Sick, for the longest time

I fell sick after CNY holiday.

It all started with a weekend with fever. On Friday, I thought I felt feverish, no fever yet but I thought I'll be fine so I continued to stay at work until 4pm. When I finally got home, I was having fever already. Continuing that weekend, I had runny nose and cough.

I thought with enough rest I'll be all fine. But no, on the next Wednesday, my voice decided to went out totally with sore throat. I was given two days MC but it wasn't sufficient to bring back my voice. I went to work on Friday, without voice.

Then, it went on to another weekend, I was still pretty much hoarse voice. I forgot when was the second time I went to see the doctor, but second time I was given a stronger medicine. It got improved, but not a lot.

You can imagine during these times, I was eating and drinking almost everything that people can suggest to me, that is good for the throat. Honey lemon, vitamin C, herbal tea, the egg with rock sugar tea etc. Plus, avoiding everything "dangerous" too, like coffee and tea.

It didn't work very well. I improved, but not a lot. So I went for the third consultant, by this time I was given a referral letter to specialist. My appointment was last Saturday. After a scan, (that costs me a bomb!), the specialist told me it's acid reflux!

So! No wonder I've not been recovering because I was treating the wrong symptoms. Why was it wrong? I wasn't supposed to take Vitamin C, lemon, and tomato, because all these food cause acid reflux. And i wasn't supposed to take water before sleep. Because, it causes acid reflux too!

I guessed it did start with throat inflammation. But as I kept doing the wrong steps, it slowly causes acid reflux and worsen the throat condition.

Sigh.

This is the first time I learn that what happened in my stomach could cause me a loss of voice. That's why I am sharing it here. You may have already know about it, but I didn't, at least before the visit to specialist.

So now, I'm doing everything I can. Take ginger tea, take honey (no more lemon!), sleep early, no eating or drinking 3 hours before sleep, sleep elevated, take medicine accordingly, and massage my 照海穴as per instructed by my sister.

The heartburn is reduced now. So I believe my voice will get better in no time! IT HAS TO BE! I'm going for a trip next Monday!

Believe, and it will happen :)

Trying to Cultivate a Good Habit

I've been trying to cultivate good habits in myself, well, for a lot of things. Unfortunately I'm never persistent enough to cultivate them as a long term habit. Now, I'm trying even harder.

Before my Chinese New Year home trip, I bought a book by Deepak Chopra at the airport, titled "Grow Younger Live Longer". Ya, who doesn't wanna look younger? I want, I admit! I'm stepping into 30 this year,  and I'm not going to deny it, 30 sounds kinda scary to me.

But reading this book is not about just how you look, is how your body feels. How to cultivate good habits in your life, some very simple habits, may just take 15 minutes of your daily life. It says, it takes 10 weeks of practice to have a habit cultivated! I'm in two weeks now. Eight more weeks to go!

What have I been trying:

1. Wake up earlier to practice sun salutations and short meditation. Before this, I wake up at 7.45am-ish, rushed to brush my teeth and shower. Change in a hurry and go to work. Results, sometimes I doze off in my shuttle bus, which results in even more tiredness at work in the morning. Now, I wake up earlier, 7.15am-ish for sun salutation and short meditation. If I'm early enough, I even get to eat a bowl of cereal before going to work. I'm more refreshed, I read on the train (when it's not too crowded) and I don't doze off in the bus anymore. In fact, I practice breathing on shuttle bus to office. Some day I wake up before the alarm. But confession here, I missed the routine for two Sundays! Once was when I was in KL with the Man. Second time was yesterday, I was wide awake up too engrossed with researching Amsterdam for my coming trip.

2. Yogurt facial. The books recommends go natural and organic for everything. As much as I like to follow this, I have to find a balance of what I can afford to go organic. Facial with yogurt, honey, and lemon is an easy way out for me. I've been doing this, alternate or once in 3 days. Face is less oily recently. But as indicated by the sharing on FB, about yogurt reducing blackheads, I have to tell you, it's not true. I still got blackheads when I peel with the Biore blackheads peeler.

3. Stretch before sleep and do massage on the reflection points that my sister taught me. Especially 三阴交for my period problem. It works for me, for two months now. Period comes more on time, and no more cramps. 

4. Eat more vegetables. Confession I have made on my photoblog, I didn't have enough intake on fibers. The book promotes take in all the six taste: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. I have to admit I don't follow all of them, but I commit to eat more vegetables!

• Sweet: Favor whole grains, breads, fruits, starchy vegetables, low-fat organic diary; Reduce: refined sugar, animal fat
• Sour: Favor citrus fruits, berries, tomatoes; Reduce: pickled and fermented food, alcohol
• Salty: Reduce highly salted food like chips, pretzels, processed tomato juice
• Pungent: Favor all spicy food in small amount-ginger, pepper, onions, peppermint, cinnamon
• Bitter: Favor all green and yellow vegetables
• Astringent: Favor: beans, peas, lentils, apples, berries, figs, green tea; Reduce: excessive coffee

These are what I commit to myself to cultivate in myself. Please remind me if you found I'm not doing any of them.

Something About Getting Married

I've wanted to write something about getting married for some time, but I hadn't got a chance. I was either too busy, or getting myself too addicted to novels that I didn't even switch on my laptop for days.

After three wedding dinners (with the same person, pheww!~), I've learned a lot. 

Yes, yes, we knew all along getting married is not just a matter of two persons. There are just so many external factors to take care of. First of all, of course the parents, whether or not we met their expectations and at the same time satisfied ourselves. Then, how do/should we treat our friends and relatives who helped out, who flew all the way, even half the globe just to see you on your big day. Also, guests that attended the dinner. Did they enjoy the food and the live performance? Did they enjoy having the gathering with long lost friends and relatives? Bumping into some familiar faces and picked up from the last time they met?

All these factors have affected us in chosing whether or not to follow the local Chinese customary wedding, venue for wedding dinner, song list of live band (you can't have the band to sing Jay Chou when 80% of your guests are your parents' friends), table arrangements etc. 

I would say our wedding dinners were not perfect, all three of them. I don't believe in perfect wedding even though we've worked hard in planning for almost a year. I don't know about all of you out there but my wedding ceremony and dinner were both a little chaos. We're all new in this wedding thingy, things got complicated when we did not know what's next. When you finally have experience, you don't need them anymore. That's the tricky part of getting married =p

Only on the morning I got married, I realized my house was not big enough to house all the important friends and relatives, all at once. And we have problems walking around, and I'm glad I wasn't wearing a ball gown. During dinners, more things can get wrong. The projector, the speaker, the slanted screen, the lights, the decoration etc. But we couldn't care less. I don't think majority of the guests would notice that anyway.

My favorite moment of my entire wedding(s) was after the wedding dinner. My cousins and aunts stayed back. We were trying to arrange logistics but we all got distracted and started to sing, dance, drink and take photos, while the curious waiters and waitresses cleaned up the place. Just the thought of it made me smile to myself. This was really the best part of my wedding =)

Trust me when I tell you most couples don't get their dream wedding. There were tonnes of factors that hindered you from getting one. Monetary is always one of the biggest factor unless you're freaking rich.

But it's up to the couple whether or not they're bitter about the unperfectness of the wedding. Some people get down to the tiniest detail of the wedding ceremony, but I personally don't think it's worth the effort because most guests don't remember a single detail from your wedding. 

I don't believe in being the prince and princess on the wedding either. Yes, you might be the main actor and actress of the day but doesn't mean all you do is just about you. Having your guests leaving the dinner happily is important too.  

All in all, no matter how things turned out, I guess all the couples feel the same after everthing. 

Relief.

=)

My Year 2012

Since the world didn't end on 21.12.12 as predicted, I am still given a chance to sit down and list down my yet another interesting year.

Well, let me think what I have done, it didn't feel much this year...

1. Started my year 2012 counting down in Shanghai with my family.
2. Went to KL twice for just weekends. Once with Yee Hau just for weekend getaway, another time was to send En off to University.
3. Ran half marathon in midnight and in the rain for the first time of my life.
4. Flew to HK just to meet up with Hui Nee, since I haven't got a chance to meet her up for the entire year.
5. En visited me at Singapore for the first time (by himself) before entering university. 
6. Went to Universal Studio Singapore for the first time with En even though I stay there and going there can be so convenient.
7. Attended 3 best friends' wedding in a year, to be exact, in 3 months.  
8. Learned simple make up for the first time of my life. DIY through Youtube. Don't you just love internet!
9. Had our own DIY prewedding shots in Penang with an entourage of 7 people. It was fun and tiring! Luckily we only have to do this once in a life time.
10. Planned and finally done with our own wedding in Singapore.
11. Got married.
12. Invited and seated at media seats for the first time of my life in Singapore National Chinese Music Competition 2012.
13. Preparing for 2nd and 3rd episodes of our wedding.
14. Had a great time with my cousins at Penang, and finally went to some famous cafes in Georgetown, like a tourist!

 I'll leave the reflections for myself.

Happy new year everybody and have a great & wonderful year ahead!

And to my friend, Cindy, Happy Birthday!!! *hugs*

2012全国华乐比赛获奖者音乐会与颁奖典礼

期待中的获奖者音乐会，终于在星期天晚上过了。期待的原因有几个，第一、我很想知道自己对合奏小组排名的名次和评判的一不一样；第二、获奖者音乐会是双人票，我可以和佳慧一同出席；第三、我也真的很久没有观赏音乐会，华乐的更不用说。

没想到，omy让我们坐媒体席位。本小姐第一次有机会坐在媒体席，有点小高兴。又痛恨没得照相，要不然一定把单眼带来。

音乐会由公开组的得奖者开始表演。笛子独奏冠军，林明慧《鹰之恋》、二胡独奏冠军，周俊如《秋韵》、中阮独奏冠军,谢伟建《满江红》，独奏皆由新加坡华乐团伴奏。我对《鹰之恋》和《秋韵》都不熟悉。可我偏爱《鹰之恋》的旋律，带点新疆音乐的感觉。而《秋韵》，可以说是非常典型的二胡独奏曲。周俊如的技巧确实没话说，但是本人有点小小的意见，就是音乐感情不够投入。《满江红》是我很喜欢的曲子，我本人的小小见解，就是中阮的音量厚度不在，没有岳飞的气势。因此，让我选择的话，我比较喜欢笛子独奏的演绎。

如我之前所预料，精英丝竹乐团获得了合奏公开组的冠军。他们演了《音诗——大漠遐想》，演绎的很好。音诗里有一大段的音乐，像是在冥想之中。让我联想到《沙地尔传奇》也有一段类似的冥想，让人不知不觉中沉醉在自己的世界里。

中场休息以后，是颁奖仪式。少年组、青年组和公开组的得奖者分别上台领奖。少年组的最可爱，最年轻的才8岁，而且还得了冠军。现代城市的小孩至小有很多不同的见识，机会自然而然的也比较多。想当年我八岁的时候，在学校玩泥沙吧～

公开组由李显龙总理颁奖。第一次看见总理本人，还是那句老话，总理好高哦！我心里在想，公开组奖项赢得多值得啊。以后的日子，你可以炫耀说，奖项是总理颁发的呢！多骄傲！

颁奖后，是少年及青年组的表演。可能小孩子不管做些什么都比较可爱吧，我觉得下半场的节目更精彩。陈欣宇就是那八岁弹琵琶的小女孩，表演了《天山之春》。她的演绎一点都不象八岁的小孩，技巧成熟，感情也投入。音乐透出了自然的欢愉。接着是李文玓唢呐独奏《正月十五闹雪灯》、高程锦扬琴独奏《落花·夜》、郭威胜古筝独奏《溟山》。对于唢呐和古筝，我没有很大的认识。扬琴呢，我会的曲子吧，都很落伍了⋯⋯《春到清江》、《节日的天山》⋯⋯都是过去式的独奏曲。《落花·夜》让我感觉象钢琴曲，象日剧里的插曲。高程锦的技巧让我想躲起来，别告诉别人我以前弹扬琴。

压轴曲目，是敲击小组的《Strange Loops》。我对于华乐的看法一直是很传统的，我总喜欢听见很经典很传统的华乐曲目。因此，对于整首曲子我都在期待敲击的传统拍子，但是，没有。当然我不排除这种新派的曲子变化比较多。那些期待，仅仅是我个人比较刻板的喜好。

谢谢omy让我们有机会回味我们中学被华乐包围的回忆！

新加坡全国华乐比赛2012

上个周末，拖着刚刚从Standard Chartered Marathon回来而疲惫不堪的躯体，我开始有点后悔参与这个活动。但是，是我自己题上自己的名字，怎么可以放飞机。所以，我还是把自己从床上拉起来，到Tanjong Pagar的Singapore Conference Hall去观赏新加坡全国华乐比赛，合奏小组的初赛。

当天参与的合奏小组总共有三组：精英丝竹乐团、吉丰华乐团、大巴窑西民众俱乐部精英华乐团。

精英丝竹华乐团呈献了两首歌，西湖梦寻的第二乐章《鱼乐》和一首西乐改编的曲子Typewritter，都是比较轻快的歌曲。一直以来，我都对轻快的歌曲比较有好感。这两首曲子很快就感染了我。再加上，Typewritter之时，敲击小组的其一成员带着她的不知名的敲打乐器，当起了主角。她活跃的台风让我情不自禁地想起了冯少先。（啊！冯少先，真让人怀念！）

吉丰华乐团呈献《抒情曲》。歌曲中有一段高胡和大提琴的对唱。我一直以来都很喜欢大提琴，可惜的是歌曲里的大提琴的声音不够圆滑敦厚。唢呐短短的独奏，也玩得不够自信。多可惜，整首曲子只有短短的那一段，应该抬起头自信快乐的吹奏。我对这首曲子一点都不认识，不过由于我个人对低音的偏好，如果低音部分（大提琴、倍大提琴、中阮、大阮、笙）玩得更有厚度会更好一点。拉弦和吹管组的音准也应该加紧注意。

大巴窑西民众俱乐部精英华乐团呈献了《乡音寄怀》。扬琴乐手最引我注意，不仅仅因为自己当年也是弹扬琴的，她是三队里最年轻的乐手吧。这首曲子是很典型的华乐，让人怀念的典型华乐。那种敲打乐器在后面“庆庆锵锵”的典型，让人怀念的吵闹。或许是因为队伍里的成员年龄参差不齐，他们个人对曲子的了解和诠释有点不一，我有时候不小心就分散了我的注意力。

我个人喜好，我最喜欢精英丝竹华乐团的表演。我不知道最终的成绩是什么，这纯粹是个人意见。

大学第二年以后，我再也没有亲身接触华乐。（大概有六七年了！）偶尔应朋友的约，听听音乐会还是有的。但是家里那台扬琴早已被遗忘在一个角落。中学时期，那些玩音乐的日子就随着扬琴，尘封在回忆里。

有机会看见热爱华乐的朋友在台上表演，还是让我回味无穷。自己心里太清楚，要维持一个业余的乐队实在是太难。津贴的问题往往是最头疼的问题，再加上成员们各自都有工作，要拥有多少的热忱和纪律才能把乐队维持下去，可想而知。这些业余的乐团，都值得大家给予更大的鼓励。与此同时，这些乐团也应该多多为自己打广告，招招生。

听完了初赛，说真的也没有后悔拖着疲惫的身躯而来。毕竟，能够借着表演回忆回忆还是很好的。

十二月九日晚上八点，将会是获奖者音乐会（所有组别－独奏、合奏、打击乐）及颁奖典礼。这是一个售票的音乐会， 票价十元，可在sistic预购。从今天到九日的比赛，是免费入门的。有兴趣者可查询此网页。

谢谢omy的邀请，我才能知道这两年一次的全国赛正进行中！期待这个周末的表演 :)

Married!

Despite of all the uncertainties in myself, we've walked the red carpet, and signed the life long contract.

Yes, signed, and no turning back.

The entire process of getting married was pretty tiring and at the same time exciting. I've got to finally understood what all my married friends gone through. And the feelings they described, not all the same, but yes, now I know how they must have felt at that moment!

The most common question I got when I got back to work after married, was "How do you feel being married?" Unfortunately, I can't put the emotion in words. Yes, we're happily married, but things don't really change a lot since we've been staying together for years.

How do I feel being married? I felt loved. I felt loved not just from the one I signed the contract with, but from families and friends. My friends complained about me not giving the speech on that night, but I guess I could not. If I did, I might be crying. So, let's just leave the talking to the Man.

The wedding dinner, was the one we've always wanted. Mostly casual, our guests were roaming around, talking to friends from other tables, exchanging their own seats to catch up with old friends. It's a wedding dinner + gathering of friends to us. We were busy roaming around too, trying to talk to as much friends as possible, but even with this setting, we still didn't manage to entertain all guests. Really sorry to the guests we've missed.

While we're enjoying the day, we've put stresses on our friends. Poor friends, we're truly sorry. They're the ones who took care of the decoration, the reception tables, the flow of the ROM and dinner, dinner for the live band, the alcohol, the videos etc. This group of friends took off our all stresses so that we didn't have to run around the hotel like mad.

We're really glad our guests left mostly at 10pm onwards. Ever since we're preparing for the wedding dinner, the bridal shop, the photographer, the hotel, the live band etc. were telling us buffet dinner mostly ended at 9-9.30pm. Especially it was a Sunday evening, the dinner will end even earlier. But we guessed the guests enjoyed the night as much as we did, the dinner ended unexpectedly late. We're very happy with that.

With all the blessings from everybody, we're finally becoming Mr & Mrs. Our promise to all of you, we will live happily together, we will not disappoint you :)

How did it happen?

So, at one time you're still thinking, "It's still some time away... Don't worry...". Another minute, you realized it's less than a week from now!

You panic, you freaked out, you tried to squeeze fun time+quiet time+preparation time+working time+relaxing time+friends time+pak tor time+daydreaming time.... in less than a few days.

That, really made me crazy!

My friends made getting married seem so easy. And I on the other hand, made it sounds like a scary thing in my life. I didn't feel much when I was preparing in the past few months. One day, I woke up from my sleep, realized, I'm going to sign the most important signature in my life, not long from now.

That, was the point I freaked out.

But, believe it or not, an afternoon by myself, I calm myself down a bit. So, some alone time did quite a good job I guess :)

It's the Perfect Time to Freak Out!

It is!

Looking at the calendar, it is!

JGL

A man that proves that you do not need the sexy good look and nicely built body to win over hearts.

All you need is a cute smile.

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Liked him since "500 days of Summer" and been watching all the movies he acted in after that =)