2012 is really not my year!!

I swear! 2012 is really not my year!!!

This morning, like usual, I took MRT to go working. When it was one station away from my office, I started feeling very dizzy and my sight was getting dimmer and dimmer... I tried to hold tight the pole beside me, but the next moment, I was lying on the floor!!

I fainted! I lost conscious once again! When I fainted, some passengers made an emergency call to the ground staff. So when the train reached Raffles Place, I heard someone asking if I was alighting at that station. I nodded while I was lying on the floor.. Then some passengers carried me up and passed me my handbag, they told me to walk to the control station, there would be staff coming to my assistance.. At that time, I was very weak, I was thinking how could I walk. Because it was like the immediate moment when I regained my consciousness, I was being dragged out of the train. Luckily an auntie approached me and walked me to the nearest bench.. I think I was being dragged to the bench, as I was extremely dizzy.

The auntie is a very kind person. She hugged me as she said I was sweating cold, and even asked me to lean on her shoulder. I was leaning on her shoulder, while she was stroking my palms and hands to keep me warm. I was very touched to meet such a kind person! 

Then the MRT staff pushed the wheelchair to my direction and sent me to the staff office to rest and had a cup of water. Argh.. How I wish to take the auntie's contact number to really thank her.. She is really my Samaritan! Not to forget to thank the MRT staff too, who assured the auntie she would take care of me and make sure I am safe before I left for my office. 

Why am I so weak nowadays?! I was actually suffering from fever during the weekend. Sigh.. I almost fall sick every alternate week! I could not imagine the next time I lose my consciousness and could never wake up anymore.. Live is so fragile.. *sob sob*

2012!!

What a year to start with!

I ended year 2011 with a flu and started year 2012 with the flu. Two weeks later (the week of CNY) I was suffering from flu again. So yea, half of my January was spent with flu! 

Beginning of February, I had eye infection (stye) which lasted for a week. I thought everything should be fine, and God knows, last Friday, I was stumbled down by stomach flu. The whole Thursday night I was suffering from stomachache, I was half-awake, half-asleep for the whole night... At wee hours, I started to have diarrhea and throw up. At around 8:30, I finally dragged my weak body to see doctor. After seeing doctor, I only realized my shirt had the stain of my vomit *yucks*. I felt so embarrassed, thinking what would the doctor think @@ The whole Friday and Saturday I spent time on bed sleeping as every medicine given by the doctor has the warning of drowsiness. =.=

Now I am getting better. And I wish to add in one more resolution: a healthy 2012!

How to Accomplish the Impossible

A great article I read this morning: How to Accomplish the Impossible| Genius sometimes just means not realizing something is impossible.

Beijing Roasted Duck (Video)

I am planning a trip to Shanghai and was looking some pictures taken in Beijing. 

This is the way roasted duck is cut into slices in Beijing.

It is nicer than the one in Jalan Pasar :)

Of Being Flawed

This CNY I asked my cousin, "why do you always take the trouble of snapping pics with your lomo camera? which require you to refill film and send to photo studio to process them? plus you cannot edit until after you process and scan them into your pc..."

She answered, "I like things with some flaws"

I was totally stunned and after a while I was really amazed by her statement. In life we tend to be too perfect until we become too fake. Every picture we see on the advertisement has undergone a painstaking Photoshop, almost every Korean artist has gone through plastic surgeries.

Sometimes in life, we really just have to be what we are. *grin* Life can be a bliss if we are contended with the flaws we have.

Fitness Myth

I recently read an interesting article from Forbes magazine about some common fitness myths. 

To cut the article short, here is the summary:

Thinking that an hour workout can make up for the day long unhealthy eating is too presumptuous.  A strict healthy diet speaks more in reducing weight. 

It may sound reasonable that we could burn more fat with empty stomach in the morning jogging; but this not only causes us sub-optimal performance but also burns our muscle instead of fat. 

Shake might be thought to be healthy and ideal for a diet plan. But its side effect is we will never get full and satisfied, subsequently crave for more food intake. Whole food intake on the other hand can increase our metabolism rate while make us feel satisfied. 

Egg is thought to be a banned item from a diet plan. But a recent study says egg yolk is efficient in reducing our bad cholesterol, LDL. 

Stretching before intensive training is an conventional wisdom to reduce injury. But in fact, it not only weaken our muscle but also increases the risk of injury. 

Thinking that we need to hit certain heart beat to reduce fat is a common misguidance from the cardio equipment. The way our body burn fat is simply too complicated for an equipment to comprehend. 

My Fitness Corner

I am delighted that almost everyone who sees me says I am thinner.

This motivates me a lot on my coming workouts!

So I will keep a diary of the future sweatout workout in My Fitness Corner.

Autumn in My Heart

Not sure how many of you still remember this lame touching Korean drama! For the first time, it aroused many teenagers' thinking of whether they were accidentally changed in the baby ward. *smile*

I still remember my dad watching this whole drama with us, and in one episode, he was touched until tears welled in his eyes! 

I couldn't remember every single detail of the drama, but I can always remember how we one whole family cried on the saddening fate of the main character in the drama. And how we discussed the drama, how we vowed to love each other even more...

It has been so many years since this Korean drama was aired. Nothing is more important than the sweet memories etched in my heart, forever and ever.

2012 Resolutions

Well, I have no much luxury to squeeze more effort and time to achieve some luxurious resolutions but these are some I wish to do:

1. Read more books. Let's target 10. Without specifying a quantity, I afraid I might slack off.

2. Pass the two exams remaining. Given the heavy workload currently, I might attempt only one this year.

3. Reduce weight to 52kg.

4. Grow more in career. I am not sure what are the other ways of having salary increment besides passing exam for an actuarial associate, but I will explore along the way. Perhaps recognition of hard work is not a bad idea too, except always talking about money.

5. To save an amount of money (God knows it) to renovate the house bought in my hometown. I have the amount quantified, but not going to reveal it here, for God's sake. *grin*

6. To go traveling. I have bought tickets to Phuket and Kota Kinabalu. But I wish to bring my parents to somewhere this year. Let's see where they wish to go.

7. Conquer Mount Kinabalu!

8. Make Online Books Recap earning USD2 per day. I am not greedy and ambitious I know!

2011 Resolutions Verdict

1. Read more books (I only read two books in 2010 but so many in 2009). Currently on shelf: Maximize Your Memory, The Power of Body Language, 80/20, Eat Pray Love. 

Verdict: Failed terribly. Listed here are three books, oh well, I managed to read three books but of course it is not my initial intention of reading MORE books.

2. Finish all the remaining 6 FAP modules by March.

Verdict: Failed to finish them by March due to my laziness. Managed to finish and pass everything on January 9, 2012. *wry smile*

3. Pass Advanced Finance and Enterprise Risk Management (my final paper if I pass Financial Economics Theory and Engineering in January) in April.Update: I didn't pass FETE. So AFE will be my second last paper now and hopefully FETE will be my last paper in November!

Verdict: FAILED AFE twice. *very sad* no chance attempting FETE, and I still need to retake them this year.

4. Get associate credential by April and fellow credential end of the year (providing I pass FETE first).Update: I can only get my fellow credential early next year (Spring). :(

Verdict: I managed to get associate credential only by now, of course it was not May, but January 2012.

5. Grow more in career.

Verdict: Passed! Surprisingly, I am able to hop to the largest insurer in Singapore and the learning curve is steep!

6. Go traveling with family somewhere in the year.

Verdict: They came to visit me in Singapore instead.

7. Purchase a house end of the year for investment purpose.

Verdict: Nearly shared a property investment with my friend, but I eventually opted out to buy a house for my parents. I look forward to staying in this bigger and better house. The picture above is the show house unit for the house I bought.

8. Lose weight! I want 50 - 52kg!

Verdict: Passed! I managed to reduce 4kg but yet to reach 52kg on scale.

Though I failed 4 out of 8 resolutions, I still will plan some this year, 2012.
 

2011 was a year I had some breakthrough in my life, though it was still quite far from the milestone I wished to reach. But I am still grateful of what I was able to archive. :)

Boooks Read in 2011

Argh it was one of my resolutions to read more books in 2011, but as always, we don't do what we set out. I think that we I always set the resolutions I wish to to archive, which is more like a fairytale most of the time. So at the end, most of the time, I do not manage to archive it.

All the books read are exclusive of the textbook I read for exam. 

Let's see, in year 2009, I read 18 books! 

In year 2010, I only read The 8th Habit: from Effectiveness to Greatness as well as Think and Grow Rich.  The review was not written by me though. 

In 2011, I swore was determined to read more books. But at the end, I only read The Purpose Driven Life, Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend, and reread Who Moved My Cheese. The first two books are given by saints, if not I would only manage to read one pathetic book! All the books I target to read were left more than half. I am currently reading Eat Pray Love, hopefully I can finish it by the end of this year month.

Arghh... I don't wish to set much to read this year, but with the website set up, I think I would be motivated to read. :)

Any books recommended for me?

Online Books Recap

Okay, this post is about an introduction of a website constructed and maintained by my friends and me. Online Books Recap is a site of reviews on the books we read, consisting of a few genre. Currently, there are science, religion, self-development, entrepreneurship and risk management. 

How can you support us as a friend?! *grin* That is by browsing and bookmarking our website. The traffic driven will bring us money through the advertisements we put in our website.

A few highlights that you may be interested are:

The Purpose Driven Life

Blue Ocean Strategy

Who Moved My Cheese

The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

Thanks :)