Baking Experiments: Gingerbread Men

I had taken more than a week off to clear my annual leave and since I was accidentally so broke in November & December, I could not plan a trip anywhere. So I started thinking of things to accomplish during my leave (so that it isn't a total waste) and one of them was to bake something.

To sum up 2017

It's the penultimate day of the year and a lot has happened in 2017, especially in the past two months. I'm not sure if this is a characteristic of aging, but time has been flying past really really fast lately. And every day in my last working week felt like a week in itself with insufficient time to complete what I had planned for the day.

Raya weekend and the impressionable experiences

While our Muslim friends celebrate Hari Raya, the rest of the nation joins in the festivities with a good long weekend of rest. The upside of being in Malaysia is the holidays we have for our multi-cultural society and at the same time learn about other cultures and practices.

Solo Trip

Last week I took my first solo trip to Singapore for a series of exams. On one hand I was weary to try something new during a stressful situation. However on the other hand, I was excited to test myself and it was a good opportunity to do so.

Organisational Culture

Like a typical Gen-Y, I have had my fair share of job hopping (not as many as some I know though). And what I've noticed is that although organisations are made up of individuals working together, there was an unmistakable difference in corporate culture in each organisation. It isn't just working style, but age spread, dressing and even physical attractiveness.

Priceless 11: Jesus walks on water in Manglish

What I heard in church today was priceless...

Linking risk management with news

I must say that the syllabus and reading materials I've been exposed to has helped me to gradually see how risk management comes into play in many situations. For example, the United Airlines incident a couple of days back where a passenger was dragged out screaming and injured, forced to leave on an overbooked flight - the first thing I thought of was that there was a lapse of controls.

Plan thwarted

Sadly, due to my reliance on Spotify to facilitate my studying session, I've had to reactivate my fb. I didn't know the linked apps would stop functioning once fb has been deactivated.

But the good which came out of it was that I found that I could function without having an itch to check fb every free minute I had. But once I start, it's a challenge to stop scrolling and say enough! So now the principle is to restrict fb access to my personal laptop only and no other devices.

Priceless 10: Facebook after death

Priceless is...

...the moment I discovered that we can actually appoint a friend to be like an "executor" of our fb profile in case of death.

The Logic of being Logical

I recently read this in one of the recommended reading materials for my course:

“The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.” (G.K. Chesterton)

The Sting

Today I had a lesson on numbers and it still stings. It's been more than a year and many have said I look happier now than back then. The experience has been mostly good thus far, a very different culture change.

Taskmaster

This weekend has been a "should not be doing this" time in repeat mode. Like how I should be studying now but I'm checking out my agreements (4 years after they were signed!) and discovering new music. My present ear tick at the end of this post.

Priceless 9: Victory

Priceless is...

... that moment when my colleague passed her phone to each one of us team members notifying we had won third place in the treasure hunt, during our VC's speech. All we could display were sheepish smiles and raised eyebrows!

Priceless 8: HTML & CSS

Priceless is...

... the moment when I found out how to edit the copyright info at the footer of my blog in three clicks.

Priceless 7: Eyeliner Awry

Priceless are...

... the times when I think warm shower water will serve as a solvent to my minimal makeup and then I take a peep at the fogged up mirror to the horror of my reflection - panda eyes in the reminiscence of Uncle Fester! Can't help but to burst out laughing with an eyeball popping expression!

Photo credit: dfiles.me

Perils of a lazy gal wearing makeup. Lesson learned (for the 1000th time), makeup remover ESSENTIAL. Especially with K-Pallete 1-day tattoo!

Priceless 6: Numbers

Priceless is...


... when the first time I glance at something and the numbers jumps out at me! Today's was 888 views! I'm not superstitious but I love finding patterns in series of numbers, in other words finding meaning in numbers. This is why car plate number watching is fun when I'm stuck in a jam or on a long drive!

Priceless 5: Kind Gestures

Priceless is...


... when a director brings cookies and sweets especially for us all the way from Singapore and Macau.

Priceless 4: Relief

Priceless is...

... that feeling of relief when something that has been troubling my mind is resolved.

Priceless 3: Discovery

Priceless is...

... that moment when I discovered a scammer, thanks to Google image search.

Priceless 2: Jazz

Priceless is... that smile which comes from my heart when old school jazz is playing in my ears. Piano, snare brush and trumpet with double bass is enough to calm, sooth, raise the spirit and will my mind to study on.

I am listening to Roy Hargrove's Ruby My Dear.

Priceless 1: Warm bath

In light of some recent social media diarrhoea and hypocrisy, I shall neutralise the experience, forgive and forget, rise above the lowness and create positive vibes. So here's starting another slew of thematic posts to be thankful for the little things in life, that anyone can enjoy.

It is priceless...

Annual post and Happy Lunar New Year!

I'm always touched when those who matter remember me on my birthday. This year there were a few surprises as well. Came into office to a chorus of Happy Birthday! And continuous feasting for the whole week straight.

Anyway, this year I didn't manage to make CNY cards to send around the world. But I made an e-card instead.

Blessed Lunar New Year everyone!

The week that was

Today this blog is 12. And it's just another 5 days till the Lunar New Year. And another 3 days for my annual obligatory post. Time really is chasing me. The weekend is gone and I still feel like I haven't had my weekend!

But first, to recap the week that was.

Work in progress: Lunar New Year 2017 card

My timing is worse every year. It doesn't help that the lunar new year is getting earlier as well. This year, I won't have enough time to produce hardcopy cards as I've done in previous years. So it'll have to be e-cards this year!

Inspiration seeking started on Sunday mid-afternoon, and it's quite obvious that the chicken year is much easier than last year's monkey! I'd planned to make a hardcopy chicken and scan it, like last year, but I got lazy and only made part of the design in hardcopy.

A little peek at what it's going to be like. Quite bad quality camera phone photo, but this is the exact shot that I'll be using in the final copy.

HP Envy Touchscreen TrueVision HD webcam undetected [Solved]

I realised that my laptop's webcam (HP Envy Touchscreen TrueVision HD webcam) wasn't working after I had fixed my BSD issue last year. Whether or not it was working fine before that, I am not sure as I rarely use my webcam. The only annoying thing was when I wanted to join a video conference call and everyone else was on video except me, although I had a webcam - a non-working one.

Reads: Tropical Madness

Bitten by the reading bug, another book is down. This time it's Tropical Madness by Marc de Faoite.

Image credit: goodreads.com

One from the sick

Posting from my sick bed. It's time to reflect.

On the last working day of 2016, my Healthcare colleagues were pushing (ok, more appropriate verb - "encouraging") us to take up the influenza vaccination jab as it was part of our staff benefit and also, they wanted to finish their stock by year end before the accounts were closed. I was told, "I'll book one for you, you come after lunch ok?" With my fear of needles (trypanophobia), obviously I didn't go to our clinic after lunch!

14th Sewing Project: Rainbow Hippie Skirt

This one is overdue by three months, but I've just only found a top that matches it well.

I've had this bag of tie dye batik cloth scraps for the longest time, probably 10 years or so. Many times I've been urged to throw them away but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The colours were so pretty and when would I have a chance to have such variety of colours without having to buy 1 meter pieces each at the textile store.

Rainbow hippie skirt

Christmas and New Year 2017

It has been feasting and more feasting for the past two weeks! Family, friends, colleagues - I think I've not had so much year-end celebrations before. I'd planned to use my Christmas leave for spring cleaning and 'healthy' living but in the end I only managed to clock in 1 session for both. Not really productive in the sense of goal-hitting.

Well, another session is coming up this week and I've prepared small goodies as belated Christmas gifts. Just an idea for gift-wrapping - I love Christmas colours!

Christmas goodie bags with the last of my ribbons