Source: http://cowbirdsinlove.com/
When worlds collide..
Think of two people falling in love the way you'd picture two billiard balls colliding. A solid and a stripe. Either they collide too fast and spin off in different directions, move too slow and never really hit it off, or impact at just the right speed to stay together (of course, a solid can follow a stripe after impact [i.e. a stalker ball] or a solid can come dashing in, collide with a stripe and be left there alone while the stripe rolls off [a.k.a. the ball that got stood up]).
It's all about momentum, energy and the forces of nature. Relationships can be explained by physics after all.
I come up with the strangest stuff when I'm medicated.
It's all about momentum, energy and the forces of nature. Relationships can be explained by physics after all.
I come up with the strangest stuff when I'm medicated.
Less of a woman?
Ok, so maybe I'm not your typical girl-next-door. Only because:
I hate poetry.
Shakespearean English confuses me.
I don't take 2 hours to get ready. I take 20 minutes. I got late because I missed the bus, not because I couldn't decide on which purple top to wear. And I didn't miss the bus because of a clothes crisis either.
Flowers are nice to get, but then they wilt and die and get depressing. And no, I can't be bothered pressing them.
Pink as a colour (particularly the hot, Barbie kind of pink) should be banned when it comes to clothes, shoes and bags. Or anything other than Barbie, for that matter.
My theory on heels: Yes, they are God's gift to short people. And yes, they can be sexy and make other women go all 'oooh aahh'. But they're not meant to be worn for running in MRT stations, for a picnic in a park when it rained the night before, for 2km hikes and for people who can't handle the extra 4 inches of height without tripping and walking like you're balancing on stilts (I belong to this last category).
I won't let you buy that $700 Coach leather bag if its going to sit in your closet and never see the light of day.
I can't understand why you would rebond your hair if its already dead straight. Think of all the other things you could do/buy with that money (no, not pink stilettos). AND you don't have to sit for hours in the salon with your hair smelling like a chemical factory.
Just how awesome are skinny leather pants if you can't sit down in them?
I'd fail Make Up 101. I only know that the first layer that's supposed to be put on is foundation, but after that it gets complex and confusing. And seemingly very time-consuming. If I ever have to put makeup on because I look too hideous to be seen without it, I'm outsourcing the job.
Epilators scare me.
When talking about Mac, I always automatically assumed it was the computer. Or the fast food chain. I was blissfully ignorant about the brand of cosmetics till very recently, when a frustrated girlfriend literally shoved me into a Mac Store to 'increase my awareness of things a girl should know'. Ha ha.
I don't own a compact. Never will. The very idea of touching up my nose in a bus while peering into a mirror the size of a postage stamp, is disturbing.
In my defence though, I was a lot worse 10 years ago; I refused to wear skirts/dresses, had no red clothes and hated anything with frills, lace and ribbons. Ok I still don't like frills, lace and ribbons.
But hey, on all other counts of being female, I'm 100% guilty.
I hate poetry.
Shakespearean English confuses me.
I don't take 2 hours to get ready. I take 20 minutes. I got late because I missed the bus, not because I couldn't decide on which purple top to wear. And I didn't miss the bus because of a clothes crisis either.
Flowers are nice to get, but then they wilt and die and get depressing. And no, I can't be bothered pressing them.
Pink as a colour (particularly the hot, Barbie kind of pink) should be banned when it comes to clothes, shoes and bags. Or anything other than Barbie, for that matter.
My theory on heels: Yes, they are God's gift to short people. And yes, they can be sexy and make other women go all 'oooh aahh'. But they're not meant to be worn for running in MRT stations, for a picnic in a park when it rained the night before, for 2km hikes and for people who can't handle the extra 4 inches of height without tripping and walking like you're balancing on stilts (I belong to this last category).
I won't let you buy that $700 Coach leather bag if its going to sit in your closet and never see the light of day.
I can't understand why you would rebond your hair if its already dead straight. Think of all the other things you could do/buy with that money (no, not pink stilettos). AND you don't have to sit for hours in the salon with your hair smelling like a chemical factory.
Just how awesome are skinny leather pants if you can't sit down in them?
I'd fail Make Up 101. I only know that the first layer that's supposed to be put on is foundation, but after that it gets complex and confusing. And seemingly very time-consuming. If I ever have to put makeup on because I look too hideous to be seen without it, I'm outsourcing the job.
Epilators scare me.
When talking about Mac, I always automatically assumed it was the computer. Or the fast food chain. I was blissfully ignorant about the brand of cosmetics till very recently, when a frustrated girlfriend literally shoved me into a Mac Store to 'increase my awareness of things a girl should know'. Ha ha.
I don't own a compact. Never will. The very idea of touching up my nose in a bus while peering into a mirror the size of a postage stamp, is disturbing.
In my defence though, I was a lot worse 10 years ago; I refused to wear skirts/dresses, had no red clothes and hated anything with frills, lace and ribbons. Ok I still don't like frills, lace and ribbons.
But hey, on all other counts of being female, I'm 100% guilty.
Hell... contd.
Just when I thought my week from the depths of hell was over, I fall sick. So instead of a much awaited weekend spent meeting people, attending a couple of talks, dining and dancing, I'm stuck in bed, bored and in pain, with a drippy nose, in the company of chicken soup and samahan. Argh!
I miss a chosen few very much. For the silliest of reasons. Also because I've not laughed as much as I should have been laughing in their absence. Get back here soon! (yes, I'm aware 'soon' is in like 24 hours :p) And remember my goodies list.
Friday was an insane day at work. In a good way though. Lots of laughter and wisecracks and a nice Turkish lunch in the company of a very glowing D :) Except the day ended at 10.45pm, leaving me with blurred vision and a pounding headache. Signs of the flu I reckon, just mistaken for exhaustion.
Monday on the other hand, was insane in a baaad way. The only good thing that came out of it was that I managed to jog/walk/crawl 3km without collapsing from a heart attack. Only to get home and find my phone screen scratched to bits from running a bit too enthusiastically. Ying and yang I guess.
I want to relive last weekend! The crazy Friday that began in KE7 and ended at Iguana, with a stint at J bar somewhere in the middle, blending into the hungover Deepavali Saturday that featured a long late lunch with the girls at HV, ice cream at Swensons, the Raffles Hall production and the 'mad about hats' party at Attica. Two consecutive 5ams haven't happened in a while. Gosh, I sound like such an aunty. And after all that, I actually managed to clean my room too :)
I was reading my travel book on Thailand today and got all excited again- the one highlight in the medicated afternoon spent under the covers. I can't wait to go back- I'm insanely jealous that QJ is there as I speak, checking out Chatuchak in all its glory, drinking cheap Sangsom and wolfing down green curry. November get here FAST!
Vikaren was a weird movie. 500 days of summer though, was unexpectedly all right.
On a side note, you guys should give Jonathan Safran Foer a shot. His books are complicated but pretty darn good :) If you make it through all the weirdness at the beginning that is.
To alleviate the misery, I'm going to focus on getting my Halloween costume in order. Now if I can just get off the bed and try on that witch's hat...
I miss a chosen few very much. For the silliest of reasons. Also because I've not laughed as much as I should have been laughing in their absence. Get back here soon! (yes, I'm aware 'soon' is in like 24 hours :p) And remember my goodies list.
Friday was an insane day at work. In a good way though. Lots of laughter and wisecracks and a nice Turkish lunch in the company of a very glowing D :) Except the day ended at 10.45pm, leaving me with blurred vision and a pounding headache. Signs of the flu I reckon, just mistaken for exhaustion.
Monday on the other hand, was insane in a baaad way. The only good thing that came out of it was that I managed to jog/walk/crawl 3km without collapsing from a heart attack. Only to get home and find my phone screen scratched to bits from running a bit too enthusiastically. Ying and yang I guess.
I want to relive last weekend! The crazy Friday that began in KE7 and ended at Iguana, with a stint at J bar somewhere in the middle, blending into the hungover Deepavali Saturday that featured a long late lunch with the girls at HV, ice cream at Swensons, the Raffles Hall production and the 'mad about hats' party at Attica. Two consecutive 5ams haven't happened in a while. Gosh, I sound like such an aunty. And after all that, I actually managed to clean my room too :)
I was reading my travel book on Thailand today and got all excited again- the one highlight in the medicated afternoon spent under the covers. I can't wait to go back- I'm insanely jealous that QJ is there as I speak, checking out Chatuchak in all its glory, drinking cheap Sangsom and wolfing down green curry. November get here FAST!
Vikaren was a weird movie. 500 days of summer though, was unexpectedly all right.
On a side note, you guys should give Jonathan Safran Foer a shot. His books are complicated but pretty darn good :) If you make it through all the weirdness at the beginning that is.
To alleviate the misery, I'm going to focus on getting my Halloween costume in order. Now if I can just get off the bed and try on that witch's hat...
Making waves
This speech was made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen,at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD.
"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your life on a bus or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.
People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results and they're not so good.
Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and them to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if those other things were not true.
You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast?
Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live.
I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face.
Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived".
(Credits go to Insee: thanks for sharing babe!)
"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your life on a bus or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.
People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results and they're not so good.
Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and them to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if those other things were not true.
You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast?
Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live.
I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face.
Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived".
(Credits go to Insee: thanks for sharing babe!)
Slapdash
When left alone to my own devices, I become quite the hazard to myself, with all these weird quirky thoughts surfacing outta nowhere. A few chosen ones:
- I wonder if I can get away with second-naming my kids after my favourite pieces of Ikea furniture. E.g. My daughter would have Tindra as her second name, and my son could be called Erserud.
- My dream job right now is to be a travel writer. Immediate mental image: myself sitting serenly on a camel, happily writing about the Sahara while effortlessly making my way across the middle of nowhere. Nevermind the lack of water or sandstorms or freaky desert accidents or the poor camel's plight.
- I'd like to be tall (5ft 6") for one week in my life.
- I care about a lot of people, but I don't think half of them are even aware I do. And I have no intention of telling them either. I wonder if the same goes vice versa, and if I have any invisible guardian angels out there (narcissistic much? :D)
- I'd like very much to have a super power. Particularly, telekinesis. I'd NEVER get out of bed :D
- Human beings have an amazing ability to accomodate and adapt. To anything- change, new surroundings, new people, new circumstances. Sadly, they seem to be blissfully ignorant/ just plain unaware of this trait.
- Why aren't there Hugh Jackmans/George Clooneys/Chris Daughtrys in Singapore??! Or even in Asia??! (budget flights were invented for this reason no?)
- I'm pretty sure there's someone in this world who looks just like me (or several even?). I wonder what it would be like to meet her (gosh, what if it's a 'him'??) and whether we'd hate each other on sight for being so gorgeously similar :D I hope personalities are polar opposites though. And we're the same height :D
- I hope that if I'm 50 and still alive (ever the optimist), I'll still be somewhat similar in person to who I am now. Just to remind myself, I'm going to write a letter to me at 25, seal it, and read it when I'm 50.
- I wonder if I can get away with second-naming my kids after my favourite pieces of Ikea furniture. E.g. My daughter would have Tindra as her second name, and my son could be called Erserud.
- My dream job right now is to be a travel writer. Immediate mental image: myself sitting serenly on a camel, happily writing about the Sahara while effortlessly making my way across the middle of nowhere. Nevermind the lack of water or sandstorms or freaky desert accidents or the poor camel's plight.
- I'd like to be tall (5ft 6") for one week in my life.
- I care about a lot of people, but I don't think half of them are even aware I do. And I have no intention of telling them either. I wonder if the same goes vice versa, and if I have any invisible guardian angels out there (narcissistic much? :D)
- I'd like very much to have a super power. Particularly, telekinesis. I'd NEVER get out of bed :D
- Human beings have an amazing ability to accomodate and adapt. To anything- change, new surroundings, new people, new circumstances. Sadly, they seem to be blissfully ignorant/ just plain unaware of this trait.
- Why aren't there Hugh Jackmans/George Clooneys/Chris Daughtrys in Singapore??! Or even in Asia??! (budget flights were invented for this reason no?)
- I'm pretty sure there's someone in this world who looks just like me (or several even?). I wonder what it would be like to meet her (gosh, what if it's a 'him'??) and whether we'd hate each other on sight for being so gorgeously similar :D I hope personalities are polar opposites though. And we're the same height :D
- I hope that if I'm 50 and still alive (ever the optimist), I'll still be somewhat similar in person to who I am now. Just to remind myself, I'm going to write a letter to me at 25, seal it, and read it when I'm 50.
Quote...unquote
I came across this today during the endless hours of procrastination:
'There comes a time in life when you have to let go of
all the pointless drama and the people who create it,
and surround yourself with people that make you laugh so
hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good.
After all, life is too short to be anything but happy.'
So nicely said :)
all the pointless drama and the people who create it,
and surround yourself with people that make you laugh so
hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good.
After all, life is too short to be anything but happy.'
So nicely said :)
Spontaneity
Introducing my latest love. Well, more my latest addiction really.
I'm getting such a kick these days of not planning how to spend my weekday evenings/weekends, and just going with the flow. And it's been tons of fun :D There was the Sunday which started off with a (huge) buriyani lunch in Little India, an unplanned journey to Orchard, the purchase of random movie tickets, $3 mocha frappes and a long conversation on a sidewalk, 2.5 hours of book browsing at Borders, and the movie (District 9 :D).
There was the Friday which began at John Little, progressed through a movie (Inglorious Basterds!), wandering down Arab street, randomly bumping into people I hadn't seen in more than a year, and catching up over tea and sheesha till 3am.
And yesterday: a French toast brunch at Bras Basah, a visit to the Singapore art museum, fooling around in the drizzle and ending up at the National Museum only to find the Antwerp exhibition had been extended, photographic excursions and the discovery of an outdoor escalator to nowhere around Dhoby Gaut/City Hall, a late Thai lunch, technology browsing at Funan, a sudden decision to go to Ikea, a hop across to Anchor Point and a trudge back home loaded with purchases from a 3-for-$19 sale.
Like I said, tons of fun. Highly recommended for lots of laughter and weird discoveries in the nooks and cannies of Singapore.
Other than that, work's been hell. Not the actual work, but the long stretches of it, sometimes till the wee hours of the morning. The sleep debt built up to a scary level, something that's not happened since the final year at NUS. Dilini's bid us a temporary farewell too, with the 'midget' due to arrive in a month. I miss my string hopper buddy! :( But her baby shower was fun :D I'm NEVER giving my kids (if/when they do get here) any sort of baby food- after tasting that c.r.a.p, its no wonder babies spit their food out! Drinks with S.Ong at Timbre followed by Turkish ice cream was long overdue too- and then came her 30th b'day surprise :D The mad rush for her gift was the best part of it all- us writers rock! :D
Lots of travel plans on the horizon. I've got Bangkok down for the long weekend in November, and I fly home 2 weeks after, hopefully with a trip to India in the middle of the vacation at home. I've got some serious lying-on-the-beach time to catch up on. Can't wait! I can't wait to see mum and dad too- it's been a looong year away from home.
I've been feeling much better about the 'state' of my life too- the claustrophobia that comes with living in Singapore still remains, but I think I've adjusted my mental state (nirvanaaa! :D) and way of thinking about/looking at things- I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts :)
And... *drumroll*..... I absolutely have to mention my latest foray into the technological world- my new iPod! :D Yup, I've officially tendered my resignation in the campaign against Apple... And joined forces with them :p I'm such a traitor, but iLuv my red little pod :)
Okays, I need sleep. Till next time peeps, which will be sooner than later I hope :) Ta..!
I'm getting such a kick these days of not planning how to spend my weekday evenings/weekends, and just going with the flow. And it's been tons of fun :D There was the Sunday which started off with a (huge) buriyani lunch in Little India, an unplanned journey to Orchard, the purchase of random movie tickets, $3 mocha frappes and a long conversation on a sidewalk, 2.5 hours of book browsing at Borders, and the movie (District 9 :D).
There was the Friday which began at John Little, progressed through a movie (Inglorious Basterds!), wandering down Arab street, randomly bumping into people I hadn't seen in more than a year, and catching up over tea and sheesha till 3am.
And yesterday: a French toast brunch at Bras Basah, a visit to the Singapore art museum, fooling around in the drizzle and ending up at the National Museum only to find the Antwerp exhibition had been extended, photographic excursions and the discovery of an outdoor escalator to nowhere around Dhoby Gaut/City Hall, a late Thai lunch, technology browsing at Funan, a sudden decision to go to Ikea, a hop across to Anchor Point and a trudge back home loaded with purchases from a 3-for-$19 sale.
Like I said, tons of fun. Highly recommended for lots of laughter and weird discoveries in the nooks and cannies of Singapore.
Other than that, work's been hell. Not the actual work, but the long stretches of it, sometimes till the wee hours of the morning. The sleep debt built up to a scary level, something that's not happened since the final year at NUS. Dilini's bid us a temporary farewell too, with the 'midget' due to arrive in a month. I miss my string hopper buddy! :( But her baby shower was fun :D I'm NEVER giving my kids (if/when they do get here) any sort of baby food- after tasting that c.r.a.p, its no wonder babies spit their food out! Drinks with S.Ong at Timbre followed by Turkish ice cream was long overdue too- and then came her 30th b'day surprise :D The mad rush for her gift was the best part of it all- us writers rock! :D
Lots of travel plans on the horizon. I've got Bangkok down for the long weekend in November, and I fly home 2 weeks after, hopefully with a trip to India in the middle of the vacation at home. I've got some serious lying-on-the-beach time to catch up on. Can't wait! I can't wait to see mum and dad too- it's been a looong year away from home.
I've been feeling much better about the 'state' of my life too- the claustrophobia that comes with living in Singapore still remains, but I think I've adjusted my mental state (nirvanaaa! :D) and way of thinking about/looking at things- I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts :)
And... *drumroll*..... I absolutely have to mention my latest foray into the technological world- my new iPod! :D Yup, I've officially tendered my resignation in the campaign against Apple... And joined forces with them :p I'm such a traitor, but iLuv my red little pod :)
Okays, I need sleep. Till next time peeps, which will be sooner than later I hope :) Ta..!
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