My 27th at Prive

I feel very very very lucky.

better phase

It's been 3 weeks so far, to my new work arrangement.
And seriously, things are pretty swell.
From being highly stressed and strung, i am glad to report my stress levels have plunged to near-zero.
No one bothers me in the office anymore.
I show up, do my stuff, chit chat, and then leave.
No expectations, no politics, just doing my stuff and earning my keep.
Which is what work should be all about in the first place.

At home, things are great too.
Have signed Marco up for his weekly playgroup class, which is tonnes of fun for him and me.
I find it odd why this is not common among Chinese/local mothers...
cos everyone in the group is an expat except us.
And we've been to at least 3 different ones.
Oh well, their loss.

Have also booked a trip to Bali in October, after Marco turns ONE.
That was the highlight of last week, as we took days to decide on the villa/area we wanna go.
It will be 4 days of bliss in our villa-with-a-private-pool. Fantastic.

My surly temper has gone.
Terence has resumed his normal working hours.
Marco is super glued to me.
All great.

Almost too good to be true.

Incredible. So all this while, my work was the No. 1 culprit behind all that chaos & stress?

Body Envy

I surfed and I surfed, and one thing led to another...and I found myself at the GQ magazine website.

Pretty cool, lots of good features...and then... a great editorial of Gisele.

I'm hardly a fan of men's mags...but I gotta say, Gisele looks hot here.

And so does Jennifer Aniston.

Oh, what would I give for their bodies?
The thing is, I remember being proud of my body once, not too long ago.

Now, it's just one flabby mess.

I used to be more toned, and my body, my legs could carry me way over 5km at a stretch.

I was proud of it for working hard, pumping hard when I needed it to.

For being languid and fluid when i do yoga, and tough and spirited when i run with the wind.

Now, my daily exercise is...sadly, zilch.

I no longer run, or do yoga.

Instead of a toned shape, it's just one round blub.

The weird thing is, I haven't put on much weight, and my weight is still much the same as before.

But I look different, feel different....

This is what being a slouch does to you.

You feel...like a fat slouch all over.

Everything doesn't fit the way it used to.

Everything feels different.

I need a 10km run to wake me out of this slumber.

p/s: Doesn't help the self-esteem with Gisele and Aniston staring me in the face.

And of cos, I've checked out the new Kate Moss collection.

Tried this red dress on.... can only say, it looks way better on Kate than on me.

parenting

A great article on motherhood from The Times.

Motherhood is a very very strange & ironic phase of one's life.

It brings out, ironically at the same time, the best [protective, maternal, caring, kind, nesting] and worst [ overprotective, demanding, perfectionist, clean freak, impatient, grouchy] in you.

It is both a calming, humbling yet rocky period in your life.

Everything seemingly dwiddles down to a routine, yet is highly disruptive & temperamental.

There are just 2 sides of everything, just as your kid can be impossibly adorable & alarming (!) at the same time.

But I guess, such as much is life.

It just takes motherhood to bring it to almost an art.

It's true that parenting can be very trying and tiring, especially when you are young and there seems so much more to do than caring 24/7 for someone.

But in about a year, when I am still relatively young, my son will be of an okay age to do a lot of things with me. Yes, including travelling, shopping, going for coffee sessions with friends, running, cycling, swimming, to the gym etc.

Kids bring so much colour and innocence to our world.

I think every bitch [ or boss] in the world needs to have a kid, if only to have a lil balance in their lives, and a lot of perspective.

They actually teach us as much, if not more, as we, them.