I came to the company that I work with about 5 years ago. I was surprised that they have reward system, where anyone can give points to someone, because they thought that person has helped them in any way. That time, your boss or people in managerial level has points to be given, but I'm not sure since when, maybe since last year, we are all have points that's replenished every month to be given to someone. The points is nice and all, because at the end of the day, if you accumulated enough points, you can always exchange them into different vouchers. Today, my colleague mentioned he got more than 2K SGD to be converted into vouchers. (So amazing)

Sometime last year, I need to ask for help from someone. This person is part of support group. In the end, she didn't helped at all, and just made a lot of people confuse, I resorted to ask help from other people, and he's reliable and all. So, problem solved, as a courtesy, since I asked the help of the lady in the first place, I just told her that someone else has helped me, but thank you for the effort. Do you know what she said to me? She mentioned something like, "it's better to say it with points". The fact that she didn't do a good job, part of support group and asked for points? Made me feel icky.

So, it's a genuine question in my mind, up until this very day, does reward system works? Do people helped each other because they know, they will be given points, and why from the previous companies that I worked with, they don't have reward system but things are just working? Of course not all, but I failed to understand that we need to be told that there are reward points waiting if we do a good job, especially as a working adult. Isn't doing a good job itself is a responsibility? ​

Even if nobody is looking at this blog, still I cannot write secrets. LOL.
One day I remembered that I signed up with Notion. I thought when I logged in the first time, maybe couple of years ago, I'm not sure how to use it, as it's just blank space, and I saw some people have been creating crazy templates. My space still very simple one, without any sophisticated templates, but even so, I'm trying to take advantage of that space. I've been writing some daily journal, some task check list, and random things happening in my everyday life. It's only been 3 days though. Writing somehow helped me to remember a lot of things, and what happened in my every day life, and it's been great so far. We'll see if this habit can continues. 

This post is inspired by a podcast (The Lazy Genius Podcast - by Adachi) with the same title, #403 "How I get stuff done when I don't feel like it" and another podcast from Mel Robbins called "11 crazy facts about laundry, showering, and getting the "little stuff" Done that make you laugh"

Randomly listened to both podcasts this morning, and these are some key takeaways:

1. Create systems, not motivation. Focus on building habits and systems rather than relying on motivation. I would say my example of this is, when I want to build a habit of drinking enough water every day. I would prepare few bottles of water to make sure water is always in front of my sight. If I want to do exercise every day, I would want to prepare my sport attire the night before, and the first thing in the morning when I wake up is to wear the attire and go out for a walk. Although, I am admitting, the first start is the hardest. We just need to start first. 
   
2. Breaking tasks into smaller pieces and creating simple routines can help build momentum. I hate washing tons of dishes at the same time, so instead of having it piled up, every time I use a cup/plate, I will wash it immediately, so I won't have a ton of dishes at the same time.
   
3. Self-compassion and celebrating small wins are essential for maintaining motivation and productivity. I want to focus on how it make me feel when I'm done working on a task. It made me feel good and as if I have my life together, even if it's not LOL.

Even though I knew all the above, I still feel some days are not easy, and it's ok. Let's do this one step at a time.

Wishing you for good health and abundance in this Snake Year! 

Recently I heard above story from a friend. Consider A and B. A is the person asking for help. B is the person that helped. A openly mentioned that they are just a contractor and they are leaving soon, so they don't want to learn how to do actual work, and relying from B's help. B was helping because they wanted to help everyone that needs help, B also mentioned that, since A still doing the work in the meantime, they should know how to do the work. In my mind, I think is good to be able to help people, but sometimes, some people are taking advantage, and taking things for granted. Suddenly I thought about why A behaved that way other than they thought they are leaving, maybe they are having low morale?...

Also, is there still any misconception these days that a contractor doesn't need to do a good work? Although I can understand sometimes, people underestimated you because of you are being a contractor, in fact it happened to me in my previous jobs so many times. This person one day asked, "how many years are you here, are you still a contractor?" I proudly said I am a contractor, I told this person, "so, what's with that?" She couldn't say anything bad. My mind thought, because this person want to make other person feel lower than her, she's the person that is insecure about her status.

I argued with someone last time about being a contractor and a permanent employee. I let that person say whatever they want to say, I believe what I believe. Honestly maybe some of the contract terms might be different, and as a contract you read and understand the pros and cons and accepted it, so I don't understand why, this person persisted and made me feel as if there's job security being a permanent employee. Well, the biggest benefit being a permanent employee might be you get some severance pay if you got cut. There's no such thing as job security these days and we need to be able to adapt and being flexible with what's happening around us.  

It's been raining non stop since Friday until today (Sunday). Weather forecast said it's because of monsoon surge, and it's expected to be over by next Monday. Weather has been cooling more than normal, although some areas in Singapore might experienced flash floods because of this. 

Last year, I went to Spain for holiday. About 1 week before actual holiday, I re-installed Duolingo, the popular language learning app, and 
studied Spanish. At least, I would be able to say and understand simple words when I'm there, this was what I thought, and it's really helpful. 

Somehow Spanish is easier to learn. Previously I learned basic French, and there are some similarities between both languages. For example, there are genders attached to the objects, although some objects have different genders in Spanish and French. Some words are similar although it's pronounced differently. For pronunciations, it's easier for me to say words in Spanish as it has some similarities with Bahasa. 

Since then, I thought, I would re-learn French that I neglected for some time, continue with Spanish, and Mandarin (something that I struggled with for a long time). Mandarin doesn't come naturally, because our family don't speak at home, although both my parents can speak, because they went to mandarin school in the old days, and since I'm based in sg, I thought it would be beneficial. The progress has been a bit slower than the other two languages, but it's still a progress. I know learning languages from Duolingo only will not make you 
fluent in the languages that you are learning, you need to be immersed in the culture and all, but still it's better than nothing, and I'm trying to proof the question that I had for a very long time. Can I became fluent in different languages when I learned it as an adult? 

Most of the time when I'm paying for stuff, I will use my credit card. When I'm back to Jakarta, I would also want to use my credit card, because it's convenient. Turns out some place need the customer to pay for the credit card fee, it was 3%. Ouch. No choice, I need to pay it because I didn't bring my bank token to do any bank transfers.

​My sis recommended GoPay - she usually use it through Gojek application. Gojek app used mostly for transportation and food, and there's wallet attach to it, so you can use it through this app. I didn't have Gojek app at first, I searched it as GoPay, so I used this most of the time, and it's convenient. I can top up the money to this app, and use it to do payments. Most of the stores accept e-payment nowadays more than credit card.

One day I went for holiday to Gili Trawangan, power just goes off for the entire island, I tried to make payment at the restaurant using GoPay when the electricity back on. Money got deducted, but the restaurant didn't receive the money. Turns out the island will have no power any time of the day, everyday, so all the business there need a power generator, but this is a story for another day. So. to proof that the money actually get deducted I need to submit a ticket, putting in all the necessary document/receipt from the restaurant. This is very troublesome, in the end I got my money back. Actually didn't think that the money will be returned, but finally did. (It took about 1 month)

Second problem is even worse until I decided to uninstall the application. One day, suddenly the app just opened and seems like someone taking control and trying to go to the menu, as if I want to transfer all the money to a local bank account. I tried to close the application, but was unable to do so. I remembered a video talking about someone that nearly scammed, that the app in her phone just opened by force, she then turned on airplane mode. So, that's what exactly I did. After that, the app, seems still trying to open and do something, but since there's no network connection at all, there's no effect to it. I uninstalled the app, waited for a while and turned on the mobile network again. I tried to google if anyone have similar case like mine, it's more that the person experiencing money deducted from the wallet even if the person never do anything in the first place, so a bit different. I updated my phone software, and thought maybe I can try to install the same app again, this is just because I didn't update security patch in my phone. I got the same results. LOL. The app already been uninstalled, I since then, use Gojek app, that already cover the e-wallet portion inside. Until now, I'm not sure what happen to that app. Just for curiosity if anyone knows? 

I nearly lost my phone. Twice~ on 2 different days, one day after another. I left it in the toilet, but remembered it immediately after. I went back to the bathroom and it's still there. The next day, the same thing happened again. This time, I didn't realized it until some time (maybe about 1 hour). I went to the building management to report the lost of my phone. It was lunch time. I tried to ask the reception to call, but no answer at that time. Lucky, my colleague came this Friday, I asked his help to call my phone few times, but the phone is on silent. After some time, finally someone answered. Someone from different company, but working in the same floor, actually took it. So grateful that I can find my phone again. She actually asked if I left it since yesterday. Oh, no. She also saw my phone the day before when I left it, but I took it soon afterwards. No, it's not an expensive phone, in fact, it's a cheap one, but my credit card, photos, all data, actually there. I actually can't imagine my life without a phone. The same colleague actually helped me last time when I accidentally left my wallet in a shop. Forever grateful T_T. Feeling old all of the sudden as I keep forgetting things.

Hey you. It's been nearly 1 year since the last time I posted anything. Mainly, end of last year, my dad fell down, and rushed to the emergency. That was the time when I thought I can bring my parents to my home in sg. Turns out, he needed to stay in the hospital for 2 weeks. Nothing too serious fortunately. It became a bit serious, because sickness not treated for a very long time, also a mix of other common problems. So, all sickness coming at the same time. Hospital bills are crazy, but we all agree nothing is more important than health (my sister mentioned all of us can go for holiday in Paris for 2 weeks at least). Since then, he's under treatment, and I go back home frequently to visit my parents, and to bring my dad to the hospital for check ups. It's a wake up call for all of us, that we need to take our health seriously no matter the age. Since then, my sis and my brother in law has been restricting their diet, my mum and me also trying to lower down the consumption of unhealthy food. That's that. 

Early this year, my dad seems to be better, but suddenly on one day in March, I got unbearable stomach pain. I thought it's more like gastric problem, since I just had lunch 1 hour earlier (1 pm). I felt so much pain, and tried to sleep it off, but it didn't work. lol. I threw up few times, and felt a bit better each time. When I felt better (about 4pm), I changed my clothes and went to the clinic. The doctor in the clinic actually told me to go to the emergency. I went to emergency, they tried to do some blood test, but I was too dehydrated from loosing much liquid when I threw up. Waited for some time, finally can draw some blood, they gave me pain killers, but it doesn't work, then I need to wait for the blood test results to come up. It was then about 7 pm. The nurse suggested I need to go for abdomen scan, I waited until the result available (10-11 pm). At this time, nurse suggested I need to get admitted for at least 2 days, and a surgeon will come and explain what's the next action. Turns out, there's inflammation in my gallbladder, surgeon suggested to remove it immediately. I got a shock, because what's causing the inflammation? I thought I'm eating better these days. I remembered some people say gall stones are results of eating oily food. I remembered I asked the doctor, he said, the gallbladder seems to be not good. It's not because I eat oily food. There's a stone also, and it's sharp, and it pokes the gallbladder causing the inflammation. But, what causing the stone? Until now, I'm still not sure about it. Doctor just said, it's a bad one.

Doctor said, after operation, I cannot do any kind of exercise for about 2-6 months, other than walking. I cannot take so much weight (>10 kg kind). I  cannot eat oily food. I remembered before my operation someone actually asked what I wanted for dinner, and that day, I got really hungry, because I threw up all my food the day before remember? And because the next day I need to go for operation, I need to fast - cannot eat or drink at all. So. when they asked me what I want for dinner, I got too hungry and ask for fried rice. Didn't know that I'm not suppose to eat oily food at all. Well, it turns out, they brought toast. ~ (totally no point of asking what I want to eat at all). Worse, after I got home, my sis and her family came over to visit me, and helped me to do stuff at home. Then, she brought all the food that can be fried. T_T
Totally watching from a far. I lost 4 kg, but since then it gone back to normal now. lol.

It's been about 3 months since then. I've been healthy, I do exercise normally now, and my dad's health also better. I hope everyone is healthy and happy. That's all for now.