2019.

I'm thankful that another year has passed, and the Lord has truly seen me through.

I had been talking about a move for a while. It took some time to come through, but I think that it was the posture in which I was approaching it. God's timing is perfect, and He knows. He truly does.

All of 2018, the message was to align, and then things will fall into place. I am thankful for parents who did not give up on me but stuck with me during the challenging times, the tense times, and worked things out with me.

Looking back, as much as it was a new season for them being empty-nesters for real, it was also a new season for me. Indeed, as mentioned in the previous post, I was learning a lot of new things but never really feeling completely overwhelmed. There has been so much patience and caring and encouragement in this period - I feel like bonsai.

Some of my outlook has changed, and there is truly a different drive. It's not the same as the comfortable place I was before, but it is a nurturing environment. I have been given opportunities that I felt were beyond me, and the support and encouragement to step up. What do I really know, right? A lot of things surprised me in the last 5 months (100 days of work ho!) of 2018.

This year, the message is the Aaronic Blessing. I have always looked forward to Dad praying this over us, and my pastoral team in my current home church also prays this over us at the end of the service. I got to actually play a song crafted upon these words at a very special event in October. I don't believe anything is by chance. He prepares ahead of us, He knows before we do. And the cool thing about it all is, He drops hints. A lot of hints.

I had just made a little blurb featuring this on New Year's Eve, and this morning, guess what Dad sends to me.

As I reflect and send out messages to different individuals who were instrumental in my 2018, I count the milestones and the blessings in my life. Now this, this overwhelms me.

2018 was a pretty amazing year. 2019 will be even better.

Don't raise your ceiling; raise your floor instead.

I end today's ramblings with another bit of good news. The earworm that has been bugging me for most of 2018 is now eradicated! I just found the song. An hour ago. And it is beautiful. The difference is that now, I do know where it is from. No more buggy!

Have I mentioned that I have a thing for songs in compound time? It...adds something special to the song. Most of the time.

Hello, 2019!

Day 50

I am thankful for growth and environments that nurture and encourage.

Today is Day 50 of work in Lionland. It's been pretty incredible so far, with a patient LaoBan, a nice immediate colleague and wonderful extended colleagues, a work space that constantly changes depending on what stock arrives or what is pending shipping. Ooooh, and my name cards arrived today!

People ask me what I do. It's hard to explain. I suppose my main focus is admin, but it's a small company, so really, we all do everything. I'm definitely still in the music circles, in a different way than before, but I look forward to start teaching again. Yes, there are plans in the works!

I've gotten to attend a workshop, been given tools and instruments to 'play' with. There's one shipment that's a monthly affair that I get to open (most of the time) and I happened to mention in passing that I felt like it's my birthday every time I get to do this. My amazing LaoBan remembered and has told me a few times of the expected arrival of 'my present' or asked me to 'go open my present'.

Someone said to me recently that it seems like I am getting paid to learn. I guess I am. It's not a bad place to be at all.

Other things are happening like MuRa's moving forward, me joining a community music group regularly (we're playing movie music next!), getting connected with a 'family' in church and back with serving in the music ministry, doing more admin stuff and learning to be more organised.

TC. Where do I even start. Thank you for watching out for me, for being generous with your time and helping me to settle in. Thank you for taking time to come share meals with me and make sure that I'm not alone during closing on days when I'm alone at work. I know you said that it's sort of kind of in the way in a kind of sort of way, but before this, you would just head straight on home to have dinner and wind down for the day. Just...thank you.

It's definitely a different phase in life, and different may sometimes seem daunting, but it's not all bad. There's still so much to learn, not just work-wise but also in personal discipline, in relationships, getting back into shape not just physically but also musically.

Stay focused, desselBoS. We're alright.

<3

I'm back.

I'm thankful for an unconventional learning journey - one only possible with Him.

October last year was when the non-stop thing started.

I got to attend a training day on pad replacements and some other general stuff that was conducted by technicians from (arguably) the top flute maker in the world. Little did I know it was part of my 'interview' process.

In November, I went back to my homeland for a week to do a sound system installation - my first back there, but not my first with my mentor. I did learn to crimp CAT6 cables then. It was fun.

December saw me getting back into orchestral work, albeit small scale (45 notes?).


This year has also whizzed by with some milestones.

More fun repair with the lady tech from the US amidst a crazy heavy week substitute teaching in school and a flute buying trip on behalf of a student of mine.

One of my girls rose up to the challenge to prepare for a music competition (Yay! School trip!), which to me, she won. She grew by leaps and bounds, displaying a keen sense of musicality. She didn't make finals, but from the start, we had both agreed that that was not the final goal.

I was offered the opportunity to stage manage for the annual Fine Arts Festival for the school that I was kind of sort of a part-time staff of. That was a crazy week. I got to work with a great crew team.

Following that was another series of crazy events, a church anniversary, family visiting with our newest member, a full-week children's camp, then another concert under the baton of someone I've known as a tutor from my youth orchestra days.

I really felt like that last concert brought me full circle, and I'm really ready to move forward.

I'm back in Lionland. It still feels surreal. I am officially employed for my first real full-time job.

I was offered this job a while ago, but the timing wasn't quite right, till now. Things started clicking into place two weeks ago, and here I am now, having completed my first week of work. I've got a great employer, a wonderful colleague plus extended family because yay for group of companies! I'm loving the work environment so far, and looking forward to more things.

It also happens to be a usually mandarin-speaking community, so I'm sure that I'll improve on my uh...caveman cheena along the way.

Yes, I'm back blogging also. I think. We'll see.

But yeah, I'm alive and well.

Hello, world!

Hello, world!

It's the sixth month already. It's been an interesting year so far. I know I haven't been writing, and I honestly don't know how the first five months of the year has flown by so quickly!

I've gotten to go back to where I spent most of my life, answered prayer since I didn't merely want to go back for 'a holiday'. I got to go back with a team of five others and have an intense eight days of non-stop running around and doing a lot of listening and some talking, a bit of traveling. The happy news is that I will probably make another trip there sometime later this year...maybe?

I got to catch up with a childhood friend who's now a doctor, stayed with the family where my journey over there began (same room as all those years ago!). I got to eat the things I was craving, meet with a couple of girls on behalf of my sister.

I also got to go to a city I'd never been to before and have a taste of 'home' - a church plant by my church back in Lionland. They had mentioned something about a camp at the end of May leading into June which I did consider going back there for, but it never worked out. I was a little bit disappointed but...

...I am so thankful that God never shortchanges us.

Running concurrent with this camp that I was not at, I had an amazing eight days working alongside a cool gal tech from the US, with decent tools (that I can't afford to invest in now) and with a supply of materials and parts (that would cost a bomb to ship over here). During these eight days, I learnt much, achieved more than I thought I would, and got to witness and be part of a full girl-powered repair team of four at work. Also during these eight days, I had my opinion of Yamahas being reliable, durable flutes; and that other make not being great, reinforced.

I worked on a number of flutes, a lot of them needed pads replaced, parts bent back, corks replaced (trill key corks are the worst, especially with the silly 'design' on the make I don't recommend - there were too many of these and I eventually decided to stop caring about replacing these corks because time and also the kids don't use those keys anyway), but my biggest achievement of the entire time was the last flute I decided to make sure I get done - a flute I spent about seven hours collective on.

This darling is older than me, the production years for this model in particular being between 1979 and 1990. I had looked at the case and groaned inwardly, wondering what the battered, old case held. When I opened it up, lo and behold, it was an open-hole Yamaha flute! Yes, it looked like it had seen better days, but I decided then that I was going to make it pretty and restore whatever playability I could.

It was pretty much a full repad job, there were a couple of stuck keys that took a couple of days to get to working order again. The tenons were only slightly bent out of shape - that was easy enough to rectify with the mandrel and vice I had access to. Most of the bumpers had to be replaced, with the exception of the trill keys and the Eb key. There was lots of regulation work done, a lot of minor adjustments that added up. Alas, I didn't have time to shine it up.

At the end of my time with this OH Surprise, shoulders aching, neck stiff, eyes blurry, mind weary...it was all worth it. Perhaps I'll shine him up the next time.

I decided to leave him in his seemingly battered up case - a great reminder that I need to not judge the instrument by the case. I cleaned it out and oiled the hinges, slapped a label on it so the directors know not to assign this flute to a kid who won't bother taking care of it.

I leave you with my masterpiece thus far. The time was completely worth it.

Ain't it purty?

It's time.

I am thankful for turtles and homes and people.

I've been telling myself that it's about time I need to move forward. I've had my Turtleshell for years. The name stemmed from an instance of light banter in a crowded elevator with one of my profs, Dr. Watson. I was a freshman then and it was probably in my first couple of weeks in college. He looked over and told me I had a very nice Turtleshell. I probably giggled. I can't remember. As time went by, my backpack became part of my identity in college. Even out of college, my friends constantly made fun of how 'everything I own is in it'.

After seven long years, with much repair done on the zips, the fabric at the base wearing thin and eventually giving way, and with my losing a pair of my favourite earrings because of a hole that I hadn't realised was in one of the pockets, I finally decided that it was time to hunt for a new one. I spent time and more time scouring the web, obsessing over measurements and prices and colours. There was always a better deal to be found. Narrowing my search down, I made calls, had several unsuccessful attempts to procure the backpack I had decided on. It was frustrating, to say the least.

They say that there is always an instance when you know that you know. Mine finally came when I was window shopping and chanced upon a great deal. Perfect colour - it was what I would have picked from the beginning save that it wasn't available in my region. The circumstances were convenient too, since I had access to a shipping address that enabled further savings on the purchase and my parents who were passing through to pick up the backpack for me.

Yes, it finally happened. And with this, I bid my poor old Turtleshell adieu. It has served me well. Knowing me, though, it will probably end up staying with me and getting repurposed. Eventually. Ha.

Hello there, Turtleshell 2.0 :)

Short of shortbread?

This is yet another month where I'm so thankful for relationships.

Just shy of a couple of weeks ago, a relatively newfound close friend decided to spare me her oven. I had a longtime close friend prepping for her wedding dinner and I had a task - to bake 300 heart-shaped shortbread cookies. At first glance, and per calculations according to two test batches I made, it didn't seem like a massive task.

It took me a total of six days of creating in different stages.

The weather wasn't cooperative, and there was much frustration with regards to the handling of the dough and forming of the cookies. Each batch of dough was carefully rolled out and then embossed with a lace design at random angles, then cut with a cookie cutter I had specially bent and altered to create the desired shape...and then the transfer to the cookie sheets happened. I think this, and the packaging, were the most difficult stages of this project.

The cookies turned out to be more fragile than I had anticipated, and I ended up breaking about 10% of the total I had made (more than 300, thankfully). My sister called me a heartbreaker. I was getting really stressed towards the end and ended up packing cookies till 0300. Then the next headache came. Since the cookies were that fragile...how to transport them?? I was also pretty dead in the brain, so driving around was a challenge.

Long story short, the cookies were a success. They looked pretty too! See?

The silver was my favourite, followed by the red. Getting the right colour mix was another puzzle for me.

Look at the pretty packaging that was a pain in the neck to wrap!

The weekend was busy, but it was fruitful. More MuRa things happened, MuRa and lil' bro J got together to catch up (I'm so proud of him!), as we also did with a couple of other MPYO people.

Aiyo and Jer got married. Finally. Now to get used to calling them A's husband/J's wife.

At the end of the week, I'm still pretty tired. It's nice to have some space where I can just chill and recharge though. It's been a good week.

I'm done with shortbread for a bit.

April Blurb

What's happened this month?

Hmm. I finally joined the smartphone bandwagon with a spanking new stock android phone...which I seem to have bought at the right time. It's no longer available at that price anymore...it's about 200 local dollars higher now. There was much communication with the seller beforehand while it was being couriered to me.

I thank God for favour and quick processing! I had to apply for a permit to bring it in, which was processed very very quickly. I was actually very surprised at how much assistance both the courier company personnel and the government officer handling my application gave to me.

I also finally filed taxes for the first year - though I was told I was earning under the taxable bracket. Again, I was surprised at the efficiency and the speed at which things were handled. (Yes, I'm all grown up now! Even if I still fall below the taxable bracket...)

I did lots of filling in for the sixth grade teachers...so I guess the sixth graders got tired of seeing my face. There were reactions of horror and denial and protest...and then there are always the one or two sweet little people who are always happy to see me. My reputation is pretty firmly established. I apparently scare middle and high schoolers.

I thought it was neat that I got to hear from the kindergarteners what they love most about their mothers - given Mothers' Day is fast approaching and they are working on a project in technology class for their mothers. It took a while to get all the laptops set up. I heard things like 'I love my Mother because she ties my hair.', and 'I love my Mother because she loves me more than she loves Daddy!', and 'I love my Mummy because she always cooks my favourite food.'.

What else what else. We had the four family birthdays this month, and I've been spending more time at Aunty I and Ss' home, helping them do things and running errands for them. I also looked at joining a gym, which didn't happen. But I did start on something I've wanted to do for a long long time now. It makes me feel...more active? More accomplished? I dunno. It's a good feeling :)