Cloudy day for study

It's a Saturday, the first day of exam block for 2014. It's fairly cloudy and windy outside, which makes me want to snuggle up in bed and play pokémon. Alas, music study awaits. I'm trying hard to focus and minimise distractions by studying on the carpet and having my computer and music switched off - not enough to get me away from my phone though. Updating my Google Keep notes and downloading the Blogger app seems way more fun than reading and memorising.

I'd better get on with it though. I've got to keep with my study schedule which I've been following strictly so far. If I stay with it ill be on top of my study and exam block will be a much more pleasant experience. I feel like I'm on working holidays, at home,  but studying. It's good in a way - can't wait to go on holidays and travel! I'll be on an adrenaline rush the whole time because I'm not going to be gone for long. There's the light at the end of the tunnel. Just have to keep on swimming :)

Psychology today: 6 sure signs of a healthy relationship

I've never reposted anything before, but this seemed like an interesting enough read for me to share.

All relationships are different, but scientific research has shown that certain patterns tend to emerge in healthy, stable, successful partnerships. Take a look at this evidence to evaluate your own relationship—or to gain some tips on how to foster happiness, attachment, love, and satisfaction in your partnership:


1. People in thriving relationships take on their partner's habits, interests, and mannerisms. Have you ever noticed how friends can change when they’re in a relationship? After dating for a little while, they pick up new goals and interests (You went hiking?); new and quirky turns of phrase (Did you really just say “awesomesauce”?); or new habits (When did you start drinking soy milk?). All of these changes, if they reflect habits of a new partner, are signs of self-other overlap, the process of integrating a romantic partner into the self (Aron & Aron, 1996). Self-other overlap is a sign of cognitive interdependence and predicts closeness, love, and relationship maintenance behaviors (Aron & Fraley, 1999), all characteristics of a thriving relationship.


2. In thriving relationships, partners support each others’ opportunities for growth.  Fresh-off-the-press evidence suggests that people are more satisfied in their relationships when their partners actively support their efforts to expand their own horizons (Fivecoat, Tomlinson, Aron, & Caprariello, 2014). It’s a wonderful feeling to grow by taking on a new challenge like training for a half marathon or learning digital photography. These opportunities benefit the person experiencing self-growth, but also boost the relationship—that is, if the other partner is offering active affirming support—through comments like, “I bet you’ll be really good at that,” rather than passive remarks like, “Sounds alright" (p.7). The differential effect of active and passive support is evident primarily in on-going long-term relationships rather than new relationships.


3.  Couples in thriving relationships share their emotions.It’s not enough just to talk with a partner; couples in thriving relationships engage in emotional self-disclosure—the communication of thoughts and ideas with another person. People might easily reveal facts about themselves to others, but sharing private thoughts, reactions, and feelings is a pathway to a deeper connection with a romantic partner, especially when that partner is an engaged listener. Laurenceau and colleagues (1998) showed that emotional self-disclosure to a responsive partner generates intimacy, an important component of healthy relationships. 

4. Partners in thriving relationships engage in frequent non-sexual touch.
Physical touch can take many forms, but the importance of affectionate touch outside of sexual intimacy is often overlooked, despite its active role in supporting relationship health. Couples who engage in frequent physical affection—hugging, kissing on the face, kissing on the lips, massage, or cuddling—tend to be happier and more satisfied with their relationship (Gulledge, Gulledge, & Stahmann, 2003). This research also showed that while affectionate touch didn’t predict the amount of conflict couples experience, people who offered and welcomed non-sexual physical affection reported having an easier time recovering from conflict.

5. Individuals in thriving relationships pay less attention to other attractive people.A fascinating study revealed that the kind of relationship commitment that appears in thriving relationships activates an implicit attentional block against the allure of attractive alternative partners (Maner, Gailliot, & Miller, 2009). In a series of studies, Maner and colleagues primed heterosexual participants with a mating motive and then compared how single participants and participants in committed relationships performed on a computer task that measured their attention to attractive opposite-sex faces. Turns out that the participants in committed relationships paid less attention to the attractive alternatives. Love, it seems, provides an automatic defense system that helps keep people attentive to their current romantic partner.

6. In thriving relationships, couples see the positive sides of commitment.New evidence shows that romantic commitment is multifaceted, reflecting positive, negative, and constraining elements, and how people view their commitment predicts the quality of their romantic relationship (Weigel, Davis, & Woodard, 2014). This study revealed that individuals who tend to perceive their relationship as rich with positive commitment (joy, fulfillment, belonging) tend to relate less negative commitment (worry, irritation, hurt) and less constraint commitment (feeling tied down, stuck, stifled)—and they tend to be much more satisfied in their relationships overall. These people see their relationship as something they want to be in, not something they should or have to be in.  Fostering positive views of commitment is a sure sign of a thriving relationship.

Relationships are complex, and their success is influenced by each individual, their interaction, and their social context. These signs are suggestions that a relationship is on a healthy path, but they operate within the broader context of the relationship and should be considered alongside other markers of relationship health.

It's been a while

Indeed it has. Simply because I have not gathered enough motivation to do so. Just got stuff to do at the end of the day and I get tired pretty easily so no energy. These days I don't even know what to blog about. We're up to week 12 now so it's not long until the crazy exam period. I have to say though, this semester has been the easiest I've ever had. So chill - probably because there's more practical stuff to get us ready for placement next sem. I'm excited to see where God takes me, and I know it'll be a fantastic experience. But then again, there goes my already tiny income. God has blessed me with a good family and boyfriend who are willing to support me for that time, but I'm happy to chip into the money I've saved over the last 2 years. It'll definitely be enough, I just have to keep telling myself I'll earn the money I spend in the 12 months in much less than a month if I can find a job.

Yesterday, mum and I went to the city to get stuff done and stopped at temt to have a look. I've been in desperate need of jeans for a long long time now - my old pair I got in 2008. They were skinny jeans but I've worn them so much they are stretched out and look like straight jeans, and the bum and knee area are so white. Yes, I have looked for jeans but I've never managed to find a pair that will actually fit me. Either the legs are too tight and the waist is too big, or the other way round. Always no good. I must have been going through an awkward body shape phase, or maybe I'm just asian and short. Nevertheless, I finally find a pair that was stretchyish and fit well. Saw some jeans at temt, so I thought why not.. it's probably not going to fit but I have nothing else to do while my mum looks at clothes. It fit like a glove :') So I had to get it. I took interest in the collared shirt because I've been wearing tights for the past year or so and I don't have longer tops which cover my bum. I cannot remember the last time I wore a collared shirt (maybe in high school haha), so this is an item of clothing I am unfamiliar with, but I thought I would give it a try. If I like it, I might invest in more, but one is enough for me now. The bow was on sale, and just to spice up my boring black forest of hair. By the way, don't get me wrong - I'm not one of those people who post up all the clothes they buy, but this was kind of a momentous occasion just because I can't remember the last time I bought clothes. Okay now that I think of it, it was probably at the start of this year when I went to Melbourne... but that was nearly half a year ago. Just happy I guess :)

Oh and another thing, I'm starting to really enjoy going to BSF. It's such a drag for me still, being so time consuming and all, but I've really gotten a lot out of it. God is using the book of Matthew to teach me so much about Jesus, encourage me, and prompt me to examine myself. I'm even starting to enjoy the hymns! We sing out of a hymn book and all the songs are pretty old fashioned. I'm realising though that there's something unique about hymns, and singing with a whole bunch of ladies makes me happy and appreciative, especially when one of the girls in my group sings some really tricky harmony so damn well! Even the drive to and from the church is enjoyable because I can have a chat with my friend in the car. I hope God keeps me in Brisbane so I can continue to attend, and keep getting so much of this rich spiritual food.

Wow such a long post this ended up to be. Anyways, with that being said, I should do some BSF homework

How to save a life

Today, I attended a CPR + first aid course in the city. I knew it was going to be a tiring day (9-3:30), but I learnt a lot and got to do things I've never done before! The instructor had a knack for making us all laugh, but as the day wore on, I got over his jokes. Our class had many Singaporeans (that was the majority - there were even two indians who were Singaporean), one Korean, one Vietnamese, one HK (me!) and 3-4 white people. Physio and OT dominated (I think it's because the SHRS sent out health requirement emails to everybody so we all went to get our first aid done haha). Singaporeans are taking over allied health and indians are taking over med. True story.

CPR went by with a breeze, we did babies and adults and got a free face mask! First aid was interesting and pretty practical. Here are some things I learnt/got to do:

• How taking simple steps increases a person's survival rates e.g. using a spacer with a puffer
• If unsure, call the ambo!
• Poison line 131126 for qualified assistance - toxicologists, medical students, pharmacists
• Better to help than to do nothing 
• How important is a first aid kit! Bandages, puffers, face masks, spacers, gloves, epipens can make the world of difference!
• If someone's having an asthma attack and they don't have a puffer, ask the crowd if anybody has one or go to the local chemist and get one there + bring the pharmacist with you
• You can have an epilepsy without any movement - the person just pauses 
• Do not move a person with a fracture/dislocation/protruding object - splint and bandage them 
• A.M.P.L.E - questions to ask someone who is in need of first aid (Any allergies? Medications that they take for their condition? Past history? Last meal? Event history?) These questions can tell you a lot/can affect your decision making!
• Know where you are! As in the exact street address, because ambos find you if you don't!
• Stay calm and look like you know what you're doing so the casualty doesn't freak out even more and exacerbate their condition.

I'm sure I learnt more, but here are just some. I hope I never have to perform first aid/CPR on a person, but if I do, I pray that I can do a good job at it. At the end of the day, I rewarded myself with a necklace from colette. All jewellery was 50% off, so it was only $5! Jeffy picked me up and I had a really nice meal with him and his parents :) 

One Year

When you first think about it, one year is a pretty short time. To me, it felt like ages. Time went by so slowly.. maybe because it's actually been 1 yr + 3 months, not sure? Anyways today finally came. A year ago, Jeffy was stressing his head off because he was about to go ask my parents if he could date me. They didn't say "yes", just "are you going to put it on facebook?" I guess that essentially meant yes. I would say a lot has changed in one year's time. J and I progressed pretty quickly, so we basically took intensive course on each other. One of our church friends said to Jeff: "it seems like you guys have been dating for ages. 2-3 years?" It sure feels like that long! Anyways, Jeff scared me when he said he had already bought a present for me.. I had completely forgotten I had to get him something!!! I quickly whipped up a card and present in no time:

Jeffy couldn't wait to give me his present, so he just gave it to me a couple of days ahead of schedule. It's a bluetooth/wireless speaker! I've always complained about not having one when I'm around the house e.g. when I'm baking I just want some music to listen to!! I always thought of just buying a cheap one, but Jeffy got me the good stuff! He even chose green as well (my favourite colour) ^_^ <3 I love it, and I use it everyday! He did something pretty special with the present as well. He cut a hole in the box and wrapped paper up to make a little stick so that when you press down on it, it turns the thing on. When I hadn't unwrapped the present yet, he asked me to press down on the protrusion and A bitter day by HyunA started playing! I was like confused whaaaaa :O then unwrapped the present :D yay! Turns out you can control the speaker with your phone, so that's what Jeffy did to make it start playing.

We planned to go to George's Paragon in the city, but we couldn't find parking/parking too exy, so we just went to our fav thai restaurant which also has free parking! It was an enjoyable day indeed. 

Week One

Diaries, free vouchers and quirky sticker tabs from Bonnie who recently came back from Taiwan

/\/\4 /\/34T $3tuP. Thanks for the screen Hannah!

Awesome foursome's first day of 3rd year. One day we will look at this and thank me for capturing
these memories. 

 

Pandan toast... so delicious.. I can foresee that this will be my study/exam prep fuel 

Ah the joys of waiting for the bus and getting off $3 poorer.. I do not miss those days. 

After a good few months, all has gone back to normal i.e. I've returned to uni! Like always, I have mixed feelings about this. I'm going to miss all those days where I've not had to worry about occupying my time with study and just doing nothing without having a guilty feeling haunting me.. but on the other hand, I'm excited to go back, learn more and be able to take pretty notes and get into the swing of things. I'm also feeling a bit sentimental, I will only have one more year left of full time study, and I know that's something I will definitely miss.

One might ask, "why are you eating so much food?" Well, this time of the semester, I'm pretty free. My placement starts later on and my elective doesn't require me to go to weekly pracs (YAY). Actually I've been pretty on the ball with study this week, which is good. This semester, we are mainly applying the knowledge we have learnt in the past two years and figuring out what to do within a clinical situation. Pretty cool! I've been going through old notes and ordered a few textbooks the other day so I have a richer source of info. I'm surprised I got this far without owning textbooks *you should be impressed*, but I've realised that having some sort of professional library is important, even if it's as little as 2 books. I've compiled a list of textbooks I want to purchase, and it's pretty extensive. But I reckon it could really be useful.. I mean in a couple of years later when I'm in the big bad world I'll have no access to UQ resources i.e. books, free download of articles from prestigious journals, that kinda stuff! I'm just trying to prep myself I guess. And while I'm at it, I'll take this time to talk about some other random things that's been on my mind this week. 

On the days where I don't have to wash my hair, I use a shower cap to keep my hair dry. That requires me to put my hair up. I usually take this opportunity to experiment with hairstyles (when I'm not in a major rush/too tired). This is usually the time when I suddenly become a master stylist and create something aesthetically pleasing with my hair. Yesterday this happened.. I was so proud of myself and even thinking "yeah I can wear this one of these days" - ah that was wishful thinking. I attempted it this morning and it just failed. I don't know why this happened, but I think I've finally figured out that this is due to my hair being more flexible and easy to play around after a day of wearing it in a ponytail. When I do my hair in the morning, it just doesn't want to cooperate. I'm sure all the girls out there can relate. 

This sem, we've been given the opportunity to study an elective. The three are a) ergonomics, b) technology in health, and c) music and health. When I saw the last one, my face lit up and I was auto keen for this one. Music had always been my favourite subject in high school and I really do miss all those lessons, assignments, practice seshs, composing, analysis, aural skill tests, music history lessons and randomly watching musicals in class. I was definitely choosing this one. Besides, I had a glimpse at the ECP of the other electives and the ergonomics one required you to go to heaps of pracs, tutes AND lectures, whereas the technology in health one required class/discussion/participation to get marks (lame).. music on the other hand - two hour lecture each week, no tute, no group assignment, just a written exam and a literature review! Plus it actually interests me.. when I was deciding what to study in uni (back in the day), my recorder teacher recommended me to study music therapy because of my interest in music and health. Anyways, I was pretty excited to see what this course was about, so I rocked up to my 5-7 feeling keen. It did not disappoint! The lecturer is a really cool and funny lady - one of the few lecturers that make me laugh during lectures (that's a rare one!). We went through the history of music and it's association with health/healing over the different epochs (eras) - i.e. ancient, medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, 20th century, 21st century (sorry if this isn't in the right order, it's been a while). Lots of it was revision from music in high school combined with a bit of AMEB theory. We listened to Chopin, Bach, Pink Floyd, Ladyhawke and sang the tritone. We actually sung :') one half of the room sung F# and the other side sang C to create the tritone. Then the F# side resolved it and went to G. It was amazing - I felt like I was in music again! Never would I have considered the thought of being able to sing in a lecture! So good. There were lots of people studying this course, from different courses. There were OT, physio, speech, med, psyc, journalism, music students (from the people that called out). Although it was late, I didn't feel tired, and came out really enjoying the two hours of music :)

I was reading Luke the other day when I was doing my bsf homework. Luke 2:48 stood out to me. It says, "When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."This is when the Jesus (in his younger days) stays in Jerusalem to listen to the teachers listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone there was amazed at his understanding and his answers. I use a NIV application bible and occasionally read the commentary when I don't understand a particular verse/just for my own interest. The commentary here was particularly interesting. 

Mary had to let go of her child and let him become a man, God's Son, the Messiah. Fearful that she hadn't been careful enough with this God-given child, she searched frantically for him. But she was looking for a boy, not the young man who was in the temple astounding the religious leaders with his questions. Letting go of people or projects we have nurtured can be very difficult. It is both sweet and painful to see our children as adults, our students as teachers, our subordinates as managers, our inspirations as institutions. But when the time comes to step back and let go, we must do so in spite of the hurt. Then our protégés can exercise their wings, take flight, and soar to the heights God intended for them. 

Strong. I often think my parents are being too sheltering, protective and clinging too tight to my brother and I. It's hard on us and quite frankly it restricts us from maturing, experiencing life and learning to take care of ourselves. It is hard to deal with, not only for me, but for Jeff as well. I've talked to my mum about this issue in the past, and I know her and my dad are putting in effort to improve. I just thought this application articulated my thoughts so well. It's so important to give someone space to grow and learn, no matter how much you love them. Just thoughts. 

Last week of holidays in photos

Dad comes back from Canada, mum cooks him a feast! We love crab!

Pec flys - did three of them and the next day my
pecs were hurting :(

Jeff does not look happy, but on the inside he is radiating because
he's so happy he gets to spend time with me

Auntie Alice's birthday dinner. Bumped into Huldah and her friends
there. Lots of yummy Japanese food.

The best place to get three colour drink! So
refreshing in this hot weather!

We were craving pho.

Hotpot buffet. So good, but so much food.

pandan//chocolate//coconut//green tea crepes. which one should
we make? We ended up going pandan. 

Ikea to get decorations for the party. Purchased
mandatory hotdogs on the way out :)

The best laksa for only $9.50. I am definitely coming back for more!

Last Saturday night of holidays spent with two awesome people.
Mandatory selfie. I had fun guys, I had fun.