The Road to Steem Fest | Sorting out my Top 3 Priorities!

Gosh, here I am doing this post at the last moment! It's my birthday weekend hence, it was a busy one!

Thanks to @anomadsoul and his Road To Steem Fest initiative to help us get into the groove of thinking about Steem Fest and getting really excited about it. I first heard that the dates for Steemfest was already set from my good friend @elizacheng as Malaysians would have over a meal! After being away from Steemit for a long time as I was going through a really tough challenge, it could not have been a coincidence that as I came out of it, I decided to meet up with friends from @teammalaysia who encouraged and supported me throughout my difficult period. Then I started looking through my feeds for anything related to Steem Fest and then chanced upon the Getting Fit for Steemfest with Actifit and Blocktrades ContestHonestly things seem to have fallen into place so nicely. I wanted to get back to posting and at the same time, I needed to get fit again as my pregnancy really took a toll on me and on top of that an opportunity to win a ticket and accommodation to Steem Fest!!! It just couldn't get any better. Two birds with one stone? In my case it was many birds with one stone!!!

How many birds up there? LOL

So I plan to be at Steem Fest in Bangkok in November...that's about the extent of my planning at the moment! LOL I know that's terrible. But since I have had to write this post, I know that I have a heap load to think about and plan. It better not be last minute like this post else, I probably won't make it there! You see, I have 2 little boys who are 3 and 5 years old. Hubby is not on Steemit and doesn't post though he know a lot of the @teammalaysia peeps because we used to go for meet ups. So the first question that I would have answer is whether I was going to there all on my own or with the whole family. We haven't been for a holiday in a really long time as a family overseas due to some unfortunate and tragic events hence this could be one holiday that we could go together. But then again, I would be at Steem Fest events and what would Hubby do with the kids all on his own? Bangkok is one place we would keep a hawk eye on our kids...too many scary stories of children disappearing...

My two little cuties with my birthday presents tonight!

Then my next big thing would be the office. As I manage a recruitment company here in Kuala Lumpur, taking time off can be a challenge, you know the saying? When the cat is away the mice start to play... my team here has a lot of fantastic, young and energetic peeps. However, we are a sales organisation and being around to push and motive them to achieve more is important in making sure that our bottom line continues to grow as we are part of a public listed company in Singapore which is listed on the Main Board of the SGX. Shareholders and all that...So my next thing to plan would be how to ramp up our sales in the following 3 months so that I will not be worried about the performance in November. Generally at the end of the year things start to wind down in the corporate circles so we have to put in a more extra to make sure that everything closes on time. Generally we wind down in December before Christmas whilst Steem Fest is in early November.

The rush to achieve our quarter targets!

Let's see what's next? Our furkids! I have 2 large dogs and a tiny Yorkshire Terrier. If we plan to head to Bangkok, we are going to have to board our newest member of the family, Bolt (our white Husky) Our parents could help to feed the other two but Bolt is way to big, strong and rowdy for our old folks to handle him. Even Hubby and I struggle sometimes and he can actually push me and even make me fall. What more our parents who are between the ages of 76 - 83 years old. So I will have to find a suitable place for him (where they won't just cage him up) or really bribe my dog loving neighbour to care for him. So much to do! Not to mention the cost! Budgeting, it would probably cost anywhere from RM38 - RM70 (Approximately USD10-20) per night. We would have to put him in there for 7 days at least and that would work out averagely to RM400 (USD 100) but if we were to board all 3 of them, the cheapest would be at least RM100 (USD25) per day, 7 days = RM700 (USD 175)! Eeks...This is what you have to think about when you have pets.

After these 3, comes the rest which are equally as important, air tickets, accommodation, spending money and Steem Fest ticket (which I am working hard on in hopes of winning...) Unfortunately, I can't arrange for all these without first sorting the top 3. It's just ironic how the saying is so true, if you could sort out your TOP 3 priorities then everything else will fall into place. It would be so easy to really DOUBT that I would actually make it to Steem Fest. Even now as I write about it, the mountain seems to grow higher and taller, with slippery paths or no path, thick bramble, bad weather and no fitness! Gah!

Lastly is the finances. Over the last one and the half years our family business has not been doing well at all. In fact, it has been in the red for the longest time and it was only last month that it has covered cost somewhat. I am very thankful that I am working and earning a decent income but I am incredibly reluctant to just spend in case things don't turn around and become much much better in the next 6 months. I know that Hubby is working hard at his projects and things will come through, it's just a matter of time. He has always been our provider and this is the first time that things turned out this way and it has been tough for him. Consequently, I have been holding my purse strings a little tighter.

Now on to the better part, what I want is to meet up with Steemians that have been part of my journey here since January 2018! Most importantly, the community of mothers from the @steemitmamas group! I know that quite a few of us have already set our hearts on being at Steem Fest, among them, @mumma-monza, @kaerpediem, @elizacheng, @misslasvegas, @fitinfun @travelgirl and possibly @brittandjosie. It would be so awesome to hang out and chat and share about our lives in the flesh instead of just through posts and discord. Not to mention, other members of @teammalaysia from different states in Malaysia and also @thealliance family.

The community of people is what I have learned to treasure the most. Relationship that are deep and meaningful don't just happen, you have to work at it and really help others to get where they want to go. So one of the other things that I want to do is to put my thinking cap on apart from all the other stuff I talked about and do something to help more Mamas make it to Steem Fest. Mamas have the toughest time trying to make it to Steem Fest because they put other people and things ahead of themselves. If you have some ideas, I would love for you to share them with me so that I can make it happen for more people.

So that wraps up my first Road to Steemfest post on "Planning, Wanting, Doubting on going to SF" I have decided that my decision is made, I will go to Steem Fest, I will sort out my priorities and I know that the finances will work itself out. Now comes the hard part of working on those priorities and making it all happen! Let's all encourage everyone and do what we can to help others get there too! The smallest gesture will make a difference, an upvote, a resteem, a comment, tips on travel, suggestions on good and reasonably price accommodation...even airline ticket sales announcement to any other Steem Fest competition will help.

I am so looking forward to meeting all of you in Bangkok!

Thanks for stopping by my little space!

Xoxo,
Khim