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WELCOME TO LIFEOFJA

Welcome to lifeofja! I’m late, but better late than never! The plan is to write about my life experiences, and then look back at this in 30 years’ time and have a good laugh/cry. It's going to be a little like my diary but you're welcome to drop by anytime!

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ABOUT LIFEOFJA

Lifeofja is about just that. Life. Of. Ja. I’m just a ex-teacher-now-bonafide housewife/catmama from Singapore. One of the things I have always wanted to do is to start a blog. Now that I have plenty of time in my hand, here I am. Hello.

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“Let your dreams take flight.” - Have a dream? Chase after it hard. It all seems impossible until you start doing the work. Things will fall into place. Have faith and have courage.

Love-hating my 40s.

grief has changed me Here's the ugly truth: It hasn't been all fun, starting life in a new country just as I am hitting a new decade in...

Sep 216 min read

Not welcome.

PART I "Next time i come..." Excuse me? Next time? There won't be a next time. I just learnt a valuable lesson about who i will/ will not...

Jul 15, 202410 min read

Letter to my ex friends

It feels a little sad/silly that I am writing this but I need my closure even if you don't. I know I shouldn't be surprised at all that...

Jun 8, 20245 min read

Good goodbyes.

If you look at my facebook or instagram, it's all pretty good stuff. Mostly happy moments. Happy people. I love curating these platforms,...

Sep 14, 20236 min read

Home.

Hello. It's been a while. What have I been busy with these few months? So many things! When Baba left us, we both felt we had been dealt...

Nov 24, 20223 min read

Baba and The Moth.

Last November and December were the hardest months I'd ever faced in my life. U know how u hear stories and you go, well, that's not...

Jun 12, 20224 min read

Seasons come and go.

We had a pretty good summer - lots of beach time. While things were turning for the worse all over the world, we were living life pretty...

Jan 18, 20222 min read

Three weeks of WHAT THE FxxK.

I was teaching in Singapore for 17 years, so I guess I had expectations. I thought, certain basic standards should be met in any decent...

Nov 10, 20217 min read

Don't mess with a good thing.

A chain of events led to me deciding quite foolishly that it was time I took on a full-time job. So I applied for the job, went for the...

Oct 31, 20212 min read

2020 - a reflection.

I keep telling Shai, I cannot believe we have been here a year. A year! When we first landed, I was a mad mix of excited, scared, and...

Jan 17, 20214 min read

Where did the time go?

The last time I wrote anything here was in July! That's 4 months ago. Winter came and went and it is almost summer again. My chilli...

Nov 17, 20202 min read

Birth of the bonafide makcik.

It was our first raya away from our loved ones. In the many weeks leading up to it, I was practising very hard in the kitchen to make...

Jul 17, 20202 min read

4 months in (and learning we can't get out).

As soon as we finished setting up the house, the Premier announced that WA was going into lockdown and travel was going to be banned for...

May 5, 20202 min read

Lessons for newcomers.

I've learned a couple of things in the 2 months I've been in Perth. Here is a short list I've put together: 1. We must learn to fix up...

Mar 11, 20202 min read

Why Australia again?!

We first travelled to Australia in 2014 as part of an annual travel ritual my husband, my brother and I had started only a year earlier....

Mar 6, 20202 min read

Farewell, old life.

That's as good a title as any for a first post, I guess. At 39, I said farewell to the life I'd always known. I became a teacher at 23...

Mar 6, 20201 min read