Learn Chinese

It is terrifying - the idea of learning the Chinese language. Mainly because I am Chinese and I am expected to already know it proficiently. My parents speak it. The rest of my family members seem to do quite well conversing in the Chinese language so why am I not?

Truth is, I neglected the Chinese language intentionally in my primary and secondary school days. It was not considered cool in my books. And not cool to my school friends either (so I thought).

I began to appreciate the language at a much older age. I wanted to speak to my parents in proper Chinese. To write letters to them. And maybe even send text messages. I wanted to be able to communicate to my parents without struggling for words or replacing them with English words. I wanted to build a deeper relationship with them, to learn from them, to listen to their stories and understand them better.

So after about 5-6 years of saying that I wanted learn Chinese, I finally signed myself up for a Chinese course at TAFE. Little did I know how much I was going to learn. It was a true challenge. I had to stop myself from using my mispronunciations. It took a lot of self-discipline to not skip classes and to pick up Chinese sentence structures.

My biggest handicap was writing in Chinese. The strokes are so difficult to master and I spent hours writing and erasing and rewriting characters so they mirrored (as much as possible) those from the textbooks. I have been told that my writing is similar to that of a child. It is a working progression and it takes a lot of practice and patience.

But I love the art of Chinese calligraphy. It is beautiful and I am so happy that I am now able to recognise some characters.


During my recent trip back to Brunei, I spoke more to my parents and family members in Chinese. I was not shy to use words and I even wrote a card to my parents in Chinese.

And today, I took my test and passed! I have made some really good friends in my Chinese class and we are all planning to continue with the second semester. It has been a very rewarding 104.

Huang Ying Zai Lai

Stop eating chocolates for two months

The history
My chocolate story began with a Ferrero Rocher. At a tender age of 10 (from memory), I was given a golden wrapped chocolate as a Christmas treat. As I reached the core of that perfectly circular chocolate ball, the world faded away into a rich creamy satisfying silky sweet ocean of hazelnut and I knew then that I had found my new love.

The journey
Since then, I began to venture out to other chocolates. Discovering other hazelnut flavored chocolates, smooth dark chocolates, chocolates partnered with fruit and nut and it was an exciting whirlwind of chocolate adventure.

The connection
When I was down, chocolate would come to my rescue and take me up on cloud 9 where all my troubles melted away. Over the years, it became my personal reward at the end of a long day. Then, it was a daily treat. One big bar at a time.

The intervention
One night it dawned upon me how dependent I was on chocolate. And how badly it could potentially affect me, health wise. My teeth were not in their best condition. I could not afford another major dental fix. Pimples were attacking left, right, front and center. I needed to cut off my supply of chocolates.

The 104
So here it was. A 104 laid out in front of me. To stop eating chocolates *gasp* for two months *h-h-help*

The temptation
I was tempted so many times to stuff myself silly with chocolate. From homebaked chocolate cake to chocolate birthday cakes at work to gifts of chocolate boxes (Harrods included).




The near end
But I had to resist. Control myself. And over time, it got easier. It was easy to falter but I held on. And when I finally made it past two months (coincidentally) Hanah came over and presented me with an oreo cheesecake.




The victory
It was beautiful. But I still needed something that had pure chocolate. It was only until I was mid air on Royal Brunei Airlines when I discovered that the desert had creamy luscious chocolate.

I was, ladies and gentlemen, in heaven.

It was the ultimate 104-choco-licious experience.

Go online shopping for clothes

Call me a stinge but I would browse online clothing shops for hours each time choosing from hundreds and hundreds of clothing options, throwing in what I thought I would like into the virtual shopping bag. Then I would narrow down my selection to what I really wanted/needed. And when I did, I would calculate the conversion rate, freight charges and then review my selection again. But back out before I could cause any serious damage to my bank account.

Whilst saying that, I did key in my credit card number once and went through with the shopping transaction to the end. Who would have guessed that I, of all people, would get a refund instead of the clothes that I shopped for because the delivery went missing. Lost forever.

So this was a more than a dare. It was trusting in a system that I knew had failed me once before. But I braved the risk of losing my delivery and money (from the exchange rate) and went online shopping at Victoria Secret.

All up, it would have been a total of 15 hours of my (now a routine) browsing. Decide on seven tops which were "simple" but ones that I could easily dress up or dress down, depending on my accessories and lack of. Cost me just over AUD $150 including delivery. And it took exactly two weeks for the delivery to arrive.

You cannot imagine my relief to its arrival!

The tops fit me really well. The colours were a perfect match to my skin. I now own two great off shoulder tops, two cardis, a long black singlet top, a plain white and black top. All stretchy and really comfy. I am so super excited. When I can, I will take photos and re-edit this post with them.

But for now, here is a preview of one of the tops.

Need I mention the models on Victoria's Secret are good enough a reason to want to shop on there?! Here's to a really fulfilling 104!