Author: joycehliting

Marriage and honeymoon!

Published by joycehliting

We’re married! It’s been almost 2 months since we tied the knot. To be honest, nothing much has really “changed” physically or financially. There is however, a sense of “shit, we’re in this together for real now forever, cause we said our vows in front of all our friends and family” and surprisingly, a closeness and affinity that I feel with Reuben now that he’s my official emergency contact / family. I know how incredibly lucky I am to have found somebody I can share my dreams and life with for the rest of my life. It won’t be roses forever, but I’m cherishing every moment of our honeymoon period together. In meantime, here’s a photo from our honeymoon in Croatia!

Grand Canyon and Valley of Fire State Park

Published by joycehliting

Finally posting all my travel pics! Grand Canyon was a long and tiring 4 hour drive from Vegas, with strong winds and ice-y rains. But I’m glad I went and got to see the magnificent Canyon. Just a peek into the views of Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and Valley of Fire 🙂 That’s it! Not a bad way to start 2017, eh?

Hello, CES!

Published by joycehliting

It’s 2017! January’s over but here’s a little look into the crazy ride that was CES. Was interesting to have breakfast in front of the Bellagio, check out the crazy booths from tech companies around the world and experience Vegas for the first time.

What you should know about travel

Published by joycehliting

In a world that increasingly preaches for you to travel, to spend on experiences, quit your job, leave your 9-5 hell, I thought I could share a little perspective on what the actual experience is like. Travelling does not make your problems go away There are two ideas that can make you want to leave to travel for long term. The first idea is that travelling makes everything better, simpler, by taking off to another country. You might imagine that you’d “find yourself”, but in reality you are escaping your life at home. The thought of going home scares you, when you can’t see a long term solution to a major life problem because of the “the pressures of conforming to society” and having to go back to your old ways. These problems continue to haunt you and stick to the back of your mind like an annoying splinter. And you can’t help but feel anxious even when presented with the most beautiful views the world has to offer. I’m sorry to tell you this, but what you will find If you were unhappy …

Why people hate February

Published by joycehliting

Most people like February. It’s a short month and in Singapore, it’s Chinese New Year. But in particular, I think it serves as a sad reminder that January has come and gone. And the realisation that the resolutions that you made might not come to pass. I’ve started working on my 5000 word fiction story. It’s based on a story I heard today from an old secondary school friend. It’s inspired by a true crime based in Singapore. I want to share it with you soon. In meantime, here’s the crazy thing I did in January. Riding G-Max with my dear friend, Valerie.  

Reflecting on 2015 and new beginnings

Published by joycehliting

I can’t believe it’s 2016. Last year on this day, we were on a train back to Taipei from Hsinchu, in Taiwan. Lugging a backpack with all the belongings I’d needed, getting ready to finally come back home to Singapore and start my next adventure. It’s been a tough year emotionally. Mainly because I didn’t keep promises I made to myself. There have been many great opportunities and transitions in 2015, and if I had to give a theme to my life this year, it’d be “The Year I Settled Back In Singapore. For Good.” It’s strange because I thought that long-term travelling doesn’t really change you. But it did, it made me see that no matter where I was I could be doing what I’d actually wanted to do in Singapore, with abundant opportunity and no stress of having to cover for rent. It’s where my family, my friends, Reuben is. There is no urge for me to leave right now. It’s mostly about analysis-paralysis, my fear of failure and procrastination. Philosophy has been a major source …

My Ideal Home: Berlin Inspired Apartments

Published by joycehliting

Now that Reuben and I are in the process of getting a new place, I’m obsessed with surfing home decor websites. We applied for a tiny 3-room HDB flat at Joo Seng Road, not far away from my parents’ place. After sleeping in strangers’ apartments around the world for a year, you’d think it’d be easy for me to decide what style I’d want to go for. But there are so many choices out there that I can’t really put my finger on it – Japanese Zen, Scandinavian Chic (this seems particularly popular at the moment), Minimalist / Essentialist / Quirky / Eclectic. It seems that I’ve gotten it all wrong. It hit me that this was a great opportunity for me to re-create a space that I’d always wanted to live in, even though I couldn’t physically be in the country. Then it struck me – hands down, it would be Berlin. Berlin? Yes, Berlin. From the minute I stepped into the youthful, spirited, hipster capital of Germany, I knew this would be one of the …

Twelve Crazy Things in 2016

Published by joycehliting

It just hit me that it’s 2016 next year. The final year of my 20s. Yes, I’ll be 29 in 2016. To commemorate the blast of a ride I’ve had, I’ve decided to list 12 crazy/things-I’ve-always-wanted-to-do-but-haven’t in 2016. I’ll do one thing a month. Sounds do-able, right? Here are my 12 things for 12 months of 2016: Update: 2.30am, Friday, 23 September. Dye my hair a totally different and new color I’ve never had. Get red / grey highlights. Just cause. (Done) Learn how to draw. I signed up for a Visual Diary Workshop by Public Garden: http://www.public-garden.com/projects/workshop/visual-diary-travellers-workshop-goh-huiying-0 (Done) Write everyday for a month and publish it here. It could be a sentence. A paragraph. An essay. But write. I. Must. (TO DO) Write a 5,000 word short story or essay. (WIP) Go sky diving in New Zealand. (Went to NZ but didn’t skydive – half done, will have to do Sentosa version instead) Register a company. Any company. (TO DO) Learn how to cook 5 fancy dishes properly. (WIP) Ngoh Hiang // Pork Lasagne // Udon Noodles …

Society’s Crazy Demands Of Our Generation

Published by joycehliting

Society’s demands on our generation are crazy. I graduated at age 24, slightly older than my peers because I spent an extra year in university for exchange programs. I’m 28 now, just shy of 2 years to hitting the big 30, but it made me think a lot about what I’m expected to achieve by then. I’ve always thought of 30 as a definitive milestone in life. This is the age where you are supposed to know what you want to do with your life. By now you are expected to have found a life partner, bought a house, get married, have your first kid, achieved some sort of career milestone, lived out all your crazy adventures such as travelling the world, or exited your startup by selling it for millions. Maybe it’s because of the pressure from friends that I hang out with, or the people I look up to, but damn, that’s a lot to have accomplish by 30. When I look at what I’ve done, it’s easy to feel dejected. Wtf have I achieved? I haven’t started …

Welcome to November

Published by joycehliting

Welcome to November. My plans to have read more this year have gone severely awry. But one of the things that have disappointed me the most is that I’ve failed to read more. I’ve been making it a point to read more fiction instead of the regular self-help books. I just finished Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In my head I kept picturing the voices as they were in the movie, but I realised that there were so many details left out from the wonderful book because of time. Jane Austen had such a clear, critical perspective of life in her days. In Mr. Darcy’s pride, you recognize that money can’t buy everything, particularly, Elizabeth’s respect at the start of the book. It’s only towards the end, when he started acting out of love to help her that they grew fond of each other and won her heart. For Elizabeth, her prejudice against him made her blind to the wrongs that Darcy had had to endure with Mr. Wickham, and in the end it was her own sister that …