1. Say no.
It took me a long time to learn how to say no, but the thing, is you can’t please everyone, forever. Pick up some balls, reject once, and the rest will follow. Rule of thumb is: never say yes when you’re saying no to yourself. BUT if someone proposes with a diamond ring gold bar, just say yes first then sort him out later 😉
2. Speak up.
No one will know your existence if you keep quiet all day. Nobody will go up to a piece of furniture and offer it chocolate cakes or opportunities. Stop being that chair in the office and start rattling.
3. Stop making new year resolutions.
Make multiple 100-day plans instead. Remember, the goals have to be concise like, “eat six times a day,” rather than, “I want to look like a pig.”
4. Appreciate.
It is not in our Asian upbringing to constantly express love verbally, especially to our parents. However, do know that you’re truly blessed if people even bother nagging at you.
People say I love you all the time – when they say, “take an umbrella, it’s raining,” or “hurry back,” or even “watch out, you’ll break your neck.” There are hundreds of ways of wording it – you just have to listen for it, my dear.
– The Curious Savage (John Patrick)
5. Belittle yourself.
You’re not that great. Really. I once thought I could be superman and jump over a stretched rubber band placed at shoulder height (aka zero point) in office, and I ended up cracking my toes. The pain prolonged till now.
6. Never be a slave to anyone.
Not your bestest of friends. (To begin with, a friend should never make you feel that way.) Not even your own boss. Real people actually die from overworking these days. Not worth it.
7. Let go.
Letting go is like repeating point 1 for a thousand times till it has no effect on you. Pretty tough, but achievable. It is necessary in life because people change all the time, including myself.
8. Black and whites are not cool.
Rules and the whole junk of proving this and that is bullshit. I know while mandatory, too much of them gives no free play and sucks humanity TO DEATH.
9. Take chances.
You’ll never know what’s in-store for you next. If you want to do it, go. Spare some considerations for consequences though, then do it with all your heart. YOLO!
10. Don’t procrastinate.
Because I procrastinated to pump my bike tyres, I landed in an accident. Because I procrastinated to install iTunes on my new laptop, I lost my phone without the latest backup files. (Btw, it’s better to setup auto backup in iCloud.) STOP FUCKING PROCRASTINATING.
11. Enjoy boredom.
Motivation and passion cannot keep you going on forever, boredom will. This is similar to the 100-day plan thing (point 3). Using the same example, indulge in the process of binge eating everyday instead of focusing on looking like a pig. Trust me, you’ll get there.
12. Cold showers are good.
Better immunity, higher metabolism, more energy, lots of benefits blah. It think my morning sinus improved after cold showering for a few months.
13. Eat. A lot.
No better way to treat your body and soul. Well, at least for me!
A homemade candlelight spread prepared by Loti (and his mum) hah. Love it! <3
Hello world on 6 Dec 88, 1458, 3kg. I was a pretty fat and bald baby.
Still barely had a few strands of hair, thus I was nicknamed “Tweety bird.” Despite that, my mum dolled me up in girly dresses while my cousins kept sabotaging by turning me into some F1 racer.
Mischievous behaviour started to show. Squirted water out of my mouth in the midst of a hotel dinner with my parents. Kena-ed chicken pox hence my mother drew a portrait of me, ‘cos I guess I was too unglam for photo taking? *Shrugs.
First conscious encounter with the swimming pool and the first thing I screamed to my dad the moment I got in was, “Why can’t I feel the floor!!!!”
Little brother arrived on Earth. I welcomed him by squeezing into his baby cot in the hospital. I like to snatch people’s things muahahaha. Just look at me asking for popcorn from an ang moh stranger at the zoo. I kept putting out my hands till she almost gave me the whole bag. Sibeh buey paiseh.
Got chosen to visit the pilot’s seat while on a flight to Phuket ‘cos I was cute enough. Really. Or there weren’t enough kids around.
Watched too much 黄飞鸿 that I wished I was a boy. Refused to wear skirts, tucked my hair behind my ears, posed like a boy, and even dreamt that I peed standing up. Mum got quite worried so cousin Peimin said MUST send to me a mixed school. Oh btw by the time I was K2, I’ve already switched like five kindergartens ‘cos I went around bullying people (including biting someone’s nose) and my parents received endless complaints.
Indeed I landed in a mixed school called Fengshan Primary. I was the chatterbox in the class. I was the first to wear specs in class. I hung out with the naughtiest kids in class. Despite complaining much about me, my form teacher still sent me for a drawing competition at a Neighbourhood Police Post and I emerged as the first position :O
Nerd. The photo on the left was titled “Hot Mum and Cui Kid” by Yun the moment she saw it. But hey, cui kid got to do parasailing and that’s rather cool.
Mum kept forcing dresses and more dresses on me, including a SIA uniform. I didn’t look too happy.
Got fedup with all the haircuts by my mum and I presumed I could do better. Ended up like shiat and the whole world asked about my self-cut fringe but I still thought it looked “okayyyy whattttt.” Participated in a stage performance at a church I attended with my aunt as a.. wave. HAHA. Then, as if looking like a shitty wave wasn’t enough, I went on a shoplifting frenzy and was almost arrested by the authorities. Was shamed to apologise to all the shops and I saw my father tear for the first time.
Halfway through Primary 5 I had to leave Fengshan and my friends due to house moving. Upgraded from a HDB to our first condo in an unfamiliar area and everything had to change. First learnt to cross roads and take public buses. Thinking back, we seemed pretty pampered.
Made friends in my new school (Yio Chu Kang Primary) and invited them along with my old friends to my house for my birthday. Graduated with PSLE and it was like the stressest thing back then. The competition was stiff ‘cos we were dragon babies. Luckily most friends in my clique got similar results and we enrolled into Xinmin Sec together.
Hueyyen (from Yio Chu Kang Pri) and I got into the same class and CCA, and we formed quite a loserish combo. (I’m still in touch with her and she’s super cool now okay.) Kids from different classes recognised me as the nerd with the ultra thick hideous plastic specs (but little did they expect that it became a trend later lol). I was also so chor lor that I was the ONLY girl who sat with legs wide open in the entire yearbook.
I tried (too hard) to fit in with the popular girls so I grew long hair and ensured that the front always had two long “cockroach feelers” sticking out, just ‘cos it was the “in thing.” Gosh.
Streaming landed me in class E2, but I appealed to be in E1, as I naively thought that taking up Biology will make me a vet when I grow up. I also gave up the art subject (which I scored and loved) for it. Wrong choice. Not only did Bio NOT teach about animals, I ended up in class half-filled with foreign talents. I formed a clique of five called the ‘Angels,’ (*cringe) but I later realised that to everyone in E1, nothing is more important than scoring academically. They were competitive, superficial, and some even scheming. However, I was happy enough to be up-close and personal with my favourite animal – tiger.
The last year in Secondary school was a complete twist. I left my ‘Angels’ clique and reverted back to being a loner. It was Jan who picked me up like a lost puppy and due to her popularity I started hanging out with people from all different classes and streams. I became the worst student in E1 and was made to stay back after school for study groups. The influences from the “less-nerds” also transformed me totally in terms of looks. Upon finishing my last O-Level paper, I immediately went to bleach my hair. Also successfully bugged my mum to let me put on contact lenses for prom night, then I become vainer and vainer. Had my first part-time job as a Christmas 
Went to the JC trial out of sheer fun – exchanged uniforms, crashed classes, skipped classes, played bridge, joined basketball for about one month plus before quitting. I always knew JC wasn’t for me and I was the only one in my E1 class to enter a polytechnic. But I didn’t do any research and went ahead with the first course that was introduced to me during Nanyang Poly open house, which turned out to be half-IT half-engineering when I wanted design. Another dumbest mistake.
Yes, I was in cheerleading if you want a good laugh. Had lots of fun, stunts and falls but I quit after that infamous NYP video incident happened. Worked part-time in Spageddies and there, I got to know my first serious boyfriend.
This was like my PRIME period with overloading female hormones. How to look like that again? T_T Anyway, I specialised into Interactive Media in year 3, made some more new friends, then student life came to an end. FOREVER.
After graduation, I was offered a year’s job back in my poly as a Development Technologist. Took care of four batches of students and even became friends with some of them. My family moved back to HDB (just across the road) but I was more than happy to finally have my own room. Suddenly reconnected with my secondary school friends Jan and Yun, then went for my first friends’ overseas trip with them. Tried clubbing for the first time as well.
21 was the age that I had been looking forward to all my life, ‘cos it meant freedom – freedom to club, freedom to drink, freedom to return home late, etc. However I didn’t know that it was also the key to the expressway of getting old. Stepped into the real working world and kick-started my design career knowing nuts about it. Either I was lucky or the local agencies were really kind.
Did lasik. Chopped off my long hair. Then it got shorter, and shorter, and shorter.. until my then boyfriend got scared and ran off to find some other long hair chicks to bua in clubs. LOL. We broke up, after four and a half years. I didn’t handle it too well.
After a period of single life, I began to enjoy it and did ALL the things I’ve always wanted to do. I got myself a 
The first half of the year was spent 
I guess the biggest thing that happened to me was 
Omg haven’t had the feeling of triumph in such a long time 😀 And to know that my team members were super nice to let me keep the winning vouchers to compensate for my lost phone just makes me so damn touched :’)
Hanged out with my creative team thereafter.
Had a glass each at Molly Roffey’s which we passed by randomly.
Cheers!
Lynn made these photos she took into a GIF for me :’) That’s me indeliberately looking like a set with my fully zhnged scooter.
Happy 2nd anniversary Loti – my sidekick, my best friend, my husband-to-be. Obviously you complete me, but obviously you’ll get it if you ever let me down. ♥
