Josiah’s team-mate, Fatehah Mustapa celebrated her 23rd birthday today. It was also the arrival of three new junior cyclists into the Malaysian cycling team’s home  here in Melbourne. It is quite wonderful to see how the team has progressed. Some cyclists came and left and Fatehah amongst the few of them like the ever famous Azizulhasni Awang – Fatehah is now on for a chance to win a medal at the London Olympics 2012 – the first Malaysian female cyclist at the Olympics. Others present at the Malaysian cyclists’ home were coach John Beasley, gym trainer Marty, psychologist Dave and more.

I just kept eating. It’s one of the best barbeques I’ve had in ages. No photos of food on here because… I’m feeling very guilty right now.

After the barbeque, we went for Moomba festival briefly – everyone had a stuffed toy in their arms and it was all colourful!

Josiah won us that big red and black ball.

I’m like a little girl again. How not to love Melbourne? It’s such a vibrant city!

I grew up with Bloch. As if ballet had not left me, I found every reason to step into the lovely store at Southgate and managed to walk out of the store with 9 new items. A few leotards, sports bra top, shorts all in black, foot glove for when warm-up barefeet during pole classes and aerial silks, a new pair of outdoor ballet flats and a magazine.

Following this purchase, it spurred me on to clean out my entire wardrobe. I had put together the clothes for donation to St Vincent de Paul Society in the charity bin at the basement level of my apartment. Josiah had drummed this into my ears that – if you want to obtain new items, you must get rid of old items, otherwise become a hoarder.

Malaysia shopping end-of-year sale, here I come!

I’m taking time to reflect things over. Am I headed in the right direction. I have progressed. How much more do I need to achieve to meet next year’s goals? I actually feel twenty seven today.

I question my purpose in blogging these days. I have been blogging since 2003. Time and again, running this blog, knowing that there are people visiting this blog because of a relevant unique keyword search, or friends and family members who just simply want to be updated on my life here in Melbourne or for whatever reason or topic of interest. I ask myself occasionally – who are these people reading kimong.com and why?

I still love blogging, but like other bloggers, over the years I grow and my blog grows with me. This means a difference in content, topic, look and feel and so on, or perhaps how regular I blog.

Bloggers as humans, go through different phases in life. Like Kenny Sia, establishing his gym empire meant that he blogged less over a particular period of time. Josiah Ng relies on his wife to blog for him these days, he says his duty is to train and race over and above anything else. Some others do it for a living and have found their niche. Some others tread on the blogosphere and hasn’t progressed with their content, look and feel and so on. Most others’ blogs are “locked”. At least 5 out all on the blog list I have on my right sidebar have privatised their blogs. You know who you are!

I don’t think I’ll leave my blog anytime, I’ll keep it running for as long as I can and I will stick to my theme – optimism through life. In my very own small way, I hope to inspire.

Above: Chutney my bengal cat, 10 months old.

KIM ONG
Digital Account Manager / Lifestyle Blogger
Melbourne, Australia

My biggest dream is to travel the world with my hubby for a few months at a time while my online retail business runs on its own. When I’m not on a holiday, I’ll be at home or at the studio instructing or practicing my favourite sport; pole-dancing.

In five to ten years from now, I would ideally have two children running around while I run my business from home. I will still have time to do the things I love to do; keeping fit through pole-dance, cooking and blogging away. My hubby will also be at home, running the business together with me and we will take turns running home errands and taking care of the children.

At my day job in a web-development company, as an Account Manager I am absorbing all I need to learn about setting up a company in the future. My previous and current day jobs have always been within Marketing and Digital-related, so it is definitely relevant to where I would want to head to in the future.

I also attend a lot of social-networking events and conferences to meet entrepreneurs and gain knowledge through successful startup businesses; on average once twice a month. Also, I keep in close contact with these entrepreneurs through Twitter to share ideas. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are great ways to meet like-minded individuals.

My hubby and I have also started our own line of retail cycling wear last year (5bling.com) and we have sold 500 pairs of gloves. We are treading slowly while we have our day jobs, but selling those gloves were considered a hit and we can only imagine doing this full time, reaping the rewards later. We talk a lot about the future. We pick up websites and share information across to each other. We talk about the things we see, the places we go to, like “Oh, check out this frozen yoghurt bar – I enquired about franchising the other day; this is how much it costs, apparently it is very popular in Asia, the rewards are amazing!” or “XXXXX is successful because her studio is located at a prime location!”. We talk about the people we come across and analyse why they are so successful and what makes them happy. Having friends from across different walks of life, age and location help to broaden our knowledge too.

As a true-Libran, my motto in life is to be passionate in all I do. I must always enjoy what I do. I never push myself too hard and always go with the flow. I always believe that life takes a turn in things that sometimes don’t go my way and I consider it fate. Something must happen for a reason. Yesterday is why I got here today. Wake up with a smile and tell yourself it is going to be a great day!

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