A new beginning with nostalgia

I've been keeping a journal of good habits I'm trying to follow for two years now.

I didn't realise it had been that long until I checked my other blogs - the last post I made about this change was back in Dec 2010. Since then, I haven't talked about it online. I didn't see the need to, for I developed these habits in conjunction with some very personal goals, and I don't think that I've reached some of these yet. I still need more time before I can really say that I've achieved these goals.

The smaller things however I think are getting there. One of the things was to keep in touch with my close friends. I think I've managed to do that. I also exercise more than I used to, and even though my weight hasn't dropped I apparently grew a bit.

I'm also going for further studies at the end of the year. I have a fuller post that I want to write on that, about reconciling uprooting myself with travelling, but the point is that I managed to complete a huge undertaking by using my daily journal of habits. This journal keeping has been really useful.

So far, I've been making weekly lists that I make score marks again, and leave a lot of space for writing reflections. This week, however, I have changed my journal style to focus more on daily lists than reflections. I did that because I wanted to get back into the habit of studying, and I knew that if I didn't put in on a daily list, I might not be able to make myself study.

When written on a daily basis however, it really seems like there is a lot to do! Every day I fill up a page, and sometimes I don't think I do as much as I used to do. Or maybe it seems that way because I can see exactly what I do on a page, whereas previously I tracked by how many times I changed to a new item? I don't know. I do know that I am doing a great variety of items, because I can see what I have been repeating from day to day. Even writing this blog post was a specific item I put in to break up the monotony. =)

So this is a note to tell myself that I have changed my written journal style on this day. It's not been a week yet so I can't tell how successful the new list has been, but I can safely say that I studied every day for the last 3 days. Will I be able to met my other goals? Only time can tell! Maybe I will do more reflections in this blog to tell you about it.

Unexpected ramble

Unexpectedly, I found myself without any lunch appointments today after a whirlwind of going out with other people, so I decided to check out the cheap necklaces at this shop I passed by.  That didn't take too long, so I decided to walk near Amoy.  I usually walk along Amoy Street all the way to Raffles Place, but today since I didn't actually have to get to Raffles Place I took a detour.

All this while, whenever I look for places to go for lunch, the website always recommended Ann Siang Hill/Street.  Given that I had never seen the place (my team rarely ventures to Amoy for lunch) I assumed that it was very far away.

It wasn't actually, it was two streets away from Amoy!  And we are talking Singapore streets here, which aren't very far apart.  I had myself a very nice ramble along the hill (really just a raised bump on the land).  I think this blog post summarises it better than I did, though I didn't go into any of the shops: Tinyisland's post on exploring Ann Siang Hill and Club Street.

Along the way I saw:
1) Office workers from the hidden offices in the shophouses
2) Couples
3) Two Westerners in exercise gear flipping a giant tire
4) Random Chinese guys just walking around
5) Huge joss sticks at the temple on the corner. I don't know what the occasion is though.

All in all, a rather fun use of my lunchtime.

Surrey Bike!

I went out with Ling to the beach today. This is the second time that we've gone cycling together - the first time was 2 weeks ago. This is really fun and I really should have asked her to join me a long time ago, since I live so near to East Coast. However, Ling lives really far away and that's why I was surprised that she would be willing to go cycle by East Coast. Maybe I should ask Tracy to cycle with me? (she has odd working hours though...)

East Coast has really changed a lot. Now there are concrete paths right by the sea front. Although it covers up a bit of the grass (the beach is left untouched) but that actually means that people can sit near the edge without worrying about getting their pants/shorts/whatever dirty. And it's also easier to cycle your bikes to the edge.

Ling and I did that in a Surrey Bicycle. If you don't know what a Surrey bicycle is like, think about two bicycles side by side. Now imagine that they're held together by a frame, complete with a canopy. Then replace the bike handles with steering wheels. Ta dum! You have a Surrey bike. If you think that is a little unwieldy, it IS. And yet we were able to cycle the bike all the way to the edge of the beach. It was kind of amazing.

It was equally amazing to just sit in the bike and watch the sea. Especially since halfway through it started raining, and so we just sat under the shelter of the bike and watched the rain falling on the water (and on everyone else). It wasn't a complete shelter - my right side got soaked, but it was pretty good.

I've never realised how calming the sea is until recently. Sitting on a tide breaker and watching the waves come in is one of the most wonderful things one can do. The waves break on the shore in a wonderful manner, and watching it flow in and out is calming. You can also observe which waves are bigger by how high it comes up on the tide breaker. And if you get tired of the waves, you could always look out to the ships sailing nearby. Or even just close your eyes and listen to the waves.

I was a little shocked at what happened when I opened my eyes at the last bit. Everything around me suddenly looked washed out. Turns out that the sun was a lot brighter than I thought, which also explained why it was a bit hard to look at the sea.

A Surrey bicycle is good for cycling and talking, because you are sitting side by side with the person you are biking with. And it's easier to make eye contact, rather than if you were sitting behind. We even were able to blast music from Ling's phone. Some cyclists even excitedly remarked that the Surrey bike was able to ride uphill. (Though it really took a LOT of pedal power!)

However, the same cyclists as well as roller bladers freaked us out because they kept coming near us, and our brakes were a bit wonky. We were so worried that we'd bowl them over! Not to mention that there was a friendly disclaimer on the bike stating that if we wrecked the thing we'd have to pay $1,500... And there was the need for pedal power uphill, and crossing our fingers and praying on the downhill bits. XD

Still, if the weather is good, I'd probably get a proper tandem next time. It's a lot easier to just stop and sit by the sea with a lighter bike, and it gets us to a lot more places. Not to mention that a tandem isn't likely to cost $1,500!!!

Singing at the top of my lungs

Today I went cycling at East Coast with Ling.  Most notably, I FINALLY made it to the Coastal Park Connector, which I'd somehow missed the last few times.  It wasn't as spectacular as I'd expected, despite my colleagues praising it a fair bit.

However, East Coast has changed a LOT.  It actually looks like a place that I'd hang out at now, with not just tide breakers but also stone walls by the beach that are perfect for sitting on.  And a lot of those places are under trees so it's pretty awesome.  In addition, the sand is actually prettier at some places - clean and white rather than the mottled browns and yellows that are prevalent along most of the beach.

Ling and I cycled a tandem, which we had difficulty with and crashed at one point, but it wasn't too bad despite us puncturing a tire.  The walking back with the punctured bike was horrid, but at least my suntan lotion was pretty useful.  It's a good thing we came back when we did, because there was a thunderstorm in the distance and it seems to have reached the shore right now.

We're going to do this again - maybe less of the cycling and more of just sitting next to the sea, relaxing and reading and listening to music (or even doing work - Ling threatened to bring her computer).  And it's near my house so I can't complain. XDXDXD

Times are a-changing

(Edited to remove work stuff)
In other news, my exercise regime appears to be starting to pay off - while my weight still fluctuates like crazy, now it's fluctuating in the 2 kg range.  If I keep this up I might be able to get to my ideal weight and fluctuate around that instead! *wavy arms of glee*  One of the best things that I started was hip hop classes - I work up a good sweat each lesson (something that even the more vigorous PE class was rarely able to do without having a run, and I HATE running) and I get to dance!  How cool is that!  I'm looking forward to more lessons and actually hope that I can sign up for more classes, if possible.  (Plus it's cheap.  But don't let the teacher know I told you that =D )

However, there's one thing that bugs me - my teacher had a really cool mash up of Dev's Bass Down Low with Usher's DJ Got Us Falling In Love.  Unfortunately, I can't find the darn mashup.  >_< Guess I just have to keep looking.

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's a bit late, but I didn't post new year wishes on any of my other websites so I thought it would be apt here. =)  After all, I always update this blog on festive occasions! Though I seem to have missed Christmas last year...

But who cares?  It's a new year anyway! And it's been quite an interesting start.  For one, I've been exercising a lot more regularly.  Namely, running on the spot, and then doing stretches.  It actually feels pretty good, but is probably something that I'll save for the weekend.

The most interesting thing about the exercise?  I've been running to the sounds of Evanescence's Bring Me to Life.  The idea was planted by my friend who said NSync's Bye bye bye helped her with running.  I tried the same song myself - didn't work for me because it went straight into a fast tempo.  But Bring Me to Life has slow bits at the beginning, faster in the middle and then right at the end it drops off into a slow bit again.  So it has been pretty good for me in terms of warming up and then cooling down so that I can move into stretches.

Writing this has reminded me of one thing - need to work arm rotation exercises into the stretching.  I do know them after all.  It's surprising how much of my exercise now has been culled from the various PE lessons that I had.  Given that I never cared much about it in school, it's surprising that I remember so much of it!