I had a thought..

... not too long ago. I remembered that holidays used to be 3 month-long affairs. Days were spent on 6bucksperhour part-time jobs, and nights were occupied by either teevee shows or meetups with friends, and supper of course. Ah, how wonderful. And so I dwelled even further and images began to crystalise, albeit only as concrete as my mind bubble allows. Sitting at the sewing machine table in the shop in front of the telly, laughing together with the family, phototaking trips, Vkitchen dimsum excursions etcetc... Then a voice came about, telling me that maybe I should stop because I am treading on dangerous territory. Sure, memories are meant for fondling, but fondling is to be handled with much discretion.

Grow up, not because you need to; but because you want to.

Here's a shout out to my pal, somebody whom I trust enough to spill my guts out in front of ->>

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PF! Have a smashing one ya!

Its a big HARLOW!

I am finally back blogging after such a long time! Wahoo. It has pretty much been sheer inertia on my part, nothing whatsoever to do with the great security/sensoring measures of the "motherland", so no blame-pushing (for the time being).

Much has happened, emotion-wise. Trying to cope with the departure of those short-lived comforts of having family by my side, and Trying again, to realise that all feelings of longing and despair is but transient and also that love will not succumb to geographical separation. So for that I am grateful.

The critical period of the semester is hot on the heels! UP UP UP goes the socks! See you soon my dear diary.

And last, but not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MEL!
I know you can do it, so there's no room for any lack of confidence!!

p/s: To the dear friend, if you are reading this, don't worry too much ya! You can do it :)

Something to share

Mother Teresa

Why are they inspiring? She spent 45 years of her life caring for the sick, poor and dying while raising awareness for her organization: “Missions of Charity”. Her work started in India then spread to other parts of the world.

What can they teach? We are all one, you are not alone in this journey of life, and therefore you shouldn’t see yourself as more or less than anyone else.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Lord Buddha

Why are they inspiring? Siddhattha Gotama was thought of as the ‘enlightened one’ and still to this day inspires people with his messages of peace, oneness and living in the moment.

What can they teach? Do not take anybody’s messages as fact. Use what works for you and dismiss the rest.

Only accept what passes the test by proving useful and beneficial in your life.

Credits: urbanmonk.net

It's FRIDAY and here's Project Lotus!

Here's a shoutout to all those good people still visiting this space! I may/may not know that you are reading this, but still HELLO! I hope you are doing good! Cheers :)

I've decided to embark on a spring-cleaning project of sorts. Every week (or when I can afford the time -- there's always laundry you see??) I am going to jot down something (goals that I would like to do achieve/flaws that I would like to discard etc) and give myself 3 weeks to work on it. And it shall be crowned: Project Lotus

To be frank the amount of stuff to work on is massive and so I foresee this task to be a long long one ... but hey, one's gotta start somewhere somehow right?

The Kickstart: To be grateful.

Holding me together, Keeping me sane

The above was taken by dear yl, a budding photographer (hah!), after Dharma class one saturday. It captured Spring in the initial days, when the flowers just started to appear. I am loving the colours and the composition of this picture. Good job yl! Mel and me, we were reading the slips of paper that came with the souvenirs that shifu gave us.

Mine read: 快乐，在满足中求。


And this night was memorable too, in its own rights. Old School @ Mt. Sophia was breezy, cool and very laidback. The perfect spot for some r&r. AND there is Timbre too. What's not to love? Singapore is in dire need of more such places. Oh I so need to get my ass back there for some finger-lickin' good pizza man.

樱花赏

Spring is here! (ignore the erratic weather that has turned many of our abodes into real-time freezers fit for storing meat) -- The greens are starting to sprout and flowers are beginning to bloom :) :)

Woke up crazy early on the first day of the "3-day holiday" for these pretty-in-pinks. The flowers were so pretty and the air was just so fresh and clear you wanna take in a few more breaths... until you find yourself nearing the toilets that is. I wanted to capture the cherrypinkies in all their blooming glory, with my lomo lens that is, but in the end, they captured my heart instead.

Just look at the photos. These are but a tip of the iceberg really. They are all credits of wz, who promptly realised, in despair, that her nikon dslr was just a baby lizard amongst all the godzillas of the camera world that also decided to make themselves present that day. Absolutely no opportunity for her to show-off! Haha! Gorillapod also cant find any place to cling on to! I now have a not-so-secret aim to be just like the white-haired ah por who was looking mighty fine carrying a lethal-looking camera with lenses so huge they are almost the length of my forearm! No joke.

And here is me, in my beloved blue leggings, enveloping myself in all the cherry blossomy goodness. Gotta thank wz for taking the picture and also express my utmost apologies for not being able to reciprocate her kindness -- because those pictures that I took of her were just plain crap, thanks to my non-existent dslr skills. What to do, I only own a humble lomo fish-eye. Sorry my friend :(

And to end this post off, I present one of my favourite shot of the day : Sakura carvings

Have a SUPERB SPRING people!

The Story of the Pencil

It has 5 qualities which, if you manage to hang on to them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.

1: You are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to his will.
2: Now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharperner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he is much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.
3: The pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing, it helps keep us on the road to justice.
4: What really matters in a pencil is not the wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.
5: It always leaves a mark. In just the same way, you should know that everything that you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.

-Paulo Coelho

Life works in intriguing ways sometimes. In Dharma class last week, when shifu asked us to name a noun that best describes ourself, I used 'pencil'. It got people curious and my reasoning was -- I am an indecisive person (pencil writes things but gets erased all the time). It probably wasn't the first thing that came to my mine but somehow that became my reply.

It is a mere chance that I should come across this excerpt again, one that I copied down from a Coelho book years ago, on a notebook that I have brought here.

At that time, I had thought that the pencil answer was a tad familiar -- and now I understand :)