A rainy mood December 28, 2006

The persistent pitter-patter, coupled with limited internet access, has made me rather antsy.

Somehow, I am annoyed far more easily, there are suddenly ‘issues’ about a lot of things and I’m also a little worried about Mother Earth. Festive grouchiness in all its glory.

I hated yesterday’s dinner - way too many questions with the expectancy you should be living up to something. But you all, out of everyone else, should know how limited life is, why impose so much?

On a totally unrelated note, here’s a picture request:

I took a bunch of photos of D. taking photos while in NZ (since there was nothing else to do while he pottered around with his cameras). This is my favourite one in this “series”, I like how the red car matches his jacket.

To better days ahead.

Christmas greetings December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas from me, my evil twin and the flaring three-nostriled sting ray all with a bad case of gout and stripey overload.

Why nature December 22, 2006

“If the world seems unfair or beyond our understanding, sublime places suggest that it is not surprising that things should be thus. We are the playthings of the forces that laid out the oceans and chiselled the mountains…But it  is the vast spaces of nature that perhaps provide us with the finest, the most respectful reminder of all that exceeds us. If we spend time in them, they may help us to accept more graciously the grea, unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust.”

- Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel

Pritsy December 21, 2006

Before I try to deal with the load of stuff screaming to be done, here’s one photo from our trip to New Zealand.   Key word used throughout the last 12 days: Pritsy (which is like saying it’s so pretty that you’ve started to speak like a baby again). As you can see, you don’t need to be a great photographer to take pritsy pics, since eveything is so naturally pritsy. But of course, the great photographer with me took some wonderfully sublimally pritsy until cannot pritsy anymore pictures, and I intend to pester him continually until I get a disc of his images (I’m hoping this little ego boost might expedite the process).

But until then, it’s back to the long list of things that need to be ticked,  and I so so so need to recover from the dairy/bacon overload.

Back to the mainstream December 8, 2006

For a good number of reasons, I’ve decided to convert to full-time status at the school I’ve been part-timing in for the last few months. While kind of apprehensive since it is not the most economically-maximizing situation, it is, in the long-run, the most stabilizing and developmentalish.

So yesterday, I went for my first ever corporate retreat thingy after almost two years of leading a somewhat quietish and solitary work life of being holed up in a study room/cafe/bedroom/library. And I was just totally exhausted after that because I don’t think I’ve talked to that many people or listened to such long powerpoint presentations in the span of one day. So much so that I fell fast asleep while watching the feature-length version of Becoming Royston at Uncle R’s place in the evening, even at that controversial scene with the fiesty tango sountrack.

The talking wasn’t too bad, I reckon the tiny and dormant social butterfly side of me flickered at times. There are some nice colleagues with a great sense of humour, and an old friend to catch up with too. It’s a good start I guess. Just need to build up the stamina to become a regular working person again.

Revival of the Grand Old Dame December 4, 2006

For those of you in Singapore, the National Musem of Singapore will officially reopen soon (urm 8 Dec I think)! Very excited about it, partly because of the tiny role I played in chronicling history here, but mostly because it is a VERY cool place that combines oldie stuff and moderny stuff in a very palatable form.

Had a sneak preview over the weekend and seeing it in the (almost) complete form was wonderful. The Living Galleries have all kinds of cute artefacts and short films/multimedia presentations on photography, fashion, film and food. The History Gallery is like a massive historical theme park, with some tech gizmo called the Companion to take you through Singapore’s history. What stands out the most is how personal the History Gallery is, definitely not the inaccessible wax figures I used to see at Sentosa….but real-life accounts from all kinds of people telling their stories from the past. I saw some elderly men and women being really interested in the Defending (WWII) section of the gallery, and were telling their children/grandchildren, “这个是真的!” (This is the real shit!) and I think that is a real good sign.

Catch it soon! (And if you spot any spellos, let me know.)

School’s almost over December 2, 2006

At the bus-stop while I wait for my yellow school bus. 

Hopefully, I will start getting up and staying up later and become a little more social.

Hopefully, I will have decent conversations with the family, run organic-related errands speedily, and oh yes, get paid for a substantial amount of freelance jobs long overdue.

Hopefully, there will be journey’s mercies and moments of insight and much-needed refreshment.

May December be a month of rest.