✨ short girl in a big world 🌏

^trying something new this month with ✨animation✨!

R was on reservist for half the month so I spent a lot of time alone. The first week he was away was dumpster fire struggle bus because I was so busy at work and also trying to finish my book in time for book club, that I didn't do any chores and it all piled up until my to-do list was overwhelming ;_; I was so stressed and tired. In that week, I also had to wake up early at 6+am 2 days in a row, and I wasn't used to sleeping alone so I didn't sleep well for those precious hours. And there was a weekday when I only had an hour to get and eat my meals and I was rushing around the whole day HAHA shag. And also quite a lot of thoughts and ruminations this month haha (see below).

R also served notice at his job this month, he's going to start at a new place in Apr :D> I'm excited for him!!

Reading updates

I read a few books this month, and they were all pretty good! Some standouts:

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao

This came highly recommended by someone at a book club I attended last month and I can see why! In this universe, you do magic by writing poems. And women are not allowed to learn to read or write :< Imagine how many curses I would have placed on people while growing up if I could have 😂

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

Thanks to A for this rec! A cool urban fantasy novella with Polish folklore, a nice twist on the usual vampires, etc, with creatures that feed on human emotions like fear and anger. It also has v grotesque imagery like knights pulling swords out of their spines, blood and all. It shows their dedication to their mission and how they are all a bit masochist 👍🏻

-Reading physical books

Also, I have been reading physical books for my book clubs for the past couple of months as the titles were not available in Libby ;_; I'd say that I read primarily eBooks and have done so for years now.

I said it once and I'll say it again: physical books are more inconvenient than ebooks haha. When I say this to readers they look aghast, but I don't mean that therefore ebooks are better, I'm just stating the fact that physical books are heavier and bulkier to bring around, need 2 hands to hold and read, need good lighting to be able to see the words (I like to read in the cinema before a movie starts, so this is an issue for me HAHA). Whereas with my Kobo I only need one hand to read, it's light and fits in all my bags and I can still stuff my water bottle and umbrella in with it, it has backlighting so I don't need to worry about lighting, and I can bring many books around with me.

But I expect I'll be reading more physical books now that I'm going for book clubs (I have 2 that I attend), so this month I bought a reading light that I can kiap to my bed so I can read in bed! I can also bring it around the room like to the table when I'm eating. The light in my room is pretty dim so this light has made it MUCH easier to read physical books 😊

-Reflections on my reading hobby lifestyle

There's been some discussion on reading at work recently. Actually, before this year, we didn't really talk about reading (which is surprising given my workplace). I've been a reader all my life and I haven't thought much about reading and its benefits, to me it's just something I do and enjoy. I do attribute reading as to why I was able to do well in school for the first 10 years on somewhat low effort haha.

I did look into Dr Maryanne Wolf's research as she focuses a lot on the neuroscience of reading in childhood, and the benefits of slow reading over fast reading. I realise literature is the slowest form of reading since we repeatedly go back to the text and form arguments from quotes. It's the most 'engaged' you can be with a text haha. But literature also forces you to be slow because most of it is hard to understand 🫠

I wonder... if I weren't a reader, what hobby would replace it? I can't imagine anything else bringing such a breadth of worlds, styles and genres. OK maybe movies, but they're different. Maybe I just really enjoy stories in any form, but the written form is my fav. And I should thank my parents for reading to me before bedtime and making that a habit/routine HAHA. Maybe I started reading on my own because my dad kept falling asleep then I was like, "Just give me the book" LOL. Also my preschool had a lot of books, and my sec sch had a library, so I've always had easy access to books 🙏🏻 And social media didn't exist so I had the time to make reading a habit. So I guess it's a confluence of factors and when people ask me why I read fiction, it trips me up because I don't even need a reason to read fiction, I just read because I am a reader 🤷🏻‍♀️

Seashore book club

They were discussing Project Hail Mary, so I went with R because he had just read it, and I was on my third read haha. It was R's first time attending a book club! I actually really enjoy book clubs now as it introduces a social element to the solitary act of reading :)

Fantasy book club (second time attending!)

For this month's fantasy book club, I read and very much enjoyed Hyo the Hellmaker by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh! The book is gorgeous, and there are illustrations in it drawn by the author (she's so talented!!). It's not stated in the synopsis but this book is actually a murder mystery novel set on an island where gods live among humans in a Japanese setting. It's the kind of book that is better on a second read because there's so much detail in the worldbuilding. And tbh after I finished it, I didn't want to leave the world yet so I reread about 25% from the start to enjoy it again :P

The set up with figurines and all :P The bake this month was a pear crumble cake (you'll see why if you read the book haha).

I think the cover was illustrated by the author?

^Toki (a god), one of my fav characters in the book, and his headless horse, Buru-chan 😊

Mossery x Gretel Lusky Art Kit arrived!

I ordered this art kit last month. It was a pre-order and it finally arrived! I am so excited to start this haha.

I already started swatching as a wind down activity ☺️

I told R I want to have an art desk and an art cabinet in our home next time HEHE

Side note: I forgot that I had signed up for an online art course early last year, OOPS. I need to get back on it :P It kinda complements the art kit since the art kit is about colouring and blending, and the online art course is more on proportions and digital art techniques.

Cat watercolour workshop

This was a very chill afternoon, and it was hosted at a cat co-working space. There was an instructor who provided the materials and we chose our own reference pic.

I haven't touched watercolours in awhile so I was super not used to it. Why is R's cat so sassy 😹

R asked the instructor if she could teach him how to draw dogs, and she was like nah dogs are more difficult than cats since there are so many different breeds and they look distinct, whereas cats look similar 😂 so she doesn't draw dogs at all hahaha

We decided we will redo this drawing later on and try to improve!

Oscar movie screenings + Project Hail Mary

Watched a couple of Oscar-nominated films this month! GV was screening them, so we watched Hamnet and Sinners. Both were 5 stars IMO. I really enjoyed them. Sinners is a horror movie, but it's also not, it's also about the best day of your life when the future is full of hope, and the magic of music, and friends and family, except with a splash of horror haha.

R and I also watched the long-awaited Project Hail Mary!! They summarised and skimmed through so much of the science and focused on characters instead, which I think works for the movie. I would still highly recommend reading the book.

Played YAPYAP with friends

It's a really chaotic and fun co-op horror game. The premise is that you and your friends are minions who can do magic, and you go into a different wizard's castle each night and cause chaos to earn points (i.e., you need to break and destroy things, set things on fire, pee in them (yes my fav wand can produce pee hahaha)). The game is voice-activated so you need to speak into the mic to cast spells, very realistic, though this does result in accidental spells going off. And yes there is friendly fire, so you could damage your friends!!

Some fun moments livestreamed by my friend:

R is so sweet in this game haha, there was once I got stuck under some stairs and he was the only one who stood there and said spells to help me get unstuck, and he always asks me if I want any other wands if he sees me using the default wand ☺️

Played Hozy

Played a cosy Steam game where you clean up and reno and decorate an abandoned space hehe I tried the demo of the full game which came out in end-Mar.

Problematic reality TV shows from the 2000s

Netflix had a couple of documentaries on America's Next Top Model and The Biggest Loser, two of the shows I watched the most in the 2000s. They used to air on TV and I would watch them with my mum every week hahaha. Though they are super problematic now that I look back on them. ANTM even aired someone cheating on her boyfriend while drunk and it must have been super traumatic for her to get hate from the whole country :(

And looking back, Biggest Loser probably encouraged my all-or-nothing mindset when it comes to weight loss, and the belief that you have to exercise excessively every day and eat very little to lose weight. Sidenote I have stopped weighing myself regularly and I'm eating at maintenance now because it was getting too stressful. I watched a video on soft productivity and she said, "Allow yourself to slow down without quitting." So that's what I'm doing. Slowing down is not failing!

Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN)

I have kinda self-diagnosed myself with CEN haha. One of the hallmarks is the feeling of a void, emptiness, a hollowness in the chest or stomach. I remember feeling this intensely while I was living on my own some years back. I was going through stuff, but not to the extent that would explain why I felt so empty all the time, and now I finally have an explanation. Growing up, neither of my parents took care of my emotions, they were too caught up in their own issues and the main message received was to just get over my feelings as quickly as possible. My dad also often called me "whiny" or "sensitive" when I complained about his behaviour. And I remember there was a night I was very upset and my mum was more angry that I had woken her up, not curious about why I was upset. Then when I was older my mum started using me as an emotional dumping ground for her resentment :<

New food I tried this month

Dutch Colony Coffee Co. - Thanks to A for suggesting this place! I haven't really tried their food before and it was really good :) I also drank hojicha latte and I was pleased to find out that the caffeine content for hojicha is quite low which means I can drink it in the afternoon hahaha.

Ajumma - Been wanting to try this for a while but for some reason I had the impression that it was expensive ?? They usually have a long queue also, but R and I were having an early dinner so didn't have to wait! I saw a lot of people ordering their ramyeon and I tried this 'pork belly' one, the pork belly was more like char siew haha and it was good. The ramyeon was too spicy for me though 😅

Earle Swensen's - Technically not my first time trying this as I ate this at Changi before, but first time in years so it still counts hahaha. I mostly wanted to eat here because of the salad bar. The seabass was good!!

House updates

Reno is officially underway! Hacking has begun and I am very excited :D We have also been buying our furniture and appliances. Can't wait to see it all come together!

Work updates

You know when you need a bunch of people to sign off on a doc, and people keep making changes, so you have to restart from the first person signing off? Well it took us 2 weeks and 3 rounds for 5 people to sign off on a single document *laughs in corporate merry-go-round*

Truth be told, I've been feeling bored by my work lately. I don't know if this is a temporary feeling, or if I should take it as a sign to move on haha. I shall ruminate on this and what feels right. Tbf I haven't been doing any data analysis, just reporting numbers.

I attended my ex-colleague's talk to support her! OK technically we are still colleagues, she is from my previous team. Funny thing is, she reused the 👍🏻/👎🏻 signs that I had bought to use for my talk a couple of years ago 😊 Glad that they are still using them bc they're a good way to have some interactivity in a talk.

Finally, cute things to end off March

My boss gave us these huge pineapple tarts for CNY hahaha

Got the keys to our house!

The sellers finally moved out, and we collected the keys this month and stepped into the house again for the first time since we viewed it 😆 OK it's really starting to feel like our space NOW hahaha. It's small and cosy. We also had a site visit with the aircon vendor and the electrical guy to discuss placement of sockets, etc.

Reno is starting soon, I hope everything goes smoothly and we can move in on time 🤞🏻 Pls pray for me!!

R and I gave our neighbours pineapple tarts and notes to say that our reno is starting and we apologise in advance for the noise and dust so I hope they don't curse us hahaha 😅

Celebrated R's bday 🥳

It was a weekday, and we went to Yardbird for dinner! It's one of our favourite restaurants for special occasions. We always get their roast chicken :D> They are American so their portions are huge.

Look at this gigantic slice of chocolate bourbon cake ahahaha

Though we went back to familiar places, we also tried a few new places this month! These were all yum 😋

I also brought R on a date to Dempsey Hill, it was his first time there hehe

Celebrated VDay ♥️

Our itinerary this year was oceanarium then karaoke! Sea animals and singing, our favs 😊

We saw this crab plotting it was so cute

THE KARAOKE ROOM WAS PINK!

I got mechanical keyboards!

I bought myself the same brand as R's mech keyboard after seeing him use it hehe (if you recall in Jan I bought him a keyboard for his birthday). I added pink and green keycaps to mine :D

R bought me my second mech keyboard haha, I'm using it at work bc the keys are silent :) Am very happy with them both 😊

Kobo skin

It's actually a vinyl sticker. I totally didn't know this was an option for Kobo until I saw someone on the train with it, I was inspired then I went to find it online haha

I got this pink strawberry cat pattern and it's so pretty :D

Sold a board game

I won a massive board game at Christmas board games last year, and it's been sitting in my uncle's storage bed for the whole year haha. Reason being it takes an hour to set up, and I have not played this game before heh, and there's a digital version of the game alr (which I also have not played). But yay I managed to sell it for a decent amount (enough for 11 Cold Storage sashimis)!

Attended our friend's wedding!!

It was really fun and so thoughtfully planned. I posed with my fav CNY snack (pineapple tart)!!

The couple included a handwritten note for each guest and the amount of effort they put in was insane haha, especially as it was not a small banquet hall. They had a phonebooth video thing and a newsletter about how they met and their first date (plus a quiz with prizes).

Meetup for book club discovery

With my fellow readers S & A :D Throwback to when I was in primary school and S loaned out her Mediator books to me and other classmates 😂

Got to know some more book clubs, including a fantasy and horror one (later this month I would go for one of the book clubs I discovered here).

We also celebrated S's birthday at Dim Sum Place!

Quite proud of this photo because it was my idea to use the mirror HAHA though we were quite far away.

Always nice to catch up and (literally and figuratively) have tea 🫖

CNY 🧧🐴

It's my last CNY collecting angbaos ;_; I generally don't really enjoy CNY because I go visiting with my parents and they visit their friends, so I'm just listening to them talk while I eat snacks.

Took a maintenance break during CNY (tbh I forgot about maintenance breaks until I reread my 2025 journal and remembered they are a thing haha). I ate more veggies and less meat during CNY this year, and I did quite well! It was surprisingly easy because there were so many veggie dishes, and I'm pretty happy not eating meat. I also narrowed down which snacks I really want to eat during CNY (no prizes for guessing pineapple tarts, and also love letters/egg rolls, belinjiao chips and arrowhead chips).

But then I struggled to go back to a deficit post-CNY bc I started to hate feeling hungry 🫠 After some reflection I think because the light/airy feeling of hunger is similar to feeling anxious and overwhelmed 😔

Did a little art project - made my handwriting into a font

Tried new skincare

I've been getting laser treatments for my freckles, then I went for a facial last month and they said my skin was slightly dry from the lasers. So I decided to get some hydrating/repairing skincare. Before this most of my products were for brightening so they were not very hydrating. I thought with the humidity here, I don't need to moisturise my skin that much, but I realised with the lasers, my skin barrier needs some TLC to repair itself after each session. I like how my skin feels more boing boing now ☺️

Attended a book club!

It's a fantasy book club and they held it in a cafe that looks like a tavern, so it was very atmospheric and suited the genre. The funny thing was that the organisers were both half an hour late so the book club members welcomed me and we started the discussion ourselves, and they were all very friendly. I had a good time haha. It's nice to sit around and talk about books and movies.

The organiser brought miniatures of the characters (a woman and her horse) which was adorable 😂 This book club also comes with optional bakes, and this month, to suit the theme, she baked German horseshoe biscuits.

^horseshoe biscuits, ft. a fancy illustrated version of the book (Behooved)

Caught up with my monthly reviews (YAY!)

I finally caught up with my monthly reviews + yearly review, though this one is slightly delayed 😮‍💨 The backlog was about 4 months at one point, but I pushed through to finish reading ALL my 2025 posts and wrote my reviews 😆

Work updates

Had a stressful weekend where I had to rush an analysis for a presentation, and it was not fun to spend my weekend mornings working :< It was also a new responsibility that was handed to me this year, so I was unfamiliar with interpreting the numbers, and made a couple of mistakes which I caught before the presentation. I felt bad about making the mistakes because I was rushing, but I guess it's better that I caught them in time? Anyway my boss didn't scold me or say anything about it to my face 😮‍💨 Lesson learnt to double-check and spend a bit more time confirming the stats before I submit (even though there was a slides deadline).

I also fell sick the last week of Feb with slight flu, so I was quite tired and stressed, and missed all my workouts that week, but I brushed it off and carried on haha

I usually have quite a few yearly goals but I kept it to 3 in 2025 in the spirit of slow productivity haha (i.e., focus on less so you can do MORE). Also, I set quarterly goals instead of monthly goals. On hindsight, it was lucky I did that because my year was so packed (admittedly it was mostly self-inflicted, but I also got a bunch of work stuff thrown at me).

(the visuals are related to my 2026 goal to create more haha)

2025 Goals review

I completed 1.5 out of 3 goals hahaha. I passed the data analyst allowance test in May 2025, and kept my sleep debt under 5 hours 62% of the time.

TBH I didn't really savour because I didn't have anything concrete in mind when I decided the word of the year would be savour. I just wanted to slow down and really appreciate the good things in my life. In terms of appreciating my life more, I think I did achieve it. But in terms of slowing down, no not really.

2025 Highlights

BOUGHT A HOUSE :O + first-time reno

Although R and I have been legally house owners for 3 months now (typing this in Feb 2026), it still feels surreal as we haven't collected keys yet as the sellers are living there for awhile more haha. We have started paying property tax and S&CC bills :( In fact the other day I forgot that the mortgage has started coming out of my CPF 😭 I think it'll only feel real once we are living there.

I suppose I am now "adulting," which is why I've been thinking about what adulting even means. I think someone on the outside looking in would say my 2025 consisted of the agreed-upon trappings of adulting, like getting engaged, buying house, appointing an ID, and so on.

To me, being an adult means taking responsibility for your physical/mental health, taking care of and maintaining/cleaning your stuff, making sure your finances are in order, making good decisions, and the next level would be taking care of the people around you as well. And of course you should focus on your filling your cup first before anyone else’s.

It's been a steep learning curve for the renovation process. I probably don't want to do it again, but I've learnt a lot from talking to different IDs and watching YouTube videos. It's highly personal and there isn't a right way to do things, and also highly dependent on budget. I'd say our budget is adequate but not unlimited, so it's stressful when we are quoted numbers that are higher than what we expected, or when we realised we forgot to budget for things like faucets. There's so many big and small things to pay for 😭

I'm grateful to my past self for saving for house for a few years already (I was gonna buy as a single when I'm 35, hence started saving early), bc it means I don't have to go into debt for reno or the trips I took this year.

Trips this year (Cruise, Bintan, Sydney and London/Edinburgh)

We went on quite a few trips this year. The most impromptu one was Sydney as it was R's work trip, and he bought his tickets only the week before, so I bought my tickets around that time and off we went without much planning 😆 It turned out to be a really great trip, and we were lucky that Sydney has good public transport, and our hotel was in the city centre so most attractions were walkable/easy to access, and none of the attractions we wanted to go to were already sold out (we booked almost all tickets the day before only). Also we went whale watching, that was magical! And Australian food is so fresh and delicious 😋

The highlight was definitely the UK trip. We sat business class for the first time. We bought tickets 9 months before the trip so the trip was a looong time coming haha. It was actually really nice to have something to look forward to for most of the year. I'm happy that R got so many new experiences from this trip, especially the train experiences :)

Also although R and I travelled together in 2024, fun fact this was the first year we went on trips just the two of us hahaha.

Living alone trial in Feb

For some reason my family were all overseas in Feb, and R was in reservist, so I was alone for a few days.

"I have truly been loving being alone these past couple of days 🙂 I’m not scared anymore. Feb has been a gentle exposure therapy HAHA" - my journal

Yay progress!! I remember when I was living alone in 2021, I was lonely and I hated being alone. Glad that I’m much better now.

Living together trial from Jul

This was also something new as I have never lived with a partner before. It's REALLY FUN 10/10, like a never ending staycation hahaha. Though also very mundane (in a nice way). It's ironic that when you're dating, you go on dates and do exciting stuff, but when you live together, most of what you do is mundane life stuff.

The groceries we buy most often by far are different types of milk 😂 strawberry, lactose-free, soy, etc, for R's coffee, and my matcha latte.

The year of musicals

We watched quite a few musicals this year! Phantom, LOTR, Wicked, The Lion King 😊 So happy that Phantom and Wicked came back to SG because those are two of my favs. And we watched Lion King in London :)

Work upheavals

I completed my first year in a data analyst role and I did not fail (PHEW)! Proud of myself for learning and keeping up with the team, though I feel they still treat me with kid gloves sometimes.

I also had secretariat duty for 6 months which I couldn't get out of even though I tried to :( (the silver lining is it probably contributed to a better performance grade this year)

And on top of that, a new CE came in and we had a reorg 😮‍💨

Some work highlights: team bonding on a yacht, and attending my first D&D in years hehe! And also the karaoke sessions with colleagues :D

Fitness update

I managed 10 pushups in Dec!! Next goal is 20 pushups 💪🏻 (Update Feb 2026: currently at 12 pushups)

Overall, I lost weight from Jan to May and gained weight from Jun to Nov 🙈 I think partially the life upheavals are to blame, moving out and not having an exercise routine for a few months. I was also not very consistent with my workouts as I kept getting migraines ;_;

Overall I gained 1.7kg this year ☠️ which is less than last year, but still going in the wrong direction. I am determined that the weight gain shall STOP HERE 🛑 I saw a pic of myself in Nov which made me wake up my idea HAHA. But realistically since we're moving out next year and going to be in a new neighbourhood, I expect some volatility there. So the best I can do is lose for half the year now that I have a routine, and try my best in the second half 🙏🏻

Spotify wrapped

LMAO nuff said. Evidently I went through a Kpop demon hunters OST phase 😂

Wishes for myself

I wrote these wishes for myself all the way back in 2020, inspired by a spontaneous sleepover in my then-friend's rented condo. I took a bath and thought about what I wanted for myself. And 5 years later I rediscovered this while looking through my old goals and budget documents haha. It's a good reminder for myself of the kind of person I want to be 🙏🏻

• Cultivate good taste (to recognise quality and value – in objects, content I consume and people)

• Be kind to myself and others, to treat myself as I would my best friend

• To not feel trapped in my body – to instead feel strong and powerful in my body – to care for it, be its owner, nurture and maintain it – to gracefully accept its changes, ebbs and flows

• To be deliberate with my time so I can be generous with my time (same goes for money)

• To appreciate how far I’ve come, while accepting how far I have to go – to focus on the journey, the systems and habits, rather than the lagging measures – to value consistency above sprints

• To check-in with myself constantly and give myself what I need

• To let fear be a compass, something to go toward rather than turn away from

• To embrace life in its weirdness, absurdity, complexity – to accept that I can’t control everything – to have faith that things will work out for the best if I focus on my sphere of influence (do what I can with what I have)

• To be careful and aware of the narratives I tell myself – to imbue stories with empathy and the kindest benefit of doubt

• To let pain be, knowing it will pass

• To stop seeking external validation. To seek internal validation as my “check” for whether I’m a total babe

• To forgive myself and others

• To be the most fulfilled version of myself

Happy new year!! 🥳

Here are my 2026 goals! They are pretty much the same as last year, except for a new goal to be more creative/create more art rather than consuming :D And I'm trying it out with my blog! Lmk what you guys think of the visuals HAHA

New Mofusand calendar for work ^^

Unfortunately I started the year being sick with sore throat and flu ;_; from a bug I picked up at a party, so this was not an auspicious start...

R and I played Necesse while I was sick, which was good bc it made me forget I was sick, but it was also bad bc we lost track of time and ended up sleeping late heh 😮‍💨 I got sunglasses and a polar bear!! (Update Feb 2026: For some reason I cannot play Necesse, it keeps crashing on my com now 😭)

KL Trip

January AKA the month that R went to KL for the first time!! I love telling people this and seeing their faces.

Malaysian food is SO GOOD! The seafood was fresh 💯 and ofc more affordable.

We mostly went to KLCC to shop because it was very near our hotel. And we went to Petaling St night market twice haha, and ate the famous claypot chicken rice there. We were lucky to get there early and only had a very short wait before we got a table. When we left, the queue was quite long :o

I found a hipster shop which sold candles and perfume called Analogue. I also got cute stickers from Stickerrific (thanks A for the rec!) and Book Xcess (randomly came across an outlet at Rex haha, I didn't even know it was there).

Storytime!! We ended up staying at two hotels this trip, because the first one was so bad. It wasn't a hotel, more like a managed apartment unit. It only had one bathroom shared between two bedrooms, and the bathroom connected the two rooms (it's a jack and jill bathroom). So we could hear noise from the other room very easily. And the doors could only be locked from inside the bathroom wut ??? What kind of design is this. Cue R's dad walking in on me changing because I can't lock the bathroom door from the bedroom side ugh 🙂‍↔️ I had a feeling that someone would walk in so luckily I was fully dressed and just zipping up my skirt. It's super annoying. This apartment was the worst, also because of loud music being played at 4+am which woke us up. And there were no hooks in the rooms for towels or clothes. R's parents apparently didn't sleep the whole night because of the noise. I also got weird vibes from the apartment building.

After this awful experience, we (emergency 🚨) moved to another hotel and it was MUCH better. They gave us kombucha when we checked in haha and they had turn down service. The breakfast was also 10/10. They had buffet as well as a menu we could order off. My favourites below:

I also went to the hotel gym a couple of times! Happy that I'm now the kind of person who does that :)

Built a mini lego figure for the first time

The lego pieces were soooo tiny, and it took quite long as you have to put them together layer by layer. Respect to those who frequently make mini lego figures because it is HARD.

The blushing panda we made!! This was a Christmas gift from my colleague 😊

Reno woes

Earlier this month, we went to a lighting shop with our ID. They demo-ed different types of lights, and at the end, the quote was a whopping $4k. It stressed us out because it was over budget, and because we paid the deposit and then felt stuck. On hindsight, we should always take a quote back to think about it and not pay on the spot 🫠

Also, we went to another light shop and they were WAY cheaper. On the scale of... track lights cost $700+ at the first shop, but $100+ at the second shop, which is insane. Dunno whether one is insanely expensive or the other insanely cheap, or both lol. In the end, we decided to cut down on the lights we got from shop 1, and reduced the quote to $1.4k. And we intend to source LEDs and other lighting from other shops instead bc the first one was so expensive >.> I still asked my ID if $4k is normal for lights, and he said yes <.<

Bought R a mechanical keyboard as an early bday present

I got him the Keychron K10 HE (not pictured here is the pretty backlighting). He had seen this in Challenger and he liked it. I also love how the keys sound, and (spoiler for Feb review) I liked it so much I got it for myself too HAHA. I don't think any other keyboard has the wood accents at the side, it's so pretty!!

Hosted for the first time 🫖

We hosted friends for the first time in our current place, and it was to play an RPG based on students going to a magical school xD I was quite anxious because I was worried the room would be too small, but it turned out fine haha.

The end of Jan also brought a LOT of tea HAHA

^this much tea

It made me realise that some people are really incapable of changing and I dodged a huge bullet 🙂‍↔️ I also feel superior since I kept working on myself and improving over the years, and he never did 🙄

Mandai staycation

I've wanted to stay at Mandai Rainforest Resort since they opened. Somehow I had a vision of giraffes being outside our window and we can feed them <.< I think this is a resort that exists but it is not Mandai 😂 anyway, we did an EOY staycay there! So the funny thing is, R was considering proposing at Mandai, and he wrote in to them to ask if they would help set up the room, but they never replied... so he proposed to me already, then when he checked in, they said they had upgraded us to a suite for the proposal 🙃 we decided to go along with it and accept the upgrade :P I shifted my ring to another finger in case they found us sus HAHA. We bought 4D that day because we felt lucky hahaha (didn't win though).

The suite was one of the nicest rooms I've stayed in. They provided a water dispenser, nespresso machine with pods, and bath salts and bath oil for the bathtub 😊 it's also my first time having turndown service HAHA they put filled water bottles near our bed and also room slippers, turned down the covers, and burned essential oils. So nice hehe.

Suite tour! (I also wanted to share a vid of elephants dancing but tumblr only allows one video in a post 😒)

The Christmas hat on the parrot in the lobby 😂

We went to the zoo and river wonders on two days, with free entry thanks to the ASA card from my company, and Bird Paradise on one day. It was R's first time to Bird Paradise!

Sadly Bird Paradise usually leads to migraines for me as it has a lot of hot to cold, cold to hot temperatures as you walk in and out of the apiaries 😮‍💨

A family of shy hornbills. I'm glad we got to meet them during the keeper talk, as the keepers warned us they are very shy and may not come over even for food.

Saw goslings! I'm happy that the birds are breeding, means they are thriving 🥰

Ordered chicken liver pate for room service, and ate it while watching Alice in Borderland S3 (side note: I do not recommend watching this season, it was a letdown for me)

I love ordering room service because it feels so luxurious to eat and chill in the room haha

Learning how to chill from these pandas

We fed some happy elephants! 🐘 they are super cute

Also had Birds of Paradise every single day at Mandai 🙈 I always YOLO my diet when I'm on holiday heh

It was such a nice staycay. We saw so many animals, and we also got lots of steps every day 💯

We finally tried Cavern Restaurant (the restaurant that looks like a cave) at Rainforest Wild Asia. We had mushroom soup and mushroom pasta hahaha I guess they grow (real) mushrooms in their (fake) cave?

Attended SGIFF (pt 2)

Went for the Audience Choice Award film, as is our tradition. We have gone for this for the past 3 years. This year it's Coda, a documentary on Victoria Chorale (VJC's alumni choir). I was in choir in pri sch and a year in sec sch (before I quit by going MIA), so this documentary brought me back to those times, like the training for SYF competition, sectionals, etc. With some unpleasant and embarrassing memories 😔 The filmmakers followed Victoria Chorale overseas for an international competition, and after watching it, I realised I did not miss out at all when I quit choir in sec 1 🥳

New lock screen and wallpaper

I subscribed to a creators' patreon for the first time! Her art is very cute and I love her stickers. So as a patreon, I'll get monthly mail with stickers. She also has digital backgrounds so I set these as my wallpaper and lock screen.

Tried pickleball

Went for pickleball as my company started an interest group haha. My boss is in it also, so he taught me how to play 😂 I picked it up pretty fast (at least the serving part) thanks to my very-long-ago-but-yay-muscle-memory tennis background. It's quite fun and I'll definitely play again! The other incentive is a delicious Thai place where we eat after pickleball.

Closed my exercise ring more consistently

I figured out the gentlest way to close my exercise ring, which is to walk on my walkpad for about 30 mins at a 4~ pace. This is very doable, I don’t feel too tired or hungry after closing the ring. I can realistically do this every day if I make time for it. I closed my exercise rings 21/31 days in Dec :D

Booked ROM venue

Wow I had no idea I had to book so far in advance, the slots were almost all taken up D:

Side note, R and I caught up with a friend who is getting married in Feb 2026 and he is planning his wedding, house reno and honeymoon simultaneously. He called it doing life on HARD MODE HAHA. I can only handle one of those things at a time eeep.

Finished playing Stray 🐱

Fun fact I actually bought this game one year ago but haven't played in months.

In the game, you are a cat and you get to do cat things like rub against people's legs and knock things off the table 😂 There's also a story to uncover through the world, puzzles to solve, and you have a robot friend throughout. I like how the game is partly open world where you can explore areas throughout the game, yet they also guide you to the next part quite clearly. The difficulty was just nice for me, there's some chase/sneak sections but they were not too hard. I don't like games where you have to do everything perfectly just to get to the next part hahah.

Oceanarium 🐋

^Pretty sea jellies floating along in the current

Went to Oceanarium with my childhood friend A who is visiting from Australia, and I like how they expanded the aquarium to have a section on deep sea creatures! It's quite creepy but fascinating as well. They also now have a section where you can let giant shrimp eat the dead skin on your fingers 😂 it's not painful, just gentle brushes(nibbles?) against my skin. Truly a win win for both parties

At the store, I bought a bracelet which lets me track a sea turtle and it's so cool!

I'm tracking a sea turtle called Tippi and she lives in the Dominican Republic 😊 How it works is you buy a bracelet and inside the packaging there's a QR code which you scan through the Fahlo app. Then you'll be randomly assigned one of the wild animals (they have whales, lions, red pandas, etc) and you get to see where they move for 1 year). These are animals that are being studied by researchers and they have a tracker attached to them. It's such a brilliant idea because they also send you info on the animal and what the biggest threats to their habitats are.

Home improvements

Improved our bathroom by putting up some organisers :) This frees up our bathroom sink space! I love doing things like this haha it always feels like such a win. Though the toothbrush holder is a bit crooked 🙈 How do people stick these on straight?

Year end gatherings/parties

It's festive season and I went for a Christmas eve party, Christmas board games and post-Christmas board games hehe. I wore my reindeer headband to ALL because I have to wait a year to wear it again.

The Christmas ginger cinnamon cookie production line 😂 I am contributing eye power in this pic HAHA but I did help make the second batch of cookies later!

Played a drinking game with colleagues where your character's hp is represented by alcohol, and every time you take damage you have to drink, creative sia! Applause to whoever came up with this. And the game was full of drinking puns too hahaha. It's best to play with a low-alcohol drink because you might end up drinking a lot.

Spotted a cute reindeer 😍

Necesse update

R and I had more adventures in Necesse. We finally got pigs, and they are so grumpy 😂 Here's a pic of them in a pen with our penguins.

So this is kinda what happened to us, when I set the zone to limit to 12 animals in the ratio of 20% males and 80% females, I didn’t know the number was PER zone so all 3 pens were in it. Then we bought 2 bulls for 300+ coins each to breed with our cows, and saw them both get killed instantly by our animal keeper ☠️

Sometimes having a mac sucks because there's a lot of games I can't play, but maybe that's also a good thing haha

Side note I realised that gaming on a laptop makes my shoulders SUPER sore, I think my current chair and table are not ergonomic. We play for hours at a time and I'm full of aches afterwards. Is this getting older? :<

Work updates

I felt mentally exhausted since mid-Dec and could barely drag myself to do work stuff. Somehow I was more mentally exhausted in Dec than in Nov, which doesn't make sense since I handed over my secy duties by Dec... it feels like there was a lag before the exhaustion caught up to me :< Or maybe it's because everyone is on holiday in Dec.

I went for a geoanalytics course this month and it was pretty good! I feel more confident doing geoanalytics now (basically doing location-based analysis like calculating how many patrons live around X library).

Had a catch up with my mentor who said that me getting an average grade this year is like paying tuition for a degree that will ultimately help me and my future haha. I agree that this stint being a data analyst will only help my future career, though it sucks that the cost is my grade this year.

Got some Christmas gifts from colleagues 🥰 I didn't give presents this year because I didn't plan for it, but I will consider next year! I just don't want to give people something they won't use/eat because it contributes to more waste. After last year where I won a huuuuge board game, I didn't take part in the board games Christmas gift exchange. Especially now that I live in a small space, I want to choose and curate anything I bring in.

Switched to concession pass for public transport

R and I take a lot of trips nowadays when we go out for lunch, so our transport went way up since we moved in together. Right now with our current lifestyle, it's worth it to get the pass ($128 currently, but it will be $122 from Dec). Maybe when we move out next year we will walk more instead for lunch and our transport costs will decrease :D

Attended SWF and SGIFF

The two 'artsy' events that I attend every year hahaha

This year, R and I went for two weekends of SWF events/talks and it was very fun! Throwback to uni days as I sit in a lecture (but no need to take notes this time, and no worries about content coming out for exams, shiok 😌). We also went for R.F. Kuang's talk which was a ticketed event, it was a full house, the queue to get in started an hour earlier :o and the queue after that for her book signing was super long. But glad that S and A managed to get their books signed by her!!

I'm happy that I have friends who go for SWF as well (S and A), and we had dinner after on one of the days :) I also saw a lot of uni students there. I'm happy that SWF seems to be thriving as this year all the festival passes were sold out, and reading is still popular (though reading is now aestheticised and itself a brand)!

We also watched two SGIFF films this month, a cute Japanese movie called Bring Him Down to a Portable Size, which is a light-hearted movie about grief and sibling dynamics. We watched with our ex-boxing gym coach. He always thinks of us and jios us for movies, which is nice 😊The other movie is Sandbox, an SG film about a gym that teaches stunt techniques. It's a slapstick comedy and Ben Kheng is in it hahaha

Got my Qlik AI Certification 📜

Funny story about this cert, it's an exam administered at home so they record your screen and your camera throughout to check that nobody else is in the room with you during the exam.

There was a pre-check where I had to move my camera around to show the room in 360degrees and because we only have one room, Ray had to hide behind the bed 😂 I think they use AI to detect faces, which is why they also instructed to shift all photo frames away from the camera. I could see a bit of his back peeking out but the camera didn't detect him hehe

Then during my exam I heard the sound of him dragging himself on the floor behind me. He was crawling across the floor to get to the toilet 🤣 🤣 🤣 I was trying not to react on camera HAHAHA

Went for socials

And I didn't skip any! This surprises me because I'd usually miss one when I sign up for a couple in the same week hahaha. I attended a graduation event, an NTU alumni event and a Friendzone event. For the grad event, we could bring +1s so I brought R haha. I went for the other 2 alone. Funnily enough the first person I saw at the NTU alumni event was my colleague manning the registration table 😂

My fifth straight month of weight gain

I spent the first 5 months of this year losing weight and the next 5 months gaining ugh 🫠 Every time I gain weight and lose it again, it's always through a different method hahaha. I suppose this is just part of life, and it's understandable as I tend to gain weight when I go on trips, and I had 3 trips between June and October, plus I moved in with R in July, so that's also another disruption to my routines and diet. I feel sian about it even though I know why it happened :< I feel like I owe it to my past self to ensure her hard work isn't reversed.

The good news is my weight finally stopped going up at the end of November (but it's also not going down). I've been tweaking my diet and exercise, and my environment, to see what habits can help me stop the weight gain, and subsequently lose weight.

I almost gave up matcha latte (~100 cal) to lose weight, but I realised there are other swaps I'm more willing to make, such as not ordering meat with caifan.

It's annoying because I'm starting to not like how I look in photos again 🥲 And it feels like I'm currently running in place and getting nowhere :< especially with the festive season coming up ahHHHH

At least I've been:

doing pushups sometimes (aiming for 10 full pushups)

walking on my walkpad more (I had been neglecting it but I have now moved it from being stacked against the window to under my desk so I can see it and it takes less steps (pun intended) to start walking)

Going for pilates 2-3x a month (aiming to go 1x a week consistently, though it's difficult with migraines)

Yacht day with colleagues 🛥️

Our team bonding was on a yacht haha, we spent the morning on the boat and had a bbq lunch! We got super lucky with the weather, at first it was very sunny, then it became cloudy and then it rained heavily at the end. I managed to do all my water activities (jet ski, slide) when it was cloudy 👍🏻 I was prepared to stay on the yacht and not swim if the sun didn't disappear hahaha. And some of us went for karaoke after :D

Started playing online co-op Necesse

Started playing Necesse online with our friends. Necesse is like Minecraft lite 😊 it's pretty fun! My favourite part is that you can keep farm animals and breed them.

I have chickens, cows and an ostrich!!

Officially a house owner ?!

We had the HDB appt this month and we are now legally house owners!! It feels surreal, scary, exciting, and I'm internally screaming like this dino hahahah. Hello 👋🏻 to S&CC bills and property tax. I must say that I'm relieved it doesn't take too much cash outlay to buy a house, in total we spent $5kish for valuation, option to purchase, legal fees, etc. Some things can be taken from CPF so that helped as well.

Excited for our future home! We went tile shopping this month with our IDs as well. Slight decision fatigue since there's so many tiles with different shades and textures. I hope we made good choices.

Engaged! 💍

R proposed this month and I can now officially wear my ring around hahaha. We chose it together and it's so pretty! It's a pink diamond, which I didn't know existed until I saw it at a shop and fell in love with it. It feels weird to call him my fiance so I'm still calling him my boyfriend 🙃

While we are getting married sooner than expected because of the house, I feel like it would have been an eventuality anyway. But because we are saving for reno, unfortunately our friends and family will have to wait for celebrations and treats hahaha. I promise we will get around to it once we have the budget!!

Struggling with forgiveness

Keeping a journal/blog is both a blessing and a curse because when I read old posts, it takes me back to a time when someone hurt me so badly, and now he's dating my friend, and I am finding it hard to forgive him because I don't think he deserves to be happy or be with anyone because he barely put in any effort for me. I wanna warn my friend about him, but it's none of my business. I'm really OK with seeing him at gatherings sometimes, but now that I know they're dating I inadvertently think of him whenever I see her and it makes me annoyed 😒 How to be indifferent, that's what I wanna know haha

Work updates

Had a farewell dinner for one of my colleagues who is going on secondment. We had worked together on my second data arcade tournament (a dashboard-building competition) in 2023 and I have fond memories haha. He was also my covering secy this year. We had kbbq for dinner and then we went to an Irish pub for drinks, and had a really nice convo right before the heavy rain came haha. My colleague was asked to talk about his impression/observations of everyone around the table, and he said some of the nicest things I've heard about me 🥰 like how I'm very curious and how I lean in to responsibility instead of away.

A new colleague joined my team!! She's been really nice so far.

Did a super quick analysis (turnaround in 2 days) while also juggling minutes, go me! After I sent the analysis email update, one of the ACEs (Assistant CEOs) called me directly to ask me questions about it, which is a first HAHA.

Got assigned for a project early next year wew

Tried more food places and more studios

Branched out a lil this month to find nice places around us to eat. We found our default caifan place and default Western! Ofc the risks of trying new places is that there may be some bad meals, but I think the risk is worth it sometimes since I might also find new places that I like.

I also tried new yoga/pilates studios. One of them had a weird vibe, like the instructor was nice but the members feel a bit unfriendly, not sure why. I found a cosy studio which does mat pilates and uses a lot of equipment like rings and ankle weights which makes things interesting haha. I really appreciate Classpass because I can find a class which fits my available times and locations, which may change week by week, and I no longer have to rush to classes :D

Dog training

Sleepy mornings 😴

Met our dog trainer this month, whom we haven't seen in a while. He gave us the biggest compliment which is that BB is a more balanced dog now and more open to new experiences, and he has now 'graduated' from dog training 😊 I'm so proud because training BB has been our main project this year.

BB tapped out and R had to carry him hahahaha, then he was totally ded after a long walk 😆

AI Agents bootcamp

Attended an online programme on AI Agents bc I was curious to find out more, and they introduced Lovable and Zapier. Lovable lets you build apps by typing what you want to build, and Zapier is an easy way to build agents. Both are no-code, I'm really amazed at how easy it is to build nowadays :)

The resurrected cockroach

R and I were at a traffic light where we saw a cockroach. He stepped on it and killed it.

A few minutes later it CAME BACK TO LIFE and ran straight towards him (REVENGE???!). I screamed, "It's not dead! It's not dead!!" and everyone else at the traffic light was just on their phones <.<

Free book!

Walked past a random shop and found a pile of books, and right on top was a first edition Pretties wow. I've been trying to get a set of this but it's hard to find. So it was definitely fate hahaha. There was a sign above the books: "Don't need to ask. Just take." ☺️ Now I just need to randomly come across the rest of the first edition trilogy hahahah 🙏🏻

Dinner & Dance (there was dinner and some dancing)

My first D&D in years because I've been either overseas or in class for previous D&Ds hahaha. The theme was the 90s(!!) and my division went as Jurassic Park. I am a lab tech :D

We had the Jurassic Park gate, a t-rex (my boss hahaha) and my lab tech team had test tubes with LED lights and dry ice (my idea HAHA) they were very sporting when I was coming up with ideas incl picking up like 2kg of dry ice and bringing it to the venue. The test tubes turned out pretty cool, but I don't have a video. I also got an amber with a mosquito inside hahaha

iykyk ;;) this is actually sold as a paperweight!

Halloween 🎃

My favourite season back again!! But I wasn't able to get pumpkin spice latte this year :(

S organised a Halloween party at his house and we went to play Switch and watch horror movies 🍿 Also brought some new snacks to try there which were a hit ^^,

R and I also went to Halloween Horror Nights for the second year! Their sets and costumes were very nice this year though they had less scare zones.

New planner

First time trying an undated planner!

I bought it originally for 2026 but I started using it since October haha. It's my health and fitness journal. I realised undated journals are more interactive than dated journals since I have to fill in the dates as well.

R's first time trying Muji cafe 🍽️

Introduced R to the amazingness of Muji cafe and he loves it!! He also tried Rotiboy for the first time this month HAHA

Work updates

My secretariat duty was full-on this month. I technically started in Sep but I was away most of Sep, so I didn't have to write minutes. This month was my first full month of being secy, and I also had to book meeting rooms for next year 💀 this is when I really started to question my life choices <.< (jk I always question my life choices) Also there's gonna be a reorg 😞

UK Trip

Perks of business class:

Chauffeur pick up and drop off

Priority queue for check in, security checks and boarding

Lounge access (with food and showers). I cannot overstate how amazing a shower is during a long journey 😊

We had long layovers in Dubai so Emirates put us in a hotel

Super comfy seats where you can LAY FLAT. They put an additional mattress topper on the seat after take off. (See R sleeping/praying for no turbulence hahaha)

Meals served with actual plates and cutlery! 3-course meals (starter, main, dessert) and an inflight lounge with snacks. I was super full with the starter and main, so we never ate the dessert haha. We did take away sandwiches from the lounge to eat in our hotel though haha.

Business class takes away much of the stress of traveling, such as getting to the airport on time, finding food before the flight, having to remember to bring things like toothbrush and other amenities on the flight.

We were in London for a week and we experienced being out-walked by everyone (srsly why do they walk like they are in a race 🏃🏻💨), tube strikes, bad matcha and mass protests hahaha. We also watched The Lion King musical (LOVED THE COSTUMES) and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play (the effects were so good!). I brought R to the tourist places like Tower of London and for afternoon tea with scones ^^

Tourist pic 😊

Imma humble crumble

What are the clouds doing here

We went on a day trip to Bath and it was so pretty! I'd like to come and stay a few days here someday.

We ate so much fish and chips!! 😋 At different places too like Rock and Sole Place and Hobson's.

Repeat orders: Crunch, Hobson's, Jenki Matcha

Then we were off to Scotland! And we liked it even more than London :) It's more chill, cheaper, and has better food IMO

The dining car in the sleeper train

Spent the day riding on the "Hogwarts Express" AKA Jacobite train! The scenery was amazing, I can't wait to do it again.

R in his tai tai era ☺️

Scotch pie from a bakery at Fort William. They also had award-winning shortbread there and they were really good.

Our first dinner in Edinburgh with really good pizza and grilled fish at Eden's Kitchen!

In Edinburgh old town :)

Day trip to Alnwick Castle where we saw sheep and cows!

Funny incident on the bus back to the train station: a boy was talking to two of his classmates, and he asked us where we’re from and where we’re going, then I said Edinburgh and he said, “You’re going the wrong way. This bus goes to Newcastle.” Then I was like HUH?! And then I told him we’re going to the railway station then he said OHHH. Then his classmates said “can you not scare people” 🤣 he’s so cute and playful. He told me one of them got suspended from school, then she said he always tells people she got suspended from school hahaha. When we got to the bus stop, he told us just go down the hill, then I said thank you. And when we alighted he waved at us from the window 🥰 so cute!! 

All too soon, it was our last day in Scotland 🥲 we had a delicious last meal at Makars Mash Bar

Other firsts during the trip:

R in UK!

R's first sleeper train experience 🚂

R's first English afternoon tea

Going to WB Studios 😍 the sets are beautiful

Achieving 0 sleep debt HAHA

R eating haggis 😆

Eating 'flaming hot' Doritos HAHA damn spicy

Public Garden haul

Went to Public Garden and this was my haul! Mostly whale-themed and a red panda coaster for R :)

Work stuff

It's appraisal season again. I did perfectly average this year 😅 My sup said I had a lighter workload this year and I was like omg really?! Bc I felt quite rushed during my projects. But as my colleague reminded me, it's my first year in a new role and getting average is a win (though it still feels disappointing).