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The New Normal

It has been an incredibly long time since I touched this blog and things have certainly changed. The world has been in the midst of the coronavirus crisis (COVID-19) and things are very different. We have new terms, such as social distancing, flatten the curve and the new normal.

It certainly has been a different and difficult time for many. People panic buying toilet paper and food, people losing their jobs and livelihood and usual past times relegated to one side as it isn’t safe. Public transport has been cut to a bare minimum, stores are mostly closed and a lot of people are working from home.

For me, the changes have been quite a mixed bag. We’re doing a week at home, week at the office roster at work to minimise the number of people in the building and spreading ourselves out around the building. I initially liked the working from home, waking up at 7.30am to start work at 8am, getting breakfast and lunch made for me while watching TV during my lunch break. Also I loved working in my PJs and glasses, no need for me to get dressed and be work wear appropriate. The first swing was good, then the 2nd swing I started to get bad cabin fever and my mental health was slowly slipping. We had been doing the right thing and only going out to the shops for essentials and occasional exercise. The exercise bit got put to the back burner as I was so comfortable at home. The dreaded third quarter had struck. The novelty of doing all that had started to wear off and I was now feeling a bit stuck.

Thankfully my next office swing has came round and I was able to get out and drive to work, restoring some sense of normalcy. I then made the mindful decision to go for a walk after work to try to get rid of the cabin fever and work on my mental health. It definitely has made a difference and I’m beginning to feel like my old self, adjusting to the new normal.

To think that things currently look starkly different to what it was like to the beginning of the year, is something that is quite hard to get my head around sometimes. If someone had told me that this is what the new normal would look like in 2020, I wouldn’t have believed them. It is only until you live the reality that it becomes tangible.

I’ve been trying to get back into writing, it has been quite therapeutic to be penning things down and looking back at it. I’ve got so many new ideas swirling in my brain, but have been quite unmotivated to put them into action and explore, but am hoping that this blog post is the start of something that will spark joy with my creativity again. Till next time!

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I’m Back!

How is it already December of 2018? My last post on here was January 2017. So much has happened since then. My blog was out of action for a good part of my unplanned hiatus, since there were issues with hosting etc. Thankfully Matt has fixed it and I’m back.

I haven’t done a 2018 goals post and I don’t think I quite set out things for this year at all. I had a few rough goals in mind but it didn’t quite eventuate and this year hasn’t quite turned out as we would’ve expected.

We tied the knot in June 2017,which has definitely been a highlight of last year. As much as wedding planning was stressful, I would’ve done it again in a heart beat as the day turned out as perfect as can be.

We went our honeymoon at the end of 2017, with visits to Malaysia for my cousin’s wedding, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau. We hadn’t been travelling in a while and the trip was a great way to recharge & spend some quality time together. We spent Christmas & New Year’s in Hong Kong. It was juts magical. Yes, we did go to Disneyland and bought a truck full of souvenirs!

The day we were setting off on our honeymoon, we got news that my work situation was going to change dramatically due to some changes in government. Definitely wasn’t the greatest way to start a holiday but we managed to put that behind us until we came back home.

We also had put our house on the market and then took it off the market after 9 months as we weren’t getting any realistic offers. We’re still in the midst of making it our home & decluttering things as we go at the moment. It’s only since July 2018 that we’ve had a proper place to call home together as a married couple. Living out of a small selection of clothes while having home opens most weekends was not the most pleasant thing.

Which brings us to present day. I’m still waiting to hear what’s happening with work. I’ve been transferred to work way south of the river, albeit acting in a role I previously have done, so it isn’t a bad thing. I’ll be there till March, and after that I’m not sure as we’re still waiting to hear about what is going on. The not knowing what’s happening is definitely affecting morale at work & is not helping with stress levels. I’ve been keeping an eye out for other potential roles but nothing exciting has popped up so far. Also looking at other avenues for making money & if I’m honest, I’m more excited about the other avenues than I am about my current work industry. I’m not ruling out any opportunities but I’m not locking myself in either.

Thus has been a brief recap of the last 18 or so months. I’m hoping that it’s not going to be that long between posts again!

2017 Goals

So 2016 has come & gone with quite the fan fare. Of note would be all the famous people leaving this world & moving on to the next. I came across quite a few articles of those people that have passed & by golly I actually recognise some names. I guess it’s just the way of the time as we all get older & our time on this earth just gets shorter.
Enough with the macabre tone. 2017 is here & I’m excited! It’s the year we’re getting married (5 months away now, eeek!) & lots of exciting opportunities career wise. I’ve been given the opportunity to cover a role at work which uses my OT degree more & I get higher duties to complete. I’m hoping it’ll work out with the role & it’ll give me something to put on my resume. I also got into the pool for the same role in the Northern suburbs, though slightly different to what I do now.
Looking back on last year’s goals, I must say I’ve not done too shabbily. Yes, I have used pretty much the same terminology but that’s just me! I’ve managed to slowly work my way to getting fitter, I joined the gym late last year and have started small bits of exercise in an effort to get more active. The learning to invest goal was a little more difficult, I didn’t manage to get into that as my first investment turned out pretty terrible 😛

 

I also managed to see more of my friends during the year as well and will be following that goal into this year too. I’ve attended and started learning Auslan through work. Made it through the basic 8 week course and wanting to do the intermediate course, but haven’t yet found the time due to work commitments and the acting role. I’ve also indirectly learned some German through Matt, who is learning German. I’ve picked up the basics and can understand bits of the German music he plays in the car.
For this year, I’m keen to get some other goals into place as well. Not resolutions, but goals. I’m the kind of person who is outcome focussed, so hence the goals. It’s about the destination & not the journey for me. Although the journey is also pleasant, my focus is the destination ☺️

 

I’ve got quite a few goals for this year. I’m hoping to completely achieve at least half of them and make a serious dent into the other half. I like to aim big, at least I know I would’ve tried to do lots of things at once. Go big or die trying right?

 

Declutter

My parents and brother currently live with me in my tiny 3 bedroom place and it is starting to feel a little crowded. They’re moving out soon and Matt will be moving in within the next month or so, whenever their house is finished. All of us tend to accumulate stuff and I know I’m guilty of buying heaps of things that I don’t need and just take up room. I’ve made it my goal this year to seriously declutter, sell or donate my junk or extra stuff as I don’t like living out of my room where everything is just crammed in at the moment. I’m making it a point every day to either chuck stuff, put things into a sell/donate pile and recycling items. Once I’ve gather about a car load of stuff, I’m wanting to go to the local swap meet to sell stuff and donate whatever is leftover so that I don’t collect useless junk.

 

Decorate house

I haven’t been able to decorate my house to my taste since moving in, I’m keen to expand my creative side and to make it look all nice and pretty. I’ve got all the stuff needed, the thing that’s not on my side this year is time. Between travelling to and from work daily, the wedding planning, the wedding and going out to see friends, it’s hard to get time to do much more than keep the house neat and tidy. I’ll have to work smart this year for that.

 

Start my side hustle

I’m not making it public yet, but stuff is in the pipeline. Again, time is again not on my side with the amount of things happening this year. I’m keen to get started as this has been a long time coming and I’m itching to start things and be on my way to being my own boss.

 

Get more active

This is kind of a leftover goal from last year, but it’s good. I’m making small changes each day and and looking forward to being more active and being a healthier version of me for my family.

 

Eat more home cooked lunches

With mum & dad moving out and Matt moving in, I’m itching to stretch my culinary muscles and will be trying to make more of an effort to make lunches. This is a 2 part goal as it is to save money for everything this year and to also be a healthier version of me.

 

Plan and go on our honeymoon

We’re thinking of going on an overseas trip maybe at the end of the year or early next year (possibly 3 countries, so there will be heaps of planning involved). We’ve got a few ideas in mind but nothing set in stone yet as money is tight at the moment and we’re saving everything for the wedding at the moment.

 

Take more photos

Ironic that this post does not have photos, but I want to be able to document our lives and have memories of things. With our new Google Pixels, this has been an absolute dream as we’ve been able to capture quite a lot of moments in absolutely brilliant quality. Plus, unlimited storage through Google cause of the phones really helps with this goal 😉

 

Blog more

This also ties in with the previous goals, I want to be able to have written down memories of things to look back or have our children look back on and to get to know their parents. Plus, writing has always been my passion, life just got in the way. Or rather, mundane adult responsibilities of paying bills, sleeping and watching TV has gotten in the way of writing. I often have quite a lot of thoughts that I wish I could’ve written down about things that are happening in the world, but sitting down in front of the computer after a long day in front of it at work, just does not seem that appealing sometimes. The whole notion of living my life in front of a screen is not what I want to do.

 

Make more of an effort with my appearance

I’ve been wanting to experiment more with makeup that I got previously and haven’t been bothered trying out. I’m wanting to be more bold and look more presentable, even if its just a bit of eyeliner or mascara so I don’t look so washed out.

 

Save for deposit on another property

This one I must admit is a bit of a long term goal. I’m hoping that we’re able to save money to be able to purchase another property and turn one into an investment property for our retirement or something. I’m a bit of a long term planner and want to be able to secure our financial future so that we don’t have to rely on government pensions or things like that which might not be guaranteed in the future. I want to be able to retire on our terms.

 

I think that’s all for this year’s goals. There are quite a few big ones in there, but I’m hopeful I’ll be able to address most of them. One more goal which I would like for us to be able to achieve this year is to have a great wedding and marriage. Here’s to 2017!

Mid October Blues

I can’t believe it’s just after the middle of October already. Matt told me today that he got an e-mail saying that it’s 67 days till Christmas! *insert OMG emoticon*

 

Where has the year gone?! In just over a month, I would’ve been at my current workplace for a year. It has been a year of ups and downs, lots of changes and lots of lessons learnt. This time last year, I was lamenting on how I needed a new job as my job was paying pretty crap pay & I couldn’t survive on that for very much longer. Today, I’m so thankful I get an automatic salary increase on my anniversary date and another increment in the middle of the year due to the bargaining agreement.

 

Been a bit up and down lately at work, my mood has been pretty stable since I cut out the coffee. I worked out through trial and error that it was giving me anxiety and made my mood quite low. Been a bit stressed but am taking it day by day and hoping to achieve small goals every day to keep me on track. I’m also keeping my side project dream alive by working on little things each day & thinking about the ideas I have for it and documenting it.

 

You might say I’m a bit selfish for having exit plans from work, but to be honest I’m just forward planning. When we start having a family, I don’t want to be driving almost 3 hours a day to get to and from work, I much rather spend the time with my children and husband. I might not make as much money, but it would be doing something I love and will give me flexibility to grow and adapt with my family. I feel that’s important for me at this point in my life.

 

Anyway, a really funny thing happened at work today. I had worked pretty hard on a piece of work, ready for my manager to speak to his manager about. The negotiation for this had been going on for about 2 months with this. I provided my manager a hard copy of the document for the discussion. Fast forward 2 hours later, my manager comes out to me with his hand out. I was procrastinating work and had just finished playing a game on my phone when I turned to look. I was very puzzled to what was going on, I took it as an indication to smack his hand.

 

I asked my manager what was going on. He sheepishly told me that in the rush of him wanting to print a previous version of the document to take to his manager along with the current version, he accidentally hit the copy to draft button, which meant that my current document now looked like my previous document. Those damn buttons are located next to each other in the database, and usually there is a warning before it copies it over completely, but not this time. I was a bit shocked but oh well, accidents happen. I then spent about an hour redoing the document and sending off for quotes to an organisation again, I’ll have to redo the rest of the document tomorrow. Haha if I didn’t laugh at it, I would’ve cried.

The rest of the week looks to be pretty busy, but I end the week with a morning tea with our director general. I’m pretty happy with that to be honest. Now to focus on finishing the week on a high note!

October 2016

In looking at my blog, I think I’ve learnt one thing, the older I get, the less inclined I am to publicly put things on the internet for one and all to see. Especially when it has details of my life. My Facebook memories have come up with all sorts of status updates which are pretty embarrassing and enlightening at the same time.

 

Quite a bit has been happening lately, one of the main things is the damn clown sightings in Perth. I’m not particularly afraid or clowns, but if someone stuck their head with a scary clown mask on, in my window, I would be shitting my pants big time. I’m not sure why the whole thing has taken off, but am hoping it’ll die down pretty soon like the planking thing.

 

Work has been pretty hectic, caught a cold and recovered from it in about 2 weeks & things are back to it’s semblance of normal. Been slowly working on my project and cleaning up my room in anticipation for Matt to move in. Date is tentatively February now, we were really hoping it would’ve been December/January as the sooner that’s done, the better. That will at least give me a bit of time to declutter and cull my clothes collection I guess 😛

 

It is our 5 year anniversary next month. We haven’t really gotten our act together yet in planning anything, apart from throwing around the idea of having dinner at the Atrium to celebrate as it is our special place. We’ve got the wedding to save for & trying to put away as much money as possible for that and overpaying the mortgage to maximise our investment. I’m sure we will come up with something to celebrate, just that being in transition stage of things just throws us around a bit. Anxiously counting down the days of the move so that we can settle in!

 

It is also my one year work anniversary soon, am quite excited about it. Salary increase on the day automatically, which is awesome! Plus I have the day off, so am pretty stoked about it 😛

 

Speaking about work, it might be time to go to bed to try to get enough shut eye!

Wedding Countdown: Just Under 12 Months!

It has been quite a while since my last update, it has been quite the roller coaster of emotions. Work had been rather stressful & my brain was on over drive with them bad hormones, causing stress & not such a great outlook on life. Since my last post, it has gotten better, my brain has been tamed & I have since better learned how to manage things at work.

 

The wedding day has been hurtling our direction rather quickly at the moment. Instead of wedding planning, I’ve now decided it should be called wedding countdown. Thankfully since my last wedding update post, things have been going pretty well. From my previous list of things to do, these are the ones left:

  • Book accommodation for the night before & upgrading to the suite. Suite is booked & deposit ready to be paid on my scouting visit next Friday.
  • Organise wedding cake. Mum has volunteered to make the cake, I will need to still supervise though (teehee :P)
  • Make bouquets. I’ve decided to go fake flowers as real were going to cost around $400 to $500 versus around $150 for fake. Just ordered the bouquets, just have to assemble them together now.
  • Confirming makeup artist for myself and bridesmaids if required. MUA booked, just need to book the trial now.
  • Make/buy wedding favours. More ideas for these, just have to put them into action now
  • Get remainder of jewelry – wedding rings & other accessories. Already sourced some earrings. We’ve sourced my wedding rings, just need other jewelleryand Matt’s rings.
  • Get the remainder of documents to the celebrant for the Notice of Intended Marriage. Just need to organise a meeting closer to the date
  • Confirm guest list. Guest list is still being finalised, but hoping to get numbers between 80 to 100 guests
  • Send out save the dates. Should be sent out in the next few months or so
  • Send out invitations. Needs to be designed, made & sent out 3 months before
  • Get sized for wedding dress, alter dress. Getting sized next Friday (eek!)
  • Get possible cheongsam/qipao for tea ceremony. Found one I like, I just have to get measured for it & order it tailor made.

I’ve also managed to order the robes for myself & my bridesmaids (on sale!), plus get some more cool ideas for the invites & favours. I must say, I’m rather impressed with what we’ve achieved so far, just have to keep up the effort till the day. I’m rather looking forward to the married life & settling down & not having to live between 2 places each week. Funnily enough, I’ve done that most of my life & I’ve hated the moving. I will be glad to be able to settle into my own space & kitting it out in my style.

 

I know I keep talking about it, but one of the major things I need to be doing is decluttering & getting rid of things that I don’t need. I’ve got a whole heap of things that probably could be sold off in a garage sale & things that just need a place to be put. Living in a small 3×2 cottage lot means that things have to be quite compact & I’m currently living from my room. Most of belongings are stuffed into my room – travel bags, shoes, clothes, books, magazines, toiletries, games, TV and the list goes on & on. Once my parents & brother move out, I will be busy revamping the place inside & out. It is a bit of gargantuan task to be undertaking, but one that is long overdue. I haven’t unpacked some things from my first move in 2008. That’s 8 years that things have been sitting in boxes everywhere. I expect to be overwhelmed but that’s ok, I just need to get a start on.

 

I’ve got lots more to blog about, but unfortunately in between working full time and trying to plan a wedding, that doesn’t leave much free time between that and sleeping. I value my sleep quite a bit, hence why it’s now time to bid you all good night! I’m hoping to be back soon as I’ve got quite a bit more on my mind lately & want to get it down here 🙂