All posts tagged: inspiration

Last Minute Gift Ideas

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Hey lovely people, I hope you are all well. It has been a long time. My apologies for my absence. It has proven again that it has been the busiest year I have ever had since I started this blog. Hopefully, everything will go back to normal next year. I will get to share things here with you regularly.  Christmas is only eight days away. Can you believe it?! Where did the time go? Just in the blink of an eye. I hope you are all ready for your Christmas and New Year holiday. 🙂 For this year I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to go shopping for gifts. So I made a gift list and did online purchase. Still, last week I realised that I forgot to prepare a couple of gifts. So here you go, my last minute gift ideas.  Adopting a Dolphin. 🙂 Well. I didn’t mean that you need to adopt a real dolphin and bring it home. Only symbolically. Do you know you can go to Dolphin Research …

About Health and Fitness

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Hey lovelies, I hope you have had a fantastic week so far. Don’t know if you remember, I took a long break from blogging because I was not feeling well. It was nothing serious, but I didn’t feel I had the energy to keep up with everything. My energy level was very low. The first thing I did was to rebuild my exercise routine. It has been more than half a year. I can see the difference, and I certainly have more energy. It helps me to rewind and de-stress. I am not an expert or professional re this topic. I just want to share some of my personal experience here with you. Find the exercise you enjoy I signed up a membership with a local fitness studio. It’s not a gym. I get bored easily with exercises, for example, jogging or cycling. I knew I would give up very quickly if I were not interested. My knees also don’t like me doing these kinds of exercise. The studio offers a good variety of classes, …

Declutter Friendship

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Declutter friendship?! Hmmm…sounds harsh? We talk about declutter stuff a lot, like our desk, our wardrobe, and our mind. However, have you thought that we might have to declutter friendship from time to time. It all started from a conversation I had with a couple of friends few weeks back and an article I read a while ago about mental health. If hanging on to useless stuff is not healthy, how different is hanging on to toxic friendship. Quite often I hear friends talk about some of their friends who like to argue constantly, who like to win at the end no matter at what cost, who is super negative about everything and never change, who is selfish and only contact you when they need your help or borrow money. If that’s case, maybe it’s time to have a close look at the friendship and downsize friends. Set boundary. Friends should support each other. I totally agree. However, it doesn’t mean you have to answer the call in the middle of the night. You don’t have …

Vanuatu

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When you are based in Australia or New Zealand, a short trip to one of the Pacific islands seems like a no-brainer. I constantly hear friends or colleagues organising trips to Fiji, Bora Bora, Rarotonga, New Caledonia and so on. We have been to Rarotonga few years ago, and we loved it. It was simple and relaxing. When we wanted to have a getaway trip this year, we decided to give Vanuatu a go. Vanuatu is officially called the Republic of Vanuatu, inhabited originally by Melanesian people who are one of few groups of non-Caucasian with blond hair. The French had very strong influence back in 1768 on the island. We still could find nice French wine there during our trip, which was a nice surprise. Among all the islands, we decided to stay in Efate. It’s the main island of Vanuatu. We booked a villa facing the beach. A tropical island holiday is completely different from a trip to Europe. There is not much to see in terms of history and culture compare to …

Day trip to Canberra

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We had a day trip to Canberra a while ago. It was also my first time to visit the Australia capital (What took me so long?). Since it was just one day, we had to get up super early to catch the flight. But it was really worth the effort. We booked our meeting in early morning which gave us about half of a day to wander around the city. Canberra is the largest inland city, and it was built to be the capital of Australia. I think that’s why most of the population in Canberra work in public service. The city was really neat and tidy. Since we were in Canberra, we had to visit the old and new Parliament Houses. Otherwise, how can we say that we have been to the capital? Unfortunately, there was not much action in the Parliament that day. All we saw was empty rooms and many other tourists like us. 😀 Save the best for last. Cartier had exhibition in the National Gallery of Australia around that time. …

Hey there

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Hey there, it has been a long time. I have been missing you guys and this little me space a lot. I hope you are all well. I am sorry that I hit the “Pause Button” hard this time. It started from some minor health issues. Then, it went on. Eventually, my doctor told me it was probably all caused by stress. I was asked to minimise my “screen time” apart from work, have more rest and do more exercises. At that point, I felt exhausted all the time. I started experiencing insomnia. I wasn’t very happy at all. Then, I realised that taking care of my mental health was the only responsible thing to do. Otherwise, it would be just irresponsible for everyone in my life. So I signed up a new membership to do Pilates and Yoga. I have a new routine now to exercise 4 to 5 times a week. We also had an island retreat in Vanuatu. I will tell you all about it. 🙂 Just want to say big Thank you …

Happy Valentine’s day!

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Love is in the air! Love is in the water, in every sip of your tea and coffee…   I wish you a very Happy Valentine’s day! If you have a husband/wife/partner/boyfriend/girlfriend, I hope everyday is Valentine’s day to you both. Love is big and small. It’s everywhere, everything, a glass of water on your desk when you are busy working/studying, a hug or/and a kiss before you leave home to work, hold your hand before cross the street, fresh coffee when you wake up, bear hug when you feel down… I wish you a very Happy Valentine’s day! If you don’t have a partner/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife yet, I hope you won’t give up on love. Before the Mr/Mrs Right shows up at your door, love yourself, make yourself happy, be responsible for your own happiness! We all love you. 🙂 With lots of love! Jen xx

Gift Season

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Wow, first day of December 2017. Christmas and New Year are just around the corner. I can’t believe this year is almost gone. Although I don’t believe Christmas is the only time to give gifts to our loved ones, it certainly is the right occasion. I know I am bit late for looking for gifts. Better late than never, eh? Once I started searching for gift ideas, I am overwhelmed with all the sales and promotion out there on the market. I haven’t really decided what to buy, but I have narrowed down some gifts I like to get for my families and probably myself. 😉 Skin care Peter Thomas Roth Mask-A-Holic looks like a good set. Five masks in one package. You get to try everything. I haven’t tried any of their masks. Quite tempted by this one. OMOROVICZA Miracle Facial Oil Set is very good value for money. Only the Miracle Facial oil’s retail price is £75. This set has three products for £80. Last one is Emma Hardie Amazing Face Life and Glow skin Essentials. I love …

The Versatile Blogger Award

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I’m so grateful to be nominated by both The Finicky Cynic and The Wandering Core for the Versatile Blogger Award this month. It’s my first Versatile Blogger Award. I am so happy. I have been following Rebecca from The Finicky Cynic for a long time. She is an English teacher in France at the moment. I particularly love her travel posts. You will also find poetry, musing and more on her blog. I am sure you will love her blog like I do. I am a long time follower of The Wandering Core as well. She is a software developer by profession. However, her blog is very different. She publishes posts about travel, reviews and photography. I am so in love with her macro photos. They are amazing. Thank you both again! Please go check out their amazing blogs. Rules: Thank the person who nominated you. Share 7 facts about yourself. Nominate 10 other bloggers of your choice. Link your nominees and let them know of your nomination. 7 Facts about me： I love dancing. I had a …

China Travel Bucket List

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Travel, travel and more travel. That’s all I want in my life at the moment. However, the reality is I can’t really have it all. How disappointing! But I can certainly make a list of places I want to go. Get ready and wait for the opportunity to present itself. If you don’t know, I am originally from China. Although I had my fair share of travelling in China, there are still so many places I haven’t had the chance to visit. Here is my China travel bucket list at the moment. I have travelled to some places, like Shanghai （上海）, Beijing （北京）, Guangzhou （广州）, Hangzhou（杭州），Suzhou (苏州）, Si Chuan (四川）, Fenghuang, Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) , The Terracotta Army, Xi An, and so on. Therefore, these places won’t be on my list anymore. Potala Palace in Tibet – Tibet has been on my list for as long as I can remember. I still haven’t had the chance to go. It needs a lot of preparation. Although I had done solo travel in China. I am a little bit …