It's March?!

I am amazed how time flies. It really does.

So I never got the chance to wish you all a happy:
Valentine's Day.
Chinese New Year. (GONG HAY FAT CHOY!!! GONG SEE FA CHAIIIIII!!!)
Family Day.

I was going to write something on those days but I got lazy. So here I wish you all, all those combined!

Now I haven't had much Valentine's day celebration in the past. I'm not the type of girl that will expect the usual girly stuff on that day. You've probably heard before from your spouse telling you, it's ok honey you don't need to get me anything for Valentine's day. The first Valentine's day you'd want to make a good impression. Anything after that will have to be a mutual agreement. If you both agree to not celebrate it, then don't celebrate it. But don't say it, and then suddenly celebrate it because they would probably get mad that they didn't get you anything. I'm sure with years to come, the vibe will die down a bit. As I said, it's all about the mutual agreement.

Next up is the Chinese New Year, or the Lunar Year. This year, it's the year of the Monkey. OO OO AHH AHH!! *scratches arm pits*

As a kid, getting red pockets was the highlight of CNY, especially when there's a huge extended family because all the uncles and aunties will be handing out red pockets EVERYWHERE! LIKE OMG! For those who don't know, married couples will be the one giving red pockets (i.e money) to unmarried kids. Nowadays, I'm just lucky for what I have. My parents still give me red pocket as per tradition, but it just feels so weird to accept it sometimes because they've done so much for me. I remember trying to give them all my pocket change when I was a child (those coins in those piggy banks...good times). So when CNY came, they would give me red pocket, and I would have red pockets for them too. They looked pretty surprised, and then reassured me I didn't have to give them anything because I was still a kid. Only mommy and daddy would do that. I was pretty hurt they didn't take my coins, but they said when I get older and marry, then if I wanted to I could. I was probably 6 or 7 when that happened, and I still remember to this day.

Seeing all the family on CNY was exciting, but sad at the same time because M isn't physically here anymore. I remember trying to be happy, but still broke down in a corner. It took some time, reassurance and prayer to make it a bit better. I still have that empty spot in my heart, which may never get filled.

Family Day was uneventful as I was working 16 hours. My family hates it when I do a double shift. It's true though, it does damage the body if it occurs too often. But I had to do it to get an extra day off so I could spend more time with family. Isn't it ironic. Working a double on Family Day so I could get an extra day off to spend time with family. It worked out in the end and I'm happy I got to spend time with family. I felt like a zombie after though because it was one of those odd shifts. It would start at 3pm Monday then finish Tuesday at 7am. Doing it once in a while is fine, but doing it constantly will just screw up the biological clock. 7 am to 11 pm is considered the ideal double shift, followed by 3pm to 7am. But the hardest is 11pm Monday to Tuesday 3pm. That's a night to day double, and I would not recommend that. I have never tried that shift, but I have seen people do that, and I would just not do it.

Recently, Holt Renfrew changed their Privileges program so that everyone this year gets a membership card to carry around (versus having to download a program into the cell phone first, then downloading the app to install a virtual card). I was quite excited when the card came in the mail because I wanted to pick up my birthday gift, and I couldn't do it without the card. So finally, when it came in, I went straight for the shop to pick up this gift. The gift this year is a leather luggage tag (and a mighty big one), wrapped in a nice gift box. I took mama with me, and had her open the gift. She really liked it so I told her she could have it. We ended up looking around HR and she was astounded at how crazy high the prices were for clothes. A normal looking T-shirt would cost $300+. We didn't buy anything, but when we're together we window shop 99% of the time.

This is the new card they have for this year. This is the front. The back I won't show (for obvious reasons), but it will have your name and your card number.

For some reason, it took my brain a while to finally understand how this program works. HR will tally up how much you've spent the previous year in order to determine which tier you belong to. I had the misunderstanding that you could just accumulate all the spendings you had over the years and that's how it would add up as the years went by, but nope. Totally not. It's only based on the previous year spending. So say you buy a Chanel classic flap in medium in 2015. That alone is already $6,000+ so you automatically are in the third tier (Select +) for that year. Then say you bought another flap. That would bring you to the fourth tier (Front Row) for that year. So when 2016 comes, they calculate that you've spent 12k in 2015, so you will be in the Front Row tier. HR will then list out all the benefits you can use for the year of 2016 based on what you bought in 2015. However, everything gets "reset" at the end of January each year. So if you don't buy anything for 2016, that's ok too. In 2017 when the new card arrives, you will drop to the first tier (Welcome).

The tiers work as so:

1) Welcome ($0-999)
2) Select ($1,000-4,999)
3) Select+ ($5,000-9,999)
4) Front Row ($10,000-24,999)
5) Front Row+ ($25,000+)

From the previous year, I can see they definitely reduced the amounts. I believe Front Row+ used to be greater than $50,000 annual spending, but they probably realized that not many people would spend 50k at Holt Renfrew in a year. Same with Front Row. It used to be something like 25k to 49,999. Select+ used to be 15k to 25k. So they did play around with the numbers this time around, which makes it a little bit easier to attain, but not really.

I have not tried out any of the benefits (aside from picking up my birthday gift) so when I do, I'll do a review on whether it's worth it or not.

Next up? Periods. Women periods. Menstrual periods.

Every girl/woman goes through different experiences, but it always bugs me that guys just assume it's time for a girl to act all bitchy. I once knew a guy who said there is no excuse for girls to act bitchy when it's the time of the month. Well, you don't bleed out of your private area on a monthly basis, so what gives you the right to say such a thing?

Some girls experience mood swings before a period (hence the term PMS). Some have bad skin break outs before a period. Everyone is different. Then there are some girls who get violently ill when they're on their period. I know someone who would vomit because of the cramps and pain. For me, mine ain't all that peaceful either. The worst is when it interrupts your daily routine, like your job. I had gone to work feeling ok, but within 3 hours, I was hyperventilating, sweating, feeling dizzy and cramping like it was the end of the world. I was pulled out of work because of menstrual cramps. After some prescribed narcotics, I felt better. There was one time I had vomited because of the pain, and probably due to the side effect of the narcotic. But it annoys me when guys say it's not all that bad, when they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. I don't know what kind of girls they dated, but having painful cramps that can be debilitating is very real. And this goes on every month. You can imagine how annoying it can get!

So a note to the guys: when your girl is acting bitchy, don't call her a bitch. Just listen to her and get her what she needs, whether it's hot chocolate, a rub on the tummy, or even a snuggle. It would mean the world to her.

That is all for tonight. Time for my brain to rest. Cheers!