Reflection

Today's post will be a relatively reflective one. 

I consider myself to be a rather impressionable person. I lack a strong opinion towards issues and unfortunately, more often that not, even towards my own decisions and choices that directly influence my well-being and my future. And it doesn't help that certain information are so scarce despite the increased accessibility of most information on the net as compared to the past, and also when certain feelings and emotions are known to you, and only you. 

In the first scenario, you may still tap on your social relationships. Be bold and ask people you know, people around you. "Stay hungry, stay foolish", thanks to this succinct yet impactful advice Steve Jobs has left behind. We tend to think too much and find it difficult to make the first step to initiate and find out more. Sometimes its worthwhile to be thick-skinned and you'll realize that people are actually keen to help and share. 

Credits to Neal Campbell

In the second, however, you are more or less really left alone. You may confide in all of your close family and friends and most of them would have or have heard of similar encounters and have stories to share. But at the end of the day, the pertinent questions which only you can answer remain. How do you feel? Do you feel happy? Do you feel loved? Do you think everything will be worthwhile? Do you see a future ahead? Sometimes, it appears to be pragmatic yet ridiculous to ponder about the future. There are so many uncertainties in life and don't we often simply make sure that we are not making the definite wrong choice, but leave to fate to see how our decisions will turn out?

Credits to Nando

And if you are unsure of your answers to the questions, will how you feel when he is no longer yours indicate how you should have decided? But that would be very selfish. In what position and with what right do you have to manipulate the relationship and decide whether to be with him or not. Your fickleness and indecisiveness may be revolting to him, even to yourself. Perhaps if he were a jerk, things would be so much easier and the pain would not be as bad as now when it seems that even death would be less painful. Everything you do reminds yourself of him. When you log onto Facebook, friends' check-in into food places familiar to both of you makes your heart ache. When you browse Burpple, photos of brunches makes you recall of his compromise and effort to bring you for this "girl's thing" which you enjoy much more than him. When you look around your room, the gifts he bought for you during different occasions remind you of his surprises. And he would be on your mind every second, never so much before even when you are together. And you will be badly astonished by how much tears your eyes can actually produce, continuously and involuntarily.

And you wonder how and when all these will be over. Because it just hurts so much that you would be falling apart. There's no motivation to be awake and do anything at all. The thought of going out, going overseas, studying hard, applying for jobs holds no meaning anymore. This can't go on, because it will hurt your family who will be seeing this despondent side of you. You need to be strong. You need to trudge on.

Please give me the strength, whoever you are.

Happiness

When happiness is strongly correlated with all the free & best things in the world- family, friends, love and health, why is it that the bulk of our time is still spent on the pursuit of higher income and materials wants? The answer is that there exists 2 types of happiness, absolute happiness and relative happiness. Relative happiness has evidently been receiving greater emphasis, resulting in the never-ending chase for greater "success" (measured in terms of grades, ranks or incomes) as compared to our peers. The presentation provides an insight into how you should go about your life-long pursuit for happiness. I find my 17 minutes spent on it pretty worthwhile, how about you?

Lazy Sunday Picnic

What a lazy Sunday it has been! 

With my topsy-turvy body clock, I climbed out of bed at about 3 before washing up and racking my brains for what to bring for the picnic potluck. While gobbling some of my mum's seafood Tom Yum soup up for a quick lunch, I spotted my mum enjoying a bunch of grapes in her grasp and tada! I can bring the super sweet and seedless grapes I have at home! Fruits are definitely perfect for picnics, sweet & refreshing. 

I grabbed some Bengawan Solo kuehs from BPP before a haphazard drive to Stadium MRT. Just to clarify, the drive was haphazard not because I am a reckless driver but because of road closures unregistered by the GPS! Resulting in my one-way-ticket-drive into the heart of my fearful Marina zone. Eventually, I took a large detour via ECP and Mountbatten before meeting up with Bro's car and arriving at our destination (Tanjong Rhu Road; free parking). We took a short relaxing walk by the river to Gardens by the Bay where we sourced for a comfy shady spot to lay our mats and settle down for a nice, cutesy picnic. And that was when the awesomeness of my Sunday began... Check out the photos brimming with sunshine & joy below :)

Thanks to Bro and Sis for introducing us Gardens by the Bay, as well as organizing this picnic! Being around this bunch of people reminds me of our havoc days in hall <3 And this gorgeous, relaxing environment just makes the food and company even more enjoyable. My little brain kept reminding me that I gotta bring my loved ones here for a picnic soon because not many people know of this place yet. So hurry if you want a serene and cosy picnic to yourselves!

One last photo of the evening scenery before leaving!

A-Photo-A-Day Series: Summer Holiday 2012

Presenting to you... my summer holiday 2012 depicted by this A-Photo-A-Day series! I will be making an effort to capture at least one moment each day of my summer for weekly summaries of this holiday. And I believe this will inadvertently motivate me to accomplish more and be more productive every single day in order for meaningful photos to be shared! You may try this too!

Social Media Buttons Added! & US Visa Issues

Yay! I've added pretty Sherbet-coloured social media icons to my blog at the side bar on the right, courtesy of Her New Leaf's Freebie Friday! Liking her Facebook page will entitle you to the other 2 exclusive colours, Poppy and Sherbet (I'm using this!). 

While figuring out how to incorporate these cute little buttons into my blog, I have found out that saving your photos under the Public folder of Dropbox enables you to copy the public URLs. You may then use your images anywhere online which requires the image source, in my case, in the HTML code. You can do away with photo-hosting sites like Photobucket!

Anyway, just to rant a little before I head for bed, despite the efficiency of the US embassy in approving my US Visa (for my upcoming Summer Programme at Yale University in July), receiving the Visa today and seeing that my name has been printed in the wrong sequence has been extremely perplexing. 

My full name is unique because my Christian name comes before my surname, then followed by my given Chinese name. When the application forms repeatedly reminded me to fill in my name identical to that on my passport, I was confused. For my name to be printed identical to that of my passport, I included my Christian name in the surname column as well. However, I have only found out very recently (if only it was a week earlier!) from a travel agent that the correct sequence of your name is reflected in the barcode at the bottom of your passport details page. And due to the silly act of mine, my name reflected in the barcode at the bottom of the Visa is different from that in my passport. That's it! I guess paying more can definitely get it rectified but I've had enough of paying for the exorbitant administrative fees! And so, I'm very troubled. 

But at least I have some useful knowledge to share with you guys, that is, your details in the barcode at the bottom of your passport/VISA is what that matters. May this save you much hassle in the administrative matters when preparing for your travel!