Hope everything will be good this coming year!
Happy 2024!
The Last of 2023
Time passed and it’s coming to the end of 2023.
What have I achieved so far?
I have changed my job last year and now I have been working in Singapore Institute of Management for almost 2 years (2 more months to 2 years). Life has been good to me. We went for a few holidays, Japan in May, Taiwai in August, Europe in November/December and ended my holidays by attending a wedding in Hanoi.
Let’s probably begin sharing from beginning of the year?
Home Improvement Program (HIP) took place in Mar/Apr’23 and we had to move our cats to our friends’ house because it’s gonna be dirty and dusty at home. And thank God for their help, we managed to get through the difficult part. Totally in love with the new kitchen!
We went to Japan for 10 days during the HIP. And it’s been awhile since we went for a holiday since COVID. We spent a good 10 days in Tokyo.
1) Went to have our Ichiran Ramen
2) Went to Hakone
3) Went to TeamLab Planets
4) Went to Monster Hunter Cafe
5) Went to Mipig Cafe
6) Went to Disneyland
And other many other places! And also we made a new friend in the homestay we were staying.
Work has been busy and I am in the Recreational Committee this year. And we planned for the SIM Family Day. This year we went to the new opened Bird Paradise!
Maiden trip with Vivien to Taipei! This time is to catch Hebe Tien’s concert! So glad that we managed to get her concert ticket! We had truly enjoyed ourselves with the eating and shopping although it was a short trip.
Celebrated my birthday with my favourite people! 😘🥰
Then it’s our long awaited Europe trip! It’s filled with excitement, anxiety, fun and laughter! Seeing snow for the first time, and it became our nightmare when the train was disrupted, day trip to the Disney castle cancelled because of the road condition and we almost couldn’t make it to Salzburg due to train disruption.
Everyone in Europe that we met are really nice! There was a guy who told me the entrance of the hotel while we were standing at the traffic light. There was a lady who offered to help us take a group photo. We are definitely very blessed. After our Europe trip, we went to Hanoi for my lovely friends’ wedding! I am so happy for them!
Really thankful for colleagues who covered me during my long holidays. And I wish everyone best in health and wealth in the coming new year!
Updates?
It’s been a while!
It’s been a while since I last updated this blog. Have I been busy? Lazy? I don’t know.
Many things happened since December 2020. Had the 1st surgery in my life to remove Polyps, Endometrosis and fibroids. And I almost died. That was one scary experience, and I am very thankful today that I am still alive and kicking.
I had my surgery on 21 Decemberr 2020, and I spent the next 2 weeks in the hospital. The surgery went pretty well according to my gynae. But I wasn’t feeling too good after the surgery. I vomitted and they took a x-ray of my lungs, and then they told us I got pneumonia. I was transferred from Thomson Medical Center to Mt Elizabeth Novena in the middle of the night on my 2nd/3rd night in the hospital. And I was incubated for a few days. When I finally regain my consicious, the nurse told me it’s 28 December 2020. And then, the next moment I woke up, it was 31 December 2020. I spent my new year with diarrhoe (the whole night). Finally discharged on 06 Jan 2021.
I am very thankful because some of my friends and family members came to visit me while I was in the hospital. Those who didnt visit me at the hospital sent me their regards with more tonics and some of them even came to my house to visit me. I have very caring colleagues, and my CEO even WA me! This really took me by surprise. So I am definitely feeling the love, care and concern they showered me. Most importantly, I have a husband who stands by me, taking care of me when I was too weak. Thank you everybody! 🙂
It has been a fulfilling 2021. Work wise, I got a promotion and increment! This came as a surprise for me. But I have to move on, hence, I resigned and will be starting my new job tomorrow. Hopefully, everything will be good!
Updates on my babies~
Aloha! It’s been a while since I updated my blog.
My Baluku died; I put him to sleep. Why? Because I transferred in 2 mini puffer fishes from my shrimp tank. And the mini puffer fishes was feeding on my poor little Baluku’s fins/tail. By the time noticed it, it was too late. It looked like his fins and tail are rotting. And I can’t bear to see him suffer anymore, so we decided to put him to sleep. It was the toughest decision I had to make, and execute. I was crying my lungs out while carrying the process. I am filled with guilt every time I look at his photo. Why didn’t I take out the puffer fish earlier? WHY?
Following the death of my beloved Baluku, 220 died on the night of mooncake festival. He fell sick. He had some white dots on him, we took him out and place him in QT, and he just… died.. My heart broke into million pieces.
I made some changes to the shrimp tank. I transferred all the neocardinals to my goldfish tanks. In order to cull the wild color shrimps. Some sacrifices has to be made. I will buy more snowball when I am done with culling the wild-lings in my shrimp tank.
Psssttt, the shrimp photos are taken with a macro lens that I bought recently. I hope I will be able to take more stunning photos of my shrimps and goldfishes. I will share more pictures in my next post. Do keep a lookout!
Updates on Baluku
Hello There! It’s been a couple of weeks. So its time for some updates on my pearlscale goldfish – Baluku. In case you don’t understand what Baluku means, it means a bump. And how do you use this word?
Used in a sentence: “I have a baluku on my forehead because I walked into a glass door.” – Taken from The Smart Local
So as you can see, Baluku does seems to have a bump on its head, therefore the name for it. 😂🤣
So, we brought Baluku to vet some 2 weeks ago. With the hope that it would recover from possibly swim bladder issue. I read from some articles that goldfish with swim bladder problem will last a few days, weeks, months and maybe even years. But most of them won’t survive long.
I, myself. was surprised that there is a vet for pet goldfish. So we decided to bring him down to get some advise.
Initially, we were thinking of leaving him at the clinic to receive injection, but it costs more than what we can afford – $40 per night + $50 per injection. So we decided to bring him home. And gave him water treatment with the antibiotics given.
Enough of that. I saw there are many shrimps in my goldfish tank too! And I am pretty sure, they are striving pretty well. But the thing is, I think I have monster goldfish.. they were biting my plants away which means, I need to head down to local pet store to get more plants for my shrimps. Else, they do not have hiding place.
And there are new spawn in my shrimp tank! I am so excited!
Anddd~ that’s all for now! 😄
Shrimps!
It’s hardwork Sunday! We redo the shrimp tank from using sand to soil.
It was good with white sand, but you know, shrimps shit too. So their shit are so obvious in the sand. And remember the previous post I mentioned about the sudden death of my shrimps?
In order to find out the death of my shrimps, my friend suggested that I separate the crayfish and shrimps. So I did what he say. I moved it to a small container. And tada! We found the culprit. It was the crayfish afterall. We reckon it was hungry because it didnt wanna eat the crab food that we put in, so end up attacking the shrimps.
I was thinking, one crayfish shed shell and the other crayfish did not. So the one that have shed shell must have murdered his friend. Hunger. Hunger makes one crazy. So my crayfish has became a murderer. Murdered shrimps and crayfish, its own kind.
And the crayfish is kept as a prisoner in the shrimp tank. 🤭
And since we redo the shrimp tank, I supposed we have recycle the tank. And lets hope that the shrimps will all survive.
Andddd! We are going to bring Baluku to vet tomorrow. It seems like he couldn’t move. Ciaos!
My Pearly
Hi there! I am going to share more updates on my goldfish, Baluku. If you have been following my previous posts, I have wrote about him having some swim bladder problem. I have started the pea treatment the moment I found him floating on top of the tank. And I am glad, he’s recovering. Not fully, but slowly. I have also reduced the food intake for them. I did not place him in a quarantine tank, because the last time I did, the other pearly I had did not survived.
I am kinda sad today. Because I have death in my shrimp tank. I woke up and saw at least 10 shrimps died at the bottom of the shrimp tank. I am a bit lost, and not sure what went wrong? Was the crayfish being aggressive? I am not sure. I am pretty sure the crayfish ain’t eating too. I need to go and buy new food for them. Damn atas. I think they dont wanna eat the cheap (still hikari brand) food.
I hope I will be able to find the cause of the shrimps death. And I guess, before my shrimp colony can grow, I will have to buy new shrimps for my shrimp tank. 😭
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone out there! This year, I am in a very surprise mood! Just as I was saying laogong doesn’t really surprise me with flowers in the past years. This year, he actually did.
And I have actually prepared to cook for this evening’s dinner. Because eating outside on Valentine’s day is so expensive and plus the COVID-19 situation, I think it’s best to stay home and avoid crowded places. I mean, can go out lah. Just don’t stay out too long. Or maybe, age is catching up on me. I preferred having home cooked food these days.
And I got my recipe from Pinterest, as usual. Here is the link for the Black Pepper Chicken Chop that I prepared this evening. I have marinated the chicken thighs and leg overnight because I won’t have enough time to prepared it today.
Doesn’t it looked professional cooked? 😋 The sauce in the recipe is really thick, and I like it. I baked some potatoes and boiled some broccoli and carrot to go along with the chicken chop. For the baked potatoes, before baking, I poked some holes and brush some olive oil (I don’t use vegetable oil) and lay some aluminum foil and I baked it for about 25 mins + another 15 mins. I used a chopstick to poke it to ensure its cooked. And boiling of vegetables, are purely based on my instinct. 😂 Plain vegetables are to compliment with the heavy black pepper sauce. And actually, today was my first time cooking this dish. I really hoped my laogong likes it.
Pre-Valentine’s Day
Just yesterday, it was my boss’ last day. So, we had a little farewell for her.
Anyway, it’s the time of the year, where you see guys rushing to get their love ones flowers. And me? My laogong rarely buy me flower. 😅 But that’s ok. I am used to it, although sometimes I will hint him for it. 😂
That aside, I love crafting. So I made some Valentine’s day cards for my lunch kakis. Missing one, because she’s on maternity and will only be back around March/April.
The cards looked similar, but every card is unique. There is difference in coloring, placing and content. And if you are like me, and is wondering what die cutting I have used for this card, there you go! It is made from dies from ‘Stamps of Life’ – Squirrel2stamp + die and the word – LOVE. Last but not least, the grass patch is created from Lawn Fawn’s die cut – Grassy Border. After looking at this cards that I made, I realized that I could have made it better. Give it more shades for the grass patch etc. But there is always improvements to be made right? I hope, I will get more inspirations for projects like that.
I have printed a lot of photos of us. And I really need time and make effort to decorate this wall. Once done, I think it will be another great achievement. What do you think?
Swim Bladder
My poor little Baluku! I hope you get better. I will be feeding them peas every night. And I hope this will improve the current situation. It hurts me to see the redness on his little body. Please hang in there!
Listen to my heart beat 