Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Family matters....


Rohinton Mistry


There you see him... the man behind the book that I was raving about... "A Fine Balance". And now I'm going to rave about him.

I just finished reading another of his book "Family Matters"... And I would say that it's pretty good too. Although it's no where as captivating as "A Fine Balance", it is still a good book. And come on! Just one look at the title... You know it's a fine work of art.

"Family Matters"... a very apt title for the book really. All because you can read the title in two dimensions.

1) Family matters... they do. As the old saying goes, blood is thicker than water. There's no place like home... and it's got to do with the family members in the home too.

2) Family matters... that's what the book is all about. It's an intriguing story about family ties, relationships, responsibilities. It's a story about the human issues involved in a family.

Brilliant isn't it? At least I think it is. If only I can think of headlines for my articles as well as this guy does his book titles...

Oh well, moving on... in light of the periods of depression I seem to encounter lately, I decided that I need a purpose in life. Therefore, I've decided to embark on a journey with "The Purpose Driven Life". I sure hope it's purpose filled...

Friday, August 20, 2004

Sunshine after the rain...

Lately, a blanket of depression seems to have covered over me. It's simply inexplicable... I couldn't bring myself to do any work during work, I feel so restless... like there's something wrong, somehow somewhere... Some part of me seems missing...

Some where inside me, I'm also grouching... on so many things. Many of which I don't seem to deserve... and yet, there's some discontent. "What's wrong?" seems to be a question which I am asking myself and yet refuse to do soul searching on. It's too confrontational.

And yet, despite all these difficulties that are self-found, within the walls of my soul, I know that there are simpler ways of looking at things. There's logic to be found and from the logic, solution. I guess it's just a matter of whether I want to or not.

Have been attending this feature writing class for the last two weeks. Today in class, someone asked, "What happens if we get writer's block?". Felix Cheong, our lecturer, said that there is no such thing as writer's block. It only happens when 1) you did not do your research before embarking on the journey of writing, 2) when you have not found the entry point to your story.

You know what? I think that it's applicable to life also. Life becomes difficult when you have yet to find the path towards life's goals. And the path is difficult to find when you have not yet gain enough exposure to place priorities in life.

I was walking back home from the mrt station earlier. The weather was so nice... I could even feel the coolness of the air through my relatively thick sweater. I was walking through this open-air badminton court when I saw this boy, perhaps about the age of 14 or 15? teaching his younger brother some footwork around a soccer ball. Just watching them kick the ball around, for that couple of minutes that I was walking beside them, conveyed a message to me. Life can be simple. On a friday night, instead of going out with his friends, spending unnecessary money, this boy is spending time alone with his kid brother. And he may not look like he's enjoying himself tremendously, but at least he did not look bored.

Life can be simple. It's a choice. It's a matter of contentment. It's a matter of knowing where your priorities lie and deal with it accordingly. It may not be as complicated as it appears to be although hiccups are normal and natural. Dealing with the glitches of life are part and parcel.

What more can I say? I've rambled on enough to not be aware if what I've said so far make logical sense. Somewhere, somehow, I feel the irony in my statements too. Haha... Isn't it ironic. Don't you think?

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Inspirationless...

Dunno why... Must be because I took out my Wisdom tooth... I find that I hardly get the inspiration to blog now a days... Hahah... lack wisdom... Also cause I haven't exactly been thinking very hard... Sighz... what's happening to me?

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Bless the numbness in my mouth...

For I just completed my wisdom teeth extraction about 2 hours ago... And I simply dread to feel the pain...

My mouth, tongue and lips are so numb now that I couldn't even tell that the soup I drank for lunch was burning hot until it went down my throat... Ouch... But I can feel the pain starting... ZzzZZzZzz.............

But..... oh well, despite the $370+ spent on my operation, I have a 5 days MC... WooWeee... Hehehe... However, the down side is I got to work from homeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......... It's even more ZzZZzZZzZzzzzZzZzZz........ Got an article to write to CNETAsia Gartner Summit. Think I'll work on it tomorrow... Just took two of anti-biotic pills and two pain killers... Quite scary leh... I can only take pain killers once a day... and I can't imagine if the pain gets really bad...

Hahaha... my left cheek is now so swollen that it looks like a bun... Looks kinda funny... Just wondering if I should take a pic of it for keepsake... Hehehe... Shall consider... But now I think I wanna go sleep... getting sleepy... Must be the anti-biotic... Bumped into my friend Ad just now. She's working as a pharmacist at the Alexandra Hospital and she told me that said that one of the side effects of one of the anti-biotics is drowsiness and I suspect it's that working on me now....

Okies... Till later... Tata... :)

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

I got the PHONE!!!

Yes! Damn my impulse... but I GOT THE SGH e600!!! And that set me back by $330... Oh well, talk about locking away my credit cards and atm cards... Apparently they found their way back into my wallet...

Anyway, am REALLY trying hard not to spend money now. Have decided that for the rest of the month, shall take packet Nasi Lemak sold near my place for only $1 to office for lunch! But there will be two company lunches this week, so the lunch for those 2 days are kinda settled... :P

Dunno why feel so lethargic today... so sleepy... so tired... well... think I shall sleep early tonight. Suddenly lost the inspiration to blog... Heheh... Till the next time...

Saturday, July 31, 2004

How time flies...

I know my heading to this entry seems boring but seriously.. how time flies.... It's been a week since I last blogged...

Anyway, guess what?!?!?! I was in the same lift at Tay Ping Hui when I came home, for abt minute or two! For the first time....ALONE with him... AHhaha... Was so shy man... I stood at one corner and made eye contact with him like twice... Felt so tempted to start a conversation with him... Not that I'm a fan or anything... But it's like we're so closely related and yet so far... Ok Ok... let me elaborate before rumours start flying around...

Firstly, I know his cousin... His cousin is my personal friend... and he's on pretty good terms with her. Secondly, he lives in my block! You know... all that jazz about bring a friendly neighbour... You know... smile, say Hi, greet each other... And I've bumped into him so many times in the lift lobby... and thirdly, he's my good friend's colleague and they acted together before... (yes, most of you who have my friendster contact know who she is). So what more can I say? Hahaha... But anyway, while I was contemplating if I should start a conversation, he reached his floor... and so he got out... Well... Nevermind... AHhaha

Something else happened today too... I got myself another 1 GB e-mail account!! And no, it's not gmail.. I've already got that... This time, it's with YAHOO CHINA... Yeah... Yahoo's biased towards emerging markets... ONLY CHINA get 1GB accounts!! Hahaha... anyway, it's free, and you can apply for as many as you want. The only catch is that your yahoo e-mail addy will have @yahoo.com.cn. And although the interface is in Chinese, there are options to change the language into English... So Winston helped me set up everything because I couldn't read the Chinese letters for nuts... Heheh... Anyway, so yeah... I got TWO 1 GB accounts now... Ask me why I need so many? I have no idea. 'Kia Su Singaporean' I suppose... Haha....

Something else happened today too!!! Was window shopping in Far East Plaza with RT and we were walking along when I heard a couple of guys walking behind us. One of them were talking rather loudly and animately... I was kinda eaves dropping cause he was so animated. However, I found his voice very familiar, so I couldn't help myself but stop and pretended to take a look back... And guess what... It was my friend, this guy called Terry. When he saw me, he stopped short in his track and looked at me in surprise... I was bloody surprised too because the last time I heard from Terry was two years ago before he went back to K.L. to work. When he got over his surprise, he started talking so animately again... saying that he's been trying to search for me on friendster, trying to get my contact number to catch up etc because we live in the same vicinity. But he hasn't been able to contact anyone who has my contact.... Hahah... so funny... This world is just so small....

Alrightey... time for a shower... heheh... till the next time!

P.S. Another thing... I fell in love with Samsung E600C... I just got to have it... sigh... I WILL HAVE IT!

P.P.S. My laptop still not up yet... Sigh...

Saturday, July 24, 2004

I'm resigned...

To my fate of having my laptop passing out on me.... looks like I'm gonna need to reformat my laptop... sigh... But of course before I do that, am going to try all ways and means to backup the data... sigh... all my MP3s, pictures... *ouch*

Anyway, since my lifebook's dead... just got to make do with this... Get on with life...

Suzhou travel log part two...

"10.08 pm

Just came back from an one-hour foot reflexology. As it was my first time, it was sure a tickling and painful experience. What's more, the guy who was doing it for me said that massaging my feet was like helping someone scratch an itch.


My foot massager

Easily done and it doesn't take that much out of him. Hrm... but it was PAINFUL! Anyway, was a good experience. He also found out that I got weak knees, through pain in certain parts of my feet (when he applies pressure against it). He says that I got to take care of my knee and it will be prone to rheumatism. Asked me to go buy the medicated plasters meant for old people... Sigh... Signs of old age...

But anyway, the foot massage was real timely cause we walked around quite a bit today. We were brought to this place known as "Tiger Hill". Nice scenery, nice history...


My favourite picture taken from "Tiger Hill"

Haha... but did not really pay attention to the history part. Only caught bits and pieces of it as my tour guide explained the stories behind the different buildings, structures or the places of events.

After that, we had a mini shopping spree... Things were really quite cheap! Bangkok no more! Shanghai (China), here I come! Bought quite a number of "Chinese fabric" pouches gifts. Had really good buys... Settled all my gifts for my aunts and colleagues all @ one shot. The best thing about shopping here is that, it's all bargainable! But fashion's out of the story though. Fashion over here is... errrrr.... hrrrm... 'off the tangent'... Oh well... You gain some, you lose some...

Anyway, am going to try to sleep now... Got to 'work' the whole day tomorrow...."

Talking about bargains, YEAH! Everything's bargainable! I bought this embroidery picture on the last day and how I bargained, I really must share. I went into this shop in the hotel and usually these shops sell their goods at really cut throat prices cause they know that their target markets are the tourists or hotel guests. Anyway, there was this lady sewing the pictures by hand, so I know that these stuff are authentic. I was looking at this framed embroidery picture and I thought I really liked it alot. But it was the last day of my stay and we were already going to take the coach to head to the airport.

But I asked the price of the picture anyway. The nice lady told me that the picture costs 380 yuan (abt. S$75)... So I gave her a look of 'dismay' and told her that as it was my last day, I do not have that much cash and that I was also in a hurry to get on the coach as we were leaving. So the sales lady went... "Oh, it's your last day? How much do you have left?" So I said, I got about 200 yuan left (abt. S$40)... Then she said "We have never sold a picture for such a low cost before but since it's your last day, you can buy it as souvenir." And she really sold me the picture at 200 YUAN! Hrm... what a way of bargaining right? I'm sure they still make a good margin of profit and this can possibly happen
only if you meet a nice sales lady.... Oh well... I still stood to GAIN! Heheheh...