Happy Holidays! Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I sincerely do hope that you have a wonder-filled day spent with loved ones-- whether that be family, friends, or your 27 cats. ![]() Well, as for me, I am still here in Abu Dhabi. My dad is now in Abu Dhabi, too. I CALLED IT, after the 3rd time we got offloaded, I effing called it. Anyways, I am glad and thankful that we get to spend Christmas together. Before this post gets too long, I would just like to send a message across. Christmas is a time for giving and being thankful for all of the things you have received. Despite knowing that, it took me some time to realise that in life, you don't only receive good things but also bad things but both you should be equally thankful for. (Oooh, there must be a story there...) Oh yes, dear reader, indeed there is; but that's a story for another time. Enjoy your holidays! Give lots of love, and give it unconditionally. Practice gratitude. AND, remember to eat lots of food while it is still sweater weather and you can still hide that food baby bump under all that clothing layers and poofy sweaters. Next Up... The New Year's Resolution to never eat that much again... at least until Christmas 2018.
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Yes, you have read it right. I am still, as I write this, in UAE soil. What happened, you may ask? Why didn't I write a blog post for last Monday? And why am I writing this on a Friday instead of a Thursday? Tssk, tssk, tssk, my friend. We got offloaded again yesterday... for the third time. Well, I'm not exactly surprised. Firstly, it's the peak season. Second, we're on discounted tickets so we're the airlines least priority. Third, it's the peak season. Fourth, there is only one flight from AUH to SIN per day. Fifth, it's the peak season. Sixth, the flight to Singapore uses a relatively small commercial plane. Seventh, and lastly, it's the peak season. At this point, it's still up for discussion whether we're trying again on Christmas Eve and Christmas day itself since those days might be less busier than now. If not, I guess we're spending the holidays here in the UAE. Also, I don't know yet when I am moving to Singapore since this happened. As I mentioned before on my previous post, getting offloaded is both disappointing and relieving. Disappointing for obvious reasons (I really miss Koi and Chicken Rice); and also relieving because I have more time to spend with my fam here in Abu Dhabi, as well as Arima :) One thing is for sure though, I am sick and tired of having McDonald's for dinner almost everyday for the past week of going back and forth from the airport. We don't have food in the fridge since we can't leave anything that can rot during the time that we'll be gone, and a diet based on packaged bread just won't cut it for me anymore. McDonald's is the nearest food chain to our house (since we live in the desert) and so that's what we've been eating for the past few days. I want real food so bad. I miss cooking and eating what I cook T_T A special shoutout to my uncle who drove us to and from the airport during two of those times we got offloaded, and also for buying us lunch the next day. T_T
First of all, I want to apologise for the untimely updates, as well as for the delayed maintenance of the other parts of the blog. Like you, I want to have it finished as soon as possible, as well, and so, please be patient everybody! No one will get it together! I am currently busy with two things: preparing college applications (whose deadline is deadly close, yikes) and preparing for the Big Move-- which is a series of interrelated posts which starts with this one. Now, without further ado, here is the first installment of the Big Move. I am about to reach a new story arc in this life of mine... I'm moving to Singapore! I have mixed feelings about it. I love Abu Dhabi and absolutely love living here but unfortunately, willpower cannot drive me to where opportunities for productivity are. I'm a gap year student and part of the reason why I even decided to take a year off was so that I could do things to build up my portfolio e.g. partaking in internships, attending workshops, volunteering, and so on. I've been to some volunteering stuff since September but mostly, I've been at home. A lot of opportunities are either in the city, available during weekdays, or both. I do not drive and riding a taxi everyday is way too costly (a roundtrip ride would probably cost 150 AED a day-- and that's just to a location in the city and from my house so that excludes the transpo money I'd need to travel to and from places within the city, as well as my daily lunch money). In my defense, I did try to be productive as much as I can right in the comfort of home. A prime example would be this blog. A second example would be my managing of our AirBnB listing back home. A less glamorous but equally important way I stayed productive was being my family's all-around house help which can be pretty neat when I get to aid in their relaxation process after a long day of school/work. It's just a little payback for my fam having my back throughout IB when I had an average of 3 meltdowns per day. During those days, especially the later months of Year 12, I did the bare minimum in house chores, and even less during weekdays. I also just lived on my desk, practically, until food was ready; and, my parents made sure that I had a rich assortment of snacks to choose from (because I tended to either not eat or stress eat whenever I was in study mode). Besides, I've been the official house cook since my gap year and I love it. Being in charge of the kitchen means that you get first choice in choosing what you wanted to eat that day depending on what you're craving. You also get to experiment on the flavours and create some exciting combinations. Ahhhhhh, I love cooking! Anyways, I've ranted plenty already but hadn't mentioned anything related to the title of this post. Anyways, last night was our supposed flight to Singapore but we got offloaded! Since our plane tickets are standby tickets, we had to wait for an announcement of available seats in our intended flight. And so, we arrived at the airport 3 hours early, got our names registered and proceeded to wait. About 45 minutes before the flight, we were told that there weren't any available seats and to come back tomorrow (which is today). It was a bummer but I had mixed emotions about the whole thing. I was a bit disappointed because I've dressed up; I've stressed myself out plenty while packing up to the last minute before going to the airport because I'm afraid I might forget to bring something important or maybe reach Singapore and after opening my luggage, realise that all the clothes I brought made for the worst outfit combinations (a real nightmare); (related to the previous point) not bringing enough clothes, then having to reexamine said clothes because I literally could not close my luggage zippers anymore. On the other hand, I was, in some ways relieved because 1) waiting got me hungry af and after being offloaded, I was just glad that I could finally go to McDonald's and grab a bite, or two, or three-- a burger-sized bite each; 2) I could see Arima again. Honestly, I got so emotional about half an hour before leaving the house because the realisation suddenly hit me that I wouldn't be able to see Arima for the next couple of months. Sure, he peed on my bed occasionally which forced me to share a bed with someone in the fam for the night, or if I'm not so lucky, sleep on the floor (which I have done, I shit you not. It was damn cold and was not a very pleasant experience). Sure, he topples over every tra0-- (Arima just walked over my zaa OP990 As I was saying... sure, he topples over every trash bin in the house and expects you to clean up after him without even getting mad and just forgive him immediately for no apparent reason aside from being a cutie-ass who plays a game of fetch with you using Q-tips-- and you fall for it, knowingly, every time. Sure, he just casually walks over my keyboard while I'm typing and disrupts my work (Exhibit A: See the emboldened text on the previous paragraph), occasionally, almost deleting something I've been working on for the past hour. But, I love that cat. He's an asshole. He's a jerk. But, I love that cat. And, I sure as heck would miss him when I move to Singapore. :( Exhibit B: Here are some pictures of Arima in full jerk form while I was trying to write this blogpost.
Organisers, journals, calendars, alarms (lots of them), timelines (quite a few of them), neatly labeled files put in their corresponding folders, folders for everything, actually-- I may have a slight obsession with organisation tools.
My closet, book collection, and pens are all stored by category. I have several notebooks for different purposes (one for blogging, one for creative writing, one for college applications, etc.) My computer photo albums are all organised by date, event, and relevance. And yet... I always find myself doing the majority of my work on the days/hours approaching the deadline. I often find it hard to stick to one idea, constantly scratching the previous one after thinking of something "better". I become restless and couldn't stick to a set routine for long. In short, I am chaotically organised whose self is organised chaotically. . . . Now, I don't know what else to write, I've completely lost my train of thought on what point I wanted to make in this post and now I'm just rambling... Do you get me? Someone must know the answer but no one doesn't. Is it worth the hype? I, for one, do not have an answer to that question. In fact, with confidence, I could say that I have never fallen in love. Sorry to hype you up. However, I had been having some very philosophical thoughts about love, relationships, and attraction for the past few weeks-- and a good portion of them, cynical (without meaning to). To my ever so judging mind, love is as impractical as it is terrifying. It is terrifying because I have heard stories, both fictional and in real life, of people taking risks and downright questionably nonsensical things "in the name of love". I heard that love can be blinding and manipulative like that. With those things, I feel the urge to ask, "Is anyone sure love is not a euphemism for the deadliest virus known to man?" Is the potential happiness and life satisfaction one might get from the act of falling or being in love worth it? I don't know, don't ask me. At any case, it may very well be that I am just paranoid and read too much crime fiction. As a general outlook, I have a tendency to become annoyed at feelings I couldn't properly wrap a leash around. You can just tell I don't sit in well with Freudian psychology and his whole subconscious desires biz. On the flipside of the coin, and rather representative of my conflicting personality, I am possibly the most hopeless romantic in my close group of friends (added emphasis on hopeless). No matter how cold-hearted I may have sounded in the last paragraph (which I am told I can very well be upon occasional situations such as first meetings), I have a very weak heart for emotions and sentiments. Sad movie scenes always get me; no matter how bad they are. Don't even get me started on animal deaths... those are the worst (but that's for another post). I may have a wishlist(s) stashed somewhere describing my ideal soulmate along with scenarios of happily ever afters (but I obviously don't, what am I, five?) I may also have some daytime musings about getting pursued and courted by that one person who only exists in my dreams (why?) For that imaginary person, maybe, just maybe, I would be willing to compromise some impracticality (please see: paragraph 2). It's a romantic thought, nonetheless. It makes me want to barf at myself. At any case, I am as single as I can be at the moment and it's not something I despise. There's nothing particularly wrong with being single, in my opinion. To add that I have many more things I'd like to focus on first and if somewhere along the path of doing those things, I stumble upon someone, then why not? Otherwise, I'm in no rush to fall in love; I've waited this long, I don't mind waiting a bit more. If that's what it takes then so be it. Due to both my cynicism and romanticism, I reckon I may have to wait a long time because I don't believe in flings and I especially don't believe in taking love lightly. You're investing time, effort, and possibly, money into that person. They better be somebody whom you have already built a trusting friendship with before even thinking of starting a romantic relationship. Do I sound extra cautious? I do, don't I? Well, such is the case since I lack the experience, and so somebody out there, would you like to be my first? It's me, no one-- and this post is directed to you, Mr. Somebody. |
Notes from the author: If you'd like to have a conversation with me about anything I've written in this blog, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, memes, or anything at all, slide into my DMs at:
![]() ![]() ![]() The cover artwork featured above is used with special permission from IG: @squackoud
Special hashtags to watch out for:*** the following are specialised blog entries that have no set schedule compared to the usual bi-weekly postings.
#WednesdayWritings - drabbles, poetry, prose, short stories--- creative and expressive writing in no one's style.
#ThrowbackThursday - the cringey, the I-did-that? moments, the tear-inspiring, and the embarrassing moments of the past gone by--- available only here so shhhh...
#FreeThoughtFriday - a collection of 3AM thoughts for your collective amusement and might get you asking wtf?!
to see older posts:To view some of my older posts, there is a "previous" button hiding just below the bottom left corner of the last post of this page.
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