Day 365 of 2013

As you can tell from the title above, TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR!!! This year has gone by incredibly fast! I felt like there's still so much to do, so much yet to accomplish and all. Like how time in the world is never enough. The bittersweet feeling, the mixed emotions that I get during this time every single year...

In the previous post, I said that I'll do a post that wraps up my entire 2013. It won't be every single detail of my year but just a few of the highlights of my 2013. The ones that are worth remembering and looking back at and the few moments or events that I don't mind sharing with the rest of the world (since I'm a very private person, there are many things or most things that I keep to myself and no other).

Let's see... first up on the list:

[1] Turned the last of my teens. I've never officially stated my age here on my blog but if you're smart enough, you might have already guessed how old I am already through the subtle hints that I drop in some of the previous posts. I do feel old especially when my birthday is in 2 weeks.

[2] Started into university to study for an undergraduate degree that is supposedly to help and come into handy when I apply for jobs after I graduate from university. Second semester starting in a week! ><

[3] Got my driving license... which I have yet to fully utilise although I do drive sometimes to familiar places under the supervision of my dad.

[4] Had a nice family vacation to Singapore earlier this month. With the whole family, all 5 of us. (It has been 2 years since the last family trip overseas which we went to Hong Kong. I LOVE HONG KONG!) It has been rather hard to coordinate everyone's schedule for a nice, relaxing holiday.

[5] Went to Universal Studios, Singapore (USS) for the very first time. Plucked up the guts to go for a few rides that were quite thrilling. Sporty enough for a timid person like me but not too sporty enough to go on those death-defying rides (or so I label some of the rides as).

[6] Well, just to mention... I did went to Gardens By The Bay and the S.E.A. Aquarium. They were also my maiden visits and I had nice experiences but USS can have a special  note all to itself. Not because it deserves a special note but just that it was the greatest highlight of our trip!

[7] Went back to KK for Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping) for the first time ever as well. I've been Qing Ming in Brunei almost every year if I could make it but never in KK so it was an experience.

[8] Went to Singapore TWICE during this year. Which was a rare treat since I love travelling and even more so, I LOVE SINGAPORE! First trip in January only with mum and the second one was with the whole family.

[9] Got over with the whole 2 years of A-Level ordeal. Worst 2 years of my life but I've decided to let it go. Maybe, I might just bring it up once in a while to complain and rant a bit then bury it back again.

[10] Made new friends and got closer to old friends. Went to university and made a bunch of nice friends and through certain events, got closer with my old friends who are worth keeping for as long as ever. They're just such nice, sweet souls.

Hehe.. sorry that the above is not in order. I just wrote what popped into my mind at the moment and decided to leave it as that. Laziness at its best. :P So happens that my life is mundane and I have not too many interesting things to post.

Before ending this wrap-up posts, there are some things that I'd like to see in myself in the coming year, 2014. Not a resolution, no New Year New Me thing. Just maybe a few improvements and things that I can do for myself. 

[1] Maintain my GPA which was satisfying this semester. A great encouragement for myself that I can actually do this. Hopefully I can perform better in the coming 2 semesters next year.

[2] Make more new friends? Connect more to old friends?

[3] Be a better person. I just want to be a better me and think better of myself more. Have better patience and not get all hot-headed the entire time. Try to speak gently and be more encouraging towards others. Not to have low-esteems all of the time and maybe, try newer things and experience new things in life.

[4] Possess a healthier lifestyle. No more late-night snacking or sleeping late into the night. Maybe change from a night owl to an early bird?

[5] Go on more travels? I'd love to go back to Singapore again ;)

I cannot think of more as of this moment.. but I'm pretty sure after posting this up, more will come to my head. Haha.

I'm just very thankful for this year. How God's amazing grace has brought me through this year, through all the good, bad and ugly. I'm thankful for all the things that I'm blessed with, no matter how less or more. I'm grateful to all the people that are in my life, for they have encouraged and built me in one way or another.

I'm praying and hoping for a better year ahead. Have a great New Year's celebration everyone!

In God's Grace,

Hannah

p.s. Hehehe.. sorry for such a lengthy post. If you're reading this, you have a lot of patience. Hahaha!!

Boxing Day 2013

As I have said in my ultra short Christmas post that I'm going to write a new post soon right? Here it is!! (I do try my best to keep my promises :D)

It's Boxing Day today, the day after Christmas. In Brunei there's rarely the Christmas feel unless you make it yourself. Oh well. I'm looking forward to the next Christmas already just so you know but there's 364 more days to go...

So... how has everything been for everyone? Good I hope. As for me, I think I'm doing well here except that I've been sick for the past week which hasn't been fun at all. I caught the sick bug on the second last day of my family vacation in Singapore which left me running a fever, coughs, runny nose and I even broke out into hives for like 2 and a 1/2 days! No worries though, I'm clear from my hives and fever. What's left with me are just the runny nose and coughs. Bummer... (can you imagine having these symptoms for Christmas? I couldn't enjoy my Christmas meal to the full but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.)

I've pretty much disappeared from the blog for the most of December... or pretty much the whole of this year. There are less posts as compared to last year but there were reasons behind this. I've had to go through many new experiences and to put it simply, they were not all easy. I'll expound all these further in another post that I'll do to wrap up my 2013. So look out for the new posts to come!! :)

Just a short story that I'd like to share. Pretty interesting, this one below. Hmmmm......

Mwehehe, just an update and a heads up,

Hannah

Merry Christmas 2013

Have a Blessed Christmas everybody!! Best wishes to all!!

From me to you,
Hannah :)


p.s. I promise to update the blog with a new post soon ;)

Exam Fever University Style

I've been meaning to write a post for the month at the least but it never happened until now. Well, my "excuse" is that this past one month has been the most hectic period since I started my 1st ever semester in the university. It has been cramped up with tests, presentations, more tests, assignments, write-ups... the whole lot. You just name it.

Right now, I'm in the midst of having my university exams which happens at the end of the semester. Yup, good news and bad news here. Good news is that it's the end of the semester. Bad news would be the horrible phase of exam that the whole university student body, including I, myself are going through.

I've been through a lot of exams in my entire life. I mean, who has not right? There's always something new to experience and this is my 1st university experience. So far, it has been okay for me... I'm trying to stay afloat. Not all too well but God is good!

It's difficult to study for university exams. Yes, difficult! There are no key answers to past year papers, there are no spoon-fed notes like what we have in high school, only limited help and resources available. It's a little overwhelming at times. I've been spending a lot of my hours in the university library, reading up on my modules' materials, searching for better information from the books (can I tell you that I still suck at finding suitable books in the library? Sucking at finding my course related books takes up even more time!) and trying very hard to just study and revise.

Now I know how hard it is to prepare for a university exam. But then again, I just have to muster up all my courage and brace through this week and I'll be done for the semester. I can't wait for the holiday. 

However, before I start drooling and pining on my coming holidays, I must continue to strive and carry on with my revisions (eeeeeeeessssshhhh~~ I hate studying!!). Coming here for a post is just an excuse to procrastinate my revisions. Heh... I'm a bad example - do not learn this from me!

The above cartoon speaks right through me. This is just too true... for me that is. Hahaha.. just something more entertaining than my writings at the top. 

4 more days to go and I'm done (for the 1st semester that is :P),

Hannah :)

Deadlines

I'm back again with another post! So soon right? Taking Friday today as a small opportunity to take a breather from a very hectic week back at school.

Yesterday especially... was an extremely exhausting day for me. I had an assignment due which I started some time ago but can't seem to be at peace with it. There were constant changes to what I wrote, my references weren't as good (because I'm kinda bad at referencing) and etc. Well, you get the whole picture.

So, with some advise from my course-mate, I managed to get back on track and was more decisive on what I was going to do for assignment (even though I still don't like what I wrote... I felt that it wasn't enough in content though the word count was great). 

My assignment was due yesterday, Thursday, and I burnt the midnight oil past Wednesday night until the wee hours of Thursday morning, making sure that I did things correctly. I was being extremely paranoid at that point to the point that I couldn't even fall asleep though things were done and completed. I guess that the stress crept up on me. 

I only fell asleep when I start to see the light of day outside my window. I slept for about only 3 hours and I had a full day of lectures and tutorials and night time Bible study. Wow! Thinking back to it, I totally wondered how I even survived through the day! I bet that my aunts or my parents will chide me for not having proper sleep and all if they should read about this.

They have been getting on about having proper and regular sleep because bad sleeping patterns wears out a person health-wise. I've to clear that I'm trying to sleep early these days, latest by 11 pm. But, this was a special case as I couldn't sleep because of my assignment deadline and all. Also, I compensated my sleep deprivation by sleeping in until 9.30 am this morning!

I have more deadlines to follow in the coming week and a test tomorrow. Ha! I'm so not ready for it. Anyway, I believe that God is good and I can lean on Him when times get tough.

I came across this a few days ago and I found it pretty true. When you're press for time, your creative juices tend to flow more abundantly. Well, in my case that is. Though I would totally advice you and also make a mental note to myself, to never put things off to the last minute. It wasn't a last minute preparation for me but many of the changes to my assignment was definitely last minute. 

To another hectic week coming ahead,

Hannah

Mid-Semester Break OVER and GONE

Well well well... what's up people? I haven't got the time really nowadays to drop by for a post because guess what? My mid-semester break is officially over and I'm back in uni for classes, tutorials and lectures now.

I'm back here for a short post because I'm currently suffering from a writer's block from writing an essay for my English Language & Linguistics class (yeah... so everybody knows that I'm taking this module... for now). How I wish there's like some magic pen or maybe with a clap, my essay would magically be written, ready to be submitted already. But then, who am I fooling right?! All university students go through this phase I suppose.

I love attending my lectures and classes (really!!! well, maybe not all of them but most! :D) but when there's like so many assignments dumped on you, or in my case, when I get many assignments and project,  I get kind of demotivated to even do them. Like, I lost all my willpower or something. I get really cranky and easily irritated when I'm doing my assignments. (So, don't come near me when I'm doing my work or I'll bite! Just Kidding~~)

And with my writer's block, I decided to come in for a little while and post something on the blog. Hoping that I'd maybe get some inspiration somewhere, somehow to continue my essay.

This reminds me of a picture, titled "Don't Give Up!".

I know I'm not digging for diamonds but you get the meaning of what I'm trying to relay here. I'm trying to give myself a pep talk here like "Giving up is for losers!!" or "Don't be a chicken!".

So yeah, that's what I'm currently experiencing, right here, right now. I guess it's hard for now but I believe that hard work pays off. That's how the saying goes right?

Other than that, I finished most of my assignments except for a couple of my essays and a small part of a video project that I'm working on with a group of friends. My Korean video is done and submitted!! Hopefully, it fulfills my teacher's requirements and get a good grade for it. I find the Korean video that 3 of my friends and I made very funny!! Okay, maybe VERY FUNNY TO US only... but I can never watch on because it's SO EMBARRASSING! *fingers crossed that my Korean teacher won't show it to the rest of the class*

Oh and before I end for this post, I came over a pretty cute cartoon. It's "OCTOBEAR" now! Hahaha!! Get it?! Get it?! "OCTOBEAR" = "OCTOBER"??!! Oh okay.. not funny.

Lame, I know... Well, I've got to get going now. Have a great week ahead errrrbody!!

Gonna go finish up my essay now, toodles!

Hannah

p.s. Was supposed to publish this post at around 11pm but then there was an electricity outage in the house. Took up about 40 minutes to fix it. So here it is! :)

Be who you are!

I check my Facebook everyday just to stalk see what my friends and family are up to and I've got those people on my news feed who shares health tips, comics, memes, stories and so on.

In this world, where people are slowly becoming homogeneous, it's rather difficult to find your own identity... then I came across this story on Facebook. I think that it's worth a read. Not too long a story and also a plus point because it's a good one. I'll post this here for everyone to have a read. 

Hehe.. have fun reading!!

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them." "For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Just be yourself,

Hannah