21 things I've learnt before turning 21

1. Be weird, be quirky, be silly, be kind, be you (unless you're terrible person then don't be you).
2. Any recipe that includes garlic, always double the garlic or even triple.
3. Go ahead and try something new. It's scary? Give it a try, you'll thank yourself after.
4. Only you are in charge of your happiness, not him, not her but maybe your dog but that's different.
5. Keep building yourself, when demotivated, take a break then find motivation in others.
6. Make funny faces at babies.
7. Do whatever feels right to you although you don't know what lies ahead.
8. You'll get your heart broken sometimes but you know what? Life goes on, you've survive the moments you thought you couldn't.
9. Be around people who makes you happier and keep the positive vibes up.
10. It's ok to let go of toxic friendships, even if you want to keep that friendship, keeping a distant makes a difference.
11. Sometimes things don't go the way you want it to, don't worry, things will work out one way or the other (Trust me when I say this, I've lived those moments).

12. Pet a dog on the streets but first, ask the owner for permission.
13. Tell the people you love that you love them (often and as frequent as possible).
14. Get that cute pair of underwear and socks, get flowers for your room, don't forget to treat yourself.

15. Eat what you want, don't hold back, you can sweat it off in the gym or take a walk in a park or take the stairs instead of the escalator some other time.

16. Bring a stick of bubbles wherever you go, you never know when you'll come by the perfect time to blow bubbles and you know what, bubbles brings happiness to any age, it's ageless.
17. Write little happy memories down, you might find it in the long future and and be able to reminisce the good old days and see how far you've come.
18. Send your friends or family a postcard, give extra hugs, get them flowers because you thought of them on a Tuesday or a Wednesday not only because it's their birthday.
19. Tell yourself you are smarter, more beautiful and stronger than you give yourself credit for. It's normal to degrade yourself but you can change that, it's not permanent.
20. Instead of just being kind, strive to be kinder than you already are.
21. Never stop praying and believing in yourself (sometimes, you're all you got).

grumpy frumpy

Why hello there, little grumpy frumpy is back to write more fruitee loopees about just anything to everything. I just organised my list of drafted blog posts from my travels that goes back to more than a year ago. At the moment, I'm just having a hard time accessing my old iPhotos in my hard disk since I updated my laptop. For a not-so-techie person, I've been struggling and constantly sighing whilst dealing with this. Even getting my laptop to recognise my hard disk is a struggle. I'm just waiting and waiting for something to happen.

Aren't we all just waiting for something to happen?

... waiting for a movie to start in the cinema

... waiting for an amazon package to arrive

... waiting for that text or call from a special someone

... waiting for a reply for the job you apply for

... waiting for a bus, a train, a cab

... waiting for the next season of our favourite series

When do we ever just live where we are not in the moment of waiting for something to happen?

Not being able to access my photos is getting to my head, this is why I absolutely despise updates. The car sirens outside isn't helping either. I'm going to stop trying, ask an apple genius tomorrow, brew a cup of tea and sink into a book. This is me actually trying to do life but life is not being very nice so I'm signing off for now.

21 books I'm going to read

1. You Deserve a Drink by Mamrie Hart
2. Blue Ocean Strategy by W.Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (Recommended by Aaron)
3. Alice's Adventure Under Ground by Lewis Carroll (Purchased in Cambridge)
4. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories by Tim Burton (Purchased in Brussels)
5. The Humans by Matt Haig (Recommended by Lewis)
6. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Recommended by Christabelle)
7. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
8. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K Rowling (Recommended by Chris)
9. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Recommended by Jesslyn)
10. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
11. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
13. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
14. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
15. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow
17. The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
18. Salt by Nayyirah Waheed
19. 7,300 Days by Isabella Mente and Chase Wolcott
20. The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**ck by Sarah Knight
21. Egghead: Or, You Can't Survive on Ideas alone by Bo Burnham
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22. Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Recommended by Crystal)
23. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Recommended by Crystal)
24. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern (Recommended by Crystal)

A year ago on one fine day in January, I decided to make 12 lists of 21 things for 2016 which you can click to see. As determined as I was, looking back, I admired past Sarah's determination to actually attempt that and because of that, present Sarah, is determine to actually go forth with what past Sarah initially planned. So sit tight and watch as I make a courageous attempt in doing life. (A little insight of me and why I'm making a big deal of reading, well, I'm just not a very good reader, I get distracted all the time which makes me have little patience in sitting still and reading a page but I've been good lately, I try.)

"Reading could be the BEST addiction one could have. The only proven side effect is imagination & an edge in knowledge. If put in action, the consequences could be very positive to anyone."

Some sort of a comeback (?)

It's been awhile and getting back on the blogging wagon is going to be a bumpy ride. I'll try smoothing the edges, take the duster out and start sweeping the cobwebs on this webpage. Of course, like how life works, things happen no matter how much you want time to wait for you. A little heads up, I'm writing this while in one of my many unpleasant moods. Just 10 minutes ago, all was good but it took a turn. Words written when in an unpleasant mood is still words written from the heart. Though I may want to take it back after awhile, I don't feel like I would regret feeling how I felt. We're all humans after all and feeling unpleasant is one way of living. It may not be the right way but who's to say what is right or wrong.

--- one hour later ---

A lot has changed since I was back on this website, a lot included me as a person, the people in my life, the lessons I've learnt, the places I've visited and basically a whole lot of realising my ideal style and pace of living. Where do I start? Probably should update my 101 things in 1001 days list. I'll get to that.

--- one week later ---

Rusty as I am in blogging, I think I've developed into a person that is more likely to get distracted, as you can see, I can't even finish one single blog post of thoughts. To describe my situation right now, I'm seated in my best friend, Carmen's room in Sheffield listening to Bach's Violin Concerto BWV 1042 in E major: I. Allegro. That way you have a rough concept to imagine while reading this and future Sarah can read this and remember this little memory. Here are five words to describe how I feel currently with life at the moment.

happy. blessed. content. free. relaxed.

I've been spoilt rotten by my family, friends and boyfriend (who I will fill my readers in about him in the near future). I'm just at a constant speed of always feeling blissful and grateful for everybody in my life. For if not for them, I would never have found peace in my heart and mind. Not saying that, I am completely cured of my sadness and being a chronic over-thinker but progress do start somewhere. I'm a little sad Blogger doesn't have their own app anymore, which makes uploading photos a pain in the neck. In other news, please do look forward to more frequent blog posts and my adventures. Much love to those who take your time to come to my blog to read my rinky dinks and shloopings.

dream journal #19

22nd July 2014

In this dream I had three years ago, I was still in the midst of finishing my foundation year in INTO Newcastle. As the dream starts, I was in the INTO building lobby section talking to my classmates when a man in an old fashioned brown suit handed me a letter. Inside, it said I was chosen to attend an elite boarding school situated in England itself. The dream fast forwarded and changed scene immediately to me arriving to the location. There was a big hall where all the students rested, it was two rows of beds with a desk next to each bed. I was escorted to my desk where I put my backpack and things down. I remember sitting down on my desk thinking that I was one of the lucky ones that had a window right in front of my desk. Outside my view was a park filled with trees of autumn where the colours looked like a bowl of cheetos mixed with nuts and peas. However, as sudden as I got to this school, the overwhelming-ness of everything hit me like a train. I just burst into tears and rang my father up to come pick me up. In my dreams, I have the tendency to dream that I'm in a country far away from home but whenever I need my family or friends, they would be just a drive away and can come tend to my every need. This was one of them. It was such an unfamiliar place but things got better when I bumped into Fiona, Cassandra and Christabelle in the halls. Cassandra was placed on the right of my bed and Fiona was on the left. I took a little scroll alone around the campus and found a path through a bunch of trees when I stumbled upon a tunnel hole just the right size for me to crawl into. Leaving my dreams on auto-pilot, dream Sarah started to crawl inside, for someone who is a self-diagnosed claustrophobic, dream Sarah started heavy breathing and that's when I woke up from my dream thinking to myself, of course, I would never crawl into that hole in real life.

In relation to that, I might need to take a break from watching too much Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland films which I sense I got the unconscious inspiration from for this dream.