On leave.

I like being on leave.

The feeling that you can wake up whenever you want.
The feeling that it doesn't matter how you spend your day.
That quiet quiet feeling because nobody is around.
The peace.

I guess it's not so much that I hate going to work but I like going on leave.

Comments

I must say I've left the Social Media field for a while now.
But I do remember little bits about how people can try to improve their blog ratings or things like that..

Well.. I just found it rather unusual when there were like 9 comments on this practically defunct blog. I mean.. I post like on an average of once a month with long periods of inactivity. I don't proclaim to be an interesting writer so it is kind of odd. Not to mention, some of the comments on how it's insightful, or it's a great tip or blah.. when all I did was to post someone else's song. Lovely song no doubt. Not particularly insightful on my part I must say though.

Thanks for visiting the blog.
Hey.. maybe when  I'm bored, I'll check yours out. Till then.. tata.

PS I do appreciate the ONE person who left a comment on the 'braindead' people comments. Totally agree with you. Maybe you have the same objective as them but I appreciate you actually noticing the irrelevance of it all... Cheers.

Kiss Me

Ed Sheeran

Settle down with me 
Cover me up 
Cuddle me in 
Lie down with me 
Hold me in your arms 

Your heart's against my chest 
Lips pressed to my neck 
I've fallen for your eyes 
But they don't know me yet 

And the feeling I forget 
I'm in love now 

Kiss me like you wanna be loved 
Wanna be loved 
Wanna be loved 

This feels like I've fallen in love 
Fallen in love 
Fallen in love 

Settle down with me 
And I'll be your safety 
You'll be my lady 

I was made to keep your body warm 
But I'm cold as, the wind blows 
So hold me in your arms 

My heart's against your chest 
Your lips pressed to my neck 
I've fallen for your eyes 
But they don't know me yet 

And the feeling I forget 
I'm in love now 

Kiss me like you wanna be loved 
Wanna be loved 
Wanna be loved 

This feels like I've fallen in love 
Fallen in love 
Fallen in love 

Yeah I've been feeling everything 
From hate to love 
From love to lust 
From lust to truth 
I guess that's how I know you 

So hold you close 
To help you give it up 

So kiss me like you wanna be loved 
Wanna be loved 
Wanna be loved 

This feels like I've fallen in love 
Fallen in love 
Fallen in love 

So kiss me like you wanna be loved 
Wanna be loved 
Wanna be loved 

This feels like I've fallen in love 
Fallen in love 
Fallen in love

How can girls not fall in love with someone who sings like this... Sigh...

So many thoughts flew by this month and I didn't capture them. Wonder where they all went.
Before I lose this:

"Stop memorizing things... Memories can be outsourced to the cloud."
Samuel Arbesman
The Half-Life of Facts
Online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324894104578113590368047244.html

Passion Run.

Off I go running early in the morning.

Signed up for a 4km run (I know it's nothing much) but I began regretting it the moment my alarm clock rang at 6am in the morning. Who wakes up at 6am in the morning anyway... Thoughts crossed my mind: maybe if I pretended to oversleep, or maybe if it pours, maybe I can just go back to sleep...

Didn't work, so ended up waiting in line patiently with the hundreds of wannabe runners about a few hundred metres away from the starting line (cos the queue was that long), and went off.. to a staggering start as we tried to manoeuvre (I still can't spell this odd word) around mothers pushing prams, old couples taking a hike, some sightseeing ladies and some angsty youths.

Not a long run, but I started to feel the stress on my underworked heart and lungs and legs and then you begin to hear the yells. The very enthusiastic volunteers along the road yelling at the runners to go on, it's just 1km left, there's free yoghurt at the end of it all, come on, you can do it. The energy's infectious and the runners pick up their speed (or it could be the free yoghurt after all).

And... it's over.

Bikini Workout Part 2

Part 2 makes it sound like I'm actually working out.

But the actual sad news is that I don't have a resistance band so I guess I'm giving up. I've tried one of the exercise. But surely it wouldn't do if I only train one part of my body. I might actually end up looking pretty weird right.. So.. there goes :D

Experiment. Fail.

Blog Writing Mood

Yeah. I'm in a blog-writing mood.

I'm not sure why.
It's not to clock up the posts. I've only made 4 sad posts these years. My worst year thus far has been 2008 where I made only 13 posts. They are however really exciting posts. Because they have PICTURES. And they're beautiful. And they're happy. They make me smile.

That's what blogs are for right? To keep the happy moments?

Man.. I need to try harder.

Bikini-Ready Body

Somehow blogging stopped becoming a habit once I lost my own place.

I need a room of my own.

Well.. and obviously I'm thinking of Virginia Woolf. 

"Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own."

- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Anyway, this is about my resolution (kind of like a this-month's resolution) - and a very prosaic and non-intellectual, possibly even anti-intellectual, type of resolution - and yes you are right, it is:-

TO have a bikini-ready body.

Inspired, well, not quite inspired, but just perhaps reminded of it by the SHAPE September Issue - how I received that magazine is yet another story. [Stop rambling!] It has a lovely 2-page sprawl of exercises I could do twice a week for two weeks and I'll have that amazing Bikini-Ready Body it flaunts on its cover page. 

I am going to start this coming week. 

And hopefully two weeks later, I'll remember to blog.

And hopefully, I would have good news. 

Cheers to my bikini-ready body - well, future bikini-ready body at any rate... 

It doesn't feel like Singapore today.

Just left the Chinese Gardens. Peaceful, serene, green, conservation. Then the weather, cool, sun, breeze, clear blue sky, azure blue. Unfamiliar buildings. Lush greenery. It's like I came to a foreign place that is strangely familiar.

Today, I feel that Singapore is beautiful.
I can almost leave behind the traffic jams, the frustrations and the congestion. Just me and my home country.

Haven't blogged for some time..
Haven't sorted out my photos for some time..
Haven't sat at home in peace without feeling like I'm forced to do something..

I'm glad I had the time today.

Hopefully I've recharged enough.. to face the new year.

Remembering how we were all once so excited because Cathay Pacific served us ice cream on board..
SIA serves MAGNUM.

Screaming baby - more like 2 year old - behind me. She needs a good smack.

Guy infringing into my space cos he puts his arm on MY arm rest.

No Don 2 on Entertainment set.

Loved the SilverKris articles.. Eyes tired. Too lazy to read up for my meetings. And now I'm too sleepy.. Will leave it for tomorrow. Bet I'll wake up at like 5am anyway.

And just ate my cup noodle so my luggage has more space. Despite the fact that I finished that horrible tandoori chicken wrap at like 7pm Saudi time. It's like 11pm Saudi time now. I'm gonna grow fat.

A little worried about the meetings tomorrow. I hope I know enough...

One Day.
Just watched 'One Day'.. and I feel so sad.
I don't think it was the love story behind it.. but every scene of Edinburgh, the university, Arthur's Seat and the view from up there, Princes Street made me remember how beautiful Edinburgh is and made me realize how much I've fallen in love with the city.
I don't know what it is about the city I love. I mean.. I hate the weather. And I was glad to come back because I missed everyone so much. But I just love it. Crossing South Bridge and peering over at Cowgate and wondering about how this multi-tiered city works. Sipping that rich hot chocolate at Chocolate Soup on wintry days, wintry nights.. Those cobbled pavements. Those buildings darkened with soot from the industrial age. The gloomy sky. Jogging around Arthur's seat. The beautiful swan lake. The gorgeous view from Calton's Hill. The windy secret paths that you somehow chance upon and never find again.
I thought 4 years in one city.. and I'll have had enough of it. But.. it's only been slightly more than a year and I keep thinking about it. I think.. Edinburgh will always have a special place in my heart.

Sitting by the Singapore River, gazing at the Merlion, thinking how peaceful this scene was.
Then, decided to turn on the radio and a cheerful song came on, changing my mood completely...

Amazing what background music does to a still image.

Just finished up some work and feeling kinda lazy to sleep...

What's on my mind now?
1. It's nice to be up alone on a rainy night. I never get this kind of peaceful times anymore. Not since a long time ago in Edinburgh with my Sushi takeaway in my cold cold room. Just me and my duvet.

2. I want to do something. It could be an exercise thing - going for yoga classes or dance classes (I think I'd like the idea of a dance class though I can't really dance) or kickboxing or whatever. But I don't think I'll be very motivated. Or it could be a learning thing - like learning Bahasa or Italian. If it's useful enough, I might push myself to do it. Or it could be a happy music thing - I want to go get me some scores and start building my dreams of being a freelance pianist. I'm not a great pianist but maybe if I master enough cheesy music, people might pay me a little to play that odd piece. What a wonderful thing it would be. Maybe it's not the cash that entices me. Maybe it's the feeling of being able to perform again. I'm not sure. It would be lovely if I could retire and live on playing the piano. I wouldn't mind playing the same pieces over and over again. Because I know for me, everytime I play... it's a different piece. Maybe I should get a new piano...

3. Old and boring. You leave the fun school no-responsibility life. And things happen throughout your life, the experiences add up, they scare you, they make you wary, and you become a cautious boring person, so afraid of doing things wrong you don't do anything at all. I feel that I'm becoming a boring person. Feel like you're not at liberty to do embarrassing things anymore. Feel like 'youth' is no longer an excuse for doing stupid things. Feel like the whole world is judging... because you're a responsible working adult now.

Wow. So much on my mind. No wonder I'm still awake.

I've always been fascinated by India and China ever since a lecture I've had in Edinburgh.Can't remember who it was, or which module it was for. But it was an interesting paper.

Two emerging countries, huge in land mass and population. Usually conflated in discussions. Usually known for its low labour costs, and its burgeoning potential. But so different. In terms of development, of strengths. The question that the lecture inspired in me was: Why is India not as prominent in the global scene as China?

People talk of China as the next rising superpower, of its competition to US. But not India.
India has its strengths. Its people. Its English proficiency. Its amazing IT sector. Its British colonial legacy making it less hard (arguably, compared to China) to work with the West. But.. no, it's China people talk about. Why?

Saw this article on the Economist: Chasing the Dragon, which reinforced this thought. That China is advancing much more rapidly. Is it because China had a headstart? But isn't it begging the question? Why did China have a headstart? Is it the workings of one man (Deng Xiao Ping?)? Will India ever catch up?

This figure shows how far behind India is based on some criteria of development.

PS Just wondering if the title 'Chasing the Dragon' is coincidental, or if it has an intentional allusion to the practice of inhaling opium (very Chinese!). Hm.

Mm.. I should not try to have unhappy posts.
Think about it this way...

By turning to this blog only as a way of venting my frustrations, I will end up documenting all my sad or angry moments, while the happy moments turn to dust.
I don't want to look back and see a backlog of sad posts.

Perhaps I could write down my frustrations in temporary documents, and jot down my happy moments on a more permanent platform. Then one day... when I'm old, I can read my memories.. with the sad ones faded to an illegible blur and the happy ones etched forever :)

Stay optimistic! Think happy thoughts!

There was a period when I was obsessed with taking photos.
I wanted to capture everything in my life,  because I had a poor memory, and because there were so many beautiful memories I wanted to capture before they fade away.

And then... I'm not sure when... I stopped.
It might be when professional photography became the norm. And my silly photos - blurry, low resolution, with a hand cut off and a leg missing, with no concept of composition or colour or lighting, just a simple photo to trigger my memory - my silly photos just became quite inadequate.
It might be when things got a lot tougher... when there weren't quite so many beautiful memories I needed to capture... when in fact there are so many memories I wish I could delete.

It feels kinda sad. But I don't know why. It's just... not the same anymore.

Reading all the lovely food posts (or more like, salivating at the pictures) on Nurul's blog :)
You can read it too here: http://nurulsnomnoms.wordpress.com/

She told me about how she was going to do a picture a day.. to mark her year. And I wanted to do it too. Sort of a visual memory to my year. Because time flies. And memories fade. But somehow I didn't get into the habit and I haven't had a single picture yet. Maybe I'm a procrastinator :) Maybe I should just collect a picture a week of something that has inspired me that week. And by the end of a year, I'll have 52 pictures of inspiring moments... Hmm... I really want something to keep track of the time.. Wouldn't want to realise 5 years down the road that I have no clue what I did in the past 5 years... That will be one scary moment o.0

On Hangover II,

Roger Ebert noted that much of the film "plays like an anti-travelogue paid for by a rival tourist destination—Singapore, maybe.

Wall Street Journal Article, James Hookway
One Night in Bangkok Can Lead to Quite a Hangover for Thailand

Libel? Lol.

 But it is an attribute of the Internet to activate in me, and maybe in all its users, a persistent sense of deferred expectancy, as if that thing that I might be looking for, that I couldn’t name but would know if I saw, were at every moment a finger tap away. 

Sven Birkerts

That explains the hours of staring at a digital screen, waiting for that moment of enlightenment.