Barffie The Whine Connoisseur

Clouds above the skies of Bali

I had the day all to myself. To lie in bed… snacking, napping and watching the cats snooze… It’s luxury I could barely afford nowadays.

I miss days like that… but it’s been assignments, family matters and social commitments… I’d barely had time to just laze around, with nothing on my mind in particular, no unfinished work waiting for me round the corner…

I enjoyed my Sunday. I really did.

Note: Photo of the cheeriest, fluffiest clouds was taken just as we broke through the stormy clouds above Bali. Hard times will always pass, I believe.

As May draws to a close, I have only one thing to say: SUPER BUSY AHHHHH.

Apart from school assignments due one after another, I have work to finish up before the trip to Bali – which is happening tomorrow, yes HURRAY!

The best news of the month is the birth of my nephew – a proud “product” of my 2nd sister and brother in law! He is a little small, but is healthy and his temperament is very nice and calm.

His birth also brought about a sense of peace and harmony in the family that hasn’t been felt for quite a while. I really liked that.

So grow big and happy, Dave! I will be seeing you and your cousins soon!

Me and my first nephew!

My sisters and mum were quite surprised I could carry the newborn baby… I guess I had practice from carrying my cats!

Happy that my results so far have been looking quite pretty. I hope to graduate with some kind of Upper Class Honours… and of course, if I do well throughout the course, I may even consider a Masters programme in future.

But I should not count my chickens way before they hatch, and certainly I should keep on pushing till the end of this year, when I will finally be done with a Bachelor’s Degree.

It’s a personal goal to achieve in spite of having to fight for everything in life that I am able to enjoy currently. Everything was fought for with my bare hands, and I deserve to enjoy every bit of it, I supposed.

So yeah. Push on, I will.

Cycling shoes!

So my new hobby is trying to keep myself from wobbling on the saddle. Wearing my trusty Adidas sneakers, my cheapo fingerless gloves (sorry no photo yet leh) and the new Nutcase Helmets… I am ready to take on the world… I THINK!

Nutcase’s Dazed and Confused Helmet!

We headed to East Coast Park to take on the 9km Park Connector Network stretch alongside the Changi Airport runways for the 2nd time, and finally we managed to conquer it all the way to Changi Village, and then back to ECP! Our riding mate’s cycling meter says we clocked about 30km that night!

I am so proud of myself!!! From someone who couldn’t cycle to someone who could do 30km and survived!

Of course, it couldn’t be done without the new bike saddle. My butt hurt so bad from the original one when we tried that same route the first time, it hurt for a good 2 days before it recovered! So I got this cheapo $19 wide fat saddle and oh boy it’s so comfortable… even Jeffwee wants one now!

Best $19 I’ve ever spent

Now I am looking forward to our next cycling trip together… it’s good fun, exploring tracks and places that we’ve never been before! Just the other night we cycled from the park near Jurong Point all the way to Chinese and the eerie Japanese Gardens!

Wooooot! So fun!

Zzz.

Another layer of dark eye circles =.=
Been hard at work at rushing deadlines for my assignments, yet again.

I’ve never been this zombiefied until I started this round of part-time studies. I could blame it on everything, but sometimes it boils down to the fact that I am a Night Owl by birth and Early Bird by training. I have to wake up and get to work on time, sometimes at the expense of my own sanity.

Can’t function well in the morning, am usually wide-awake at 10-11pm onwards. Which means I have some kind of insomnia when it comes to bedtime. He would be snoozing off to some faraway land and I would be lying beside him, desperately hoping that the Melatonin tablets work.

And like the chronic Googler and self-diagnosis freak that I am, I think this mild case of Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is closest to what I feel about sleep in general. It’s a form of circadian rhythm disorder and… for such a person to function well, I need to sleep in later.

Hur hur. How I wish I could have a job that’ll accommodate my sleep disorder.

So Singaporeans have spoken. The score is 81-6 and while there are some losses, the gain of the opposition front is something definitely worth celebrating.

So we have lost Mr Chiam See Tong, but I guess it’s a good time for him to train the newbies during this time as well.

I don’t know what else to say, except to quote him “When there is life there is hope, when there is hope, there will be change.” So activists around Singapore, don’t give up! Let’s live to fight again in 5 years’ time!

I, for one, am heartened that many Singaporeans did not stay apathetic anymore. Our future is ours to build, so don’t stand by and wait for others to do it… while we bitch, moan and whine all day long.

A beam of hope.

So we go to the polls tomorrow. And for the first time in my life, I get to exercise my right to choose the government, even if just for my tiny little Single Member Constituency.

I’ve made my choice. Have you?

Changi Airport.

You guys know I love travelling, even though our finances does not allow us to run off as often as I’d like. Although I’ve thought about migration, perhaps retiring somewhere slower… you know, I do love Singapore at the end of the day.

How do I know that? It’s when I arrive back at Changi Airport after a long, tedious trip, followed by the drive down ECP towards our home in the west… I’ve always said “Welcome back home” to myself as I watch the street lamps go by.

This is my Home. And the rise of the people’s voices during this Election period is really heartening. I think it united more people much more than the NDPs could ever do.

I want a more compassionate government with not just the hardware, but an improved software as well. I am sure Singapore can do so much better. So I am supporting Mr Chiam See Tong in his campaign by volunteering to be a Polling Agent on Polling Day.