Take a Break

Tucked away at home now on a Friday, and started the day with personal administrative work. As I am embarking on a new London project next week, I needed a break to feel excited again.

On the right are pictures of Cat Country's kitchen - a place I visit at least once a week. Realized that I have dished out bits and pieces of the kitchen, but never a picture of how it entirely looks like. For now it shall remain still a mystery.

Above - Kitchen's Chandelier with Swarovski Crystal.

These days, an underlying feeling of discontentment is causing me to feel the extreme. Thinking about whether I can be doing more with my life, exploring more with my life. Thinking about the possibilities can be appealing and exciting. Or perhaps, only exciting on the surface; or maybe even harmful.

Are You Getting

Married? That is the most frequent question I hear on a weekly basis.

Started: 2002

Status: Approaching 5 years in September

Disconnected Pattern: Nearly broke up once

Major challenge: Survived one year via long-distance (of course, in the beginning it was hell)

Book that can help an Engineer/ Finance Combination: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

A rather close friend of mine is getting hitched this August. This was decided after 5 months of dating. Most of us around him are rather worried, although he supported that he has done a thorough analysis (while being madly in love).

Personally my thoughts are, if you decide that you are going to spend the rest of your lives together anyway, why not hold off the decision to formalize it with pen and paper, and spend good time getting to know each other well. I dont deny peer pressure may kick in from time to time, as everyone younger around me are getting the certificates. But everyone has to choose their own life; and not follow the herd with the sheep mentality.

Divorce rate in Singapore stands at approximately 17.2%, with Sweden (54.9%), United States (54.8%) and Belarus (52.9%) topping the chart [Source: wikipedia]. If things doesn't turn out well, you can break up a relationship, but if a marriage fails, legally you need to be separated for three years before you can file for a divorce. With children involved, this further complicates the emotional distress. People around you would then be asking "Why are you getting a divorce?" -- a far more frustrating question than "When are you getting married?".

EXCITING REMAINING JUNE

Or, how to meet my needs and fear of not feeling stagnant and bored

Especially after having had a stimulating & enriching year in Japan

2 weeks left to June. 4.5 months since relocating back (only 4.5? why does it feel so long already?)

I cannot live the same as I used to before I ventured out of this country. I am not contented with doing nothing, no progression.

Here's a lineup of activities to keep myself busy & stimulated for the rest of June.

Every Wednesday, to attend yoga classes @ Planet Fitness. Read that European countries have resorted to yoga in order to increase productivity. Patents on Yoga positions? haha check this out.

June 23: Join Company's Volunteer Trip to Pasir (okay but I have to confess I screwed up, I didnt register although I always talked about joining, and T-shirts have already been issued to volunteers). Need to sort this out, and squeeze myself in!

June 23: Visit new Japanese Karaoke started up by friend who used to live in Tokyo. Chat, drink and catch up with old friends from Tokyo - first time since I got back!

June 28: Chartered Accountants dinner, a fine occasion to meet up fellow CA mates and attend an investment session "Managing our wealth in the current market" conducted by an Investment Consultant, Executive Director, from UBS.

June 30th: Friend flying from Tokyo, finally, thats why I say the world is really small. This friend wrote me an email recently and told me Tokyo is really small as we realize that a lot of our friends are inter-connected. Imagine, if Tokyo is small, what about Singapore? The world is indeed connected in many ways, in a much larger sense than we ever realize.

As a human being, I want to be happy and dont want to feel pain or distress. Other humans, like myself, want to be happy too and dont want to feel distress. Based on this logic, I made a rather major decision. Consulted no one this time.

Title..(Reflecting with a Life?)

I often wonder why I continue with blog-writing. Sometimes you feel the burden of people watching and reading your lines, and probably even judging you. Its amazing how I initially thought it is quite a loser to document your personal encounters and have thousands of eyes view it and say "What the hell". But for now at least, blog writing seems to be sticking to me like a super-glue. All thanks to Darren, my cousin who was the first to encourage me to kick-off one, when I was all alone in Tokyo.

I know my mum views it @ work, and sometimes show my travel photos about Japan to her colleagues. When I was back and showed my father my blog, he said "Can you save it on a CD so I can read it, and since you can write so well, can you help me update the 4th Edition of my Revenue Accounting book." I wonder what he will write about, if he were hooked to blog writing. He is a man who sticks very strongly to his own viewpoint - but very often too rigid and too narrow in his thinking.

Often I look back at my blog entries, and collection of photos. It is nice to reminiscence my isolated memories and experiences, how I have evolved in terms of thought processes or photo-taking. It may seem cold, but it has also become a way of keeping in touch with friends I dont have the chance to frequently meet. Dont ask me to elaborate or illustrate further why we should write. There are so much more I would say.

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Stella, welcome to online writing! I am secretly persuading my closer friends and sister to start one.

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I really enjoy this "special one-on-one" relationship with my notebook, and the somewhat unknown online world..unknown because you never know who is reading it, and best of all - its good alone time for me.

Flexible Thinking

Scary Crow

Real Fisherman in Amed, who also shows an interest in the tourism industry. Our captain for the sunrise journey

To my ex-colleagues, a toast to having survived some good years in the Big 4. Now I realize the value of the challenging times we had to take on @ a tender age. It has tide me through the past weeks of "business restructuring". A flexible mind helps address problems from a variety of perspectives. It can be an important survival tool. True enough, species that are flexible & adaptable to environmental changes, survived and thrived. Check out this article Flexible genes allow ants to change destiny. I was surprised by the lack of fear and composure as I went through changing conditions.

SFW and its Evolution

What is the latest fad? Well both Malaysia and Singapore have built a Ferris Wheel! Tuscora Park's Ferris Wheel (New Philadelphia) is re-opening this summer after two children fell out of its gondolas in June 2006.

Last year, I was on board the Ferris Wheel in Odaiba, Tokyo; in 2002, on London eye (visited by 3.5 million people a year). Singapore's Ferris Wheel ("Singapore Flyer") opens on Feb 14th 2008. Apparently, 100,000 tickets have already been sold for couples looking for different altitudes on that special day.



Enough of the Ferris Wheel that spins money, this week I read an interesting article, which very much reflected my thoughts. To open-minded expatriates, tourists and friends from overseas this is similar to how I will describe my country. Extracts of the article reproduced here; I doubt this will ever make it to our local press:

Casinos or culture? Singapore seeks tourists

"Disneylands all over the world seem to pull in the crowds. And the casinos, given the propensity of the Chinese to gamble, will probably be a success." Perhaps Singapore's biggest handicap is its lack of famous sights: it has no Angkor Wat or Taj Mahal. For many years, it prided itself on its innumerable shopping malls, and promoted its annual "Singapore Sale".

Abroad, it is often better known for its authoritarian ways -- it canes vandals, executes drug offenders, crushes political opposition, and bans the sale of chewing gum. Culturally, its development has been crippled by restrictions on freedom of expression and censorship of films and plays.

But with an eye on the newly affluent Chinese, Indians and other Asians who increasingly travel overseas, Singapore has begun work on several new attractions, including two big casinos, a Universal Studios theme park, and a ferris wheel, even though none of these is particularly Singaporean.

Bollywood blockbusters
In a bid to generate more "buzz" abroad, it has opened clubs such as Ministry of Sound and is even pitching itself as a film location, eager to emulate New Zealand's success with hits such as Lord of the Rings. By "starring" in Bollywood blockbusters such as Krrish, Singapore hopes to entice more Indian tourists.

Earlier this month, Singapore snagged the rights to host Formula One racing, which it hopes will raise its profile abroad. Citigroup expects the race to generate S$150-200 million a year. "They want to send a message that Singapore has changed," said Christopher Wood, CLSA's regional strategist.

"They have to have more than shopping centres. Formula One is a brilliant idea. But nobody in Asia does culture well. Japan is the only place in Asia that has it. There's nothing cultural happening here now, zero." The government wants to double the number of visitors to 17 million a year by 2015, while nearly trebling tourism receipts to S$30 billion. Its new attractions could well succeed in pulling the crowds, economists say, particularly given Macau's experience.

Inspired by Macau, Singapore scrapped its decades-long ban on casinos and is now building two gambling resorts, due to open in the next three or four years, at a cost of nearly $7 billion. One of those casinos will include a Universal Studios theme park. That too could attract millions of visitors from the region, given that the one in Japan had 8.7 million visitors in the year ending March 31, up 4.6 percent from a year ago.

Sleepy backwater

Thousands of Singaporeans signed a petition objecting to the casinos, citing fears about the social impact and risk of crime. "It's wrong to think that by putting up a casino that will attract tourists. It will attract a niche market - gamblers," said Hans Hoefer, who founded the Insight Guides. "I haven't seen a tourist in Las Vegas, I've only seen gamblers."

Bugis Street, once the haunt of transsexuals, is now lined by unremarkable, could-be-anywhere shopping malls, while many of the old shop houses in Chinatown were demolished to make room for modern office blocks and apartment blocks. While westerners and writers such as Theroux want history and culture, Chinese and Indians see Singapore as a beacon of modernity and efficient infrastructure, in stark contrast to many of Asia's chaotic cities, says tour guide Geraldene Lowe.

"All they want to see is a modern city," said Lowe, whose walking tours take in Singapore's historic quarters and craftsmen such as those who make wood carvings for the temples, or paper statues for traditional Chinese funerals. "The government builds these ferris wheels and (gambling) resorts that you can get anywhere. Why not promote the culture we do have?" said Lowe.

The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka
By Sara Webb