by Kristine | Jan 16, 2015 | Musings
We’re now well & truly into the start of 2015, with it being the 2nd week of the 2nd month of the year. It’s been pretty non eventful so far, apart from the reaffirmation that my body still doesn’t like mega hot chilli sauces & will attempt evacuation about 12 hours post consumption. I’ve had my fair share of time to think about what I would like to achieve in 2015 & am now ready to put pen to paper, so to speak.
1. Work on my side project
I can’t unfortunately say what it is at the moment as it is still in its infancy but I have got ideas written down & am slowly making my way through setting things up & get it ready for when I have the time to be able to commit about 10 to 15 hours per week to it. The plans I’ve got is for it to be almost a 2nd job which will give me entertainment & provide me some sort of income while indulging my hobbies. Clear as mud? I’m sure I’ll let on in due course, but at the moment it is a closely guarded secret amongst a very select few.
I’m not planning to kick off the project this year, but to get the ground work set up & have some solid ideas & plans. I can’t wait to start sharing with everyone, but it is also a bit scary to do that so I’m waiting till I’m sure that this is going ahead. The last thing I want is to tell people that I’ll be doing something when I’m not ready to deliver.
2. Get a new job
I have mentioned this on Twitter a few times, I am currently employed as a casual & am seconded to another company. I’m grateful for the opportunity, but at the same time being a casual is no way to live life and I am wanting a permanent job and a better paying job. At the moment, having to count each dollar & cent I spend is really doing my head in as I want to be able to get a cup of coffee or food without having to wonder where else I’d have to cut down so that I can pay all my bills. It’s not something that I enjoy after being in a permanent role for 5 years. Almost 1 year with my current company & in my 2nd role, I can say I don’t mind working there but this is not a long term thing.
The people I work with are fantastic, although the role can be a bit monotonous at the same time, it isn’t the worst thing in the world. I appreciate the chance to show that I can do other things & diversify but I’m ready to move into a permanent role to settle down so that I can start a family & get on with life.
3. Get good grades in my Masters
I start my Masters in Information Management in about 3 weeks & am doing a half load for this year & 2 research projects next year in hopes of graduating at the end of next year. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to manage and cope with trying to find a new job – the writing of selection criteria, attending interviews & starting it, combined with getting good grades the 2 units I’m doing this semester. It is quite a lot & ambitious, but like they say, aim for the moon & if you fail, you still land among the stars. I figure that if I don’t try & apply myself in things, I will always ponder about the what ifs, which I don’t like. I would much rather know if I am capable of something or not, and know that I tried my very best than to keep expressing my frustration about my situation without doing anything.
4. Declutter life
I’m the first to admit, I’m a bit of a hoarder but have been getting much better as I grow older. Most of my belongings fit in my room at the moment which I’m pretty proud of actually. My room is literally my living space & has been for my entire life. I cannot wait till I have a whole house to myself which I can decorate to how I like. I’ve made it a point to clean & declutter my room a little each day & so far it has yielded a pretty good result. I’m constantly recycling pamphlets & putting aside things I don’t have use for anymore. If I can keep this up for the rest of the year, I’d say it’s a good effort for when I move.
Moving 5 times in the last 11 years or so, I’ve packed a lot of my stuff in boxes which haven’t been touched in years. I’m looking forward to unpacking my stuff & using them. Yes, I am that person who hasn’t unpacked after moves. I don’t really have room to put my stuff at the moment, so things are staying packed away for now 🙂
I think 4 goals for now is a good start. I’ve made a start to some of my goals at the moment, which is something I’m hoping to keep up during the year. Once I’ve managed to achieve my goals, I’m hoping to add more just so I can keep working towards something as I’m such a goal oriented person. Here’s to 2015 being a better year than before!
by Kristine | Apr 17, 2014 | Eternal Student, Musings
As the title suggests, I always have trouble with what I blog & if I blog at all. I constantly struggle with the balance of how much about my life I should publish online versus I want to document my life and the happenings so that when I grow old, I can flip through my blog and have a glimpse of what I was at that particular age. At uni, I thought I’d have more time to blog when I finished uni as I was always either caught up with assignments or desperately trying to finish up my assignments or maintaining my sanity while working. After I graduated, I thought I’d have time to blog as I didn’t have to chase down uni deadlines and be bogged down by how much I have to work to be able to survive. That’s didn’t really change, work took over & became the be all & end all of things. It was as if I didn’t know how to do anything apart from study or work.
5 years post uni and unemployed, you’d think I’d have more time or mojo to blog, but somehow that hasn’t happened. I was always caught up in the notion that there is always a perfect time later down the track to get things down. Eg: I’ll blog after uni as I’d have more time to dedicate to it. Or I’ll wait till such and such month to do something as the weather or whatever variable is perfect for it. It has taken a long time to eventually learn that there are no perfect times to do things. Like the cliched saying goes, time and tide waits for no man. There really isn’t a perfect time to do things, you make the best of the situation you are in and you grab a hold of your dreams tight and get down to it.
Not working has certainly made me mull in my thoughts a bit more and that isn’t always the best thing when you have an imagination as active as mine. I’ve been putting in applications for jobs and just waiting to hear back from things, but the waiting around is driving me up the wall. There is only so many TV shows that I can watch, only so many blogs I can read and only so many times I can go on Facebook before I go bonkers. Thankfully I’ve still got uni, which is keeping me busy enough to focus on the bigger picture and what I want to achieve in life. Although, I still complain about assignments and procrastinate to some level 😛
I am hoping to find some semblance to how much of my life I share online & how much I keep to myself. I don’t think that struggle with ever go away, but as long as I have a say in what I put out & sway more to the conservative side of things, I think I’ll be just fine 🙂
by Kristine | Apr 3, 2014 | Lists, Musings
This is getting a bit old with the revamping & removing of previous posts, but I had my reasons for removing quite a large chunk of my blog lately. I suppose this should really be called Kristinesays 3.0 haha. In all honesty, this feels like a slate being wiped clean & I don’t quite care at this moment if I’ve got a following on this blog or not. This is my tiny space in the big world wide web & I’m going to claim this space as my own & write as I feel like. Sure, some things will still remain private for my eyes only as I’ve struggled to draw appropriate boundaries on what it is I write or how much of myself I expose online. As I’m studying to become a librarian and information professional, it is really important to me that I have limits to what I put down. All the views published on my blog are my own and do not reflect my employer(s), past, present or future. For now, this will be a place where I document my life as it goes along.
I’ve had a bit of a brain wave & figured that since I like to write lists all the time & cannot live without lists, what better way for my blog to be! A giant collection of lists. It’s a bit weird, but for me it works wonders that my brain is able to process what I’ve got planned for each day & what I have achieved by the end of the day. It took me nearly 3 years at work to discover that I work well with lists, go figure.
For the first official list this time, I figured that since I’m hungry, what better list than the foods I can’t live without. Even though I come from an Asian background, I love me my Western food. I grew up with Asian-fied versions of dishes like spaghetti bolognese (it had bits of carrot & beef mince in it) or pork chops (made with tomato, onion & corn flour to thicken the sauce – was actually pretty good). If there was a Western dish that we watched on TV, it was almost guaranteed that dad made an Asian version of it. As a result, I’ve made up my own spaghetti bolognese recipe (I’ll post it here one day) & altered it to suit my taste buds. Pasta is something that I absolutely love & can eat day in & day out.
Another food that I couldn’t quite live without is rice. I live up to my Asian roots. I could happily eat fried rice, rice with soup, rice porridge, rice with other dishes, anything with rice pretty much. Such a cliche I am! It’s something satisfying about eating rice that just makes me keep coming back!
To be honest, there really isn’t much else that I couldn’t live without. I say this now, but I’m sure something else might crop up later on 😛
What foods could you not live without?
by Kristine | Feb 13, 2014 | Musings
I read somewhere on the good old Internet about how a girl posted up a picture & a thing that she was grateful for, for 365 days. Not sure which article it was or where it was published, but it got me to thinking and evaluating things that have been happening in the past year or so for me. I know I made some New Year’s Resolutions last year, some of which I’ve achieved and others not so much.
Now is a good time as any to make some resolutions or goals for 2014. I’ve never been a huge resolution fan, I’d rather look at them as some goals to achieve and guide me for the year. I hope to review them in detail at the end of the year to see what I’ve achieved & look back at what life was in the year 2014.
First thing that I would like to achieve is to write more often here & document things that are happening in life so that I have some sort of memory of what went on. I know with life, study & all sorts of things, blogging daily won’t be something that can be achieved, but I would like to increase my writing frequency to document the big events in life.
Second thing that I would like to implement with this blog is to be thankful for at least 1 thing each day, although I might not post daily. With the things that go on in day to day life, it is sometimes easy to forget to be thankful for the little things in life. And it’s the little things in life that make life so colourful & interesting.
Thirdly, I would like to take more pictures each day. I have put this down last year too, but think this is probably an ongoing thing as I would like to improve my photography skills. Sometimes I think I’m just too lazy to whip out my camera or phone & I miss things, which is something that I don’t want to happen anymore. Learning to be more spontaneous with things & life will definitely help with this.
Lastly but not by any means the least, I would like to look at delving deeper into my hobbies, more so cooking and baking, and to see if there are any business opportunities in Melbourne to do with these. This one is pretty close to my heart as I’ve been wanting to embark on a business to do with either cooking or baking and would like to see some stuff happening in terms of that. I’ve put some ideas on hold due to personal reasons and the Melbourne move, but am now putting it out there so that I can hold myself accountable to it all.
On a side note, a few other things that I would like to achieve in the short term is to secure a job prior to the Melbourne move, complete my 3 week prac (starts next week, eek!!), finish my Graduate Diploma in Information & Library Studies, as well as settle well into Melbourne. I work best by setting small goals each day & working through that. It has taken me nearly 28 years to figure out how to understand my body is telling me, but I am taking it day by day & learning to love myself & life a bit more each day 🙂
by Kristine | Jan 6, 2013 | Musings
Happy New Year!! I guess this post is a little late, but as the saying goes, better late than never rings pretty true here.
I must admit, I did abandon this blog for a little bit and have been missing it. But hauling out my ancient laptop & waiting for it to boot up is a little painful. Nevertheless, I’m back here & documenting my New Years Resolution so that I can actually look back at it, rather than try to revive it from my memory at the end of the year.
Looking back on 2012, I feel that I’ve learnt many lessons and I have many more to learn. The past is a great learning tool if anything 🙂
- Turn off my work phone when not at work
One of the big issues for me with work is I tend not to switch off from work mode. I tend to leave my work phone on & actually answer it on weekends or at night time even if its just a text message or an e-mail that could’ve waited for when I’m back at work. I must remember that I cannot always run at everyone’s beck & call and not look after myself. Turning off my phone each night & on the weekends will be a good start to this.
I must admit, I am a pretty good saver (if I do say so myself!) as it is. Looking back on last year, I managed to buy a house & keep up with my mortgage. Plus overpay it a little, which is a pretty good as achievement in my books. Though I hate to admit this, I could’ve probably saved a bit more. I’ve written out a rough budget for this year to really work in saving every penny. If you know me in real life, I am a bit of a tight arse sometimes but I guess it pays off every now and again 🙂 But in all honesty, I’m working to save extra hard this year as I’m moving to Melbourne with my boyfriend in about 12 months time. Yes, you heard right, I am leaving Perth. That’s another blog post in itself 🙂
Pretty much based on the last point, I do also intend to overpay my mortgage so that I can pay it off sooner. I’m the kind of person who absolutely hates to have any debt & with a mortgage (the biggest type of debt one can possibly have) to pay off, I’m counting every last penny to put away for this. Now if only my bank came out with an app or something that tells me how much left I’ve got on my mortgage, I’d love them forever. I’m a big fan of countdown type apps or things left, gives me a goal to work towards 🙂
- Blog more and take more photos
This is probably the hardest of my resolutions so far. Its been rather easy dealing with Twitter & Instagram on a daily basis than lugging out a laptop to blog. I guess I don’t have much of an excuse as I have a Samsung Note 2 which has the WP app. I guess this for me is more to express stuff in more detail & in more than 140 characters plus build on my creativity. I have been feeling rather meh lately & not having a creative outlet has also been pretty draining. Sometimes it is rather nice to just type away on the computer and just blab out to the internet. I guess I also have been holding back on blogging as I am quite a private person and having my feelings typed out on the interwebs scares me that people might think I’m crazy or are quick to judge what I’m doing against their own sense or morality or right and wrong. I have issues with that. Anyway, I’ve made up my mind that there will be some private posts on there, plus password protected ones so please don’t be offended if I don’t offer you the password to read them as it gives me that peace of mind to be able to have a voice sometimes.
I am a very homebody kind of person, I’d much rather be sitting at home and cleaning or just watching tv than go out & party every weekend. 2011 was my party year (or year of rebellion as I like to call it) and I can honestly say, I’ve tried the going out clubbing & drinking thing and I don’t like it. I do enjoy a drink every now & again, but I must admit that being hungover for a good part of 2011 was not one of the best things I’ve done in my life. Hey, it had to happen right? I was never a rebellious teenager & have led a mostly sheltered life. I thought that at 25, it was good to say I had my year of partying like a teenager. Maybe I’ve just got arrested development LOL. In all honesty, I’ve had ups & downs last year and I have lost touch with a few friends here and there. I am wanting to make an effort in reconnecting with some friends and maintaining a small bunch of close friends rather than a large bunch of acquaintances. Its those people that you know are your true friends.
Its not a very long list of resolutions, but I’ve always been a believer of starting with small goals or baby steps and then building your way up before trying to tackle life’s rocks. If I can achieve even a small part of these resolutions, I think that’s a step in the right direction. I look at it as, I’ve improved on things from the day before. Even a small improvement is an improvement.
So, what are your resolutions for 2013? Leave me a comment below 🙂
by Kristine | Sep 30, 2012 | Musings
Just yesterday while I was driving to work, I heard some radio DJs talking about Bali. Now there aren’t many popular breakfast radio shows in Perth, so if you’re from Perth, you can probably guess which one this is. Now the female DJ was saying that she’s going to be going to Bali soon, but this time with her dad. She’s been 17 or 18 times so far but this will be the first time she’ll be travelling there with her dad. So her dad asks, what places are there to see in Bali? Her reaction to this blew me away. She fully admitted that even though she’s been there umpteen times, she only goes to Bali for the cheap alcohol, sun & hotel pool. She even had other listeners who said the same thing! The male DJ was suggesting sight seeing places, such as the temples and the mountain ranges etc but she was quite adamant about that people go to Bali only for the booze and sun. One listener had been to Bali a whopping 42 times, but hasn’t been sight seeing!
When I heard the whole exchange on the radio, needless to say I was a big agitated. I get that yes, maybe some people have preferences on how to spend their holidays overseas but the notion of going to a foreign country to booze and not even bother to learn about the culture of the people or history is just disturbing. I’ve been to Bali once, just last year and it was quite an amazing experience. I was there for 7 days with some friends but managed to squeeze in some shopping, lounging by the pool, going out, travelling through the country side for some quad biking. Yes, we did drink and take advantage of the cheap alcohol but Bali isn’t just about that. There is definitely more to a country than their cheap booze. It’ll be like saying Australia is good for kangaroo scrotum coin pouches. The people and culture mean nothing.
Having that kind of attitude while being a radio DJ is just ridiculous to me. That’s just encouraging ignorance amongst the listeners and encouraging binge drinking in the community. And you wonder why there are so many weekend drunken parties which turn violent. It all boils down to attitudes. Do you agree?
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