Making the most of time

With 5 full days at work and no flexibility to the working hours and working place, the weekends are especially valuable.

I’m falling prey to silly greed, trying to do as much as possible during the weekend even though I’m tired. I figured since I’m going to be tired anyway, it might as well come from play rather than work. So I was out shopping half the day yesterday, and out at East Coast learning to roller blade, then off to explore Tampines and took a super round-about route home across Changi, Geylang and Kallang today.

It was especially bad overseas. Desperately trying to maximise whatever time I have to go around, I dashed across several places in Seoul in a day, even if it means carrying an umbrella and getting drenched because of the rain. Even if it means walking around Tokyo at 11pm with a flush from fever. Philippines should be tough though, considering the poor public security.

Maybe that’s why the people who work full time always complain about being tired. They “work” 7 full days a week!

When I start working full time (which is creepily soon), I think I’m going to miss mostly the freedom to control my own time when I’m in school. And I might pick up some exciting hobbies because the weekends are far too valuable to be wasted away at home.

Not-quite-there

I got a SMS this afternoon, informing me of the meeting time and place for a gathering of old friends.

In any case, I was back in town. Civilization. Places where I’d see familiar faces and meet random friends on the streets. And I did. I met at least 4 people I didn’t intend to meet. And this time, I remembered every one of them. But I didn’t say ‘hi’.

It’s such a funny feeling, when an old acquaintance walked directly towards me, I remembered him, but I’m not quite sure if he remembers me. He didn’t say ‘hi’, so I didn’t either. And with the others, I was in the other position, I walked past pretending not to see them. ‘Hi-Bye’ is tiring, and not knowing what more to say is awkward.

With other old friends, we sat together and talked for hours, about everything. Just like before, we could talk, enjoy the conversation, yet never quite feel like close friends. The only times we ever spoke to each other was when there are specific topics and incidents to talk about.

I don’t understand why is it that when we have common interests and similar viewpoints, when we have good conversations on interesting topics and when we enjoy each other’s company, we still can’t quite seem to relate to each other. Yet with others that are much less interesting and much less similar, we hit it off and became close friends. It’s strange.

Dear Singapore,

You have been so effective in parenting me. You put me in school, prepared me for my all-important career and even set up a fund for me to use all the way into my university life. You built affordable apartments, giving me a house I call my own and upgrade it every now and then. You put amenities in my neighborhood, allowing me to take for granted the convenience of easily available inexpensive, good food until I got hungry in a foreign land at night, craving for a simple something I can’t get. You gave me a green environment, clean air and plenty of air-conditioned malls to pass time in. You worked hard to bring in the money and jobs, doing ‘necessary evils’, yet strive to protect me from temptations. You plan for my retirement, teaching me the values of saving and thriftiness. You set strict laws against deviants and petty crimes, strongly believing it is necessary to protect our values and making me believe it’s the reason our streets are safe.

You have done great at nurturing and providing for me. For that, I am thankful. But now, I’m grown up. Like a stubborn parent, you have continued to protect and make decisions for me. I am dependent on you, and sometimes, I doubt my ability to make wise decisions for myself, especially if it defies what you told me.

I hear of things I’m missing. Like falling hard, breaking a leg and learning empathy for the crippled. Like speaking up whenever I disagree and learning to put my argument across convincingly. Like making friends with strange people dressed in stranger ways and embracing their alternative points of view and lifestyles, even if it’s not one I’d choose for myself. Like being encouraged to pursue an interest that will open my mind and color my life, even if it doesn’t bring me any material satisfaction. Like doing harmless things simply because I feel like it, and not because I’m allowed to.

It’s time you let go. We will become stronger and learn to make better decisions if we grow up with scrapped knees and some scars. Your streets are beautiful, you have interesting people and some wonderful heritage. If only you would spare us the time away from academia and material success to explore more of you and create our own legacy for your children. If only we won’t be overenthusiastic in replacing our history with prosperity. Let us truly celebrate the differences in our society, for being different is not being wrong. And how I hope you would encourage us to keep our own language in this global city, please leh.

Let’s play together. We’ll go roller blade without knee protection and hike without insect repellent. Let’s put down work for a day and explore your people’s alternative culture. I’m sure we’ll enjoy ourselves and return home in one piece.

- Submitted to Stories.sg for the first issue with National Day round the corner: “What would you write to Singapore, if she were a person you knew?”

An Unnatural Calm

Life has returned to a calm.

The past 2 months has been a frantic rush of interviews, meeting person after person, knowing more people from different generations in 2 months than I could possibly know in years. Moving alone in unknown places, hearing strange languages I don’t understand and being constantly bombarded by new inputs is extremely exciting, yet confusing at the same time. Despite spending so much time on my work and thinking that I understand what I’m doing, I seemed to have trouble answering questions coherently. My processor is not fast enough for all the information I’m getting. I’ve lost the ability to speak without consciously thinking of what to say in the next sentence.

Now, sitting at my desk and doing my own work, finally having the time to think through things proper and plan some scheme of things is like a blessing. But it feels somewhat unnatural. Too slow. An uncomfortable, unnatural stop. 

The mad rush and fire fighting has been fun. I could get used to a corporate lifestyle. In fact, I don’t even feel like going back to school. This is not my dream job, but I crazily offered to work 3 days a week even after school starts, since I’ve as crazily planned a 2 day week with 1 full day of classes 8.30am to 6.45pm. The boss enthusiastically soaked up my time, telling me they have much more needed to be done. And I feel sluttishly happy to hear that.

This madness has to stop some time. And I really hope it’s not going to be Week 8 of the coming term.

Next stop, The Philippines.

Need more fun

I don’t think I’m cut out to be working all the time. I need to go out and have some fun. Not noisy dancing fun. Not sky diving fun. Just good company, good drinks, good food, good ambience and good conversations.

Silly, good fun.

Why I like Clark Quay? The relaxing atmosphere, the night lights, the sinfully good food and the drinks.

Having been out of Singapore after a long while, I realize I haven’t quite been a tourist in Singapore. It’s time to go out and find out more about this place I’ve spent all my life in. Perhaps then, I’ll find another place I like more than Clark Quay.

Beautiful Clark Quay, somehow image stabilizer failed

Greetings from Incheon

At the Incheon airport in Korea, waiting for my flight back to Singapore after a long 12 days of business traveling.

I’m sitting in the Paris Baguette cafe, a really good bread and sandwich place everyone who goes to Korea should try. After this trip, I think I’ll really appreciate the food I’m accustomed to.

Also, this should be the last time in a long while that I’ll give a blank look to people rattling to me in Korean.

Korea, as it is

The Koreans have been very hospitable. They took us out to fancy Korean restaurants for meals and so I’ve tasted quite a few good Korean dishes.

Perhaps the most memorable conversation with a Korean on this trip,

Korean: “Do you eat ‘doug’?”

Me: “No! Dog?!” (OMG, I know Koreans eat Dogs, but don’t you think it’s too much to offer visitors?)

Korean: (shocked look) “I mean, D-U-C-K, ‘doug’.”

Me: “Oh, you mean ‘Duck’. Yes, I eat duck.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mocking their English. This Korean coworker’s English is quite good. I just found it a very amusing misunderstanding of language and culture.

In fact, the Koreans I’ve met are actively learning English. The middle-aged man I sat on the train was writing in an English workbook, doing an exercise of translating simple Korean sentences into English. On the subway, I stood beside a young man who was mumbling “restroom” to himself. I later noticed he seemed to be busy memorising vocabulary from a slip of paper he was holding in his hand. Koreans, I heard, spend years overseas just to learn English because English is increasingly essential for finding a good job.

I’ve been fortunate as this is a business trip and I work with professionals in a well-managed company. If I came to Korea alone, particularly the Cheonan area, which is largely rural with many farms and industries, I’ll be stucked with nowhere to go, nowhere to find good Korean food and no one to ask because I don’t know Korean. 

Korea, as it is, doesn’t look like anything in the Korean dramas. At least not the place I’m staying in and the places I passed by on my travels.

In big city Seoul, you’d see a lot of fashionable young people around. But the majority of people do not look like they walk straight out of a Korean drama. They are mostly uncouth and simple small town folks.

Jeju Island is an expensive vacation place reserved for honeymoons. People don’t spend all their free time walking around on scenic beaches. Developed places seem pretty much confined to big cities like Seoul. For the majority of the places I’ve seen, agriculture and industries dominate. The roads are dirty, there is little urban planning and there are small plots of land with crops along the main roads in the city.

Next week, I’ll see the scenic side of Korea and experience staying in a pretentiously luxurious hotel on Jeju Island.

Enjoying Tokyo

I can really live in Tokyo, once I know the language and get used to the food. But tonight, I managed to get by without saying much.

I woke up from my nap feeling hungry. With the knowledge that the shops here close by 9pm, I plowed through the hotel’s restaurants and even contemplated room service. All were overpriced and none looked appetizing.

All I wanted was a simple bowl of noodles. Steaming hot noodles. With egg. Definitely with egg. I had this incredible craving for egg. I even thought of getting fresh eggs from the convenience store and boiling it in my hotel room’s electric kettle.

Although this is the land of instant noodles, I know I really shouldn’t resort to getting cup noodles from the convenience store in the hotel. (Or egg for that matter.) So I dragged my sorry ass out of the hotel flushing like a drunken idiot.

It was the best decision I made in a long while.

I found a noodle house the size of its kitchen, with less than 20 seats on a counter surrounding the kitchen. Not knowing anything in Japanese, I ordered my food with a single alphabet of the English language, according to the tag on the pictures outside the restaurant. I ate sitting shoulder to shoulder with local men drinking Asahi and finally paid and asked for a receipt by pointing to the print-out slot on the cashier. I knew I had it when the cashier responded with “Oh! Receipt-to!”.

Dinner was completed with a grand total of 1alphabet.

Satisfied with my steaming hot bowl of noodles, I left the store and decided to take a stroll around the area.

Passed by an ancient shrine along a row of restaurants and bars. Saw Yoshinoya in the land it is from. Counted 3 convenience stores in the half a km area near the hotel. Got surprised by a talking traffic light. Cheapest vending machine sells coffee for 80 yen. Passed by many men-in-suits reeking of alcohol. Passed by many men in suits and ties riding bicycles. Got surprised by a music playing vending machine. Bought Meiji milk without saying a single word.

The shops close by 9pm? Well, just a few of the department stores around. This place is still bustling with activity way past 11pm.

I thought Japan was a place I’ll never like. I don’t enjoy the food and I’ve no interest in their culture, TV shows and anime. But I really like Japan, if for nothing else I like the Japanese. They’re gentle, gracious and extremely polite. It is a very comfortable city to be in.

First trip to Tokyo

It’s only 7.30pm.

I’m in the hotel, eating expensive hotel lobby bread and drinking brought-from-Singapore 3-in-1 Milo.

I’m burning a fever and I can’t understand the Japanese instructions on the cooling pads I bought from the hotel’s convenience store.

If only the Tokyo view outside the window will stop calling out to me.

Miserable. I can’t stay another minute anywhere.

One of the best things about my internship, is that I get a glimpse of my lambo almost everyday when the bus passes the lambo showroom.

=)