Friends then & Now....

After 3 years of not having to have met each other, Jessica finally had the time to come by Sydney to meet up with her friends here. Jessica, myself and Elizabeth along with Grape, May and Montarin were a bunch of Postgraduate students who ventured to Sydney Australia to complete our degrees in 2006. Being away from home, we became a small little family, sharing the joys and keeping each other company when we needed to have a shoulder to lean on. We had awesome fun together. We would head out to BBQ, movies, trips around Australia, dinners and even musical plays and of course study for exams together which meant late nights together.

We had awesome girlie fun most of the times. We also had times when we had relationship or family problems and we kept each other company and stayed together through trying times. The best was when we used to sit around the Quad building at the University of New South Wales and enjoy afternoons with our Ice Chocolates, we would discuss on what our futures will look like. We had big plans. Some of us wanted to start our own business, become world or the best financiers, researchers, and so on. And now when I met up with Jessica I realised that not many of us actually realised our dreams and plans. I wonder how many groups of friends out there have faced a similar circumstance.

Looking back, we were these young  (and still a young bunch) with heaps of enthusiasms and eager to prove ourselves. But now, looking at the current situation, almost all of us managed to move on and achieve our dreams and turned it to reality. But there are a few, who are still discovering themselves. Jessica and myself started to reminiscence on the things that we did and looked back and longed to rewind time back to the joyful carefree days. But unfortunately that can´t be done.

But it is good to know, that the few who managed to achieve their dreams are happy and those who did not are not giving up. As or me, I am happy that I have set myself a plan and almost there in achieving it. I love teaching and I am currently hired within the University as a tutor (which is similar to an Assistant Lecturer ´s Job else where). I am keenly and progressively building up on my resume and so far it is looking good. I am still loving research and love how I handle teaching commitments along with the planning of the teaching curriculum. So at least for me, my direction and path that I wish to follow is taking shape and I am happy. As for those friends who are still seeking to shape their paths, I will always support and encourage you . Don´t give up ans be confident of yourself.  For those who had gotten the jobs that they wanted to...good on you and all the best....

And it was great seeing you Jessica...


xoxo,

10.10.10 , Diet & Work...

How awesome can that be? 10-10-10 @ 10:10:10am...truely a nice combination of numbers. It is the eve of my  nephew´s 1st Birthday  and I remember telling my sis-in-law how good would it be to celebrate his B´day on 10-10-10...haahaa...although he was born on the 11-10-10, my family back home in Singapore will still be celebrating his 1st birthday on 10-10-10. Firstly for the convenience that all in the family (apart fro me) can attend as it is a Sunday and secondly, I guess its heaps easier to get the whole family help clean the mess after the celebrations....lol...

The past few days has been good. I have been following with my diet plan accordingly. I have not eaten any cheese, ice-creams, chips or any fried stuff since my beginning of my diet plan. I did weigh myself and with a bit of cringe I looked down and found that I had lost 2kg! wow! I am sure the 1st kg would have been water but it was a good start. I have also combined my diet along with Zumba. It is awesome. Its dancing with heaps of hidden exercise moves that you hardly notice that you are doing exercise. This is so perfect for me. I hate going to the gym, for many reasons. One of them being ashamed of myself not looking the best and having heaps of fats within myself and looking sloppy among the six-packs around me, I normally don't have the motivation to go to the gym. I rather go for long jogs or walk to the beach or some where out of Gym. But since going for Zumba, its been awesome! I love dancing! I totally enjoy myself and feel good when I am dancing. I totally feel happy and love all the moves. So this is perfect. I sweat it out without realising that I have actually done 1 hour of vigorous exercise moves, sideways, shaking, hip swirling and running , jumping and so on. It just awesome. I just wish they were all at around 6pm or so. I tutor at the University and I end up teaching till 5pm on Tuesdays. I may have to miss it as the class strictly adheres to a capacity of 25 people. Ummm...but I have 4 other classes to join in and shake away my fats...love it....

It is also Week 11 of teh University Term and its the final stretch. I have like 280 papers to mark. 3 different subjects, Managemnt, Organisational Behaviour and Legal Aspects of Employment. Although I am looking forward to having to complete almost all of them by the coming week, I wish to be more disciplined and get them done ASAP. I still have heaps on my other admin work associated with teaching to complete as well and get a few other stuff done. Geez, I am looking at a gruesome 2 weeks of non-stop marking, paper work and teaching of 12 hours....I need all the strength that I can get.




xoxo,

Canberra, Flowers and Friends

It was the long weekend here in Sydney. It was the Labour weekend which meant an extra day off to enjoy, eat and play. So, myself and few other friends of mine headed out to Canberra to view the Floriade that is an event that happens every year in celebrating the joy of Spring.

It was an early start at 5am and we were at the Central Railway station to catch our coach to Canberra by 6.30am. We arrived at Canberra at 10.30am and we were super hungry. It was extremely quiet. Most of the stores were still closed. Taking note that Canberra is the capital city of Australia, it really did not live up to the hype. I would not want to stay there. It was just too quiet for me.

After the brunch at the Pancake Parlour , it took awhile to get to the Floriade as it was like a 10mins walk. But it was all worthwhile. I had a great time marvelling at the beautiful Cherry Blossoms, Tulips, Pansies and Daffodils. I adored all of them . I love flowers and this was an awesome way to view them all. The colours were brilliant and although there were a couple of times the rain threatened to spoil the enjoyment, I and my friends totally enjoyed it to the fullest.

Here are a few pictures taken at the Floriade. Please click on on my Flickr Account and view the rest of the pictures taken.

The Cherry Blossoms

The Ferris Wheel & the Beautiful tulips in the foreground

I am not sure of what is the flowers name but they were so pretty. I love the colours, Raspberry Reds and Pink...

This Tulip had a mix of white in it and it reminded me of the Raspberry Swirl ice creams...

The array of beautiful and colourful tulips in the park.

The bright yellow daffodils.

I loved the potted plants...beautiful beginning to Spring...

I hope you liked the pictures...enjoy the Floriade if you are in Sydney or Canberra and intend to head out there...

xoxo,

Love should not be forced....

Before I start to delve on how my diet has progressed the past couple of days, I just wanted to have a say in how LOVE is not meant to be forced and it should come naturally.Love is something that should not be forced to develop , it should be encouraged to progress on its own or at least it should be natural. This was a discussion that I had with my friend.  How is it that Love seems natural and easy when we are together in person and not when we are far apart in different continent.  I guess its the expectations and the limitations that are presented to us makes it harder to deal and accept the long distance relationship.When distance is presented in any relationship, the initial set up is always strong and has promises that the relationship will work. But the duration of being apart tends to initiate one or both the parties to read too much into what is happening , why and who is responsible and so on when there is really nothing to worry about. But the distance and having not to see the person makes one wonder although keeping oneself busy can be advantageous in keeping things sane in between the couple but then length of  separation generally blossoms into needs in terms of individuals rather than as a couple.The boundary than becomes blurred and often leads to misunderstandings and often quarrels that leads to anger, frustration and most of the time break-ups.

If only the couples could have some sort of sense in the beginning if their love will be forced to be developed than being naturally progressed, I bet all the couples out there can have some distinct hint on what will work and what will not.

On the other hand, Love is experience and it give us insights into what to expect. Getting hurt is part of the process and thus if only we can have the strength to see beyond and accept the consequences, only than can we truly accept and fall in love. Start to live in reality and stop saying "Maybe". "Maybe" does not work for any relationships, its just empty promises and it only elevates the excitement of having to wait for the actual outcomes. But when that does not happen, the fading of love is much rapid than when you live in reality. Reality helps you to work on your relationship with the facts and figures. It is painful at times to see that nothing is workable and the only solution is to part ways but it is a situation that will help you to move on then having both of you stuck and not moving on to anything positive.

Remember, if you are meant to be, everything will work out fine. You will not have to lie to yourself or your partner to sustain the relationship. But it is a worry if you do not have a simple answer to the question : What is this relationship will be like in 3 years time? - If the answer is Who knows what happens in the future or let time decide or we will work things out when needed - then u are not ready and its is  Love Forced rather than Love Naturally. If its natural Love, you will muster up the courage to say, in 3 years time we will be together just that the location may change.Love forced : Such love is not going to stand the test of time. When there are challenges, the individual would abandon you because he/she never really loved you in the first place. True love does not expire easily but forced one does. It would never last for a long time; it disappears as soon as it came.


So take time and carefully think of the Love that you and your partner have been trusted into, especially if it is a long distance. Rather then having to force to have the relationship last even thou you had the inclination that it will dissolve sometime in the future, you rather do yourself and your partner a favour by not having to have this relationship continue. As for me, it turned out that we have become more of a good friend than partners, as we were not able to intertwine ourselves together as a couple through skype/phone/emails. Our feelings and emotions just developed into a friendship, a friend who will be there to talk to and get advice from...so, love here just did´t work...We are happy now, with much less hassle of planning and trying to sacrifice knowing that both of us will feel hurt or have one of our dreams of achieving our career or our future plan is only possible if one of us decides to let go and follow the other. The question than became who will be the ONE. Both of us have acknowledged that we both need to achieve what we set out to do in our lives but it is too important not to have the other give up on their dreams. But as friends, we can still go on do what we intended to do and still be proud of each other! We still have each other but as friends and we are happy now that we have decided on this.


Now back to my diet plan:
3rd day I was in Canberra. I couldn´t do much to alter to a lesser calorie food intake but I managed to stay on the healthy side. I had a brunch which was 2 pancakes with Grilled tomato and scrambled egg. Although the pancakes came with a good help of butter and maple syrup, I did n´t touch any of them although I was tempted. I had a cup of house brewed coffee without milk or coffee.


For dinner I had Soy Linseed bread and Hot chocolate as I was too tired to make my dinner.


4th Day diet was much better:


Had a Oats, Banana and coffee for breakfast. 


As for Lunch I had a mixed fruit salad - I added kiwis, oranges, grapes and bananas. All copped up and mixed together. I also had a 2 oatmeal biscuits with it and just had plain water.


Dinner was an egg omelette with mixed grill vegetables . Had mushrooms, capsicums and veges in it. Along with a 1 slice of toasted soy linseed bread and rose tea.


Both the 3rd day and 4th day of diet I did not manage to do any exercise. I will start on my exercise tomorrow onwards. 


That is all from me today....
have a great Tuesday,