Dear Dayre,

I think life's been not too bad of late! Not that I've actually done much.. but yeah, in the five weeks that I haven't been travelling (😂😂😂), it's just been work sleep quality time with quality people – rinse and repeat.

And that's awesome! Really awesome, although I get jealous when I see some fellow friends and acquaintances flying all over the world and doing super cool stuff that I'm not.

I'm just appreciating how 幸福可以很简单 sort of.

My backside is so itchy to sit on a plane right now though. And then dad called me a couple days ago to ask me if I wanted to go for a short trip to Vietnam with him and mummy next month! Ok, sure!!!

The last time I travelled with papa and mama by myself was… when I was 11 years old, to Tokyo. I am still very grateful for all the holidays I was privileged to be brought for during my childhood, really.

Travel is not something that every kid gets to experience, and it sure opened up my eyes to the great big world outside of my little comfort zone.

I've never been to Vietnam and Daddy has, and so he proclaimed loudly "我带你们走!" with an air of authority, much to my amusement 🙊

At my ripe old age, it's both funny and just a little saddening to realise that I'm now so grown up that the hero of my childhood, my papa, is now more accustomed to calling me to seek help whenever he needs it – with technology, gadgets or just plain old letter reading 😅 My folks were not educated in English and til this day, I'm still impressed that all three of us sisters managed to turn out rather well-educated in English somehow! My parents definitely did something right somewhere.

不知不觉地,我真的长大了,爸爸妈妈也真的不年轻了 😟 从小依赖着爸妈的我现在轮到我帮爸爸办事! This time round, I booked the air tickets for papa, mama, YZ and myself, and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with my closest 🤗 We have never travelled together before, just the four of us!

It's just gonna be a three days thing, and my expectations aren't high in terms of having an exciting holiday 😂 I'll just be happy to spend precious time with my two 老人家 😊

Randomly, this is a photo of me when I was 11 or 12 years old – a perfect little replica of my dad wasn't I 😂😂😂

I honestly never saw the resemblance until I stumbled upon these two photos one day and went like O M G G G 😱

Papa and I on my wedding day 🤗

Darn, I inherited his terrible dark eye rings and eye bags 🙄

I've always had a love/hate relationship with papa – because I am so very much like him in so many ways. We are both stubborn and obstinate and opinionated characters – I'd also like to think that some of my better attributes such as resourcefulness and independence was also nurtured by him and his strict upbringing.

One of the biggest ironies of my life is how I've always looked at Daddy working and working non-stop from my earliest memories and even until now, running his pork stall and business practically seven days a week – I remember telling myself that I never ever wanted to be a boss or business owner, too much work!

Life would be so much happier, I figured, doing something I enjoyed doing for a living, with lower stress levels and a regular salary to bring home every month.

It is so utterly ironic that I ended up somewhat "following the footsteps" of papa with my own business now 😂😂😂 Life is truly made out of irony I swear.

Although I suck at running my business ya. But one thing I'm grateful for is having a fantastic team that I can trust to run with me! 🙌🏻 I feel so much more at ease when everything is in good hands. We are only a small and humble little business, of course, but I'm not ambitious!

Speaking of my childhood, my sisters and I were brought up pretty tough. We were expected to do well in school, but we were hardly rewarded with praise or kind words and encouragement words (typical of many tiger parents during our era….).

A report card full of As would probably be signed without a word, while a single B would earn us a reprimand and privileges revoked.

Papa was very pragmatic and work always came first, which is how he never attended a single one of my prize-giving ceremonies when I was doing well in primary school – I remember coming in third in class from Primary 1 to primary 4 😂😂😂 And neither one of my parents showed up a single time to witness my proud moments because they couldn't excuse themselves from the pork stall in the busy mornings.

In a way, their business (I meant busy-ness, not a pun) also made me very independent 🙊

I always wonder if personality/character traits are a case of nature or nurture, and I do think that both play a role in making a person who he or she is.

My fellow gfs and I were having one of those discussions one Monday (that's how we make Mondays better.. we have a long lunch together and talk about all kinds of random shit) about upbringing and how much it shapes a person.