the B-I-G 4-0

So i turn 40 this year! OMG seriously 40 years since I came into existence! For some, it's not a big deal. But for me it SOOO IS! WEll, first of all, it's the year of pandemic. Officially started the year with so many Covid cases and the numbers keep rising, no thank you to the muppets running the administration today. So if we were Covid-free, I should have been in Amsterdam in March 2020! Like that's going to happen anymore? I chose 2020 instead of the year I turn 40 for the simple reason of wanting to do it during my 30-s. I did make a Europe tour but with the whole jingbang and this time I wanted to do a solo-trip and it didn't happen. Anyway, I ain't going to let that or anything else come in the way of my biggest tipping point year ever! So first off, I started the year job-less. My contract with Coty ended on the 31st of Dec 2020. Due to the pandemic, the headcount for HR was sacrificed like a lamb and so I was laid off. After 2 unsuccessful interviews and 2 unsuccessful assessment, I decided to stop looking for a job and that the right role will find me when the time is right. So I decided to dedicate the time I had to pursue my own interests, sort the kids out, clean my home and finish some of my passion projects. One MAJOR plan I've devised for myself is this - for the year i turn 40, I will be carrying out 40 different things I've always told myself I wanted to do but have not done it. AND the good news is, for a start, January has been extremely fruitful, here is why: My 40 passion projects have started off successfully so far with the following: 1) I enrolled myself into a Toastmasters club (been wanting to join one since year 2000! but never had the guts/ time to do so) 2) I started this mini-kill with kindness-motto for myself and been reaching out to people who crossed my paths in a different way, helping/ supporting them in one way or another AND that has given me a HUGE lesson in gratitude and fortitude *something i truly truly thought I always had but finally learnt! 3) Started to exercise to get back my pre-pregnancy weight. I have no weight loss goals but just want to finish what I started and started short 7-min exercises and v-logging my journey too. It's been like 2 weeks now and i'm already feeling like a million-dollar bill! :) There you go! These were done in January 2021 and we have 11 months to tick off another 37 items from my 40-yo-bucket-list. Some others I have planned out: - 101 cooking book for super busy asian mommies that don't cost a bomb or years of preparation - plants and their benefits / cook book (still figuring out how to marry the above point with this one) - start Soapxpress - a bespoke/custom made soap service for your customized soap needs for gifting - start to sell actively on Shoppee (not just to clear stock) AND MANY Many more to come! I cannot wait to start each of the items on the list and the only rule i have for myself is to complete what I've started! Can't be that hard can it?

9 January 2021

So it's 9 days post New Year today. Here are the current status updates: - I've officially completed my Masters in Organizational Psychology in Aug 2020. - I started working at a beauty giant company called Coty as of Sept 2018 on a yearly contract, got renewed thrice and finally ended on 31st Dec 2020. - 2 kids = Nayden 7yo and Nadine 4yo this year - VJ runs his own gym - I am officially jobless for 9 days - WE are in the 1st year anniversary of Covid19, it's a pandemic which started last year around this time from China, Wuhan - The entire world has changed in the past 1 year, trees started growing again, mountains more green, we started getting fresh breathe of air, families were either closer or grew apart due to differences. THe pandemic has made most parts of the world go into a state of lock down, with limited travel across state, cities, borders, countries and worldwide. Yet the entire world got closer and more connected via the internet. We are at a super advanced internet age and while most human and social values were starting to diminish, the pandemic took place. Everything started to make sense in a way, and not in another. From being very distant from one another, being locked in like zoo animals, everyone started too look within them for answers and parents began spending more time with children, which brought families closer together. More babies were made, more fights were created and families began to see differences and learn more about one another. Most interestingly in a unique way, we started to get closer to God as prayers were made accessible online, daily, hourly from all over the world. Our weekly masses were looked forward to as a family, at a time when papa VJ would be available to join along too. For Christmas mass, we were able to view mass from any part of the world yet we still watched our own church mass. For the first time in our lives we didn't attend mass in person or receive the body of Christ in the form of communion for more than 6 months. Perspectives were changed and mindsets shifted. Where corporate work is concerned, what used to be a taboo of is applied with no choice - the option of working from home. Some companies have started to implement work from home options by default, while some others stil gave this as an alternative option where applicable. MOST if not all companies were implementing some form of cost control, be it hiring freeze or retrenchment, downsizing or cutting office overhead costs. I, for one am one of those impacted by such actions, due to hiring freeze, my contract as local HR was not approved to be renewed so in my last weeks of work I was preparing handover to my Singapore support team, lead by the HR Director of SEA who will act as the business partner for Malaysia as well. Such is life, a decision I should have taken in Sept 2020 was eventually done in Dec 2020 by force. I am happier now, spending more time at home, sorting out things for the kids and our home life. I am able to do anything I want as I had the freedom of time. And I am excitedly looking forward to what the year has in store for all of us.