A Place, A Reintroduction

Yep, that’s what Jon said this should be. “A place for people to just, like, hang out. You know?”

I suppose you could call this “a platform for interaction on social media”, or you could just call a spade a spade and recognise that this is Just Another SAHM Blog (Which May or May Not Be Worth Your Time) (“JASB (WYT?)”).

For reasons I will not disclose here (no, I am not pregnant again), it looks like I’m going to be a SAHM for a few months longer than we originally intended. To wit, I’ve extended my no-pay leave to the end of September 2015, but bets are on as to when I will cave and shorten it (HR was suitably surprised. “Seldom do people shorten their NPL, but if you want to, sure!). My mother says April, I say May at the earliest (yes, I have taken to making bets with myself), and you are welcome to have a go as well and suggest prizes for the winner/ s.

In the meantime, though, I have decided to start blogging weekly, and at this address. Posting at a new domain name and/ or changing the title of the blog did cross my mind, but I dismissed the idea for sentimental reasons. Although the archives links don’t reflect it, I actually started this blog sometime in December 2003. You can find my JC to first year university blog self at wherewedream.blogspot.com (I republished almost all of my pre-Jon entries there), but I don’t recommend getting introduced to her. For one, the page is not properly formatted so it’s difficult to read, but more importantly, I was probably a lot more fun and took myself a lot less seriously in real life. Not that I don’t think I did some fairly good writing for an 18 year old Science student, and it IS interesting to see what people were like before you knew them (how much do we really change over time?) but I think I was trying too hard in JC to be an artsy melancholic in tune with the secrets of the universe type (which I don’t think I am), later swinging to the other extreme before settling on a happier middle ground when I met Jon (truth be told, these periods of time are delineated by whoever I was seeing at the time. Evidently, I married the person I knew would encourage me towards becoming the woman God wanted me to be).

What to write about, then? The last post here was more or less an AUGH I AM A NEW PARENT/ breastfeeding rant, fuelled by post-partum hormones and a lack of sleep. Still, it was heartfelt and inspired, so I will write about things which give me the feels in my heart and inspire me – when they do. Which is not often. But I did say weekly updates – and my weeks are filled with exercise, cooking, and… being a wife and mum (I TOLD you this was JASB (WYT?)), so that is what this blog will be about, primarily. Now you can unfollow me on Facebook so you won't see my updates. I won't know if you don't tell me. 

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I chose the domain name “theventana” when I jumped on the blogging bandwagon all those years ago because I was trying to be cool. In that “yeah I can write well and I get it despite being a Science student, you know” way. The Ventana is the name of the condominium located at 95 Pasir Panjang Hill, and a few days before I started my blog, my father and I drove past a banner advertising it on the way home. I thought it would be suitably ironically cool (does that sentence make sense?) to base my blog on that, and the main header even read “ninety-five pasir panjang hill” for a while (I was obsessed with typing in small letters).

Well, here we are beneath the same blue suburban skies some eleven years, a husband and child later. I try not to think too much about the imprint of myself I have and am leaving behind on social media; there for all time, indelible.

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My main goal for this year is to run a sub two hour half-marathon, and I’m aiming to do this at the Great Eastern Women’s Run 2015 (the Singapore Run Calendar tells me it’s on 11 November 2015). Jon thinks I shouldn’t push myself too hard because it doesn’t really matter, and I have come to agree. Being competitive does take the fun out of things, and it’s not like I’m some superstar for whom this is a career. Nevertheless, since leaving practice two years ago, I’ve needed an outlet to channel my competitive energies into, and as I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog, this is something I want to achieve at least twice, once overseas, before I have my next child. I guess I have about 1-2 years to fulfil that goal, but it would be nice to be able to do it this year, I miss the feelings one gets during and post a hard run. But I promise I won't take myself too seriously here, especially since I don't think it's a very good frame of mind for first-time parents to be in.

Come count down to the run and cook with me, place a bet as to when I will go back to work, and let's get some interacting going.