SO, WADDUP?

I was going through my photos trying to decide which entry I should start with & wow, am I impressed with the mountain-like pile I have! Really am lost on where I should start my updates so I've decided to gone with my past few days worth of happenings & what are the plans for post-grad.

On Sunday, we celebrated my Ah Ma's birthday. After the age of 16, where three of my grandparents went to heaven, I started appreciating every time I had with my Ah Ma & openly showed my love & affection for her. Be it taking time out to have a meal with her, teasing her, talking to her or giving her pecks of kisses during our family which makes everyone laugh.

Perhaps the only reason why I started to make it a point to shower her with love openly was because I didn't want to have that second regret of not spending enough time with my Ah Ma. Day by day she's aging & I'll never know what might happen. So I don't want to have any opportunity fly by and have it become my second regret.

Till date, the only regret I have is not spending time with my grandparents who've passed. Especially my gong gong & popo (paternal grandparents) who've loved and adored me ever since I was born. Being brought up by them & having them in most of my childhood memories is the only reason why I'm so attached to them. I've always felt this additional amount of love they've had for me compared to my other cousins & this strong bond we've always shared.

During my recent trip to Melbourne, I remembered a car ride conversation I shared with Faith & Ern Ting. It started with me asking "Dajie, do you have any fondest/best memories you've shared with gong gong & popo? I mean, because you're the oldest among the Chang cousins?" 

Side track a lil: Faith left for Melbourne after she got married, I was prolly 6 or 7 then. Hence the younger Changs had little to none recollection or any form of interaction till she had the boys & came back to Singapore more often than before. I never got the chance to have a heart to heart conversation with her ever till this trip & I'm glad I did. 

Faith shared with us about the days where she lived with them in their house & her impression of gong gong was that " He was a traditional, conservative man just like any Chinese man of course. A man with little words but has loads of love within. He was very particular about manners too. But he expresses his love and care through his actions. For example, every morning he would make me breakfast without fail. He did not talk much but breakfast was made by him, not by popo. Surprising isn't it? So I was a lot closer to him than popo." 

As she went on sharing her memories & experiences with gong gong and popo, I couldn't help but quietly shed tears at the back of the car. Conversations revolving them always gets to me. I miss them so so much & I've this little ache in my heart because I know that I can never turn the clock back to spend more time with them. I've always taken for granted that gong gong popo would be around for my wedding and other milestones in life.

Then she shared one moment which got me choked up a lil more. "Hmmm but my fondest memories would be when I flew back to Singapore for the first time with Luke during CNY and we all had a gathering in the function room. Gong gong & popo were there too & I don't know if any of you saw but gong gong had tears in his eyes. I saw it & I think he was really comforted and happy to see the entire family reunited. Like every member of the family being together in the same place, that was my best to visit Singapore."

We went on talking and sharing about how they passed away, what exactly happened, our thoughts etc. Despite it making me tear quite badly, I was really glad to be able to hear Faith's impression of my gong gong and have more memories of my gong gong in my heart. It was really surprising for me as well when I heard Faith's impression of gong gong cause it was totally not how I viewed him.

To put into simple words, he was a man who was very particular about manners especially during meal times. He always protected me and shielded me from scolding sessions by my parents. He'd always tell my dad in Hainanese "It's okay, don't scold her." He would then pull me aside to wipe away my tears and tell me to be obedient and quietly stuff some money into my bag (because my parents always complaint about how much I spent). Of course, I would secretly return the money to him by putting it on his table. But sometimes, the money somehow mysteriously appears back into my bag. He was a very cheeky man too even at his old age, always playing tricks on us to give us a scare. Last but not least, he was very affectionate and was never stingy with the kisses he planted on our cheeks. That's my gong gong for you.

I miss them so so much :'(

Okay, enough with those tear-jerkers above. This was from my Mondate with Kai! Hehe we finally bought our first pair of couple shoes aka Superga. Love love love this pair, aren't they gorgeous? Went for dinnz @ Standing Sushi Bar & indeed their sashimi wasn't a disappointment! Most def coming back for their sashimi but on the other hand, was really disappointed with their bento sets. They've rather yummz Tempura too!

Always love meeting Kai on Mondays because it kickstarts my week on a really highnote! Best to meet everyday HAHAHA! But now that school has started for him & I'll be working in May, I guess it would be highly impossible. Been meeting him almost everyday during his hols & it's definitely gonna take extra effort to adapt back to meeting him twice-thrice a week.

With work starting in May, I really wanted to spend more time with my family & also catch up with my friends since I've been spending most of my hols with Kai. I woke up this week wanting to meet up with friends & be updated with their lives. Of course, I also wanted to spend some alone time doing things I like. Kinda felt that I've neglected the other people around me because I always wanna meet Kai hahahha, I still love meeting Kai okay! It's another realm when we're together hehe. So since school has started for him so why not use the time to meet my friends (:

Caught up with Nisa & Sarah over Macs today for dinnz & "Old is gold". Despite us not meeting for so so long, it still felt like our good old YT days. Talking about what we've been doing, plans for the future, gossips & bursting in horrendously loud laughter as always. Thank you bbygs for this evening!!

Now that I've semi-graduated from Ngee Ann, I'm moving on to my next phase in life: getting a job. Thanks to my scholarship bond, I didn't need to fret over looking for a job & actually scored myself a really good job with NFC. Thank you God, for constantly paving my road ahead of me with many great opportunities. Doors and doors of chances opened during my poly journey & it is all thanks to You. As mentioned, I'll be starting work in May & yay to working near home (best thing ever when ya working)!! 

This job has also posed me with a new challenge: teaching with 2-3 year olds. 

As much as I love kids & enjoy teaching, I've always had this "fear" of kids below 3 because they're so fragile and all. But I believe that this will be a good chance for me to change that mindset of mine & appreciate them as well. #earlymaternaltraining HAHAHA

Aites, that's the end of my wordy post!

Hope you all had a good day & if you didn't, tomorrow will be better!

XX.