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About Me

About Me
CrystalPhuong.net is a Personal Style & Travel Blog based in Singapore, written by Crystal Phuong. The blog was nominated FOUR times in Top 10 Best Fashion Blogs in the annual Singapore Blog Award from 2012- 2015, voted as one of the Best Lifestyle Blogs in Singapore in 2013 by Hotelclub.com, and Best Travel Blogs in 2016 by Foodpanda.com. Crystal hopes to connect and inspire young women to lead a healthy and happy life. Be confident, be positive, and be kind.
Showing posts with label PERSONAL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PERSONAL. Show all posts
37 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN

37 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN


 


And just like that, my favorite month of the year- November, came to an end. It's the period when I find myself going through the introspection process a lot. My birthday is at the beginning of the month, and Thanksgiving is towards the end. Plus, the rainy weather in Singapore happening in between makes a perfect time to stay in, have a coffee, and reflect.    

Last year, I was lucky that the government lifted the social distancing rule just before my birthday; hence, I could still celebrate with some friends. But, unfortunately, the restriction was extended this year, and only two pax dining and visitors were allowed. So, instead of having five people gathered for dinner or lunch, I had five meals with different friends the entire week. Most of the celebrations were in my new home. It was the first time in 12 years living in Singapore; I hosted birthday parties at home. It was a unique, special, and memorable birthday indeed. 

When I was ten years younger, my birthday didn't mean so much to me. I didn't find joy in celebrating getting older, becoming chubbier, having more wrinkles. I wish I were forever 25. Turning 30 was fun, remarkable, but scary. I have some female friends who are older than me; they responded, "I'm 40 years old already", "OMG, I'm 45 this year," when I wish them "Happy birthday." Some are at 39 years old but already feeling down thinking about turning 40 in 10 more months. I have not heard any male friends complaining about turning 40, 45, or even 50 yet. But women, we do this to ourselves, all the time. Why?

I was the victim of my negative thought and insecurity before, so I understand these feelings very well. But, what could we have done to stop our number from going up? Nothing, unless our time is up and our clock stops permanently. Saying it out loud helps change my perspective completely. I'd rather like my age to go up every year as long as possible. I'm sure you would too, wouldn't you?  
And that's why the older we get, the more we should celebrate our birthday well. Instead of feeling worried about getting old and ugly, we should focus on creating memories, living well, and making the most of every day with people and things that matter to us most.

Despite the Covid restriction, I still had a wonderful time celebrating with some old and new friends, which I appreciated so much. There are still many super close friends that live far away from me. I wish we could celebrate with them in person soon. For now, here are some throwback photos from the celebrations of my 37 trips around the sun. Many more ahead!


Pre-birthday dinner at home with my ex-colleagues.


Steamboat dinner at home prepared by yours truly. Thanks Roger & Benjamin for always supporting me at work. I'm gonna miss working with these 2. 


First birthday cake of the year, thanks to Benjamin!


Surprised breakfast delivered to the home by a mysterious man. :D  
 

Surprised birthday flower delivery! Love it so much! Thank you Faith! How could I not see this coming when you asked for my home address. So cheeky! 


Birthday staycation at Fairmont Singapore, special thanks to Accor!  

another surprised birthday cake. 


and birthday dinner at Skai Restaurant. Thanks to Emmanuel, the General Manager for the champagne treat. 


Ready for another birthday brunch! 


With Anna, whom I'd like to call my guardian angel. Thank you for always listening and helping me grow over the last 4 years. I can't believe we finished all the food and still stay so skinny :D


Another day, another meal. Brunch with the man in the afternoon



Happy hour and chill with the girls in the early evening. It's so lovely to finally be able to invite my new friends, Sylvie and Chloe to my new place. Three of us went to view the same house at the same time without knowing each other. Then, five months later, we were here. How amazing life brings people to you sometimes.   



Another birthday cake, courtesy of American Express. They really know how to treat their customers. 


I went out to have a lovely dinner with one of my male best friends for the post-birthday celebration.



If only every Monday looked like this.


The last birthday cake this year. 



Dhilip- one of the most kind-hearted, sweet, funny, and silly men whom I've been lucky to know for 4.5 years now. Our relationship has many titles over the year: from colleague to a friend; from friend to a work competitor; from a competitor to brother and sister. Thank you for your unconditional support in work and life. Your loyalty and friendship mean so much to me, especially at a time like this. 




How many more trips around the sun can I take? I don't know. One thing I know for sure is as long as I can still breathe fresh air and see this gorgeous view from up here, it's a good enough reason to celebrate. I promise that I'll never whine about getting old ever again. I hope you'll also have a fresh perspective about your birthday celebration after this post. 

Thank you so much for reading!  
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HOME SWEET HOME

HOME SWEET HOME



Crystal Phuong- Home Decor

I couldn't find a more appropriate time than my birthday to share one of the big news about my life with you. If you still follow my Instagram, you've probably already known that I decided to move to a new house mid of this year. When I spoke to some of my friends about this decision, everyone seemed surprised as they knew how much I loved my old place. I even invested time and money to redecorate it and blogged about it here. Then, less than a year later, one day, while I was reading a book about getting out of the comfort zone, all of a sudden, my mind spoke to me, "Crystal, it's time to move." Then the fear held me back and said, "But you've invested so much in this place? How to find such a spacious bedroom elsewhere? Why need to leave when no one asked you to". That conversation repeated in my head for months, plus other factors to consider. I couldn't decide, so I relied on faith. Typical Asian me, I know. But experiences have proven to me many times that if something is meant to be, it will happen. So I keep holding to that thought whenever I have to take the leap of faith. Some people relocate so easily like they change clothes. I admire them. When I left Vietnam for Malaysia and left Malaysia for Singapore, I had only 2 pieces of luggage. 12 years later, I had 30 large carton boxes, 5 pieces of luggage, and dozen pieces of furniture to take with me. Hence, moving house is my worst nightmare. Besides, it reminds me of the teenage memories where we had to move house every year for nearly 10 years. It was sad.   

I tried to stay as long as I could. Then, a couple of things happened that made me feel like it was the right time to change. After a few months of thinking and seeking advice from my most trusted group of people, I finally decided to move out and move forward. That was in April 2021. 

I viewed nearly 20 houses within one month. Tiring, frustrating, disappointing, exciting, drooling, disheartening were the emotions I processed every week whenever I went for house viewing. And yet, in my mind, I was so sure that I'd find the house, or the house would find me. I viewed the last house on May 2nd, and it was not even on my top 3 list. But people often "Save the best for last.", who knew the Universe was doing the same to me. I was curious about the last house. 

As soon as the car arrived at the condo entrance, I heard the soothing sound of the water fountain. Almost immediately, I felt like this could be the place that I call home. By the time I took my first few steps in the house, I knew I no longer had to schedule another viewing after that. It felt right. Right time, right place, right people. 

June 8th, I moved to a new house. It was an auspicious day, as advised by my Dad. The house was empty without any furniture. It's like a blank canvas for me to paint a new artwork. Although I'm terrible at painting, I'm not too bad at home decoration, I think. 

It took me 2 months to turn this empty space 

Crystal Phuong- Home Sweet Home

into something I'm proud to call HOME. 

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 2

It's much smaller than my last house, but it's cozy, bright, and windy. Exactly how I like it. 

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 3

I buy fresh flowers every week as they make me happy looking at them. I enjoyed staying home during the lockdown before, but I love spending every minute in my new home much more now. A perfect morning routine to me (if I'm not working) is switching on the water fountain, opening the window, playing soft piano music, having my coffee and breakfast, reading a book, or playing with my piano. It's simple yet so satisfying. 

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 4

Moving from a big house to a smaller one has turned me into an organized freak, in a good way, of course. You can tell from my work desk with no messy cables around, considering the number of devices I have. Wait until you see how I organized my closet. I'll save that for the Instagram stories maybe, so do follow me if you want to see.  

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 5

This year, I've taken a big step back from social media. I went completely offline for a few months and didn't miss it at all. As if packing, moving house, and working weren't busy enough, I decided to go back to school. I took a couple of leadership & management courses from Harvard Business School Online to improve my skills and knowledge. More importantly, it was my dream to study at Harvard when I was in college. I couldn't do it then, so I do it now. As a result, I barely had 8hrs a day to sleep, but when these two certificates came into the mail, they made all the sleepless nights worth it. I'm still not done with my study, and I still have two more certificates to earn. But I can finally cross the "Study at Harvard" off the younger Crystal's bucket list. What's on the older Crystal's bucket list? Well, it's for another blog entry. 
For now, here are some more photos from my lovely place. Oh, I also started learning piano. Why? I don't know. Covid made me do it. 
Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 6

May the new home be filled with sunshine, love, and abundance.  
Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 7

A typical breakfast at C's! 
Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 8

Coffee with Crystal corner! 
Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 8

Having a clean, organized kitchen motivates me to cook more at home now. The spice and condiment containers are bonuses.  

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 9

I have a much smaller bedroom in the new house, and I don't have a walk-in closet anymore, so I had to be super creative about keeping all the shoes and bags. Although it's smaller, it's super cozy, clean, and comfortable.

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 10

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 13

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 14
These babies have a new home and I think they are happy 
Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 11

The beauty corner
Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 12

Once a while when I feel like I need a at-home spa day. 
Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 15

An afternoon walk after work in the neighborhood has become routine every week. I can never feel upset looking at this view, especially with a sunset view like this.  

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 18

This view never gets old. 

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 17

Every time I look at this, I feel immensely grateful for many things, especially this year. The global pandemic lasted much longer than we all expected. So many people lost their family members, their jobs, their hopes, and their dreams. Yet, I moved to a bigger house. Saying this out loud made me feel that I'm so spoiled. But the truth is, after 16 years of living abroad, moving from a shared bedroom to a storage room, from a storage room to a partitioned room (picture below), from a partitioned room to a master bedroom.

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 19

Finally, I moved from a master bedroom to a whole house. 

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 20

It was a significant change that I didn't see it coming myself. But here I am celebrating my 37th birthday in my lovely home with a grateful heart.

Crystal Phuong- Home Decor 21

Thank you to my family, my guardian angels, for guiding me on my journey! Thank you to my friends for staying with me through ups and downs and supporting me! For now, I need to go to sleep (it's 4.09am) so I can have energy to celebrate tomorrow. 

Thank you so much for reading!
xoxo

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BLESSED 36TH BIRTHDAY

BLESSED 36TH BIRTHDAY


I felt like I just celebrated my 35th birthday not so long ago, but now, I'm already 36 years old. Where has the time gone? I thought I would have a quiet, low-key birthday celebration this year with just one or two closest friends. But I ended up having many birthday celebrations instead. I'm not complaining.

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

We started with a yacht birthday party in the morning. (Thanks to my BFF Stefanie for arranging everything, and to everyone for spending their time to celebrate with me! I'm so touched). I just needed to bring my bikini and show up. We had a delicious birthday cake from American Express, too much wine, a good dose of vitamin sea, and endless laughter. 

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

The weather had been gloomy with heavy rain all week, and the sun came on out my birthday to play. I also wanted to thank Mr. Ang, owner of  No Name Yachts Pte Ltd, and his team for taking a good care of us that day. We had a great time. It was so perfect. 

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

My initial plan of having a quiet birthday was spending the weekend at Marina Bay Sands hotel, swimming at the sky infinity pool, reading books, or going for a walk at the Gardens by the bay. But, nothing can be quite quiet when my girl, Stefanie, shows up. In a good way, of course. She always brings sunshine wherever she goes. We checked in the hotel room just enough time for me to have an important meeting that I couldn't afford to skip. The hotel also offered the birthday girl a free upgrade to Deluxe room with a sky-view (exactly how I wanted) and sweetened my stay with a surprise birthday cake. Then, we had another birthday cake when we had lunch the next day at one of the restaurants. 

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration
    
Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

In the evening, I went out to have dinner at an Italian restaurant with my friends and colleagues. Thanks to Stefanie for arranging this again! Mazzo restaurant team surprised me with a flamingo Lamborghini shot and a delicious birthday cake. Thank you, Patrick & Mazzo team! I had way too much fun that night. My jaw hurt from laughing too much.      

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

The next day, Stef and I had a morning swim at the famous infinity pool, took a couple of photos, and enjoyed the city view while sipping our cup of coffee. We didn't get to stay long as our appointment slot was only for one hour per day. Who would have thought that we had to make an advanced booking to swim at the hotel pool before? But this is the reality we live in now during the pandemic. A lot of adjustments, changes, new rules applied. I did what I wanted to, and I was happy, regardless. 

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

After the swim, we had lunch at the hotel restaurant and went to the casino right after because Stef was feeling lucky. Thirty minutes later, we walked out of the casino with an extra $200 in Stef's wallet. It's my birthday. Of course, everyone is feeling lucky! At least, I like to think so. 

At night, we went to have drinks and dinner with my good friend, Javi, at the Fairmont hotel. Not only did I have a great laugh, but I also had another birthday cake, and a happy birthday song sang in Spanish, by the most fun & good looking Spanish man, I know. A big hug and thanks to Emmanuel, General Manager of Fairmont hotel, for the champagne. 

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

On day 3 of my 36 years old, I celebrated with two women whom I dearly love and admire. There are not enough words to express how grateful I am for their support, patience, and guidance in the last three years. They watched me grow and celebrated with me every important milestone in my career and now personal. 

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

Have I done all the celebrations yet? Probably not. I'm the kind of person who, if I can wake up and be happy every day, I will celebrate no matter how big or small. But every birthday, it's a chance for me to reflect, to look deep into my soul (and sometimes my insecurities), to question myself, "How much have I grown?", "What have I accomplished?" "Am I happy?". Then, I started looking back at old photos. 

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

The photo on the left was Crystal 2.0 ten years ago. She was young, innocent, ambitious, energetic, and impatient. The image on the right is the Crystal 3.0 now. She is still young at heart, more experienced, always ambitious, more patient, understanding, and compassionate. What have I lost over the last ten years? Perhaps, the insecurity about my flaws, the doubts about my ability, the negativity when I hit the roadblocks, and the need to find someone make me happy. What have I gained on the contrary? Some wrinkles on my face, a few pounds on my body, a lot more patience and emotional maturity, and a longer list of work-life experiences, and the contentment in life that is so hard to find. 

Crystal Phuong- Singapore Lifestyle Blog- 36th birthday celebration

There will still be days when PMS syndrome hits me; I'll feel like I've not accomplished enough, I won't have time to achieve all the goals I set for myself, I haven't spent much time with the family, where will I be in the next 5 and 10 years, and the list goes on. But as soon as those doubtful feelings got me, I quickly realised that the hormones rollercoaster is trying to give me an emotional ride. I can let it swing my mood up and down, or I can choose to say, "Stop it. It's enough". Whether I'm at v2.0 or v3.0, I'm still fighting my own battles every day like everybody else. But at 36 years old, I learn to choose what's worth fighting for and what to let go. I'm lucky to be surrounded by many great people. Some help me before even meeting me in person. Some spoil me with their love and support. Some help me to grow from my mistakes. Some motivate me to go after my dreams. Some push me out of my comfort zone. My memory sucks, but I'll never forget these names. 

I'm always a work in progress because I'm nowhere near perfect, and I will never be. But I know what I'll bring to the table, and I'm not afraid to express myself. I love the woman I've become, and I am enough. 

As always, thank you for reading! To all my beautiful friends, thank you for being a part of my journey! 

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