七夕 - Chinese Valentine's

Saw 2 beeeg and very ugly bouquets being delivered by un-uniformed delivery men at the office lobby this morning. With a second seventh lunar month this year, the men will be screwed twice over. Some sources pointed out that it costs RMB 78 for each stalk of rose!

List of wants

Give me the latest Kate Spade Bel Air collection,
give me a fancy meal at Yongfoo Elite,
give me the best standing seats you can find for Black Eyed Peas concert,
give me more of that Shanghai Temptation. Bartender, shots all around if you please.

Give me SGD72 so that it will pay for a child's education for a whole year,
give me a handwritten note/ letter/ something revealing whispers of your heart which fail to reach out from your mouth,
give me blue skies and fresh air (forgive me for often taking you twins for granted),
give me cliched peace anytime over melodramatic earthquakes/ tsunamis/ war conflicts,
give me your time and thoughtfulness,
give me freedom of thought,
give me courage to choose speaking openly over defending my emotions & choices.
Give me Hope.

***

This puts everything into perspective doesn't it?

What I feel like doing right now

Fickle distractions

Amazed how easy it was to get over M. I had thought or wished it was more difficult, masochist that I am. Almost willing, wanting, holding on to savouring passion and colour of that company past.

***

Looking down at the street market right below the balcony window of my new apartment is like watching tv. There is constant 'action' - bicyclists trying to run down or avoiding successfully everyone, bargaining, people lying on armchairs and a cageful of pigeons. There's always something that makes you eagle-eyed for more. Roomie and I affectionately name this area 'the slums' - but in this simple locality, there is so much beauty in imperfection.

***

16 - 19 July I have designated as beverage making days. Green tea with manuka honey, filtered Killiney coffee, green bean soup carefully chilled. Without question, we're well prepared for summer. Let's see how many days we can keep this up since I'm not reeaaally into washing up.

Another germ landed on our doorstep for a three month internship. Yay new friend.

Boring and nice seems to be changing. It's a pleasant change.

Auntie conversations with the roomie is quite entertaining. Only to us. Everyone else is giving us weird looks all around for discussing about growing pandan leaves to how much we need that free-gift of a sauce holder that came free with the yoghurt.

My hero

Was back getting my dose of Discovery Channel (before I return to non-Discovery Channel home), stumbling upon an interview with Sir David Attenborough. Part of the interview caught my attention when he said "...So if you say, 'I believe that God designed and created and brought into existence every single species that exists,' then you've also got to say, 'Well, he, at some stage, decided to bring into existence a (tape) worm that's going to turn people blind.' Now, I find that very difficult to reconcile with notions about a merciful God. And I certainly find it difficult to believe that a God — superhuman, supreme power — would actually do that." That was a prelude to him further describing his experiences with chimpanzees who hunt as a team and tore a monkey apart and blue whale toying cruelly with its prey (sealion) before killing it. Criticised heavily for explicit gore on television (what's this compared to what's on news now?!), he revealed wotever shown on television was already the pared down version (!!!)

"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living."

Oh...so much conviction, I like.

To the person or persons who nicked my phone...

may a swarm of summer mosquitoes descend on you for a hundred nights and UTI strike you consecutively just for the inconvenience you are causing me.

Liberté et Vérité

Airplanes taking off punctually, screens displaying accurately boarding gates, sophisticated non-shouting travellers, impeccable airline meals and constant flow of taxis once exiting the airport.

This was not the situation yesterday. Ran around like headless chicken around the airport trying to get my airticket change for another airline to make it for the 11am flight at 10.32am. Then having a battle of the wills with taxi drivers who magically pop up like magic mushrooms coincidentally when late night fare sets in.

***

On my way back, Taxi uncle in Beijing waxes lyrical about China not being a democracy. Everything is being decided by the central government and improvements/ developments made were normally at the expense of citizens. Protests are almost non-existent and dissenting views are criticisms at the government are unaccepted and claimed partisan. Sounds perversely familiar. Singapore and China are two extremes in terms of size of land and population, yet both have governments which wave their wand of control in the name of development. Difference? China makes no effort to hide that it does, contrary to Singapore.

Beijing taxi uncle shared with me a juicy tidbit. They held their own protest 1 July 2006 against the petrol hike and operator was not aiding the least bit. While he called it a failed protest, I was silently marveling at the organized and clever manner of their protest. A failed protest, only because they did not manage to make the impact that they intended - which was to bring airport and train transport to exploding chaos by not ferrying passengers out. They didn't get punished? How can? Almighty central government leh! Well, they made use of a loophole that operators overlooked when they denied taxi drivers national holidays. With dramatic finesse of outplaying a conartist, taxi drivers concidentally decided to take a 'rest' on the same day.

Onboard a flight back, I also read about recent Happiness Index that researchers regularly attempt to measure and tell us how money can not make us well, happy. This was measured upon environmental impact as opposed to Ingelhart's World Value Survey on Subjective Well Being which takes into account satisfaction on top of how happy they feel (which intuitively the latter makes more sense to me). This whole talk of it will be for another time. My point is, most Singaporeans are a bunch of complainers. The prices are rising, queue is so long, wah so bad service etc. It is no wonder we rank 130th or 131st? These are such hygiene issues, though I suspect the answers lie below these superficialities. Is there a nagging feeling that we are lacking something, something meaningful in our little island of everything-aso-have?

These little random drops of news and first-hand accounts all converge strangely while I'm reading Alan Moore's V for Vendetta (now major motion picture, of which I've deliberately avoided) and been pondering it for some time, especially since recent whatever the what ongoings in Singapore. When has freedom to exercise the right to say right and wrong become such a unacceptable act? They have got it right though (pun not intended). Polemic it is (and bloody verbose they have to be) - a controversy, especially over a belief or dogma. It seems like a dogma set by one political party who does not differentiate itself from the goverment.

"He [John Locke] came to understand that the only reliable thing that can be said about human knowledge is that it is, and can be, only partial. This simple truth has enormous consequences, because it means that any form of authoritarianism, whether intellectual or political, is based on the false premise that one person or system has all the answers." - Susan Ford Wiltshire

When will they believe that dissent is not for dissent's sake nor for disloyalty; but for want to live up to some ideal, to reach out for something worth fighting for. For what, we're still seeking as a young nation. Amongst it all, there is only one thing to hope for, not some mutant, distorted form of it upgraded and air-conditioned. Freedom and Truth Prevails.

Laters!

有多久没见你, 以为你在那里
原来就住在我的心底, 陪伴着我的呼吸 ~ 心动, 林晓培

Most efficient & fulfilling trip home. Cleared my debts, bought outdoor stuff, simplified my worldly posessions (okay I know it's oxymoronic considering I bought some stuff), made new friends, reconnected with old ones and found my heart back.

Stylishness redefined

finger with style

Curfew thoughts

Had dinner with the clan tonight and my conversation with didi (younger cousin who is 14) naturally shifted to watching soccer. He told me that there are 24 hour McDonalds that do live feeds of matches; only to be told that there was a curfew and there was no way that he was going. I have heard of the curfew whereby youths were 'encouraged' (not allowed) to loiter in public space after 12am; but I never thought it was actually implemented. This is ridiculous! Although I think it does look like youths these days seem more into consumerism; on the other hand, I probably was equally aimless when I was their age. It's all about testing boundaries and exploring (although within an invisible self-imposed fence of 'i need to get good grades & then good job'), still they should be allowed to just be. Most amusing and frustrating when my parents think it's right.

"See, see another pregnant teenager abandoning her newborn, you still say don't need curfew." accompanied by ferocious pointing at newspaper.

Silence from me. So illogical, just because they're allowed to stay out late does not neccessarily lead to more unwanted pregnancies. Maybe it's not teaching and speaking about sexuality and birth control in school. Maybe it's a way of rebeling when all other avenues seem restricted. Maybe parents should communicate openly about sex instead of painting it as wrong, fullstop-don't-ask-me-anymore-I-know-I'm-right.

If only life's solutions were so straightfoward as imposing a restriction. If only we didn't have to uncover 'why'. Knowing the 'why' would be so uncomfortable 'innit?