Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

‘Money, money, money, must be funny, in the rich man’s world’.  I believe even if someone isn’t a fan of Abba, he/she may still have heard this piece of lyric. Gosh, wouldn’t we all love to be rich or financially free.

We’re already in the month of September, and Summer is slowly slipping away. We’d usually start turning on the heaters sometime in November. But the weather has already started to turn cold lately that we are contemplating on turning on the heaters a wee bit earlier. Which means that we need to spend money on the heating much earlier too.

Also, since we are going to the weekend house in the country more often these days, there too we have to spend money. On the house basically. New vaccuum cleaner (so that we don’t have to carry the one from home all the time), install an electric heater (burning wood for heating has become too troublesome - plus not too eco friendly I think), install some cellular shades for the windows perhaps, and also some tools for the garden.

Not to mention now that the Ipod touch 4 is out, I need to get it. LOL All of which needs money.If only money grows on trees, I’d happily be a money tree planter. Wouldn’t we all now?

We just came back from  the weekend house. No internet, no computers, no television. Other than enjoying the outdoors, the only thing I could do was study. We’ve finally approached the last lesson in the Genki I book. So I revised back all that we’ve learnt so far. I even made myself write the kanji characters over and over. I’ve learnt 100 over kanjis so far, but the only ones that I can remember well are only about 101. That’s an achievement I think, for someone who is having a hard time learning them.

Kanji is pretty intersting to learn. And I believe, the more characters you learn, you will realize that some characters are just a combination of 2 or more of other kanji characters. The more you see them often the more easier to remember. (Just like most things.)

Other than writing over and over on paper, I also have the “Tadashii Kanji Kaki to Rikun” for NDS. It is a DS game application that is targeted for the Japanese students who are learning to write. There are hiragana, katakana and kanji writing drills. At first it was a little bit difficult to navigate through since it is only in Japanese. But once you get the hang of it, this game can be a real good tool for learning Japanese writings.

Well, 101 kanjis down 2000 over more to go. Learning a language can be an uphill journey, but with the right motivation, and proper tools, the climb would be a lot easier. Hopefully, in less than 10 years, I will have my own custom business cards as a private Japanese language teacher. :p Well, that’s my ‘dream’. Now, I’m still on the journey to achieving that dream.

We did this little exercise in my Japanese class a week ago, asking each other about our future plans. What we’d do with our Japanese when we can speak the language one day. Interestingly, I haven’t thought about it thoroughly. I’ve no serious thought yet on what I’d do with my Japanese. (If I manage to speak it yet) Well, it be interesting to be a translator or perhaps a teacher also. 

It is nice to know that no matter at what stange in life you are in, you still can re-invent yourself. There are so many people going back to medical assistant school to become health care assistants, language schools to increase job opportunities, get a phd for a promotion etc. As for me, I’m learning Japanese for….. Hmm. Need to have a clear set of goal. For now it is between a translator and a teacher.

Hopefully, I will be able to figure it out in the near future.

Due to bad weather, we had to change plans again. So yesterday we went to see some sharks at the big aquarium. It’s where we can see all sorts of underwater animals and a few other tropical animals.

As usual, I took many pictures and videos with my FZ 28.

When ever I watch videos taken with my camera, I feel glad that I had taken the time to read all those camera reviews before buying. I only had one compact camera prior to this. I would love to try a DSLR camera, but I think starting with a prosumer camera would be better for me who doesn’t know much about photography.

My husband had his two weeks holiday approved and we had already used up one week. Staying at home. We cancelled Croatia. He had a mole in the middle of his chest that had to be removed. So the past few days he was at the doctor - check up, reffered to, and finally the small surgery. Waiting for the results to come in within 2 weeks time. Hope it isn’t something serious.

Now depending on his ability to drive, we will go to Nograd county for a week. A weekend house located in a village somewhere up North of Budapest. Plan to just have quiet evenings in the garden, read books, and barbeque in the evenings. Well, just hope that at least this would work as planned.

This is a picture of the sky I took a couple of days ago. The sky was so blue and filled with white puffy clouds.

It has been really warm these past few days that we would only go out in the evenings when it is cooler. For me, being in the summer months is like going through a quick weight loss program. All because I drink more water because of the heat so tend to eat less too. Or perhaps it is true that one would lose appetite in hot weather.

I don’t mind losing weight but I do mind the heatwave. Sometimes it can be pretty unbearable. The only comfort one would have is the thought that it would only last a few weeks.

Being consistent is one of the keys to success. That I was told and I noticed from those who are good at doing something. Even if one has 20 minutes of free time a day and he/she utilizes it for doing an ab workout, after some months I suppose it wouldn’t be dangerous to say that the person would be guaranteed a slim flat tummy.

However, consistency is a discipline that many of us do not possess. Including myself. I started learning Japanese for a year now, more or less. But I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t been consistent. Well, that is one reason I enrolled myself in a Japanese class. At least the routine would make me study consistently. I have been in the Japanese class for 4 months now. I have to say I have made more progress in the 4 months than the other 6 months that I studied alone. Was it because of the class or coaching? I don’t think so. Because we follow Genki I, 100%. It’s consistency.

I am a the pc game Sims fan. One of the features in the game is being able to buy traits for your Sim after you’ve collected enough happiness points. I just wonder if only in real life it is something like that. I would buy myself the consistency trait.

July has always been a favourite month of mine. Most probably because I was born in July. It is my birthday month. A Summer child. Every year when I feel like getting something big  for myself it would usually be in July. But since earlier this year I already got myself a new laptop, I will have to wait till December to treat myself to a nice present.

I would usually look forward to July every year. But this year it is different and so will it be every year from now on I suppose. This year is the last year I am in my 20’s. My friends would say, we’re entering the 3 series. LOL Well, sucks to get old even though you feel you haven’t change that much… within. Suddenly I feel like time passes us by swiftly. I cringe at the thought that perhaps one day I’d have to look for best age spot remover.

Well, that is life indeed…

Japanese tutor is going off on a holiday for 2 weeks. However the next class we will be having a replacement tutor. A man tutor who would be teaching us in Japanese as the teaching medium. I’m okay with it since we will be going off on a 2 weeks holiday sometime next month, so it’s okay to learn as much as we can now. We’re only in Lesson 9, 4 more lessons to go to finish the Genki 1 book.

As for our holidays, it is still not confirmed yet where we would go, even though we already have in mind a few places worth going to. I’m already looking for information on these places. Checking the hotel rates on quotation sites just like one of those insurance quotes websites. Checking out tripadvisors for things to do and places to visit.

Scouring information about our trip has already put me on a holiday mode and less mood on studying and classes. But classes continues, so I must keep myself focused on my studies.

Every two weeks or so we would go to visit grandma to help her with garden work. Today it took me more than about 2 hours with little rest to cut the grass in the garden.  Then later, raking the grass and collect the twigs and branches to be burnt later. If you ask me, I’d say intensive working in the garden can be a quick weight loss workout.

Mom-in-law, gave a call just to ask whether we are having any sore muscles from all the work. Well, so far I don’t have any sore muscles yet… Let’s see how it is tomorrow.