Baby Bobby

Firstly, I have changed the blog title... it was no longer suited to be termed isolation since I am constantly surrounded by a familiar crowd.

In foreign land Tokyo for a year, there seems to be more to write about, and friends & family back in Singapore could find out how I am doing just by visiting this website. Economics of scale.

I might have lost some inspiration to write since coming back to Singapore. But since I have friends now based in Tokyo, New York, London & New Zealand, I guess I should continue.

With no work this entire week, I had the fortune of two morning jogs at 7am @ Botanic Garden, one tennis session @ 830am, and brought Bobby to East Coast Park for his morning walk.

This Chinese New Year week has been extremely healthy. Tokyo has taught me a great deal about healthy eating habits! I no longer feast beastly at bak kwa (barbequed pork).

Bobby the basenji @ 8 years old is extremely athletic, and child-like. He is also very famous among the children in the apartment estate. Often when we walk around, people say Hi Bobby Hi Bobby, and totally ignore the humans behind the leash.

2006 is officially Over

Its Chinese New Year's Eve. I have been away for a full year, and its the perfect timing to meet up with my relatives and friends. This year's turning ushers in the Year of the Pig/ Boar, which according to Chinese astrology, signifies honesty, loyalty and amiability.

Yearly, my mum would also bake biscuits for the new year. I love it because not only is it tasty, I know there are no preservatives and I feel assured with the hygiene standard - yes I would rather have the best.

Tonight, my relatives and my family would be having Reunion Dinner @ my Uncle's house. In the afternoon, and for the 1st time I accompanied my mum to Far East Florists to buy some fresh flowers for the home. In the past in audit, this would never happen. hoho my sister is in the office now!

At the florists, not sure if it is due to the last day before New Year, I didnt manage to see a bunch of flowers that were really fresh or beautiful. Even if you had money, you couldnt buy the best (although this is really due to the climate in Singapore). I remembered I received roses during my birthday in Tokyo, and amazingly it stayed fresh in my apartment for one week - the longest period I ever had to admire fresh flowers.

I read today that human's need for closeness repeatedly goes through 3 stages:
1) Hold me tight
2) Put me down
3) Leave me alone.

This cycle is apparent when an infant becomes a child as he begins to explore the world, crawl, walk, and achieve independence and autonomy from the mother. However at stages of anxiety, the child will return to the mother for soothing and closeness. No I am not preparing for motherhood. But if life is really a cycle, why do we have to worry so much about life's ups and downs?

Tonight will be fun. I will bring my SLR and perhaps try playing mahjong?!

Girlfriends meet-up

Today, Mei, Peiying, Yimien & myself - we met up after a year. We had a good catch-up session and summarized our life events that happened in 2006. It was good to know that everyone of us are doing good in our life. Most exciting news of the tea session was one of my gfs relocating to New Zealand for 2-3 years. There would be endless flow of fresh quality milk and fruits! We spoke about despite Singapore being an affluence country, we are unable to have abundant supply of fresh quality fruits, vegetables or seafood. I never realised all this until I returned from Tokyo.

The other 2 gfs are also going to be kept busy with Europe honeymoon planning, and a new house coming up! We have all moved on to a second phase in life.

Bf was busy running around this weekend for his project. Despite that he took time to have lunch with me today, and brought me to Kate Spade to try to get my wallet fixed. Appreciate it.

Just as our friendships have blossomed over more than 10 years, I noticed another bizzare friendship between a predator and prey.

THE FREAKY friendship between an Axis deer and an African lion at the Doha Zoo is flourishing well, despite their disparate behaviours.

One is a predator while the other is always the prey. One is a carnivore while the other relishes leaves and grass as a repast. One is aggressive in nature while the other as docile as, well, a deer.

Because they belong to different environments, they are now separated at night, Dr Abubacker explains. During the day, they mostly share the same paddock, though the veterinarian doesn’t like the idea much. “The deer likes an open, grassy environment while the cub loves to be on dry, hard surfaces,” he said.“But, we are doing our best and trying to create a dual-purpose accommodation with a sand bed inside the paddock for the deer,” he said. At night, the Axis deer is removed to another enclosure. In fact, they are left together only when they are watched by the keeper.

They don’t know how long the two will continue their strange relationship. “We are keeping a close watch”, Dr Abubacker said. You never know when the lion takes a fancy for some fresh deer meat and goes for Fantu’s jugular. That will be a sad day for the zoo. Keeping the two young animals together is an experiment, according al-Yazeedi, the zoo chief. They want to see how long the predator and the prey could continue to be friends.

Gulf Times Newspaper 2007/2/11

EVOLUTION

On Feb 1st, I said goodbye to Ebisu, my home for a year in Tokyo. As friends always ask me how do I feel about going back, I didnt know. On the limousine bus to Narita airport, I slept half the time (I expected myself to be staring at the city since it could very well be the last time).

My flight was delayed for two hours at Narita as there were problems with the runway. SQ had to land @ Haneda airport (about 30 mins south of central Tokyo) first, and then took an hour to fly back to Narita.

Relocating back to Singapore has been difficult:

1) I was shocked at the service level when I first touched down @ Changi Airport. Although 5am, I said Good morning with a smile at the immigration counter. No response. In Tokyo, they would have greeted you with at least a nod.

2) Went for Macdonald's breakfast (ok 5am) @ Changi Airport. When my bf ordered Big breakfast set, the lady asked "What drink" with a bit of gangster attitude. I asked my bf "Have I been away too long and that this has always been the service level in Singapore, and I have forgotten; or this is an exception?" In Macdonald @ Tokyo, you are always greeted with long phrases of polite nihongo.

3) First dinner @ Chatterbox @ Mandarin Hotel. Paid S$21 for ba ku teh. The meat was not tender and I couldnt get use to the Chinese rice yet. Disappointed. In Tokyo, you pay and often it comes with a quality tag.

4) I was also shocked upon returning home to my Condominium. The stairs and the walls were so dirty. I later found out that it was because the upstairs unit is now under renovation, and they would repaint back the stairway walls before Chinese New Year. Still, I think in Tokyo, the construction company or apartment management would have found ways to prevent such inconveniences to others living at the same stairway.

5) I used to catch a cold easily in Singapore. In Tokyo, even with the four seasons changing, I never did for the entire year. Once I landed, I have been having on-off cold and eyes are often itchy due to the higher dust level.

6) I used to stay a minute walk away from my office in Ebisu. So now, back to reality in Singapore, I have to reach office by 8am, and I think it takes 40 mins by bus, which I am not yet used to. So I have been taking cabs. Thought of driving to work daily, but after some accounting, I didnt take it makes sense. I guess I will shuttle between cabs and buses..hehe

Disclaimer: of course there are positive aspects which I would not be elaborating in this post.

With the above adaption, also I had only one weekend to rest and started work immediately on Monday.

Luckily my wise bf was with me. He said "Its all part of the relocation package, it doesnt stop when you fly out of Japan." Thats true. With all this relocation stress and I hated my ugly Singaporean mentality of always complaining, it striked me instantly of the importance of understanding and accepting change. I am giving myself time to adapt to the transition.

To me this experience clearly illustrates the impermanent nature of all phenomena. This is the true nature of reality. Being ignorant about this fact would only result in self-created unhappiness. Life is change. If I resist, I will continue to perpetuate my own suffering. The more I try to hold on to what I had, the more distorted my life will be. I have to accept this inevitable change... this is adaption phase!