I keep thinking of life in and after May when I will be unemployed and I have decided that I am going to start keeping a list of things I want to do, something like a bucket list. These are all things that have been in the back burner for a while now while I was busy, but now that I will have the time, I plan to start working on them. Knowing me, I know I probably won’t do all, I am hoping I get to accomplish at least 75% of them….

The list, which may change as I go through them, is below and I am putting it here to make myself accountable. I’ve sorted them into groups so that it makes more sense to me. they are in no particular order, in fact they are as they occurred to me!

Self Improvement

Study: Aha, caught you on this right! While I do want to study based on my interests, what I meant by study is to actually do BB & GG’s coursework. With no income, I don’t have the money to spend on tuition, which is very expensive for secondary school. The hourly rate is in the rate of SGD 100 and with more subjects where they may need help, I definitely can’t afford this. So one of my goals is to start studying their syllabus and then teach them. It can’t be that difficult right? I mean I have a Masters degree and this is high school stuff! But whom I am kidding, I’m terrified and fear that I’ll mess up. But this is something I need to do and will do. Humanities should not be too difficult since I was a humanities student during college, it’s the maths and science subjects which terrify me!

Self-Learning: Speaking of studying, I keep getting emails from Coursera and I am quite tempted to take up some courses. I will do that as well as learn about photography from websites and videos. I’ve wanted to take photography courses for ages now and this is the right time to do it I think. I also want to learn how to put on makeup. My usual daily make-up is moisturizer, sunscreen, some CC powder and kohl pencil and a swipe of lipstick. I have no clue on how to apply other makeup and this seems to be a good time to learn. This is a fun thing to do I guess and also as GG starts growing, I am sure she will start wanting to experiment with makeup sooner than later and if I know something about it, it’ll make her learning so much simpler.

Investing: I have been fascinated with investing for a while now. I am student of Economics and Finance (though my studies seem very far away these days) and I plan to use this time to really study investing. I am going to study the Singapore stock market for a while and then based on what I have learned, I plan to invest a hypothetical SGD 10,000 on some stocks and track them for a few months. If I manage to get even 10% returns, I will do this with real money! May not be as much as my hypothetical money, but it will be a start.

Online Shopping: Another thing I’ve been trying to understand for a while now, but not gathered the courage to do much. I do buy online, but am always wondering if I have gotten the best deal? I did some work on e-commerce a few weeks back as part of my work and saw the power of the Chinese e-commerce sites, especially Tabao. So I want to research these sites and see if it’s really that worth it and try to do some online shopping!

Writing: I’ve always written and I think one of my long established dream is to be a published author. I’ve never really taken steps to do this and this will be the time I actually do something about it. My interest is in books and stories for children and I want to write some stories and send it to a publisher to see if they are good enough. I don’t have any creative writing background and so will also use this time to research on this – if there are some online courses, I am going to take them, or even if I can find something in my local universities. I also want to research and write some decent articles for this blog.

Work: I am also contemplating starting something on my own – there was an article on the Straits Times this weekend on freelance work and to me it seemed like a sign. I’ve signed up in one of the freelance sites I’ve used in this company before. While unemployed, I need to see if this will be to generate some income.

Exercise and eat well: My perennial favourite! I want to start walking again and this time I have a good reason – to beat my diabetes once and for all! I want to start walking again on a regular basis and eventually move to running. This time I plan to see if this works for me or no (I’ve tried running before but couldn’t keep it up) as well as eat well and avoid mindless snacking. I am also very seriously planning to go without sugar. I’ve seen some videos on what sugar does to you and this is quite tempting. It will be easier if everyone does it together, so I am going to have to brainwash my family to be in it too!

Home Improvement

Organise: Do a thorough clean-up and organizing of the house. I have tons of ideas and want to get rid of stuff (I am a certified pack-rat) as well as do some organizing projects.I plan to split this room by room over a period of time so that it does not get too overwhelming and I lose steam before I finish.

Housekeeping: I’ve never been a great housekeeper, preferring to do all the other, wonderful things you can do with your time. I’ve pretty much always relied on outside help to do things I don’t like to do and this is what I plan to change this time around. I plan to research the best way to clean my home and also figure out the best way to schedule my cleaning, such that with an initial effort but not much after that, the house is in good condition all the time. I also want to do work I don’t like and get those out of the way. I have a very low ‘icky factor’ and this is something I want to work on.

Food: My cooking in the last few years has been mundane and routine. Once R leaves, this is another area where I want to improve in. R’s repertoire is quite limited and the children and S get quite tired with the same old dishes week after week. So I want to plan menus where I can do international cuisine, both which can be taken to school as lunches as well as slightly more elaborate ones for weekends and dinners. While I am decent cook, Indian cooking does not really leave itself to much baking skills. Add to the fact that we are vegetarians, so my baking skills are really sub-par. I want to use this time to really start baking, not only making cakes and cupcakes, but also things like quiches and scones.

So there you have it! A ton of projects to do. And since I have committed it to doing it here, I really hope this will help me be accountable to myself. Let’s see what I can accomplish and how long!