Written on 1/23/2010 07:19:00 AM by Cheryl
I've developed a very clever, very cunning technique to look better. I'm going to start paying someone to care for my skin for me consistently. In other words, I'm going to start going for facial treatments. Smart, eh.
It's part of my resolution this year. Now, I don't buy into the whole New Year, New Resolutions magic but I do believe in trying to be better all the time. And the deal with trying to look better (huge step for me) is that it makes me feel better, I've realised. If my mum hears this she'll sprout wings. She's been trying to get me to please-for-heaven's-sake be more of a lady and to please-for-heaven's-sake start grooming myself.
I shan't be one of those perpetually perfectly-groomed girls but I shall be more presentable. Which means a little more work every single day. I suppose the very thought of waking up one morning ten years from now and realising how old and prune-ish I look is too terrifying. I want to age gracefully. It probably sounds shallow but I'm being honest. I think women were made to be beautiful. I'm charmed by those who take pride in their looks and do their best to enhance it. (By saying that, I also mean that women who take it too far don't impress me.) On the other hand, there are those who are just blessed with wholesome good looks - good hair, good skin, good teeth, good everything - without needing to mind themselves very much at all. I'm not sure which 'category' I'm in but I reckon I fall within the ambit of...both? Too slack to go all the way but disciplined enough to work a little (only because things don't come naturally to me).
Enough of girl talk. Gonna do something tough now and wash the masque off my face.
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Health and Grooming
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Written on 1/20/2010 10:57:00 PM by Cheryl
Sunday afternoon found me in a spa with my aunt, after a week with an unusually knotty back and shoulders that were killing me by the hour. The spa manager introduced my masseuse to me. "Cheryl, this is Dummy."
"I'm sorry. Her name is...Dummy?"
"Yes, Dummy."
I felt highly uncomfortable. She was Indonesian, so I figured it spelt 'Daami' or something. But still, to be called Dummy in our world. I live there and it's not kind. Imagine the hurt and rejection within her! She was stocky and looked inhumanly strong.
Within 10 minutes, she unleashed those years of wrath and turmoil over my body.
"Not so hard, please, Dummy," I pleaded.
"Unh," she grunted, still hurting me.
She then proceeded to rub the funny bones in my elbow. You know the feeling of whacking your elbow hard really against a tough surface? Well, Dummy prolonged that sensation in my arms for a good 30-40 minutes. I once had a Thai masseuse who dug her elbows into my thighs. I'm not sure which was worse. The funny bone thing or the thigh bit.
After my left arm, I tried to get her to proceed directly to my shoulders but she said (or what I understood) that she had to proceed to the right arm or else the pain would not be balanced. So she had to hurt my right arm as well to balance it all out.
The problem with Dummy was that she didn't seem to understand very well.
My ears were ringing by the time the two-hour session ended. That was the very first time in my life, as I lay on the massage board, that I was impatient for a massage session to end.
As we left, I turned around, thanked Dummy and bade her goodbye...forever.
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Health and Grooming
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Written on 1/13/2010 01:51:00 AM by Cheryl
At the brink of insanity over my life's latest nadirs, I thought I'd do something different, something refreshing and uplifting: Bake. With great gusto, yesterday, I whipped out some amounts of corn, brown sugar and butter. Can you guess what they were for? Caramel popcorn - Sweet, coated drops of heaven. I discovered my love for popcorn around Christmas a few weeks back when I watched Avatar. After the movie, I pined for both movie and treat so I watched a popcorn recipe online and tried it out. The internet is a wonderful resource for cooking/baking rookies like myself. I'd learn from my mum herself, who, by the way, is an amazing cook but veterans like her don't like rookies like me messing about in the kitchen. The house rule is simple: She cooks/bakes; I delight in the eating.
Anyway, not very surprisingly, my caramel popcorn did not work out. Within 12 minutes of starting up the fire and dumping the ingredients in, I scorched the butter, popped-corn and sugar and two perfectly good pots, of which my mum is not thanking me for. I also burned my finger. The caramelising sugar in the pot smelled funny so I thought I'd taste it. I can't be sure what was running through my mind when I decided to dip my finger into a boiling, thickened paste of sugar and butter -my need to ascertain if the smell of burning did taste as burnt as it smelled or my need to know how scorching a finger would feel. So great was my desire to discover new things. You may laugh but it I'll have you know that I'm a bright bulb in many, many other ways.
I proceeded to baking a brownie next, which worked out quite alright, just that it was nearly overbaked to cinder. Apart from that, it was fine. I know, because my stressed-out colleagues gobbled the pieces up quite swiftly.
Next up: Butterscotch icre-cream. :)
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Food
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Written on 1/11/2010 10:59:00 PM by Cheryl
My colleagues can't understand why. To be honest, I never really understood why anyone would want to wake up early (before 10am) when the morning air feels so good when you're in bed. Then, at one point two years ago, I dared myself to wake up early, put on my running shoes and hit the road with the guys for a 10km run. I nearly died but I finished the run, and I decided I'd do it again the morning after. I did and have kept up for the good feeling of early-morning freshness it gives me. Here are some other reasons:
1. I accomplish more
There's nothing worse than waking up later than planned and having to rush through the morning and then feeling yucky all day. Waking up early means I plan in advance the night before what the next day would be like, and it is this purposeful mindset that gets me out of bed when I'm snug and warm and sometimes really tired. Not exercising means my blood circulates less, which means I'd be even more lethargic throughout the day. Snoozing in that extra 20 minutes, thinking that I'm getting more rest, does not help. Ever.
2. Everything seems better in the morning light
There's just something positive about the morning rays. Everything seems new and fresh and promising. Sometimes I go to bed heavy-hearted over something but then morning comes, and things seem...better, and not as bad as it seems in the dark when I'm all alone. What I love about the park is that it's always brimming with life and people who take some time off for their families or personal health as a start to their day. Watching things like that makes me glad.
3. I get in on some good devotional time
A habit that I've been trying to cultivate all year is to do my devotions early in the morning. I never seemed to be able to do this (for more than 5 minutes) in the morning but now it's possible. I just need to sleep by 12.
I have more reasons but it's 12 now and I'm sleepy. Oh yes, one last point. It continually regulates my sleeping pattern. Very glad for that.
Posted in
Fitness and Sports
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Written on 12/23/2009 12:14:00 AM by Cheryl
The lovebirds' wedding pictures are here! These are just some ill-shot snaps taken on my phone-cam but they'll do for now while we're all waiting for the good stuff from Wei Jan.
I was dead tired by the time we got to the reception dinner but managed la to plaster on a smile and mingle around. It was really good to have everyone together.
Miss Esther Khoo was visibly having a good time
I love it when we girls get together
like here...
here...
here...
and here
So good to have Xiao back with us!
Hock, my eye of Sauron is upon you.
So good to rekindle with old school friends
And have friends return from overseas
See the glow on Chu Yueh's face. Bet she can't wait to
spend plenty of glorious hours with the couple
Darren and Rach, you guys are phenomenal! Thanks for planning and
slogging, slogging, slogging so we could all have a good time
Managed to catch Bro G for that bit there
Eugene's MILF wife and darlingest little girl. Guys, you've gotta make one that looks like Siew Yen the next round.
Clowns that never fail to make me smile
My companion for the day. Jules, I don't think we were apart at
all the entire day! Keep up the good work and remember what I told you! :)
"Chaa"
My absolute favourite photo of the day. This was us after packing Serena off for her tea ceremony...sitting amidst the huge mess we made on the hotel room floor, doing each other's hair and makeup, chatting away and marveling at Julie's forever legs, wondering how she grew them herself.
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Photos
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Written on 12/08/2009 12:21:00 AM by Cheryl
It's 12.20am, quite past my bedtime but I've not hit my word quota for the day so I just need to talk a little here. These few weeks have been amongst the craziest all year and I can't can't can't wait for the year to end. I'm so looking forward to Christmas celebrations and drinking in all that festivity with family and friends.
Right now I'm just feeling numb towards a number of things but I know it's just my stress-defense mechanism doing its job.
I need to sleep now. In 10 seconds I'm going to sink my head into my pillow and wake up to a brand new day, get through it to another, and another, and another and before I know it, it'll be time to retire.
Goodnight, world.
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Random and Misc
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Written on 12/07/2009 12:01:00 AM by Cheryl
I woke up last Thursday morning extremely tired and was quick to sense that something, like my health, was gonna give that day. My forced sprightliness that morning quickly ebbed into a dismal crawl by mid-day and in that awkward hour, I found myself hunched over the toilet seat wondering what had gone wrong. I had had my juice in the morning, as usual, and just some fruit and fish at noon and then shortly after lunch, I threw it all up. Even with an empty stomach, I walked around with a bloated gut all day and felt increasingly ill as the hours passed.
I woke up the next morning feeling like I'd died but was summoned back to life simply because I had to get up and get my sorry ass to work. I lay in bed feverishly wishing that I didn't have to, hoping that no one would bother me and hopefully be kind enough to wonder if I'd peacefully passed away if I were to not answer any calls.
After work, I attended an HF with a few of the guys to raise funds for Impact. Later during refreshments, very carefully minding my upset stomach, I helped myself to a kitten's helping of noodles and steered clear of the lemon tea. No plain water was in sight - just coffee - so I did not bother to get myself a drink. Halfway through the meal I started to feel real thirsty and just as I was about to get myself a drink, Esther plopped herself down next to me and sat her cup of tea beside my bowl. I guzzled down a mouthful and got back to my noodles. Just as I was chewing, I realised that what I had just downed tasted distinctly unholy, like a mouthful of devil. I glanced at Esther. A mouthful of 'tea' in her mouth, she too had just come to the same alarming realisation that what we'd had was Not. Tea.
"Erm... Esther, what did we just drink? Wasn't this from the teapot?" I asked cautiously.
"Yes, it's tea!"
"But where did you get it from???"
"It's lemon tea. I got it from the the bottle next to the teapot!" Esther protested.
I did not remember any bottle next to the teapot when I went there earlier. I looked at the drinks section. One pot of tea and a flask of coffee. Oh wait. Now there was an additional bottle.
"That where you got it from?" I asked.
She nodded.
A loud peal of laughter sounded. "Did you drink Aunty Karen's detergen?!"
Yes, thanks to Esther, we drank Aunty Karen's detergen. And in Aunty Karen's words, we weren't to worry as it was 100% organic and very useful, so useful in fact it was that it removes scum off her pool bed. As she rambled on about the million-fold uses of her self-concocted compost-detergen, I watched Esther giggle helplessly beside me as I glumly fed myself string after string of noodle in effort to kill the taste of the vile concoction.
However, two mornings later, I woke up....better. zestier. Happier. In fact, I'm feeling so much better that I'm actually looking forward to work tomorrow. On a Monday.
How very scary.
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Embarrasing moments,
Health and Grooming
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Written on 11/14/2009 11:46:00 PM by Cheryl
Thank you, Darren, for always affirming me (even when I don't ask) that I'm doing okay on stage. Getting back on the worship team this year has been rewarding on so many levels.
I remember a conversation I had with Aunty Chiew Har years and years ago about coping with my ACCA exams (to this day, the mere mention of it drains me) and telling her that I needed to be relieved of my duties as a worship leader. It wasn't a matter of commitment, but rather, a problem it seemed to me at that time to lead people into worship when I carried such a lot of baggage in my heart. "No," she said to me, "you learn to lead not just despite your circumstances, but through your circumstances."
And so I returned to the team this year with that one clear theme in mind. Nothing has gotten easier by this time, a whole eight years since that conversation with her over a brief breakfast in between our YC services, yet I find that I have more reason to sing now than I ever have.
Posted in
Faith
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Written on 11/13/2009 11:41:00 PM by Cheryl
I met someone yesterday who paid me half a compliment. This was a man I had spoken with a couple of times over the phone. He had a soft, gentle, kindly voice, the sort that only extremely patient older gentlemen (could possibly) possess and for that, the image of an extremely patient older slightly balding gentleman formed in my head each time I spoke with him.
I met him yesterday and found that he was actually a whole lot younger than I'd thought. He was actually a young-ish guy, probably in his early 30's. Finally putting my face to my voice seemed to have quite an effect on him for he kept saying to me, "Wow... you don't look the way you sound. You're actually pretty!"
Wow. I didn't know how or what to feel. His comment on my looks did not exactly nourish my esteem. Not yet anyway, so I asked, "So what did I sound like?"
"Well, I thought I was speaking with an old lady."
Heh???
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Random and Misc
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Written on 9/23/2009 01:10:00 AM by Cheryl
It's 1.10am right now and I am hungry, like really, really hungry. To stop myself from stuffing my face (who am I kidding, it's already stuffed), I'm typing out this random post while I guzzle lots and lots of water so that when I'm done here, I'll be sleepy and too full to crawl downstairs to prepare me a snack.
This weekend, I got myself 2 pairs of walking shoes. Flats, they are, and a pair of them is so terribly unattractive that you may need to look away, y'know, like how it's rude to stare.
It's so aunty that even my mum can't accept them. I can actually see why. I look, frightfully, like my grandmother in them.
I wore that pair all of today and realised that they aren't that comfortable after all. They're not uncomfortable, they're just not comfortable. There's a difference there, friends. All the same, I wondered what possessed me to get them in the first place. Well, I figured it's about time time I began taking care of my feet. No more heels every single day is Rule Number One. More flats is Rule Number Two and Rule Number Three is to learn to bask in the glory of walking shorter.
Okay, I'm not any sleepier nor less hungry. Gonna grab a bite now.
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Random and Misc
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