Sunday, February 23, 2014

Goals & KPIs

My new year's resolution is to achieve 12 goals/projects by the end of 2014. One of them is this blog. The other 11 will be blogged.. haha. At point of writing, only 6 have been defined. With Mr. Husband away at work, I can now focus on achieving these goals.

Goal #1: Read the Quran daily (or almost daily and "khatam" at least once)

Truthfully, I have not started this yet. After several attempts to purchase one here (silly me for not bringing a copy over), I resorted to asking my mom/brother to send a copy over. Although I know copies are available online, I do like reading the hardcopy - even for normal books. More on this later.

Goal #2: Sew clothes (e.g. blouse)

Before arriving in Sydney, I successfully completed a blouse in 13 hours. Since this goal was achieved very early in the year (my empress cut turned peplum blouse was completed on 28/1/2014), I decided to expand this goal further. I am now working on a scrub cap (the kind you see on Grey's Anatomy & Scrubs) and hopefully a baju kurung Kedah.

Goal #3: Be comfortable in the kitchen

Initially, I was going to name this goal "Learn how to cook decent meals" when I realized I can cook especially when I have recipes at hand to follow. Whether it tastes nice or not, that's a different story altogether :p 

I am just not COMFORTABLE in the kitchen. After 2 weeks of constant cooking, I can say I am more comfortable in the kitchen and I can further improve on this. I am just not sure how I will measure this goal. Any suggestions?

Goal #4: Sort & Print my wedding pictures

Hahaha.. it's been nearly a year since I got married and my pictures are still not sorted nor printed. I am not referring to the wedding highlights - those were ready 6 months after the wedding. I am referring to the other pictures that would generate more interest among the relatives & family members - the ones where they appear in it (nope, they are not interested in the storybook version).

I am just too lazy to go through the 3000+ pictures (with digital, everyone's trigger happy these days).

Goal #5: Sort, Print & Arrange pictures from my Scandinavian trip (include write up)

This trip took place way before the wedding. In fact it probably led to the wedding as they say, absense makes the heart grow fonder.. heh heh. This goal is much easier to achieve as opposed to Goal #4 as I would be happy reliving the memories of the trip (not that I am not happy to relive the wedding moments, just that no one is trigger happy here).

Goal #6: Maintain a blog

m-e-o-w has been around for many years. It started off with Multiply and now it's on blogspot.
A few years back, m-e-o-w went into hibernation. With many changes and firsts taking place in 2014, now is the best time for m-e-o-w to wake up and get going again.

The target is to have a minimum of 12 entries. I seem to be on track to achieving this goal. Today's entry is already the third one. Yay!

Update 28/3/2014: I have since re-branded my blog to Lyn, Life Explorer and will focus more on life's (experiences, observations and self-realisations).

Goals #7 - #12: To be defined

I don't want to rush into this as these are personal goals (unlike work related goals where your bonus is tied to it). At the end of the day, these goals are meant to help me grow and improve myself on a personal level - be it knowledge or skills. As soon as they are defined, I will update them here.

I will share the progress of my goals by blogging about it from time to time. In the meantime, have a great Sunday!


Friday, February 14, 2014

Maintaining a routine (with adjustments)

Today is not only Valentine's Day & Chap Goh Meh, it also marks 2 weeks since leaving home. We arrived with 80kgs of baggage (60kgs checked in & 20kgs of cabin baggage) with no place of our own. 

The biggest concern was to look for a place to rent ASAP. Lucky for us, we managed to rent a place within the first week of our arrival here. The next few days were spent assembling furniture, furnishing the house etc. With setting up house nearly done, I decided to get back into my KL routine (sans work of course).

First thing on the list is to read news.. except I am not sure if I should read Malaysian news or Down Under news. If the latter, where should I source my news from? Hahaha.. I decided to continue reading Malaysian news and just get local news from TV.

Next would be the TV shows - yes, this is a major decision for me now, see what my priorities in life these days are? Hahaha... What are the channels should I watch? I do not have cable TV and totally dependent on free tv. At this moment, I have been watching TV shows that were premiered when I was in Form 2 e.g. Beverly Hills 90210, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Star Trek etc. Can't seem to find the latest comedies/sitcoms. I also watch a lot of the Winter Olympics Live Telecast. Someone please.. tell me what are the channels I should be watching :D

I am also attempting to be active again in my whatsapp chat groups. Not easy due to the time difference. When I am ready for bed, everyone else is just off work and ready to be chatty. When I am awake and chatty, everyone else is still in bed. Must find a way to work this one out :p

Other than maintaining a routine, I also managed to do the touristy stuff. Yesterday, we took a walk along Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach. It was probably a 4km walk under the scorching sun (to me) except you feel like you are walking in an air-conditioned room due to the cool winds. Needless to say, I am now tanned.
Bondi Beach on a Thursday - these people seem happy to be working on a tan.
Today, we took another long walk.. this time to Mrs Macquarie's Point (located closed to the Botanical Gardens if not within) to check out the view of the harbour and also her chair. Since we were walking in an "air-conditioned" environment, the walk was a pleasant one despite my shoe trying to kill my heel and big toe. Along the way, there is a lovely view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Radiance of the Seas (ship)
Along the way, we saw many couples having their Valentine's picnic -- something you would not see in KL (not only couples will have face the heat from the sun, they would probably have to face religious authorities as well). We ended our walk at the Opera House. With all this walking, I do hope there will be positive changes in weight (lighter) and shape (slimmer)!

Monday onward, a new routine will take place - Mr. Hubby starts work and I can finally focus on my other 11 projects (some are identified, some are not).

Have a great weekend all.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

We moved Down Under

Sunny day at Sydney Harbour Bridge

I thought it would be USA but ended up in AUS. Still the same letters, just different in different positions. Making our big move on the 1st day of Chinese New Year, this year will be full of firsts for the both of us.

My resolution this year is to complete 12 goals/projects in 2014 - roughly 1 project a month. One of these include having an active blog. I have not decided how often my entries would be and I will not stress myself by having a rigid update blog schedule. Hahaha.. this is obviously an escape clause for me. 

I have not explored Sydney much except for the shopping malls (mainly the household departments) as am busy setting up house. I did join the I'm Free Sydney Walking tour (http://www.imfree.com.au/) and had a great time walking approx 10km. The finale of the tour is a clear view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (I snapped the picture above) and the Opera House (no picture as the view was blocked by a HUGE ocean liner!).

That's all for tonight. While writing this post, I decided in order for me to know if I have met this goal, I must have at least 12 entries (this being the first). 11 more to go.