticks up with all my blog posts (even though I post infrequently :p) I hope you find my post useful and informative. I will try to work with my time management to make sure I have something new for you every month!

Wish you all a belated 2018 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of 2019. May next year be a magnificent year for everyone to fulfill our dream, happiness and soul. See you next year!

Do you ever feel that you no longer fully know someone you think you know very well before?

Like the 'current you' is not the same person as '2-3 years ago you'?

It is said that actually people never change. We just on the pursuit of our true self and gradually become more of who we really are. Over the time, all the circumstances, problems, and experiences that we encounter every day will inevitably unveil our self and personality. Perhaps we can never fully know someone or ourself like what we thought before, because people always in a never ending journey called continuous self discovery. 

During my early years of high school, no matter how many times I took the personality test, I always get the sanguine as my personality: extroverted, lively, optimistic, buoyant, carefree with high risk tolerance. At that moment, I think I suit that personality traits very well. I was very outspoken, decisive and eager to explore new things.

As I move on to university level, I think my style shifted bit by bit. I decided to be more laid back, not too aggressive and play safe. I notice that all the explanation of phlegmatic was now more relatable to me compared to sanguine's. Nodding my head while reading phlegmatic personality traits was so easy: I am looking for modesty and peace, trying to be excluded from any debate or confrontation, and enjoy things on my pace. Several takes on personality test confirmed that phlegmatic was my 'latest' personality (up until recently).

Sometimes the shifting in our personality will result with people complaining, such as 'you were not like this before', 'I like the old you better', and 'you've changed!'. Or even we can be the one who question our own condition and feel bad for not showing the characteristics that we used to express before. The pressure given from inside and outside somehow limit us to explore the new self that slowly emerge, and close the opportunity for us to discover the new strength and uniqueness that probably we never knew we had before. Such a waste, right?

Therefore, I decided to challenge myself. I want myself to embrace the changes within me, learn to know myself better from time to time, and accommodate my strength and weakness. Sure it is very tempting to focus only on my strength, but my weakness also needs to be addressed properly to turn it into my uniqueness. Both strength and the elevated-weakness should fill in each other's gap and help me to get by with my daily interactions, to better positioning myself within the society.

The process is neither gonna be as easy as or as fast as as typing down this post (while actually it took me half a month to curate the right words to develop this 3-minutes reading post!). However, finger crossed I will make it come true!

By the way, in case you are wondering why do I suddenly mumbling about personality and self discovery, it's because I recently took a personality test from 16personalities.com and somehow... the result description describes myself better than I can do hahaha. Yet reading the description was really fun and I think it's a good start to know my personality. I will re-took it again and let's see how my personality will be in the next 6 months.

That's all for this post. Hope you enjoy it along with my new blog template!♥️♥️ See you on the next one! xx

Wow.

Twelve months of 2017 have passed like a lightning.

So little had happened during year 2017, yet it gave me so much learning and emotions roller coaster.

Before we start to breathe in the fresh air of 2018, allow me to feel the remaining air of 2017 and share with you my reflection on 2017. This post will be quite personal, but it's okay to have this kind of post once a year :)

By the end of first quarter of the year 2017, I no longer tick the 'student' box for my occupation status whenever I fill in some identity form and also lost all the magical student privileges of my student card. I started to tick the 'employee' one instead and played a new role as a dutiful taxpayer. Everything seems exciting yet terrifying with the new responsibility that I have. I felt the excitement of earning things from my hard work, yet it was terrifying as I need to ensure I cope up with all the new expectations everyday.

There were times when I felt like 'Oh, I'm so loving this' and 'Wow these whole things are interesting', but sometimes I can be so down and think that 'Oh, it's not for me' and 'I don't think I belong here'. However, every time I started to fill my self with negativity and doubt, I kept on reminding my self that it was just the beginning and nothing comes easy at the beginning as everything requires time and effort. Journey of thousand miles must begin with a single step, right? I should not stop crawling my way, if I want to start walking and running to the top. With that in mind, I set my eyes on the prize and dedicate my effort to deliver my best.

Managed to tackle my insecurities, I created another unnecessary issue. With the new overwhelming routines that I have to do everyday during and after work, slow but sure I became one of the worst version of me. I became too self-reliant. I kind of shut off myself from the outer world and made myself feel like I'm on my own, fight my own way, bear all the pressures by myself. Without I realized, my so called independent attitude has made people who really care for me feeling uncomfortable, which is painful for me to see.

My surroundings and I need to experience a lot before I can take a deep breathe and finally realize: 'Hey, let's chill a lil bit. No need to over stress yourself. No need to compare yourself to the others. You are who you are. And you are not alone. No need to think about everything on your own. It's OK to ask for help, it's OK to be not so independent. Let's talk with others, let them know your issue, let them help you.'

With all the small things and big things happened to me over this year, I grew bit by bit and figured out myself better than before. Twenty seventeen had taught me about being persistent and resilient in pursuing my dream, along with the needs to balance life by allowing some imperfections and that it's OK to share my thought with others.

Twenty seventeen may not be the best year for me, but I've made it to the very last page of the chapter, and I am (perhaps) so ready to flip into the next page called 2018.

Hope 2018 is filled with bright days for each of you and for me. Hope every day in 2018 is our best day of the year.

Happy new year everyone!

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year.

It is that we should have a new soul.”

-G.K. Chesterton

Hi peeps, welcome back to this abandoned blog😂 I have no words to express my apology for this blog and for you my sweet readers as I literally do not update this blog for over a month... Kindly accept my apology and keep on supporting me and this blog!

Everyday laptop situation during the past 2 months

I've been working on my final year project and it took most of my time. Or maybe all my time. I feel like I'm a prisoner of my laptop. I could not take my eyes off of the screen, typing and typing and typing... but finally I am done with the papers! And further good news... I AM GRADUATED!👩🏻‍🎓💕

I just finished my thesis defense this afternoon (Friday 24th April) with three examiners and my advisor. It happened that my juniors in my major are having guest lecture with Dr Philip Nicholls from Australia and I was very honoured to have him as one of my examiner. It gives me the rare international exposure that everyone is looking for.
I also thankful for my adorable friends who managed to spare their time to accompany me before and after the defense. Their companion matters a lot and make me weep for joy😘 Another shout out for my bestie who even though were not there this afternoon, but her fragrant paper flowers welcomed me and made me smile from ear to ear.

Look at that exquisite paper flowers🌹check her Instagram @genoveflorist

Last but not least, my deepest gratitude are with everyone who has been supporting me throughout the process. Advisor, examiners, administration staff, friends, and last but not least, my supportive parents. I could not be here grinning like a Cheshire cat, typing this post for you guys, without their full supports and... forces. Haha. Kiddin' mom. You're the best :)

Happy me😊 bachelor in accounting

Let me stop here as this post started to be like my thesis preface lol. I hope you guys have a wonderful day and please expect my next next post as I'm going for holiday real soon and I'm really excited for it and of course I will give you guys the update about it! See you! xx

I really love CNY as it is that time of the year when all the family members can meet up. Every year, my big family will gather to have a big dinner together on CNY eve. Some restaurants offer CNY banquets, but (as I remember) we always do it in one of our relatives' house. We can cook some food and order some from the restaurant. It is really nice to have the gathering in our own place as we can be more relax without the complicated dress-code (and eating attitude!), so we can enjoy the night eating and talking! Another thing that I love from CNY is the hong-bao distribution from the grandparents, uncles aunties and parents. CNY without hong-bao is not complete😏

In less than 24 hours, you and I will say goodbye to this 2016.

2016 had been an amazing year for me. I have experienced many new life-events throughout this year; from the most expected to the unexpected ones, from the relaxing to the thrilling ones. I am so grateful for every bit of these 365 days.

I started this year by selling my hand-crafted Valentine's gift. My first intention was to earn some pocket money, but during the process, all I wanted was for my hand-crafted Valentine's gift to represent my customers' love toward their significant others. I felt the excitement in making the gift personalized for every different customer, also happiness and satisfaction when I saw them posted it on their social media with the lovely quotes. The money earned couldn't compensate the sleepless nights (and back pain) to make the gift, but the happiness of my customers paid it off.

Then for the first time, I live away from home for almost half a year. Started with my internship in Jakarta, then continued with the exchange program in Hong Kong. Living away from home, I learned to have more responsibility, wiser and have better judgement to distinguish which is good and which is not good for me. I also learned to appreciate more toward what I have back there: my time with my family, bf, friends, and of course, my local foods.

I also met many incredible people who bring positive impacts to me. Outstanding lecturers in my home university inspire me to aim higher. My supervisors and colleagues during the internship showed me how to work professionally in fun ways. My roommate in HK introduced me to many cool songs. The international and local friends, professors and staff in HKBU gave me new ideas about how to deal with language barriers and cultural differences, also helped me to expand my horizon.

Last but not least, I am grateful for my wonderful friends in 2016: my best friends who stayed with me even though we rarely see each other, my interning friends who built a quick yet strong bond between us, my classmates in PCU who went through the hardship of university life with me, lovely local friends in HK who helped me to adjust to the new culture and solved my problem, and international exchange friends who explored the city and experienced the local taste with me during our stay in HK. 

I enjoyed all the challenges, exposures and international experiences that year 2016 gave me and I really thank my parents who support me to experience those precious opportunity.

Also thank you for those who helped me to climb up high,

those who helped me to stand up again when I fall,

those who took part in my amazing 2016.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In less than 24 hours, you and I will say goodbye to this 2016.

In less than 24 hours, you and I will say hello to the total stranger, 2017.

Wish we all a happy new year!

*My gratitude is not only limited to people in pictures above*