Tag Archives: University

March Madness All Over Again, Part 2

4 Apr

The 2019 NCAA Basketball Tournament is drawing to a close soon. The better seeded teams lived up to their billing in the Sweet 16 round of this year’s Women’s Division 1 basketball. Unfortunately, M1’s university did not make it pass this round. Their best performance was in 2016 when they made it to the Final Four.

This year, my prediction picks for the Women’s Division 1 were spot on for three out of the four that qualified for the Final Four. May the best team wins!

And now that M1 has completed her undergrad studies, I am indecisive if I will continue to follow basketball, her alma mater or even the NCAA thereafter. Also because M2 being in Ireland, basketball is not a big thing at her college, the interest in the game may diminish once the NCAA concludes. We shall see. After all, there are still some good teams out there to follow.

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March Madness All Over Again

19 Mar

March is the month for sports that I enjoy. There’s the golf Iron Challenge at my club at the end of the month which I am preparing for and then, there’s the college basketball NCAA Tournament which has started after the regular season ended.

This is the fourth year I am following the March Madness schedule and putting my two cents worth to predict the winners for both the men and women’s games in the draw.

M1’s university has made it to the NCAA Women’s Division 1 bracket again. For the third consecutive year, six Pac-12 teams made it. And of course, I will be rooting for her school. The first round games start this Saturday.

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Before the Reunion Dinner 2019

4 Feb

Last Thursday was our last day at work because Friday was a public holiday. And we left town only on Sunday morning, clocking the drive 15 minutes shy of six-hours. I would say this was not too bad despite a crawl along a stretch that lasted 20 minutes and we even had a quick half-hour lunch stop.

The horrid crawl

A flavorful Nasi Kerabu at the Agromall

And this morning, we actually managed to play a round of golf before the Reunion Dinner tonight.

For us, this year’s Reunion Dinner is simply just another dinner with the family. Both our girls are not here for the first time and it feels funny without them. This is something we both have to get used to. Who knows? Maybe M1 will be back for the next Dinner? But M2 certainly won’t for the next few years… Sniffle.

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What Can We Order?

25 Jan

Eating out is now a problem with M2 away in college. We are small eaters all these years. Even when M1 was around, we always ordered three portions for the four of us to share and you could say there were choices.

When M1 left for her studies, we resolved this predicament by ordering only two for three, less choices but always a mix and match for sharing and it worked out well the last four years.

But now, with M2 away, we certainly cannot use this equation anymore when eating out. Given that there are some things I don’t eat these days to manage my Endometriosis, the options don’t look too appealing – it will either be no choice or too much. Sigh.

It will take some tweaking to arrive at a comfortable balance that both hubby and I will be satisfied when we do eat out. We shall see.

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A New Beginning

15 Jan

M2’s travel to Ireland was more manageable to track, eight hours behind our time compared M1’s travel to the US where the time difference was much more and so hard to keep up, travelling back in time and all.

She had a big send-off entourage which was nice but emotional at the same time. Sad tears flowed among family and friends present at the airport to see her off but there was also happiness for her as she faces a new beginning.

Like her cousins and sister, we are very proud of M2 to bravely go off to college without us having to accompany her – being so young at 17 and a half years old, surpassing even M1. Her taking this path in stride, to see and experience the world and be more independent makes me tear up when I think about it because my baby is all grown up.

M2 may be travelling in a group with other students unlike M1, who travelled solo but the fact remains both girls didn’t need us to go with them. M1 graduates this year while M2 has just begun her exciting journey.

We got home at almost two in the morning and I couldn’t sleep, needing to keep track of her on flightaware.com. This is the best site/app ever to live track the what, where and when status of an aircraft. When morning came, I was like a zombie in the office from the lack of sleep and my eyes still stung and remained puffed from all the tears shed.

By Monday evening our time, she arrived safely. The layover in Dubai wasn’t too long and Emirates is a great airline. I heave a sigh of relief knowing she’s well on her way to greater things in life.

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M2 onwards to her new and exciting beginning!

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Then and Now

14 Jan

When the girls are four years apart, the heartache occurs four years apart too…

Four years ago, when our firstborn M1 left for the U.S. to further her studies, there was heartache and anxiety. And it took us some time to adjust our lifestyle with one family member less.

Now four years later, history repeats itself.

Last night, our baby, M2 left for Ireland for her studies. And suddenly, we find ourselves having to adjust our lifestyle all over again.

Whether it was four years ago or now, the heartache and anxiety are the same. Sniffle… tears… and more tears.

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My baby’s all grown up!!!

 

 

 

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Wave Mom, Wave

11 Jan

When M1 was still around years ago, both girls had the habit of tuning us out with their headphones on especially during exam week. Typically after dinner, both M1 and M2 would be diligently doing their revision at the dining table with their headphones in place.

It was hard enough for me when they’d do the same in the car, headphones in place and I have to wave to get their attention before speaking. It’s the same at home with this habit of theirs to tune me out and I have to wave.

With M1 away at University and only M2 around, she continued to have her headphones plugged in especially during exam week. And she constantly reminded me that I’d have to wave if I want to say something to her. Can I fault her when doing this was for a good cause, studying for the exams?

M2 may be done with school this year, so no more studying at the dining table but she still has her headphones in place these days to watch her videos instead.

The situation may have changed but some things never change and I will surely miss this habit, waving that is, the day she leaves for college.

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Goodbye 2018

31 Dec

What a year it has been! At the beginning 2018, never did it cross my mind that I would be facing many ups and downs, making it a truly eventful year. Top on the up trend has been my musings and followers, and my carvings for Gigglesville and Gnomie-wood. The cumulative number of 273 pieces carved consists of Citizens, Big Citizens, Monuments, Whales, Ocean friends, Apeach, Dinky the dinosaur, Gnomes and their homes. But there were no increase in the Superheroes count.

And worthy to mention also is my chase on Candy Crush Soda to reach 1000 Days on my iPad. To me, the daily launch just to get the Daily Bonus is an up trend to achieve that number. I just hope the device don’t die on me as I inch closer to my target.

On the home front, my two girls are all grown up with M1 in her Senior year at University and M2 ready for the next exciting chapter in her life, college-bound having completed high school. Time goes by so fast. Too fast I feel sometimes.

On the down trend, there were notable events too that could almost rival the good ones. These are mostly health-related issues and I must say are pretty life changing.

I was diagnosed with Infectious Colitis in February after a Colonoscopy and Endometriosis in April after a Laparoscopic surgery. Not good so I had to change my diet and lifestyle to deal with these issues. I gave up coffee, eggs, cheese and avoid certain food groups but alcohol and chocolate are still hard to resist. I lost weight as a result from this change which was good until recently, I added some back. Oh well…

However my physical problems didn’t end there…

My sports injury exacerbated and the diagnosis turned out to be a Wrist Tendonitis problem due to my constant carving besides golf. When you think about it, subjecting the wrist to the constant swinging of the clubs and hitting the ball is actually too much to bear upon impact with a weakened wrist. And golf is a non-stop 4.5 hours or thereabouts, thus aggravating the problem acutely. Whereas for carving, the time spent on it can be controlled. I can carve for less than an hour or sometimes three to six hours at a pace without pain that can aggravate the wrist.

So I stopped playing golf for ten weeks to rest the wrist, and did treatment and therapy which helped. Carving continued though but only as and when I have time.

An even bigger down trend is my iPhone5S. It is dying. I thought it would at least last until my birthday next year but the situation does not look good at all. The battery drain issue is just so bad, I find myself using the phone lesser and lesser. One charge can only last a quarter of a day if I even use it a little bit. Perhaps in retrospect, this is a good thing to be less device-dependent? Then again, I suspect this less device-dependency will change once I get a new phone. We shall see.

But I should not focus on the down trends to say life was not good in 2018. There were many up trends as well which I should be thankful for. And I have my friends to make me laugh and be happy, my carving to keep me occupied and contented, and my health is actually much better after those two main episodes.

So as I bid 2018 goodbye, I brace myself for 2019 to be an even more exciting year as there will be major changes, positive ones to look forward to. Thank you 2018, another year to remember by and to 2019, I welcome you with open arms.

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A Much Needed Break

14 Dec

We go off for our much needed break today! This year, M1 is not coming back for Christmas so the year-end family trip will just be the three of us.

Hopefully traffic won’t be heavy but we’re in no hurry. And it’ll be nice if the drive is a leisurely one without stress to Penang. We will of course detour to some favorite places along the way for food before we get to the island state.

I am really looking forward to spending my time lounging by the poolside, with a cold beer and hopefully, catch some sun to get a nice tan!

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Ball Room Dancing

20 Sep

I was pleasantly surprised when M1 told me she signed up for Ball Room Dancing as one of her classes this Fall. Ball Room Dancing?! How fun is that?

I don’t recall when I was in college that such classes existed. The most fun classes I had were Drawing 1 (Art 120) and Ancient Life (GLG 201, Geology in other words). I can still recall the drawing class during my first Fall semester – the whole class went on a little excursion one lovely day to the Riordan Mansion State Historic Park, just off the campus perimeter. We were all seated under the shady pine trees, chatting away, enjoying the breeze and sipping Coke while sketching the mansion. It was quite an experience, something I still remember until today dinosaur years later.

The highlight of the Geology class during my second Spring semester was a field trip to the Grand Canyon to look for trilobites in the terrain. It was pretty exciting as the whole class was behaving more like high school kids chatting away noisily in the bus on our way there. I think I did discover some trilobites. That’s about as much fun I had.

Now for M1, ball room dancing…. hmm, definitely something very different and certainly sounds very fun. Classes begin for the Senior this Thursday.

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