I'm outta here!

Gone diving!

and hello whalie....

Iggy Pop Les Feuilles Mortes

Feels like a lil Iggy Pop tonight.

(I have eclectic music cravings)

Another packed week before flying off this Saturday. Seriously, I should stop planning for holidays. They somehow have some cosmic power to attract work just before their happenings.

Jack Johnson Better Together

Feels like a little Jack Johnson tonight.

I'm absolutely smashed this week..thought I am not sure why. I have had more hectic weeks before, but this was so bad that I was practically falling asleep over my plate during a friend's wedding dinner last night. Gawd...

Right now I am resting the legs a bit before I am calling it a day..

昔日的小孩

嗨 小孩

你好吗？

有在握着希望

还是有点彷徨

觉得自己伸手能碰到天

还是在大人群里

迷失了方向？

其实

能拿在手上的快乐

不会一直存在

昨天跌倒的伤

也其实会好起来

你慢慢会学到

大人的世界

也不过如此

前些日子和友人对话，友人的感触。我想，每个人心里，都还住着那个从没离开过的小孩。

MIng Bridges Sweet Misfortune

One of those songs that hit the airwave and was stuck like toffee.

And guess what, a Singapore production! From Ming Bridges or 乔毓明 from Funkies Munkies.

原来，《有些男孩不能爱》也是她的歌..

Omnivore - for the time being

When I read the headlines on the main page of the Sunday Times, the one title that immediately caught my eye - "Sumiko Tan - Why I will still eat shark's fin".

Wow. With the recent hullabaloo with NTUC, Sheng Siong, that would be not the first thing I would expect to read from a news editor. Not to mention that in the article, she proclaimed that no, it wasn't because she like the dish - she actually detested it cos she had been force-fed sharks fins when she was young, till shark fins were pouring out of her ears. Wah. It must have been hard on you as a kid.

But wait. It's Sumiko Tan. Whose column I read every Sunday just to see what she is whining about already. It used to be her singlehood, her lack of social life, her uptightness, her then boyfriend "H", who became her husband (sorry, but I found it super laughable when Straits Times published the event and named her as "Singapore's Carrie Bradshaw". Wah lau.差很远好吗...) , and then she started to whine about married life and once, how she might had to compromise her shopping program with her now husband's love for the outdoors when on holidays. Sheesh..!

Talk about perverse taste for Sunday columns. Anyway, I'm not sure if her email inbox is flooded with hate mails already or the internet trolls are all having a field day..

Okok, I digressed. No, this is not a post to lambast Sumiko Tan (but I just can't help it). Though I don't agree with her arguments that there is nothing wrong with serving shark fins, I do agree with one point - how about the other animals that we eat?

Lee Wei Ling, who writes a column every week as well, also wrote about being the "embarrassed omnivore" (a more balanced piece IMO). Knowing that the animals providing the meat could have gone through inhumane treatments before it came to the dining table, why are people not protesting against slaughter houses? Given the recent episodes on Thien Da, would Singaporeans also similar boycott (or threaten to) chain stores carrying those produce?

Another point that I do agree with Sumiko Tan, was that some of the anti-shark fin campaigners do carry this "holier than thou"attitude, which is not exactly helping the cause by aggrieving some others into digging their heels in further and proclaiming their rights to eat whatever they want. Nobody likes to be questioned or put down. While the truth is out there, the only way is to help people see it rather than shoving it down their throat.

There was also a special report on conscious consumers Singapore - vegans and green activists driving the movement already. Too bad I cant link the articles (I wonder why ST is so averse to sharing contents, compared to other major newspapers' websites), but definitely food for though(no puns intended).

Truth be told, I have not exactly decided on my stand on this one. While I am not comfortable with the amount of meat that we are consuming nowadays (translated from the numbers of animals we have to rear and kill for that much of meat. I'm sure where they came from definitely wont be Old Macdonald Farm type of happy family set ups), I am not totally sold on veganism as "the way" forward. The planet is a balanced living organism, there are herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores since the beginning of time, human beings, being omnivores, rightly do need both plants and meat for sustenance.

I guess at the end of the day, the word is still "balance". While consumerism has driven the meat industry a bit too much over the edge, it probably need the vegans to see the insanity, and take the other extreme of the food spectrum to make a point.

For me, I'll probably still stick to the middle road for a while with a bit more leaning towards the vegans, but if it continues to get too insane, I may just go over to the other side to balance the keel a little...

New Work Year

Work was train-wreck crazy the last quarter of 2011, and turbulent with the turn of the year. But I got so tired of the craziness of it all; when I finally put my foot down and found some bearing, it was like walking into the eye of a storm - calm and quiet. I left work early, I wrapped up loose end on some work projects, and then it felt like a walk in the park for a good 2 weeks thereabout.

And then February came. It was so weird when work suddenly just avalanche on the 1st of Feb, that I wonder if there was some cosmic purge button that happened to have its outlet above my workstation.

Deep breathes. And start chewing off one bite after another (and hope not to get choked to death in the meantime).

Reminded myself that I have been slacking off the runs....