thoughts

1. I was in an elevator going down on my way to work. The elevator stopped, the door opened and an elderly Chinese lady walked in. We looked at each other and while she said "Good Morning", I said "Jo sun" at the same time. Were we both guilty of subconsciously stereotyping? ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. "We will keep you here for observation for a couple of days", said the doctor at the emergency room. The ambulance had brought me there for the second time in 12 hours. And so I was checked into the General Medicine ward at Princess Margaret Hospital. It was a open ward with about 10 to 12 beds. I probably stood out for two reasons. Firstly, for being the only non-Chinese person in the ward. Secondly, for being the only one under 80 years old. The ward was shared with the Geriatrics department. Scheduled activities broke the monotony of doing nothing. Meal times, medication times, visiting hours...

I've always wanted to write a piece with the title of "In Life as in Death". However, I never got beyond the title because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to write about. I finally got some inspiration yesterday from a dear friend who hypothetically "killed" me least 3 times in an hour. Ok, so she didn't kill me but suggested I might die very soon (she must have noticed the amount I ate). I mentioned to her that I have a blog in which I write once a year. To this she said I need to reach my full potential and write more as the next generation is waiting to be inspired by me. (You should be laughing hysterically by now as I was). God forbid the day when people are "inspired" by me to do something that's not illegal, immoral or plain evil. But then I thought, why the hell not. In case I do die very soon, I might as well write down some suggestions. I'm sure you've read these elsewhere and there's nothing new. H...

Almost the end of the year and I realized I haven't written a single entry in any of my blogs yet. So I just had to do one for 2012. Hmm...2012. What a year! It's been filled with ups and downs (like any good year should). I traveled to places I had never been to, met new people had amazing experiences and, most importantly, had some fantastic food.  I lost a close friend. Lost myself too. And found myself again (apologies to all who've told me to get lost) That's about all the reflection I want to do. Time to look forward to 2013! So what do I have planned for the year? Nothing. I think I'll just let 2013 decide what it wants to do with me. Bring it on!

I hit 30 a couple of weeks ago. I figure I'm a pretty cliched kind of guy so it was time to reflect on my life and see where I am with respect to where I wanted to be. Obviously turned out that i was no where close. Then feeling bad about it and sticking with the "cliche" theme, it was time to go out and do something stupid. So got me a leather jacket, a new pair of sunglasses and a brand new ferrari. Ok..so it was the Hotwheels kind..but hey..still blew my savings on it.It was worth it! But seriously I'm not sure how I feel about where my life is right now. I think I'm doing all right. The only expected thing that I don't have right now is being in a relationship. When I was younger, I really didn't think I'd be single at 30 . But now that I am, I don't know what to make of it. Should I be worried? As people get older, it seems harder to find someone. Add fatter, balder and the fact that I waddle around like a penguin cos i get aches in my joints...

3 months ago I moved to Singapore for three reasons in no particular order…1) to find work, 2) for an adventure and 3) to spend away my savings and claim UN funding for people below the poverty line. I succeeded in 2 ½ out of 3. Singapore is a lovely country. There’s nothing more I can add to the thousands of descriptions that you can find in travel guides about the country's multicultural heritage, awesome governance and perfect mix between east and west. It is all of that and more. You just have to experience it. For me of course the best part about Singapore was the food at the hawker centers. Apparently eating at a hawker center is on the list in a book called “1000 things to do before you die”. I don’t know if doing the same thing 1000 times counts…cos if it does…I guess I’m good to go. There’s no place I went to more than a hawker center (hmm…in speech I should be very careful when I say this.”Hawker” sounds very much like something else…and considering prostitution is le...

Another week gone and still no work. Guess it's time to write for the one die hard subscriber to my blog (loser!). Just kidding...don't mind. Hmm..Mind. The word reminds me of a scene from the movie "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise (Lt. Algren) is practicing fighting with the samurai and keeps getting beaten. Then one of them comes upto him and says "Algren San..please forgive...too many mind. Mind the sword, mind the people watch, mind the enemy, too many mind.....(pause) No Mind" So often in life I've seen things which are meant to be simple become very complicated. It troubles me sometimes when we allow too many things to affect something that should depend only on one or two. Though how to do that, I don't know. I mean it would have come in really usefull when I had all those assignments to do the day before their deadlines. Would have helped to not mind the deadline, mind the word count, mind the references, mind facebook, mind...