The Five-Minute Writer - Day 6 - I’m not writing because ... (And a homework to rephrase it)

I’m not writing because I can’t find the write medium to write. I always see myself as a lover of hard copies, but book is bulky and I can’t always carry an additional notebook on top of my prayer journal and the book that I want to read. My laptop is slow and sometimes I give up just when I’m waiting for it to load. However, throughout this five-minute challenge, I found googledocs useful as I can write my ideas anywhere and my phone is definitely faster than my laptop. Now that I’m comfortable in just writing on googledocs and copy-pasting it on my blog using my phone, I hope my blog won’t be neglected anymore.

The Five-Minute Writer - Day 5 - Things to be happy about

Sight

Looking at the sun rays as I walk through the shortcut to my workplace. It sometimes does not feel like I’m in Singapore when I walk that path every morning

The colours created by the light going through the stain glasses in my parish

When Paul finally reached my place that morning of the wedding day and the first thing he said was,”We are almost late!”

Sound

Spotting the sound of koel

Taste

Eating MacDonalds French fries after a long day at work

Eating tortilla de patatas made by Paul!

(As you can see, I love potatoes)

Munching marshmallows dipped in melted dark chocolate

Touch

Squeezing Paul’s hand in the early morning as I’m half asleep

A hug from some students almost every morning as if I have not met them for ages

Smell

The smell of durian as I walk in unknown places

The Five-Minute Writer - Day 4 - One day with a superpower

Day 4 - How would you like to be invisible for a day?

If I were invisible for a day, I would like to visit my previous workplace. There were some students that I wanted to see, how they have grown and how they have become. I would also take a free airplane ride to my house in Indonesia and take a nap there. Oh well, an extra supernatural ability to teleport will be great and I think I need more than a day.

The Five-Minute Writer - Day 3 - life and kerupuk

Day 3 - connect a concrete noun with an abstract concept

The author asked us to list some concrete nouns and connect them with some abstract concepts.

Concrete nouns

Crackers (Kerupuk)

Kettle

Water bottle

Car

Abstract concept

Life

Hunger

Happiness

Marriage

Life is like a kerupuk. We can just go through it without paying attention to details, or we can be like my grandma, so particular about choosing female fish over male fish to be made into kerupuk (I think it’s female, I need to check with her). According to her, the taste is nicer when she chooses the female fish. When we are mindful on what’s going on in our life, we actually enjoy life more! Sometimes unexpected things happen to our life, just like the kerupuk. Like cats coming to visit dried dough of kerupuk, or cloudy weather that makes our kerupuk unable to dry properly. When we let the heat and the oil burn as we deep fry the kerupuk, it expands and becomes crunchy. Just how our life blossoms in the little heat of suffering here and there.

When I start to feel hungry, I imagine the bubble start forming as it boils in the kettle. I often ignore it initially, but the push of steam can’t be ignored and eventually makes  the kettle whistle. Just like how I end up snapping at people.

Disclaimer: I borrow this analogy from a priest advising about marriage!

Marriage is like buying a new car. The gears need to adjust with each other and you really feel the friction when all the parts are trying to get used to each other. It gets better with time as you use the car and take care of the car. Things become smoother but you need to keep using it and let the parts adjust to each other.

Happiness is like a water bottle. We can’t share the water with others if the bottle is empty. It needs to be filled with the right temperature of our choice. One may choose cold water but maybe for me it is the room temperature water that makes me feel satisfied. Over the years our definition of happiness becomes unique. Just like even though my water bottle is the same with my student’s, I’ve realised mine still has the plastic packaging over the body of the water bottle and my student’s connector between the cap and the body has been broken. Though travel does make me happy, I manage to find happiness in having less money, do less travel, and reading library books during vacation. (Of course I still thrive to save up to travel next time, hahaha)

The Five-Minute Writer - Day 2 - List

The book suggested me to make some lists, but I am going to make my own list this time. Here is one list that came to my mind.

Things to do by 31 December

1. Play with my niece. So far we have made some paper crafts and we tried five minute silent reading. The goal is to extend it to 15 minutes by end of December! I also want to use this time to try new art or craft techniques for my work next year
2. Finish reading the book The Garden of Evening Mists
3. Do the Five-Minute Writer daily
4. Study more about Sensory Processing Disorder. I am currently reading The Ultimate Guide of Sensory Processing Disorder by Roya Ostovar. I would like to take notes too as my goal is to be able to explain well  to people who are unfamiliar about sensory processing issues.
5. Work on some database work that I need to settle for my voluntary work
6. Make new year resolutions and reading list for 2019. This time I need to think carefully how I can get the books and check if the National Library has them.
7. Read another fiction from my 2018 reading list
8. Start jogging again

The Five-Minute Writer - Day 1 - Rituals

My vacation has just started and I have been wanting to do something meaningful this vacation. So I load up my eBook loans on my OverDrive and found “The Five-minute Writer” by Margret Geraghty.
Since I have not been posting anything for the past year, this is a good chance to write again! The author has only around three pages in one chapter and the chapter ends with an exercise to write.

Day 1 Rituals

I have never iron a man’s long sleeve shirt until I got married recently. I turned my husband’s shirt many times and ironed it, yet I found crumples here and there. So I found my solace in Youtube and I watched a particular video two or three times till I remembered the order of ironing the shirt: the collar, the sleeves, the shoulders, the back, and the front; do not forget to iron between the buttons. I make sure the water is always filled full in the steam iron so I can iron the pile of laundry without running out of water in the middle. Oh well, I still run out of water with a few of pieces of clothing left to be ironed. My ironing skill is still not perfect, but I think I’m getting faster. I switch a few favourite things to do while I iron the clothes: from listening to our wedding reception songs to listening to a podcast by Laura Vanderkam on career and family. Disclaimer: my husband does not torture me to do laundry, but he has been the one cooking and preparing breakfast so I think it is right and just for me to iron only once or twice a week!

Running Diary #2 - My First Full Marathon

Full Marathon was a totally different ball game. I cried a bit after I finished because my legs were just so painful. Also, I did not feel immediate satisfying feeling as I finished my half-marathon. The first thing that came to my mind when I finished the marathon was: "Pain!!" "Horrible." "Literally running while aching for the second half of the marathon."

The journey felt lonely at the beginning. I was separated from my friend because of the different pen and different baggage deposit point. I also did not manage to meet Paul first as he arrived much later and still needed to queue for the baggage deposit. At the end I felt it may be a good thing as my friend and I had quite different running styles, and I should not run with Paul because I need to run slower than him to survive the full marathon.

I felt really happy with my first half of the marathon though. I really gained confidence in running half-marathon again. I used the first 3km just as a warm up and I looked at my watch and aim for each km. Bumped into Paul at the 10th km, and felt quite happy to run together a bit before the half- and full-marathon route were split 2km later. Once I passed the 21km, I felt my legs ached, then left ankle started to hurt, then the pain disappeared and right calf was super stiff. I told myself I really wanted to run pass through the finish line, so I walked a few hundred meters-ran-walked along the East Coast Park to lessen the stiffness. It was the hardest part (21-30km), as it was sooo hot and even though the water point was only around 2km apart from each other, it felt so long. My mouth felt so dry. Since I passed the 21km, I drank 1 cup of water + 2 cups of isotonic drink in each drinking point.

However, around the 26th km, I realised that my pain was worsened as I walked, so I tried to jog again super slowly and I told myself, "Hey, I can do this for the next 16km", and that kept me running. I still walked here and there, but not as bad as the first part. I did not look at my watch anymore, and I just tried to finish 1km after another offering up the pain for different intentions. What I did was as I ran passing through different areas, I recalled friends who were related to the buildings. Like when I passed near the Cecil Street in the first half, I offered up that km for my dance buddy because there is a dance studio nearby.

When I passed 39km, I saw Paul at the bus stop! I innocently asked, "Are you going home??" =P (of course he dare not!) He told me not to be deceived as it was still a long way to go, so after he took my smiley photo (the most smiley photo I had throughout the marathon), I decided to walk a bit again.

I think why I didn't feel so satisfied after this marathon was I really wish I had trained more. My longest run was only 16km, and unlike the half-marathon training, I did not manage to build the weekly mileage as the marathon fell straight after the busiest three weeks of end-of-term. However, I am so grateful that I survived. It felt so daunting to see people limping and hear the siren of the ambulance here and there as I ran. I told myself that I will just run marathon once in a while, definitely not every year =P

However, after I saw the result of the marathon, I felt quite happy! I finished in 06:05:43, I was slow but I was quite surprised that just by jogging slowly after 21km, my relative position increased bit by bit. The long run training really helps. When I ran the last 16km, I told myself, "Oh it won't be that bad. It's just like how Paul and I trained from his house to MacRitchie and round and back." For the last 7km, I told myself that it was only the distance between my office and Novena MRT.

It was an interesting experience. I am really motivated to go half-marathon again. As for full-marathon, hmmm, it's really a sacrifice =P So I guess I may not go every year. Firstly, I've seen some people who have knee problems due to running marathon in the past, so I'm quite worried, even though I know friends who run marathon regularly. Secondly, the long run training really takes up our climbing routine :( So unless I am more disciplined to climb another day and run on Sundays, it's a really hard to do both.

I think the biggest lesson for me was it was really a push for myself, mentally and physically. It's very rare that I push myself. I'm quite an easy-to-whine person. I used to complain even though I just ran for 3km. The last time I did push myself was dance camp 5 or 6 years ago. Since then I never pushed myself this much. It might sound crazy but to learn to endure the pain and keep going is a good training. This marathon is not an end, but another training ground. At least from now on I will have more reason not to complain and whine too much if I wear high heels for too long. It's nothing compared to the second half of a full-marathon. Also, it motivates me to really train better and build mileage better next time :) As I really felt my ache came later compared to the half-marathon in which the ache came at the 15th km.

I thank God for this experience :) It was a nice closure for 2017, to have both my first half- and full-marathon.