Keep dreaming, it's the only way to go

It's times like this I'm reminded of how much I hate human interaction, and yet I also realize how much I need human interaction. You know how some people don't speak the same language and yet understand each other, yet there will be those who speak the same language perfectly but will never ever understand each other. It is precisely because they speak the same language and can communicate and argue, which is why it creates a false sense of understanding and eventually leads to a breakdown in communication. No matter how you try to explain, emotions end up getting in the way and there is no way of communicating, which leads to disconnection. It's this disconnection that makes one feel so violated. There is just no longer a point in communicating because no one is willing to listen. Deep down the root cause is probably a difference in values and priorities. Like some people would spend money on experiences, while I spend money on food. Neither is wrong, but travelling t...

Nothing lasts forever. Even things that one used to think could have lasted forever, probably would still end because it is just too hard to defy nature's laws. Perhaps there are some who are strong enough to fight against nature, but most of us including myself probably just cannot. I am not above nature. When people decide they have the right to think in a certain way, and cannot see other perspectives, then it becomes a matter of agreeing to disagree. Yet it is tough for most to agree to disagree. Especially when values misalign. Not just random differences, but differences that hit the core of our being. That is possibly when people fall out of friendships and relationships. Even bonds as deep as mother and son can break because of these misalignments in values. Just like how a spine misalignment can cause severe discomfort like nerve impingement and muscle wastage. We either have to fix it or suffer the pain and life impediments. Fixing it means either re-aligning the spine th...

 My dream was never to live in a condo, nor a landed property. Honestly what's the good in these material goods when one has to pay such high maintenance fees and the interior is pretty much similar to a HDB? What's the good in these when management isn't even that great compared to a town council? What's the good in these when I've known people wanting to jump from their 2m condos because of poor relationships? Yeah money makes things easier I guess, but the lack of money also gives you no choice but to live and try to make things work. The lack of money gives you clarity as to who would still stay with you for who you are and what you stand for instead of what you're worth. I'm not lost in my life. I've mentioned my dreams before. But sometimes I do wonder who actually hears them and would want to help me fulfil them. I don't need a condo, but if my loved one wanted to work towards it, sure. I hear you and I'm able to help you with it. But did ...

I'm almost 18weeks and I think my hormones are making me sorta crazy? Like one day I can be feeling like I'm wasting my life away and crying myself to sleep, and then when I wake up I feel fine lol. But I've been feeling quite a bit of ups and downs internally for the past 1 month or so and I keep thinking it's due to the limbo I've been in while waiting for the results of an award I had applied for, as well as the stress from organising a major international conference. Maybe the hormones just amplify these emotions? I'm not entirely sure but the mood swing is pretty drastic. I guess there will be times in life we just feel we made the wrong decisions and we are not where we are supposed to be? It's weird because I do see what I have in life - the most loving, understanding and lovable boy and a 2nd on the way, a flexible job, a roof over my head that's in such a centralised location, no debts to worry about hence being able to quit whenever I want - bu...

Health Do 5-10 pull-ups every day (aim to do 1 un-assisted by the end of June). Hip stretches for at least 5min every day after work. Sleep at 10 - 1030pm. Go for yoga at least once a week when mil is here. Nature walks at least once a month. Baby A Bring him somewhere new & educational at least twice this year. (E.g. Children's museum). Wheelbarrow at least once a week. Or some other fun strengthening exercise. Teach him to read. Explore cricket/other sports opportunities. Planned Breaks Take leave from 25th Dec - 31st Dec. Travel at least once a year. Celebrate our birthdays. Hobbies Read It's Not Me. Home Enhancement Reorganize cupboards so that we can find stuff more easily. Hunt for our BTO/SBF. Elemit Yoga Plan our first yoga retreat. Not sharing my financial goals since I feel it's a little too personal. TTFN!

Hi, we're back here after ONE year! Health Do 20-30s handstands every day. I did not do this yikes! Thought yoga was enough but once a week is far from enough so I have to make myself do this! I did do pull-ups towards the end of the year though. Stretch at least 5min every day. I did this sometimes, but not every day...Too much phone! Sleep at 10 - 11pm. Managed to do this for most of the year, but sometimes the phone gets in the way!! Tsk! Go for yoga at least once a week when mil is here. Most successful goal perhaps haha! Nature walks at least once a month. Yeah we went to Botanic Gardens several times and also walked around the neighbourhood pretty frequently. Hope to do this more often though. Baby Teach him to ride the bike. 👍 (trike) Get him off diapers.👍 Wean him off breast milk.👍 Read a book to him every week. Failed, but thankfully my MIL actually taught him to write letters 💓 Planned Breaks Take leave from 25th Dec - 31st Dec. (Felt really good in 2023, but also dep...

I feel my life's like an arranged marriage...In a good way though. I married a native Indian, and it was a so-called "love marriage". But everything else in my life seems so "arranged". By that I mean every decision made seemed to be based on first impressions instead of long-term planning. I chose my uni course based on a simple attraction to natural health. I didn't consider the workload, the ulu-ness of NTU, the prospects of becoming a TCM physician, or other job prospects for that matter. There weren't many choices of uni anyway. It was either NUS or NTU, or an overseas uni. I knew if I were to go overseas, I would be doing veterinary medicine. But since the overseas universities didn't want me, I narrowed down my choices to the local Us. I don't even remember if I had any 2nd or 3rd choices. I know I submitted an NUS USP application, but they gave me a conditional offer. The TCM course in NTU gave me an unconditional offer, so I took it up. ...

I've been using the UOB One credit card for a long time - I remember using it to pay for my house reno in 2020. At that time I was consistently making quite a few large purchases so I could hit the 2k minimum spend in order to get 5% off. I think CardUp was also still accepting it at the time so I am pretty sure I used it to pay for my house mortgage as well. Then CardUp spends became ineligible so I cancelled it for the first time because I could only hit the lower tiers that gave 3.33%. Also there were other cards like DBS Live Fresh that gave higher cashback anyway.  Fast-forward to 2022 or so, there were promos and during covid + wars the banks increased their interest rates and I signed up for the UOB One high interest savings account and got the UOB One card together with it. And that marked the start of my kind-of-annoying experience with the card. 1. I misread "statement month" as "calendar month", and missed out on the first quarter's cashback. Cons...

 A little late because #life, but here it is! Health Do 20-30s handstands every day. Stretch at least 5min every day. Sleep at 10 - 11pm. Go for yoga at least once a week when mil is here. Nature walks at least once a month. Baby Teach him to ride the bike. Get him off diapers. Wean him off breast milk. Read a book to him every week. Planned Breaks Take leave from 25th Dec - 31st Dec. (Felt really good in 2023, but also depends on where mil will be.) Travel at least once a year (not during Christmas). Celebrate our birthdays. (Haha, because I've always been so lazy to.) Hobbies Read at least one Chinese classic novel. Home Enhancement Reorganize cupboards so that we can find stuff more easily. Plan a kid's gym. Elemit Yoga Plan our first yoga retreat. Not sharing my financial goals since I feel it's a little too personal. TTFN!

Today's post will be a review of how well I have achieved my 2023 New Year's Resolutions. The original resolutions are in black, while my review is in blue. Baby - No phones during meal times (this is really tough at times because there're peak periods with short deadlines, but I have been successful for 75% of the time so far) More or less achieved. Perhaps 85%? - Go swimming at least once a month Failed miserably. Did not go at all, except when we went to Sentosa with my in-laws. - Do some acro/exercises with baby at least once every week We didn't do this every week, but we did unlock some milestones and baby A can balance on my hands. He loves it. - Read library books/sing to bb every day We didn't use library books, but we had picture cards that we used towards the end of the year. A's starting to talk and he can say quite a few words like 奶奶、狗狗、猫猫, bal (hair in Hindi), pan (as in pani, for water in Hindi), milk, Nah (for Narayan hahaha), poo poo, pee pee, ...

Sharing my collation of cashback-earning techniques/hacks. Note that I am not a high spender so these hacks are more suitable for middle-income earners and some might even be suitable for lower-income earners. I settle the bills for my whole household and sometimes my parents as well so I am able to meet some of the credit card spending limits for most months. Online Groceries (Fairprice, Giant, Redmart, Shopee) Live Fresh DBS card (5% Online Spend Category) + Shopback (Cashback) I do not purchase Shopback vouchers if I want to hit the minimum spending for my Live Fresh card. (I doubt Shopback voucher spending is eligible for Live Fresh card's 5% cashback, but please let me know if you have tried and got cashback!) Eg. I paid $61.17 worth of groceries from (Fairprice Online) with my Live Fresh card and got 5% credit card cashback and additional $1.58 cashback from Shopback. So total cashback is $4.64. That's 7.59% of my total spending. UOB x Amex Absolute (1.7%) + Shopback (Vou...

Today I'll be sharing some of my all-time favourite breakfasts that are vegan and healthy. The main principle that I abide by is to be as unprocessed as possible, yet easy enough to do. If something is too tough or expensive and people cannot stick to it then even if it were the healthiest option, it wouldn't be feasible. So you will still find some processed foods in my list, but I try to keep it at a minimum.  Also there are a lot of misconceptions as to what 'healthy' means, but health is a balance and it depends on your lifestyle as well. I have had people tell me that they think butter is fine, and you know with keto becoming popular these days it's difficult to rebut. But the person who told me this had breast cancer, fibroids and liver cysts so I'm convinced that her definition of "healthy" really isn't. There are many people who share their diet and health issues online and everytime I see it they're eating things like cakes, seafood pl...

People think that raising kids is expensive and I agree that it is so in Singapore, but if you do your research and take good care of your health, it can be low cost just like how it should be. I'm sharing my experience and the amounts that I paid to help parents out there who believe in doing their own research. As the saying goes, when we fail to plan, we plan to fail, and giving birth to a child is quite a huge thing and involves risks as well. I personally did a lot of research and watched many YouTube vids to help myself ensure a smooth birthing process, and even then there were things that went unexpected, or rather there were things that I didn't know how to expect. Imagine going into the whole process without doing any research at all! I gave people the links to my resources and when I asked them if they watched them, they said they didn't have time to. Some of them ended up with an emergency csection. It's not really about the money, but the traumatic experienc...

I've had a pretty successful breastfeeding journey so I'm here to share it! I breastfed since baby A was born (no formula added because I had a really good supply - since start of 2nd trimester I was leaking already lol) and now baby A is 5 days away from 14 months old and I'm still breastfeeding him 2 - 3 times a day and 0 - 2 times at night. Planning to continue till he is at least 2 years old since that's what WHO recommends. Other than that, I love how my body is naturally built to feed my baby and I think it's a really enjoyable experience. Oh yes, I latched 99% of the time during the first 6 months as I had to pump milk whenever I had to teach classes or handle full-day work events. Now that baby is on solids, I latch 100%.  I'm not going to list down the benefits of breastfeeding because that was not the main reason I breastfed. I honestly did it just because I felt it was the most natural thing to do and I always believe following nature's design wou...

One great example of how locals bully foreigners in Singapore. I am pretty sure the instructor just wanted to get out of the situation ASAP because if he didn't plead guilty like the other instructor Raj, he would probably be stuck in Singapore without a job for another 2 plus years like Raj (Raj's case came up in the news in 2021 and is still pending). But because he didn't want to waste his time which costs more than $4000 (lol anyone can earn more than $4000 in 2 years), obviously he would rather plead guilty and find a job in another country. Taken from the Straits Times article: "Without asking for permission" - these things are based on the style of practice. In fact Trust is known for using a very hands-on approach. Not sure why the woman didn't know this because they had mentioned they are very adjustments based. Also one-on-one training is even more so, otherwise why you pay so much if you don't need the adjustments? Certain deep practices do requ...

I've been learning a lot from other mummies and also from my own experience with regards to baby vaccinations, so I'm gonna share and record what I've learnt here! So if you're a mum, I'm sure you have seen this image: This is the most up-to-date schedule, which may be different from the one in your baby's health booklet. I guess they change it up according to the newest research. The jabs are more or less the same, just that the updated schedule lets babies be vaxed a little later for the first 6 months and they added the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine into the new schedule. Where to get vaxed There are a few options, all of which are free for Singaporeans as long as they are under the government's immunization scheme (aka those listed in the chart above): Polyclinic - Newborns can walk in, but subsequent visits are by appointment. If you fail to make an appointment, get ready to be turned away because it's just too crowded to squeeze you in! GP - If ...

Okay I’m no longer 26 but these were things I got when I first got my place in 2020. For context, at that time I lived in a 3-rm HDB with my hubby and 2 cats. Now we still live with our cats but my mil often stays with us and we also have a 13 month-old toddler. We also cook most of our 3 meals. Fridge: $387 (Delivery included) Brand and Model: Midea MD212, 2 door fridge, 209L Bought from: Goh Sin Huat Electrical Pte Ltd (Lazada) Warranty: 12 year warranty on compressor, 2 year warranty on parts Even though it only has a fair energy efficiency rating, it has an annual energy consumption of 322kWh, which is lower than any of the other fridges I saw. In fact there aren’t many small fridges with high energy efficiency ratings. I didn’t need a big fridge at that time so I settled for this. My electricity consumption is also much lower than my neighbourhood and national average. (Perhaps also because we don’t use aircon.) However at the moment for my family of 4, I am starting to find it a ...

Recording the amounts I spent for my baby's 1st birthday here for future reference and also for those of you who would like to have some form of comparison! Disclaimer: I know it's more for myself than my baby and I know some parents would never "waste" the money on something like this because it's not the most practical thing to do. BUT the reason I wanted to do it was because: I didn't have a proper wedding (lol one of my cousins-in-law was shocked I already had a baby since he didn't even know/forgot I had gotten married); My relatives who had brought me up are old (70s and 80s) and I want to spend more time with them, especially because I had been away for 2 years when I was studying; I want my baby to interact with my relatives too I wanted an excuse to try some new vegan food! Birthday Deco Personalized canvas (Around A2 size): $50 I designed a milestone board on Canva and ordered from Optimal Print . Optimal Print has templates for collages so I us...

It's not about being cliche, it's about achieving goals! And honestly I haven't really done proper New Year Resolutions in the past. Now with baby around, I feel so much more constrained on the amount of time I have. The time I spend on frivolous things and additional work now all have a greater opportunity cost. I could have used that time better, for my health, for my baby, for my family. So I feel I need to set goals (aka my New Year Resolutions) so that I can prioritize better. Another reason is also because of the Internet I guess...there are always people living "more perfect" lives than us. Of course I know it's not entirely true, and I'm grateful for what I have and what I have achieved so far, but I know I can make my life better if I just set proper goals instead of staying envious while scrolling through IG.  So here goes! There are already some things that I have incorporated into my life (since the year has already started) and I will be notin...

Many of my family members, colleagues and friends have been telling me how amazed they are by my boy being vegan and yet he is still so strong and big-sized. It was funny because my mum's not vegan but when she heard these comments from my relatives, she said "horses also eat grass". Then my cousin also chirped in to say we are all pre-conditioned to think that meat makes us strong but actually strong animals like bulls, elephants and rhinos are all herbivores.   There were also some vegans who asked me for advice on what to feed their kids. So I thought why not just share what I've been feeding my baby. We have been feeding him like this since he was 6 months old and he is now 11 months old. Honestly all this food can be eaten by adults too, which to me is important because on days he doesn't want to finish everything, I can show him that I am eating it too and he will copy me and obediently finish his food. And there wouldn't be wastage too since when he rea...