.::. Home Alone .::.

This week, the husband is traveling. Again. He has been traveling pretty often, but this time feels abit more unbearable. I usually love having the time to myself and pack my week with activities like meeting up with my friends or going to the gym, or getting my hair done or simply go window shopping and have dinner by myself. But this week, I'm preparing for my exams and days feel so long when they are sleep-work-study on repeat mode. Doesn't help that work has been busy, I have been stressed-up, exams are next week and it's almost that time of the month soon.

This is one of the rare cold weeks that I feel somewhat lonely and long for a warm body to hug in bed. No, Chikey who has been snuggling up to me these days don't count!

Can't wait for exams to end (hopefully forever!) and the husband to be back soon! #fighting

.::. Belief .::.

"She believed she could, so she did."

.::. Jan's Ark .::.

I suppose many have heard of the story ‘Noah’s Ark’ – it’s probably my favorite biblical story and the very few that I actually connect with.  In short, it’s a story about how Noah built an ark to save his family and animals from a big flood that he believed would come. It has been used in a few movies, and what I really liked about it was how Noah put in all his heart to prepare for a potential challenge. He simply strengthened his ship and kept working on it, just so he can be prepared and ready when the storm comes.

I find inspiration and connect with his determination to be prepared for future challenges. It’s the human factor that inspires me more than the ‘God’ part of the story. I believe that if we are constantly strengthening ourselves and preparing ourselves for future challenges, we will be able to manage any difficulties that come our way. A solid ground work will always be a good base to fall back on when things get tough. Sometimes this simply mean a conscious effort to be positive, to have visions and plans, or to work on mental and physical strength.

Approaching the 10^th year of my relationship with the husband, I have the same thoughts about our relationship. It’s like throughout the 10 years, we have been building our ark, strengthening it bit by bit. With every storm we weather, we may lose some parts of our ark and emerge embattled – but we always continue working on it, repairing it and fortifying it. The first few years might have been challenging when we only had a little sampan that broke all the time while we hung on to it to keep afloat. Thankfully, after many years of hard work, we now have a strong and fortified ark that hopefully could bring us through all the challenges and storms in life. All’s calm now, but it sure feels like there might be storms ahead and every little thing we could do to strengthen our ark now would bring us a long way.

Jan’s ark is ready and strengthening! Bring it on! =)

.::. Home Sweet Home .::.

The last few months simply flew by. We have been too busy living life, enjoying our freedom and couple-hood.

Both of us have been traveling quite abit and missing each other all the time. I don't exactly mean it that way. It's just that he usually flies out on Saturday when I'm flying in on Sunday! And so we miss each other and go 2 weeks without seeing each other. I have been to Shanghai, Hanoi and Seoul the past few months, and the husband has been to China and Italy for work trips too. I really enjoyed all my trips this year, every single one of them. Hanoi with the husband was so much fun!

We have finally collected our new dining chairs from Crate and Barrel. Those 2 year-old ones from Taobao ain't of that good quality and not very comfortable. We have been chair-hunting on and off the past year, but the husband has an atas butt that can't seem to find a comfortable and nice-looking chair that is also affordable. Everytime a chair catches my attention and pass the look test, the husband has to do a sit test. Most of them fail the sit test, apart from a few that cost like $800 each. We finally settled for these.

It was supposed to take 3 months to indent and arrive in Singapore in October. But since we have been traveling and couldn't find the receipt, we waited and waited for the call that never came. We had to call  Crate and Barrel, only to realize that the chair is already there. Pretty bad customer service for such a brand!

Home looks like this now. I love how the chairs fit into the whole place, and they are pretty comfortable chairs!

The thing about home is that no matter where you go, you will always be back and thankful for a place you can call home.

Feeling all warm and blessed these days, in a very peaceful and thankful state-of-mind. =)