Things I Learnt in 2014

Because I like to tell myself that I did learn something and this whole year wasn't just a blur of endless internships, pointless Communication subjects and throwing my money away on expensive, instagrammable lunches. And there were many, many instagrammable lunches (according to my Netbank records).

Things I Learnt In 2014

1. Give Yourself Permission to be Fabulous

All of you should make this quote your wallpaper and tattoo it on your left buttcheek

I wish I had understood and taken this to heart earlier because if so, the last 19 years of my life wouldn't have been such a waste. And it's never hit me so hard before, but that's what they were. A big fat waste of time. I squandered away my teenage years over-studying and dedicating all my energy into school when I could've allowed myself a bit more freedom to go out and try new things.

It's not that I was trying to please my parents per se because, let's be honest, as long as I didn't get pregnant and/or join a gang, they were fine diddly-doo with my life choices. It was more the fact that studying was easy and comfortable. Plus I was good at it. So why bother expanding my options? And apart from my awesome, free-spirited, cousin Roxie, nobody else in my life really branched out into other things. My friends were much too similar to me, my cousins way younger, my world in general was too small.

I've written a shitload of posts on this and on educating yourself via experience so at this point I kind of just sound like a broken record. Moral of the story: go out and try new things if you aren't doing so already. Take baby steps (such as joining a new club or social group at university) if you're a bit unsure and when you've gained more confidence, look into bigger commitments.

By nature, I've never been a confident person and in terms of independence, it was only last year that I started to do things without having to rely or consult others so I'm not professing to be any sort of expert on this. In fact, I'm sure a lot of you out there have already done amazing things and are probably rolling your eyes at this so-called "life lesson" of mine but this really is something that has had a big impact on my life in 2014 and I just wanted to share the insight. At the beginning of this year, I joined the Peer Network at my university. Next month, I'm travelling to Thailand for a one-month volunteering/ambassador trip. Who would've thunk?

2. Get off yo ass and do something meaningful

So while I was in the middle of shoveling bucketloads of horse shit in rural Australia (yeah, that really happened), it finally hit me: I couldn't have picked a worse day to wear my only pair of semi-decent jeans. Also, my life until this point had been an extremely self-centered, privileged existence.

Sure, my family's not exactly well off and yes, we live in a tiny townhouse in one of the more-infamous areas of Western Sydney but seriously, I grew up with a good Australian education and never wanted for anything. And I've never appreciated it enough nor made an effort to help those looking for the same.

(Photo courtesy of Milo aka @theawkwardninja)

Earlier this year, I joined a tutor/mentor program at my university that does high school outreach work in Western Sydney. I thought it was a good way to earn a bit of extra cash and fill up my resume but after a few team meetings, I realised the importance of the work the team were actually doing. Their focus was on overcoming the disadvantages faced by students of immigrant backgrounds and encouraging them to get into university. It was such a good cause and I actually felt proud to be part of something so meaningful. It made me want to do more with my life apart from the old cycle of work/study/spend money/rinse and repeat.

3. Get healthy, bitch

No I didn't throw out all my Red Rock Deli chips and restock my shelves with acai berries and chia seeds. I did start regular exercise though and I tried to cut down on all the fatty, sugary shit that I was eating. I'm not quite sure why I started taking more care of my body to be honest. Nothing major really triggered this but I guess part of me knew that I wasn't exactly living a balanced lifestyle. Plus, I'm not a teenager anymore and my body doesn't have the crazy metabolism that it used to.

It's true but you actually do feel a lot better with exercise and healthy eating. On the days that I did do an hour of cardio or pilates (Blogilates is my bae), I felt way more energetic and confident. I also didn't get that crippling feeling of guilt when treating myself to something since I knew I could try to even it out the next day.

I did fail a little bit in my self control when I went to South Korea. But seriously. Could you blame me?

I felt like shit when I came back though so I got back into the rhythm of exercising and eating healthy. But I take it as a good sign that my body didn't respond well to the junk food.

I also started to do my own grocery shopping...but not out of choice. My parents got lazy and decided to stop...parenting...for a while so I had to do the Woollies runs. At least I got more control over what I was eating?

Seriously though. Mum has barely cooked in over a month. Somebody please adopt me.

4. Don't invest all your time and energy into just the one pursuit

As in, don't just channel all your energy one goal and then forget about all the little things; don't invest all your time into one relationship and neglect all your other friends; don't put all your eggs into one basket..... you get the point.

I guess I was just a lot happier this year because there was always something new to do and keep me interested. It kept me sane and a lot more chill.

(Photo courtesy of Michaela)

Plus, when I'm 80 years old and living with 50 cats in a housing commission, I want to at least have the comfort of knowing that I lived life to the fullest and didn't just sit there on the sidelines while everyone else got to do cool things. I don't just want to talk about interesting people. I want to be one myself.

Hi. As you can probably tell, I've been watching way too much Funforlouis on YouTube.

5. Don't take things for granted / become complacent

We're always being told this but there's no harm in reiterating it here: this year I really understood what it meant to not take things for granted. And by things I mean people, responsibilities, blessings, etc. Pretty self-explanatory so I don't need to say any more. But yes, this too.

6. Take a chill pill

And we've reached the final point on this list and that is: 2014 taught me that everything is temporary. Yes, even happiness, because we're human and we don't stay satisfied for long. But you know what else is temporary? Sadness. Anxiety. The shitty times. As well as the highs, I have had quite a few lows this year, not gonna lie. But you learn to get over it. You move on when you start doing other things and before you know it, it just becomes a blip on your memory. It's such a cliche but you really can control how you feel, or at least how a situation looks like. So like, take a chill pill, watch some cat videos, hang out with people who bring out the best in you. And when you're fine again, get back out there and enjoy life.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal

It's Christmas and believe it or not, I actually do have festive things planned, so I'm just going to make this short. 

Yes, I'm alive! I know I've taken a little bit of a hiatus from blogging but never fear - I'll be back to flooding your dashboards with meaningless drivel and shitty photos soon enough. Here's a photo to prove that I'm walking and breathing:

And here's a video to give this post a little more substance. Because you've reached the end of it.

See? Told you it'll be short. Now go out and make the most of that awkward family Christmas BBQ with the cousins that you only see once a year! 

Odds & Ends #4

1. "Young In Love" by Thelma Plum

(Source)

Haunting, evocative, plus she's Australian. Loved it the very first time I heard it, and that rarely happens. She's definitely one to watch in the next year or so. Thanks Jen, for the recommendation.

2. Mockingjay

Left me with chills. I was not expecting it to be that good. I despised the book so I went in with the least expectations out of all three movies so far. Actually, maybe that was why. 

The production, acting and directing surpassed  anything that came before and I actually found myself sitting on the edge of my seat at times. It probably helped that since the book left me so disappointed, I never bothered reading it more than once and as such, had barely any idea what would happen next.

I especially loved the scenes of rebellion in the other districts. They were so well timed and executed. Still not ecstatic about the Hanging Tree song (mine was better, let's be honest) but I have to admit that it added an extra something to the dam rebellion scene. And the few scenes that we got of Josh Hutcherson (especially the ones near the end) were brilliant.

Any cons? Yes, just one: Gale's face. Just...no.

3. Where can I buy Cards Against Humanity?

Besides ordering it online of course. Can someone help me with this? Where in Sydney do you think I could find a deck?

4. That day my eyelid got bitten by a mosquito while I slept

It happened and I woke up looking like this:

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The first thing I noticed in the morning was that my left eye wasn't opening. It was so swollen that the tiny muscles had locked up around it. Those who know me, know that I get severe reactions to mosquito bites. The areas around the bite tend to swell up for two or three days and turn and maintain a disgusting red, rash-like colour. 

I knew it was going to be a busy day at my internship because of all the media send-outs that were going out so I forced myself to go anyway. So humiliating. You ever tried walking down a busy Sydney street with one eye swollen and red? Pair that together with the epic, plum-sized, purple, highly visible bruise on my knee and the other swollen bites peppering my arm and it looked like I was an unfortunate victim of domestic violence. Either that or I'd gotten into a drunken bar fight and lost. You should've seen all the side glances I was getting waiting at traffic lights. My body hadn't really suffered a beating but the same couldn't be said of my self-esteem.

5. Django Unchained

I watched it recently; mainly for Jamie Foxx. And it was epic because, well Jamie Foxx (and Quentin Tarantino of course). It was so gory in a hilariously gratuitous way and Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio were both great in their roles. At this point, I really just want to see Leonardo DiCaprio win an Academy Award for the sake of watching his speech. I've always imagined that he would walk up the stage to thundering applause (which would go on for five minutes) and at the end of it, he'd simply say, "better late than never" and walk off. Boom. Swag. 

Anyway, highly recommended film if you're just in the mood to see some racist assholes being blown to bits.

6. YouTube Rewind

Because I want to end on a happy, lighthearted note and YouTube = happiness. 

(Source)

Enjoy.

Confessions of a Cheap Asian

Let's make one thing clear: I like money. Money makes the world go round and gets you things; whether it be good food, better clothes, a plane ticket to Tokyo, a donation to your favourite charity or one of these fantabulous solar-powered window socket thingy-ma-jigs. 

It charges your shit using only the energy from the sun. Whuuuuut. 

(Source)

In saying that, by virtue of my cheap Asian genes, I sometimes find myself judging the costs of items by a whole different set of standards than other people. 

I guess it's not something you notice as a child or teenager, especially if the community or suburb you've grown up in is very homogenous. But obviously, when you manage to get out of the fishbowl that is high school and start making your way into "the real world", it doesn't take long for you to realise that you and your perspectives were actually in the minority. 

(By the way, if you're wondering what brought this on, I went to the newly renovated Macquarie Shopping Center today and was basically slapped in the face by Captain Capitalism. It was great. Here are some pictures if you want.)

Anyway, as I was saying, it was only at the beginning of last year that I really understood how frugal of a life my family was living. For example: as a child, we rarely ordered drinks at restaurants and in the instances that we did, it was usually shared. I never saw my mum go out and pamper herself (as in get her nails done or hair fancily styled) or my dad splurge on the things that he wanted. My school uniform was second-hand (passed down from older cousins), we stayed in cheap hotels when on vacation (and by vacation I mean overnight stays at beach towns) and I rarely, rarely bought books to read ('cause that's what libraries are for, duh). 

I'm not saying we didn't have the means to splurge a little. Compared to a lot of families of similar history, we were pretty well off, thanks to my dad's stable job as the computer-fixing guy at a technology company. From my parent's perspective, why spend money when there are cheaper ways to accomplish things? 

Okay, it's not that I was totally oblivious to how different we were from "standard" Australian families. I remember going to my friends' parties during primary school and seeing how large their houses were. I was mind blown by the fact that they had their very own bedrooms and this magical thing called Foxtel on their TV's which let them marathon like 30 million episodes of Spongebob Squarepants at once. 

And who can forget those good old excursion days during high school when us CVH kids would rock up to the Opera House in our ill-fitting, ugly blue jumpers whilst students from other schools would be wearing the whole blazer-plus-tie-plus-plaid-skirt ensemble. 

CVH: We Care...but obviously not about your self-esteem.   

Then university happened and if that wasn't enough of a culture shock, I went and undertook a Communications course.

But let's just stop here before I venture into judgemental territory and say something I don't really mean. 

To get back to my original point, even though I've been earning on my own ever since I left high school (and as such, have the means to actually go out and spend money without any sort of reliance on my parents), my perspective on what is "reasonably-priced" is horribly skewed. And even though I know I could treat myself to something from Zara or Topshop once in a while if I saved up, I still can't bring myself to do it. Furthermore, something as simple as ordering drinks at a restaurant can (occasionally) still feel a bit off despite the rational part of my brain knowing it's NO BIG DEAL AND THE WORLD WILL NOT IMPLODE IF I DO IT OMFG CYNTHIA. 

Anyway, hopefully that's given you all a little bit more insight into the unconventional way my mind works about these things. As you can probably tell from my Instagram and the admittedly insane number of food photos I take, it's mostly a mental as opposed to a physical thing. I can spend money, okay? And if you don't stop me, I will do it well.