I wonder if I should be worrying at all..

Hope

Hey friend..

At times when you feel things are falling apart,

I wish you two things:-

Hope

that things can only get better since the only way is up

and

Faith

to keep that hope alive when the journey riding up gets a bit too rough

Hang in there..

The Real Fairy Tales

There was always some point in time when I regretted that I gave away my old books. Especially those that can't be find in their original forms now.

Like this - before Jo, Bessie and Franny were themselves before having their names changed to be politically correct. Btw I am not even sure if golliwogs exist or even allowed to be mentioned now.

But recently I was thinking of the Little Mermaid book that I once had, no thanks for the upcoming Grimms' Tales by SRT . Nowadays, Little Ariel seemed to be the de-facto image of the Little Mermaid. But I remember the illustration in the book that I had was probably more gothic than cheery.

This was the exact version of the book that I've got!

Which was probably more befitting the tragedy ending of the little mermaid who finally dissolve to become foam in the sea, but eventually rising up in the air together with others who were like her (ok, this part never really did made sense when I was reading it then. Like who were these others??). I also remembered feeling angsty at the stupid prince who married the princess, who happened to pass by the shore and "saved"the prince, rather than the mermaid who actually saved him from the sunken ship and placed him on the shore.

Argh.

A lot of fairy tales didn't start out to please little kids and assure them that everything will have happy-endings, and which some I find to have very warped principles too. I wonder if kids nowadays would ever discover the real story of the little mermaid and other fairy tales, rather than the mass manufactured Disney ones. I grew up reading those disturbing warped ones, and didn't turn out any worse off, though I think the stories inculcated some form of cynicism that probably never go away.

Well, don't think it's going to be easy, but gotto try if anybody out there who can appreciate cynical dark humour just as well to go catch the show..

Adele - Chasing Pavements

This is one album that I will go buy. Now..only to find the time to go check it out at the nearest music store..

啼笑皆非

在和帮我洗脸的小女生聊天，谈到小女生的感情世界。小女生 说道：“新加坡的男人从小就被妈妈奶奶惯坏了啦！都没胆去追女生的啦。现在，什么都是要女孩子去主动的...”

那是当她告诉我，是她主动约大她八岁，当时还不是男朋友的男生后的总结词。

xxxxx

和JZ吃饭，JZ 告诉我她好友用一个例子训导她。

这个朋友前些时候到了Lucky Plaza。“哇，那里就成了小菲莉宾城了，好多菲莉宾人聚集再那里。菲莉宾人呀，真热情。有洋人走过，四目相投，咧嘴就笑，笑脸殷殷的，让人觉得很亲切。这样就搭上了嘛。哪像你，人家有意思瞄了你，你看到了，没回应，还低着头假装没看到。学学人家吧！”。

我快笑翻了头的当儿，JZ说到，“你别笑我，你也是一样罪魁祸首”。

xxxxx

难怪我还单身喏。

The Invisible People

There lives a new race in Singapore.

The Invisibles.

They are everywhere, but of course, you don't see them.

They were at the void deck that is swept and cleaned before you step out to start your day.

They paved the road that is well-used by you and many other many vehicles, moving to the beat of the country day in day out.

They toiled in the great tunnel underground to make sure you can move around in this little red dot more efficiently.

They darted around the ships in the dry docks, before they are made ready again to sail from this entrepot port since the start of our short history. So that you can still claimed to live in a trading hub.

They are the ever changing faces.

But you will never see them. You will never hear them.

So long as your live runs like clockwork, it is like they never existed.

They are the Invisibles.

Bruno Mars The Lazy Song

It was sometime last week. Imagine running on the treadmill, with nothing interesting in front but flickering screens running different channels from cable. Forgot to bring earphones so can't plug in and the best alternative was to read the subtitles on what looked like the Masterchef (not a good channel to watch if you are running at 9kmh and trying to promise your stomach that it's going to be rewarded with something much better).

One of the screen was showing MTV, with this showing. Rem that no earphones, just the visuals.

Makes me want one of those monkey mask :p

From the same guy who gave the now-routine wedding song - Just the way you are.

Anyway the MV was totally apt -

- for the lousy Monday today; and

- to remind myself that I should start hitting tarmac and/or concrete again instead of running in air-con comfort.

Back (again!)

Just came back from a live-on-board on MV DiveRace. I should have at least taken a pic of the boat, but I realised that I have been lazy lately to fish out the phone cam after playing around with a friend's DSLR a few months back, and knowing probably other people has better equipped cameras to do the job.

Which I will be stunting after they post them up on FB :p

Anyway the whole trip was fun*, diving with the same crazy people** and got to know a few others better.

*other than the part when the body clock became a bit screwed up, only managed to sleep for a 2 hours on sat night and then it was wide eyes all the way til 6am for the wakeup call for morning dive. Freak, waking up at 6am for morning dives are blehs. So is cold seawater for first dive in the morning. But the new wetsuit is doing its job so it's good! :)

**On Sat while berthed at the Marine Park and waiting for night dive, we were just nua-ing around on the sun dec and being bored to death, when one of the girls Jo leaned over the sundeck railing, looked at the water, and asked, "Ay..can we jump from here into the water huh?" And that episode ending up with us doing 2 jumps each over the railing over 3 storey high into the water. Haha!

Live on boards are especially nice since doing away with the bus transfers and eat, dive, sleep on the boat. Similar to my cruise holiday but with the added itinerary of dives at some of the Tioman sites that I have never been to if I had done the land base trips.

Well, better start logging dives (before I forget again) and can't wait for the next dive :D

Velvet Underground - After Hours

Such an unpretentious song. The vocal sounds totally untrained but yet, still captivating nonetheless.

Impermanence

Do not believe what you see, hear or feel,

For it changes with the passing second.

Like the wave cresting to the beach,

It does not exist within the blink of an eye

Even when it continues to rise and fall

Sungha Jung

I can't help but stop in awe to admire how talented this kid is.

Check out him playing at 12 years old, back in 2008.

The comment that went with the youtube vid included - "He had fun playing it for 2 days". Like it's some kid's play (pun totally not intended).

And him even younger, playing "California Dreaming". He looked so cute that I want to reach into the vide and pinch his cheeks.. :p

Anyway check out his official website: http://www.sunghajung.com/