Ramblings | Moving on

I confess.

I am really behind in blogging. Mid of 2015 has been a whirlwind ever since my last post (read here -- if y'all are still interested in what I bought in Korea and Italy (so last year), comment below and I'll post them hauls!:)

So here's a quick update of what happened during my blogging absence! Well, I say quick but knowing myself, it'll be a long ramble…

Right after my last post, I was rushing to catch up on school work. I am a professional procrastinator (hah) hence I had quite a bit of work piled up.  Micro-managing is tough guys. So I guess this explains my long blogging absence as, well, you know, inertia is a bitch or so I say. 

Outside force being looming deadlines.

All of a sudden it was exam(s) time! That was late April/early May and then, school broke out to summer holiday except I have UNOFFICIALLY GRADUATED. Yes, I was a student in my last semester of my last year in University and now, I am not.

Let's be frank eh.

Give or take a few weeks, my graduation trip with my friends was just around the corner. Hurray! Not hurray though: 4 budget flights to 3 different Asia countries in 1 month i.e. pack light, travel somewhat uncomfortable, sleep budget and follow a super packed itinerary - all the things I fail at which is mostly packing lightly. But I dare say I succeeded at these conditions and gain muscles at the end from carrying my close to 30kg luggage around.  Also, I left my laptop back home in Singapore which I regretted on the last leg of my trip -  nowhere to dump the photos on my camera! Enough of my graduation trip though, there will be another post dedicated to it. In fact, I tried my hand, literally, at vlogging the trip so be sure to look out for those vlogs! As soon as I edit them, of course.

And then you say, "but you have so much time after coming back from your grad trip? It's already August and you were back in mid-June!" 

My dear dear friend, like I've said, inertia's a bitch. Plus, if you don't already know, I am working now!

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Wait what - working? Okay okay, let's rewind a little.

Having depleted most of my socializing energy on the grad trip, all I wanted to do when I got back home was to do nothing and that's what I did - nothing important. For the following 3 weeks after I got back, I caught up with my TV shows, scrolled through my social media feeds, read some books and most importantly, got my fill of sleep! So yes, those 3 weeks were essential me time to get myself back to my functional levels. Unfortunately, that means not much blogging going on either.  I'm sure you guys have times when you just need to be by yourself and do the most mundane of things.

 Tumblr-ing all day, err' day.

What's more, even if I wanted to blog about my grad trip I couldn't :(  I shipped some stuff I bought early in the trip back home and it did not arrive until 4 weeks after I got home. That was a good 2 months of shipping by the way. Plus, my photos and videos were stuck in my friend's laptop. She started work shortly after our grad trip and it was pretty hard to coordinate a time to retrieve them. In short, my hands were tied, really tightly.

Since I did nothing for the 3 weeks after I got back, the next logical step was to start doing something. That something was to start polishing up my resume. Why? Because I graduated and graduates need to find a job! (Shout out to my fellow graduates looking for jobs: WE WILL FIND IT!) 

The first day of that 4th week, I sat down, spruced up my resume and sent it out to two companies. I actually wanted to send more out my next free day but I got replies from the two within 2 days. Gonna put a disclaimer that I was looking for internship opportunities as, sadly, I did not have the relevant experience in the industry I wanted to work in. Hence, it may be why the replies came so quickly. I was asked to go for an interview, with both the companies, the very next day. Before I knew it, I was hired by one of them, on the spot.

 I was really shocked at how fast I got an internship, to be honest. Everyone around me was telling me to give it time, that it'll take 6-8 months to find a job and that it may take more than 20 tries to secure one (This happened to a senior of mine, whose tough job-finding experience scarred me).  However, I'm attributing this quick turnover to it being an internship as opposed to a full-time job. Now, this happened during the last week of July so you can imagine how fast things went --> Literally, I sent my resume on a Monday, went for the interview on a Thursday, sent my confirmation on a Sunday, started work the following Tuesday (would have been Monday but my boss wouldn't be in so she asked me to come in on Tuesday instead). Up till now, I'm still in awe at this speedy process. 

Like I mentioned, I have unofficially graduated therefore, it's time to officially graduate!

Finally. not a meme.

In case you're lost in my ramblings, I started my internship nearing end July and my convocation happened 1st August. Which means, at that point in time, I've already been working for 2 weeks! *gasp*  

Isn't it scarily amazing how time flies!

With my dear family - without them, I'd never have reached this point in life.

Been friends with this girl since my JC years and got to know her family too,
so definitely had to take a photo together! 

#friendsforlife...?

And El came down too! <3

People say we look like sisters, do we really? #sorellasorelle

And I got a graduation present from her! So touched <3
Thank you El :D

Super love the photo album! You the stalker of my life woman haha.

Got a clay mask (excited to try this out!), 2 perfumes and
 my long-awaited Maybelline's Instant Age Rewind Concealer! 

As far as my life goes, I AM DONE WITH MY EDUCATION. (For now)

Although having had a taste of work life, I dare say Uni was much more relaxing. Understandably, my schedule the last few semesters in Uni consists of 2 or 3 days week. That is, I only had to travel to school for 2 or 3 days a week for my seminars. Hence, coming from a time where a 5-day weekend was the norm, working life feels really hectic in comparison.  (Of course, the 5-day weekend was spent doing assignments but hey, my time was my own. I could spend it however I wanted. Not the case when you're working full-time/doing internship.) FYI, it feels like JC days all over again where I had to wake up at 6am and the day doesn't end till more than 12 hours later. 

#helpme #dying

Just a matter of substitution. Sighpie.

The following Sunday after convocation weekend was my birthday. That felt like life giving me a not-so-subtle nudge:

Life: Hey hey hey, this is life knocking on your door. Ooh, look what we have here! A fresh graduate! And you turned a year older, all in the same week! Wahahaha. Definitely moving on in life eh.

Me: ._.

If you don't already know, yes, I am a National Day baby. (9th August, amigos)

No, I did not get any personal perks because of it. One thing though, this year is Singapore's 50th year of independence thus, we had an extra public holiday.  Seeing that National Day fell on a Sunday this year, Monday was the holiday-in-lieu. Coupled with the extra holiday the Friday before, all of us enjoyed a long weekend holiday of 4 days (still shorter than my Uni weekend :/ ).

It goes without saying that I spent those 4 days celebrating my birthday.

On 7th August, I went to the alumni party@ Zouk by my alma mater (woohoo, I can use that now!)
The initial plan was to book 8th night at Grand Copthorne and celebrate at Zouk. But since this alumni party popped up, we thought why not do it on the 7th instead? 

Making use of the mirror! If you'd like to, add me on snapchat @christinehzy!

Credits: Jyii

Got a free room upgrade as the room type we booked was fully occupied. The room we were allocated was pretty amazing. The bathroom was huge and we had a lovely view - managed to see the Black Knights fly past from our window at noon the next day! Cool stuff. 

View that night - can you spot MBS and the ferris wheel in the distance?

Too excited for the night and forgot to take pics of the room as usual.

Glowy tats for the night.

(Almost) Full force. #flashgamestrong #whereisvan

Zouk was packed to the brim that night - the sied-effect of SG50.  Could have done without that crowd but had fun nonetheless thanks to awesome company. 

 The 8th night, I went to El's place for dinner. 
Had delicious home-made yong tau foo by her and her grandmother, sadly didn't snap any photos. 
Super appreciate that they specially made the yong tau foo without adding prawns for me because I have a seafood allergy. Loveeeeee you El. Haha. Then we were up to our nonsense again (she'll say it's just mine, but we both know the truth....the nonsense is ours)

The actual day I spent it with my family. Rested the whole day but at night, we went to Mövenpick 

Heritage Hotel Sentosa for dinner at World of Whiskey. Apparently, they transformed the place for dining specially for SG50. Dinner was BBQ buffet - imagine, free flow of steak, lamb, sausages and more. Yums.

Fam photo with le birthday cake!
 Let me tell you, this one slice I left in the fridge for too long turned moldy :/

Then I fell sick that night. Which is more of life telling me I am old and cannot take consecutive late nights any longer. 

So, the last day of the 4-day weekend I spent recouping..somewhat because I went shopping that night with my mum. Then it's back to the daily grind.

After which, the past Saturday, I went to my graduation dinner which I co-organized with a friend! Let me tell you, organizing an event IS NO EASY FEAT. From sourcing to liaising to decorating, we did everything. But of course, it is all worth it in the end. Seems like it was a success. Will be blogging about it - a short review of the place we went to :)

Guess what, we are now all up-to-date on Christine's life! Yay! :D

A little sneak peek into my near future:

The next two weekends I will be going to Singapore Night Festival 2015 with friends and family. 

Credits: @brasbasahbugis

I have been to the festival since it started in 2008 so definitely continuing the trend. The area where the performances and installations are held has since expanded and from what I've read about this year's line-up, Night Festival 2015 is gonna be a bang. Pretty stoked to go for it! 

Gonna work on juggling blogging and work from now on. Never been that adept at micro-managing but I will persevere! Oh, by the way, I damaged my phone and have been using a really horrible phone with a super slow processor, extremely limited memory space and terrible camera, hence my Instagram has been stagnant. But follow me @christinehzy nonetheless! 

That's where you'll get the latest and freshest news about my daily on-goings ;)

Soon

 In any case, I will get a new phone but just have no dough to spare now. Any kind souls wanna sponsor me a phone? ;D Just email to contactchapalang@gmail.com and I will be more than happy to work out something with you~ (wishful thinking I know)

If you've read up to this point, thank you so much and congrats! You now know more about me than the average person. Hah. 

Meanwhile, as I get into the groove of things again, go check out what Eleanor has blogged about! She was in Hong Kong for her internship recently and you can read all about it here and here :)

Till next time.
Love,
Christine xoxo