Me and my stagnant social life...

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

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 !

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

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

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

A mesmerizing video of Forgotten Shanghai - The Longchang apartments.

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

Apple Worshipping

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...