A Luminous Sapphire

Since it's the festive season, and as the year comes to a close, I wanted to take this little time left of the year to talk about an experience that occurred this year.

I thought I'd also accompany this story with an item I had eyed for over a year (I finally bought it after much much thought, and after keeping it in the drawers, opened it today). Said item and the story are somewhat intertwined, and I thought it befitting to show off said item.

Anyway, the story goes like this.. Sometime in the middle of 2018, I was in the process of purchasing this gorgeous fountain pen that I've been eyeing for a while. For some magical reason, the company, Benupen from Russia, had been following me on Instagram which led me to browse through their items. After a long time of oogling over the pens, I decided to gift myself with two pens from this company.

The purchase itself was smooth, with the correspondent being really helpful and informative. (Most of the interaction happened over Instagram) But what came after reminded me of just how much good there is in this world.

You see, around this time, a person close to heart was in Russia for work. Let's name the person, C. Just a little background on C: C is a foreigner to Russia, with zero understanding of the language and geography of the city. One day, C was sent out by a colleague to pick up art supplies. With only the address in hand, C was sent off to get the supplies needed for work. Needless to say, C got super lost. Despite using an Uber, C was sent to the wrong place. Poor thing didn't know what to do, and no one spoke English.

Luckily for me, I had just completed the purchase of my pens and was speaking to the correspondent about some other issues. In desperation, I asked the correspondent, Kate, to help me. (If you're reading this, Hi Kate!) Without hesitation, Kate agreed to help C. She checked C's location, got her to the supply store, called C to help with translation, then got C back to home base. All this for a complete stranger!

When C got back to the hotel, I could hear the huge relief that rolled off C's back. Oh man. I would've been just as nervous if I were in that situation. I've never met Kate, and from the sound of it, she's just a mere employee of Benupen, but she went out of her way to help a stranger that could give her nothing in return, really warmed my heart.

I know I know, you're probably thinking that this is way overdue. Why even bother talking about it after so long.. Well, to be honest, I had been wanting to talk about this for a really long time. This one day was so significant that I really wanted to make sure that I etched the time out to put this story out there.

2018 had been a rather challenging time. Not just for me, I'm sure. But I had experienced lots of changes and issues that are still playing out as the year comes to an end. This story is something that I hold dear to me, because of the immense warmth and kindness that came from it. I thought I'd just share this small but significant story.

As the year comes to a close, I shan't make anymore empty promises of a fuller blog, but I guess from time to time, I'd like to still be able to share stories that made an impact in my life. Here's to the remainder of 2018, and cheers to a fulfilling 2019.

Thank you, Kate from Benupen. I have not met you in person but I hope that if I do, I would like to give you the biggest hug.

Oh, and here is ONE of the two gorgeous pens that I bought.

Happy New Year everyone

A Love Story

I want to take a moment to address something I hold truly dear to my heart.



Since the age of 4, after watching a video of figure skating, I fell in love.
I was so drawn by the grace, the beauty (yes, the costumes had SOMEthing to do with it), and fun factor I could get from spinning. Trust me when I say that I kept spinning right after that... The spinning often drove my parents insane. Haha.

After years of bugging my parents (mom), I had the great fortune in taking lessons from the age of 13. Since then, for a solid 6 years, I was lucky enough to participate in competitions and had the chance to "climb" the skating ladders until I left for university.

Fast forward to September of 2017, I was lucky enough to get a job at a rink that feels so much like home. The woman who had coached me for most of my skating years is now my "boss" and still treats me like her student. She continues to provide me (and the other coaches) training not only to become a good coach, but also to improve our skating skills.

Some days, I have really bad days, and some days, I feel like I am flying on the ice.

Two days ago, I had to tie & untie my skates so many times, until I settled with two sore feet. The kind that felt more like a tight squeeze you get from a corset, and was not really having it.

However, today in particular, was a great day:
For starters, my skates were in the perfect fit. No pain, and not too loose.
Secondly, a guest coach is visiting and today we worked on some really useful dance steps, which we then had to incorporate that into our jumps afterwards.
Granted, I fell a couple times, and I slipped even more.
But it was so fun, the hour flew by so fast, and I didn't want it to end at all.

After the training, we stayed back a little for some spins, and I saw the progress that I was making. Even after a decade of absence from the ice, finally being able to come back to where I left off was truly rewarding.

*

I know, lots of people don't see skating as a sport. They don't think it compares to "soccer"/ "football", or *inserts some sport*. Growing up, I have dipped my toes in many many many sports. You name it, I've tried it. Sprinting, long distance running (it didn't take long for me to say goodbye), basketball, volleyball, football (soccer), badminton, tennis, squash, high jump, American football, swimming, rock climbing, ballet, gymrama.. the list goes on. And don't get me wrong, I enjoy some of them thoroughly.. Even the ones that had me saying "THAT WAS PAINFUL" are still like little pieces of my smelly pillow etched on my little fragile heart. Looking back, I have fond memories of myself participating in those sports.

However...

Figure skating, by far, takes the cake in my sporting life, despite getting teased, made fun of, and confidently told that skating is an "easy" sport, or "not even a sport at all".
So! Like everything, even with food, I dare everyone (especially those teasers) to [come by the rink and] give it a go. I will be more than happy to watch you prove your point.



Needless to say, this sport will have a huge part of my heart. That little 4 year old that fell in love is still very very much in love. A love hate sometimes. But oh so in love.

Today was a really really good day.

I'm Changing My Name!

Hello!

It's been a while.
Indeed.


While everyone is out catching up to their new year's resolutions (or taking care of the almost forgotten ones from the yesteryears), I have made up my mind.
I'm changing my name.
My insta name that is.
Psych.


This is actually something I've thought about for a while.
Like a tattoo that I don't want to regret, I knew that I had wanted a change.
M previous handle kimberleyknhe is still a huge part of me and it will thus remain the same but this name actually has a story behind it.

Over the years, we've seen an increase in 2 varying train of thoughts in regards to social media.
1. The social media norm of posting photos that reflect the surface of one's reality
2. The once social media influencers that have come out to talk about their experiences as a social media influencer and the negative effects they've faced.

So far, in my experience, I've only seen a majority of the 2 train of thoughts above.
While I do have a FB & Twitter account, I use both of them only for the purpose of work/ group activities and banking on the joy that I have so little followers that I get to just spit whatever I'm thinking. So those two social media accounts are for my own benefits than anything else.. (please do not follow me) I don't even have my birthday on there.

And it's got me thinking...
I've not seen anyone been totally honest on their social media.
So far, I've seen those Buzzfeed videos where they post "the truth" on their social media for a week.
But after that video, it's back to the usual.
To many, I'm considered to be a lazy mo-fo. I am inconsistent with posting anything, let alone being hard working in going through all the filters and stuff. At most I use Insta filters and tweaks. Even my hastags make the occasional appearance... when I feel like it.

ANYWAY.

In a very minute way, I have been a mini enthusiast of photography. Give me a DSLR and...
I will still be confused with all the manual tweaks (trust me, this is one of those things my brain just doesn't want to remember no matter how many times I've learnt it...) But give me a smart phone, or any point and shoot, and I will use the heck out of that camera.
Less is more. I like to see what angles and perspectives I can use to optimize my photos instead of buttons and pulleys I can never remember.

This got me thinking: "why not bank on that?"

Instead of posting my "best featured" photo, I will post my daily things. It can be something happy, totally sad, or even something totally honest like "I peed without toilet paper today" but my challenge is to use basic cellphone cameras to take a photo using natural elements and angles. While some of the content may be grim, I believe that it would be a more realistic expression of the human experience.

Thus... starting January 21 2018 (MYT)

My new handle will be krimgram

I don't think I need to explain the choice. It's not that hard to put two and two together.

So, if you're asking..
What's new with me for 2018?
I'm changing my name.
I hope you'll support me in my endeavor as I post something on the daily, and I hope that you would help me as I work on my basic simple photography skills!

xo

Kim

Sidenote: this will not be and IS NOT a reveal of my private life as I like to believe that I'm a pretty private person and I'd like to keep it that way.. previous experiences have compelled me to keep my own life to myself and I intend to make that a status quo.