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...

Getting that long term social pass or visa or spouse visa done in Malaysia

Some quick useful links: Information on Hasil operating hours and branches http://www.hasil.gov.my/goindex.php?kump=2&skum=1&posi=1&unit=2&sequ=1 How to fill in that security bond http://www.expats.com.my/expats2009/pdf/Personal_Bond2.pdf How much is your security bond http://www.imi.gov.my/index.php/en/main-services/visa/security-bond Other people's experiences: http://www.mywanderingstory.com/2010/11/marrying-malaysian.html

Reverse

Some while back... I mentioned to some people that I've decided to discontinue updating my blog. And indeed, I had not try to find time to update this at all. But things change. And being partly nostalgic humans often are... I chanced upon some old comments which made blogging fun and funny in years before. That made me look upon this page again, noticing that I've had this site up since 2005... 2005!!! And this is when, I have decided to reverse my decision to quit this blog. Let's see how long this will last though... :P

Going for Fitness

Sometime back in October 2012, or perhaps end-September, Lol-Friend signed up at Fitness First Manulife which is super near her current workplace.

As a joke, she referred me and several friends to the gym.

To summarize, me and about 6-7 friends joined in after her.. :D

We both earned this pretty t-shirt for referring people :D

But why on earth would I, someone who has access to a gym at home, and office, sign up for a gym outside?

Two words: Group exercises :D

I'm now in my third year dancing with Talent Hub. But I realise my fitness is severely lacking ever since I stopped sailing competitively. Not like it was any better during that time. I wanted fun classes to help build up my cardio/endurance and stamina. My membership consultant at that time, knew just how to pitch the membership to me. We never talked about the gym itself, just the classes, the type of classes, the costs, and such.

And for me, as long as you're able to commit for classes, cost per class is quite reasonable. Of course, commitment is always an issue, thus I signed up for a shorter membership tenure at first. Within two months, I moved on to premium :D When you discover how enjoyable classes can be, commitment won't be an issue. You'd drop everything else to go.

My main gym hangout is the Fitness First in 1 Mont Kiara Mall, despite signing up at Manulife as well. The friendly staff there made every visit much more enjoyable.

Classes that I enjoy going include Shbam, Body Jam, Body Combat, Core Flow, amongst others :D One that I'm yet to try, but hope to someday is Body Step.

The improvement, is indeed noticeable :D

ICS to Jellybean

My last post ages ago, I just made the leap to ICS.

Now, with a little hand-me-down from the awesome big brother, I now have a "little" jellybean to play with :D while he plays with his new Samsung Note II.

I got the HTC One X.

And now I'm in love with HTC... yes, battery still goes down, but that's nothing new to me, from my old Iphone 3GS (see last blog post). It doesn't go down as fast, and it's nifty that the charge cable is the same with many other phones including the Note, Kindle, Blackberry and such.

Jumping from iPhone 3GS to HTC One X gives a superb feeling. My friend says her iPhone 5 is still superior, but so what.. this is from 3GS! XD

There's several things that happened since October.. but let's slowly update.. shall we? :D

Ice Cream Sandwich

Just upgraded tabby's operating system from honeycomb to ice cream sandwich :-)

Now I understand why people say to upgrade whenever possible  :-D

Doesn't work with the iPhone tho, iOS 6 seems to drain my battery like drinking water

Also, finally synced my blogger to my tabby, so I can start blogging a little more now and wherever I am  :-D

Chewmil loves my hair

Edit: Video link here (might be private as it's on my brother's Facebook)

Jetlagged?

This paints quite an accurate picture of what I've been living with for some time now




aside from the jetlag, that is. But currently, just over a week since I got back from Europe.. I think there's some jetlag lingering in my system.

While some people say it's due to waking up around 5 am for sahur but this is definitely not the first time I practice fasting during Ramadan and I don't recall having this sleepiness problem before.

Almost daily now since my return, my head and my eyelids become really heavy in the mornings. Now Belgium is six hours behind. While I was there, I had the tendency to wake up around 6 AM earliest before continuing to snooze. Mornings in Malaysia pretty much means sleep time in Belgium. Only close to 12 PM Malaysian time (6 AM Belgium time) would I suddenly awake from my morning daze feeling wide awake. WHY WHY WHY?

Speaking of jetlag, somehow no matter what I try, like adjusting myself before traveling, or using the flight to either stay up or get some shut eye.. I will still go through some form of jetlag. My first night in Belgium, I awoke at 3 AM local time (9 AM Malaysian time), and even though it's summer, it's still dark at that time, and everyone else is asleep. Oh gosh, what do I do.... was my thought for several more hours before I dragged myself outta bed just because I had to use the loo.

Aside from all that, I had one of the most splendid holidays ever. First time in Spain. First time hiking. First time kayaking downstream for 16km. I would do it again. But next time, I'd be better prepared :P