Random Goodness

Testing

2011-07-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

Testing 123...

Stock take for mid-2011

2011-06-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

It's been 6 months since I last wrote anything on my blog.

I've decided to take stock of my resolutions and see how far I've come !

Anyway, here goes...

1) Get more active - consistent swimming, get back into dance classes, going to more arts event, shows and concerts.

Still haven't been very good with it but it's starting to take shape. I just got back from an exhausting 2 weeks trip to Europe and now feel ready to get back into my ideal lifestyle ! Found a couple of dance classes that I decided to enrol and I also found an ideal yoga place in Orchard with great course structure and teachers. My pool membership has expired but I will rejoin it very soon. So watch this space for more updates !

2) Get more sleep - less internet surfing

This is not going to be easy for anyone and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Soooo.... let's sweep this under the carpet for awhile until I think of something ? hehe. It's not me ! It's society !

3) Must get my eye lasik sorted out !

Haaa..finally something that I can put a confident tick next to it ! Got my lasik done in February - had dry eyes for a couple of months but it's perfect vision now ! At S$3,000, it's well worth every penny and only those who are badly short-sighted can ever understand where I'm coming from !

4) Embark on my economics / design book journey

This is simply too ambitious for now ! Priorities in my life has changed and furthermore, on my trip to London I found a book that was recently published and did exactly what I had in mind !! Duh.. ! Too bad ! Too sad ! ! Too lazy of me to even start anyway !

5) Embark on joint biz with Pamela

Ok... this is not going to be possible in the short term what with my sister just had a new born and also chasing after the other 2-year old all the time. I think this is another one that needs to be swept under the carpet for a while !

6) Embark on travel guide biz with Gale

This is likely to be crossed out from my list permanently. Priorities in my life has changed since 6 months ago.. but hey, it's always good to have dreams and vision. No ?

Okay, I think I'll need to revisit my list and re-list them in the next post for stock-taking when December comes !

New year new me ?

2011-01-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year where we are suppose to have positive new year resolutions so as to survive the rest of the 300+ days. Like the rest of the population, I set out little goals for myself every year and this year I decided to have it penned down this year.

It would be interesting to come back to this in a year's time and see how much I've accomplished !

1) Get more active - consistent swimming, get back into dance classes, going to more arts event, shows and concerts

2) Get more sleep - less internet surfing

3) Must get my eye lasik sorted out !

4) Embark on my economics / design book journey

5) Embark on joint biz with Pamela

6) Embark on travel guide biz with Gale

The first three should be doable... and the last 3 is a bit of a bigger challenge and may be too much to do it altogether but hey... better than not having anything to aim at all !

Me and my stagnant social life...

2010-09-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

I digged out an old Salsa video CD from my London boxes yesterday and started watching them. They were salsa dance performances recorded at the 2006 Salsa congress in London which Jasmine and I went to. It was a 3 days intensive salsa workshops, courses and music held at Butlins. The first salsa workshop starts as early as 8:30am and ends each day with a party at the dance hall till 3am ! It was so much fun for the Salsa addicts like us !

Watching the video made me realised how much of a social life I had back in London. I missed the all night salsa dancing, summer parties, art exhibitions and events. There were plenty to do and to go everyday of the week. The cooling weather made it easier to travel to places too.

Ever since I got back, my social life has been pretty stale. I have been swamped with work and what with the time difference with my UK office, I'll consider myself lucky if I get to leave before 8pm. Apart from the few dinner and brunch gathering with some friends, I realised my social life hasn't been particularly active ever since my return. It is so easy to slip into a work-home-TV-sleep routine and so damn hard to find my momentum to get active again ! Whatever happen to my 3-4 times of swimming a week ? Whatever happen to dancing at least twice a week ! Yoga once a week ! Economics lessons once a week ! (Ok, I still have my economics lessons but that's hardly active in a physical sense!)

Today, I finally managed to get my arse up and off to the Chevron club next to my office for a swim. There is no pool only membership. I had to get the gym membership in order to use the pool but look at it.... it's worth every penny even though I think I would only use it for the pool. It's 2 bus-stops away from my house and a 10 mins walk away from my office. There will now be no more excuses to not go for a swim at least three times a week !

The revolutionary road

2010-09-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

I just spent the lazy Sunday afternoon watching a film called "The revolutionary road" starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio.

I felt particularly sentimental about this film especially after I wrote my last blog about Home coming - Goodbye London, I thought it relates to my situation at the moment on many levels. (well, apart from the marriage and kids! ).

The film is about two people, a couple, one who has forgo her dreams and the other who never quite figured out what he wants in life. They both decided to accept the idea of what the "perfect life" should be and spent a miserable 7 years together making the perfect life work.

One day, they decided to make a bold move to lead a brand new life in Paris with their two children. A dream that both husband and wife has suppressed for a long time. Unfortunately, a series of unexpected event started unfolding - husband got a grand promotion and wife got pregnant. Their Paris dream starts to seem unrealistic and the husband thought it seemed so much easier to just stay put and continue working out the relationship. The wife was disappointed as the only hope of rejuvenating herself is shattered but try very hard to accept the "perfect life" that society has "bestowed upon" her.

The best part of the film I thought came from a neighbour's son who is supposedly a little "not well" - insane to be precise. This insane guy saw through the misery of the couple and reprimanded them for choosing the easier way out instead of really finding out what they are made of by pursuing their own dreams.

I start to question myself if the decision to leave London and come home an easier way out instead of staying on to see what I am really made of ? Is London the only place I can see what I am made of ? Can Singapore not give me the same opportunity ? Have I given up a richer, fuller life in exchange for an easier path ? Does following my mind really a better idea than following my heart ? Am I being lazy or just being rational ?

Again, only time will tell...

Home coming - Goodbye London !

2010-09-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've been back from London for 6 months now and just about adapting to a "somewhat new" Asian lifestyle and culture again. Who would have thought I'll be away for 10 years ?

On reflection, I had some of my best times and moments in London. Where better to spend the best part of a young adult life than in one of the most vibrant cosmopolitan city in the world. The freedom and independence I experienced through the liberal spirit of the arts and the society in London is pretty unforgettable - whether one agrees with it is not the point. I still miss London very much and the memories I have of it, is I believe will stay with me for a very long time.

I'm going through a lot of mixed emotions. My heart is still very much in London and yet my mind knows I should be back in Singapore. I know I can never have the best of both worlds and I decided to let my mind take the lead.

I have never really been an emotionally led person and I'm not sure if this is an advantage or disadvantage in life. I think it's always easier to use the mind to think than to use the heart to do the same job. The heart isn't meant for thinking afterall...

Anyway, time will tell if I made the right choice to return and if I can survive the landmines of the Asian lifestyle and culture once again.

Food Wastage - Guilt of the fortunate

2009-12-31T16:57:00.000-08:00

I was looking up on some useful links for my sister's compostable bin liners website when I came across a couple of articles in the Guardian on food waste.

My parents were brought up in post-independent Singapore where commodities were scarce then and being thrifty was a virtue. I like to think I've inherited some of their virtues and try my best not to indulge myself - saving any last bit of leftover ham for tomorrow's stir-fry or freezing anything that can be defrosted decently - from bagels to rice, from soup to curry. You name it, I've tried it. I actually like to think Bird Eyes actually stole my idea!

However, the "fortunate circumstances" in the last decade made it only too easy to chunk stash of foodstuff away without much thought of the damage it does to the environment, society and to the world. I, myself for one have been guilty on many occasions and always having an excuse for doing so.

I have always been aware there are food waste news scandal across many developed countries but reading the following articles on food wastage has truly disgust me. There is nothing more uncomfortable than being presented with unpleasant truth and facts and I just want it on the blog to remind myself and the others of how fortunate we are and it's time we think about the way we consume and confront ourselves about society's values and beliefs towards food.

I'll let the articles speak for themselves. Among them are:

• Marks & Spencer requires its sandwich supplier, Hain Celestial Group, to discard four slices from each loaf: the crust and the first slice at either end. This practice means 13,000 slices of fresh bread are discarded every day from a single factory.

• Fruits and vegetables are rejected by supermarket purely on cosmetic reasons.

• In the UK we chuck out a third of the food we buy.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jul/19/food-waste

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Overall, a 2007 government survey found that we throw away some 6.7m tonnes of food a year – a third of the food we buy.
This is a bad idea for several reasons. A high proportion of chucked-out food gets sent to landfill, where it decomposes into methane – contributing to global warming and exacerbating poverty in the developing world. Buying food simply to chuck it out is a waste of all those precious resources – land, water, energy – that were put into growing, processing and transporting it. And there seems something wrong with wasting so much food when so many people across the world are living in poverty.
Of course, some would say that the wastefulness of rich countries like ours has no bearing on poverty in other parts of the world. It's not as if the loaves of bread we're throwing away could actually be shipped to other countries.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/jul/17/food-waste-tristram-stuart

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What is clear is that people embrace freeganism for different reasons. For some, it is part of a general desire to opt out of the capitalist economy. For others, it is more about reducing their impact on the planet and living with a clear conscience. And for others still, no doubt, the motivation is to save money. Stuart's reasons for being a freegan, on the other hand, are both very clear and highly specific. It is a way to protest against what he sees as the shocking extent to which our society wastes food. "If we didn't needlessly throw so much food away," he says, "I'd stop being a freegan.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/19/freegan-environment-food

Injustice

2009-12-13T03:58:00.000-08:00

I like a good quote now and then to remind myself about the injustice around the world. Again, stumbled upon this interesting website that sells "tools for change".

It is so easy to get caught up in our daily grind that we sometimes unconsciously find ourselves slowly sucked into the injustice that we think of it to be socially acceptable. (legally accpetable in some situations even!)

In the midst of the UK's MP expenses row, I reflected upon it myself and asked whether I would do the same thing ? One could have been deemed a fool have you not taken advantage of the position and authority that you were given. "What a waste" I hear...

But i came back with one answer in my head.. One should do what is right, not what one can get away.

Forgotten Shanghai

2009-12-05T15:40:00.000-08:00

A mesmerizing video of Forgotten Shanghai - The Longchang apartments.

Again, another contrast against the shiny bright lights of the new Shanghai.

Apple Worshipping

2009-12-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

A hilarious spoof website of Apple, ridiculing the god-like status of the Apple brand. It makes you think twice about buying yet again another Apple must have !

Saying that.. I admit I do have an Apple imac, ipod touch, ishuffle... booo.. Now, I quite fancy that Sky Projector...

A rainbow cake !

2009-12-04T16:29:00.000-08:00

Stumble upon this blog called "Whisk Kid" which what looks like a blog full of cake recipes ! This rainbow cake definitely stopped me in my track (of internet surfing!)

See New York in a different light

2009-12-04T15:43:00.000-08:00

I stumble upon this interesting link on Slate. While New York is often portrayed as one of the dazzling destination where all things exciting, fashionable and expensive comes together, there is this observant photographer/writer who brings to our attention the disparity of the human race, remembers the poor and the not-so-fortunate in glamorous New York.

Quoting from the article itself....

"It is not the Harlem where neighbors put out their chairs on the sidewalk and talk with each other. The intersection is where the old-style ghetto lingers on, where people who are not doing well come together."

Exhibition in Brussels, Belgium.

2009-11-29T13:15:00.000-08:00

Exhibited a couple of art work in Brussels.

Shown above is an experimental typography art work that came from a reflection and search of personal identity in London. I extracted a random paragraph from a glossy English magazine bought at a newstand in London, and attempt to simulate Chinese characters out of the latin / roman characters, distorting individual characters as and when necessary.

It doesn't look anything like Chinese characters to me but again.. like I mentioned, it was an attempt. It was a process to find the "Chineseness" in an English world. Although someone(a Belgian) at the exhibition told me it did somewhat look like Chinese characters to him from far.

I think this work represents the questioning of my personal identity as a Singaporean in London.

Silk screen on paper.

There have been some interest in the work and I'm now thinking of producing a few copies for sale.

The exhibition was held in the beautiful Art Deco style building - Museum of Musical Instrument (MIM), renowned for it's collection of over 1500 musical instruments. The whole building was made out of girded steel and glass.

I wished I had my DSLR with me to capture some of the architecture details although I think I would have been too exhausted to concentrate on any photography as we were all busy with getting ready for the exhibition.

Little Oscar

2009-11-29T11:43:00.000-08:00

My sister and my little nephew came to visit yesterday. It's amazing to see how little babies grow by the day and the next thing you know, they are no longer lying quietly by their cot but actively crawling around, making noise and poking their fingers into any holes and crevices that they can find.

I was especially amused by how fascinated he was trying to check out the letterbox brush seal at the bottom of the door, trying to figure out the texture of brush.

Rainbow sky

2009-11-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

This spectacular view emerged after a rainy winter afternoon from the living room of my B&B host - Erick, in Brussels, Belgium.

Erick's apartment is part of an Art Deco style building with lots of character to it. I thought it was tastefully decorated and immaculately well kept ! One of the best B&B I've stayed in. Erick is such a friendly and easy going host that I'll definitely return to him if I'm going to Brussels again.

For those interested, this is his website called "Welcome to my place". He also has 2 very adorable cats in the apartment which he loves them to bits !

I was in Brussels for a couple of days to exhibit a few pieces of my art work at the Museum of Musical Instrument and was very lucky to find such a great accommodation like Erick's place ! I totally recommend it.

Below is another image captured from his living room.