This afternoon I received the first cheque ever for a batch of 220 cookies I baked for a customer/friend. Seriously it was not a lot of money - but I felt pretty emotional about it. A really tangible feeling that I had worked really hard to earn it!

To be honest, I have not felt this way about my paycheck in a long time, probably not since my very first paycheck. As a salaried civil servant the money typically "appears" in your bank account without fail you eventually start to take a decent and stable stream of income for granted. And I never really thought that I would appreciate and actually miss this sense of financial security.

You know how parents always caution "that money is not easy to make"- I can definitely identify with that right now! From a financial point of view, that's probably not something I should be too happy about. On the other hand, it also puts things into perspective; and makes me think about others who don't have it easy yet have to grit their teeth to eke out a living - how it must be like for them..