Shiok Weekends in photos

 Near Rochor MRT station

Chinatown, Singapore. The iconic People Park's Complex in the distance. (Lepark sits on a rooftop there and it's a beautiful view from there at night) 

Owner of a tailoring shop along South Bridge Road 

Singapore's favourite ice cream 

 #shiva

It was a hot Saturday but my brother and I made it around Chinatown with a baby on a stroller. *pats on shoulder*

It's been two months, and there will be another two.

It's a Saturday afternoon and the weather is being terribly unromantic. Think urban, cement, dust, humid, and 37 degrees. I have been stuck to my seat for the past two hours attempting to - complete a movie The Lobster (2015), marathon through Brooklyn99, checking my personal emails and finding ways to spruce up my uneventful Saturday. I completed the movie *pats on back*, am no where close to marathoning the 99, gave up on checking my emails and am still on my seat two hours later (which means my Saturday is bound to be pretty stale).

I only came back to joeeechua.blogspot because I received an email from a lady. She wrote to me about how she "stumbled" upon my blog and asked if I would be kind enough as to share my opinion about financial smth smth on my blog - basically creating content for her on my blog so that she'd get more awareness-slash-business. It was only after coming back to the blog that I realised that my last post was two months ago. I guess writing really isn't my thing at all. What I have been doing in fact is vlogging my weekends and that has been really fun. I already vlogged March and it was nice (to me). I continued to do the same for the months of April and May, and so here it is:

xShiok

Shiok Weekends | March : I did it!

Yay! I finally did it! I vlogged for a whole month during the weekends!!!!

I declare this a milestone. I am a procrastinator. One of my new year resolution was to do something interesting and I decided that the "something" shall be vlogging. And here I am, with my first vlog. *pats on my own shoulder* It was really fun editing it as I got to look back at my weekends and remember the good times.

Here's to the new month of April! We are one week in and everything is looking good :-) I am liking this year thus far.

xShiok

midnight pre-sleep thoughts: vlogging ideas.

I have been on a brooklyn99 marathon for three hours now. It's uh-mazing. I was just about ready to put away my laptop and sleep, when I realised its freaking 24th January already! Its the 24th day of the year, and I still have not figured out what my "adventure" part of my 2016 resolutions are going to be. I've had some ideas floating around recently. I was thinking that maybe I should start vlogging? (good idea or not?) The tiny fear of listening to my speaking voice on video is stopping me from doing it. What if I unconsciously put on an angmoh accent while speaking? hahahaha that'd would be embarrassing.

Whatever, I am going to do it. The idea for my year long vlog is to try something new every month, and video the whole experience down. It's a bit like Refinery29's Try Living With Lucie. It will be pretty interesting to see how it goes Singaporean-style. 

WATCH IT!  Try Living With Lucie. 

xJo.

HOW I AM SETTING MY 2016 RESOLUTIONS

vacation with the family

I am not one for resolutions. As a kid, I used to set these goals and I never stuck myself to achieving them. New Year resolutions were one of these goals. It was only until recently when I found myself setting realistic and step-by-step goals, that I could actually achieve them and it helped me feel better about myself. I felt great. I felt like I was spending my time wisely and productively. Just felt less nua about my life.

Having just turned 21 and feeling all adult-like, I feel like its time to set New Year Resolutions. It's kinda my way of setting a purpose of this new year. I've heard from adults (the ones who have been adults for a while) that time passes by so quickly when you leave school and start working. There are hardly any milestones - promoting to the next year in school, finals, end of sem deadlines, holidays, changing schools... Everything becomes monotonous, in a way. So, by giving this year a purpose, I might just prevent myself from becoming a monotonous adult. Maybe each year, I will challenge myself to do something cool/kewl - learn sewing, start a blog, start vlogging, i dknow. But it sounds like it would be really fun to do this resolution thing. Writing this paragraph alone has psyched me up quite a bit.

1// money money money

hmm... so i spend a lot but i don't earn a lot. i am starting this year with an awesome internship with an ad agency and i am really looking forward to it. it feels like all the stars are aligning this new year. i will be getting an allowance. i won't be in school so that's a lot of expenses cut. it's shouting to me: JOEY, ITS TIME TO SAVE MONEY! so this new year, i've chart out my savings plan with a pen and my diary and i hope to save enough money to purchase a few big-ticket items including driving lessons.

the only way to achieve this goal is really to chart out my finances properly and honestly. i haven't found a better way to manage my money at the moment other than locking my money up using OCBC's internet banking when you can set money aside for "goals". what it does it that you can set aside $X via ibanking to be locked away as "goals" and you won't be able to access that money through your card. the only way to gain access to that money again is to login to ibanking and withdraw $ from your "goals".

2// fit fit fit

i am currently weighing the heaviest in my life. i still have not come to terms with it, so i won't tell you how heavy i am. i have half the mind to psycho myself that its all muscles hahaha that way, i wont feel bad for weighing that much. i know i know people tell me that weight is a terrible determinant of your body health, fitness, slimness etc etc. that's why i decided that my new year resolution was not to lose weight, but to keep fit. GAIIINNSSSSS ~~~~~

ok no, i don't mean like pumped up ripped, but rather a nice lean body that I feel in control of. one that i feel good in. how i felt when i was on exchange was probably the closest i have felt to that.

throwback to when i felt good about my body

I exercised super regularly (INSANITY ALL THE WAY). No snacking. Cooked most of my meals (white rice, omelette, chicken breast, broccoli). I was still going out to drink. Ah~ Those were the good times. Now, I am back in Singapore. Feeling all nua and eating so much mouth-watering, delicious hawker food. 2016 is the time to feel that way again!!!!!! I CAN DO THIS! I won't be wearing a bikini soon but all is good. I just want to look good when I bathe too. 

So, my rough plan is to follow the Fit Girls 28 Day Jumpstart Guide. I will be cooking my own meals (they sound very delicious on the guide) and exercising even more regularly. 加油man, Joey! 

3// adventure adventure adventure

This last one still remains slightly vague. I'm looking to develop one of my "talents" if I even have one. Been thinking of doing some legit sewing, creating my own things. Maybe even selling them at cheap prices to cover the cost of the material. I'm still thinking. It could be blogging? Do you think people would care about my life enough to scroll through my terrible cringe-worthy writing? 

I'm looking at calligraphy too. YT has gotten me some ink from TW, and I will be heading to Art Friend soon to get a starter calligraphy kit. For all you know, I might be the next hippy calligrapher and people will pay me to design greeting cards and what not. hahahahaha aiya dreaming only la. 

yeah, still figuring this one out. 

it's been an amazing 2015, and i am going to make 2016 equally awesome. i started 2015 with an adventure of a lifetime with my exchange, and now i am starting 2016 with an internship. i am excited and so pumped up! leggo leggo leggo! 

here is me looking drunk af but i was really just in my pjs, out on my uncle's little private dock for his boats watching the new year fireworks that was fired up by everyone around us, and 5 minutes later we retreated to the bedroom to play robot unicorn evolution. yes that game still exists.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! 

xJo.