Circle of Trust // Valentine’s Day Not 2007

Dear Dayre,

Today, I fly to Taipei!

Side-note: I just unlocked Dayre+ heh. Let's see if it's any good to use! $128 for one year leh most ex app I own.

So I've made this post Dayreans-only, which honestly doesn't seem that viable an option for privacy because anyone can simply download the app to access the content, right?

There's also different "groups" that you can create so that you can post content only viewable by selected accounts. That's a pretty cool feature and I'll try it soon πŸ™Š

Wah ok just tried sharing the URL for this post and it gives me an error page on Safari!

Not that I'll ever underestimate the power of screen shots so… I will regard the "Dayreans-only" privacy function to being almost as public as a regular post.

One of the things that sucks about having more followers is that I feel like I don't have as much leeway to rant or post about more sensitive topics anymore because of the fear of judgement on myself or people around me.

While at the same time I know I have so many readers and followers who are genuinely there for me and do care about even the negative stuff going on in my life so… I've decided to try something a little different this time and open up my "Aquaintances" group to sincere readers and followers.

If you'd truly like to follow in a little closer on my life, send me an email at ask.yina@gmail.com with the subject title "Let's be Dayre friends!", give me your Dayre name and I'll add you into this special group.

There are limited slots lah so if you think we click online even though we don't know each other IRL – Just drop me an email if you'd like to be a lil more friendly with me πŸ€— I actually honestly doubt I will get much requests HAHA so like I said this is truly for sincere readers!

Please no need to be shy about it – I can't track y'all down one by one so I can only make an open request and wait for you all to contact me!

I also really appreciate all the regular readers who always leave comments and have been so supportive and warm towards me on Dayre and I'm hoping that all you guys can drop me that email so I can include you in ❀

Of course I will exercise discretion cos there's limited slots still.

Also for friends who know me personally – Just whatsapp me or text me to say "EH ADD ME LEH ON YOUR SECRET DAYRE LEH" hahaha cos the thing is I'm not sure which friends are active on Dayre sometimes (all you silent readers..) so even if you're my good friend but you don't read Dayre often then no point right haha πŸ˜… That's why I'm even posting this so I can know who to add lolol.

Sorry if this sounds like I want to be exclusive – That's not the case I just think the chances of having enemies (hope I don't have many) or unfriendly readers who dislike me actually bothering to email me to ask to join are going to be quite low so at least that's one layer of "security" that I can sieve through πŸ€“

Obviously all my usual content – Random stuff, travelogues, TVD updates etc will still be public but I might talk about stuff closer to the heart only to the "Inner Circle" groups with Dayre+'s new function.

Hope this doesn't backfire on me la this is really gonna be like the "Circle of Trust" haha. But thinking back about how I made some really awesome friends from Livejournal and all back then, I feel like I'm okay to take this risk πŸ€—

Of course I hope to really be able to connect to readers too so don't just join because you kpo and want to be silent reader ok I really want to make friends with you! Haha

ask.yina@gmail.com πŸ‘ˆπŸ»

As usual, I haven't packed my luggage. Flight is at 2pm so I have time tomorrow morning.

I'll be heading on a press trip with bloggers from other countries and I hope it's not gonna be awkward or scary LOL.

Maybe you're thinking "But you also blogger what!" let me tell you a secret – It's still intimidating to meet social media personalities and other bloggers/influencers especially if they are super popular because they're like celebrities in their own right, almost.

I feel just like anybody else when I actually get the opportunity to meet or interact with these influencers/bloggers cos really got the star struck feeling one HAHA shit I'm making myself sound noob here πŸ˜‚ Lucky my bitch face is always expressionless so it covers up my nervousness and awkwardness well but then I just come across like a bitch not sure which is worse πŸ™„

As I mentioned, it's gonna be a international press trip and there will be a media conference and everything which sounds intimidating already. I was told to send in a short bio as well as high-res images of myself and they will be introducing all the influencers one by one wtf. There's gonna be government people around too so it's quite a formal thing and that makes me slightly apprehensive.

Somemore you know the influencers from other countries (like Indonesia and Philippines) have wayyyyyy larger audiences and a lot more followers than little noob me here so I feel a bit like hei bi 🦐 already.

But no worries I will show my best bitch face and then PR face hahahaha so I should be fine πŸ˜‚

At least I'm bringing YZ along so I've got company. I just hope we don't have any quarrels on the trip 😢

Time check- 9.30AM 😳 Time to pack to leave in 2.5h!

Hello all u sampat friends that never read properly one I said whatsapp me or text me all leave comment!!

Ok la ok la only if you know me IRL πŸ˜‚

PS. If I don't have enough slots to add everyone, I'll have to go by adding those usernames I recognise more (meaning to say that regularly like & comment) first! 😣😣😣

Gonna rush to airport in a bit so I'll only be going through my inbox later today! But if you do get added to the group, you'll receive a notification like this:

Really quite cool hor this function!

Some of you emailed me without your dayre handle! hahahah Pls pls include your handle if not I have to be superwoman and figure it out on my own πŸ˜‚

Whoopeedooooo at the airport now πŸ€— Flight's taking off at 2PM and we will arrive at Taoyuan at 6.45PM!

Definitely definitely hitting up a ε€œεΈ‚ tonight before our itinerary begins tomorrow πŸ™ŒπŸ»

I like my eyebrows they are on point today with Laneige's Brow Cushion πŸ‘†πŸ»πŸ‘†πŸ»πŸ‘†πŸ» Yeah call me a sucker for all things cushiony hahaha

This nifty brow cushion. It actually comes in a rectangular case with a foldable brow brush and spoolie but it's so popular it was sold out at Laneige in Korea so I bought only the refill and use my own angled brush for it – Works just as well!

I've started adding fellow Dayre-ians into my #CoT (give it an abbreviation lah easier) but seriously @blog you need to allow us to add more people also πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ Can only add:

6 to Inner Circle
15 to Friends &
20 to Acquaintances

I know that too many people in the CoT sort of defeats the purpose but I would like to be able to add at least 30-40 Acquaintances at least?? 😒 Even better if we can add without limits like LJ! I'm feeling bad for not being able to add more Dayre friends into my CoT!

On the plane now and waiting to take off – Will report from the other side! ❀

My first Valentine's Day 10 years ago

As everyone knows, it's Valentine's Day today! All I did was scroll through Facebook for like three minutes and everyone's showing off the flowers and gifts and what not.

So I shall share a funny Valentine's Day story. Or rather it's a Valentine's Day Not story.

This happened 10 years ago or so I remember.

If you also recall, I was still a θ‚₯ε¦Ή 10 years ago, here's a picture of me from back then to show you how I looked:

Something like this la πŸ‘†πŸ»

You know those girls who are always the "bros" to the guys, that's the kind of girl I was – I had guy friends, definitely, but none had ever expressed a real interest in me or so I thought.

I remember walking up on Valentine's Day and feeling vaguely excited πŸ˜‚ Not that I had a date… I think I just felt like oh it was a special day and I'd just dress up a little more to "celebrate" the fact that it was V-Day.

I actually don't know what I was expecting πŸ˜‚ But I wore something relatively nice (according to my then fashion sense) and went to work as per usual… And in the middle of the day, a guy friend of mine – Let's call him M – texted me and went:

M: Hey are you doing anything tonight?
Me: Nope!
M: Oh cool, shall we have dinner then? 😊

*inside my head* IS THIS A DATE?! BUT CANNOT BE LAH WHERE GOT GUY ASK GIRL OUT ON VDAY ACTUAL DAY ONE AIYA HE JUST WANTS TO HAVE DINNER LAH ***

Me: Oh ok sure!

So the back story with M is quite complicated but let's just say I've always treated him as my mentor and I've always thought he treated me as a little sister whom he could click and get along well with.

M used to ride a big bike so he would sometimes pick me up/send me home on his bike.

So after I finished work that day, M came to pick me up and then we went for dinner.

In my head, I was still psychoing myself that it just happened to be Vday but M and I were just going for a friendly platonic dinner you know?

Please remember that I'd never had any men express interest in me before and I'd never seriously entertained the thought that anyone would be interested in me romantically, that's how innocent I was at twenty years old πŸ˜‚

Further more, M was 11 years older than me if I remember rightly lol I've always had a knack for attracting older guys 😢

Platonic Dinner-Not Red Flag #1 🚩

M came to pick me up and I was all friendly and chirpy kinda "Yes i'm ready to go for my platonic dinner now!"

I should have felt a bit of forewarning when we arrived at East Coast Park (pak tor place of the 80's kids LOL in case all you young boys and girls don't know) but I brushed aside any weird suspicions WHICH is really quite stupid of me.

Platonic Dinner-Not Red Flag #2 🚩

I was still thinking that it's a platonic dinner at ECP la but then we walked in to a rather nice looking bar/restaurant that was located by the sea and then basically had candle-light settings and all HAHAHA red flag #2

In my head "Oh nice place for a dinner but NAH it's not a Vday date laaaaaa"

🚨 Alarm bells ringing kind of red flag

As if the two neon signs above not big enough hor it was only halfway through our dinner when we were just casually chatting and eating (pasta I think) when M suddenly leaned in towards me and went like:

"Want to try my pasta? It's pretty good!"

Followed by spooning up some pasta and then OFFERING TO FEED ME whaaaaat

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

Uh-oh I don't think this was as platonic as I thought after all!

Side-tangent: WHAT IS IT with guys trying to feed girls they like cos YZ did the same to me also πŸ™„

I don't know about you but I find the gesture of feeding someone food very intimate LOL you know what I mean? Usually if friend friend platonic one you would just offer to let them try your food by handing them the cutlery or maybe pushing the plate over hor. Feeding is a no-no!

I suddenly can't remember if I let M feed me pasta or not but I'm quite sure I didn't hahaha I probably took the spoon from him to feed myself cos it was just too weird.

Awkward moment…….

Moral of the story: I am quite unbelievably dense when it comes to romantic attention because I was so not used to any at all while I was growing up so even when any comes my way, I always brush them off as non-romantic and friendly interest πŸ™„

The only other thing I remember from that night was a very awkward photo of the two of us that M asked the waiter to help us take – Of my first ever Vday dinner date it seems πŸ˜‚

I confirmed that M had a bit of a romantic interest in me after that night and afterwards I actively avoided him hahahaha actually I didn't dislike him but it was just toooooo weird lah.

And then I realised that he's actually been doing other non-platonic stuff I just didn't realise cos I was daft πŸ˜‚

For instance when I was riding behind him on the bike, he would tell me to hold on to him tighter if he was too fast or if I was cold πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

I very hands-off one even when I was on his bike, I would hold on to the side handles of the bike instead of holding on to him (not even his shoulders) because he rode a really big bike so I actually had a lot of space and didn't have to lean into him at all.

That was my first experience with Valentine's Day – The story ends here cos after that I actively avoided M and then we fell out of contact for a long time lol. We are still on friendly terms and he's married with three kids now I think?

Story over! Safely reached Taiwan and we've just checked into our hotel in Taipei yay!

I'm so happy cos there's a BATHTUB 😍😍😍😍😍

Off to ε€œεΈ‚ now!

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