2017 Week 3 Update

Posted on January 23, 2017 by memoriesandsuch

A fairly boring week this was for me. Nothing much happened in my life.

I had a couple of interesting dreams this week, with a common theme of shoes in both. I wonder what that means. I searched online but could not really find what was the meaning of the dreams. All I hope is that it is positive.

I haven’t heard back from both the places I interviewed last week. I am going to borrow some words from Elsa and just “let it go”….If it’s meant to be, it will be….

Somehow this was all I did this week. Of course, I also worked on both my blogs, but nothing else…

Have good week folks! Hopefully, this week is better than the previous week….

2017 Week 2 Update

Posted on January 16, 2017 by memoriesandsuch

This week also flew by quite fast. I was quite busy preparing for my two interviews in the week that I hardly had time for much.

Speaking of the interviews, both interviews were the shortest I’ve had to date. The first one should take pole position as the absolute shortest interview, it only took 5 minutes of a couple of questions before they started asking me if I had questions. With my questions, I managed to increase the time spent to slightly over 10 minutes. I know I will not get a callback here, as usually if you know you are not going to proceed further with a candidate, you don’t really spend time with them. But they’ve said they will let me know in a week or two if I make it to the next round. Another reason why I know I may not get a callback is they need someone urgently with a very specific skillset and experience as they need to hit their KPI by the middle of the year and I don’t have that experience. I don’t understand why they invited me to interview, though!

The other interview, in the same general vicinity of the first one also lasted just slightly over 15 minutes. This was probably the most unfriendly panel I have met – they didn’t bother to introduce themselves and I assumed the main interviewer would be the potential boss and one other person the HR. No idea who the others were. This went better than day 1, but the biggest negative about this position is that it’s based on a project which is initially expected to run for two years, which makes this position only a short-term one. Anyway, they too should let me know either way by next week. In the meantime, I need to still apply and no reply….

S’ cousin and his family are in Singapore this week for a family holiday. They are staying with S’ mum and so we invited them for dinner yesterday. Since I knew we had to go out for GG’s award ceremony after lunch, I did as much of the prep work as possible in the morning and even made a couple of dishes before hand. So all that was left for me to do after the ceremony was to make sure the house was nice and sweet smelling and some last minute cooking. R came home early from her off day to help me make rotis. It was an enjoyable evening spent talking and chit-chatting.

This was my week, hope this week is better than the last and may your week be awesome!

Festivals of India: Thiruvathirai

Posted on January 11, 2017 by memoriesandsuch

Chidambaram Temple..Source

A festival unique to the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Thiruvathirai or Arudhra Darisanam is a Hindu festival celebrated on the full moon night in the Tamil month of Margazhi (approximately in December–January), which is also the longest night in the year. The Thiruvathirai vrata is one of the eight significant vratas dedicated to Lord Shiva as it is considered to be the nakshaththram of Lord Nataraj and is the longest night of the year. The word

Thiruvathirai or Arudhra in Tamil means “sacred big wave”, that was used when this universe was created by Lord Shiva about 132 trillion years ago. The famous Chidambaram temple in Tamil Nadu, celebrates this temple with great pomp and splendour and has been celebrating for more than 1500 years, as evident from literary and historical evidence in the form of stone inscriptions.

Main Statue of Lord Natraj at Chidambaram Temple…Source

The festival celebrates Lord Shiva’s cosmic dance of Natraj. The cosmic dance of Lord Shiva represents five activities – Creation, Protection, Destruction, Embodiment and Release. In essence, it represents the continuous cycle of creation and destruction. This cosmic dance takes place in every particle and is the source of all energy. Arudra Darshan celebrates this ecstatic dance of Lord Shiva. Arudhra or Thiruvathirai signifies the golden red flame and Shiva performs the dance in the form this red-flamed light. Lord Shiva is supposed to be incarnated in the form of Lord Nataraja during the Arudra Darshan day.

Lord Shiva never took birth and therefore there is no nakshaththram dedicated to celebrate his birthday. It was mentioned in the Hindu mythology that once Lord Vishnu was resting on the great serpent and Adhi seesha felt that He was in some deep thinking. On asking Lord Vishnu told Adhi seesha that he was remembering the dance of Lord Shiva. This answer invoked the desire in Adhi seesha to witness this great dance. He asked Lord Vishnu how this desire could be fulfilled. Lord Vishnu then urged him to do rigorous ‘tapasya’ at Chidambaram’. Adhi seesha followed his advice and devotedly prayed to Lord Shiva for a very long time. At the same there, a muni and devotee of Lord Shiva known as Viyaagra Paadha also lived in that same place. He worshipped to Lord Shiva to obtain the legs of a tiger in order to pluck flowers at the dawn, without being touched by the bees for offering to the God. He also observed ‘tapas’ to see His great ‘Nataraj’ dance. Finally, Lord Shiva was pleased with their prayers and devotion and he showed his ‘Nataraj’ dance in Chidambaram on the day of Thiruvaadhirai. From then onwards the ‘Nataraaja’ image of Shiva is worshipped here with great fervour on this day.

Temple processions during Thiruvathurai….Source

Tamil hymns of Maanikavasagar’s Thiruvasagam (particularly the hymns Thiruvempavai and Thiruppalliezhuchi) are chanted in temples instead of Sanskrit mantras. On the very day of Thiruvathirai, the idols of Nataraja (Lord Shiva) and his consort Shivagami (Parvati) are taken out of the temple premises for a grand procession. It is one of the major events in almost all the Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu.

In Tamil homes, during Tiruvathirai, a special dish called Thiruvadhirai Kali is made. The kali is made with rice, jaggery, moong dal, coconut, cardamom and ghee. The kali is usually eaten with a special curry called Thiruvathirai ezhlu curry koottu which is made out of seven vegetables, that is cooked and served on this day. The vegetables used for this kootu include pumpkin, ash gourd, raw bananas, field beans, sweet potatoes, colocasia, potatoes, eggplants etc.

2017 Week 1 Update

Posted on January 9, 2017 by memoriesandsuch

The first week of 2017 came and went so quickly, I hardly realised it…

Like millions of others across the world, I also made some resolutions, but unlike previous years, these are more lifestyle oriented rather than my usual lose weight etc. I’ve decided to keep a detailed diary this year but will not be doing this on any media. What I am doing so far is typing my day as I go on a word document, so hopefully I will look back at my year and see how it went.

I am also trying to meditate on a daily basis, just five to ten minutes daily and also try to finish my stash of face masks by using one daily. I also decided to delete all the games on my phone except for a couple of word games. I don’t want to waste my time in 2017 playing unneeded games.

I also started getting involved in BB & GG’s school PSG more this year. I become involved in the exco committee in both schools and started helping out more this year.

On the job front, things are at status quo, I’ve not been offered any position yet, but I have a couple of interviews scheduled for this week, both at the same location and at a place I have been trying to get into for the past 10 years. Let’s see if 2017 brings me luck…

Have a great week folks!!

New Year, Clean Slate

Posted on January 6, 2017 by memoriesandsuch

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. – Mark Twain

We’re coming to the end of the first week of the new year and many of you who made new year resolutions are probably on the verge of breaking them, especially with the weekend looming over. It’s the best time to break all those healthy eating and healthy living resolutions….

goal I am the same too, I’ve made resolutions about the things I want to change about myself this year. So far, so good, but I was wondering if this year will be my breakout year where I actually complete them or as usual, stop before January ends. So I went and researched how I can actually make sure I keep my resolutions for 2017.

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KISS – Keep it Simple and Specific: Keep your resolutions simple so they are achievable. Don’t be vague like, “I will lose weight this year” or “I will eat healthy this year“. Make it specific like, “I will lose x kgs this year” or “I will stop eating <insert unhealthy foods here> this year”. This helps you have a target you need to reach the end of the year.

Be Realistic: Let’s be honest here, everyone wants to look like the current Ms Universe but someone who is say 120 kgs can’t become 50 kgs in one year, not without resorting to drastic measures. So be realistic about the goals you want to achieve. If you aim to read books this year, maybe you could start with one book a month?

Create regular targets: This is basically breaking down your goals into smaller, bite-sized portions which allow you some successes during the year as well as will not discourage you, especially if the goal is slightly beyond your capabilities. If you aim to save $1000 by the end of the year, then saving slightly less than $100 per month will do the trick.

Keep a diary: A diary, physical or digital will help you document your progress, help you track and celebrate success and also pinpoint failures. This will keep you on track and also once you are documenting your progress, you become inclined to actually go ahead and keep doing what you need to do to achieve the goal.

Celebrate Successes: When you achieve any of your mini goals or are on track to achieving your goals or even keep your resolutions for an extended period, then celebrate it by doing something for yourself, like having a spa day or buying new clothes etc.

Be accountable: Share your goals with family or friends. This will allow you to become accountable for them and when you know people are going to ask you about your goals, you do take extra effort to make them complete.

Don’t give up: Failure is just a stepping stone to success. It’s a very rare individual who will be 100% consistent in achieving his goals through the year. We all are apt to have periods when we slip up. Don’t take these periods of slip-ups as if you are not going to achieve your goals. Get up, dust yourself and go back to the last day you were accountable and then continue from there.

Memories and Such

Memories of a very ordinary life

Category Archives: Life