Talent

When you try your best but you don't succeed...
(Coldplay comes to mind)

At first when you don't succeed, try, try again.

Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

When does it end? When does one know that you've tried enough, and accept the situation?

I knew that talent will only get one so far, but with sufficient hardwork, anything can be achieved. Really though?

I reckon the only talent I do have, is in disappointing people whom I care for and cares for me. Family, friends, I can hardly recall moments that made them proud to be associated with me. But I can pinpoint numerous occasions where I've been a disappointment.

Everything in the world is temporary anyway.. I'm just grateful and blessed for the opportunities though I did not manage to make the best of it.

Thank you and I'm sorry.

Skabetti

Since young, one of my favourite food has always been spaghetti. When I chance upon any Italian restaurant, spaghetti bolognese would be my first choice unless for some bizarre reason that it's not on the menu. I would also judge the rest of the cuisine base on how well their spaghetti bolognese turns out to be. 

Naturally, home cooked spaghetti remains the only dish I can confidently prepare. A recipe imparted from my mum who learned it from her friend. LV grew to enjoy spaghetti as well. 

LV had always pronounced spaghetti correctly with no issues... until recently. Last week she called out to me saying she wants to eat skabetti. It took me a while to figure out she meant spaghetti. I'm clueless how spaghetti turned into skabetti given that all this while, she had no issues saying spaghetti o___o

So yesterday, I cooked spaghetti for dinner. Later at night, I asked her to say spaghetti.

"Skabetti"

(hubby starts chuckling at his PC)

So I went syllable by syllable. Spa. Ghe. Ti. 

"Spa. Ghe. Ti.". LV echoes perfectly. 

"Spaghetti" I said at one go. 

"Skabetti" She says. 

(hubby starts chuckling louder)

After repeated attempts and yielding the same results, both Steven and I just burst into laughter, Steven of amusement, me partly of anguish. LV huffs "WHAT'S SO FUNNY?"

Steven laughs harder and proceeds to give LV a big cuddle. 

A few minutes later, she manages to say Spaghetti albeit not consistently. 

So I asked, "What did you have for dinner tonight?"

"Apple", she responded. I did an imaginary face-palm and asked, "What did you have before the apple?". "Apple", she repeats. 

I guess I'll try again today :P

Five years on

This was probably my longest break from blogger. It simply didn't become an active hobby anymore, but that also meant it was probably the most eventful 5 years of my life? Not to say that the previous years were uneventful, but here's a brief snapshot of my last 5 years:

2014
I had my firstborn, whom I usually refer to as LV or #lyanav on Instagram. That is pretty much the highlight of that year as Steven and I embraced (more like figuring out) parenting.
This is also the year I moved on from Financial Surveillance to Strategic Management. This was the beginning of a new adventure in my career which led me to where I am now.

2015
Unfortunately I don't recall much of this year, except basketball was introduced to ICBG and I participated in their trainings. It was my first physical activity postpartum and I must say my fitness level was definitely down and I struggled to keep up. Nevertheless I still enjoyed the training. I could not tryout as during tournament time I'd be travelling, but seeing the rest of the talents I knew chances to make the team was slim. At least selections was fair compared to what I went through in school.

2016
Now what happened in 2016? Me and hubby started playing more online games again, especially after we've put LV to bed. Toddlers sleep early, and since there isn't much else we can do, we "returned" to our gaming life. Probably one of the turning points was buying the Valve Pack on Steam which gave us access to games like Portal, CS, Left for Dead and such. We completed Portal 2 co-op together and started CS:GO. Prior to this, we played a lot of Gauntlet, courtesy of myuu.

2017
I left my first job. That's another story not meant for the blog. But in summary, I went into the consulting line for about 5.5 months before joining Deposit Insurance with a better offer. I'm now a Project Manager in a Project Management Office, or at least that's what it says on my business card. This is also the year I began playing CS:GO competitively. But don't let that fool you, I'm still an amateur noob at the game until now. But it created a whole new community for me to venture into and familiarise with.

2018
While 2018 was only last year I don't really know what happened. One major switch was moving from my first esports team to 1Percent Esports. Then, I was expecting our second child. It kinda feels like 2018 is a year I'd prefer not to remember. 2019 is also beginning to feel the same. So let's go straight to 2019.

2019
Our second child was born. He's referred to as HV or #harounv on Instagram. He's now about 2.5 months old, at least 6 kgs and growing up so fast. He's so cuddly and adorable.

I'll stop here for now, and we'll see if blogging will become regular again or not. With so much development in the world of social media, there's so many avenues to share thoughts instantly. So we'll see...