Cherangsty: Thoughts

So, it is the time of the year where one may get to see multiple collages of people's best nine moments. Thought it will be apt to reflect upon some of the best (imo) food, drink, song, movie, TV show etc.

BEST FOOD

Would have wanted to differentiate into different cuisines but I don't think I am that adventurous with food. So the best food in 2017 would have to be Teppei Syokudo.

Colourful chunks of sashimi on rice 😍

The serving size of the rice is not a lot so I like it cause less carbs HAHA. While Sushiro (featured in the best nine on Instagram) is much cheaper, I prefer Teppei's version because the rice is less sweet (probably due to the sauce) and also no queue (cause time is precious and I had to queue for almost an hour for Sushiro).

Other honourable mentions include: Muchachos (my favourite Mexican restaurant, okay actually never eat much Mexican food) and Lola's Cafe (all time favourite cafe with amazing honey chicken wings).

BEST COFFEE/TEA

Having gone to Australia (Sydney) this year, obviously the best coffee will have to be from Australia right.

The best coffee will have to be from Bourke Street Bakery (Do try their pastries especially the ginger creme brulee tart as well). Coffee from The Lab is pretty good as well.

As for coffee/tea in SG, I do enjoy Magic Coffee (double shot ristretto to milk, in a magical ratio, indeed magical) from Strangers' Reunion!

Let's make love, coffee, and magic.

Okay, quote to live by. But can someone sponsor my coffee class?

Honourable mentions include Waan Cha (which I discovered at the Geylang Serai Bazaar), G7 Trung Nguyen Espresso ($3.80 for 15 packs leh) and also Essenso 2 in 1.

Waan Cha's coffee milk tea.

Usually Thai iced milk tea is overly sweet but this coffee adds this edge to the milk tea, cutting through the sweetness. So this milk tea is perfect if you aren't a fan of cloyingly sweet drinks (like me).

BEST EXPERIENCE

I guess the best experience will have to be meeting a koala bear and petting her at Walkabout Wildlife Park hehe (sorry can't remember her name already).

Koala bear awww

Australia, you will have a place in my heart (love their beaches, their blue skies).

A close second will be experiencing Yunomori Onsen. This probably pale in comparison to those in Japan but I thought this was still quite authentic in the sense given that there are a couple of Japanese mums and daughters enjoying the onsen there... Not a super cheap experience but I guess it's worth it to go and experience it at least once.

And bonus points for Yunomori Onsen for their decent food!

Last but not least, how could I forget sky-diving in Wollogong? Actually I was expecting a greater sense of achievement from doing it, oops. But definitely will recommend people to try it!

BEST MOVIE

I think I probably catch too many movies (what else is there to do in Singapore?) but the best (probably due to recency bias haha) is Coco.

And nope, the movie isn't about Coconuts but is about a kid's pursuit of his passion in music/dreams and balancing it with his family's expectations. Perfect movie for Asian kids and families I suppose? How often do we hear parents saying "How can you make a living by doing art/music?" etc?

There are a whole list of decent movies in 2017 (Marvel's movies are always good, Wonder Woman was good as well but Justice League was meh) but yes Coco you won (my vote).

BEST TV SHOW

I don't watch a lot of TV shows (oops) but Netflix's version of A Series of Unfortunate Events is the best thing I have seen in a while. I think the last I was addicted to something was probably Sherlock (and before that probably Vampire Diaries erms). Well, can't wait for the 2nd season of this show! And Neil Patrick Harris is a damn good actor.

BEST SONG

Well, the song that I keep listening this year is probably Heavier by Linkin' Park (ft. Kiiara). Probably too late to try and read into songs when lives have been lost (to depression).

On a slightly happier note, Ed Sheeran's newest album is dope (ooh young lingo is it). Happier, Perfect, New Man, Supermarket Flowers are all quite good.

As for Chinese/Korean songs, 后来的我们by 五月天, 黑色柳丁by Hebe,Can You Hear My Heart (from Scarlet Heart Ryeo), Stay With Me (from Guardian: The Lonely and Great God) are all quite good.

Okay, why do I like sad songs.

BEST BOOK

Definitely "When Breath Becomes Air". 10/10 will recommend cause I can't really remember the last time I felt such heartache (and cried badly).

We always think we have a lot of time but I guess the message is that we don't know when life will end.

On a related note, Being Mortal is a good book, especially if you are someone who often contemplate about what really constitutes life e.g Does a life where you are dependent on life support considered a life etc. Sidenote, if euthanasia is the way out for people with terminal illness to relieve their pain and suffering (ok typically those are the people who want to go for that), then what is the way out for people who are suffering mentally?

That marks the end of 2017? In this upcoming year, I hope I will get to travel more (time to explore Southeast Asia more, e.g. Indonesia, Vietnam), to find a proper hobby (instead of watching so much Youtube videos...) and to stop being nice to people who don't deserve it (hahaha).

Happy New Year (in advance) to everybody 😊

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I wonder whose idea was it to measure self-value by the number of suitors/roses you ever had. Or was it my misconception? Hmm.

So, during secondary school days, there was Heart Connection Day (what we called Valentine's Day) in school, which the school councillors would go around to deliver roses/flowers/whatever that is appropriate for vday. And I (along with most people, I suppose) thought it was really a sweet (and cool) thing.

Well, at least till recently.

Receiving my first flower (that's not from a friend, oh my quite loser but nvm not the point) had me thinking about this whole flower-gifting norm. What do you do when you receive a flower? Take many photos, Instagram it (to make all the other people envious of you?!) and then... chug it outside. And that poor flower is left to die and soon it will end up in the bin. Oh well. Yeah, weird me, I felt really sad for that poor flower HAHA.

Well, I digressed. So during secondary school days (or maybe even now), you will get to see how all the popular/pretty girls receiving numerous flowers while all you have are chocolates/notes from your friends (not that those aren't important but there's a difference). Does it really not affect your self-esteem? Hmm when you see pretty girls with flowers, won't you associate the number of roses you receive to your own beauty level? Ah. Am I even making any sense HAHA.

Other than measuring self-value by the number of roses you had, I guess people like to measure value by the number of suitors righttttt. I don't really have much to say about that BUT a recent conversation made me so so so disturbed. Do guys measure the value of a girl by how well the girl cooks and cleans?!?!?! Cause she will make a better wife/mother?! Now now, I will be the WORST wife and Mum then.

Hmm being very disturbed till I listened to this song.

You got that 9 to 5

But, baby, so do I

So don't be thinking I'll be home and baking apple pies

Career woman ftw HAHA.

And damn it, why are my old photos being removed OH NOOOOOOOOO.

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I do not date much and as a result, both friends and family have accused me of having unreachable standards. One of the arguments that I constantly hear is that every boy deserves at least a chance.

The problem with giving every guy a chance is the false hope that accompanies it. I have always operated under the golden rule of treating others the way I would like to be treated. There have been so many times that I have been on not one, but multiple dates with guys who were ‘just giving me a chance’. I would honestly prefer it if they did not even bother because most of the time, if they are indecisive from the get go, it never changes. I know that there are exceptions to every rule, but in my experience, every time I’ve allowed myself to become remotely involved with a guy who was on the fence about anything, I have found myself disappointed. With that in mind, I also know that if I am even slightly iffy about accepting a date invitation from a guy, most of the time I am definitely not interested enough to be wasting his time and money. I understand that the concept of dating is taking the time to get to know someone, but it’s not fair to string someone along with my uncertainty. I appreciate the same respect from guys because in the end, I don’t want to just be considered an option, and that’s what uncertainties usually end up. Options. Not decisions.

Whenever I use this argument among friends, they like to counter with my standards being too high. I have been told that I am superficial or that I am asking too much or that I watch too many Disney movies and am looking for a handsome prince that doesn’t exist. The bottom line is that I am not looking for some handsome prince to sweep me off my feet. I actually do not have a specific set of standards that I expect a man to conform to. All that I’m looking for is a feeling; I want someone who makes me want to check my phone for texts every two seconds, want to feel butterflies everytime I go out to meet him. I want someone who challenges me, makes me think, makes me question everything and just generally makes me a better person, while hoping that I do the same for him.

I think that ultimately, a feeling is all that anyone is looking for. There are different standards that are set to achieve said feeling, but the desired outcome is usually the same. Some people will date a million guys in search of it; others will sit and wait for the right one, ignoring all others in favor of that perfect fit. Having high standards is no worse a means of searching than the philosophy of giving everyone a chance is.

Awesome read from: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/people-tell-me-i-have-high-standards-but-a-feeling-is-all-that-im-looking-for/

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We all have a certain amount of venom in us. We save it up here and there like a very frugal snake, waiting to release it on the targets we deem acceptable. It accumulates throughout our days, with every slight from a rude stranger in the metro or insult from an acquaintance or stab in the back at the office. And there are plenty of people whose love for us is conditional enough that it would not withstand our venom, or it would return our cruelty tenfold in a way that they have already demonstrated they are capable of. We have friends around whom we tiptoe because they only accept a very limited range of our emotions and our needs.
And then we have friends — or family, or lovers — on whom we feel free to unleash the full force of our ugliness when they upset us just enough to trip that one certain wire. They could simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or have engaged in that one act that hits our nerves like a raw tooth. In any case, their crimes never fit the punishment of being the one we take for granted, the one we ignore or dismiss or critique when we feel as though the rest of the world would never listen to our righteous anger.

In some ways, it is a compliment. When you are more rude or flippant or hurtful with a very close friend, it is a way of saying to them, “I trust your love enough to know that it will weather the storm of my shitty selfishness.” Of course, it’s an incredibly hurtful way to convey such a pure kind of emotion. Their love acts as a security blanket that so completely surrounds you that you forget what is actually keeping you warm. The fact that you have the kind of love which always finds itself — which laughs harder, which understands every coded message, which has stretched across continents and oceans — is something that should be preserved with care. And yet we test its endurance at every turn.

There are real fights, of course. Real issues which need to be addressed, real hurts that can fester within any relationship and destroy expanses of connection if not addressed at the first sign of gangrene. But there is a certain tenderness and tact that we reserve for the people who care for us less, and a certain callousness we reserve for those who deserve it least.

Sometimes we can almost feel the venom as it drains from our bodies, this feeling that we’re getting out every bit of anger or injustice through the tips of our fingers or the edge of our lips as we frantically type a sarcastic text or make a comment that was as needless as it was designed to passive-aggressively cut. Perhaps we feel that we need to share this venom with the people who love us most because only they are equipped with the antidote, the feeling of being truly loved and understood in spite of your more unflattering angles. We feel cleansed in their pain, and then we hate ourselves for making them suffer at our hand.

Perhaps we should say “I’m sorry.” “I love you.” “You are the only person who really knows me, and who still wants to be my friend even when I am terrible.” “Your love is something that allows the rest of the world and all of its small aggressions to not feel so cold.” Perhaps we should say these things, the next time we are going to ignore their call because, we imagine, they will always be there to answer us later.

From: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/your-real-love-is-the-one-you-hurt/

This article is so true. How we always lose our temper in front of closer friends and family. OHWELL. Guilty. Okay terrible haze, feeling so horrible, shall sleep soon, nighttt.

Contract's ending next week, new staff coming. Expecting a slack week sooooon. Shall blog about Friday's breakfast when I am free. NIGHTTT. Driving tomorrow again :)

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Life's getting a little too predictable. Wake up 6.45am, reach work close to 9am, start work which consists of filing, sorting, printing, scanning and mailing, lunch at 11.45am till 1pm, leave work at 6pm, go home, eat dinner, watch TV, use laptop etc. Sighhhh.

Been reading ThoughtCatalog everyday during lunch while waiting for my friend to join me since her lunch starts only at 12pm. OHWELL. Here's one of the article which I am sure a lot of people identify with it hahaha.

There’s a strange feeling that sometimes overcomes us when we’re reaching out to someone, this feeling of acute embarrassment. “Are we bothering them?” we ask ourselves, and almost wanting to apologize for even sending a message in the first place. It’s as though our very presence in their lives is a nuisance, and our efforts to connect as friends or lovers is one that only complicates things for them. We want to say, “I’m sorry that I want to talk to you, it’s weird and I should probably stop.” The thing is, you can feel when you’re bothering someone. It’s not difficult to tell when you are the one who is always reaching out, always initiating contact, always starting the conversation. You realize in a way that is at once terribly humiliating and almost masochistically sweet that you are the one chasing after them. When they grant you with their reciprocity, with their attention — nothing feels better. But most times you are left sending a message that you immediately regret, because you know that it only puts one more tallymark in the “you need them, and not the other way around” column.

There are few things more painful than feeling like you’re constantly going out of your way for someone who is, at best, mildly amused by your affection. It’s hard to explain the feeling of disappointment exactly, but it’s mostly directed towards yourself. You can tell when you send them a good-morning text message, or mail them a gift, or take the time to do something for them that you know they’ll barely appreciate — this isn’t going to be reciprocated. This isn’t going to be really appreciated. Hell, it may not even be noticed. But you can’t stop yourself.

It’s just a sad, universal truth that there are people we love a lot who don’t really love us back. Whether platonic or romantic (or even, sadly enough, familial) there are always going to be these uneven relationships in which one person is constantly left feeling as though their emotions and their desires are a mild irritant. There are going to be friends we go out of our way for who never quite acknowledge us in return, who will never be there to listen to our problems, who will never drive out in the middle of the night to pick us up when we’re in trouble — no matter how much we do these things for them. And there are going to be lovers with whom we long to construct an entire relationship, but with whom we will always feel stuck at the frustrating “beginner phase” where no exchanges go beyond the superficial. It just happens.

The most difficult thing, it seems, is being able to admit when your love is going nowhere. Speaking personally, I have watched as more than one friendship proved themselves to be entirely one-sided, when my attempts to connect with the person (even in forums as non-committal as sending a Gchat), were proving increasingly pathetic. I was just way more into them than they were to me, and there is always a certain amount of pain in admitting that. You don’t want to confront this person and tell them, “Hey, look at all of these nice things I do and efforts I make for you, and you don’t do any of these things in return,” because it is a sad thing to do.

It’s sad because the truth is that they don’t owe you their friendship or their love. They don’t owe you the same kind of relationship you desire from them. You can’t insist, through repeated action, that someone is now indebted to you because you have proven that you are worth of something. We make the choice to keep giving our attention and love to someone who has clearly demonstrated that they don’t want it, and it is always their choice to make if they one day decide they want to start reciprocating.

But to break the cycle and force yourself to stop initiating contact, to stop making effort, and to stop caring about their response — that is much harder. That means admitting that you have lost a battle you didn’t even want to acknowledge you were fighting. But when we’re trying to get someone to love us back, it’s always a battle. And it’s one we’re almost always guaranteed to lose.

Okay good nighttt ^^ BEAUTY SLEEP.

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1. That your body, mind and soul aren’t perfect, but it’s because of this that you’re able to grow and have a journey filled with learning and experiencing miraculousness beyond your imagination.

2. That you have been able to attend school. Without having done so, you wouldn’t even be reading this article right now. How often do we forget where we acquired the skills that allow us to live our everyday lives?

3. For any genuine friends or family you have, whether it’s one person or twenty, because even just finding one person to love, or who loves you, is a miracle in and of itself.

4. If you don’t have to worry where your next meal is coming from. Congratulations, you’re among the most privileged people in the world.

5. That you can access clean water. Because, again, millions of people can’t.

6. And the internet. You literally have a database of most (if not all) of the world’s knowledge right at your fingertips. There’s virtually nothing you can’t learn, research or find.

7. That you’ve known suffering and loss, because…

8. You have learned (or will learn) great things from experiencing hardship. Ask anybody who has been to the depths and back, and…

9. If you have experienced heartbreak, loss or pain, it’s because you had something that meant something to you. What’s that saying, that the opposite of love is indifference? If you have the capability to be upset about something, it means at one point, you had things in your life that mattered (and probably still do).

10. If you’ve never had to know the realities of living in a warzone, slavery, or anything else that so many of our brothers and sisters have to face everyday.

11. And finally, that you have the ability to be grateful for all of these things. Because having a mind and heart that wants to recognize what there is to be grateful for in life is half the battle, so be grateful that you can consider yourself halfway there. TC mark

Extremely true post from http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/the-15-simple-things-we-forget-to-be-grateful-for/

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