My life in lists

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to be a writer but really never gotten around to it, but not for the lack of trying. She had diaries and journals of unfinished stories. She wanted to take up creative writing in college but her parents advised her against it. So she took statistics instead. She then started a blog, but would slack off every now and then and stop writing. Or write about nonsense things. As you can guess, that girl is me.

I have always struggled with good writing because I have difficulties sharing about myself. And because I am forgetful. And sometimes lazy. I know I would never change, not drastically anyway. So I was glad when I stumbled upon listography, where you get to write in lists!

My life in lists. There is an iphone app version but I prefer actual writing

I would randomly choose a list to write or a list to continue whenever I am in the mood to write. I don't pressure myself to finish one list in one sitting, since I don't get to remember a lot of things in one go anyway.

I love reading and yet I can't even remember all my favorite books!

Some lists are really interesting to fill up

Some are quite hard to fill up!

And there are those I would NEVER fill up, hahaha!

The best kind of lists are those you'd like to remember forever

I think about why I want to write. I think one of the reasons is that I feel like I have something to say, and I want to be able to read that "something" in the future. So I can remember! My life in lists might not fully articulate the "somethings" that I really want to write about, but its a great way to kickstart my brain to recall things!

Happy Mother's Day, Mama!

I was reading Tin's  mother's day post and thought of writing about my own version as well. Unfortunately, I am really a forgetful person so I can only come up with few lessons I learned from my mom! So I instead, I  thought I'd rather write about the most important lesson I learned from her, and that is how family should always be the priority.

One of our all-time favorite family picture!

My mom would always, always tell us to prioritize spending time with family over friends. She'd say that friends come and go, but family would always be there for you. So growing up, I did a lot of things with my family. Then every Sunday was family day. No matter how late your Saturday night was, Sunday you must get up for the 9am mass. Then over the years there would be conflict of schedules, but we would always go to church together.

I didn't appreciate it much when I was younger and staying at home, (especially since its very hard to get up early on Sunday mornings!) but it was something I understood and valued when I started living overseas. And even before I got married,  I know its the same value that I want for my own family to have.

It is because of all her effort that we turned out to be a close knit family. And I am really thankful for the closeness I share with them. Now even I am far away (fortunately Singapore is not THAT far), I regularly keep in touch with them, many thanks to technology (facebook, twitter, instagram...).

So Mama, thank you! I do not get to say it often enough, we all do not get to say it often enough, but we love you for being our mom. Happy mother's day!

Meeting new friends over at instagr.am

My blog has been stagnant for a while now.

My dSLRs and compact cameras, and lomos have been resting for sometime too.

Not that I haven't been telling stories nor taking photos. But having the iphone and mobile internet just made it easier for me to share over at instagr.am. And I have been making new friends over there too -- those whose work delights and inspires me, and those who like my pictures as well. Its a fun community!

My instagram stats

As always, I take everyday photos. Mostly of Peyton, and some others that I find interesting. I don't post process much except for cropping, filtering and some tilt-shifting... haha, that might sound lot but there are others that really produces art. And I do everything with my iphone coz I am just lazy like that.

Apart from being able to tell my own stories with pictures,  I like knowing about other people's stories too. I follow a lot of really creative people, as well as those who live in places I like to visit -- Paris, London and Japan.

So in case you are in instagram as well, look me up... let's be friends! Would love to see your stories as well. :)

What's on my (work) desk?

A blah topic really, who would be interested on what's on my work desk anyway? But just in case you're bored and curious :) Not that I was bored when I did this. No, no, no, of course not. Mostly just curious on how photos using the lomolomo app on the iphone will turn out.

keyboard

Keeping in Touch

Dear God,

I watched the movie Going the Distance (Drew Barrymore and Justin Long) and it reminded me of the long distance relaionships that I had and the ones I still have, especially since I am living in Singapore far from family and friends. That it takes a lot of effort to keep them.

So I just want to thank you for Singapore holidays, cheap promo flights, for the 3hr air travel time. For mobile phones, cheap SMS, for free emails, for Facebook, Twitter and this blog. They all help me maintain my long distance relationships in one way or another.

And thank you too for the time, that healed the heartaches for those relationships that didn't survive the distance.

Thank you,
Sara

crash course in French

Bob said (and the travel books I've read mentioned) that the French aren't as snobbish if you try to speak to them in their language. Once they see that you've at least tried, they would switch to English to help you along (and maybe so that you won't get to murder their language). So I am trying my best to learn as much French as I can within a week, since we're leaving for Paris on Saturday. Unfortunately, I am really bad with learning new languages. Really. I tried learning Mandarin when I first came to Singapore to no avail. On the other hand, Bob can order beer in like, 8 languages. Well he can say that plus other essentials like hello, good bye and where's the toilet.

Bob used this book when he was learning French:



But then it would take 6 weeks to finish the course so I decided to get a phrasebook to help me as well:



To be honest though, I don't think I would be confident enough to really converse in French so to lessen the stress, my game plan is to memorize the most essential phrases:

Bonjour Monsieur/ Madame! (Hello!)
Parlez-vous anglais? (Do you speak English?)

Should the answer be Oui (yes), then I am safe! I can switch to English.

If the answer happens to be Non (no), I'll say:

Merci, au revior! (Thank you, good bye!) Then off to find another person that would say Oui to my question. Hehehe!

Hope my plan works. Wish me luck! :)

A birthday post.

I realized I have never written a birthday entry on my blog. So, I am writing one now.

I am turning 31 today. It’s a big deal!!! Yep, I am one of those who gets excited on their birthdays for no reason at all, apart from the fact that it’s their birthday. Last year, I thought I am too old to be excited about something silly, so I willed myself to be deadma about it. Thus my birthday was a bit like an ordinary day. Don't get me wrong, my family and friends all remembered my day but because I was nonchalant about it, the day didn't feel special. It made me sad. I made myself sad.

I realized that I needed to be true to myself, otherwise I would not be happy (who would have guessed, huh?). I am wired to be an excitable person – something I can’t help about myself. My loved ones are used to it – they would sometimes complain about it, but accepted it as a part of me nonetheless. So why should I not give myself a break and just be myself this year?

So this year, this year I’m saying my birthday would turn out great! I don’t really need a big birthday party, just an acknowledgement (by me, most especially) that it’s my day and I am so blessed. I have lived for 31 years already, after all.

Happy birthday to me!!! :)

I have to write...

... because I used to be good at it. But then through the years I let myself be lazy or forgetful and pretty soon I wouldn't know how. Then, more years down the road, when the time comes that I wouldnt be able to talk to my daughter (during her teenage rebelling years), then at least I could write to her -- and be the mushy emotional mother that I know I could be. hehehe.

Seriously, I HAVE to write again.

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