Category: State of Sarah

Giving Up

Firstly, happy International Women’s day. I am a woman. Happy me (?)

Secondly, it’s raining once more. Sheesh, I keep writing about the rain but last weekend. Upon a Sunday, it was raining so heavily and the Saturday night prior, I was watching a Malaysian movie called Imaginur (it’s really good and feels, if you have the opportunity to watch it, go for it!) and went home around 11pm or so?

It was considered ‘late’ to me but to wake up in the morning of a rainy Sunday at 8am, I went “Meh…” because I had booked a session at the Gympod. Instead of letting the slot go because I do know the ‘balance’ of is it worth wasting your money or your time, I checked and I could swap the time around to evening instead.

If I gave up, I would have just not gone to my gym session, instead I made the effort to at least swap it to a different time but still do it.

Which worked because it rained much heavier after I swapped the booking while in bed and it would have been horrible to travel all the way to the specific gym location I go to.

Yet, AUGH I could have just given up. Yet I didn’t. Which is totally different from quitting or knowing when to stop and restart.

For one thing, I always “stop” and not go to events or exercise sessions or training sessions if I’m not feeling good that day. It’s totally a different feeling and it’s a NO don’t do it because in general, I would also have to be considerate and think about the safety in others. If I’m not feeling good, it’s not safe to continue, thus try another day.

But giving up is different in my definition. There’s a sense of “You can do it but you choose not to because you just don’t wanna” for me.

Then there’s quitting, quitting because I know something is not going to work out and that should be ‘quick’ because that means I’ll try ANOTHER way. It’s a cut losses, you know this won’t work so let’s find an alternative method because… we aren’t giving up.

So are you the type that gives up, do the stop and restart or quit and find a different method kind of person?

Meanwhile, it’s annoying.

One of the reasons I keep on training is not the adults, no no. It’s ESPECIALLY the children. Like thanks. If they want to keep seeing me in a ring or stage and such, well. I can’t disappoint them can I? They are highly likely not able to read my blogposts or social media stuff but they’ll be able to pop up whenever their parents bring them along.

And if it’s just for the one kid or whomever that says, I wanna see you there or gets all “GASP!! It’s a girl!” like Anya from SpyXFamily all excited with her Waku waku-s…

Then sheeesh, I got to work on for it, won’t I?

Song of this post recommendation, listen to Tuyu’s song. Click CC for English subtitles!

It’s raining today and probably tomorrow

It has been such a wet season. It’s raining almost daily ever since my post about going to the Istana during the holidays. It’ll only be sunny for a just a few hours and then back to rainy skies once more.

Having a dryer at home is really useful during this season. In the news it had said we were supposed to have sunny skies by this time in February but I guess, global warming’s affecting it.

Continue reading It’s raining today and probably tomorrow

First Hijabi Pro-Wrestler in Singapore

I’m not the first female Singaporean pro-wrestler, that’s definitely Alexis Lee.

I’m not the first hijabi pro-wrestler, that’s very much Nor ‘Phoenix’ Diana.

But I’m very certain I’m the first Singaporean hijabi pro-wrestler.

Sarah is blocking flames with her buckler and holding a sword
Photo by Mezame

So hi, if you haven’t known me yet. It’s me, Sarah. And I’m very sure you might have a mutual who knows me if you don’t know me yet especially if you live in Singapore because we’re indeed a small country.

Note: This post is pretty long so I’ll break it up in a few sections

  • The First Appearance
  • The Second Appearance
  • The ‘Last’ Appearance
  • Behind the Outfit
  • What’s Next for Sarah in Wrestling?
Continue reading First Hijabi Pro-Wrestler in Singapore

Finding Me

All this talk about finding another twitter equivalent such as Mastodon (I don’t know what that is), or going back to Tumblr (I know what that is) and retreating to even Facebook or instagram after that person bought over twitter made me go huh.

For now twitter’s the easiest to shout into the void. But because of that, well, let’s not get into it right now because of why people want to leave it, there’s plenty of articles out there talking about it. If you don’t know, that’s ok.

This is about finding me.

I’m not ‘leaving’ its platform yet but I want you to know there’s a reason why I kept the same online name although at times, I might cringe because it sounds pretty chuuni when stated out loud. (Short version: It’s based on an original character.)

It’s obviously not my real name but it’s something I’ve stuck to. I’ve see the cycles of the internet to know that not everything is forever. We can try to make things last, that’s the dream. (Which is why also decentralized data intrigues me especially E T H but this isn’t that kind of article.)

But nothing is forever when you don’t have control of it. Heck, even if you have control of it, it might not be forever but you’d have that glimpse of a chance of knowing how long it might last.

And that’s why I like to cast something akin to a digital spell. Like faery tales and stories, you have power in a name. And that’s why, I’ve made sure that whatever platform it is, if something happens, you’ll still be able to find me. Like a trail to a lighthouse, you’ll find me since I’ve left the trail for you, if you need to find me.

I know not everyone needs to find me, but. If you need to, the track is there and if you do know me, and are a mutual who wants to find everyone else if anything happens, well.

Start here.

The Old Normal

Sunset over the highway by Sarah in a bus
Sometimes I take the bus to Suntec to just get to see the sunset.

Since the end of 2019 we had been adapting to the New Normal. Can we just call the normal, normal now? I mean, it’s already at least three years.

This. Whatever we have now, is normal.

And since I live in Singapore, not much surprises me in terms of how we need to adapt. Of course, there will be that stubbornness of “Why can’t we do it like before?” and “Can’t we just… not do it?”.

But whatever, we need to suck it up, move forward and make the changes as we go.

I do look back at that pre-2019 times. And the ‘good old days’ which had its moments. Since we can’t go back it doesn’t mean we can’t bring elements of it into now.

I remember I used to post on livejournal nearly daily and over here on this blog it was every Monday a post. And it was fun. And especially since blogging is on a ‘decrease’… it means not many people are going to read this and thus…

I’m going to write whatever I want over here especially since this is my blog.

In 2022, blog posts aren’t in. It’s all instastories, instagram pictures, tiktok videos. Short bite sized stuff or heck, even podcasts.

AND I AM GOING TO RELISH THIS. Because if you’re reading this, then well. It really is up to you to read it. No one’s forcing you to read it.

So hello to you all. Old readers and new. What are you going to do this year?

Do you remember that people can actually comment on blogposts?

What is going to be your normal?

It’s 2022

Yes, it’s 2022 and it’s already past the middle of February. I don’t think people will actively notice my blogposts nowadays since it’s a different social media game.

It’s all about instagram and tiktoks but there are article based blogs still. Just that many are very very into the hustle and whatnot.

I miss the days of where you get random blog posts of thoughts and whatnot and hey, this is my blog so at least I can do that here.

With the rise of mobile usage, the kind of posts are different too. I’d usually put a ‘read more’ cut to save people’s data or space but I don’t think I have to do it nowadays since the web is seen or loaded differently on devices compared to back then in the early 2000s.

Wow.

That’s a long time, isn’t it?

But I’m here to say, hey everyone. I’m still around. Maybe you’ll see me experiment more on youtube for my content.

Still.

Sometimes, it’s just easier to read things instead of watching them, isn’t it?

Ramadan Day 1

It’s the first day of Ramadan or rather the fasting month.

Mee soto

The first buka puasa at home was mee soto. And today is a slightly rainy day though it got sunnier near evening.

The same day last year, it was day 7 of our circuit breaker and I was doing fitness boxing over the nintendo switch.

It’s been at least a year since our circuit breaker in 2020 where we had to work from home and not go anywhere. Now, we can go out but masks are compulsory.

We have trace together tokens and apps to use and SafeEntry QR codes before entering a mall or any place really.

But then, in 2020. The stats was:

13 April 2020 stats

New cases: 233

Imported: 0

Local cases linked: 66

Pending contact tracing: 167 (16 SG citizens/PR, 10 work pass, 141 work permit)

Total cases: 2532

Hospitalized: 976 (31 in the ICU)

In community facilities: 988

Fatalities: 8

Total discharged: 560 (discharged on 13 April 2020: 32)

Now our stats are configured not to say the whole total but the current update since it is more useful to us after 1 year.

13 April 2021 stats:

0 cases in the community

14 imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore.

We’ve done okayish, don’t you think? Vaccines are being rolled out in stages and I’ll be able to book for mine when I can do so.

What do I miss out most is that I still can’t take short cuts. Like how there is that door on the upper levels of Nex shopping mall that leads straight to the overhead bridge.

Now I have to ‘manually’ go out to the first level of the overhead bridge to take it.

Oh, we have Singaporediscover vouchers too. In which we can spend $100 given by the government to stimulate our own local tourism. I plan to do mine with bungee jumping after Hari Raya. It expires in June and there are campaigns and news articles about how people aren’t spending theirs.

Well… People would spend them if they actually had time to book… But this post is about the current state of the now for future people to read on about so we’ll leave it as that.

 

It’s been at least 3 or 4 ‘free’ masks from the vending machine that we could collect from Temasek Foundation. Those had been really useful. I like the DET30 mask most, the design is pretty good compared to the rest but with each time we get a new mask, the design or features are improved.

It may be Ramadan but it isn’t as ‘quiet’ as last year though we still won’t have those big pasar malams. Shops are being online and you can tune in to sales on facebook.

Day 28 of Circuit Breaker

Hello everyone, in Singapore it’s finally day 28 of the circuit breaker here. This post is really the shortest summary of what has happened lately.

For future people reading this, the circuit breaker is not really a lockdown but not really the same as Malaysia’s Movement Control Order.

We started ours on 7 April 2020 and it was first with the increase of work from home things, cinemas and entertainment places closed.

Continue reading Day 28 of Circuit Breaker

Just some reading

A book called Traitor's kiss by Erin Beaty

The objective is to chill.

Well, a balance of ‘chilling’ and work. I have returned to reading my books at a pace where I can do it while things render.

I probably could try knitting too but reading at least gives me some imagination budget too for my own stuff.

Anyway Traitor’s Kiss by Erin Beaty is exciting, lots of misunderstandings, espionage and observation. In all, I enjoyed it. It reminds me of young adult fantasy books by Tamora Pierce and I do like those kinds of books.

Continue reading Just some reading