Blink; it's 2020

Happy New Year everyone!

Despite being MIA for over half a year, can I just say, the last 10 days have been soooooooo packed. It's amazing how Fen and I could still find a day to sleep in till 1300 in the arvo, and still gym 2 times the past 2 weeks! Okay you think 2x in the last 2 weeks is weak. But I went with a Grade 3 full ligament rupture and avulsion fracture, so.. beat that.

As Fen and I were reflecting 2019, he said it was more eventful for me than for him. Well, so I began to recollect the events of the last 12 months:

• Learning (still) to have 3 cats in the house as we welcomed Ash the highly likely Abyssinian-mixed into the family. It hasnt been the easiest, but we do love all 3 furries so very much. Our cats have very different personalities, and as we embrace all of them, we continually pray for them to accept one another and co-exist to be happy and healthy. Not quite there yet, but we'll keep trying..
• Jobless for 1st 2 months of the year; constant crying, feeling sorry for myself, dwelling in past glory days, stressing Fen out with my suicidal thoughts of unworthiness and uselessness in the world.
• Got into serious rock climbing - Fen bought us the climbing shoes and gear so we can now hop around climbing gyms and just pay entrance fees. Love climbing with my boy =)
• A church friend threw a crumb for a casual job as a Receptionist; grabbed it immediately, got the role, and started to mingle with humans again, after a very very bad 10 months of my 1st job in Melbourne being assigned a janitor's room as my office. What a breath of fresh air. And did I mention the job was in the city?! I was stuck in the West since we touched down in Oct 17, so having a daily commute to the city was definitely welcomed. In the 3 months I was in the role, as I started processing with my qualifications and experience, that the best job I could get was a casual Receptionist, negative thoughts started to crawl back to my head.
  That's when Fen told me to get off IG for 3 weeks to be more mindful of my reality and not get caught up with all the social media and their superficial 'perfect' posts.
• Made new friends at church and finally could be ourselves with like-minded and open-minded people. Really was quite liberating when we find ourselves some good friends =)
• Started doing more and longer hikes. Went camping! Love all the experiences ^^
• And then Daniel fast. Felt really good with clean food. Lost 6kg. Had a breakthrough with a recruitment agency and aced the interview and finally landed my first ever accountant job. Albeit still a casual role. But finally getting the local experience that is soooooo required in this country. Yes, every company asks for a local experience without FIRST giving you that experience. Go figure.
• Got tired of the city commute HA. Didnt take that long. Have thoughts of relocating to regional areas, still thinking about it =/
• Bought our 2nd second hand car (lol). Bit dramatic during the purchase process really (then again, when am I not putting myself in dramatic situations *rolls eyes), but really thankful for this sturdy reliable vehicle now. Fifi had done us great great service for almost 2 years, and we're ready to have an upgrade and start exploring this country with longer road trips =)
• Celebrated Fen's birthday with our close friends at our rental place. So much laughter, so much love, a home away from home <3
• Finally landed a permanent job. After 2 FULL years in Melbourne. A very awakening journey. Taught me so much. "A job does not define me." "I did not move to Melbourne to get back the exact same life as I had in SG." "Happiness does NOT come from just having financial stability."
• Signed up for a gym membership with Fen. Fen researched intensively, and we literally tried/inquired 5 different gyms before settling with Crunch Fitness. And we've been enjoying it so far!
• Sprained my ankle and tore a ligament. You know, just to celebrate the closure of a dramatic year. Jazz up this year further~

The last 10 days of the year were definitely fun and packed. Lunches and dinners (non-stop feasting) at friends', cherry picking (cutting it real close coz the season is almost over!), beach day, not forgetting to gym regularly, hiking (with that ankle yes), still remembered to save lives and donate plasma at red cross lol, movie night with friends, sleeping in with Fen, catching up with laundry and ironing (!), spending quality time with furries.

O my, I enjoyed the break so much. Although I definitely wouldnt mind a quiet peaceful time spending Christmas and New Year. Spending it surrounded by friends is a bonus =)

So I'm just thinking up a list of prayers for 2020. Getting the Australia bush fires to stop will be a good start. A very painful lesson for the nation, dont know how the people directly impacted can recover. Let's not stop praying and doing every bit we can =*

I'll check in again, hopefully soon!

Take care, have a very blessed 2020, thanks for reading =)

WINTER

O my, did i not blog last month? Who's reading anyway *rolls eyes

Winter. Winter, winter, winter. I reluctantly confess I dont do very well in winter. Mucus literally flows down my nose. Scalp is flaking. Flesh on finger splitting. Chilblains on feet and toes.

Unfortunately, weather is like this 9 months throughout the year. I needa adjust man.

Hair is a bob now, yays~ Until I can manage long unkempt hair, I'm better off keeping it short for now.

Pitch had her dental surgery and blood tests. Urine tests were inconclusive, and I'm supposed to catch her pee at home to rerun the test. Easier said than done. She treasures her privacy in the loo so much.

I'm working out at home more regularly now. Winter is making me wanna warm my body up. Plus always on a mission to. Lose. That. Weight. My pushups are looking more and more awesome, and I finally believe that hard work for exercising pays off. Most of the time I just give up after not seeing results. Now, chasing after perfect form is what drives me, not so much looking at weighing scales (we have no weighing scale anyway). Most of my plyo moves look ridiculous and clumsy, hope it gets more effortless soon =)

Fen and I are also hitting the gym weekly, and to my joy he is enjoying it so much. On rare occasions he would do HIIT at home with me too! Since the gym allows casual entries, there are no commitments, and we mostly head for the weights, which we dont have at home ^^ I'm doing 30kg barbell for deadlifts now! Did massive research for workout sets, and have this tiny book to refer to when in gym hehehe.

Which is also why I'm literally in workout clothes all the time. And still buying more. Omg. Moved on from Aloyoga to Gymshark now. Lol, Oz makes online shopping too easy, I think it's a crime =/

I tendered at NP, and that was pretty emotional. A little fearful of the unknown now, trying to look for a new job, hitting dead ends, self-doubting, feeling worthless. Looking to sermons and staying as faithful as I can now..

I am more thankful than I've ever been, that the journey so far has been so good and blessed, not all smooth-sailing but we werent expecting smooth-sailing anyway. We fell, we learnt, we got up and kept walking. Happy to have Fen with me, to have a roof over our heads, to have furries to cuddle.

Life

Life.

Sometimes it passes so fast, sometimes so slow.

Almost 7 months since we're in Oz. Pitch has gone for a general checkup, trying to set up her blood test, urine test, and dental cleaning now. A lotta money ($$$) so waiting for a while first. And it's not exactly super urgent, seeing that she's not throwing up ever since I dropped her off dry food, and pacing her food intake over a couple hours daily.

Ginger is doing well with homemade diet for a month now, and I've sent his medical reports to Massey Uni for  a complete analysis to determine his balanced diet, which I know is not yet. Deliberating whether to buy a grinder ($$$) to grind turkey bones for his calcium needs. And he's also due for another checkup just to make sure the homemade diet is not giving him problems.

As the weather has dropped a lot over the past 2 weeks (highest in the day is 15°C), so furries are behaving a little differently. Pitch has up her food intake from 2 cans to 5 cans (!)/day, I try to keep within 4.. Ginger is however eating lesser than his usual 150g/day.

The electrician guy came over this morning to fix the house downlights that were not working. He changed a total of 5 transformers, and since he was taking a while, we chatted a bit. He was lamenting how expensive it is to stay in Oz, how the government cant/doesnt do much to help the locals, and how A$2k/week is just enough only.

In fact, I've been speaking to all the tradies who always come by the house to fix stuff, and they all lament. Some say Aussies just like to whinge, some say Aussies are lazy.

Truth be told, Aussies are just people. People are just like that everywhere in the world. Nothing's really that different, and nothing is really that easy. If life is hard in SG, it's also hard in Oz, and pretty much anywhere else.

Fen and I are blessed. We've heard stories from people, from friends. So much drama, so much unhappiness. Life is not easy for us either, but it's manageable. We're contented. We dont have a lot, but we have just enough. We would like more, but that's not up to us either. We're not starving, we're not freezing, we're not at a dead end.

Maybe we're truly living the quote - when life gives you lemons, make lemonade =)
O yes, Fen found a job. He loves his job, and I'm so thrilled for him~

We've moved to a new rental this month, and it's so much better than the last. Same 3 room-2 bathroom-1 garage house, but this place is a tad smaller, and not as long. I swear the last rental is like 30m long, and we only used 10m of the place. I wouldnt even use the backyard coz it was just too far away to get to. Now, the backyard is just out the kitchen/back door, where I do my outdoor workouts and line clothes for some sun. Fen can easily do his gardening too, everything is just together and convenient. The place is also a lot quieter, peaceful. First few months in Oz, the silence was deafening, anyone from SG would not be comfortable with it. Now, I wouldnt be able to stand the constant humming background noise we hear everyday in SG! Lol.

Anyway, with the new place, we got ourselves a rice cooker, this mighty food processor, and Nutribullet. The non-stick pot does a lousy job of cooking rice, so we had to get the cooker. We were tired of mincing up garlic and onions with knives, so the food processor finally came into the list. It's so mighty, I've made butternut squash puree soup, almond butter, and mayonnaise with it! Looovvve it so much, what took me so long to buy this!?

Initially we wanted to bring our Philips glass blender (S$120) from SG to Oz. I love blenders, use it to make soups and smoothies. We decided it was silly to bring a heavy electrical appliance when blenders are sold everywhere. We first got this KMart glass blender (A$30?) urgently because of Ginger's prescribed liquid food fed via o-tube. It isnt powerful, but it did make mushroom soups and smoothies for us. I'm now thinking of chucking it, so in come food processor and Nutribullet.

Nutribullet. What a highly raved popular product. First and probably only con. It is LOUD af. Okie, I'm not thrilled it's not glass either, but something's gotta give for the affordable price point. I am happy with how easy it is to clean up though, because I can get Fen's smoothie done in 10min tops, including cleaning, before he leaves for work. High speed blenders are quite scary though, I admit. Whenever I operate it, I just wanna keep a safe distance away..

We are always keeping our eyes on Philips Airfryer. It was our holy grail in SG, and how we missed it so. We have been using the oven toaster (A$39) from KMart (again. Just know KMart =  cheapo), and now contemplating if it needs chucking.. And that Dyson V10 (A$999) just popped into the market, so we've turned our eyes from V8 to V10.... Even though we own a SG Dyson big ball animal pro..

As you can see, I've just spent 3 paragraphs talking about nothing but household products. And I'm mostly blaming the fact that we have more room space now, to get sucked into all these consumerism blabla. Remembering SG.. everytime we wanna buy something, first question, "does the house have space???"

Just booked my first flight ticket since being in Oz. Will be a family overseas trip with Mum, Sis and her family. Fen wont be joining, and will be taking care of furries =)

This week is exciting, bought a few stuff over the net, waiting for their deliveries due this couple days! From Amazon (OMFG the shipping is rocket high), furries' toothbrushes, cost only $20, but shipping is $60 (muthafucker). Also bought back Cleansui tap filter, heard that Oz tap water is hard (yea, there's a thing called hard water, who knew), and yes we have a a filtered flask, but this is mostly for furries ^^" the things I do for my furballs..

Also bought this shampoo called New Wash. I actually forgot how I chanced upon this, but had been deliberating on it for months. Again, because Oz tap water is hard, it doesnt do well for hair. My hair has been a wreck, really, hard to tame and style. I've tried buying Lush products, but really only H'suan Wen Hua calms it enough. Also by the way, Lush products are cheap here! If you know better quality hair products, help a lady out here!

I really wanna cut a bob, but Fen is certain I'll whinge =/

Anyway, New Wash is from HairStory, very confident of their product's performance, currently only does online sales, so yep, finally did it and bought it. Only sold in US and a few other countries (not SG) though, for now =)

I am still crazy for Air Max, just cant see the need to buy it, so everytime I walk into stores to ogle at them, I still come out empty handed. Proud of myself, heh.

Shipment from SG

Finally got our 2 boxes in today. My makeup stash is COMPLETE.

What I brought over

With shipment, altogether now! *2 more pouches were forgotten in another corner, oopz.

Packed compact neat and tidy~

Someday I should probably do a detailed write up and stocktake of my makeup huh. Interested?

No breakages for all fragile glassware, kudos to Fen for the fantastic wrapping and packing!! As usual, movers cannot give 2 hoots about keeping the boxes right side up, so I had some leakages from my toner bottles and nail cleansers. No biggie, didnt lose much liquid there.

Fen and I wanted to wait for our boxes which had certain essentials instead of buying, but some things couldnt wait.

Our cookware, for one. Just. Couldnt. Wait. We got a set of 4 cookware here eventually, stone pots and pans. And we use them every day. So, couldnt wait. We knew we could buy here, so why ship? Well, because our SG pots and pans are from Le Creuset and Visions. Well, Oz has those products too, but too bad we got that long ago in SG, so... Shipping them. And now we just might have one too many cookware ^^"

Coldwear. Couldnt wait too, the weather here fluctuates too much. I planned for summer, but was proven wrong by the strong cold winds. But of coz, I never complain having too much outerwear =)

Well! Other than that, we did manage to persevere till our stuff came! My hair styling equipment, nails equipment, workout equipment, accessories, rest of my makeup, all happily with me now. And our extra bags, and the awesome Hurom slow juicer!

I must say though, if we could do so far and so well without those things, does it mean we can continue to survive without those things? Food for thought, we really dont need that much in life.

So happy to finally have our ice cream scoop and cherry pitter, we were soooo tempted to buy. So proud we didnt. Now we can finally scoop ice cream properly and I can buy cherries! Cheap thrill, lol~ 

I see now that the more important things we really needed, are very inconsequential and possibly cheap, but very necessary and perhaps cant be found in Oz. Furries have their elevanted anti-ant tray, they no longer need to crouch to eat, and the tray keeps ants away!

It is also awesome that Fen is TB king, we got our bedsheets from TB, smoothest fabric ever. The cheapo bedsheets from Big W? A$50, and gives my delicate skin some massive abrasion! We've brought in 4 TB shipments so far, and it's saved us so much.

I did wish we brought more of our SG stuff though. I really miss my Philips glass blender. We actually needed to use it. It's funny on hindsight, though, the very first use for the blender was to blend Ginger's prescribed food, in order to tube-feed him when he was just discharged, hahaa..

I mean, we have a glass blender now, it works fine.. Cost a quarter of my Philips glass blender.. And I wonder why I'm using a lower quality product while having my awesome blender collecting dust back home.

And then, I realise again, we dont need the best things in life, as long as it works. We dont need the best car, the most expensive clothes, the most branded bag. As long as the vehicle gets us places, clothes fit us well, bag carries our valuables.

We also dont need too many of the same thing. If I had just brought my blender over, then I wouldnt need to buy another one, and leave one unused and wasted. If you really like something, you dont really have to buy for "stock up". Unless we're talking about perishables like food or makeup or underwear. You know what I mean, lah. Because I've seen the perishables go bad, and basically threw my money out the window.

A shipping transaction taught me so much. To plan ahead what to bring, what we can forgo and buy instead, to manage expectation, to be patient, and even whether we need those things at all.