NDP

Getting a NDP ticket to any of the previews or the actual show is as difficult as striking a lottery, especially ever since they shifted to the floating platform.

Why?

Because they number of seats available has decreased and therefore the probability of getting the tickets decrease as well. 

After denied of the opportunity to celebrate National Day, I 've finally gotten a chance to go watch NDP preview!! My cousin gotten free tickets and was willingly to share with me, so of course I'm really elated!

It was my first time sitting at the floating platform.

The backdrop view of Integrated Resorts and Singapore River was spectacular. But unfortunately, it started pouring and we have to miss out some parts of the show like the parachuting event.

It was more frustrating when people sitting in front of you took out umbrellas when they were wearing raincoats blocking 70% of your view. Too bad for my friend, her view was blocked 90%

The show was awesome, not because the performance was superb , I mean it was good but the awesome factor was that, they were able to make you feel all-the-sudden patriotic and emotional.

You suddenly feel teary and proud of being part of this tiny nation who has struggled through thick and thin and has now managed to become an internationally worthy metropolis.

When the national anthem was played, everybody rose and sang the national anthem though mostly the loudest singers were the children. It was such a emotional scene because usually some people don't even bother to rise. 

I admit that I wasn't really very patriotic, about 60%? But, I do feel proud of being a Singaporean, no matter how much I find some parts of her irritating.

You just can't help but love your own motherland.

By the way, the night view was awesome!

How to fall into a slumber more easily?

I have troubles falling asleep and to cure this I have tried zillions of methods. I google them, I looked up for healthy lifestyle books in the library, Google some more. And after much efforts done, I have finally found the right solutions to my problem! Hooray!

So I know some of you guys out there share the same trouble as I do. Therefore, I'm here to share with you what methods worked and those that don't- at least for me. 


1. Music


After searching for remedies on the Internet and having tried them out. Music is one of the ways to get you into sleep. Not any kind of music. It must be a relaxing one , something to smooth you down and not make you break into a dance. Classical music would be a good choice. If not jazz is pretty good too, just that make sure it isn't loud or anything. I tried for a month and there were a few occasion that it didn't work but so far 70% of the time it did.

If you do not have any classical music discs or not willing to splurge on one, just use the radio. I always tune in to Symphony 92.4 and let it play all the way till when I wake up.

2. Herbal Foot Pad

 I'm not trying to suggest any brand here. But these really helps in falling asleep. I bought mine at the Gmarket which was pretty cheap compared to retail's. Plus, it helps in removing toxin from your body. All you have to do is to just stick it on your feet when you go to sleep. When you wake up the next morning, the foot pad turned black. It will subsequently fade away if you try for a week. Works 80% of the time- tried a week.

You can try Watsons or Guardian. They should have it. Or else get it cheaply from Gmarket. Took around 2 weeks for it to arrive though. 



 
 3. Medicine

WARNING: PLEASE CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE CONSUMING THIS. IF YOU HAVE ANY ALLERGIES I SUGGEST YOU NOT CONSUME IT!


IF YOU ARE ON MEDICATION PLEASE CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR !

This medicine here was prescribed to me by a Chinese physician. It's a Chinese medicine. 36 capsules a bottle. Supposedly it has no side effects. 2 tablets thrice a day. I was able to sleep more soundly. Tried for 2 weeks, works perfectly 85%. I was a bit skeptic when I was introduced to this. But, it worked somehow so I'm going to continue until I am able to fall asleep more easily without any help.

4. Warm Bath

Take a warm bath before going to sleep. It calms your nerves down. It will be easier to fall into sleep. Tried for a few times, don't always work but it's really a good feeling. I washes away all your weariness and you'll feel a bit more refresh. 

Okay

That's my top 4 working list. I'm still exploring for other alternatives but these so far work the best. Let me know if these methods work for you or suggest more ideas! That would be even better

Got it got it!

I GOT IT!

Remember how I used to blabber away how job deprived I am? And how I keep search high low for one amidst all the objections and second thoughts?

Well...

I just got myself a job and it's a good paying one. Plus, I only need to work once a week! How cool is that?! Some jobs require you to work at least minimum 3 days a week and this complies to retails job too. Plus the paying rate always lingers between $5-6/ hr with some exceptions. You need to think about the job scope , environment and the location. All in all, I hit jackpot!

I'm not going to reveal what and where I'm working at. It's just somewhere near and I work only on Saturdays so the rest of my time I can study at home and finished up my project.

The bad thing is I can't clock in more timing as and when I like as my schedule is fixed so my salary is really low. Oh well..! That's pretty good for once a week thing.

Until my work is stabilised and I got comfortable with it, I may tell you where I worked at . But for now, my fingers are crossed.

Internship

Doing several research on internships.

The findings kinda dashes some of my hopes.

I don't know if it sounds stupid or not but pay to do internship abroad?

I don't know,  and it's not just a few bucks but a few thousands not to mention air fare is not included. Might as well go straight to the country and apply for the job directly.

I have also looked at some of the working holiday programs some countries offer. Unfortunately, it is only applicable to some nationalities. I have to do a much in depth research to find out if I'm applicable for it. But if all plans fail , at most I would just travel to several countries and apply job there.

Currently, I am very positive I can go to Canada to do my internship, just a matter of if I am chosen or not.

If I really can't do my internships, well... I can always go for an overseas further studies.

Here's are some I had in mind.

Japan & Korea --> 1/2-1 yrs duration there to do my language studies

UK/Canada/Australia  ----> Get my Masters

New Zealand / Canada ---> Internship.

But dreams are dreams.

Right now I have to work hard to save up for the accommodation that I would incur if I were to go there. No money, no say. So I'm trying my best to secure a part time job.

Wish me luck~

Fathers' Day

Father's Day.

A day that is more often than not, celebrated less enthusiastically than Mother's Day. Now why do I say so? Just look around and you may realise it too. We have more popular songs dedicated to our Mothers , we have more sales  promotions for Mothers' Day than for Fathers' Day. In addition, as quoted from a famous chef, he said that he received more reservations for Mothers' Day then Fathers'. From all these, it's obvious that the society in general subconsioucly favours Mothers' Day more

Most of us too, thanked and express our gratidute for our Mother more than our Father. Perhaps , because of the fact that generally Mothers sacrificed more for their children. For example, a female divorcee with offsprings may find remarriage hard. Going through pregnancy and labour is a very very tiring process. Or that Mother sacrificing their career to look after their children. All these may be why its generally reoognised that Mothers contributed more and thus are more celebrated than of Fathers' Day.

But nonetheless, we must also recognise the hard work that Fathers put in too!

Mothers have the choice of choosing whether to give up their career and be housewife or just throw their kids in childcare. But if the Father was to give up his job , imagine what the society will think of him? Even though society is more open now, but this kind of sterotyping still exists. 

With this kind of burden, they have to cling on to their job. Take in all grievenaces and anger. They can't just tender their resignation like Mothers do.

Fathers usually pays more expenses than Mothers, if not all. And they usually don't buy stuffs for themselves. Mothers go shopping , buy clothes or dolled themselves up. Fathers just make themselves happy by getting themselves a new phone every once in a blue moon.

During pregnancy and labour, Father suffered equally. Both of the parents shared equal burden. Doesn't mean the one who doesn't go through physical labour isn't suffering. They have satisfy Mothers' sudden cravings, listen to their whines and do some rough chores like carring heavy bags and so on.

I know my points aren't a lot but the first point is valid enough.

Fathers don't express their care and affection as openly as Mothers do. However, we must recognise the efforts that our Father put in. And one way may be expressing how much you love them or getting them like gifts to put a smile on their face.

Most of us will go to some fancy restaurant to celebrate Fathers' Day though in the end Dad's the one who pays the bill ( I seriously don't see the logic ). Some of us give gifts but what really matters is something that express your appreciation.

I just treat my Father to something he likes.

I'm not a full time worker so I do not have the expenses of treating my whole family to a luxurious dinner BUT I bought something that will make my Dad happy. At least a smile.

I treat him to Durian.

Well actually, it's Durian Pancakes but seriously Durians are out of season now and it's a quite popular pancakes. I can't find Durian at nearby places and you can't possibly ask me to carry Durian from afar back home. Durians are not allowed in MRT!

So okay I bought him Durina,his favorite fruit. But that's all it matters isn't it? Making him smile. Instead of asking him to fork out money just to treat us to Fathers' Day dinner. Lols

But anyway, the main point is to recognise what our Fathers have done for us. Remember it, appreciate it and express our gratitude for their caring and loving efforts.

Goals

Recently I have become more self-conscious. Too bad my self-consciousness came too late. Or else I may have other outcomes. Anyway, I guess it's not too late to start now. And I MUST MUST force myself to comply with those rules. I used to do it frequently but after sometime I slack and then completely forgotten about it. So now I must pick it up again and it's really tiring. Both physically and mentally.

I realised that now I have put in some rules, I am closer in accomplishing my goals and some of them were even realised! The feelings gotten were amazing! So I am going to work hard some more to make my other plans come true!

I will elaborate on this soon once 80% of my plans were fulfilled! But for now, I will work hard and most importantly, POSITIVE THINKING!!

AJA AJA Fighting~~~!

Oh I hope my pay come soon. 

Part Time Work

What am I up to lately?

Well.. straight after my last paper, I went for an interview for a 2 weeks customer service cum admin job in Ubi. It was tiring considering that I have to go for an interview after all that midnight oil burning and the transportation. But I did managed to get that job which makes it all worthwhile. The pay was reasonable and it's pretty accessible. The only bad point was that I have to work on Saturday.

About my job.. Getting phone calls and nasty customers wasn't really nice but the pay was good, the environment was nice so it kinds of offsets the bad experiences. But I didn't want to stay much longer, I don't like answering customers enquires when I don't know much. So after I have fulfill my work period , I was outta there!

After that , I continued to search for new job opportunities. I sent a lot of resumes , a few called back but never was I offered a job. I wasn't even picky! I pretty much sent resumes to whatever I can get my hands on and of course pay must be reasonable. By reasonable I mean it must be reasonable within the job scope. If it's just cashiering, I don't mind being paid $5 but if it requires me to serve customers then $5 won't be enough.

Recently, after much tries, I just landed myself a job. The location isn't very far and I don't need to wake up really early. Pay was mediocre, better than some but pale in comparison to others. But what to do? I have already signed the contract so nothing to whine about.

Amidst all these job hunt, I starts to ponder about certain issues.

1) Money Slave

Sometimes I wonder to myself, why on earth do I want to work so hard to earn money where I have to work for the rest of my life? Given the excuse that I am studying, I could just lie back and leach off my parents. To keep on working just to earn more money kinda makes me a 钱奴 which is money slave directly translated. You get the meaning. But then, if I didn't work how would I get the money for my Korean language lessons? Buy clothes? Or even go for overseas exchange next year?

You may argue that I should be desire free and then maybe I won't need to work that hard. But hey, that depends on how you want your lifestyle to be. I want mine to enriching and that means being able to go overseas and learn my languages. So, I shouldn't be whining about working hard and THAT doesn't make me a money slave. Why? Because I didn't work for the sake of earning MORE money. ( I didn't have money to begin with) I am earning because I need the money to do something I like. The focus isn't on money.

2) Don't Grumble

If you don't want to work then don't grumble.Whadda I mean?
Sometimes people grumble :

"Why do they get to buy branded bags?"
                            
"Why do they get to travel overseas and I don't?"

"Why why why!?"

The answer is: Because they worked.  And they worked hard. I shall illustrate this with a conversation I had with my Music Teacher.

I was grumbling to my teacher about having no money to travel even though there's this great promotion going on.  Then she say that that's because I wasn't working hard enough. I was a bit confused as I think I did worked hard enough. I have already maxed up my working hours!! Then she told me her standard of working hard is pretty high. Okay, I can see where she's coming from. My teacher had a permanent office job and she teaches music during the weekends. So yeah, I guess it's not hard enough.

I told her it's not easy to get a job while I have only a short period of availability and she thinks that probably because I'm picky. I don't consider myself to be since I don't mind the location of job ( okay maybe for Jurong Island or Tuas) . And she says there are many kinds of job I can do, except for prostitution and illegal stuffs. Which means that I should apply for jobs even though I don't like the job scope.

Tskkk...

Okay maybe that's a bit too hard.
I mean no matter how desperate I am for money, I shouldn't force myself to do something I don't like. Not to come down too hard on myself. I mean there's some many options right. Just that I place Myself > Money. If I can't do it, why force? Like I have no strength so waitress related job won't be good for me. I may smash or drop the plate.

"Then you don't grumble lah"

Alright. I won't.

3) Money is Never Enough!

The funny thing about human is when you have no money, you tend to save more. But when you are working, you save less. I guess this is reverse reflexology we people have. Because we think now that we are working, we have more money thus there are allowance to spend more. And in the end , we spend more than we ought to.

So to compensate for that loss, we try to earn more. And the cycle continues.


Now that my school timetable is out , I'm trying to squeeze in work in between my schedule. So far not working out but I will try. What to do? I'm desperate for money.

I will blog again on my process but for now I'll stop here.